Heyho, I've just come from the house show in Vienna. So much better than 5 years ago. Unbelievable. The absolute crème
de la crème was there. Becky, Cody, Damage Control, Orton, Jade Cargill, Tama Tonga, Sami Zayn, Gunther and so on. Initially I was a bit worried they'd bring loads of recently called-up NXT people I'm not familiar with yet, but nope. All A-league main roster people. Really impressive
Short notes from memory (nothing necessarily new here):
.) Cody is great and exactly where he belongs
.) Jade Cargill is smaller than I thought. I had imagined her to be about 2.30m tall.
.) J.D. McDonagh bumps like a madman. You really can't accuse him of lacking commitment.
.) Ludwig Kaiser is very, very good at the sports entertaining. Weirdly, Sami Zayn seemed a bit to run on auto-pilot.
Btw, here's how to get heat in Austria: Be German. Works every time, without fail. They had a winner of a prize draw out, being interviewed by Byron Saxton (who once more did a great job). She said she was from Germany, and the hall erupted in boos as if she'd just cut a vicious promo. That was a bit much. Also, the Austrian flag stuff. But it's okay.Wrestlers wrapped themselves in the Austrian flag were US-born, and they have quite a different relationship to their national flag (entirely positive) than we got here (ambivalent).
.) I like Nia Jax. She's good at what she does.
.) The most over people in 2024: Randy Orton (who is a funny, funny man) and R-Truth (also a funny man!). What a world we live in.
.) I'm worried about L.A. Knight. I'm getting the impression that apart from "yea" there isn't all that much to him, which is a shame. Because he's really good at the wrestlings AND the talkings.
.) I don't love the "yeet".
.) Asuka is fabulously good in the ring and also at standing next to the ring, watching her tag partners. She's always doing something. You see that on TV too, but last night it stood out to me as well. Very observant, quick-thinking lady.
.) I never was a big Dakota Kai fan, to me she was "the lady who got her arm broken by Nia Jax and is a bit like a fragile Bayley with less charisma" for years, but she's also very good at all the audience interaction stuff..
.) Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair seem like very nice people. In general the 3-women tag team (
DMG CRTL vs. Cargill, Belair and Naomi) reminded me reminded me of similar matches in TJPW. Wrestlers hopping along with other people's entrance music, generally just a vibe of the people in the ring having fun.
.) Chad Gable is a legend. He had a match against the Hometown Hero Gunther. Interesting constellation, because with this pairing it's not very easy to sell Gunther as a babyface and especially Chad
Gable as a heel. But ok. They did it. It worked anyway. And the current presentation is definitely better than "Shorty G", who was heavily pushed last time WWE came to Vienna. Dark times.
Anyway, a great night was had. This time I paid about twice as much for the seats, but it was worth it. Because the 'cheap' seats at Stadthalle Vienna are like EUR 75,00 anyway, so getting seats along the entrance ramp thing for just under EUR 140,00 isn't bad at all. Also: lovely companions and drinks.... it all worked out nicely.
We were sitting along the isle, but most wrestlers spent much more time at the opposing side, which would be the side of the isle which usually is where the camera would point much more than to the other side. 
).