1/15 WWE in New Delhi, India – Detailed Report on WWE’s big return

WWE returned to India for the first time in over a decade Friday night in New Delhi with WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns headlining the show…

WWE Live Show Results
January 16, 2016
New Delhi, India
Report by Tarun Vishal, PWTorch reader

(1) Kane beat Bray Wyatt. Wyatt’s entrance was amazing to see first-hand. Wyatt entered the ring and absorbed the crowd reaction. For a change, Kane’s reception was very cheerful. Wyatt left the ring early in the match and tried to go for heel heat. Kane followed and threw him in the ring. They traded blows. Ten minutes into the match, both were on the mat exhausted. Kane did his traditional sit up, then Wyatt went for Sister Abigail, but Kane reversed. Later he chokeslammed Wyatt for the win. A nice opener giving the crowd a babyface win for Kane, as he is one of the most familiar household name wrestlers here.

(2) WWE tag champions New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E.) beat The Usos and Prime Time Players (Titus O’Neil & Darren Young) in a three-team match to retain the WWE Tag Titles. The Players entered to lukewarm reaction, while the Usos were over here with their “Uso” chant. New Day’s pop was not as big as I expected, but there were loud confused chants of NEW DAY ROCKS or NEW DAY SUCKS. The first half of the match was worked by the PTP’ers and New Day, which led to loud “We Want Usos” chant. The Usos hot-tagged in later in the match, then New Day won with a roll-up.

Post-match, their celebration was interrupted by the other two teams who beat up the New Day. They then posed together and left the ring.

(3) Kishan Raftar (the former Lovepreet Singh) beat Jason Jordan. Jordan entered to no reaction. Sadly, the crowd here is not very familiar with NXT. He entered the ring and took the microphone. He said India has no real athletes. He said no one compares to him, be it a cricketer or anyone else. He gave a heel promo disparaging Indian athletes, which was met with loud boos. Cue the entrance of Kishan Raftar (Lovepreet) who made his in-ring debut. The match started and they locked up. The bulk of the match was carried by Jordan with a few early missed spots by Raftar, but finally Raftar won the match.

After the match, Raftar took the mic and fired up the crowd by speaking in Hindi with nice charisma and leading a chant.

(4) Divas champion Charlotte beat Summer Rae to retain the Divas Title. Average ten-minute match with the crowd “Wooing” throughout the match despite Charlotte acting like a heel by repeatedly leaving the ring. She won with the Figure-Eight leglock.

(5) Dolph Ziggler beat Tyler Breeze. Dolph Ziggler got a huge pop here. A lot of girls especially were shouting around me who were silent earlier. They did that throughout the match. By far this was the best match of the night. It went on for around 25-30 minutes. Both of them are amazing athletes. Breeze, who was met with indifference earlier, managed to get a lot of boos during the match with his mannerisms. Both of them kicked out of each other’s finishers in the latter part of the match. Finally, Dolph won with the Zig-Zag.

Post-match, Dolph celebrated with the fans and ran all around the ring plus near the ramp and clapped hands with everyone. He was really over here. A solid match to close out first half of the event.

[Intermission]

(6) Jeet Rama (the former Satender) beat Chad Gable. Gable, like Jordan, was in heel mode and said that we here in India can only do “kushti” and are not real wrestlers who like him are Olympic athlete. This led to Rama’s entrance, which included a “gada,” which is a Mace-like weapon. The same formula was applied from earlier with Gable making Rama look good. Rama won with a German Suplex-like move. Later, he spoke in native “Haryanvi” language about our toughness and led a “Jai Hind” chant.

(7) Rusev beat Ryback. Rusev entered to a nice reaction. There were some “We Want Lana” chants. Yeah, me too. Ryback entered to a nice pop with loud “Feed me more” chants. Throughout the match, people were hot for Ryback, but Rusev finally won with The Accolade as Ryback passed out. After the match, Ryback stood up and left the ring to applause. A nice 15-minute match.

Next was the main event of Roman Reigns vs. Big Show. Show entered to a nice pop with a mean look. Reigns got the loudest pop of the night when he entered. No crowd bias here. He was the most over guy on the show.

(8) WWE World Hvt. champion Roman Reigns beat Big Show to retain the WWE World Title. Early in the match, Big Show continued the apparently “best way to get booed” trick of the night by continuously entering and leaving the ring. Finally, Reigns brawled with him outside and took him in the ring. They traded blows and then Big Show dominated the lengthy portion of match tossing around Reigns. Reigns made his comeback, which led to Big Show leaving the ring again. Reigns performed his Apron Dropkick twice. Show then entered the ring and took down Reigns. Reigns got up and went for a clothesline, which was met by a Spear. Show covered and Reigns kicked out. Show went for his WMD Punch, but Reigns reversed to a Spear to win the match and retain championship.

Post-match, Reigns gave a really nice promo about the journey to India and said the long flight was totally worth it. He said this is the loudest crowd he has ever seen in his career. Maybe he meant that seeing his reception firsthand. He thanked us for being present here and plugged tomorrow’s event in the same venue. He came across natural and passionate here, unlike his TV promos.

Overall, this was the first WWE live event for most of us, as the last one happened 15 years ago. So, it was an awesome and refreshing experience. The crowd was mostly hot and pro-babyfaces. There were considerably fewer “diehard hardcore fans” here and most of the people were WWE’s main roster fans only.

Best Pops

(1) Reigns
(2) Ziggler
(3) Ryback
(4) Usos
(5) New Day

Most Boos

(1) Big Show
(2) Tyler Breeze