Watching Smackdown Live in Manchester

Last week, me and my girlfriend went to the Manchester Arena to watch the taping of Smackdown Live and 205 Live. Even though I've been a wrestling fan on and off for over 25 years, this is only the 3rd time that I've been to a WWE event. I've been to a Smackdown taping in Manchester 2 years ago with my girlfriend; and a RAW house show in Liverpool with my brother earlier this year. I was really looking forward to it as we would get to see a WWE Championship match. As for my girlfriend, she isn't really a fan of wrestling so I was hoping that she would enjoy it.

To recap the night, I've changed the format a little bit putting it into bullet points.
We were supposed to be on the upper tier but we got moved to lower tier facing the stage. It was unfortunate that the arena was half full (as seen below) but with RAW being in the same city the night before, very few people would have been at both. The only reason I went to the Smackdown taping was because I saw RAW earlier in the year. So most people would have gone to one or the other.

• The night started with Breezango taking on The Colons. I don't care about The Colons but it was nice to see Breezango, who got the win.
• Smackdown itself started with Shane McMahon and The New Day patting themselves on the back for what happened on RAW the night before. This was interrupted by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and I did mark out for that.
• Zayn versus Kofi Kingston was pretty good and Kofi won. Owens responds with briefly attacking Kofi then bailing. Apparently him and Zayn were supposed to get beaten up by The New Day and that they were sent home.
• Rusev vs Randy Orton was fun although I wished that Rusev won. Having Aiden English as his hype man is fun to watch and I forgot how good English's voice is.
• Becky Lynch vs James Ellsworth was pretty decent although I feel that the TV PG rating might have limited what they could do.
• Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin challenging The Usos for the Tag Team Championship was a disappointment because it was far too short. The match ended with Gable chop blocking Jey and Benjamin scratching his balls while the match ended in a count out. I was looking forward to this but I wasn't happy with the ending. Plus isn't Gable doing a chop block a heel move?
• AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal was the best match of the night and Styles won, which very few people expected to see. I do feel sorry for Mahal but I would rather have Styles face Lesnar than Mahal.
• Next was 205 Live and a lot of people round me left. It was just after 9pm at this point and a lot of these people had young children with them. I suspect that the time plus the possibility that they might not heard of any of the 205 wrestlers would have been a factor.
• It didn't help that 205 Live started with the Zo Show which felt like it went on for hours. Having the UK wrestlers in the ring effectively brown nosing Enzo was weird, especially with Tyler Bate. Thankfully Bate saw sense and this led to him facing Enzo in the main event.
• The other matches featured some of the UK wrestlers and to be honest, nothing stood out. I haven't watched it on the Network yet so I might have a different opinion then.
• Having said that, we got the debut of Jack Gallagher's new theme and his promo was pretty good as well.
• Enzo Amore vs Tyler Bate was quite good. I was gutted that Enzo won but he lost to UK Champion Pete Dunne the night before so him losing again wouldn't look good.
• The last match was Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin taking on Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode. I'm a big fan of Roode and it was pretty cool to see his entrance live. Nakamura and Roode won to end the night.

Overall I really enjoyed the night and more importantly,  so did my girlfriend. WWE only come here twice a year and it's something that I recommend that you go to if you're a fan from the UK.