{"id":60181,"date":"2018-05-18T21:54:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T02:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=60181"},"modified":"2018-05-18T21:54:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T02:54:31","slug":"5-18-wwe-in-turin-italy-reigns-gets-80-20-positive-response-but-leaves-strowman-and-lashley-to-engage-with-fans-after-win-seth-gets-top-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/05\/18\/5-18-wwe-in-turin-italy-reigns-gets-80-20-positive-response-but-leaves-strowman-and-lashley-to-engage-with-fans-after-win-seth-gets-top-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"5\/18 WWE in Turin, Italy: Reigns gets 80\/20 positive response but leaves Strowman and Lashley to engage with fans after win, Seth gets top pop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4031165505\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE LIVE EVENT REPORT<br \/>\nMAY 18, 2018<br \/>\nTURIN, ITALY<br \/>\nREPORT BY DANNY COSTA, PWTORCH VIP MEMBER<\/h3>\n<p>The show took place at Palasport Olimpico. Capacity is just over 13.000 and,\u00a0other than the\u00a0half of the upper bowl that\u00a0was tarped off, it was almost a sellout. I&#8217;d say around 9.000 people were there. Most people were wearing Rollins, Strowman and AJ Styles shirts, with the Monday Night Rollins shirt being the most popular, especially among girls. I was surprised to see that almost nobody was wearing Roman Reigns merchandise.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Rome hosted the show, with JoJo handling\u00a0ring announcer duties.<\/p>\n<p>(1)\u00a0The Deleter of Worlds (Bray Wyatt &amp; Matt Hardy)\u00a0defeated The\u00a0B-Team (Curtis Axel &amp; Bo Dallas) and\u00a0Heath Slater &amp;\u00a0Rhyno to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship.\u00a0During entrances, Rhyno got the biggest reaction, but all throughout the match there were loud &#8220;Delete!&#8221; chants. After some comedy to get things started, The\u00a0B-Team cornered\u00a0Rhyno. Slater eventually\u00a0got the hot tag\u00a0and chaos reigned supreme, with everyone hitting their finishers. In the end, Wyatt pinned\u00a0Slater after a Double Sister Abigail.<\/p>\n<p>A pre-taped promo from Samoa Joe\u00a0aired on the big screen. He said that,\u00a0in the main event,\u00a0he would teach Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley, and Braun Strowman some respect.<\/p>\n<p>Lights\u00a0switched to purple, which meant that the Cruiserweight Title was going to\u00a0be\u00a0on the line. That got some groans.<\/p>\n<p>(2) Cedric Alexander defeated\u00a0Mustafa Ali to retain the Cruiserweight Championship.\u00a0This probably was the match of the night, and it was presented as\u00a0a face vs. face, with both men shaking hands and hugging before the bell rang. The crowd, after a couple of exchanges,\u00a0was definitely\u00a0into it, with multiple &#8220;This is Awesome!&#8221;\u00a0chants ringing throughout the arena. The action, as you would expect from the cruiserweights,\u00a0was really fast paced.\u00a0Cedric, after several\u00a0near falls,\u00a0went over with the Lumbar Check.<\/p>\n<p>(3) Zack Ryder &amp; Chad Gable defeated\u00a0Goldust &amp;\u00a0Mojo Rawley.\u00a0Legacy pop for Goldust and a few cheers for Gable\u00a0during entrances but,\u00a0once the bell rang,\u00a0nobody\u00a0cared. It is sad seeing Gable stuck with this mix of lowcarders given his potential. At least he got the pin after a bridging\u00a0German Suplex on Goldust. Lowest point of the night.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Finn Balor defeated Baron\u00a0Corbin.\u00a0The crowd was actually\u00a0expecting No Way Jose given his rivalry with Corbin,\u00a0so Balor was a pleasant surprise that\u00a0got a HUGE pop.\u00a0Before the match had officially started,\u00a0Corbin attacked Balor, which set the tone for the first few minutes of\u00a0the match.\u00a0Corbin paced himself pretty well and was very\u00a0good at drawing heat. Honestly, he looked very credible, which was very shocking given how green he looks most of the time\u00a0on TV.\u00a0The match was short but\u00a0solid, with Balor hitting all of his signature moves before pinning Corbin with\u00a0the Coup de Grace.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2925448083\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>(5)\u00a0Nia Jax defeated Alexa Bliss, Bayley, and Sasha Banks in a Fatal Four-Way Match to retain the Raw Women&#8217;s Championship.\u00a0Alexa kicked off the match\u00a0trying\u00a0to get Sasha and Bayley to work against Nia, but they left the ring, leaving her at her mercy. Eventually, they both came back to break a pin attempt and the match got better and better.\u00a0Sasha pulled off a\u00a0619 on Nia that\u00a0got a great reaction from the crowd. When Nia Jax was thrown into the ringside steps by Alexa, thus eliminating her from the action for a while, Bliss, Banks and Bayley got rolling in the ring. The crowd chanted mostly for\u00a0Bayley and Alexa from bell to bell, with a nice pop for Sasha during entrances. Nothing, quite surprisingly, for Jax. In the end, Sasha and Bayley got in a argument, and Bliss took advantage of the situation by throwing them both outside of the ring. Nia, though, had recovered and\u00a0hit the Samoan Drop for the three count on Alexa.<\/p>\n<p>(6) Seth\u00a0Rollins defeated\u00a0Jinder Mahal to retain the Intercontinental Championship.\u00a0Seth Rollins simply got the\u00a0biggest reaction of the night. Everybody was waiting for him to come out, and the place was almost shaking during his entrance. He really loved this and kept interacting with the fans. Jinder Mahal came out all banged up, selling the Reigns&#8217;\u00a0Spear through that THICK wall\u00a0on Raw. This was probably the best Jinder Mahal match I have seen after that great championship match he had with AJ in London (it wasn&#8217;t anything super impressive, but Jinder Mahal matches are usually awful).\u00a0The crowd was really engaged, with &#8220;Let\u2019s go Rollins!&#8221;\u00a0and &#8220;Seth! Seth! Seth!&#8221; chants during\u00a0the match. The contest ended with a series of reversals led by the\u00a0involvement of\u00a0Sunil\u00a0Singh, but Rollins got the upper hand after a Buckle Bomb followed by The Stomp.<\/p>\n<p>Intermission<\/p>\n<p>During the intermission,\u00a0the ring crew\u00a0set the stage for Elias.<\/p>\n<p>After the break, Elias was introduced. He did his usual shtick while speaking Italian. That drew a very nice pop. Before\u00a0he\u00a0could actually start singing, though, Bobby\u00a0Roode\u00a0interrupted him and made his way to the ring to his Glorious theme. The two, after a while, actually sang &#8220;Sweet Child O&#8217; Mine&#8221; together for a minute or two. Roode, by the way, was really bad at singing. When the former NXT Champion tried to make the crowd sing along, he got attacked from behind, leading to a short brawl that ended with the Glorious One hitting his Glorious DDT.When Roode tried to make us sing along, Elias hit him from behind, and a brawl ensued. In the end, Roode hit his Glorious DDT to cheers.\u00a0The crowd, though,\u00a0loved Elias more.<\/p>\n<p>(7)\u00a0Ember Moon &amp; Ronda Rousey\u00a0&amp; Natalya defeated The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan &amp; Ruby Riott) &amp; Mickie James.\u00a0Rousey came out to a monster\u00a0pop, but, taking off\u00a0her Rowdy shirt,\u00a0she revealed a Juventus shirt, one of the local soccer\u00a0teams. Only\u00a0thing is, Juventus for Italy is like the Yankees or the Patriots for Americans, so that drew more boos than cheers. Ultimately, she recovered from that, as there were plenty of &#8220;Let&#8217;s Go Ronda!&#8221; and &#8220;We want Ronda!&#8221; chants. The heels worked\u00a0on Natalya for most of the match. They kept milking and milking that hot tag. When Ronda finally tagged in, she got\u00a0a great pop, followed by the loudest chant of the night:\u00a0\u201cRonda! Ronda!\u201d. Ronda looked very credible and everything she did was incredibly believable. After clearing the ring, she did her trademark judo throw followed by the Armbar\u00a0on Mickie for the clean tapout win. Only negative of this match was that Ember Moon barely stepped foot in the ring and wasn&#8217;t part of the action if not for the first few seconds.<\/p>\n<p>(8) Roman Reigns &amp; Bobby Lashley &amp; Braun Strowman defeated Kevin Owens &amp; Sami Zayn &amp; Samoa Joe in a Six-Man Tag Team match.\u00a0Braun got the best reaction out of the six involved in the main event. Cheers for everyone but Lashley, who came out to nothing. The crowd was 80-20 in favor of Reigns (clearly, the\u00a0typical reaction Roman gets\u00a0everywhere but in the UK,\u00a0according to Corey Graves).\u00a0Joe and Lashley faced off to\u00a0start of the match. Loud Joe chants. Hey, at least they weren\u2019t chanting for Bobby\u2019s sisters. The heels worked on Lashley the majority of the match. In the end, Braun got the hot tag, laying destruction for a good minute. Ultimately, the numbers game got the best of him and\u00a0Roman came to the rescue. Superman\u00a0punches to everyone, followed by\u00a0a\u00a0Lashley vertical suplex\u00a0on Zayn, a Strowman running powerslam on Joe and a Roman\u00a0spear on Owens that was good for the three count. The crowd was actually happy of\u00a0the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>FINAL THOUGHTS: Good show, with plenty good\u00a0segments and good star power.\u00a0Reigns engaged with the crowd throughout the main event and the easy environment seemed to please him. That said, while Lashley and Strowman stuck around to take photos and sign autographs with the fans, he left immediatly. That was weird. Guess Italian kids aren&#8217;t worthy of his attention.\u00a0Rollins still got a better pop overall than Strowman and Reigns, but it was closer than you would expect watching Raw weekly. Lashley is back to being the non-factor he was in 2007. My main take\u00a0from this show is that there is a substantial lack of believable\u00a0heels\u00a0on the Raw roster, considering that Joe is a SDLive guy and that\u00a0Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, along with others (B-Team, Alexa, Goldust) come off likeable for different reasons, which makes Jinder Mahal and Baron Corbin much more valuable.\u00a0All in all, it is very\u00a0noticeable how much deeper and better\u00a0the rosters are compared to\u00a0the last time\u00a0WWE ran\u00a0a show in Turin, a card that had\u00a0Wade Barrett vs. Ezekiel Jackson\u00a0in the co-main event slot.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3226269663\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>BIGGEST POPS OF THE NIGHT:<br \/>\n(1) Ronda Rousey<br \/>\n(2) Seth Rollins<br \/>\n(3) Braun Strowman<br \/>\n(4) Roman Reigns<br \/>\n(5) Finn Balor<\/p>\n<p>MOST HEEL HEAT:<br \/>\n(1) Jinder Mahal<br \/>\n(2) Baron Corbin<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT REPORT:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/05\/17\/wweresultsaustriavienna\/\">5\/17 WWE Results in Vienna, Austria: Roman &amp; Strowman &amp; Lashley vs. Joe &amp; KO &amp; Sami, Goldust &amp; Rawley vs. Gable &amp; Ryder, Balor vs. Corbin<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2065012802\"><div id=\"pwtor-2768547312\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE LIVE EVENT REPORT MAY 18, 2018 TURIN, ITALY REPORT BY DANNY COSTA, PWTORCH VIP MEMBER The show took place at Palasport Olimpico. Capacity is just over 13.000 and,\u00a0other than the\u00a0half of the upper bowl <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/05\/18\/5-18-wwe-in-turin-italy-reigns-gets-80-20-positive-response-but-leaves-strowman-and-lashley-to-engage-with-fans-after-win-seth-gets-top-pop\/\" title=\"5\/18 WWE in Turin, Italy: Reigns gets 80\/20 positive response but leaves Strowman and Lashley to engage with fans after win, Seth gets top pop\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-results","category-results_houseshows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/07\/StrowmanBraunTB_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60182,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181\/revisions\/60182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}