WWE wrestling thrills sell-out Echo Arena

By Luke Johnson, Sports Editor

This weekend the Echo Arena was ringing to the sounds of a sell-out audience cheering body slams, chest slaps and aerial assaults as World Wrestling Entertainment invaded Liverpool.

Loved by some, loathed by others, entertainment wrestling, whatever you may think of it, has the ability to draw big crowds and keep them cheering and jeering throughout the event. That was proved by the thousands of Merseyside fans in attendance at the third stop of the WWE Raw DX Invasion Tour on Sunday night.

Some of the biggest names in the WWE including John Cena, Randy Orton and The Miz attracted an audience not just of small children and their begrudgingly attending parents, but a full spectrum of ages, both male and female.

A fast paced show offering little breathing time between fights, the DX Invasion Tour might not have had its own 7ft 2in Russian giant like the weekend’s well publicised boxing match, it did, however, have a 418lbs former Olympian and weight-lifting world record holder in the form of Mark Henry.

Facing up against wrestling legend Chris Jericho, Henry won by default following Jericho’s disqualification for using a chair to knock his opponent to the floor. This caused him to receive further abuse from the fans following his pre-fight comments as, in classic wrestling fashion the trash talk in Liverpool was of the highest quality, provoking the audience to boo and hiss in true pantomime fashion.

Entering the ring with a swagger, Jericho, taking the microphone from the announcer exclaimed to the enthusiastically disgruntled crowd: “I can hear you all chanting ‘you suck’, but I couldn’t possible suck cause I’m not a scouser.”

Fortunately World Wrestling Entertainment doesn’t take itself too seriously at times. The slapstick performance of Santino Marella and his new ‘cobra’ attack, making his hand look like a snake and hissing at his opponent, offered an air of comic relief to the seriousness surrounding the other bouts.

Not just a man’s sport, the female contingent of the WWE - known as the Divas - was in attendance for the Liverpool event in a tag-team match up that saw Kelly Kelly and Melina defeat Jillian and Alicia Fox. Not to be outdone by their male colleauges, the Divas performed the biggest moves and acrobatic attacks in the same convincing manner as the men - the only difference being their wearing of tight spandex costumes added sex appeal not uncomfortable viewing to the show.

Fulfilling the stereotype of her bleach blond character, Jillian, before treating the audience to a rendition of a Beatles song, said: “I am so excited to be here in Liverpool. The Beatles are from here. I totally love those five guys.”

Despite an air of pantomime-standard over-acting and well rehearsed choreography, these athletes, and they are indeed athletes, put on a show that left the hugely enthusiastic crowd screaming for more. Many will claim that entertainment wrestling is not a sport, and they may well be right, but what is undeniable is that the performances are perfectly scripted, require the performers to posses a high level of athletic ability and always give the audience exactly what they want.

A high energy and thoroughly entertaining night out, WWE Raw is scheduled to return to Liverpool’s Echo Arena on April 11th 2010 bringing back the screaming fans and high octane action.