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FIRST-EVER LESNAR VS. OWENS MATCH, JOHN CENA'S FIRST LOSS IN MSG SINCE 2003 AND MORE: 3/12 WWE IN NYC AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN LIVE REPORT

World Wrestling Entertainment returned to Madison Square Garden for a Sunday 3/12 matinee event in New York City today.  The show was a strong live event with a 25 minute main event featuring WWE champion Bray Wyatt pinning John Cena in an excellent main event, the first-ever Brock Lesnar vs. Kevin Owens match (more on that in a second) and a very good 16 minute match with Randy Orton pinning AJ Styles to open the show.   

The show was originally set for 3/18 but WWE was willing to move it to this date in order to accommodate HBO Sports presenting the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs boxing event on that day.  Whether moving to a matinee helped the live draw or not I couldn't tell you, but the show seemed to be flush with families with lots of young kids at the event.

Greg Hamilton and Kayla Braxton did a really good job as hosts doing a lot of interacting with fans and pitching to different video features in the 30 minutes before bell time.  They were actually voicing over shots outside of MSG to make the live event more uniform with the type of shots you see on Raw and Smackdown broadcasts.  Hamilton also worked as ring announcer while Braxton made her way around the building interviewing children and reacting to things on the big screens.  TV does Braxton no justice, she is far more gorgeous in person and brought a ton of energy.  Hamilton, one of the strong staples of the NXT brand before coming up to the main roster, was also very good.

The official show opened up with a taped promo from Daniel Bryan welcoming everyone to the show and leading a "Yes" chant in a generic promo.

Shane McMahon came out and mentioned this was his return to the Garden.  This was actually his first appearance in MSG in eight years.  Shane pointed out his sons at ringside and said he was there age causing all sorts of havoc backstage when he was a kid.  AJ Styles came out and complained that he wasn't in the main event of Wrestlemania despite being promised that by Shane.  Styles said he gave it to Randy Orton and gave a hell of an argument as to why he should be in the main.  I wonder if Vince McMahon was listening.  Shane said that sometimes you have to make your opportunities and Randy Orton made his and tonight, Styles can try to make his.  He told Styles he was having a match and his opponent was...Randy Orton.

*Randy Orton pinned AJ Styles in about 16 minutes with an awesome looking RKO off the top as Styles attempted the Phenomenal Forearm.  The finish was great.  It was an interesting crowd to observe early on as they went nuts for all the theme songs for the first three performers they saw, then got really quiet watching the match.  That would remain the way the fans reacted the entire show, except the Owens vs. Lesnar and Cena vs. Wyatt matches.  There was some very good back and forth here.  Styles is just a hell of a heel at this point, but that's not news.  Orton's timing was very good.  Great reaction for the finish but the crowd was dead quiet for most of the match itself.

*Heath Slater & Rhyno & Kalisto defeated Breezango & Curt Hawkins.  OK match.  Hawkins' bit where facts about him are announced as he walks to the ring is just tremendous.  The villains worked over Slater and Kalisto for a long time before Rhino got the hot tag.   Everyone got a big spot in before they went to the finish until Rhyno hit the Gore on Tyler Breeze.

*Dolph Ziggler pinned Apollo Crews in a very good match with a desperation superkick out of nowhere.  Crews is very good but you can tell the crowd has been given no real reason to connect with him.  Ziggler is an absolute excellent heel at this point and it's a shame they aren't trying to position him stronger.  He got a nice reaction for everything he did. 

*WWE Intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose won an excellent Fatal Four Way over The Miz, Baron Corbin and Luke Harper.  This was PPV level quality with all four looking very good.   Lots of brawling early on.  Corbin looked like a beast.  Miz was smart enough to convince Corbin to help him work over Corbin, then played to the crowd while Corbin did the hard work.  Tons of very good near falls including a great sequence where Miz and Corbin and Ambrose all kept schoolboying each other for two counts.  Harper and Ambrose hit stereo dives on the opposite sides of the ring on Miz and Corbin.   At the end, Maryse got on the apron and began berating Ambrose, who got in her face.  Miz tried to attack him but Dean moved and Miz almost mowed down his wife but was able to stop at the last second.  Ambrose kicked him and nailed the Dirty Deeds for the pin.  Beyond Cena, Lesnar and maybe Owens, Ambrose got the biggest babyface reaction of the night, even more than Orton. 

*Brock Lesnar pinned Kevin Owens with a F-5 in about four minutes.  Owens came out with a KO-Mania 2 shirt, playing off the logo of the second Wrestlemania back in 1986.  That is awesome.  Huge pop for Brock.  Owens attacked him at the bell and pulled Brock's shirt over his head, like a hockey fight.  He beat Brock down in the corner and hit the running cannonball.  It was all Owens for about a minute until Brock caught him on the ropes and launched him off with a German suplex.  He hit a few more and a F-5 and that was it.  There were some noticeable "bullsh**" chants after the finish but Lesnar's music drowned them out.  There were also some "Goldberg" chants but not a lot after Heyman announced the winner with all his usual Heyman bluster and conviction.    Crowd was totally into this and saw it as a big-time deal but the quick finish left disappointment.

They went to intermission after this with Hamilton hawking merchandise and pitching to footage of Becky Lynch warming up backstage for the eight woman tag that was to come later.

*After intermission, *Nikki Bella & Tamina & Becky Lynch & WWE NXT Women's champ Asuka defeated WWE Smackdown Women's champion Alexa Bliss & Mickie James & Natalya & Carmella (with James Ellsworth) in a fun match that never really stopped moving when Asuka locked the Asuka Lock on Natalya and got a tapout.    They made this a LOT about Asuka as they played a video feature on her during intermission and did a deal where she spooked all the heels after she started whipping out big offensive maneuvers.  Huge pop for Bella and a really big reaction for Asuka in her debut in the building.  They played all the babyfaces' themes as they existed and closed out on Asuka who bowed on the stage and had her arms raised by the other women to a big reaction.  It was Mickie James' first appearance in six years in MSG.  When did Tamina turn babyface?

*WWE Smackdown Tag Team champions American Alpha pinned The Usos with a bulldog off the top.  Good back and forth tag match, but you could tell the crowd wasn't emotionally connected to any of this. 

*In his first appearance in MSG as WWE champion, Bray Wyatt pinned John Cena clean in the center after a low blow.  This was an absolutely excellent match.  The crowd took to Wyatt as if he had been a top star forever.  Cena got the biggest pop of the night.  The back and forth Cena chants started before his theme music even played.  They went back and forth with some good action until Wyatt scored a two count after Sister Abigail.  Flustered, he went to ringside, pondered what to do, then grabbed his belt and went up the aisle.  He was counted out.  Shane McMahon came out and restarted the match, making it a No DQ and No Countout match.   Wyatt returned and used a chair to work over Cena.  Cena made the comeback and set up a table in the corner.  They brawled to the entrance ramp, where Cena nailed a suplex on it, then went into the crowd.  Cena grabbed a piece of guard rail from the crowd and charged Wyatt with it, nailing him.  He then set it up at a 45 degree angle and suplexed Bray onto it.  Back in the ring, Bray ripped off a turnbuckle cover and tried to send Cena into it but Cena blocked.  Bray cut him off and after doing the "You Can't See Me" the crowd, which got the most heat of anything on the show, sent Cena into a chair that was wedged in another corner and then sent Cena crashing through the table.  He was unable to pin Cena before hitting the low blow and finally scored the pin.  After the match, Wyatt took the mic and said that this was now his show and he hated Cena and beat him and was going to now end his career for good.  He attacked Cena, who made a comeback and hit the AA on Bray to send the crowd home happy.

This was the first time Cena was pinned in The Garden since 9/20/03 when he was pinned by Eddie Guerrero with a top rope frog splash during a three-way with Rhyno.  That was a hell of a gift for Wyatt.  Cena flew in overnight after hosting the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards and was leaving right away to represent WWE at SXSW in Texas tomorrow before heading back for a live event in West Virginia and then further Northeast for Smackdown Live in Pittsburgh.  That man is a warrior. 

Notes: They return to MSG with a Raw house show on Friday 7/7, which will be the first Raw show in the venue since the brand split in the summer of 2016....WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel, the greatest ring announcer in the history of Planet Earth, was backstage.  I always write that he should be announcing the Garden, but how do you have the guy there and NOT ask him to introduce the main event???........They were selling signed photos of AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and John Cena....Scottish star Grado was visiting at the event as he was in New York City on vacation this week....No Vince McMahon at the show....Best matches on the show, in my opinion, were Cena vs. Wyatt and the IC championship Four Way....Talents were rushing to get out of the venue as soon as their matches were done as they were all either taking a charter flight or driving to West Virginia for tomorrow's live event (that's an eight hour plus drive with zero traffic) before flying back up to Pittsburgh Tuesday AM for Smackdown Live.  Remember that when you assume it's an easy, glamorous job working for WWE!

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