This two disc set brings together all the TV tapings from the WWE’s November 2014 visit to Liverpool, including Raw, Smackdown, Main Event and Superstars, in the build up to Survivor Series.
For once a Raw in the UK actually seems to have some ongoing storyline importance to it, with a number of interesting developments on the way to deciding the teams for the Survivor Series main event. Of course some fans won’t be impressed that a lot of it revolves around Ryback, but I kinda like the big guy. Match wise there’s not an awful lot of quality; Jack Swagger and Seth Rollins have a decent match, Rusev and Sheamus have a reasonable TV match over the United States Championship and as storyline Raw main events go, John Cena vs Ryback does all it needs to do. Dolph Ziggler vs Mark Henry, on the other hand, is a bit of a waste and AJ Lee vs Brie Bella is quite awful. It’s far from a classic episode of Raw, but I enjoyed most of it and anything that was bad was generally short.
Main Event is ok for what it is, highlighted by a good TV bout between Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd. Of course given time to develop a bout these two could undoubtedly have a cracker but that aside it’s fun to watch. Stardust vs Adam Rose and Dean Ambrose vs Justin Gabriel are neither here nor there, although both are miles above a terrible Alicia Fox vs Cameron match.
Superstars is an exercise in pointlessness. The two matches (Sin Cara vs Curtis Axel and Big E vs Heath Slater) are not worth your time and they make up only a quarter or so of the running time. The rest is highlights of Raw, which you’ve already seen in full on this set.
Smackdown brings things back up though with a fun show. I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Chris Jericho 2014, but his Highlight Reel with The Authority is an entertaining start. Bray Wyatt’s match against Sin Cara isn’t much but his eerie promo after it is worth seeing. The real highlight of the show is a very good Triple Threat for the IC title with Dolph Ziggler, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. They’re actually given time to create something and the results speak for themselves. The main event pitting Kane vs Ryback is a plodding one, but the storylines surrounding it and the extra-curricular activity surrounding it makes up for that.
In terms of extra’s you get a 1991 UK Rampage match pitting The Rockers against The Orient Express which was fun for me especially as I saw those two teams battle on another date of that tour on what was my first WWF House Show. You also get a “Fan’s Eye View” match of the untelevised Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose against Kane & Bray Wyatt from the Smackdown taping. It sounds a better prospect than it is as it goes little more than six minutes. The lack of commentary and the one fixed camera angle also adds a bit of a strange feeling to things.
If you were lucky enough to be on hand in Liverpool for these tapings this will make a great souvenir. If you weren’t, it’s difficult to recommend this too highly given there is very little that could be said to be “must-see”. That said, the Raw and Smackdown episodes are both entertaining and there’s a lot of action for your pound which means you should be entertained by the package as a whole.
Thank you to our partners, WWEDVD.co.uk and Fetch.fm for providing our review copy of WWE Live in the UK: November 2014. WWE Live in the UK: November 2014 is available on DVD from Monday, February 9th 2014. You can pre-order your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk now by clicking here.
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