Courtesy of www.WrestleMag.com

WWE’s Smackdown! roster kicked off their UK tour tonight in Newcastle in front of a sell-out crowd of around 9,000 with what was definitely the hottest UK crowd I’ve seen for years.

Results as follows:

- Paul Burchill beat Orlando Jordan with the C4. Great reaction to Burchill.

- MNM beat Paul London and Brian Kendrick (compete with new, hideous music) to retain the WWE Tag Titles. Fun match.

- Tatanka pinned Road Warrior Animal in a match that was thankfully kept short as nobody in the crowd really cared about it.

- Matt Hardy got the biggest pop of the night so far, beating Gregory Helms after a Twist of Fate.

- Funaki and Nunzio went to a no-contest after The Great Khali interfered and destroyed them both.

- Lashley beat Booker T after a running powerslam.

- Jillian Hall and Krystal got into a catfight in the ring arguing over who should throw shirts into the crowd to take us into the interval.

- William Regal and Finlay put on an intense, stiff match. They stalled to start with (to let people return to their seats I think) with Finlay working up the crowd. It should be noted that extra security were brought to the ringside area shortly after the show started to deal with the amount of people getting close to the barriers, and security were on hand at the start of this match to deal with a couple of fans making attempts to have a go at Finlay. Regal picked up the win with a schoolboy; Finlay attacked him after the match.

- JBL beat Chris Benoit to retain the US Title. Bradshaw cut an amazing promo before the match which begun with him calling a kid dressed as JBL at ringside a “little English bastard". The kid looked devastated and threw his JBL hat towards the ring. The crowd got all over JBL as he ranted on about Tony Blair being George Bush’s poodle and America being “England’s bitch". The most intense crowd I think I’ve ever come across in the UK for a WWE show for this segment.

- Rey Mysterio beat Mark Henry and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match to retain the World Heavyweight Title after pinning Mark Henry. Decent match if a little short. They took Henry out early and worked it mainly as a singles match. Mixed reaction for Mysterio but certainly not the amount of boos he had received in Italy the previous two nights.Ken Kennedy was ring announcer for this match and got a huge pop which quickly turned into heel heat after he told the Newcastle crowd it was great to be in Sunderland.

Overall, an excellent show.