By: Lucas Charpiot
Special to POST Wrestling
History repeats itself, again.
One month after WWE broke the record for its largest arena gate, at Backlash in Lyon, the OVO Hydro and its 11,391 fans in attendance did even better. As mentioned in the previous article published on Friday, those record-setting gates can be explained by large ticket price increases made by WWE.
Needless to say, ticket price increases were not on the minds of Scottish fans ahead of this highly-anticipated event. Many fans could be seen waiting in line as soon as 2 p.m. – three hours before the doors would open. While some were waiting in line, others entered the pop-up shop near the arena or participated in the Countdown show by being interviewed by Cathy Kelley.
With an atmosphere that resonated throughout the entire night, WWE introduced a decibel meter during Smackdown the night before to show how loud the Scottish fans were. Following the crazy reactions from the French crowd last month, one of the night’s questions was to see if Scottish fans could beat them. While this “fun experience”, as said by Paul Levesque during the press conference, can demonstrate how loud international crowds are compared to those in the US, I couldn’t help but think that it was a cheap way to get the crowd to react. What made Backlash weekend so special was the fact that the French fans were naturally invested in the show. Introducing a decibel meter could be a way for WWE to get away with negative criticism – just like the main event result for example – by pointing out how loud and enthusiastic fans were in the arena.
On a side note, Levesque also confirmed during the press conference that WWE will return to the UK starting mid-October with dates in Ireland, England, and Wales.
Fyre and Dawn made Scotland proud, Niven and McIntyre unable to convert the try
All eyes were on Scotland’s own Superstars during Clash at the Castle. While the show opened with Cody Rhodes retaining his WWE Championship against AJ Styles in an I Quit match, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn entered the OVO Hydro after that in front of their home crowd. Having debuted as a tag team in NXT in February 2023 – capturing the NXT Women’s Tag Titles two months after, the pair won their first main roster golds by defeating Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark, and the former champions Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill. A feel-good moment that lifted the Scottish crowd.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Scottish home talents were not so lucky. Piper Niven couldn’t defeat Bayley for her Women’s Championship despite several interferences from Chelsea Green. Chelsea’s last interference wearing a lucha libre mask received a good reaction from the crowd and is definitely a highlight of the match.
Finally, the hero of the night, Drew McIntyre, fell short at the hands of the current World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest following interference from his rival CM Punk. As a French citizen visiting Scotland for the first time, I rejoiced at the sounds of bagpipes during McIntyre’s entrance while being surrounded by Scottish fans shouting “Scotland !” and hummed at the sounds of Scotland the Brave. Despite Punk receiving little support from a portion of fans in the arena, the vast majority of the crowd was left utterly disappointed with the result.
Samantha Irvin’s goodbye to the crowd after the show went off the air couldn’t be properly heard as the crowd was shouting “Bullsh*t” on their way off the arena. Anger was felt outside the arena as well, according to a report from our colleagues at SEScoops, some fans fought as they exited the building while others could be heard shouting and swearing.
Clash at the Media: A review of my second experience at a WWE press conference
I would lie to you if I said that I was looking forward to the press conference. Following my – let’s say surprising – experience the month before at Backlash in Lyon (where I received a huge amount of backlash and even a couple of death threats from online trolls following my question to Paul Levesque about Drew Gulak’s departure from WWE and the possible correlation with Ronda Rousey’s allegations), I was intrigued to know what would happen this time.
Greeted with a “great to see you” by the same person who told me last month that my question the previous month was a “dumb thing to do”, I decided to sit in the last row and observe this time how the conference would go on.
Listening to Fyre and Dawn’s happiness following their victory in their native country was really lovely to hear. I sat down while Damian Priest asked the media members to rise for him and didn’t receive a doughnut from CM Punk – which is unfortunate because I was starving.
After all that, Paul Levesque made his way into the room and greeted the media members with the usual speech about how extraordinary the numbers were for WWE and how their business was off the charts. I couldn’t help but think that this never-ending monologue was a way to wear out the reporters so that they wouldn’t ask questions that were too uncomfortable for him.
Once Paul Levesque opened up the question to the media members, my thought was that I would wait for the first two questions to be asked and then raise my hand to ask mine. I still had in mind my experience at the last press conference and didn’t want to be the last question of the night. I smiled a bit hearing fellow French reporter Bernard Colas asking about our local wrestlers, who performed security during the Backlash weekend. After that, I raised my hand very shyly one time, perhaps unconsciously not to be seen, and didn’t receive the microphone.
At this point, I chose to only listen to the other questions and Levesque’s answers and not ask something. While I am sure, unconsciously, I made that decision because I didn’t want to relive the bad experience I had the month prior, I was also curious to see if someone else was going to ask about the federal investigation into allegations of misconduct against Vince McMahon, with the idea that I would then ask a follow-up on that matter. That didn’t happen (and this is not a shot at other media members, everyone is entitled to cover what they feel is right for their media). To WWE’s credit, I should note that one of the WWE PR representatives asked me if I had any questions in mind for Paul Levesque to which I replied “Not yet” as, at that point, I wanted to ask a follow-up on a subject I had in my mind and not being the one to bring it up.
Once the press conference ended, I left the room being a bit disappointed at myself for not having done my job properly. I realized that my previous press conference experience was still in the back of my head.
On my way home, I thought about some criticisms I had received the month prior with my question being poorly timed for some. Can one ask about a federal investigation or allegations of sexual misconduct when most of the questions in these press conferences are storyline-based and/or do not bring up these more “serious” issues? I still think that those press conferences should be a place where reporters can ask WWE executives – Levesque in that case – for transparency on behalf of our readers and WWE’s consumers.
Many questions that I had in my mind, were left unanswered: Was Levesque questioned as part of the federal investigation? Is WWE cooperating?
Despite possible online negativity or gasps within the room, I realized, a bit too late, that these are questions that I should have brought to the table no matter what. At the end of the day, one must not forget that we are in this room to do our job and bring our readers valuable answers to newsworthy information.