In May 2016, WWE decided to do a spot of housekeeping, and released several performers from their contracts. Some were surprising, others not so much.
One of those names released was 29-year-old Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl. He hadn’t been on TV for a while and although he had been with the company for almost ten years and popular with younger fans, he was “future endeavoured”.
I had the opportunity to talk to him recently for around 30 minutes, covering all aspects of his life in and out of the wrestling industry including being a father.
We discussed prejudice towards midgets (his words, not mine!) within the industry, how Ken Anderson got him a job in WWE, why Curt Hawkins will forever be his best friend and the reasons why he calls Dave ‘Fit’ Finlay every Father’s Day.
We also had the opportunity to discuss what he describes as his favourite and defining moment during his time in WWE, his WEE-L-C match with El Torito at Extreme Rules 2014, his dealings with Vince McMahon, and more.
The Miz and Sami Zayn were on commentary. There was a bunch of distraction and it allowed Owens to win with the dreaded distraction schoolboy pin.
– Dana Brooke beat Paige
Becky Lynch was on commentary for this match.
– Dolph Ziggler beat Sheamus
Baron Corbin came out after the match and cut a promo talking about his match on Sunday against Ziggler.
– Chris Jericho did an interview. They had the cage lowered. A guy who was dressed like one of the people helping lower the cage revealed himself to be Dean Ambrose. He attacked Jericho from behind, climbed up and got a Kendo stick and nailed Jericho a few times before Jericho ran out the cage door.
– The new Bob Backlund and Darren Young video aired.
– WWE Tag Champions The New Day & Big Cass beat Dudleys & Vaudevillains when Cass pinned Bubba with the East River Crossing.
– The Club came to the ring for the main event which was Roman Reigns vs. Luke Gallows. The Family came out.
– Roman Reigns NC Luke Gallows
Everyone got involved in the match. It ended up with the Usos brawling with Gallows and Karl Anderson. Styles and Reigns were in the ring with chairs but Styles hit Reigns with a Pele kick and laid him out with a chair shot, so he was the last guy standing as the show ended.
A big third hour drop and a massive NBA playoff game resulted in WWE coming close to seasonal lows for the May 16th edition of Raw, but ending just above that mark.
The show did 3.17 million viewers — just above the 3.12 million viewers for the April 25th show — but lower than any other non-holiday Raw outside of football season since 1997.
The first hour, which didn’t oppose the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game, was the highest rated show on cable. Raw was No. 3 on cable behind the game and the post game show, Inside The NBA
There was a huge drop in Raw’s third hour, which was predicted given everything that was going on. The basketball game was up 28% in viewers from a similar Warriors playoff game last season.
The key is that even though there are more viewers of Dancing With The Stars (11.64 million) than the NBA game (8.1 million), the latter seems to have impacted Raw more significantly.
DWTS draws double the women’s adult audience as men, while the NBA game was made up of 66% males or about double the women’s audience in the 18-49 demo. Raw does numbers similar to that of the NBA in that regard. Also of note in sports Monday, the San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues NHL playoff game did 1.71 million viewers.
Raw was only down two percent from last week with that tougher competition. The first two hours were similar to last week with hour one slightly up and hour two slightly down. But, the third hour was down four percent from last week.
With the June 8 match set to be their third consecutive TakeOver main event, Joe vs. Balor has become the first program to reach that milestone since NXT started doing WWE Network specials.
Balor retained the NXT title on a December 16 special from SSE Wembley in London, and did so a second time on April 1 as part of the WrestleMania weekend activities in Dallas.
With all the talk these days in combat sports seemingly surrounding a complete sale of a promotion or a minority stake, the first significant sale didn’t involve UFC or TNA, but rather Vince McMahon of WWE.
On Monday, McMahon sold 2,191,894 shares of WWE stock for approximately $36,165,921 before taxes, said to be for estate planning purposes.
The WWE’s primary owner and creator is left with 37,080,747 shares which represents 48.8 percent of the company. For most of the past 15 years, McMahon had owned closer to 63 percent of company stock before sales over the past few years.
The 70-year-old McMahon said that other than possible sales of stock in his trust, which this represented, he has no current plans to sell any additional stock and intends to continue in his role and Chairman and CEO for the foreseeable future.
WWE stock closed at $17.91 per share today, down slightly (0.02) while the NYSE was up 1.02%.
Another show built around Shane and Stephanie ruling the roost. They ordered two separate matches, presided over a contract signing that was the main event segment and ended with Stephanie decking Ric Flair in Greensboro. The show had two very good tag team matches but lagged during the final hour.
Show Recap:
The Usos will face Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows later tonight. A.J. Styles came out and said he was tired of Roman Reigns calling him a liar, and well as various places he’s gone to and social media. Styles showed off tweets from fans who thought Styles’ relationship with Anderson and Gallows was a ploy to make him WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Styles talked about headlining the Tokyo Dome in front of 60,000 fans, and he didn’t need any help getting to the top.
Reigns came out. “What an ovation!” screamed JBL as thunderous boos echoed in the background and Reigns walked past a “When it Reigns, it Bores” sign. Reigns said Styles has won championship after championship, but if you ask him, it doesn’t matter unless he’s wearing THE championship. Fans chanted for Seth Rollins, which seemed to iritate Reigns. Reigns said he would be in the Usos corner, and asked Styles if he was going to be in the Club’s corner? Styles said he would.
Styles said Reigns was THE guy who he was going to beat this Sunday at Extreme Rules. Reigns said Styles couldn’t beat him one-on-one, and the Usos would be at ringside with him to prove that the bloodline could beat the clubline. Anderson & Gallows came out. The Usos ran out from the crowd to join Reigns and Reigns punched Styles out of the ring just as Styles was about to strike. It appeared security was confiscasting anti-Reigns signs during this segment because they cut to tight shots of Reigns face while guards worked around ringside.
Cesaro and Sami Zayn went to a no contest (1:40)
Kevin Owens and the Miz were at ringside. After Sami Zayn sent Cesaro out of the ring, Owens got up from the commentary table and acted like he was going to leave, but attacked Miz instead. The two ended up in the ring, where Owens and Zayn brawled, as did Cesaro and Miz.
This led to Shane McMahon coming out to a big pop. He arranged for Zayn and Cesaro to team against Miz and Owens. Then Stephanie McMahon came out. She changed the match to Zayn and Owens vs. Miz and Cesaro, and if Owens walked out, he would lose his spot in the Fatal Four Way at Extreme Rules.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens defeated the Miz and Cesaro (10:47)
Zayn pinned the Miz after the Helluva Kick. Miz and Cesaro starting arguing, and it led to Cesaro giivng him the Skull Crushing Finale. After Zayn got the pin, Owens gave him a superkick, then proclaimed himself the winner of the match. Owens was the straw that stirred this drink and was very entertaining. He even got a run wild sequence that included a Cannonball on Cesaro, which the fans went nuts for. Byron Saxton said “I can’t believe we’re seeing Zayn and Owens teaming together.” Aside from the decade they spent teaming together in ROH and other indys, I totally agree. Reminded me of watching WWE Superstars back in the day and Gorilla Monsoon would call Lanny Poffo a youngster after he had wrestled for 15 years.
Renee Young asked Chris Jericho in his dressing room about Dean Ambrose requesting a meeting with him tonight. Jericho said he wanted Ambrose to apologize for destroying his $15,000 jacket last week, which was as much an institution in the WWE as Andre the Giant. He talked about how the jacket belonged in the Smithsonian.
The Shining Stars defeated Scott Jackson and Brian Kennedy (1:33)
Epico pinned Brian Kennedy with the Shining Star, which is the old Total Elimination. Since they were in Greensboro, this was your basic 1980s squash match that aired on Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling every Saturday night. Even the jobbers names sounded like something that Bob Caudle would say. A word has yet to be created to adequately describe the indifference the crowd had for the Shining Stars in their debut, whose gimmick is they beat up guys from the host cities hometown to prove Puerto Rico is the most beautiful place on Earth. Before we go comparing this to the Reverend D-Von, Kane’s twin brother and Outback Jack, let’s remember the New Day was the least over thing in this company 18 months ago.
OK, I’m done pretending. These guys couldn’t get heat in Texas wearing Jose Bautista jerseys.
Ambrose came out. There was an angle on SmackDown where Jericho put Ambrose in a straight jacket, and Ambrose said he felt something in his head that snapped a little. He called Jericho out. Jericho came out and ordered Ambrose to apologize for his jacket, which he called an important part of his legacy. Jericho actually was a heel trying to get heat. And he got it. Remarkable.
Ambrose said he wasn’t apologizing and challenged him to a match at Extreme Rules. Jericho said he would take $15,000 out of Ambrose’s ass. Ambrose asked if Jericho was sure. Jericho said people liked to call Ambrose a lunatic, but he was a lunatic because there was no one in the company crazier than him. He’s faced every fighter the company has thrown at him for 17 years and is a 6-time world champion. Jericho said he would punish Ambrose with no remorse, with a smile on his face and without a tear in his eye. Jericho did his new catchphrase of “The gift of Jericho. Drink it in.”
Ambrose said he had a gift for Jericho. A cage came down from the roof with this music that sounded like the “Psycho” theme. Ambrose said he talked to Shane and Ambrose got to have the first-ever Asylum match. It was a cage match with a straight jacket, a barbed wire 2×4, the ghost of Mitch the Plant, a fire extinguisher, a strap, a mop and bucket and various other objects. Ambrose said there would be no escaping the cage and Jericho would never, ever be the same again.
Dana Brooke defeated Becky Lynch (3:41)
Brooke won when Becky Lynch attempted a sunset flip, but Brooke sat down. Weird spot early in Lynch jumped off the apron for a double axehandle that appeared to connect, but wasn’t supposed to. Brooke then had to no-sell it and threw Lynch into the dasherboards. Brooke was shown earlier being snobby to a guy, saying if he worked out and dressed better, maybe she would take him seriously. Lynch has become the jobber Diva, it appears.
Bob Backlund appeared as Darren Young’s life coach. Backlund asked Young what time it was. Young pulled out his phone. Backlund thought he was going to call the operator and ask what time it was. Young talked about trying to organize the Desktop on his phone. Backlund thought he meant organizing his desk by putting a calendar over it. Backlund ordered him to do 200 squats. And that’s how the second “Make Darren Young Great Again” skit ended. Well, the newest Young push is still more alive than Ted Cruz’s campaign.
Shane watched this unfold. Stephanie wanted to know why Shane didn’t run the whole Asylum match by her. Shane wondered why didn’t Stephanie run by changing the tag team match by him. Bubba Ray and Devon Dudley came in. Bubba Ray said they’ve heard about the New Era, but they wanted to show what guys from the Attitude era. Devon Dudley wanted to face two little guys from North Carolina and rough them up. Shane spoke up and said one of the Dudleys could face Big Cass. The Dudleys could pick out which one would get the honors. Shane got to do Enzo Amore’s catchphrase.
Breezango defeated The Golden Truth (1:55)
Tyler Breeze pinned Goldust after R-Truth accidentally hit Goldust with a flying side kick. Breezango is Tyler Breeze and Fandango, who turned on their respective partners on SmackDown. The Golden Truth got a big introduction video that was twice as long as the match, showing how this debut was six months in the making. Naturally, they lost and teased dissension, which we saw earlier from two other teams.
Goldust was mad at Truth afterwards. Truth said they need to get their timing together. Fandango and Breeze dropped by to laugh at them. At first, Goldust was unsure if Truth would be a good partner, but after Breezango laughed at them, he agreed they should remain a team and get revenge.
The New Day came out. It looked like fans had Booty-O boxes left and right. Kofi Kingston said he didn’t understand why the Vaudevillains said a bygone era was a better era. They pulled off a huge box that Xavier Woods claimed was a Delorian time machine. Big E. tried to claim it was really a large refrigerator box with a keyboard that was really sticky, but Woods wouldn’t let him finish. T
hey got inside the box and it was pretty funny. The machine went back in time and Kofi Kingston’s old Jamacian “S.O.S’ music started playing. Kingston started doing his old Jamacian accent. Woods said they didn’t go back far enough. They got back in the box and Kofi’s smartphone had turned into a old camera with a light bulb on top. Aiden English and Simon Gotch then ran up from behind and jumped the New Day, giving Woods and Kingstgon the Whirling Dervish.
The Usos defeated Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows (12:46)
Very good match, better than the first match of the night. After the Usos hit double superkicks on Anderson and Gallows, Jey Uso pinned Anderson after a splash. Anderson hit a spinebuster on Jey for a very good near fall. Styles and Reigns were at ringside in opposing corners. A group of fans were still chanting for Rollins. Jey Uso has so much charisma, his hot tag won the crowd over, even with Reigns at ringside.
Postmatch, Gallows hit Reigns from behind. This led to the Usos and Anderson/Gallows brawling again, where Anderson threw Jey Uso into the steps. Styles was left in the ring trying to use the chair against Reigns, but Reigns caught Styles with an uppercut before he could. Reigns hit Styles with the chair across the back. Gallows and Anderson ran in, only to each take Superman Punches. Styles recovered to deliver three chair shots across Reigns’ back. Then Styles delivered the Styles Clash onto the chair on Reigns to sizeable cheers.
Big Cass defeated Devon Dudley (:59)
Big Cass won with the East River Crossing, or the old Chris Harris Catatonic. Cass did a prematch promo where he compared Devon to Urkel from Family Matters and Bubba Ray to Fred Flintstone.
Alberto Del Rio defeated Kalisto (C) in a nontitle match (11:05)
Sin Cara watched the match from the back when Rusev jumped him with a superkick, then dragged him to ringside. That got the crowd interested because they would get to see Lana, who got chants. Once Rusev showed up at ringside, Kalisto was distracted, giving Alberto Del Rio the opening to hit the backstabber for the pin. Earlier, Kalisto tried to hit a huracanrana off the apron, but Del Rio slung him into the barricade.
Postmatch, Rusev attacked Kalisto, giving him the Accolade when he bent as far as humanly possible. Rusev grabbed the U.S. Championship and threw on a prone Kalisto.
Stephanie and Shane were in the ring for the contract signing for Charlotte vs. Natalya for the WWE Women’s Championship match at Extreme Rules. Shane got “Shane O’Mac” chants. She was about to introduce Charlotte when Ric Flair interrupted her and introduced his daughter. Michael Cole gave a rundown of Flair’s career in Greensboro, mentioning his first match in the Greensboro Coliseum was against Chuck O’Connor, who would go on to be Big John Studd. Sadly, Cole also mentioned Flair’s last match in Greensboro, in 2008 against HHH. That will forever go down as the night HHH refused to job in Flair’s last match in Greensboro, opting for a lame DQ finish where William Regal ran in to punch HHH with brass knux.
Natalya came out and said Charlotte was once someone she respected and had integrity. Natalya said Charlotte even defeated her for Charlotte’s first NXT championship without the help of her creepy father. Natalya said that is the Charlotte she would like to beat at Extreme Rules, but that person doesn’t exist. Charlotte replied that Natalya was delusional, and the fans weren’t there to cheer for her, they were there for Charlotte.
It was meant to be a heel interview, as Charlotte said she could punch all of their best friends in the face and they would still cheer for her because they worship the ground that she walks on. Charlotte proclaimed herself as a living, breathing goddess. Those lines got the crowd against her, but it wasn’t genuine heat. Charlotte gave Natalya a “Whoo.” Ric started to say “Whoo,” but Charlotte told him to start because it was her ring. Charlotte said this was a waste of her time to talk about how bad she would be Natalya and asked to sign the deal. Charlotte looked at the contract, then asked “What is this?”
Shane included an added stipulation that if Ric even walks down to the ring, then Charlotte would forfeit the WWE Women’s Championship. Why was this news? Stephanie made that stipulation two weeks ago.
At that point, Shane brought security down to escort Flair away. Stephanie said if Charlotte didn’t sign the contract, then she would forfeit the championship. So Charlotte was essentially forced into the match. Charlotte signed the deal.
Flair got pissed at Stephanie, saying she was the worst businesswoman of all time. Shane tried to calm him down. Flair then took off his watch and his coat, acting like he was going to square off against Shane, who tried to let cooler heads prevail. Stephanie stepped between Shane and said he may have respect for Flair, but she doesn’t. Stephanie did slapped Flair, who had to take a delayed bump. This led to audible “Stephanie” chants that sure did come and go quickly.
Security stepped in to keep Flair out of the ring. Meanwhile, Natalya put Charlotte in the sharpshooter and Charlotte tapped out. Basically another segment to get the McMahons over.
SUMMARY:
How can a show be bad when it has A.J. Styles, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, and some very good tag teams? When it turns into another episode of “The McMahons,” which this show became after the first hour. They just can’t help themselves. The Styles/Reigns buildup was very good.
Corbin came out to an ok reaction while Ziggler came out to a big pop. Corbin hit the End Of Days mid-match, but Ziggler kicked out at two. The last part of the match, Corbin reversed the Zig Zag and tried to hit Ziggler, but he ducked and connected with the superkick for the win.
– Apollo Crews def. Stardust
This match was pretty short. The bell rings and Dust punches & kicks Crews, than Crews starts to fight back. He does his usual moves, and hits the Crews Control for the win. Dust gets on the mic says he isn’t leaving Columbia without a win under his belt. He says he will fight anybody from Columbia, SC. This leads to…
– Big Show def. Stardust
Big Show comes out to a big pop. Dust taunts the crowd and turned around to a KO Punch. Show wins in less than 10 seconds.
– Greg Hamilton lets a lady in the crowd say “This match is scheduled for one fall”
– Big Cass def. D-Von w/ Bubba Ray
Not much to say about this match. Big Cass came out to a big pop. Everyone loves him. In a nice match, Cass hit the East River Crossing for the win.
– Sami Zayn def. Kevin Owens
The crowd likes Zayn but they LOVE Owens. The match was good. Owens taunted the crowd and before the match told everyone to be quiet so he can concentrate. Zayn hit the Blue Thunder Bomb for the win.
– WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte def. Nattie
Nice back and forth match. Nattie powerbombed Charlotte. Charlotte did the figure 4 and Nattie reversed. Charlotte won with a roll-up with feet on the ropes. Nattie left to a huge ovation from the crowd.
– I-C Champion Miz (w/Maryse) def. Cesaro and Sheamus in a three-way
Great match. Eeryone loves Cesaro, but even Sheamus got some love. Miz called the crowd “Carolina sweathogs”. Cesaro did the swing into the sharpshooter on Miz and later, he did the Gotch Neutralizer to Sheamus. After he did it, Miz clocks him and pins Sheamus for the win. Cesaro chased after Miz and Maryse chases Cesaro.
– WWE Champion Roman Reigns & The Usos def. Chris Jericho & Anderson/Gallows
The pop for Reigns was HUGE. Words can’t describe it. The match was great: crowd on their feet and especially when Roman got the hot tag. At the end of the match, Gallows & Anderson got tired of Jericho being a jerk so they let the Usos suicide dive on him. Roman hits the Superman Punch and spear for the win.
Stephanie McMahon revealed Monday that she was writing her autobiography, set for release on September 27 and a $26.95 list price through Regan Arts.
Regan is pushing the book around McMahon having 1.5 million Twitter followers and 1 million Instagram followers, implying that she has a mobilized fan base who have seen her for years. They also pushed WWE’s YouTube numbers and worldwide exposure, and are hoping for the success Regan had with Ronda Rousey, and in particular trying to attract a non-wrestling audience to purchasing the book thinking McMahon hasn’t had a lot of mainstream media coverage, and in particular they could market her heavily in women’s magazines.
The book is apparently also designed to attempt to break her out into a larger media figure with a contemporary approach to the media.
The book is particularly aimed at women, and S&S notes 40% of the television viewership of WWE are women, and pushing her as a mother of three girls who has to balance a home life with being Chief Brand Officer for the company.
“Stephanie McMahon is one of the great visionaries behind the continuing success of WWE, and has navigated the entertaining, treacherous and awe-inspiring world of Superstars, egos and drama with style, tremendous skill and dynamite feminine force,” said Judith Regal, the CEO of Regan Arts. “And that’s just with her family. The family encompasses everyone in the WWE family worldwide. Her story is Shakespearean in its drama and comedy, and she is in a unique position to share an inside view of one the world’s most successful organizations. Her story will also motivate you to get off your butt and make magic happen. I love her and you will too when you read her book.”
As noted in the Observer Newsletter a few weeks ago, Seth Rollins’ return is imminent after wrapping up filming the movie “Temple.”
Rollins has been training this past week in Orlando at the Performance Center for a return that could come at just about any time.
John Cena tweeted earlier today, “I have done my best to return to WWE as fast as I can, but I hope people understand how amazing @WWERollins recovery is #Respect #GG.”
PW Insider listed a possible 6/6 Raw as his return date, the week after Cena is to return. The date is not definite, but is the current target.
Rollins had major knee surgery for a torn ACL, torn MCL and torn medial meniscus. He was WWE world champion at the time of the injury in early November, which changed a lot of the timing plans for WrestleMania, where Rollins was originally going to face HHH.
– Kane and Big Show over Erik Rowan & Braun Strowman
Crowd was real hot for Big Show face to face to Strowman. Strowman screwed up slightly setting up hot tag with Kane. Match went about 15 minutes nothing special but crowd was hot. Show pinned Rowan for the win. Afterward Kane and Show double choke slammed Strowman.
– Sin Cara over Viktor of the Ascension
More than expected from these two. Crowd was real hot for Sin Cara.
– Titus O’ Neil and Jack Swagger over Social Outcasts (Bo Dallas/Curtis Axel) w/Heath Slater ringside.
Match went about 15 minutes.
– Becky Lynch, Paige & Sasha Banks over Dana Brooke, Lana & Eva Marie
Finish came with all 3 face women making the heel women tap out at the same time with their respective submission finishing holds. Crowd popped huge for finish.
Intermission
– Goldust over Fandango
Finish of the match came when Tyler Breeze came down to interfere, R Truth came to even odds. Goldust then got pin on Fandango.
– WWE Tag Team Champions New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) over Vaudevillians
Crowd had probably biggest pop so far for New Day entrance. Solid match. No Kofi Kingston.
– US Champion Kalisto vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Rusev
Ambrose got the biggest pop of the night by far when he came out. A lot spots outside the ring. Lana was ringside to start the match. At one point, Rusev got on microphone during match and got great heat from crowd. Match was spot fest from beginning to end. Ambrose hit dirty deeds, Lana distracted ref, Ambrose got slapped, Rusev super kicked Ambrose then Lana got tossed. Kalisto then pinned Rusev. Afterwards, Ambrose and Kalisto shook hands and celebrated together.
Overall, a fun show. Bray Wyatt and Kevin Owens were heavily promoted to be here but weren’t.
