7/29 WWE in Detroit at Joe Louis Arena: Lesnar vs. Joe, Cena vs. Rusev, Styles vs. Nakamura, plus Shinsuke, New Day

WWE Raw hits and misses analysis
Brock Lesnar (art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch)

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WWE HOUSE SHOW
JULY 29, 2017
DETROIT, MICH. AT JOE LOUIS ARENA
REPORT BY JON G., PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

They were selling a commemorative Lesnar “Last Throw At the Joe” shirt. They had already sold out of them half way through the show.

(1) AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens with the Phenomenal Forearm. Surprised that AJ opened the show, which caused a mad rush of fans in the concourse trying to get to their seats as soon as they heard his music! Owens worked the crowd extremely well and got a ton of heat.

(2) Ty Dillinger & Sin Cara defeated Aiden English & Eric Rowan when Ty rolled up Rowan. English’s entrance included him singing about Detroit & Joe Louis being a dump. Major heat on English, including a You Suck chant. Ty got a great reaction considering his lukewarm main roster run & as Wade has mentioned, the kids went crazy for Sin Cara’s music! After the match, Rowan stayed in the ring and demanded someone come out & challenge him. Out came Luke Harper.

(3) Luke Harper defeated Eric Rowan in about 5 seconds with a discus clothesline.

(4) Baron Corbin defeated Sami Zayn with the End of Days. Corbin got a lot of heat from his interaction with fans. At one point he blew his nose in Sami’s shirt, reached out to hand it to a kid, before pulling it back and tossing it aside. Crowd was behind Sami 100 percent.

(5) Samoa Joe had a pre-taped promo about how he will win the Universal Championship tonight.

(6) New Day defeated Breezango & The Usos when New Day hit Midnight Hour on one of the Usos. Crowd popped big time as soon as they heard “Aww, Detroit…” The beginning of the match was a lot of comedy, mostly between Breeze & Big E. New Day was over huge and the Usos got a lot of heat.

(7) Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) defeated Samoa Joe with an F-5. We were all shocked when we heard that the Universal Championship match was up next. Most of us expected that match to main event. I didn’t time the match but I’d guess it was closer to 10 mins than 5 mins. Lesnar got about 5 of his suplexes in and Joe locked in the Coquina clutch twice, which Brock powered out of both times. Brock had a big reaction but Joe was over as well. Crowd chanted “Joe” as he walked back after the match.

(8) Naomi & Becky & Charlotte defeated Natalya & Tamina & Carmella when Noami hit Carmella with a Rear View. Hard to gauge the crowd reaction as it was the first match after the intermission. Carmella got a noticeable amount of boos though.

(9) Shinsuke Nakamura & Randy Orton defeated Dolph Ziggler & Jinder Mahal (w/Singh Brothers) when Randy hit the RKO on Ziggler. The crowd sang Nakamura’s music but Orton was over huge! The building just about exploded when he hit the RKO. Jinder cut his usual promo before the match, which was almost impossible to hear because of how quiet he was and how loud the boos were. There was a “we can’t hear you” chant as well.

They announced that they would be returning to Detroit on October 8th for Hell in a Cell. That will be the first WWE event at the new Little Caesars Arena. It will also be the first PPV in Detroit since 2013 Night of Champions.

(10) John Cena defeated Rusev in a “Detroit Street Fight” with an Attitude Adjustment through a table. Crowd was about 70-30 cheering for Cena. They both got in spots with chairs, the steel steps and both went through a table. One cool spot had Cena bring over a steel barricade, lean it against the ring and Rusev suplex him onto it.

After the match, Cena grabbed the mic and talked about the history of WWE at Joe Louis Arena. He mentioned how he had his first PPV match here 15 years ago (Vengeance 2002, which was actually the first WWE show I ever attended. He defeated Jericho.) He talked about the spirit of Detroit and how he can’t wait to make even more memories at the new arena.


NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT REPORT: 7/22 WWE Smackdown in Wildwood, N.J.: Styles works openers, Cena vs. Rusev, Jinder vs. Dolph vs. Nakamura

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