Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including tons of thoughts on NXT’s latest tapings, the card for Takeover in Dallas, Smackdown tapings, Raw and TNA ratings, Werdum/Cain fallout, UFC this weekend, questions and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Impact last night did 339,000 viewers for the 9 p.m. show,up from 321,000 the week before. The show was built around a tease for Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy match that didn’t take place.
The midnight replay did 103,000 viewers, down from 123,000 last week. So the combined 442,000 viewers was down from 444,000 the week before, numbers close enough that they are essentially the same thing.
The show also featured the results of the Feast or Fired briefcase reveals.
– Air Date: January 28, 2016 (Jan 27 in Canada)
– Location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL
The Big News:
A.J. Styles made his Smackdown debut and yet another main event had a crap finish. Oh, and Big Show is a babyface again.
Show Recap:
They aired a video package recapping the finish to the Royal Rumble match and Stephanie McMahon’s announcement of the Fastlane main event. The final shot was of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns staring at each other. They announced a Highlight Reel for tonight with those two men, as well as Kalisto defending his U.S. title against Neville. (I checked WWE.com earlier today and this match was listed as an I.C. title match. It has since been corrected.)
The New Day came out and Mauro Ranallo pretended to forget Byron Saxton’s name. This was a segue to show The Rock’s interaction with New Day and the Usos on Raw. After all the replays and plugs, Smackdown was about 8 minutes old by the time New Day spoke.
They said Rock should feel shame, and despite all of his accomplishments, he doesn’t have gold like they do. Big E could smell what the Rock was cooking – doodoo. That’s what he said. They were interrupted by the Miz, who could feel their pain. Miz said he never gets upstaged, which brought out the Usos. They laughed at Miz for wearing a dress.
Xavier Woods told them not to disrespect Miz because he main evented WrestleMania and has the best mouth in the business. New Day pointed out their numbers advantage, but the Usos were somehow ready for this and brought out Titus O’Neil and Dolph Ziggler to even up the odds. This wasn’t good, and because of the guys involved, just wasn’t that interesting.
The Usos, Titus O’Neil & Dolph Ziggler beat New Day & The Miz via pinfall
They showed a video of O’Neil giving 150 tickets to young students and their families for tonight’s show. Jerry Lawler said Rock embarrassed a lot of people on Raw, including the terrible things he said to Lana.
O’Neil had the match won after a powerslam to Miz, but Kingston and Big E broke up the cover. Usos took them out with superkicks and dives to the outside. Ziggler gave Woods a Zig Zag, superkicked Miz, and O’Neil finished Miz off with Clash of the Titus for the win. The match was about 11 minutes and it was fine. O’Neil went into the crowd and danced with all the families he gave tickets to, which was nice.
They showed a graphic claiming that Raw was the number one show “socially” on Monday. Ok.
U.S. Championship: Kalisto beat Neville via pinfall
They explained on commentary that Alberto Del Rio is owed a title rematch, but Kalisto wants to be a fighting champion and will give Del Rio his rematch whenever he’s ready. Lawler said a luchador being U.S. champion doesn’t sit well with him. Ranallo called him on that statement and Lawler didn’t really have an explanation. Ranallo compared Neville and Kalisto to Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask.
These two could very obviously have a great match, but they weren’t given the time as this match was only about 8 minutes long. They did do some impressive stuff, including Kalisto doing a super hurricanrana. Kalisto won after reversing a German suplex into a Salida Del Sol. I was disappointed this didn’t get more time, and there’s no reason why it didn’t, especially since it was a title match.
That stupid graphic they showed earlier about being the number one show “socially” on Monday? They showed it again. Two segments later.
Chris Jericho came out for the Highlight Reel. He called the Rumble one of the greatest of all time, and even though he lasted 52 minutes, Triple H still came out on top. He also put over his match with A.J. Styles on Raw. He plugged the main event of Fastlane and brought out Ambrose and Reigns (separately). Ambrose brought flowers. Lawler killed Reigns for not being able to win the big one.
Ambrose said Jericho’s set could use some jazzing up which is why he brought flowers. Reigns found a stool to put them on. Jericho was excited for the flowers and said he used to have a much nicer set. This was amusing.
Jericho asked if Fastlane would create any animosity between the two of them. They basically said no. Jericho asked what would happen when the bell rings, and Ambrose said he’ll punch Reigns in the face. They made some light-hearted cracks about what they would do to each other. Jericho moved on and asked about Brock Lesnar.
Ambrose called Lesnar the most destructible force in WWE, but Ambrose called himself indestructible and has no reason to be scared of him. Reigns warned Ambrose about Lesnar, recalling how he got thrown around at Mania. He called Lesnar a beast. Ambrose said he doesn’t have to beat Lesnar, he can just beat Reigns. The crowd gasped. Reigns said it would be the first time, because he’s never done it before. More gasps.
The Wyatts interrupted and talked about putting down Lesnar. Bray ranted and Reigns said they don’t know what he’s talking about. Reigns challenged him to a fight but Bray laughed. Bray instead challenged the three good guys to a 6-man match. He had some reasoning but, you know, it doesn’t matter.
This segment was what it needed to be. Ambrose and Reigns very slightly teased dissension, but with a smirk. The Wyatts interrupting means we’ll have to wait to see more, and that’s fine.
They plugged that A.J. Styles would make his debut next. Perhaps they should’ve mentioned this earlier. After a break, the Social Outcasts said they should’ve been trending after Raw but everyone is talking about Styles. Curtis Axel is mad that Styles finally eliminated him from the Rumble by tossing him out from behind. Axel called him down so the Ax-man can rip him apart. That seems unlikely.
A.J. Styles beat Curtis Axel (w/Social Outcasts) via pinfall
Ranallo put over Styles’ accomplishments but Lawler said what he did before WWE doesn’t matter. The Social Outcasts tried to interfere so Styles knocked Adam Rose off the apron and took out the other two with a dive. Styles sold his back after the dive. Axel went for a Perfect Plex, but Styles countered with a Pele kick and Styles Clash for the pinfall win. Crowd wasn’t exactly hot for this but they did chant for A.J.
Non-title: Divas Champion Charlotte (w/Ric Flair) beat Natalya via submission
Charlotte won in barely 2 minutes. Natalya did an inset promo saying there’s nothing worse than being injured, but you can’t keep down a Hart, and the Queen of Harts was back. Charlotte used a big boot and chops, but Natalya countered with a discus clothesline and German suplex. Natalya had to toss Charlotte back in the ring, so Flair wooed in her face. This gave Charlotte enough time to recover, hit a chop block and apply Figure Eight for the tapout win. Charlotte put the hold on again but Becky Lynch ran out to make the save.
They showed R-Truth in a park, stretching to get ready for a run. Just when you thought they were about to treat Truth like a serious athlete, Goldust showed up in his wrestling gear, with neon green women’s running attire over top. They weren’t even trying to be subtle with Goldust’s comedy. For example, he strained his groin while stretching and told Truth, “I think my groin needs a massage.” Truth left.
Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns beat Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan & Luke Harper (w/Braun Strowman) via DQ
Jericho and Ambrose did not get entrances. Wyatts worked over Jericho, including Harper using a Michinoku Driver. He booted Reigns off the apron, but Jericho hit a Codebreaker and made the hot tag to Ambrose. (You knew this meant Reigns was getting a second hot tag later.)
Ambrose used two separate dives on Bray and Rowan, but Rowan was able to knock him down with a heel kick. Ambrose came back with a rebound clothesline and made a second hot tag to Reigns.
Reigns hit clotheslines on Harper, and a big boot of his own. Rowan broke up the cover so Ambrose knocked him to the outside, and Jericho dropkicked Bray to the floor. Ambrose and Jericho followed with springboard dives. Reigns hit a superman punch on Harper but Strowman pulled him out of the ring and the referee called for a DQ.
Strowman tossed around all three babyfaces, and the Wyatts ganged up on Reigns in the ring. They were about to do bad things but Big Show ran out. He slammed Rowan and clotheslined Harper. He faced off with Strowman in the ring but was mauled by Harper and Rowan.
Reigns tried to make the save but was caught by Strowman, so again Show had to save Reigns by tossing Strowman to the outside. Reigns gave Bray a superman punch, Jericho and Ambrose tossed out Rowan, and Reigns speared Harper. They played Reigns’ music as he posed with his old friend the Big Show (and Ambrose and Jericho).
Final Thoughts:
Like last week, I mostly enjoyed this show until the finish. This main event was obviously much better than last week, but yet another crap DQ basically neutered the whole thing. I will say, additions like A.J. Styles, Chris Jericho and Mauro Ranallo make the show feel more important.
Here’s how Smackdown main events have ended the last five weeks:
Jan 28: DQ (Wrestler gets pulled out of the ring by a non-participant)
Jan 21: DQ (Wrestler attacked by opponent who was not the legal man)
Jan 14: DQ (Wrestler attacked by opponent with light piece of cardboard)
Jan 7: Double Count Out (Opponents fight outside and don’t bother returning to the ring)
Dec 31: DQ (Wrestler slams opponent into ring post)
The big news from tonight’s NXT tapings at Full Sail University in Orlando, FL, is that Nakamura is going to debut at NXT TakeOver in Dallas, TX, as part of Wrestlemania weekend.
The following are the tapings for March’s NXT shows with initial reports that they weren’t very good.
*****
Your NXT TakeOver Dallas lineup for 4/1 based on what happened Wednesday:
Results from J.J. Williams:
Dark match saw Adrien Reese beat Billie Kay w/ Sylvester LeFort via top rope stunner. Good showing by both women, Adrien will do well on tv, personality shines through. Billie Kay and LeFort are an interesting pairing as we rarely see male managers for female competitors.
3/9/16 –
Samoa Joe won 2/3 falls to become #1 Contender to the NXT Championship against Sami Zayn. I have this match going 40 minutes, the first fall didn’t occur until 20 minutes in as Joe hit the muscle buster. Crowd was super in to Sami Zayn tonight, singing his theme song, then the ole’ chants. It quieted down for those first 20 because Joe was putting a beating on Sami. Early in the second fall, Joe got busted open by a headbut, ref asked the trainer to wipe Joe’s head real quick before we got going again. During fall two, Sami took a huge dive to the outside to take Joe out, then was able to lock in the Koji Clutch for his fall victory. Fall three was of course the best and most heated action, Sami hit a sunset flip powerbomb off the top for a nearfall, Joe was then able to hit a huge powerbomb, then in to a Boston Crab, transitioned in to a Crossface for a near submission, Sami was able to lock Joe in the Clutch for a near submission. The finish saw Sami Zayn submit to the Clutch.
3/16/16 –
The Hype Bros beat Angelo Dawkins and Kenneth Crawford via Hype Ryder. Crawford was making his tv debut here.
Emma w/ Dana Brooke beat Deonna Purrazzo via submission with the Emma Lock. Another good showing by Emma here in NXT, she just carries herself like a star. Deonna held her own yet again with a much more experienced wrestler.
Tommaso Ciampa beat Jesse Sorensen via submission using a bridging arm bar. Quick yet physical match, Ciampa has been impressive.
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Asuka beat Eva Marie & Nia Jax when Bayley hit the Belly To Bayley on Eva Marie. As usual, huge heat on Eva, “You Can’t Wrestle” chants. After Bayley got the win, Nia carried Eva away on her shoulders. After the referee raised the winners’ hands, Mr. Regal made his way on to the stage to announce that Asuka is the new #1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Championship and would face Bayley at Takeover Dallas. The two were standing side by side during this announcement, then Asuka stepped around so she could look directly at Bayley.
3/23/16 –
Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat The Vaudevillains to become #1 Contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championships. Great action as per usual with these two teams, Jordan is the best hot tag in wrestling. Finish saw American Alpha put Aiden English up for the assisted german suplex and the win. They will face Dash & Dawson at Takeover Dallas.
Sami Zayn is out for a promo, talked about how even though he doesn’t have a title match at Takeover Dallas he still wants to wrestle on the show, that NXT is like his baby. Mr. Regal again makes his way on the stage and says Sami Zayn will have a match at Takeover Dallas and it will be against NXT’s newest signings, one of the best competitors in the world, the tron goes to static, then Shinsuke Nakamura’s hair from behind, he turns around and the place is going wild. Loudest reaction I’ve heard in Full Sail. He said something yet the cheer was still going so nobody I know was able to catch what he said. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at Takeover Dallas.
Johnny Gargano beat Elias Samson, post match Samson attacked Johnny from behind and tried to rough him up before Apollo Crews ran towards the ring to stare down Elias.
NXT Champion Finn Balor beat Rich Swann with the Bloody Sunday DDT in a non title match. Swann was out first to a great reaction, one of the most charismatic wrestlers to show up in quite a while. Once the people realized he was facing Finn, we had some back and forth chants but majority still for the champ. Great athletic action, Swann is the type of wrestler Finn can do amazing work with. Coup de Grace followed by the BloodySunday for the win.
Alexa Bliss w/ Blake & Murphy beat Sarah Dobson ( SHINE’s Crazy Mary ) with the Sparkle Splash. Short yet good match to showcase Alexa.
Bull Dempsey vs. Danny Burch never happened as Samoa Joe attacked Bull before he made his way to the ring, then went in the ring to attack Burch as well. Refs can’t stop Joe.
3/30/16 –
Asuka beat Emma w/ Dana Brooke via submission with the Asuka Lock. This match went over ten minutes, crowd wasn’t as in to it as their previous matches, of course. Emma had control most of the match before Asuka fired up and applied her chicken wing crossface.
Austin Aries beat Riddick Moss via submission with the Last Chancery. Good reaction for Aries making his Full Sail debut, basic match to showcase Aries before getting his hold on Moss.
Chad Gable & Jason Jordan beat John Skyler & Corey Hollis with the assisted german suplex. Showcase for American Alpha before their title match.
Baron Corbin beat QT Marshall with a side slam. Then post match he hit the End Of Days which lead to a “One More Time” chant, he teased it, then waved the crowd off before leaving to even more boooes. They’ve had him win a few matches with the side slam to build it up as a secondary finish. Still a lot of heat on Baron after all this time.
NXT Tag Team Champions Dash & Dawson beat Tucker Knight & Steve Cutler and in a non title match with the shatter machine on Tucker Knight. Most of the match saw Dash & Dawson making quick tags to keep the punishment on Steve Cutler. Tucker was able to take a hot tag and run wild for a moment before the champs were able to give him the run around and a quick tag to catch the big man off guard before hitting their finish.
Apollo Crews beat Alex Riley with his big slam. After the match, Elias Samson made his way on the stage to sing Crews a song. They’ll face each other at Takeover Dallas.
Samoa Joe beats Bull Dempsey with the Clutch rather quickly and doesn’t let go of the hold, referees keep trying to get him to break the hold, Mr. Regal tries to send men out to handle Joe yet he destroys them as well, Finn Balor runs down and we have ourselves a brawl. They make their way to the commentary area, Finn even dove off the desk on to Joe, the brawl started and stopped a few times with Finn ending with the upper hand. That’s our final build up for Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor II at Takeover Dallas.
William Regal announced that Nakamura was coming to TakeOver.
After a tremendous first season, Lucha Underground returns with some new cards in the deck as well as a bit of reshuffling for the existing ones. Catrina runs the show, while Mil Muertes oversees the action from his throne high atop the Temple. King Cuerno vies for the Gift of the Gods Title against Fenix, while the former trios tag champions do battle to determine a number one contender for the Lucha Underground Championship.
Season two has been set up perfectly all week on El Rey, with a constant marathon concluding right before the season two premiere. The final few minutes of the season one finale remain incredible – and even if you saw it without context, you would get that something big was going down for season two.
Show Recap:
We begin with Vampiro in a psychiatric ward being called Ian. His psychiatrist asks if he has had any nightmares or hallucinations, leading to season one flashbacks. When asked about violent thoughts, we see flashbacks to light tubes being used on Pentagon Jr, but he says they’re all gone. He is given a powerful anti-psychotic medication – but to be released, he must never go see the people that cause his violent impulses. Vamp isn’t down with that and beats up the doctor and his staff – but we see it’s in his head. Striker picks him up and says the Temple isn’t like it was before. It’s a much darker place.
Vamp looks at his medication and gets a sick smile on his face. Either that, or he was amused that his doctor’s name is Dr. Dick Johnson.
Catrina is in Cueto’s office, when Fenix comes in and wants a match with Mil Muertes. Catrina says that he has the Gift of the Gods and can get his shot – but she runs this place, and will hold that match next week if he still holds the title. King Cuerno was shown hunting him in the S1 finale, and wants his title tonight. Mil watches the show from a gigantic throne. Striker and Vampiro are in the booth and Striker says that the fans are why they’re back. Striker gives Vampiro about half a dozen nicknames that would make Joey Styles’ nicknames for Sabu seem modest.
Cuerno comes down while Striker talks about his character for first-time viewers. Vamp says the drinking game has begun, so he says brother a lot. They go back and forth on takedowns before Fenix gets a standing moonsault. Cuerno goes to the floor to break the momentum. Cuerno catches his legs on a baseball slide and hits a draping DDT from the apron to the floor. Cuerno lands the Arrow of Death dive and gets 2. Fenix goes for a handspring elbow, but gets caught – he escapes and lands a dropkick to the stomach. Fenix does a rope walk armdrag before landing a handspring cutter.
Cuerno leaves immediately before eating a crazy Kalisto corkscrew dive from the top to the floor. Fenix tosses him into the corner before landing a VIVA MEXICO Yakuza kick in the corner. They exchange stiff shots and Cuerno wins that war with a calf kick to the chest. Fenix lands a second handspring cutter and turns it into a dragon sleeper – I love it!
Cuerno recovers and gets a Romero special and turning it into a catapult that sends Fenix into the buckle. Fenix responds with a stiff shot to the face and climbs up top to hit a big double stomp to the head of Cuerno while Cuerno was up top. That was nuts, and gets 2. Fenix flips around a bit and hops right into a Thrill of the Hunt for 2.5! Cuerno runs into a big boot that rocks him. Cuerno avoids a headscissor and locks on a package tombstone piledriver for the win! Mil stares at Cuerno and doesn’t look amused. Angelico, Son of Havoc, and Ivelisse arrive on their bikes and we go to a break. Johnny Mundo does a workout ad and it appears LU has gotten Auto Zone as a sponsor.
Back in the Temple, the former trios champs tell Catrina they want their titles back. Catrina says Mil has ordered them to fight each other tonight, while Havoc says they won’t be torn apart. Catrina says that whoever wins faces him for the title tonight. Ivie says she’ll win it and then come after Catrina. It’s astonishing to see just how much this company has gotten out of Catrina when she was just a random person in NXT. Catrina whispers something to Melissa Santos, who resumes introductions.
In a very weird bit, both announcers act completely shocked at this match having the former trios champions against each other and being for a title shot. It’s time for an ad break, but first, King Cuerno grabs his title from the locker. Catrina tells him to remember their deal and he tells her that she has nothing to worry about – and neither does Mil before giving her a smirk behind her back. Angelico is working in a full motocross outfit, which is a good look for him. Double O’Connor roll gets 2 for Angelico, before Ivie gets 1 off a crucifix to Havoc.
They go for a three-way test of strength before Ivie gets tired of this and just beats them both up. Ivie lands a flying rana off the second rope to Angelico. Giant flying knee in the corner to Ivie! Handspring elbow from Havoc to Angelico in the corner and a flying crossbody gets 2. Angelico knees Havoc and we get a wacky flip and jump exchange for 2.
Ivie gets a crossbody off the top to Angelico for 2. Havoc picks her up and Ivie doesn’t appreciate the grabbing and chops the daylights out of him. Ivie gets ten kicks to the gut in the corner and takes Angelico down for 2. Havoc gets a back suplex into a backbreaker to wear her down. Striker is amazed that a fight broke out here in a wrestling match. Havoc dives to the floor onto Angelico! Havoc gets a super mushroom stomp to the back of Angelico for 2. Havoc gets pulled down by Ivie, and Havoc and Angelico fight over a superplex. Ivie crotches Havoc up top and hits a la magistrol cradle on Angelico to win!
375 miles from Boyle Heights, a trio of guys ask about an underground fight club called the temple. Angela Fong tells them to come with her. Oh I wouldn’t do that guys, you’re doomed! Melissa Santos introduces the title match. Ivie is already in the ring, while Mil descends from his throne. Havoc and Angelico cheer her on. Vamp says she has no chance while Striker says even broken crayons still color. The Disciples of Death come down and beat everyone else up. Mil holds her hostage while her friends are carried away. Mil throws her down and we go to one more ad break.
Catrina is the only logical heel owner in wrestling – her charge has about a 0% chance of losing, but she goes the extra mile to make sure it’s absolutely 0%.
Marty Elias holds the gold high and the match begins. He shoves her down while Striker asks Vamp what her strategy should be. Mil just picks her up with ease off the ground and lands a backbreaker. Striker says the back was hurt before in the three-way, so Mil saw that from the throne and is going to focus on it. Giant Biel throw by Mil – Ivie is bumping like a champ here. He picks her up with one hand and just kicks her down Ivie gets a gulliotine choke, but Mil bearhugs out of it and tosses her down.
Ivie goes for a triangle, but Mil tries to powerbomb her – so she turns it into an armbar over the rope before he drops her on the floor. Ivie fights off the top and gets a double-twist tornado DDT for 2! Catrina comes in and holds the stone high to distract her, but she moves and Mil spears her! Ivie gets a schoolboy cradle for 2.5 and a huge Ivelisse chant. Ivie eats a powerslam and a flatliner to finish. This was the best intergender match LU has done yet.
Catrina leans down for the lick of death, but refuses and sics Mil on her. He sets up a second flatliner, but Puma makes the save! Pentagon Jr. runs in to a huge ovation, hits a back stabber on Muertes and snaps his arm. After the credits roll, Black Lotus takes the guys to Dario Cueto. One of the guys insults her, and she kicks his ass. Dario gets them to pay him $20 each for the chance to enter the Temple. He “gives them the key” to Matanza’s cage and Matanza gets three new victims.
Final Thoughts:
Well, this was a fantastic show overall. It would have been nice to see more with Vampiro and Pentagon Jr. since that was built up all last season, but they did enough with it here to give me faith that thread will continue to unravel as time wears on. Pentagon Jr. is now seemingly being set up the Stone Cold of the promotion – he’s certainly not a traditional babyface, but he’s over like the top babyface while Puma holds the Sting role of being the most honorable babyface in the company. They further built up Matanza as a killer, and took Mil out with the armbreaker – setting up a few different possibilities for the title.
King Cuerno has a logical claim to it if it’s vacated since he has the other singles title, while Pentagon could stake a claim since he took the champion out. Either way, a lot was set up for the future and hopefully this company has a bright one because it has changed how wrestling promotions are presented on TV and delivers the most episodic television since the territory days.
I am not spoiling anything, but I cannot wait to go to NXT Takeover: Dallas.
American Alpha is the new name for Jason Jordan & Chad Gable. Tonight they are here to do battle with yet another former set of Tag Team Champions. They have beaten The Vaudevillians and The Ascension and are now here to do battle with Blake & Murphy. They still have the Lucha Dragons and the Wyatt Family to go. Blake and Murphy were outclassed by Gable at one point. Murphy was trying to get the heat, but Gable took out both men by himself like it was nothing. The fans chanted that Blake’s top know looked stupid. Gable used a hip toss on Murphy that looked more like a power slam.
After being whooped by Gable, Murphy injured his knee coming down from a leapfrog. Blake tried attacking Gable from behind and IT’S A MIRACLE! MURPHY IS HEALTHY AGAIN! The heels took over briefly until Gable back dropped Blake out of the ring. Jordan got the hot tag and it was Full Suplex University! Jordan suplexed both men time and again before winning with their double team move.
– Alex interviewed Emma and Dana Brooke. Next week, Emma will face Carmella. Dana pointed out that the tag match last week was all about Bayley and had nothing to do with Carmella. They mocked Carmella for losing to Blue Pants and said Emma will have no problem with her next week.
– We got an Asuka video package.
Brian Witner’s favorite wrestler is in the corner of Nia Jax. Yeah, he’s the only one. Anyway Liv Morgan looks like a low rent Kaitlyn and Nia destroyed her. Something tells me this match was total crap live as we got more than one obvious edit. Nia won with a legdrop.
– Carmella cut a promo saying she would beat Emma all by herself, calling the Emmalution a freaking joke. Enzo and Cass took over and called Dash & Dawson fat. Enzo said he almost beat up the guy pumping his gas because he thought it was Dash and Dawson.
– A Baron Corbin video aired.
– Another heel Vaudevillians video aired. THEY ARE NO LONGER SMILING!
Bull has yet another new theme. No seriously. Alex Riley is back. Remember when he quit his NXT announcing job to go after Kevin Owens? How many people does Owens have unfinished storylines with at this point? The announcers talked about how they didn’t even know Riley was here. Well the announcer and the guy who cues the music certainly knew. Riley almost won with a neck breaker and did win with a knee to the face. No one cared. Remember when Riley when randomly get good reactions? Well this was not one of those nights.
Riley was in a dark corner drinking water. He said the last 4 months he has sent texts and emails to Stamford, Connecticut and got 0 replies. I think Vince was like “Who?” Anyway, Riley was upset because NXT had video packages for Sami Zayn’s return and in depth profiles on Apollo Crews and nothing about Riley.
John Skylar has HHH’s logo on the ass of his trunks. Or at least a logo that looks a lot like it. This match was fine. It was better than Sampson’s other squash matches, but that’s like saying being shot in the foot is better than being shot in the head. Elias won with a spinning neck breaker.
– The Hype Bros were randomly talking about The Vaudevillians’ promo packages, bro. They became really annoying, bro, when talking about going clubbing, bro. Bro, then they talked about Zubaz, bro and Mojo watching Ryder sleep, bro. They said bro in 30 seconds more than Vince Russo could ever dream of, bro.
– Next week is Finn Balor vs Apollo Crews in a non-title match.
I always love a good fight and that’s what this was. It was three guys who all had one goal and that was to win and become the #1 contender. Joe tore through both men for several minutes. He kept knocking Baron down and out, outside the ring, while beating on the smaller Zayn. Zayn was finally able to dispose of Joe, but as soon as he did that he ran right into Corbin. Poor guy could not catch a break.
Sami finally caught a break thanks to the commercial break. Zayn fired up as we came back from commercial and hit an amazing dive over the top rope to both men outside. Corbin almost pinned Zayn with a Black Hole Slam. Joe at one point used a drop toe hold to Sami where Zayn landed in a pinfall on Corbin. The referee didn’t even attempt to count since Joe was doing his running back splash to both men.
Zayn nearly got a win with a Blue Thunder Bomb on Corbin, but after Baron kicked out, Joe yanked Sami outside the ring and choked him out with the Coquina Clutch. Zayn had to wake up because Corbin had Joe pinned with End of Days and he had to break it up. Zayn had Corbin pinned again, this time with the Halluva Kick, but Joe broke it up. Zayn slapped the Sharpshooter on Corbin…and Joe ran in to put the Crossface on Baron and he had no choice but to tap out.
Both Zayn and Joe argued that their submission was the one to cause Corbin to tap out. Mr. Regal walked out to talk to the referee. Mr. Regal said he had to go review the tape of the match. The fans had no idea what they were saying and everyone just walked off.
*****
That does it for the show. Until that point, thank you for reading and remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers! Be sure to check out WrestlingOutsiders.com for 100% free wrestling and MMA podcasts!
After news broke that AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson were on their way to WWE, the next obvious question was “When will we see them debut and where?” For Styles, that was answered this past Sunday at the Royal Rumble and with three matches so far this week, he’s officially in the WWE mix.
Wednesday night, we got our answer as to when we’ll see first Nakamura under his new wrestling umbrella: NXT TakeOver in Dallas, TX, during Wrestlemania weekend.
During the NXT tapings in Orlando, FL, general manager William Regal played a video for the crowd announcing that the former NJPW Champion’s first appearance will be at the sold-out TakeOver event on Friday, April 1st on WWE Network. Unfortunately, the video hasn’t been released as of this writing. However, at the same Wednesday tapings, fans learned of his opponent for that show. If you want to be spoiled, here you go.
Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez will discuss this and more on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio for subscribers.
Figure Four Daily is back with our third of four shows today featuring LANCE STORM talking Raw, the Royal Rumble, his thoughts on Lucha Underground after starting at the beginning of season one, and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Filthy Tom Lawlor is back today with tons to discuss! Tom’s training for his upcoming fight with Corey Anderson, Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum both pull out, Royal Rumble and Raw thoughts, more! A fun show as always so check it out~!