WWE Live in the UK: April 2011 review (DVD) ★★

Emanating live from London just two weeks before the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event, the April 18 edition of RAW, held seven days before the annual WWE draft, was headlined by a WrestleMatch 27 rematch between Randy Orton and CM Punk, with the New Nexus banned from ringside. With a black cab, double-decker bus and giant Union Jack setting the stage as usual for the broadcast, it was an interesting show that featured the great heel turn of R-Truth in the quite controversial opening segment where he decimated then-friend John Morrison, before lighting and smoking a cigarette in front of the cameras to a chorus of “That's illegal” and “Think of the children!” chants from the fans in attendance at the O2 Arena. Yes, unlike when it aired on Sky Sports, the smoking part hasn't been cut, so you get to see the angle play out in its entirety and to maximum effect. Another angle that has been restored for this DVD in comparison to the UK TV transmission is Michael Cole's “knighting” from “Queen Elizabeth II” as the road to his tag team match with Jack Swagger against Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at Extreme Rules continued.

Speaking of good ol' JR, prior to his assault at the hands of Swagger, he returned to the commentary position alongside Cole and Lawler to the call the likes of Sin Cara's UK debut, Vickie Guerrero's unveiling of the “new and improved” Dolph Ziggler (the short-lived brown hair look), and an excellent video package that was put together to commemorate the career of future Hall of Fame inductee Edge, who had announced his surprise retirement due to injury a week earlier.

Monday Night RAW featured the following matches:

WWE Championship #1 Contendership: John Morrison vs. R-Truth
Dolph Ziggler vs. Evan Bourne
John Cena & Sin Cara vs. The Miz & Alex Riley
Eve vs. Nikki Bella
Santino Marella vs. Sheamus
CM Punk vs. Randy Orton

NXT

A month into NXT Redemption, the fifth season of WWE.com's original webcast, the rookies rolled into our nation's capitol to compete in an extremely silly challenge (a test of strength and balance atop two columns) and a trio of actual matches. Minus a lengthy and decent tag team main event partnering-up both rookies and pros, this was one lackluster episode hosted by Diva Maryse.

Challenge aside, the following matches took place on this particular edition of NXT:

Conor O'Brien vs. Jacob Novak
Hornswoggle vs. Darren Young
Yoshi Tatsu & Byron Saxton vs. Lucky Cannon & Tyson Kidd

Superstars

Opening with Matt Striker calling his broadcast colleague Jack Korpela a “wanker” in a terrible attempt at our accent (isn't it a PG show?), Superstars, the third TV show of the UK tour, was a below average espiode. We're usually treated to some of the longest - and best - matches of the week, but this edition only gave us one enjoyable bout in the form of Tyler Reks vs. JTG.

Tyler Reks vs. JTG
Maryse vs. Natalya
Mark Henry vs. Ted DiBiase

SmackDown

The week of WWE action in London came to a close with Friday Night SmackDown, a show that featured the second WrestleMania rematch of the tour as Rey Mysterio successfully defeated Cody Rhodes to gets things underway, building to their Falls Count Anywhere clash at Extreme Rules. In an episode dubbed “Championship Night”, both the Intercontinental and Tag Team Titles, each belonging to members of The Corre, were defended, the former World Heavyweight Championship was symbolically hanging above the ring throughout the evening, Alberto Del Rio threw a “retirement party” for Edge with his cronies Ricardo Rodriguez and Brodus Clay, and... Sir Michael Cole made his way down to the Royal Cole Mine in a red robe? Only in the WWE, folks.