WWE DVD Review - Live in the UK April 2011

WWE DVD Review: Live in the UK April 2011


By Phil Allely

This past April the WWE made its first trip to these shores of the year (the Wrestlemania Revenge Tour) and as has become customary they recorded an episode of Raw, Smackdown and NXT whilst in London. Filmed at the O2 this double DVD set brings together all three of these shows.

These UK filmed shows are every bit as good as their US counterparts and in some ways better as the crowds in the UK are inevitably far more excited about seeing their favourite WWE superstars up close and personal than their home country fans. This makes sense really as the WWE continually tour the US, but we UK fans get to see them twice yearly if we are lucky.

From a production point of view RAW, Smackdown and NXT fare well indeed, the shows are slick, the content ranging from decent to average and the match quality averaging the same levels. The absence of a few of the big names does hamper things, but the lower card roster members drafted in out do themselves and the remaining upper tier performers do pull out all the stops too.

On the match front you get a fairly exciting and mixed bag of bouts, these vary in style and pace, but with the added bonus of a hot live crowd even the poorest one still entertains.

Storylines of course do count here (unlike many UK house shows, where the wrestlers forget such things and simply enjoy being there). On the Wrestlemania Revenge front we get a nice CM Punk v Randy Orton brawl, plus a very decent looking Cody Rhodes/Rey Mysterio effort. There are also some nice matches such as R-Truth/John Morrison (#1 contenders match for the WWE Championship), The Miz/Alex Riley versus John Cena/Sin Cara, Kane/Big Show taking on Heath Slater/Justin Gabriel (WWE Tag Titles), amongst many others including a few reasonably involving NXT challenges.

These being live shows there are of course backstage segments, interviews, skits and much more. They all work very well indeed.

On the extras front there is a wonderful (especially since Edge’s retirement) match-up 2001’s Uk PPv event Rebellion, this pitted the (pre) Rated R Superstar against his storyline Brother and real life best friend Christian.

With almost five hours of action over two discs this release has certainly got enough to keep every WWE fan entertained, those attended the events will most likely appreciate it all the more. Whilst those of us who wonder what a UK based recorded show looks like will certainly enjoy the events and no doubt be organising their trip to the next one before the final credits roll.

WWE Live in the UK- April 2011 is on release now, available from www.silvervision.co.uk and other retailers.

WWE Wrestlemania Revenge Tour 2011 - Belfast Ireland Review 14/4/2011

Cena Pushes the Truth in Belfast


By Phil Allely

WWE main eventer John Cena graciously allowed the spotlight to shine on R Truth during the second night of the Raw tour in Belfast, Ireland last night.

In front of a pumped up 8000 sell-out crowd Cena took to the mic praising Truth’s assistance in saving him from a post-match beat down by Miz/Alex Riley and the young stars dedication to the business, nicely hyping up their match with Miz at Extreme Rules.

Cena’s main event bout for the WWE Title was a real crowd pleaser too, with action taking place in and out of the ring, the pair gelled well together. Miz’s stooge Riley was the key factor though, running in to cause a DQ finish, the cunning champion retaining his gold.

The rest of the card saw Evan Bourne take flight on numerous occasions, his ‘Air Bourne’ finisher putting Riley down for the three count to open up proceedings in style.

Percy Watson won some new fans with his demolition job on high flyer Tyson Kidd, the up and comer was very over in a quick but well-paced outing.

The Uso’s and Santino Marella (with Tamina) had what appeared to be a handicap match next, fortunately as things looked bleak, the injured Vladimir Kozlov sprinted to the ring to a huge pop and bullied his way through the Samoan pair. A cobra from a rested Marella ending things nicely.

John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler’s heated encounter was an early match of the night contender, both pulling out all of the stops to keep the rabid fans happy. The always impressive Starship Pain giving Morrison the win.

Divas champion Brie Bella (with Nikki) faced off against Eve in a decent Divas brawl, the ever improving Miss Torres however fell short on regaining her belt.

Randy Orton and CM Punk then tore the house down with their ‘fans choice’ battle, the street fight was just what the Irish fans wanted and saw some still spots involving a Kendo stick, steel chair, the ring steps and the ring post. Punk saw defeat but as Orton dug deep and hit a surprise RKO.

Mexican newcomer Sin Cara made his Irish debut next, putting on fair showing against Primo, there were plenty of flashy and attention grabbing in-ring moments before the latest masked superstar to join the WWE grabbed the pin.

The penultimate match-up saw Daniel Bryan (with Gail Kim) tackle Ireland’s own Sheamus. The mighty Celt was more than up for the challenge, overcoming the La Bell Lock and other in-ring abuse to nail a big boot assisted pin.

WWE brought their A-Game to Belfast and the tour certainly lived up to its Wrestlemania Revenge moniker. It was nice to see the effort being put into the card and storylines continue through the night, the build up to Extreme Rules and push for R Truth (amongst others) were a very positive aspect as well. Especially in a week where the wrestling world has lost yet another main eventer, as Edge retired due to injury. The pushing of new/young talent as credible main eventers really is key to the WWE’s future success these days.

The tour continues across the UK, Ireland and Europe for the next two weeks.