Less than two weeks before the “biggest WrestleMania of all time”, RAW’s ratings continue to stagnate. The show started weak but the audience remained remarkably consistent throughout the 3 hour broadcast, with a main event of Dean Ambrose facing Braun Strowman.
The average viewership was 3.4 million viewers, down about 2% from last week. It was down 19% from the same week last year but that’s not a fair comparison as it was the go-home show to Mania, which was held a week earlier in 2015. Comparing to the week prior to the go-home show last year, Monday’s show was down 13% as RAW continues to be down about 10% year over year.
After last week’s show saw the third hour as the highest rated of the show, things returned to normal this week as Hour 3 was down slightly from the previous 2 hours, which were almost identical.
RAW was just underneath The O’Reilly Factor as the most watched show on cable for the night as the FOX News show did 3,423,000 viewers. In the 18-49 ratings, RAW’s 3 hours were #2,3 and 4 on the night behind VH1’s Love and Hip Hop.
Daniel Bryan will not be appearing on Friday for what was scheduled as Daniel Bryan night in Madison Square Garden and there are reports we are awaiting confirmation on that indicate this is not limited to just the Madison Square Garden.
Several ticket holders for Friday night’s show were contacted today with a letter from Madison Square Garden stating:
“Due to a scheduling conflict, the ceremony to honor former WWE world heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan on March 25, 2016 has been postponed.
While this honoring may occur at a later date, WWE Live–Road to WrestleMania this Friday at Madison Square Garden will still take place as scheduled. The event will feature many of your favorite WWE Superstars. After nearly 5 years, Triple H return to action in the ring in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Also see Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Ric Flair, Sheamus, A.J. Styles, Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens and many more!
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and look forward to your continued support of the WWE and Madison Square Garden.”
UPDATE: WWE officials have said that Danielson has requested time off and it was granted.
There was what looked to be an injury after Raw went off the air in a dark match with The Wyatt Family vs. Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler & Sami Zayn.
Multiple reports have come in that Harper took a spill onto the floor and grabbed his right leg. Those at ringside believed he blew out his knee but as of this moment we don’t have anything official past the point the WWE medical staff came out immediately. He left under his own power but was helped to the back by the other members of the Wyatt Family.
This possible injury adds to a string of WWE injuries going back over the last few months. The most recent injury was to Neville.
Also during the dark match a fan attempted to attack Braun Strowman. It’s not clear exactly what happened but Strowman was attacked in some form and told security who dragged the fan out of the building.
We’ll update this if we hear more details tonight.
Crowd into AJ. AJ won with the Phenomenal Elbow around 12 minutes.
– Mark Henry vs. The Ascension
Henry wins a short 5 minute match. Mostly Mark and Viktor. Henry hit the World’s Strongest Slam on Conor.
– Stardust & Heath Slater & Adam Rose vs. Damien Sandow & Darren Young & Fandango
Heath and Darren start chain wrestling and Sandow is up on the second rope on the apron literally telling the people when to cheer and boo. Fun “everyone hits a finisher/big move” to end it in about nine minutes with Fandango winning with a sitout suplex slam.
– Promo shown on the big screen with Sheamus and Wade Barrett.
– Zack Ryder vs. Luke Harper
Harper is over with a group in the front row, since he wrestled for 2CW a lot. Basic match, crowd wasn’t really into Zack like they were 2 or 3 years ago when he was here last. Harper won with his discus clothesline in about 10 minutes, crowd actually cheered the pin. Before the finish, Ryder came off the top rope but missed, and kinda fell weird, he pulled down his knee pad, and got up into the clothesline and was helped to the back by the ref, not quite sure if he was really hurt or not.
– WWE Tag Champions The New Day (Kofi & Xavier) w/Big E. vs. Usos vs. Dudleyz
Bubba Ray got the biggest heat so far by saying him and D’Von were from Brooklyn and were real New Yorkers. Big E on the outside was insanely entertaining at one point, humping the floor for a good five minutes. They did a comedy spot with Xavier getting slapped hard on the back by everyone in the match, including Kofi. Complete comedy match and highly entertaining. Xavier pinned D’Von after he tagged a Uso on the top rope, who proceeded to splash D’Von, Xavier then came in the ring and threw Uso to the outside and pinned D’Von. Went about 17 minutes.
– Intermission
– Divas Champion Charlotte vs. Natalya
Pretty basic match, lots of “Whoo”s and Charlotte sucks chants. Charlotte working the knee led to a nice spot where Charlotte went for the figure four, but stopped and put the Sharpshooter on. Built up to Natalya getting the sharpshooter to a pretty good pop. Charlotte eventually won with a roll up out of the corner with her feet on the ropes. Decent match.
– Chris Jericho vs. Jack Swagger
Jericho cut a promo on Binghamton saying the place sucks. Jericho got the heat when Charles Robinson was pulling Swagger out of the corner and Jericho punched him. Jericho got caught in the ankle lock and pulls the ring apron into the ring for a rope break. While the ref is fixing the apron, Jericho poked Swagger in the eye and hit the Codebreaker for the pin. After the match, Jericho put Swagger in the Walls Of Jericho which brought out AJ. He went for the Phenomenal Elbow, but Jericho bailed.
– Sheamus and Wade Barrett vs. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns
Sheamus didn’t even bother putting his Mohawk up. Place went nuts when Dean came out and a Roman got a decent pop as well. Heat on Dean as he went for the Nigel rope spot and Barrett just kicked him while standing on the apron. Reigns won with the spear in about 14 minutes in a basic match:
The Big News: Vince McMahon announced that if the Undertaker loses to Shane McMahon at WrestleMania, then the Undertaker will never wrestle at WrestleMania again. Kevin Owens became the latest wrestler to get scolded by Stephanie McMahon, who ordered him to defend the Intercontiental Championship in a ladder match against Sami Zayn, the Miz, Sin Cara, Stardust, Zack Ryder and Dolph Ziggler. Building up Shane McMahon was the backbone of the show through a series of vignettes, and no matter how much Vince McMahon has lost his creative touch, this company will always have great videos as extra spice in their stew. But they served a cold dish, overall, tonight.
Show Recap:
The show was dedicated to the memory of Mary Katherine Stewart, who was only 21 years old.
Stephanie McMahon announced HHH wasn’t going to be there tonight, and fans had 60 second to get to the box office for refunds. She claimed her husband was missing the show because of front office concerns, not because of Roman Reigns attack last week. She said Reigns proved why he would never be WWE World Heavyweight Champion, because he lacks intellect. Reigns came out to mostly boos, which was not the reaction he got when he defeated Sheamus for the WWE title in December. He’s no longer walking through the crowd.
Stephanie started to dress down Reigns until he put his hand over the microphone. Fans booed him as he started to talking, and said HHH didn’t come to Philadelphia because he knew he would whip his ass all over Broad Street. Reigns said he would walk into Texas and take his championship back, and there was nothing Stephanie or her daddy’s money could do about it. Stephanie started to slap him, but he caught her hand and said “Now, I’m the Authority.” It was the right idea to put Reigns in there with Stephanie because he’s the only person she sells for, but the fans just aren’t willing to accept him as a headliner. Short segment for an opener, going only seven minutes.
Kevin Owens (C) defeated A.J. Styles in a nontitle match (19:19)
They just can’t help themselves. A.J. Styles had Kevin Owens in the Calf Crasher, but Chris Jericho came out for the weekly distraction into a schoolboy cradle finish. Of course, it was a great match with Styles getting near falls following a Fireman’s Carry Neckbreaker and a Rack Bomb. During a commercial, Styles went for the Phenomenal Forearm, but Owens grabbed the ropes and Styles crashed to the floor. Owens pulled out a frog splash for a great near fall, and later showed off the F-Cinq. The crowd was into it, but the finish took it down a level. Styles chased Jericho to the back.
Afterwards, Owens laughed about winning over Styles and defending his title at “KO-Mania.” Dolph Ziggler came out to challenge him, and mentioned “KOMania and Botchamania.” Ziggler, who just got crushed last week, as the top challenger spoke volumes about the depth of the midcard. Then the Miz came out and laughed over how Ziggler thought he could get a title shot after HHH slaughtered him last week. Ziggler brought up superkicking Miz on SmackDown. Sami Zayn came out and said he had waited for months to get a piece of Owens and wanted him at WrestleMania. Owens said he would talk with the Authority about arranging a three-way match among those three challengers, and the winner would get the shot at WrestleMania.
Dean Ambrose was taped at the Philadium bar doing a promo on Brock Lesnar when suddenly, Terry Funk popped up. Funk looked like he had lost 40 pounds since his last television appearance. Funk did a variation of his classic promos, including this one from Puerto Rico that’s the White Album or Dark Side of the Moon of wrestling interviews. He told Ambrose that if he had a son, he would be just like Ambrose. Funk gave Ambrose a chainsaw which he could use against Lesnar, and Ambrose started sawing a table to the horror of various extras.
Owens approached Stephanie and asked for a triple threat match tonight that he could book. Stephanie agreed. The trick was Owens didn’t say who would be in the match, with Stephanie assuming it would be Miz vs. Zayn vs. Ziggler.
They did a good feature on Shane McMahon and the Undertaker featuring Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Edge, John Cena, Booker T, Michael Hayes and Jerry Lawler. Foley said Shane’s return was among the top three reactions he’s ever heard in the business. Cena mentioned he never thought he’d see Shane in the WWE again. The piece featured headlines from when Shane left the company in 2010 and what brought him back.
Alberto Del Rio, Rusev and Sheamus did promos on the New Day laughing about how they beat them up last week. New Day came out with Booty O’s cereal. Xavier Woods held up placards which spelled out “You are trash.” Kofi Kingston said Rusev had stinky feet. Kingston wondered what happened to Del Rio, he used to come out in a car with his own ring announcer, but now he’s stuck in the League of Nations. They mentioned Sheamus’ parents must have known how he would turn out to be because they put the word “Shame” in his first name. Woods mentioned the tag line “Booty-O’s: They make sure you aren’t Booty.”
Big E. defeated Rusev (11:06)
Big E. won after the Big Ending. Lots of activity outside the ring, including King Barrett and Sheamus throwing Woods and Kingston into the barricade, which they sold for several minutes. Big E. hit several Belly-to-Bootie suplexes. Rusev teased the Accolade, but Big E. escaped with an Electric Chair, which was impressive considering Rusev’s size. Match was good but was a few minutes too long.
Vince McMahon will make an announcement concerning Shane-Undertaker later tonight.
The Wyatt Family did a promo about a match tonight between Ambrose and Braun Strowman, who said the God of War watches over him tonight and he would offer Ambrose for sacrifice.
Aliciia Fox and Naomi did a commercial for Snickers where some male was pretending to be a drama queen. So they gave him a “Drama Rama” bar, the guy took a bit out of it, and turned into Natalya.
The Big Show came out for a promo for the 3rd annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Byron Saxton vowed winning the battle royal could change someone’s life. So far, the winner’s of the battle royal have been Cesaro and the Big Show. Exactly how have their lives changed for the better? Show said he once claimed to be the greatest giant of all time, but the true greatest giant was Andre, because he was the first giant and the greatest giant. That’s why it meant so much for him to win the battle royal last year and wants to win it again. Social Outcasts came out. Heath SLater said Show’s mark on the industry would soon be the Social Outcasts’ largest victim. Bo Dallas claimed they were a Cinderella story. Curtis Axel corrected him and said they were like Voltron. Adam Rose said Show was in serious trouble. Show said the only trouble he would have would be figuring out which one of them to knock out first. Slater got choked, but Axel hit Show with a Shining Wizard. They started to put the boots to him, but Kane came out, threw Dallas and Slater over the top rope, as well as Rose. Dallas tried to shake Kane’s hand with his left hand, but he was thrown out. Show hugged Kane, who didn’t return the favor. Show posed on the second rope, but Kane grabbed Show and choke slammed him off the second rope. Guess that’s what Show gets for saying he wasn’t properly booked over the years on Austin’s podcast.
Chris Jericho defeated Fandango (2:08)
Nice to see Fandango back from the witness relocation program. He missed the Last Dance and Jericho started to put on the Walls of Jericho, but Styles came out and started chanting “Y2 Jackass.” Jericho must not be as easily distracted as Styles was, because Jericho kicked out of Fandango’s small package. Jericho got the pin with a codebreaker.
Jericho challenged Styles to get in the ring. When Styles ran in, Jericho ran out. Styles then did a promo saying he’s wrestled all over the world, but not at WrestleMania. He challenged Jericho to a match at WrestleMania, which Jericho didn’t answer.
Another Shane promo video, and this was very good. Of all people, they had Renzo Gracie cutting an interview about how Shane brings energy to his jujitsu workout daily. Renzo is as good a personality as you’ll find from the MMA world to get someone over on an interview, especially since he doesn’t have a script. Shawn Michaels, Edge, Road Dogg, Austin, and Booker built Shane up as someone tougher than shoe leather, but most of them picked Undertaker to win. A good hype piece, and it left the fans with a better flavor about Shane than if Shane had appeared in front of the live crowd and received a lukewarm response, which is always a danger in Philadelphia.
Owens handled ring announcing for the triple threat match for the Intercontiental championship. Instead of Miz vs. Zayn vs. Ziggler, Owens announced Stardust, Sin Cara and Zack Ryder.
Stardust vs. Zack Ryder vs. Sin Cara ended in no contest (3:41)
The joke here was Owens booked three jobbers for a fight for his championship. What’s scary is, after last week, Ziggler and Miz have as much credibility as the three who started this match. Zayn, Miz and Ziggler came out to confront Owens, who was on commentary. It led to Owens jumping Ryder for the DQ. Everybody started fighting with Owens, who walked away.
This led to our weekly segment known as “Stephanie gets to castrate talent.” Stephanie scolded Owens for misleading her about the triple-threat match, then ordered him to face Zayn, Sin Cara, Ryder, Stardust, Ziggler, the Miz and Stardust at WrestleMania in a ladder match for the I-C title.
Stephanie walked out of the building, where a black SUV was waiting for her. HHH came out from the backseat and kissed her. As the garage roof raised, Reigns was behind it. I guess HHH and Stephanie were making out in the backseat because the SUV didn’t move. Reigns pulled HHH out of the back and brawled with HHH, including ramming him into a set of bars. HHH got one punch in and the SUV sped off.
Charlotte (C) defeated Natalya (4:47)
Charlotte won with Natural Selection. Natalya got the Sharpshooter on, but Charlotte made the ropes. Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch were on commentary doing promos on each other that succeeded in making me less encouraged to watch the match. It’s sad how far behind the WWE is from UFC in terms of using interviews to build up fights. It’s like the gap between the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns.
Bubba Ray Dudley defeated R-Truth (2:04)
The gimmick was R-Truth was despondent about Goldust turning down his requests to be his tag team partner. Bubba Ray Dudley won with a big boot. Devon Dudley joined in to beat up Truth. So after weeks of building up the Goldust-Truth tag team, Goldust runs down for the save. And Michael Cole couldn’t have been more monotone in his delivery. Why the hell do you start the angle if you aren’t going to sell it big on the payoff? On top of that, Goldust ran in with a chair, but got laid out with a reverse 3-D. Then the Usos ran in and gave Bubba a double superkick, ditto for Devon. The Usos pulled out a table and teased giving Devon a splash through the table, but Bubba pulled his partner to safety.
Vince came out and he just has worn out his welcome. Total silence on his entrance. After the post-WrestleMania Raw in 2 weeks, he needs about nine months off to get fresh again. He reviewed the Shane-Undertaker stips, and said if Shane wins, it might mean he will never be on Raw again. Like anyone believes that. Then he put over Shane as a wrestler. He actually said Shane might be the most forminable opponent the Undertaker has ever faced at WrestleMania. You could a loud groan in the audience after that one. The big news is if Undertaker doesn’t beat Shane at WrestleMania, then the Undertaker will never wrestle at WrestleMania again.
Braun Strowman defeated Dean Ambrose by DQ (5:12)
Paul Heyman was on commentary doing his best to sell Ambrose’s match with Brock Lesnar. Crowd was so dead, it was amazing this was only two weeks before WrestleMania and one of the top babyfaces was in the ring. It got boring chants. All Strowman could do was nerve holds. Finally Ambrose used a chair on Strowman for a DQ for no real reason. Ambrose went after Luke Harper and Erick Rowan with the chair, then hit Dirty Deeds on Strowman onto the chair. Ambrose walked over to Heyman and mouthed off to him while Heyman looked on with concern.
Final Thoughts:
There is no momentum for WrestleMania at all. The event sells itself purely on its brand name. But there wasn’t one regular performer on this show who is over. As long as Raw is 3 hours, appearing on Raw is an obstacle to getting over because you’re overexposed. And there’s two types of people in this company. Those who have been castrated by HHH and Stephanie, and those who are going to be. Tonight, Owens joined the former club after being in the latter for eight months.
The match was pretty good and even, lots of false finishes where Rowan was almost going to win, but Ryback came back with the shellshock to get the victory. The “Feed me more” chant must have broken out at least 10 times, and by the end people were going nuts for the Big Guy, save for one “Goldberg” chant that broke out before the finish by a bunch of drunk guys.
Goldust defeated Curtis Axel (w/ Bo Dallas)
Axel and Dallas came out to a meh reaction, and once they got into the ring Bo cut a promo on how the Outcasts were starting their new winning streak tonight. Goldust came out to a big pop. The match was pretty alright with Goldust winning via a roll up, which led to the Outcasts attacking him. Chants for R-truth started and low and behold he came out. Truth did his “Whats up?!” routine with the crowd and he and Goldust started dancing and hugged each other to the crowd chanting “Golden Truth”, it was pretty alright.
U.S. Champion Kalisto defeated Dolph Ziggler and Rusev to retain
No doubt the match of the night. Originally it was supposed to be Kalisto vs. Del Rio but Del Rio was nowhere to be found. Ziggler was the most over and people absolutely hated Rusev. Several USA chants broke out while Lana was trying to make the crowd stand in attention so she could sing Ru-Ru a heel version of “You are my Sunshine”.
The match started with Kalisto teaming with Ziggler to take out Rusev who then grabbed a mic and told the ref that the other two weren’t being fair. Some big triple threat spots and Kalisto’s flippy shit made the crowd go nuts, especially when all three men superkicked each other. Kalisto hit the Salida Del Sol on Rusev for the win. After the match Ziggler put his hand out to shake Kalisto’s, and he kicked it away before hugging him and the two left.
Sin Cara defeated Fernando (or Diego? I don’t remember)
This was right after intermission and absolutely no one cared. I felt kinda bad for both guys, but nothing really engaged the crowd except for when one of the Matadores got up on the turnbuckle and did some heely shit towards the crowd, which proved to be very effective.
Becky Lynch defeated Naomi (w/ Tamina) with Alica Fox as the special guest referee
Becky is super over, everyone went nuts when she came out, Naomi did a decent job in getting the crowd worked up for the match. It was rather quick, with Becky winning via DQ and Team B.A.D. proceeded to beat her down while a “We Want Sasha” chant broke out. Then the Boss’s music hit and down she came to clear house. After kicking B.A.D. out of the ring she challenged them to a tag team match, which they initially refused but Lynch and Sasha threw them back into the ring. A pretty fantastic tag team match followed where it made everyone look strong. Sasha hit the Bank Statement on Tamina for the win.
Kane and Big Show defeated Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman
The Wyatts came out to a decent mix of cheers and boos. The place exploded when Big Show and Kane came out. What shocked me the most in this match was Bray, he was taking some pretty hard bumps throughout the whole match. There was a few instances where he sold his back as if something bad happened, and he had Strowman lift him up onto the apron several times but after a while he was wrestling as he normally would. I did notice he didn’t do his spider walk completely as Kane sat up and attacked him before he could do it.
Strowman was a beast in this match, up close he looks like a legitimate monster and beat up Show and Kane quite a bit. Several “Strowman” chants broke out throughout the match. It ended with the Eater of Pins being knocked out by the Big Show, to the biggest pop of the night.
Although this has been well known for some time and reported in WWE’s WrestleMania magazine, it will be announced on Raw tonight that Stan Hansen will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.
WWE used Tokyo Sports, a major daily sports newspaper in Japan, to break the story, since Hansen is best known in Japan as probably the biggest American star in that country of the last 40 years.
The WWE later put the story up on their web site.
Hansen was a college football star at West Texas State University, which produced a number of future wrestling superstars including Dory & Terry Funk, Bruiser Brody, Dusty Rhodes, Bobby Duncum, Tully Blanchard, Ted DiBiase and Tito Santana.
Hansen didn’t make an NFL roster but did play pro football with the Detroit Wheels of the World Football League with Brody. The two would go onto to becoming what is now considered the legendary tag team of Japan, as the two main evented for several years in All Japan and never lost one match via pinfall.
Hansen’s original career break came in a 1976 program with Bruno Sammartino. He accidentally dropped Sammartino on his head on a bodyslam, which broke Samamrtino’s neck. Sammartino returned far earlier than he should have too save a Shea Stadium show that was part of the Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali closed-circuit, and drew 32,000 fans for the rematch.
The success made Hansen a major star, and he for years divided his time between New Japan Pro Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling. He had a second WWF run against champion Bob Backlund, and once beat Antonio Inoki for the NWF title. He also had what is generally considered the greatest match in the career of Andre the Giant in New Japan.
Giant Baba then raided Hansen from New Japan, using the Funks as conduits. Hansen was the top foreign star with All Japan for two decades, working with every top star that ever came through that promotion, and also had runs as headliners in the AWA, where he was world champion, and WCW, where he was U.S. champion.
Rich Swann defeated “The Drifter” Elias Samson with a rollup
Before the match, Samson sang a heelish song about “Wachulula,” to ring announcer Dasha Fuentes, only to be interrupted by Swann’s music. Average opener, with Samson milking the crowd for cheap heat by insulting the young children in the crowd and Swann playing a strong babyface with his comebacks.
Nia Jax defeated Carmella with her legdrop finisher
Carmella got a great reaction from the kids in attendance, but needed the 20 or so hardcore NXT fans in the crowd to help with her catchphrases. The attendance was under 200 for a venue set up with 230 seats, so chants were difficult to sustain all night. Carmella’s in-ring presence has gotten stronger with time, but Nia Jax appears to have peaked after the Takeover match with Bayley in London.
Tye Dillinger defeated Riddick Moss with his single-knee facebreaker finisher
Dillinger is a talented live performer, engaging an audience that was not as familiar with him as the bigger stars on the card. The “10” chant works as a hook in telling a story, and Moss was a good foil as they built to the finish. If there was an award for “Biggest Overachiever” tonight, Dillinger would earn my vote.
– Aliyah came out for a promo. Unlike the other mid-card promos that recent Tough Enough contestants and new signees have been making, this ran under 30 seconds in length. She sounded like she was suffering from a head cold. After she mentioned the Bayley/Asuka NXT women’s title match at TakeOver: Dallas, Aliyah said that she would be lined up for a title shot.
– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley defeated Emma with the Bayley-to-Belly
As my favorite performer in NXT, I continue to marvel at the phenomenon that Bayley has become at live events. Her merchandise sells strongly, the number of fans who bring signs for her (especially young kids) are plentiful, and the connection she makes with an audience is special. Well-worked match by both women, building to a dramatic closing sequence.
– Sami Zayn defeated Manny Andrade with the Helluva Kick
Excellent mat work and counter wrestling from these two, as none of the performers were taking any unnecessary risks. Both teased dives to the outside, but stuck to the basics. Andrade is adapting well to the WWE style, after seeing him a number of times since his arrival. After the match, Zayn put his opponent front and center with a handshake, retreating backstage for Andrade to get a warm reception from the crowd.
– American Alpha (Jordan/Gable) defeated The Revival (Dash/Dawson) by DQ in an NXT Tag Team Championship match
These two teams have crafted a solid story for their match at Takeover: Dallas, and I presume we saw the basic beats of that match, minus a few highspots to protect the participants. Well-worked match, leading to the champions being disqualified for pulling the referee out of the ring after Gable/Jordan hit their finisher.
– NXT Champion Finn Balor defeated Samoa Joe & Baron Corbin in a triple threat match with a double foot stomp onto both men, pinning Corbin
Big reactions for Joe & Balor as they entered, followed by a by-the-numbers Triple Threat match. Baron Corbin is getting more comfortable in the main event slot, playing off of the crowd without losing his place in the match. Creative finish, as Balor gave the foot stomp to Corbin while Joe had him in the Kokina Clutch.
Following the main event, Finn Balor paid tribute to Sami Zayn, disclosing that this was his last appearance in front of an NXT crowd in Florida. Zayn returned to the ring to a rousing ovation and gave a very sincere speech about how much NXT has meant to him, his feelings about performing at Wrestlemania, and how lucky the crowd was to see so many future stars on one night. A classy sendoff to a world-class wrestler.
Crowd hot most of night, except for a Diego vs. Sin Cara match.
– Ryback def. Erick Rowan with the Shellshock. Fast-paced opener with a number of near falls
– Golddust def. Bo Dallas (w/Curtis Axel) after a roll-up.
– U.S. Champion Kalisto def. Rusev (w/Lana) and Dolph Ziggler to retain. Lots of near falls. Rusev hit a lot of power moves while Lana kept distracting the ref and Kalisto/Ziggler.
– Sin Cara def. Diego after a flip off the top rope. Diego tried to play heel, but the crowd wasn’t into it.
– Becky Lynch def. Naomi (w/Tamina) by DQ when Tamina interfered. Beatdown after the match which prompted Sasha Banks to run in and that led to…
– Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch def. Tamina & Naomi with a double submission.
– Big Show & Kane def. Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman. Wyatt worked most of the match. The faces threw Strowman out of the ring, doubled team Bray, leading to the KO punch from Show.
Styles won with the springboard forearm. Fine match. Styles was over.
– Mark Henry beat The Ascension in a handicap match
Henry pinned Konnor after the World’s Strongest Slam. Henry seemed to take his time soaking in the cheers afterward, almost as if he was nearing the end of his run.
– Fandango, Damien Sandow & Darren Young beat Stardust, Heath Slater & Adam Rose
Decent comedy match that was given some time. Stardust had Eden tell the crowd that he would beat them all up one-by-one if they didn’t stop chanting “Cody”. This got a lot of heat. Stardust teased not getting along with Slater and Rose before ultimately hugging but eating a comeback from the babyfaces. Fandango pinned Stardust with a Falcon Arrow.
– Luke Harper beat Zack Ryder
Harper got the win with the spinning lariat.
– WWE Tag Team Champions New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E) beat Dudleyz and Usos in a three-way match
Woods pinned one of the Usos after Dudleys hit a 3D and Woods got rid of Bubba with a roaring elbow. New Day worked as tweeners, playing face against the Dudleys but heel against the Usos.
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte beat Natalya
Charlotte got the pin with a schoolboy with her feet on the ropes. Good reaction for Natalya as she rose to her feet after the match.
– Chris Jericho beat Jack Swagger
Jericho won with the Codebreaker. He did a long promo beforehand, mostly cheap heat, burying the town, much like he did in Toronto, but it got over strongly. After the match, he put Swagger in the Walls of Jericho. Styles ran out to make the save. Styles had Jericho setup for the springboard forearm, but Jericho bailed out.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose beat Sheamus & Barrett
Reigns pinned Sheamus after the Spear. Reigns again did not enter through the crowd, just a normal entrance through the curtain. I heard this was the case in Syracuse the night before too. I wonder if he’ll be done with that entrance on TV too. Reigns was very over (here’s his entrance) and the most over wrestler on the show. Only very few boos which obviously was much different from anything on TV. Here’s the finish.
