John Cena said he was already medically cleared in an interview done at the beginning of the week with Complex Sports.
In the interview, Cena said he felt he could have come back two weeks ago. He said he can do anything they ask of him to do and when they call, he’ll be there.
“If you ask me today, I should’ve been back two weeks ago. I’ve logged almost 400 hours of physical therapy. I got 111 visits in 12 weeks time. I go every single second I can. People say I have a Wolverine-like style of recovery. I was given a nine month quota to come back and after three months I can tell you that I am ready to do asked of me possible. It’s a matter of when they call me.”
What is notable about that is if Cena’s return was looked at to be a major surprise, he would have never answered the question that way since he’s basically saying he’ll be back imminently.
AJ Styles def. Heath Slater w/ Social Outcasts by pinfall
The Outcasts truly are the Caucasian New Day; pre-match promos are absolutely obligatory even when there is nothing funny or interesting to say. The Andre The Giant Battle Royale fodder babble about how there is only one of AJ and four of them. Curtis Axel creatively dubs his group the “Phenomenal Four” (Rose: “You must have really racked your brains for that one…”), before Bo Dallas one-ups him with the pun-derful (Mauro’s words) “Four-nomenal”.
These two only got five minutes to do their thing, but the so-called Crimson Werewolf managed to get in plenty of offence in that time. AJ’s shine was quickly cut off by interference from Axel, who tripped him on the apron to allow Slater to assume control.
Slater’s heat drills home why the company only sees him as enhancement talent and nothing more; all kicks, knees, chinlocks and stomps. Unfortunately this offensive offence takes up the majority of the match; AJ’s comeback is as brief as his shine and most notable for Jerry Lawler’s excitement prior to Mauro Ranallo’s inevitable call of the ushigoroshi.
The finish saw AJ hit the Pele Kick to a meddling Adam Rose on the apron (which Lawler later refers to as the “miso soup dropkick” during the replays), followed by the unfortunately monikered Phenomenal Forearm for the three count.
– We then cut live to Renee and Robo-Byron at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, where they are primed to hit us with all the hype and video packages we can handle. Renee asks Byron if he ever thought that Shane McMahon would make his return to the WWE. Someone then presses the button to enact Byron’s pre-programmed response, thus leading us into the talking heads hype video for Shane/Taker on Sunday night.
– A very brief mention of NXT’s Takeover show on Friday night prefaces another Renee/Byron discussion, where the latter bleeps and bloops about Ambrose’s lack of fear. Quoth the Robot: “Imagine you’re in a neighbourhood, right? And you know Brock Lesnar’s coming to town and you turn off the lights….you hide under the bed! Ambrose is the guy sitting under his porch saying ‘Hey, come to my house, Brock! Come over here!’”. Gremlins in the system, I guess.
– Props to Motorhead (now sans head) are delivered for the use of their “Sympathy For The Devil” track for ‘Mania. Robo-Byron opines that listening to it is likely to get one’s “HEAD in the game”. Data trying to understand humour springs to mind.
– A recap of the Reigns/Authority capers from RAW airs, followed by a video package seeking to explain Snoop Dogg’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. WWE is now truly a “doggy dogg world” apparently. Yes, that was the actual last line of the package.
D-Von Dudley w/Bubba Ray def. Jey Uso w/Jimmy by pinfall
Another five minute match here, with the aim of teeing up Sunday’s pre-show match for “tag team supremacy” (presumably). Jey starts us off by punching D-Von “like he’s full of candy” in the corner, according to Mauro.
Quickly into the heat as Jey gets posted and cracked with a Bubba right hand while the ref is distracted. D-Von lays down his usual offence, before missing a top rope diving headbutt to allow Jey back into the contest.
Said comeback culminates in a superplex attempt from the Uso. Jimmy dives off the steps to prevent Bubba from meddling again, but can’t stop D-Von from clumsily escaping, tripping Jey and hitting Ron “Damn” Simmons’ spinebuster for the pin. Mauro tells us that D-Von has dubbed the move the RDS in Simmons’ honour. Nice.
– Renee and Byron stay hyped by previewing the Divas title match and bigging up the WWE 24 documentary on Daniel Bryan’s final day as a professional wrestler. They then throw to a recap video of Kofi Kingston’s victory over Alberto Del Rio on RAW, followed by Coach’s appearance to hype Sportscenter’s all day ‘Mania coverage.
– Final video package of the night centres around the oh-so-cold WWE title program, culminating with a match graphic that does not yet reflect the rumoured no-DQ stipulation; a well-established crutch for the most insecure man in professional wrestling. Hey, at least he can say he main evented the biggest Wrestlemania of all time…
Dean Ambrose def. Erick Rowan by pinfall
The Vintner enters the arena with his pals Bray and Braun, who rather confusingly disappear to the back before the match starts. This is a good tune-up match for Dean on paper, given Rowan’s extensive no holds barred experience against the legendary Brody Hoofer back in the day.
This, for my money, was unquestionably Rowan’s best singles match in the WWE; comfortably outstripping anything from his unfortunate babyface run two years ago. It went 15 minutes, if you include the action during the commercial break, and remained engaging throughout.
Dean has the advantage leading into said break courtesy of a flying clothesline from the apron, but Rowan is in control when we get back; channeling Lucha Underground’s Matanza with a big spinning powerslam.
Dean’s comeback starts off the back of Erick’s deadly signature double noogie, but he’s quickly cut off by a big boot and a spinning forearm from the second rope. Alas, Rowan is silly enough to go to the well a second time, which allows Dean to scurry over and hit a massive superplex!
The workrate continues as Rowan bumps to the outside off a dropkick, before eating a tope suicida and a top rope elbow. There’s also a nice spot in the nearfalls segment where Dean escapes a pumphandle slam attempt and looks for his stupid seesaw clothesline, only to get creamed with a uranage sideslam for two.
The finish sees Rowan get frustrated after his spinning heel kick fails to put the lunatic away. He slaps Dean repeatedly, ordering him to stay down, until Dean eventually hits the ropes, pops back with the seesaw clothesline and then finishes with the Dirty Deeds to send him on his way to Dallas.
– The show closes with Stone Cold Steve Austin flapping his gums backstage with a member of WWE staff ahead of his impending live podcast with Mick Foley.
Final Thoughts
Pretty lame show if you watched it live, given that it only contained 20 minutes of actual wrestling and served to function mainly as a two-hour Wrestlemania hype vehicle. The main event was surprisingly good though; credit to Dean for pulling a good match out of such an opponent and to Rowan for playing his part.
This live special goes into Mick’s career, and explores his life on the road while also providing him an outlet to highlight younger talent and plug his family’s new WWE Network show: Foley, Foley.
The podcast begins from Axxess with the podcast set in mid-ring for the first time ever. Stone Cold comes out and gets a ring introduction in Texas – including posing on the ropes and the screen going black when he flipped the bird. Austin cuts a what-filled promo on Mick Foley’s history with him. Mick comes in and gets a “holy shit” chant that is unmuted, while Austin’s utterance gets muted.
Mick takes a while to get his cheap pop and he talks about seeing Steve train with Chris Adams in WCCW and feeling he had “it”. Steve compliments Mick on looking good now and he says that they used to go the gym – which makes Mick happy since it proved he’s been in one. Mick is down 50 pounds and credits it to a better diet and DDP Yoga. Mick was told that there was no hope for his spine, but the yoga helps alongside swimming and he’s at his lightest since 2004. Mick credits Bronco Lubich and Skandar Akbar lecturing him to save his money. Mick shares a story about making a bet with Owen on who could last the longest on $20 – and Owen tapped out at two weeks.
Mick says he was more comfortable as a youth dressing like Dude Love, but it wouldn’t work in the ring first, so he made Cactus Jack as an homage to his dad. Mick talks about showing up in Memphis after paying for some photos and then coming in looking like he had a tiny bit of muscle under the flab. Steve says that when Mick was in Dallas, he met a girl, and Mick says his youngest son is in the front row. He wondered if he should tell her he was Mick Foley and not Cactus Jack – but he liked her, and decided to just be Cactus Jack with her and it helped him build his character. Whether in or out of character, he was cheap though and asked her kids to just have water when eating out.
Mick talks about learning wrestling much like language – you start with letters, then words, paragraphs, chapters, and books. Eric Embry gave him creative freedom, while Akbar told him to just do whatever worked and was different. Mick talks about Dynamite Kid knocking his jaw out of alignment for a year with a stiff lariat and learning to be a softer worker from that. Mick says he didn’t like pain, but was driven by it and there was a time when there wasn’t a huge difference between himself and Cactus Jack.
Mick wants to talk about Dean, but Steve derails things into talking about his poor pay in Japan. Mick says that he told his wife about that like the last time he had a good news/bad news talk it was good news – he was coming home early, but the bad news was he was now missing an ear. Steve asks Mick about a WWE Network project with his family, and he introduces Noelle. Noelle now has theme music and a pink version of Mick’s flannel graphic and Mankind mask. Steve says she’s beautiful and you’d never guess she was Mick’s daughter. Their show will be called Foley, Foley.
Mick says that Vince loved the chemistry Mick had with Noelle, and the show will cover Noelle’s modeling and wrestling training. Mick was surprised that the way he walks would deter her, but it didn’t. Mick says she’ll be trained the right way and Noelle says she loved going on the road with Mick and her brothers. Noelle says she was fine with Mick missing events because they knew he did the best he could to get home. Foley Foley will start filming in two weeks. Noelle says that they’re a weird-normal family and Mick says they’re like the Munsters. Noelle says she’s about as frugal as her dad and will buy nice things – but get the best deals, and their show hits the Network in August.
Mick talks about the origins of Mankind being Mason the Mutilator. Vince had the mask made for Taker, and wanted to use it for his opponent – but didn’t want Mick in the company. Jim Ross bugged Vince enough to give him a shot, but he’d only hire him if he could cover up his face. Mick says that on April 1, 19996 he debuted in the company against the Undertaker. Well, it would be pretty fitting to have them interact at WM.
Mick talks about getting into the Mankind character by spending time in boiler rooms and under the ring, which Austin praises him for doing since it’s basically like being a method actor. Mick credits the multi-part Jim Ross interview with breaking him out of the pack in 1997. During the shoot, he heard Vince say “This it outstanding!” and it won him over. Mick talks about how Terry Funk helped create the map for the Cell with Taker.
They talk about the fall off the Cell being bad, and it getting worse with the chokeslam. Mick says that he hugged Stephanie all bloodied up, and hugging Pat due to him experiencing a loss in his life. Mick then went out for the main event of that show to attack Steve with a chair in the first blood match. Mick looks at the footage and has no memory of any of this.
Mick finally talks about Dean and says that he doesn’t care about how often he’s back, that he wants to do something that has impact. Mick says that he was too concerned with making waves, and realized that his job was to portray Dean in the best light, he told the writer that the skit was too funny and not serious enough. He wasn’t sure how to structure a backstage promo, but he just let things roll when the cameras did and he loved the line about him being Mick Foley and Dean being Dean Ambrose. Mick says that he’ll never look at doing a backstage promo the same way again because he used to think it was a throw-away bit, but he realized that it could be an effective tool to use.
Mick talks about the Freebirds and his history with the team – including him helping Buddy move in ’87. He loved Stan Hansen, and Mick almost named his son Mickey Stan. Mick says that the journey to a match isn’t as important as the destination and he was getting ready to work a tag with Stan, and he wanted to work spots only to have Stan tell him “I don’t work spots”. Mick says that the main eventers are expected to steal the show, but the divas could do it – and Charlotte will usher in a new era in front of 100,000 fans.
Mick closes the show with a Vince impression about WrestleMania being bigger, better, and better while Austin gets in a dig about not being a fan of WrestleMania being free. This was a fun little show – but not a must-watch. To see all the screens for it, just click here.
Editor’s Note: Most of Dave’s diary excitement will start Friday when he starts attending shows including Ring of Honor and NXT. We will have assorted shows up for members throughout the weekend, the first being a solo show with Bryan later tonight. Then, Dave and Bryan Alvarez will be back tomorrow to talk all of the news and fesitivites. Mike Sempervive will also be helming Wrestling Observer Live every day through Wednesday when Bryan returns.
*There is WWE information listing HHH vs. Roman Reigns now as a no DQ match, which it was never pushed as prior to today.
*There are WrestleMania ads all over the major highways and downtown here, usually a photo of a WWE star, the ones I’ve seen the most are Undertaker, Shane McMahon, John Cena, HHH, Roman Reigns and Sasha Banks. Officials at AT&T Stadium have noted that there has been far more local promotion done for WrestleMania then for the Super Bowl when the stadium hosted it a few years ago.
*Things already started with Jim Cornette doing a live talk show in Fort Worth. He did his usual bits, talking about how much he hated Vince Russo, but other names on his list included Dixie Carter, Shawn Michaels, and, to an extent, John Laurinaitis.
*WaleMania is tonight (Thursday) in Dallas which is now an annual event as tickets sold out immediately. Last year a ton of wrestlers came with the exception of WWE talent as I think they aren’t supposed to be at anyone else’s shows.
*If Finn Balor loses the NXT title Friday night to Samoa Joe at TakeOver, that means the Balor Club is headed to the main roster. Either way, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows are debuting imminently and are in Dallas already.
Here’s some non-WWE notes:
*UFC 198 in Curibita, Brazil, is now sold out with approximately 45,000 tickets sold. Most likely, It would have sold out yesterday, but some systems crashed. It was noted to us that it would sell out today. The show features Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title, Anderson Silva vs. Uriah Hall, Vitor Belfort vs. Jacare Souza, Cris Cyborg vs. Leslie Smith, and Shogun Rua vs. Corey Anderson.
*TNA will be taping Impact from 4/21-4/24 at Universal in Orlando. The dates changed slightly from what the talent was told last week.
*New Japan is doing a free show on New Japan World tonight/tomorrow from Korakuen Hall. It’s a free sample to try and get people to buy the service for Invasion Attack on 4/10. In theory, they should then be shooting some angles to build that show. The top matches are an elimination match with Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson vs. The Bullet Club of Bad Luck Fale & Kenny Omega & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall, plus Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi.
Historically, New Japan ten man elimination matches, where you can be eliminated either by pin, submission, or over the top rope, are usually very good. The show starts at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time early Friday morning and will be available on VOD shortly after its conclusion.
First off, my deepest apologies to my tens of fans for my failure to file over the last fortnight. But, worry not; my difficulties in accessing the show in a timely manner (or, indeed, at all) have been resolved.
Unfortunately, my return to casting a critical eye over Main Event is marked by a show that is over 80% Wrestlemania hype. Video packages were aired on the Reigns/Authority, Shane/Taker (two) and Dean/Brock storylines. One match was taped before RAW in Brooklyn on Monday night, featuring Sunday’s US title challenger The Ryback against the one-time conqueror of Chris Jericho, Fandango.
Ryback def. Fandango by pinfall
Jerry Lawler troubles me with his depth of knowledge on Ryback by insisting that “everything about The Big Guy is bigger”. Yeesh.
Rich Brennan repeats Monday night’s faux-pas by reminding us all that the company once chose to put Fandango over Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania. I guess it’s less dumb when Jericho isn’t in the segment, but it’s still never a fantastic idea to remind your viewers exactly how amateurish you are at judging talent.
Speaking of bad ideas, someone thought it would be pretty gravy to have their monster heel, who is challenging for a belt on Sunday, take over ten minutes to put away a guy who hasn’t won a televised match since mid-December. Solid logic there and no mistake.
Fandango therefore got plenty of offence in this one, including a high knee from the apron to the outside to grab the advantage leading into an early commercial break. Ryback’s heat is that of a man who hasn’t worked heel in a while; painfully dull, including an excruciatingly long chinlock.
Fandango dodges a corner charge and follows up with a baseball slide to initiate his comeback. He even sidesteps Ryback’s first attempt at the Meathook clothesline with a school boy roll-up for two-and-a-half. Ryback immediately pops up and connects with said Meathook however, followed by the Shellshock for the win. Only six minutes of this aired, but it felt longer as it was dull, disjointed and heatless throughout.
Final Thoughts
Not much to add really. Join me again tomorrow for a similarly attenuated edition of Smackdown and be sure to check out my – and the rest of the team’s – Wrestlemania predictions later in the week.
WWE has officially updated the plans for Sunday’s WrestleMania regarding where the different matches will air on the show.
As of right now, and this could change during the week, the Kalisto vs. Ryback U.S. title match will take place at about 4:30 p.m. Central time, 5:30 p.m. Eastern, and will be a WWE Network exclusive.
The USA Network and WWE Network one hour simulcast from 5-6 p.m. local time and 6-7 p.m. Eastern time, which will also air at WWE.com, the WWE app, and YouTube, will have the women’s ten person tag team match and the Usos vs. Dudleys match.
The 20 man Andre the Giant Battle Royal will now be on the WrestleMania PPV card.
The rest of the show has:
Triple H vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match where if Shane wins he gets control of Raw and Undertaker can never work another WrestleMania.
Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar in a no holds barred streetfight.
Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks for the WWE Divas Title.
New Day vs. League of Nations in a three-on-four match which is not for the WWE Tag Titles.
AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho.
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sin Cara vs. The Miz vs. Stardust in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Title.
Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez reviewed Raw on last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, plus Bryan and Mike Sempervive discussed a number of possible big match finishes on today’s Wrestling Observer Live, both available now for subscribers.
The final Raw before WrestleMania did 3.77 million viewers, an 11 percent increase from near historical lows for non-football season posted for the show on 3/21 from Philadelphia.
A show that advertised every major character from WrestleMania appearing, including Vince McMahon, Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Shane McMahon, from the Barclays Center, was down 10 percent from the WrestleMania go-home show last year which did a 3.03 rating and 4.19 million viewers. The 2014 go-home show did a 3.18 rating and 4.38 million viewers.
The ratings pattern was in line with the daylight savings time season, where the peak was in the second hour. There was a third hour drop, but it wasn’t as pronounced as many weeks, even though the only thing pushed for the end of the show was a segment involving HHH and Roman Reigns, who had already done two segments earlier in the show.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.82 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.85 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.64 million viewers
Next week’s show is likely to be the highest rated Raw of the year, as that is the usual pattern for the day after WrestleMania. It is usually about two weeks after WrestleMania where the ratings settle into what ends up being the usual spring levels.
Notes from Leon Peters and Peter Troiano from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY
Superstars:
– Jack Swagger defeated Tyler Breeze. This was a fun 10-12 minute match. Swagger won clean pin via Swagger Bomb
Main Event:
– Ryback defeated Fandango after the Shellshock.
Smackdown (airing Wednesday in Canada and Thursday in the U.S.):
– AJ Styles defeated Heath Slater (with Axel, Dallas & Rose in his corner). Even with the building still not full, there was a big reaction and chants for AJ. Clean pin for Styles with the springboard forearm.
– D-Von Dudley (with Bubba Ray) defeated Jey Uso (with Jimmy Uso) after hitting a spinebuster.
– Dean Ambrose defeated Erick Rowan (with Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman) after hitting Dirty Deeds. Bray and Strowman went backstage after their entrance.
There was no post-show dark match. It was a long night of wrestling and people were drained by the end.
The go-home show for Raw is from Brooklyn and predictably will feature many appearances from most of the part-timers who currently are the most over performers in the company. A week after Vince McMahon declared that the Undertaker must defeat Shane McMahon or else it would be his final WrestleMania match, it’s believed that the Undertaker will appear, possibly in a segment with Vince and Shane.
Roman Reigns got a strong push last week, jumping HHH in the parking garage on Raw, followed by laying out both Dudley Boyz on SmackDown. He proclaimed himself “The real authority,” something that HHH and Stephanie will likely have a rebuttal towards this evening. Chris Jericho will respond to A.J. Styles challenge for a WrestleMania match tonight. Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and the usual cast of characters are expected counting down to the biggest week of the year.
Our coverage starts at 8 ET.
The Big Takeaway: The go-home show for WrestleMania was a last ditch effort to get Roman Reigns over. And it failed. Possibly the biggest failure yet. In a stunning example of how out of touch the creative forces behind the company is, they had Eva Marie debut as a babyface mystery partner for a team in a ten-women tag at WrestleMania. Marie was greeted with a chorus of boos. The show was mainly promos with a scattered array of matches. Once again, the best match on the show featured Kevin Owens. There were some good segments trying to build various matches, but there’s no helping Reigns at this point. At least not as a babyface.
Show Recap:
The Undertaker started the show. He said this WrestleMania will not be his last, which threw cold water on the idea he would intentionally lose to Shane McMahon on Sunday. He said he’s made it clear to Vince McMahon that Shane’s blood will be on Vince’s hands, but Vince’s blood may be on his. He realizes that Shane will fight until his last breath, but WrestleMania was his yard, Hell in a Cell was his house, and Shane will rest in peace.
Shane came out and cut a promo from the ramp to a very good response. Not to sound like Bobby Hennan trying to get over a repackaged star in the 1980s, but he looks in the best shape of his life. Shane said he was the instrument of change in the WWE, while Undertaker was his father’s instrument of destruction. Shane said next Monday night, whatever was left in his body would crawl down to the ring, leave Hell in a Cell in his rear view mirror because all of the WWE fans deserve better and he will be in control of Monday Night Raw. If Shane had to cement his legacy by destroying the Undertaker’s legacy, that’s what he’ll have to do.
Undertaker told him he needs to watch his mouth because Shane doesn’t get to talk about his legacy. Shane got in the rign in Undertaker’s face, and this had a palpable buzz. Shane said Undertaker’s legacy died two years ago at WrestleMania. Crowd started chanting “Suplex City.” Undertaker said Shane was just like his old man, which figures, seeing how from the day he was born, he’s been his daddy’s bitch. Shane threw punches that backed Undertaker to the corner, but Undertaker threw Shane over the top rope.
Undertaker threw Shane into the barricade several times, then went to clear the table. Undertaker went to give him the Last Ride into the table, but Shane escaped and hit him across the head with a monitor, which Shane had to look hard to find, probably searching for the gimmicked monitor. Shane hit Undertaker with the monitor. As Undertaker was prone across the table, Shane lost his mind, climbed the top rope and jumped off the top with a diving elbow. Crowd went nuts as Shane his made to his feet. On relay, Shane may have only connected slightly on the elbow as Undertaker was laying too far away, but Shane’s vertical was amazing. Shane staggered his way to the back, but Undertaker rose up after selling for about a minute, then got up and gave Shane the throat slash as Shane watched on.
Zack Ryder defeated Chris Jericho (1:55)
Before the match, they aired a promo from the Raw preshow where Chris Jericho said he wouldn’t wrestle A.J. Styles at WrestleMania and he would beat Zack Ryder tonight. Styles came out before the match, doing more micwork than ever before saying he would get his match with Jericho and wouldn’t leave ringside until he did.
Jericho had Ryder in the Walls of Jericho when Styles started a “Y2 Jackass” chant, which got a better response this week. It was another distraction finish as Ryder pinned Jericho after a small package. Jericho became unglued, hitting Ryder with a Codebreaker. Jericho destroyed another monitor from the remains of the Undertaker-Shane brawl, then granted Styles his match at WrestleMania. He said this would be his 12th WrestleMania, but it would be Styles worst, and it would be the worst night of his life.
Charlotte (C) defeated Becky Lynch (6:32) in a nontitle match
Charlotte won after Becky Lynch chased her into the ring, but Ric Flair held Lynch’s boot long enough for Charlotte to kick Lynch and pin her with Natural Selection. Sasha Banks was at ringside just watching. Either they have no faith in her interview abilities or they didn’t have a headset available in the wreck that was ringside, but she didn’t say anything.
Vince McMahon did an interview with Rene Young. Vince said he wasn’t surprised at the brutality of the battle between the Undertaker and Shane earlier, but an angry Undertaker is the type of Undertaker he wants representing him. Shane walked in and cut a good promo on his father saying on Sunday, he would take 40 years of beatings and turn it around on his father. He said the irony of Sunday would be Vince stole the WWE from his father, and this Sunday Shane would take the company from his father.
Social Outcasts were in the ring. Curtis Axel got enough time to chime in “Happy birthday, Dad” to Curt Henning before the Big Show and Kane came out.
Kane and The Big Show defeated Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, Adam Rose and Heath Slater by DQ (:28)
Bo Dallas, and Adam Rose ran in to attack Kane and Show. It led to Goldust, R-Truth, Konnor, Viktor, Damien Sandow, and a host of others for a preview of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. It led to Show and Kane choke slamming Axel, Dallas, Rose and Slater at the same time. Kane choke slammed Show last week, but there was no show of malice between the two this week.
Stephanie McMahon and HHH came out. Stephanie told the fans to get down on their knees and grovel to the king, HHH. Then HHH said none of the fans will ever have the ability to make their dreams a reality, but Roman Reigns did. He’s one in a million, someone who could turn his dreams into a reality. Crowd started to boo the mention of Reigns quite heavily. HHH said Reigns became WWE World Heavyweight Champion for 5:15. What about the reign that started after he beat Sheamus in December? HHH said Sunday would be his 20th WrestleMania, and he’s always obessesed with being the champion, and the fame, power and wealth that came with it. He became the greatest WWE Superstar of all time. After awhile, he was OK with putting on a suit and letting that fire die.
But when Reigns power bombed him on the table a few months ago, it relit his obession of being the champion. Reigns has already lost on Sunday when he re-lit the fire, which meant he would destroy Reigns’ dreams. HHH got minor cheers during his promo.
Stephanie took the microphone. Reigns came out to heavy boos. HHH stomped on him, but Reigns made a quick comeback and sent HHH packing. Reigns got booed big time as the last man standing and the crowd chanted “Roman sucks.” Reigns had a brief staredown with Stephanie before she took off. They teased Reigns spearing Stephanie, but even that couldn’t get the crowd on his side. It just gets worse for Reigns.
HHH and Stephanie were shown walking out. It sounded like HHH wanted to leave the building, but the microphones weren’t on. Usually, that means HHH gets his heat back before tonight ends.
The New Day came out to their best crowd response yet. They came out with Xavier Woods mentioning the official cereral for WrestleMania is “Booty-O’s,” which had it’s own graphic on the TitanTron. Kofi Kingston said the League of Nations would never have their cereal because no one wants to taste “Rusev’s Bulgarian Booty Flakes.” Big E. managed to pay tribute to Phife Dawg, which got a good response, saying “Can I kick it?”
Kofi Kingston defeated Alberto Del Rio (7:35)
Alberto Del Rio attempted the cross armbreaker, but Kingston turned it into an inside cradle for the pin. Highlights early included Del Rio being distracted by Woods playing the Mexican Hat Dance on the trombone. With New Day going over almost every week on League of Nations, I would anticipate a title switch on Sunday.
Postmatch, Jonathan Coachman came out to announce SportsCenter would be live in Dallas all week long. Then he pulled out a box of Booty-Os and started dancing, which Michael Cole deadpanned “Coach, no.” Coachman got mainly cheers, even though he was a heel for most of his run. Of course, he was among the people in the uneviable position of having to replace Jim Ross at one point.
They showed Joan Lunden as the recipient of the Warrior Award for this year’s WWE Hall of Fame.
Reigns started to do a promo with Young when Bubba Ray Dudley showed up challenging him to a fight backstage. Devon Dudley walked in. Reigns belted Bubba and Devon, but HHH predictably showed up to nail Reigns from behind and they all put the boots to him. Bubba threw him into a wall. The Dudleys left, and HHH told Reigns would never get the championship again. HHH placed the belt on a cart, then slammed Reigns’ head onto it to the sound of loud cheers in the background.
Kalisto (C) defeated Konnor (1:49) in a nontitle match
Kalisto won with Salida del Sol. Afterwards, Viktor ran in and took a Tornado DDT. Ryback came out and had a staredown with Kalisto, barked “Feed Me More” and left. Kalisto still isn’t over in the slightest.
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman cmae out. Heyman said he serves as the advocate for the baddest beast on the planet today. Heyman said his job was to hype fans up for the fact they’re six days away from seeing a once-ever fighter do his thing, perform at a level that not one individual could ever achieve. However, there’s one goof, geek, lunatic that always strays away from the rule, who thinks he has what it takes to perform at the level of Lesnar, Dean Ambrose. Heyman gives Ambrose credit because he’s a lot smarter than a lot of people thinks. Heyman said Ambrose think that if he takes a UFC Heavyweight Champion out of his element in a street fight and use a weapon against him, it will mean bad news for Lenar. But Ambrose has to step into the ring against Lesnar, who is fully prepared to give Ambrose the defining WrestleMania moment of a lifetime. Heyman said Dr. Brock Lesnar would perform a colonoscopy with every one of those weapons on Ambrose. Heyman said he said it 2 years ago, and he will say it again: he started to announce Lesnar as the winner of the match when Ambrose came out with a wagon with his logo painted on the side.
Ambrose pulled a crowbar, a baseball bat, steel pipe, Mick Foley barbed wire baseball bat, a fire extinguisher, a chainsaw from Terry Funk, a kendo stick and a portion of the ring steps in the wagon, then simply hauled it to the bat without saying a word on the mic as Heyman watched on in concern. Lesnar watched with his standard stoic look.
It was announced that HHH would come out later for yet another interview segment with Stephanie. I guess 15 minutes earlier wasn’t enough.
Emma defeated Paige (2:52)
A segment that totally backfired. The Divas division is now being handled like an afterthought again. Instead of teasing her return a few weeks out, Emma just showed up tonight as a heel on Raw for the first time. She’s now part of a heel team called “Bad and Blond,” also comprised of Lana, Summer Rae, Naomi and Tamina. They’re wrestling Paige, Brie Bella, Natalya, Alicia Fox and a mystery partner at WrestleMania. All the teams were at ringside. Emma won after Tamina distracted the referee, and Lana came in and hit Paige with a barefooted kick.
This led to a brawl between the two groups. Then the mystery partner for the face team came out—Eva Marie. I rubbed my eyes in amazement. Vince McMahon thought she would get treated as this conquering babyface. The fans booed her more than Reigns. She might as well have been Donald Trump in Brooklyn for all this did for her. She cleaned house, but none of the babyfaces wanted anything to do with her. Apparently, getting under on your debut is contagious and they didn’t want any to get on them. The announcers didn’t explain why Eva Marie was so unpopular with her teammates, like they’ve never seen NXT before. Just a total cluster of a segment from people too out of touch to make a coherent decision about the current product. And you wonder why Bailey stays in NXT?
Truth approached Goldust backstage saying that he wouldn’t have his back in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Truth seems to think they’re tag team partners who have a tough decision to make when they square off in the battle royal. Goldust doesn’t understand what he’s talking about because they aren’t partners. Truth started to cry and blew his nose in Goldust’s handkerchief.
Snoop Dogg was named as the new inductee into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Sin Cara defeated Kevin Owens, Stardust and The Miz (21:17)
Sami Zayn pinned Kevin Owens after the Helluva Kick. This was a match featuring the six participants in the ladder match on Sunday for the Intercontiental Championship, so Owens didn’t want to be involved. He was more willing to let the participants to slug it out, refusing to tag in. After everyone hit their finishers on each other, Owens tagged in and tried to give Zayn the pop-up power bomb, but Zayn hit a dropkick. Miz and Stardust walked out on Owens before the finish. Crowd was big on Zayn early, but then they got bored and used the match to get themselves over. There was a thunderous chant for CM Punk, along with Rob Van Dam. and “This is Booty.” Then they chanted for New Day. Who would have imagined the most over regular babyfaces in the company would be Woods, Big E. and Kingston a year ago?
HHH and Stephanie came out for yet another promo to end the show. Stephanie started putting down the fans again saying more of what they said earlier about how fans lived their lives just like Reigns, and they always fail. Stephanie said HHH’s championship isn’t going anywhere, and neither are they. HHH said millions of dollars are at stake on Sunday, and people could take their morality and shove it.
Reigns came out again to no reaction at all. He limped outand punched Reigns in the nose, with Reigns selling it heavy from the pedigree on the steps a month ago. Reigns threw HHH into the barricade. Stephanie ordered a group of heels to come out and help HHH. with Rusev, Sheamus, Del Rio and Stardust coming out. Then the New Day, the Usos and Dolph Ziggler came out for a pull-apart. Reigns threw Miz over the announcer’s table, for some reason. HHH started to back off once a crowd formed between him and Reigns, then ran back to go after Reigns. Reigns responded by doing a tope onto a group of heels, including HHH. Bubba Ray made a catch of Reigns that would have made Andrew McCutchen proud. Fans chanted “You still suck.”
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Tonight was the final straw for a year’s worth of work. The verdict is in: Reigns is not the guy. He could have been. If he had kept the championship at Royal Rumble and carried it through to WrestleMania, there was a chance for him. But they’ve booked him poorly, putting him in a group of no-win situations. First by taking the championship from him at Royal Rumble, where HHH didn’t come off as a cowardly champion who backdoored his way to the title, instead stepping over others to get the belt, typical of his reputation. Then came Fast Lane, where he was the least favorite of the three men in the main event. At some point, Vince McMahon has to ask himself what exactly are the fans revolting against? Is it John Cena and Reigns as personalities? Or the company’s narrow view of what a top star should be? I think it’s the ladder. Now that the audience has dwindled, there’s a greater percentage of hardcore fans than in the 90s. Their mindset of who to get emotionally invested in is based on years of watching Ring of Honor, New Japan and other promotions. Inside the McMahon bubble, there’s a mentality that’s very different, as best shown tonight by somehow thinking Eva Marie would be greeted as the new Divas superstar. Instead, she was a target of scorn, the polar opposite of how the segment was geared. As WrestleMania season winds to a close, there are more questions than ever about how in touch the powers that be are with the people who watch their product, and the answers may not be pleasant.
The WWE’s final two honorees for the Hall of Fame ceremony will be Snoop Dogg and Joan Lunden.
Snoop Dogg, who is related to Sasha Banks and has been on WWE television a few times over the years, will be the celebrity inductee. It had been rumored within wrestling for weeks and reported in past Wrestling Observer Newsletters that they were talking, and in wrestling circles, the belief was that it was a done deal.
Also reported at the time was Lunden, who will receive the Warrior award.
While the Snoop Dogg announcement was made via email, John Cena made the announcement on Lunden Monday morning on The Today Show. Lunden will be presented with the award on Saturday night by Dana, the widow of the Ultimate Warrior. Lunden, best known for her hosting Good Morning America was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, and very publicly battled through chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“It is truly humbling to be honored by WWE and receive this year’s Warrior Award at the 2016 Hall of Fame induction ceremony,” said Lunden to WWE.com. “After being diagnosed with cancer, my first thought was to survive, but soon after, I changed my focus from my cancer to the fight against cancer, and my life took on a whole new purpose. WWE has welcomed me into their family, offering me warmth and support, as have so many of the WWE fans from around the world. It is a privilege to receive this honor.”
The ceremony will air live on the WWE Network with an edited verson airing on post-Mania Thursday after Smackdown on USA.
