Match 1: Ziggler vs Breeze Good opener. Despite Breeze and Summer Rae splitting on SmackDown, they came out together and called it a “One Night Only Farewell Tour”. Match was back and forth. Summer got ejected by the ref to a huge reaction from the crowd. As Breeze was distracted, Ziggler went for the Zig Zag, Breeze countered and went for the Uprettier. Ziggler countered and hit a Superkick for the win.
Match 2: Stardust vs Titus O’Neil Stardust cut a pre-match promo talking trash about Hidalgo and the crowd. Crowd booed. Okay match, nothing too special. Titus hit the Clash of the Titus for the win.
Match 3: Damien Sandow & Curtis Axel vs Heath Slater & Adam Rose. Adam Rose cut a pre-match promo in his typical ‘party pooper’ form. This was mainly a comedy type match. It didn’t do too well with the crowd because nobody was really reacting to the match.
Match 4: Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio (US Champion) Swagger came out to a good reaction but it was Del Rio that really lit the crowd up. He came out and patted fans hands. Crowd was cheering for Del Rio throughout the match. This was back and forth. The Patriot Lock and Cross Armbreaker kept getting countered. Del Rio picked up the win after he hit the double foot stomp off the turnbuckle while Swagger was in the Tree of Woe position.
Match 5: Kalisto vs Viktor (W/Konnor)
Kalisto got a huge ovation from the crowd. Lots of people doing the Lucha chant. This match wasn’t anything special. Viktor dominated for the most part then Kalisto made the comeback and hit the Salida Del Sol for the win.
Match 6: Becky Lynch vs Charlotte (Divas Championship) Both divas got loud cheers from the crowd. This was originally advertised as a Triple Threat match with Paige. Paige didn’t show up and there wasn’t any explanation. This was in my opinion the best match on the show. Good chain wrestling sequences that surprisingly got loud cheers. Charlotte got the win by roll up and a handful of tights.
Match 7: Sheamus vs Roman Reigns (WWE WHC Street Fight) This was a solid match. Reigns got the loudest ovation of the night. Sheamus got loud boos. This match was pretty much similar to the ones we’ve already seen. Sheamus put Reigns through a table with the Irish Curse. Later, Reigns speared Sheamus through a table for the win.
Ziggler vs Breeze – Good opener. Despite Breeze and Summer Rae splitting on SmackDown, they came out together and called it a “One Night Only Farewell Tour”. Match was back and forth. Summer got ejected by the ref to a huge reaction from the crowd. As Breeze was distracted, Ziggler went for the Zig Zag, Breeze countered and went for the Uprettier. Ziggler countered and hit a Superkick for the win.
Stardust vs Titus O’Neil – Stardust cut a pre-match promo talking trash about Hidalgo and the crowd. Crowd booed. Okay match, nothing too special. Titus hit the Clash of the Titus for the win.
Damien Sandow & Curtis Axel vs Heath Slater & Adam Rose – Adam Rose cut a pre-match promo in his typical ‘party pooper’ form. This was mainly a comedy type match. It didn’t do too well with the crowd because nobody was really reacting to the match.
Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio (US Championship) – Swagger came out to a good reaction but it was Del Rio that really lit the crowd up. He came out and patted fans hands. Crowd was cheering for Del Rio throughout the match. This was back and forth. The Patriot Lock and Cross Armbreaker kept getting countered. Del Rio picked up the win after he hit the double foot stomp off the turnbuckle while Swagger was in the Tree of Woe position.
Kalisto vs Viktor (W/Konnor) – Kalisto got a huge ovation from the crowd. Lots of people doing the Lucha chant. This match wasn’t anything special. Viktor dominated for the most part then Kalisto made the comeback and hit the Salida Del Sol for the win.
Becky Lynch vs Charlotte (Divas Championship) – Both divas got loud cheers from the crowd. This was originally advertised as a Triple Threat match with Paige. Paige didn’t show up and there wasn’t any explanation. This was in my opinion the best match on the show. Good chain wrestling sequences that surprisingly got loud cheers. Charlotte got the win by roll up and a handful of tights.
Sheamus vs Roman Reigns (WWE WHC Street Fight) – This was a solid match. Reigns got the loudest ovation of the night. Sheamus got loud boos. This match was pretty much similar to the ones we’ve already seen. Sheamus put Reigns through a table with the Irish Curse. Later, Reigns speared Sheamus through a table for the win.
Full entrance for R-Trizzle, who thankfully remembers that he is in fact in Washington D.C. tonight. Eden can be seen laughing in the background at 1993’s catchphrase-du-jour, “Whoomp, there it is!” People over there, what’s up, indeed.
Rich Brennan informs me that his opponent, Heath Slater, finished #8 in the Slammy voting for Superstar of the Year. Huh.
Brennan and Byron Saxton hilariously talk about the prospect of The Big Show winning this year’s Royal Rumble, as Truth gets the shine. Our forgetful hero taunts Slater with what Byron calls the “jiggy jiggy” off a failed Irish whip, before dodging Heath and sending him crashing to the outside leading into commercials.
Slater the works the left knee forever when we get back, before we get a quick Truth comeback and a Lie Detector out of nowhere for the pinfall victory. This went over nine minutes (not including the commercials) and I felt every minute of it.
Titus O’Neil def. Adam Rose by pinfall
Adam’s TitanTron reminds me that they’ve mercifully dropped the Rosebush segments on RAW. And by the look of his morose, disinterested demeanour, he ain’t too pleased about it either.
Announcers mention that Titus and Darren have been dipping their respective toes in the singles competition waters of late. At least Titus, a Main Event fixture, has had those exploits televised. Young was reduced to defeating Curtis Axel in a dark match at this particular taping.
Trademark overhand chop in the corner from Mr. O’Neil, followed by the ol’ rib-breaker toss that he’s equally fond of – which I’m reliably informed is called the Pay Check.
Short match here that went just over four minutes. Quick heat segment from Rose after he used a rope break to his advantage, only to get cocky and allow Titus to come back at him with impressive fire.
Big boot, The Meltzer Bark, a stinger splash and a Clash of the Titus wraps it up for the big man. He millions-of-dollarses with a frankly quite befuddled and bespectacled old man afterwards to celebrate.
– Recap of the Vince angle from RAW, entitled “Arrested Developments” by the Main Event producer, in what may or may not be a nod at the greatest sitcom of all time (season four notwithstanding).
Jack Swagger def. Stardust by submission
Swagger dominates leading into an early commercial break. He then takes an impressive bump to the outside when we return, slamming off the ring steps after a failed corner charge.
Work rate disproportionate to a show of Main Event’s standing continues, as Stardust hits a massive superplex off the top rope to highlight the heat portion of the match.
Swagger then starts his comeback by foiling a subsequent Figure Four attempt, before hitting a running clothesline on the outside to get the crowd going.
Back in and Stardust dodges the Swagger Bomb, before hitting a Side Effect for two. A nice series of reversals follows, as Swagger catches ‘Dust off a Disaster Kick attempt, only to find himself sunset flipped. Swagger then avoids the pinfall by countering into the Patriot Lock, which Stardust escapes.
Finishing sequence sees Stardust land on his feet off a Swagger back suplex attempt. He immediately lines up the Queen’s Crossbow, only for Swagger to roll him into another Patriot Lock, which this time gets the tap. Really good effort from these two.
Final Thoughts
A second featured contest in as many weeks for Swagger and he again turns in a surprisingly good bout by C-show standards. Watch that and ditch the rest.
Dolph Ziggler def. Tyler Breeze. Great match to start the show.
Lucha Dragons, Damien Sandow, Fandango, R-Truth and Curtis Axel def. WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E), Los Matadores, Heath Slater and Adam Rose. Sin Cara chased Xavier Woods to the back with his trombone.
Jack Swagger def. Bo Dallas. Bo came out and criticized the crowd and called them a bunch of idiots.
Kane def. Bray Wyatt. Bray was by himself and had a pretty good reaction.
Brie Bella & Alicia Fox def. Naomi and Tamina. The crowd chanted “We want Sasha” and Naomi said “You want Sasha? Well you aren’t going to get Sasha.”
Ryback def. Rusev. The match was a snore fest. I even heard a little kid tell his mom that it was boring.
WWE Champion Roman Reigns def. Sheamus in a street fight. Good use of tables, kendo sticks, and chairs. Roman won with a spear thru the table, and got a great reaction with not a boo in the arena for him. He stayed a little bit after to take selfies and sign autographs.
Byron Saxton and Eden hosted the whole night. Did a great job.
Miz did the old Rick Rude “What I’d like to have right now is for all you, fat, something, out of shape Toronto sweat hogs… keep the noise down…yadda yadda… while I take off my glasses”. Neville won with the red arrow. Actually a pretty fun match.
The Ascension and Stardust vs the Hype Bros and Titus O’Neil
Titus pinned Viktor with the Clash of the Titus. A few scattered NXT chants.
Big Show vs Mark Henry
Big Show won with a KO punch and Henry had to be helped to the back. Show stalled a lot at the start of the match.
WWE I-C Champion Dean Ambrose vs Kevin Owens
Kids all cheered Ambrose but a lot of cheers from the adults for Owens. Owens got some cheap heat for saying Quebec is better than Ontario. Ambrose won with the Dirty Deeds.
Intermission
Divas Champion Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch
Charlotte played it up like she was doing a “Divas Open Challenge” then she couldn’t understand why Becky came out. They had a match, and Charlotte won clean with the Natural Selection.
The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper, Braun Strowman, Erick Rowan) vs the Usos and Goldust
Crowd chanted “Take a shower” at Harper, and he played that up pretty nice. This was a very PG show, which was fun to take little kids to. One of the Usos pinned Harper.
John Cena beat U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio by DQ
Del Rio wore long silvery pants. Lots of near-falls, a ref bump, Del Rio using a chair, etc. ADR got DQ’d for a low blod. Cena got the last laugh, the kids all cheered, I spent $60 on Cena t-shirts and for the first time in over a decade actually cheered for the guy. Kids really LOVE Cena.
It was actually pretty fun. I hadn’t gone to a house show since I was a teenager, but it was fun to go with kids.
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte retained the belt in a triple threat against Paige and Becky Lynch
– John Cena defeated U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio by DQ after Del Rio low blowed him. There was a spot where the ref got taken out. This caused Rusev to interfere in this match, but Cena took him out.
A Raw recap opened the show, which included Vince McMahon’s line about Roman Reigns’ ancestors. It also made the return of John Cena seem secondary. They announced Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens and Sheamus for tonight.
The New Day came out and they showed a replay of Sin Cara separating his shoulder at the hands of Big E on Raw. Xavier Woods said they don’t have a New Year’s resolution because they’re perfect. They’re still upset about not being voted Tag-Team of the Year and Kofi Kingston said the fans don’t appreciate them. They had a list of resolutions for the fans, like the fans should wear glasses and hearing aids, and they’re required to keep a New Day journal so they don’t forget anything. This wasn’t good.
Lucha Dragons interrupted. Sin Cara wore a sling. Kalisto called New Day a cute tag-team and Sin Cara challenged all three of them to a match. New Day laughed at him. Woods said Sin isn’t hurt, he’s injured. Kalisto said they had friends of their own and the Dudleys came out with a table that had “Happy New Year” spray painted on it.
Throughout the night they aired pre-taped segments with guys giving their New Year’s resolutions. Ryback wished everyone a happy new year and his resolution was to help those less fortunate.
6-Man Tag Match: Kalisto & The Dudley Boyz beat The New Day via pinfall
Dueling chants for New Day. Bubba and D-Von held Kingston’s legs apart so Kalisto could hit a diving headbutt to the groin. Kalisto went after Kingston on the outside but Big E yanked him down onto the ring apron, trying to injure the shoulder. As they worked over Kalisto, Woods played the trombone to loud “New Day sucks” chants.
Big E hit Kalisto with an impressive big splash, but Kalisto kicked out and hot tagged Bubba. Kalisto eventually tagged back in and hit a sitting senton off of Bubba’s shoulders followed by a tornado DDT. Dudleys gave Big E a 3D, and Kalisto used Salida Del Sol on Kingston for the win. After the match, Bubba put Woods through a table with a powerbomb. This was good and the crowd was into it. I like that Woods is the one New Day member always getting beat up.
Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) beat Goldust via pinfall
Booker said Goldust debuted in 1988, the same year Breeze was born. Booker then reminisced about tagging with him. Goldust took most of the match and was begging the crowd to get into it, but they didn’t. Breeze won on a crap finish, sending Goldust face-first into the middle turnbuckle pad and getting the pinfall win with his feet on the rope.
Afterwards, Summer said they had a huge announcement for 2016. Breeze announced that he and Summer are (amicably) going their separate ways. They gave the crowd one last selfie together. Well, that’s one way to break up a duo.
The announcers talked about The Rock and WrestleMania and drooled over all the news coverage.
Backstage, Bo Dallas found Curtis Axel somehow. Dallas said Axel had a bad year and should make a New Year’s re-bo-lution. Ugh. Axel told him he was never eliminated from the Royal Rumble and wouldn’t be eliminated this year either. Dallas told him to start using deodorant. Dallas continued walking and autographed some woman’s hand, which she rubbed off as soon as he walked away.
He then ran into Dolph Ziggler, who told him to stop dressing like the New Year’s baby. Dallas had an amazing comeback, telling Ziggler: It always sounds like you’re telling a joke, but you never actually say anything funny. Ziggler said he should get ready for his match, because its against him. Ziggler psyched out Dallas with a fake superkick and told him to Bo-lieve.
Luke Harper & Braun Strowman (w/Erick Rowan) beat The Usos via submission
Bray Wyatt wasn’t there, so they came out to Harper’s music. Wyatts had the heat almost immediately, working over Jimmy Uso. Jey made a hot tag and ran wild on Harper and nailed him with a suicide dive. I assume Jimmy tagged himself in as Jey went out on the dive, but they didn’t really show it. Jimmy hit two superkicks on Strowman and superkicked Rowan off the apron. Jimmy tried a third superkick on Strowman, but Strowman caught him and choked him out for the win. Surprisingly quick loss for The Usos.
They announced John Cena would return to Smackdown next week.
Brie Bella & Alicia Fox beat Naomi & Tamina via pinfall
Light “We want Sasha” chants. She wasn’t there. After Tamina hit a superkick, Booker said the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but never mentioned Snuka by name. Brie made this match’s version of a hot tag and hit Yes Kicks and an X-Factor on Naomi for the win. If they don’t forget about this match by Monday, they can tell the story that Team B.A.D. lost here without Sasha Banks.
Backstage, they wanted Miz to make a New Year’s resolution but he laughed at them, called his manager and walked away.
They’re plugging The Hateful Eight movie by essentially counting down the top eight heels in the company. They started with the first four tonight: 8. The Miz, 7. Paige, 6. Rusev & Lana, 5. Kevin Owens. Final four will be shown on Raw.
Dolph Ziggler beat Bo Dallas via pinfall
Dallas did a victory lap around the ring after getting the heat less than a minute into the match and Jerry Lawler said he really does look like the New Year’s baby. Rich Brennan reminded us that he’s the longest reigning NXT Champion, something they might want to ignore. In short: Bo Dallas dominated for five minutes and Ziggler won with a superkick. Ziggler looked like such a loser getting beat up by Bo Dallas.
New Day does have a resolution after all: to get the patriarch Kofi Kingston the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. That seems unlikely.
They aired the same Raw recap that opened the show and plugged Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus with McMahon as referee for Monday.
WWE Champion Roman Reigns & I.C. Champion Dean Ambrose beat Kevin Owens & Sheamus via DQ
They showed a replay of Owens powerbombing Ambrose through the announce table on Raw as Ambrose walked to the ring looking like he always does. Reigns hit some moves on Sheamus and tagged in Ambrose who nailed a suicide dive. Owens tagged in and Ambrose sent him to the outside to set up for a powerbomb through the announce table, but Owens drove him into the side of the ring.
Heels beat up Ambrose for a while until he hit Owens with a rebound clothesline and tagged in Reigns. Reigns hit Sheamus with clotheslines in the corner, a Samoan drop and superman punch. He readied for the spear, but Owens tripped him from behind and pulled him groin-first into the ring post for a lame DQ.
They attacked Reigns and sent him over the announce table. Ambrose dove on Sheamus but Owens cut him off with a superkick. Owens set up Ambrose for a powerbomb through the announce table but Reigns hit him with a superman punch. Ambrose tossed Sheamus into the ring post and Reigns finished him off with a spear. Reigns and Ambrose stood tall on the announce table holding their titles to end the show.
Final Thoughts:
The opening match was fun but the show dragged like crazy after that. A good main event on paper ending with an abrupt DQ is the perfect way to end the final Smackdown of 2015.
The WWE has just announced today its first WWE-brand network special for the year, “Road to WrestleMania” show on Saturday, March 12, from the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.
Nothing has been announced for the card as of yet, but usually there is some sort of a hook for these shows.
Toronto would be the fourth WWE-brand network special thus far, with a North American exclusive PPV show added last year with an Elimination Chamber theme, as well as shows in Tokyo and Madison Square Garden built around Brock Lesnar matches.
Even going against the highest rated Monday night game of the season, Raw did well above its fall season average with the Vince McMahon show-long arrest angle.
Raw did 3.53 million viewers, placing it third for the night on cable behind the Broncos-Bengals game that did 15.81 million viewers and an episode of SportsCenter.
The angle, as expected, helped maintain the audience as there was less of an audience drop as the show went on as is typical of Raw. The return of John Cena also played a part in that.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.70 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.49 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
Monday was the final episode of Monday Night Football. With the exception of the 1/11 show, which goes against the college football championship game, Raw will now be free of its top competition, and ratings should rise about 10 percent from the level they have been if history is an indication.
Smackdown New Year’s Eve edition spoilers – 12/31 (taped Tuesday 12/29)
By John Athridge
The crowd is pretty full for a Smackdown. The hard camera side is basically full at least. I missed the first two matches, but I was told that Darren Young beat Curtis Axel in the dark match.
Main Event
R-Truth beat Heath Slater.
Titus O’Neil beat Adam Rose.
Jack Swagger submitted Stardust with the ankle lock in about 10 minutes. They worked awfully hard for a Main Event match.
Smackdown
Show opened by replaying the Vince arrest angle from last night. They announced the main event of Reigns and Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Owens.
New Day came out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They said their New Year’s resolution was nothing because they are perfect. They said the people needed to change because they didn’t vote for the New Day for the Slammies. They read a list of resolutions for the people so they’d finally appreciate the New Day. Mildly funny. The Lucha Dragons came out. They argued and challenged the New Day for a match even though Sin Cara is injured. The Dragons then brought out the Dudleys for a 6 man match.
The Dudleys and Kalisto beat the New Day when Kalisto pinned Kofi. The Dudleys then put Xavier Woods through a table with “Happy New Year” spray painted on it.
During the commercials, they played New Year’s wishes from various wrestlers.
Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) beat Goldust in a short match. Summer then said they had a huge New Year’s announcement. Tyler said that starting in the New Year, the two of them would be going their separate ways. But they left the crowd with one last “Gorgeous Selfie”.
Backstage, Bo Dallas was giving out New Year’s Re-Bo-lutions (including telling Curtis Axel to start wearing deodorant). He ran into Dolph Ziggler. After a few insults back and forth, they announced a match between them later.
Braun Strowman and Luke Harper (w/Erick Rowan) beat the Usos. Strowman got the submission after some quick interference from Rowan.
They announced John Cena’s return to Smackdown for next week.
Alicia Fox and Brie Bella beat Tamina and Naomi when Brie pinned Naomi after a couple of minutes.
They announced that there will be a house show in DC on Sunday March, 27th. Thought we were getting the go home Raw before Wrestlemania here, but apparently not.
Dolph Ziggler beat Bo Dallas with a superkick after selling for a few minutes. Not much else to it.
Reigns came out to a decent reaction, but nothing spectacular. Ambrose seemed to get louder cheers.
Reigns and Ambrose beat Sheamus and Kevin Owens by DQ when Owens pulled Reigns out of the ring and crotched him on the ring post after about 10 minutes. Owens and Sheamus beat down Reigns and then Ambrose. Owens was about to powerbomb Ambrose through the announce table when Reigns recovered to give them both Superman punches. Reigns and Ambrose then posed on the announce table. Got a decent reaction, but not much of a main event.
