10 Live Observations From Glasgow's WWE TV Tapings

There's an old proverb that states it is important to 'endure the dark, for it allows you to see the stars', and like a lot of ancient proverbs, you can rapidly reduce the profundity by tying it to something wrestling-related. In this case special mention has to go to the dark content on offer for Glasgow. It's always a lovely Easter egg of the live TV experience, so much so that WWE recently stuck out a DVD with some of the best off-air moments which seems perfectly pitched for a millennial post-kayfabe audience.

Special mention must first go to AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose for assembling the best match of the two days, giving the live crowd a gripping and hard hitting affair when let's be honest, they didn't really need to. Both worked the Smackdown Live Main Event, rested up for about half an hour then returned out after all taping had wound up and put on what was only a slightly tamer retelling of their last few televised singles bouts. The crowd were molten for both guys, unfortunately moreso than they had been for anybody on the show itself.

Much of that was down to the in-ring work from AJ Styles, who having spent so many years being the best wrestler hardly anybody really watched, now makes a case for being the best all rounder in the entire world, and despite his Tuesday billing, carries himself very much like the main Champion of the company. Ambrose held his end of the bargain up too, working the younger members of the audience into a frenzy for the finish, before succumbing to a Styles clash.

As great a match as that was, it was probably just pipped into second place by the entire dark segment of Raw, which started with a good Owens/Rollins clash and ended with a side-splitting war of words between Owens, Jericho, Rollins, and Enzo and Cass, who were the chosen ones to make the save when Seth found himself outnumbered. A pleasant surprise and clearly a nod of confidence from the bosses backstage, the five of them riffed on one another relentlessly, seemingly in an effort to make their counterparts laugh first. Both sides held it together but the crowd were in hysterics at such moments as Owens and Jericho nicking the Enzo and Cass intro then bringing the house down bodging their own version of the 'How You Doin?' promo.

Faces were added to lists, heels were sent scapering, and Seth had a go at Enzo's funny jig. Everybody had a brilliant old time and half the audience seemed to get the whole lot on their phones too, so it's a very worthy addition to your viewing schedule this week.