The Night That WWE Live Returned To Cardiff, Wales

Last night, September 21st, 2021, I found myself in the Motorpoint Arena for WWE Live in Cardiff, Wales, for WWE’s long-awaited return to the United Kingdom. Truth be told, given all of the releases that have occurred over the past while, and 2020 as a whole. I wasn’t feeling the excitement prior to the event as much I thought I would have. That all changed once Greg Hamilton grabbed the mic and began hyping up the sold-out arena. I was sat third from the first row, positioned where the announcement team would be situated had this been a televised show. I was ready.

The first match that took place was a tag team match between The Street Profits, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, and Chad Gable and Otis. Who better to get the crowd going than The Street Profits, who were the first to make their way down the ramp. Montez Ford is a comedic genius. He was acting silly throughout the match whilst beating down his opponents and even his partner was the legal man in the match, Ford was leaping from the ringside apron, yelling “we’re winning!”.

Pure entertainment. Man, this guy is great. Gable and Otis played up to their heel characters so well and had the Cardiff crowd booing them in a matter of minutes. This was a great opening match and was only a sign of things to come as the night of WWE Live progressed.

The next match was also a tag team match but this time, it was The Dirty Dawgs, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, taking on Rey and Dominic Mysterio. Holy s***! Seeing Rey Mysterio in person may have been the highlight of my 20+ years being an obsessive wrestling fan. However, Dominic was the one to watch. Dominic Mysterio was making his UK debut on this tour and if he had any nerves, he didn’t show an ounce. Dom was flipping, flying, grappling, and making his dad proud in this match. As if we didn’t already know, Dom is going far in the wrestling business.

What we all were waiting for in this match was the double 619 and right as we were about the get it, Seth Rollins ran to ring! Thankfully, all eyeballs remained unharmed during this contest. Rollins basically came out to ruin the fun and heel it up. Then, Finn Balor emerged. Before we knew it, we had an impromptu 6 man tag team match on our hands. The WWE had returned to the United Kingdom with a bang!

Next up, the first-ever British WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre returned home to defeat former 3MB comrade in a Cardiff Street Fight. This was awesome! You could feel the gratitude in the air. Drew McIntyre was so happy to be back in the UK. This match had steel chairs, kendo sticks and even ended with Mahal bring power slammed into a table. This is how you give the fans what they want at a WWE Live show.

Speaking of giving fans what they want, McIntyre grabbed the mic after this match and gave a passionate speech about winning the WWE Championship in the WWE Thunderdome at WrestleMania. Then McIntyre dropped the bombshell, as he had the past two nights of this tour. That being that he has been lobbying hard for WWE to give the UK a “significant pay per view” to celebrate SummerSlam 1992, which took place in Wembley Stadium in London. Needless to say, the crowd erupted! I sincerely hope this happens.

As the night rolled on, Kevin Owens took on Happy Corbin, which was incredible, both guys were great. Shinsuke Nakamura defended his IC Championship against Apollo Crews, with Rick Boogs at ringside on the gee-tar. Boogs is just phenomenal and oozes charisma. So entertaining.

Then it was time for the main event of the evening. Bianca Belair made her way down the ramp to challenge Becky Lynch for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. The EST of WWE was met with a thunderous reaction as she skipped down the ramp, twirling her ponytail. However, Becky Lynch received a “Steve Austin like” reaction, despite technically being a bad guy.

This didn’t matter to the Cardiff crowd, who chanted for the Lass Kicker throughout the match. Bianca seemed to change her attitude mid-match and she noticed that Becky was being cheered more and more. Bianca started laying forearm after forearm, seeming not to be very appreciative of the crowds’ adoration of the Champion.

Extreme Rules is going to be a very interesting PPV. Be sure to join us here at Sports Obsessive during the week for our predictions of the event.

Thank you once again for joining us!