The second night of the WWE’s tour of Abu Dhabi saw John Cena and Dean Ambrose team up in the main event to beat United States champion Rusev and Luke Harper in a tag team match.

Sami Zayn, Bad News Barrett and Dolph Ziggler were among the other winners on the night. Here are the results from the action at Zayed Sports City.

The evening’s entertainment began with a backstage promo from Seth Rollins who vowed to give Dolph Ziggler his Curb Stomp finisher when the two fought later on.

Xavier Woods and Big E defeated Goldust and Stardust by pinfall

New Day, who were without Kofi Kingston, proved very popular with the crowd, and frustrated the Dust brothers in a slow start.

The match was decided when Big E moved out of the way of a charging Stardust, who ran into his brother and knocked him off the ring apron. Woods and Big E then combined as Woods jumped off the top rope to give Stardust their combination Midnight Hour finisher, with Woods pinning Stardust.

As the previous night, post-match Stardust shoved his brother away and walked to the back alone.

Erick Rowan defeated Bo Dallas by pinfall

The good guy persona Dallas had on the opening night in Abu Dhabi did not last as the crowd quickly turned against his cheesy thumbs up gestures.

The crowd responded well to Rowan mimicking Dallas by running around the outside of the ring and giving the thumbs up to the crowd, with Dallas then responding by putting on Rowan’s sheep face mask and also running around outside the ring.

Dallas got a lot of offence but lost as Rowan hit a waist-lift slide slam on him to get the pinfall.

Ryback beat Curtis Axel in an over-the-top rope challenge

Axel got on the microphone and complained about his non-elimination at last month’s Royal Rumble.

When Ryback came out, Axel offered not to have a wrestling match, but instead an over-the-top rope challenge, with the winner the first man thrown over the top.

A long match took place, with both men having close calls at going over the top rope, but after giving him Shell Shock, Ryback tossed Axel over the top rope to win.

Dolph Ziggler beat Seth Rollins by pinfall

An entertaining match with Rollins dominating for much of it and giving Ziggler considerable punishment.

The finish came when Rollins went for the Curb Stomp, but Ziggler moved, kicked his opponent in the face and leapt up to give him his Zig Zag finishing move and pinned him to delight the largely young audience.

Sami Zayn beat Tyson Kidd by pinfall

Forty-eight hours removed from losing his NXT title, Zayn got a large pop on his way to the ring. The wrestler, whose parents are Syrian acknowledged he is Canadian born, but told the crowd: “My blood is from Homs, Syria!” He went on to delight the crowd by speaking to them in Arabic.

Both men had spells in charge but Zayn won around the 10-minute mark by pinning Kidd after connecting with the Ole Kick when Kidd was dazed by the turnbuckle.

Bad News Barrett retained the Intercontinental title by pinning Jack Swagger in a triple threat match that also included Kofi Kingston

A standard triple threat in which each opponent spent time outside the ring recuperating as the other two slugged it out in the ring.

The finish came when Kingston had hit his Trouble in Paradise kick on Swagger, only to be then hit by Barrett’s Bullhammer elbow finisher, allowing Barrett to swoop in and pin the stricken Swagger.

Post-match Barrett got on the microphone and told the audience he was defending his title against John Cena in Saturday’s main event, but he had some “bad news” for Cena if he thought he would be winning the title, as he vowed to be victorious.

John Cena and Dean Ambrose defeated Rusev and Luke Harper by pinfall

Ambrose got a big pop on the way to the ring from the crowd, but that was nothing compared to the reaction for Cena.

Both men took turns to be dominated by their opponents as Rusev and Harper controlled long periods of the match, with the most interesting exchange coming when Rusev attempted to apply the Accolade submission on Cena, only for Cena to reverse it into his own submission hold, which was quickly broken up by Harper.

The finish saw Harper accidentally kick Rusev in the face as he aimed for Cena, Ambrose then flew off the top rope to hit a dazed Rusev, leaving Cena alone with Harper, and the 15-time world champion gave Harper the Attitude Adjustment to get the pinfall.

Post-match Cena and Ambrose celebrated with the fans to close the show.

gcaygill@thenational.ae