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Category: WWE News

  • Vince McMahon will appear on WWE RAW Monday

    Not just John Cena, but Vince McMahon will also be on Raw Monday night from the Barclays Center.

    The WWE announced today that McMahon would return to Raw to confront Roman Reigns for giving him the Superman punch two weeks ago.

    McMahon’s return led Raw to a 2.66 rating, up nearly a full-half point from the 2.20 the previous week. It was the biggest rating of the year against football. But the number fell to 2.33 last week, roughly what it had been averaging during football season.

    With a strong Cincinnati Bengals vs. Denver Broncos game, a normal Raw would threaten the recent record low marks.

  • Monday’s Raw sold out with John Cena return

    Monday Night’s Raw show at the Barclays Center, featuring the return of John Cena, is now officially sold out.

    The event sold out yesterday, with 13,000 tickets sold.

    Cena vs Albert Del Rio headlines the show.

    There has only been one major arena Raw sellout since the last time the company ran the Barclays Center, on Aug. 24, the day after SummerSlam, which was the 11/9 show from Manchester, England.

    Prior to SummerSlam, the prior legitimate Raw sellout was on April 13 at the O2 Arena in London.  Prior to that it was the March 30 show in San Jose, the day after WrestleMania.  Leading up to WrestleMania, Raw sold out frequently, including four of the five Mondays in March.

  • WWE NXT Breaking Ground Episode 8: Crossroads; Scott Hall dops by, plus Sami Zayn, Dana Booke, and Apollo Crews

    Breaking Ground Episode 8: Crossroads 

    Submitted by: Ryan Pike

    Big Takeaway: Tino Sabatelli takes a step backwards, Sami Zayn works on his shoulder rehab, and Dana Brooke gets injured by Asuka’s ass on another chaotic episode of Breaking Ground.

    Show Recap: As with last week, an unfocused journey through NXT.

    Building off last episode’s cliffhanger, Triple H commends Bayley and Sasha Banks for their performance at TakeOver Brooklyn, notes that he thinks they left some “story on the table,” and asks them to main event the next TakeOver event in an Iron Man match. They (obviously) accept.

    Scott Hall visits the Performance Center for a week and is asked by Matt Bloom to work a bit with Baron Corbin. He gives him a few pointers as far as working heel goes, but aside from that and giving Apollo Crews some pointers on doing interviews – don’t make it seem like you’re cutting a promo, just speak like you usually do – he doesn’t really do much of anything.

    Sami Zayn is back at the Performance Center working on his shoulder rehabilitation and hopefully to get closer to a return. He’s not cleared yet and he does some resistance exercises that are designed to test his shoulder. Regal still thinks Zayn has a ways to go yet as a performer and wants him to focus on the basic notion of pro wrestling: at its core, it’s two people competing. Since he’s not cleared yet, he focuses on helping Tyler Breeze tutor Eva Marie. He offers her this advice on using pin-fall attempts to pace a match: “If we’re selling a story, these [sequences] are sentences, [pinfalls] are the punctuation.”

    Tino Sabbatelli is given a match, his second match ever, on a house show against Apollo Crews. He develops his character by looking at sweet suits. Tino does not look great in his match with Apollo. His striking looks terrible and he turns away from contact on a drop-kick in a way that almost endangers Apollo. Bloom gives him a rundown of what he did wrong, emphasizing paying attention to details and his striking (Vince’s motto is apparently “Men throw punches.”). Corbin pulls him aside and gives him some advice, too (noting that he’s had two matches and to put in the work). After the show, Bloom tells Tino that he’s being put back in Robbie Brookside’s beginners class (presumably so he can work on some fundamentals).

    Dana Brooke works out with the new Australian girls – Billie Kay is specifically identified – and talks about not being intimidated working with Asuka, who’s finally identified on this show. Anyway, immediately after talking about not being intimidated, she’s knocked loopy by an Asuka hip attack in a work-out and that’s the big cliffhanger: did Asuka’s ass kill Dana Brooke? (Spoiler: no.)

    In less important news: Josh from Tough Enough’s wife and daughter move to Florida finally, Nia Jax designs her ring gear for her TV debut, and Mojo Rawley has a party.

    Final Thoughts: Sadly, it was another fairly unfocused episode, as it included way too many NXT personalities for any of them to really register as important.

  • WWE Main Event Results: Tyler Breeze and Goldust fail to make the Smackdown card

    Tyler Breeze w/Summer Rae def. Goldust by pinfall

    Our opening contest is presented to us off the back of a one-week build, after Goldust’s selfie stick antics distracted Tyler into a loss to Titus O’Neil on last week’s Smackdown. It’s a measure of how far Breeze’s star has fallen that this match did not even make it on to Tuesday night’s live show – a show that, for example, featured The Ascension paying the price for not respecting decorations.

    Cute spot to begin here, where Tyler lies on the turnbuckle while waiting for Goldust to arise from his pre-match squat position, only for Goldust to then mimic him after getting the upper hand with a shoulder tackle.

    Goldust hits his reverse atomic drop, before sending Breeze to the outside and grabbing the selfie stick from a concerned Summer Rae. Breeze turns him around in fury, only to eat a forearm – allowing Goldust to take a lovely photo of himself and his fallen foe leading into commercials. Refreshing after watching this week’s Smackdown, where FOUR matches went to break right after the heel gained the advantage. Nice work, Road Dogg.

    Back with Goldust still on top, but Tyler quickly reverses the momentum by hitting a dropkick as Goldust comes off the ropes. Uninspiring heel offence follows, before Goldust briefly initiates a comeback – only to be cut-off with a super(model)kick for two. This leads us into the near-falls segment of the match, where Goldust also manages a typically crisp snap powerslam for another close two. He then inexplicably goes to the top rope, only to be distracted by Summer climbing the ringsteps in a repeat of last week’s awful Neville/Rusev finish.

    This allows Breeze to hit a second Supermodel Kick to down Goldust and secure the pinfall. Couple of mildly amusing moments from Goldust before the heat, but the rest wasn’t great – capped by a super-lame finish.

    Bo Dallas def. Fandango by pinfall

    Box-office stuff. Fandango cuts off Bo’s patented early victory lap (Bo: “I’M WINNING!”) with a clothesline, before shouting “Bolieve!” to celebrate.

    Very short match here, with not much of a structure to it. Fandango quickly starts his comeback after a Bo chinlock, hitting a dangerous looking slingshot leg drop for two. Pretty sure he connected with Bo’s face on that one.

    Fandango goes up top for The Last Dance, only for Bo to down him by hitting the ropes, before lifting him for his spinning neckbreaker off the ropes for the win.

    After the match, Bo finally finishes that victory lap, before getting on the mic to announce to the crowd that the rest of 2015 doesn’t matter – as he’s finished it a winner. He tells us that this is “just the bo-ginning”. Best of luck with that, champ.

    – We get a comprehensive look-back at Monday night’s Slammy Award ceremony.

    Jack Swagger def. The Miz by submission

    Miz holds up proceedings by flapping his arms to prepare for sunglasses takeoff, as is customary. Swagger, unimpressed, responds by making Miz wait for a rousing “We The People” chant.

    Early Swagger shine falls asunder when he attempts a suplex to the outside, only for Miz to duck under his legs, drop him on the apron and hit him with a baseball slide leading into commercials.

    Back with Miz signalling for the Awesome Clothesline (Miz: “I’m the people!”), only for Swagger to explode out of the corner with one of his own. Miz rolls to the floor to escape the ensuing Swagger Bomb attempt and decides to head up the ramp and cut his losses. Swagger chases him down however, and they do the “I’ll hold the back of your head while we walk together” spot on the way back to the ring.

    Miz gets his feet up off another Swagger Bomb attempt before hitting the DDT for two, to lead us into a very nice near-fall sequence. Said sequence culminates with Miz landing on his feet off an attempted Swagger gutwrench, before hitting a running boot to the head for two. Miz stalls and milks the crowd heat before lining up another – and hitting it. He then goes to the well a third time, only to be rolled-up for another close two-count. This allows Swagger to finally hit the Swagger Bomb at the third time of asking.

    Forearm exchange follows, which Swagger gets the best of, but Miz dodges a corner charge and finally gets that Awesome Clothesline he looked for earlier. Miz then, like Goldust, inexplicably goes to the top, only to jump right into a belly-to-belly slam and a Patriot Lock for the submission. Surprisingly good match from these two.

    Final Thoughts

    A step up from last week’s show as the so-called “featured contest”, between Jack Swagger and The Miz, was a very watchable affair. More bad news for Tyler Breeze however, as the first match of the Goldust feud that began on last week’s Smackdown wasn’t even deemed worthy of a spot on this week’s live show. Hey, at least he won for a change.

  • WWE Tribute to the Troops results: Patriotism plus Roman Reigns says “tater tots” again

    WWE Tribute to the Troops from Jacksonville featured patriotic messages and feel-good moments in a stand-alone show with a premise of honoring United States military personnel. A notable aspect of the show was the sponsorship of Coca-Cola, which is a first for WWE. Coca-Cola was the main sponsor along with USAA, a financial services group serving the US military.

    The show opened with a video package encouraging support for the troops. Besides WWE talent, also wishing their best via taped messages to the troops were mainstream A-list celebrities. The celebrity messages were also sprinkled throughout the program as well as during the opening.

    JoJo sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a ring adorned with red, white and blue ropes in a throwback look to days of yore when the named ended with “Federation”. On commentary, Michael Cole mentioned his broadcast partner, JBL, was responsible for the idea that eventually evolved into Tribute to the Troops.

    Emerging from the crowd, Roman Reigns led Dean Ambrose and the Usos to the ring. This special being taped before he actually won the title, Reigns was without the WWE championship. In fact, no one appeared with any championship belts on the show. Cole on commentary talked about those in the ring that won a Slammy on Raw, meaning they taped an additional commentary track since Monday.

    Reigns was about to say the night was for thanking the troops when he was interrupted by the League of Nations. The crowd chanted “USA” and Sheamus mocked them. Sheamus said he admired the United States before insulting the country. Bad News Barrett was next to insult the US. He focused on the country’s food, calling it “complete rubbish.” Barrett also lamented on not being able to find a piece of roasted pork. Barrett said what he really wanted was a portion of spotted dick.

    Reigns scolded him and said this was a family show. Barrett said he was talking about pudding. Alberto Del Rio suddenly interjected himself into the debate by trashing American television programming. He brought up futbol. Del Rio basically claimed American football was invented so Americans could be the best at it since nobody else plays the sport. He said not to get him started on country music.

    Sheamus said not to get him started on Ireland before he endlessly put his country over. Sheamus listed a number of attributes like Ireland has the most beautiful women and such. Reigns interrupted him.

    “You’re forgetting something,” Reigns said. “You also have the smallest tater tots.” The crowd chanted “tater tots” as Sheamus fumed. The tater tot insult strikes again.

    Reigns challenged what he called the “League of Idiots” to a fight. The League of Nations marched into the ring to confront Reigns and company. The arena suddenly went dark as the Wyatt Family entered the scene. Everyone seemingly waited patiently as they did their full entrance.

    To even the odds, the Dudleys followed by Ryback and Kane came to the ring. Everyone began brawling both in the ring and around it in what Gordon Solie might have described as a “pier six brawl.” This set up a sixteen-man tag team main event for the main event.

    Jack Swagger beat Rusev (with Lana) via submission in a boot camp match

    Beforehand, Lana and Rusev cut a promo in a foreign language. The entrance of Swagger interrupted them. Military equipment and gear sat around ringside for use in the match. Given the setting, Swagger was over as the crowd chanted “USA” before he applied an ankle lock. Lana handed Rusev an ammunition box and Swagger broke the hold. Rusev hit Swagger repeatedly with the ammo box and proceeded to get heat on him. JBL called it “an old fashioned Cold War beat down.”

    Swagger sent Rusev over the ropes and out to the floor where he clotheslined then suplexed Rusev on to a cot before a commercial. After the break, Rusev hit Swagger with a footlocker case and a helmet. Rusev got more heat on Swagger. Rusev waived the Bulgarian flag. He wedged a case between the top and middle ropes in a corner, which would come into play later on.

    At ringside, Swagger grabbed Old Glory and waived the flag. The display of patriotism allowed him to hulk up into a comeback as he ran wild on Rusev. He used the Swagger bomb for a nearfall. Rusev avoided the ankle lock and hit a superkick for a two count. Moments later, Swagger applied the ankle lock.

    Rusev tried to counter the hold and send Swagger into the case wedged in the ropes. Swagger avoided colliding into the case. Rusev charged in, Swagger sidestepped him and Rusev hit the case. Swagger then applied the ankle lock and Rusev tapped out for the submission.

    A video package highlighted Batista and Titus O’Neil’s involvement in supporting the troops. In a clip from a speech addressing the military, Titus said, “If you look around you’ll see people from all different backgrounds. This is what life is about to me. When I help the homeless or when I go visit hospitals people don’t look at me just as [a] WWE superstar, they look at me as a human being. That is what I look at each and every one of you as.” He went on to say more inspiration words about being a winner. This is the Titus O’Neil that could be a babyface superstar, not the one dimensional character usually portrayed on WWE programming.

    Mark Henry beat Bo Dallas via pinfall

    Dressed as Uncle Sam, Bo acted wacky and wrestled with a hat on his head. Henry pummeled him and used the world’s strongest slam for the pin. Henry snatched the hat away from Bo and put it on his own head to celebrate.

    Train performed their song “Merry Christmas Everybody”.

    Kevin Owens sauntered to the ring while cutting a promo. He said since the night was about paying tribute he wanted to pay tribute to Canada. More specifically, he put over Quebec in saying everything there was better than in the US. He spoke briefly in French. The “Feed Me More” theme and entrance of Ryback interrupted him.

    Ryback beat Kevin Owens via countout

    Ryback tried to maul Owens at the outset and gave him a delayed vertical suplex. Owens cut him off by snapping his neck on the top rope. With Ryback in a headlock, Owens shouted “O’ Canada” and yelled he was ready to get out this place. Ryback started a comeback and delivered the meathook clothesline. Ryback picked Owens up for the shellshock, but Owens maneuvered to the apron where they simultaneously punched each other. Ryback fell back in the ring and Owens fell to the floor. Owens teased breaking the count before waving his hands to signal he was leaving. Owens was subsequently counted out.

    A video package told the story of a US serviceman spending his third wedding anniversary with his wife backstage at the Tribute to the Troops taping. It showed the couple hanging with WWE talent and it also included product placement with Coca-Cola. A live shot showed the couple at ringside drinking bottled Cokes.

    Howie Mandel made an appearance before the live crowd. He put over the military and thanked them for their service. He then did a stand-up routine about bathroom attendants. Mandel said he was a fan of WWE and mentioned he wrestled in high school. He showed a yearbook photo of himself in his wrestling gear for comedic effect.

    He brought up the presidential election. Mandel asked the crowd what they thought of Donald Trump. The WWE Hall of Famer got a mixed reaction. Mandel made a joke about Trump. He talked about doing kids programming. He concluded by jokingly mocking a fan in the crowd before saying his goodbyes.

    Sasha Banks & Naomi & Tamina & Paige beat Charlotte & Becky Lynch & Brie Bella & Alicia Fox

    The heels got heat on Brie after she took a wicked-looking clothesline from Tamina. For the hot tag, Becky came in running wild. She was cut off as several women came in to do various spots. For the finish, Sasha executed a backstabber on Alicia and floated over into the bank statement. Alicia tapped out to give Sasha’s team the win via submission.

    Another video package highlighted WWE talent supporting the troops set to a song by Tim McGraw.

    Train performed their 2001 pop hit “Drops of Jupiter”.

    Following a commercial break, the sixteen-man tag team main event was joined in progress.

    Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso & Ryback & Kane & Bubba Ray Dudley & Devon Dudley beat Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio & Bad New Barrett & Rusev & Bray Wyatt & Erick Rown & Luke Harper & Braun Strowman

    The match included lots of tags and lots of action. They built to, and the crowd popped for, two monsters colliding when Kane squared off with Strowman. The heels got heat on Kane but he singlehandedly cleaned house before a commercial.

    After the break, the heels got heat on an Uso until a hot tag to Ambrose. Dean ran wild in the ring and knocked all the heels off the apron. Ambrose jumped off the top with a flying elbow drop on Harper. When Ambrose went to cover Harper, Rowan broke up the pin and a melee ensued. The Dudley did the wassup spot to Rowan. When they went to get the tables, everyone started brawling.

    As everyone brawled, Ambrose did a tope and the Usos also did dives to the outside. They teased a bunch of finishers and the babyfaces all helped in knocking Strowman out of the ring. Ambrose used dirty deeds on Harper to score the deciding pinfall.

    Afterwards, the babyfaces celebrated and a gigantic American flag unfurled above the ring for a patriotic closing. 

  • WWE NXT TV results: Sami Zayn returns in London

    The Big News: Sami Zayn returned after shoulder surgery.

    The Medium News: The London crowd loved Sami Zayn and Chad Gable. Oh and Jason Jordan got some love just because he was Gable’s partner.

    The Little Beaver Sized News: The fans didn’t love anyone else.

    *****

    Jason Jordan & Chad Gable won a Fatal 4-Way Match over The Vaudevillians, The Hype Bros and Blake & Murphy

    We are still in London and are kicking things off with 4-way tag team action featuring 2 sets of former Tag Team Champions. The Vaudevillians came out as Sherlock Holmes and Watson and played up as babyfaces despite turning heel just a few weeks ago. The fans liked the Vaudevillians, but they absolutely loved Jordan & Gable. They liked the Hype Bros…until Mojo blind tagged himself in, which made Gable go to the apron.

    We had a series where everyone came in, one at a time, to throw someone out of the ring and that led to an 8-way standoff. Gable ended up being in the match for the majority of it as the fans would just chant for Gable anytime he tagged out. At one point Gable went for the hot tag and in the Perfect Timing Department, just as he dove for the tag, Jordan got yanked off the apron.

    Jordan did get his hot tag and we got an 8-way free for all. After depositing the other 5 on the outside, Gable pinned Blake with their move where Jordan threw him into the air and Gable caught him with a bridging back suplex.

    – Last week, Emma was being worked on after her match with Asuka. Dana was complaining about what she would do to Asuka when Asuka walked in. Asuka mocked Dana by patting her on the head and then doing the Emma dance. Dana waited until Asuka left to state that this wasn’t over.

    – We got a video package for the entire UK tour.

    -Tye Dillinger is a heel this week. Maybe he’s always a heel, but he never comes across that way. Anyway he is going to show Sami Zayn why he is the Perfect 10.

    – The Drifter Elias Sampson is still on his way. This time he is literally walking on railroad tracks. Maybe Nia Jax would have gotten to NXT quicker than 9 weeks if she walked on the train tracks.

    – Next week is Best of NXT 2015 Part 1. Well these next two weeks are going to be skippable fun.

    – Baron Corbin is happy he beat Apollo Crews last week. He declared himself the #1 Contender and uncrowned NXT Champion.

    The Drifter Elias Sampson defeated The Svelte Bull Dempsey

    Bull Dempsey has a new theme song. He still has his Dr. Death Steve Williams/Michael Elgin robe and he now weighs in at 299 ¾ pounds, which was completely ignored by the announcers. You know, I was only joking when I called Elias Sampson “The Drifter”, well now it’s his actual nickname.

    Corey Graves made reference to Big Daddy Shirley Crabtree and Bull did jumping jacks before the match started. The WWE production team did an exceptional amount of cuts and zooming during this match, which gave me a headache.

    The crowd was dead for 99% of it, just when they started making noise Elias put his finger to his lips to ask them to be quiet. Talk about bad timing. Anyway he won with the Diving Elbow Drop. It looked pretty good.

    Elias pretended to play guitar in tune to his theme song and literally no one cared.

    – Dash & Dawson were happy to retain the straps. They called Enzo & Cass were one of the best tag teams in the world, but gleefully pointed out that they were the best, before wishing the Jersey Boys a Happy Holidays. That was nice of them after they broke Colin’s leg.

    Sami Zayn pinned Tye Dillinger

    Sami Zayn was last seen at NXT Takeover: Unstoppable in May, where his match with then-NXT Champion Kevin Owens ended in a ref stoppage when he was given the Pop Up Power Bomb on the ring apron. Of course he was injured trying to psych the fans up before his match with John Cena. I am not sure if that was a worse injury than Randy Orton getting injured taking the garbage out.

    I missed a lot about Sami, even his theme song, which is weird since I bought it off iTunes a year ago, so I could have listened to it at literally any time. The fans sang Sami’s theme song, which in case you forget, is completely instrumental.

    The fans went absolutely nuts for Zayn’s entrance, but settled down when Tye took over. This was actually taped after the Takeover show last week, which is pretty weird. Let it be known that in 2015 Tye Dillinger’s match was after Finn Balor and Samoa Joe’s match.

    RANDOM TRIVIA: If you think Tye Dillinger’s match going after Finn vs Joe was weird, in 1989 during the classic Flair-Steamboat series, the two of them never finished a show. At Chi-Town Rumble, for some strange reason, WCW did a Kendall Windham-Steve Casey match that went 25 minutes and not even Dave Meltzer stuck around for. (WCW officials simply forgot they were still wrestling and never gave them the cue to go home) At Clash of the Champions VI they then taped Sting vs Rip Morgan and Lex Luger vs Jack Victory. Finally at WrestleWar 89 they had Road Warriors vs Mike Rotunda/o & Steve Williams AND Eddie Gilbert & Rick Steiner vs Kevin Sullivan & Dan Spivey.

    Suddenly Tye Dillinger isn’t such a bad way to close the show.

    No one cared about 99% of what Tye did. The only thing they got excited for was a Dillinger Superkick that they bought as a finish. Other than that they only cared for Sami. Zayn hit all of his moves, including the Blue Thunder Bomb and the t-bone suplex into the corner, before winning with the Helluva Kick.

    After the match, Sami took the mic and very happily proclaimed he was back. Sami stated that he has had a series of disappointments in 2015, between losing the title to Kevin Owens and injuring himself vs Sami Zayn, but the trend is broken tonight. Sami put over the crowd, saying more and more great things will happen with NXT in 2016. He finished things off by promising that he will have a great 2016.

    That does it for this week. I hope everyone has an excellent Christmas and we’ll see you again next week. Until then, make sure to say your vitamins and take your prayers!

  • WWE Smackdown live results: Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler

    Air Date: December 22, 2015 – Location: Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA

    The Big News:

    The New Day and Dean Ambrose successfully defended their respective titles on a live Smackdown show. Ambrose took a nasty bump on his head but appears to be fine.

    Show Recap:

    WWE Tag-Team Championships: Kofi Kingston & Big E (w/Xavier Woods) beat Lucha Dragons via pinfall

    There’s a full Christmas setup on the stage. Big E said they deserved the Slammy for best tag-team more than any team in history. Xavier Woods said they would send the Lucha Booties home with coal in their stockings. Kofi Kingston said they have a Christmas album to promote and they rhymed off some awful song titles to no reaction. They wished everyone a Booty Christmas and Happy New Day. Kalisto came out with a his Slammy award and they replayed the highlight from TLC.

    New Day got the heat on Sin Cara after Woods distracted him with the trombone. Kalisto made the hot tag but spilled to the outside after Woods pulled down the middle rope, and Big E followed by slamming him into the barricade. Eventually, Kalisto rolled out of a belly-to-belly suplex and tagged in Sin Cara.

    The Dragons each hit suicide dives but Sin Cara totally missed and Kingston had to sell it anyway. Kalisto hit Big E with Salida Del Sol but Woods distracted Sin Cara, who kicked Woods off the apron. Sin Cara tried a springboard moonsault but Big E caught him and hit the Big Ending for the win. Not much of a match.

    They announced The Usos vs. Alberto Del Rio and Rusev for tonight. Backstage, Santino put on the cobra sleeve and put a star on a Christmas tree. After Santino left, someone who they didn’t show took the star off the tree. (It’s Stardust… probably.)

    Dolph Ziggler, Charlotte, Tyler Breeze and Roman Reigns wished everyone a Merry Christmas in separate pre-taped skits. Ziggler and Reigns were completely sincere. Breeze called everyone uggos. Charlotte was disappointed she didn’t get a Range Rover for Christmas.

    Backstage, Dean Ambrose told Renee Young he has six staples in his head, and his jaw is still clicking after Ziggler superkicked him last week. Ambrose said he would burst Owens’ head like a tomato and would throw everything at Owens and Ziggler to would retain his title. He also called Owens a crybaby.

    8-Man Tag Match: The Wyatt Family beat Dudley Boyz, Ryback & Kane via pinfall

    The crowd buzzed when Braun Strowman and Kane faced off, but they quieted down as soon as they started wrestling. Strowman got the better of him but Kane eventually made a tag to Ryback. Harper caught him with a Michinoku driver and they got the heat again. Ryback made a hot tag to D-von who ran wild on Bray Wyatt.

    D-Von hit a diving headbutt but Strowman broke up the cover, so Kane knocked him out of the ring. Strowman posted Kane though, and Rowan knocked Ryback over the barricade into the crowd. Harper superkicked D-Von on the outside and Bray hit Bubba with Sister Abigail for the win. The faces made brief comebacks but this was a pretty one-sided win.

    Backstage, Santino saw that his tree was knocked over and Stardust entered with the Ascension to mock him. Neville jumped in wearing an elf hat, with elf ears. Ascension threatened the little elf, so Titus O’Neil joined the party to even the odds. Stardust said Christmas was cancelled but they could save it if they beat the Ascension.

    U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio & Rusev (w/Sheamus & King Barrett) beat The Usos via pinfall

    The crowd is dead, and the Usos each hitting dives to the outside didn’t wake them up. Del Rio won after hitting the double foot stomp on Jey Uso. The setup for this was worse than usual. Not much of a match.

    Afterwards, the League of Nations continued the attack but Roman Reigns ran out to make the save. Reigns tossed Sheamus over the announce table and hit Del Rio with a superman punch. An Uso superkicked Rusev, and Reigns followed with a superman punch. Reigns and the Usos stood tall as the League yelled at them from the ramp.

    Dean Ambrose, Santino, Becky Lynch, and New Day wished everyone happy holidays.

    Neville & Titus O’Neil (w/Santino) beat The Ascension (w/Stardust) via pinfall

    Santino did the introductions for his team and they came out to Christmas music. Santino called O’Neil as his favourite Irishman and Neville “the man gravity seems to consistency overlook.” The Ascension and Stardust backed Santino into a corner but Neville made the save, knocking out all three with a corkscrew dive. Neville hit Red Arrow on Viktor for the win.

    Backstage, Dolph Ziggler told Renee that the Intercontinental Title was special to him because it’s the first title he won on his own. Ziggler said he would win the title and 2016 would be his year. That seems unlikely.

    They aired a clip from Tribute to the Troops. They really focused on Roman Reigns.

    Non-Title: WWE Diva’s Champion Charlotte beat Brie Bella via submission

    On commentary, Becky Lynch said she was very proud of Charlotte for getting on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers. Michael Cole pressured her into telling us what’s more important to her – Charlotte’s friendship or the [women’s] title. She hesitated, but eventually said winning the title is her ultimate goal.

    Team B.A.D. came out during the match (to Sasha Banks’ music). They wore stupid Christmas outfits, including Banks as a snowman. They went straight to Lynch, poured eggnog on her head and attacked her. The story was that Charlotte saw it happening but didn’t help, applying the Figure Eight instead for the tap-out win. Cole in particular freaked out because it wasn’t even a title match, suggesting she should’ve helped.

    Backstage, Kevin Owens told Renee that he’s the real I.C. champion just like he’s the real Breakout Star of the Year. He said Smackdown was the Kevin Owens Show and he would walk out as champion. He left, not before telling Renee that she looks ridiculous (in her white Christmas dress/attire).

    Intercontinental Championship: Dean Ambrose beat Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens via pinfall

    After a break, Cole said Owens threw a Christmas hat at them on commentary. Jerry Lawler and Booker T made sure to clarify that Owens threw it specifically at Cole. Owens tossed Ziggler into the gifts and trees on the stage, and attacked Ambrose with gift boxes. Ambrose and Ziggler fought back and launched Owens off the stage on to some more Christmas stuff. Ambrose and Ziggler fought down to the ring and the crowd chanted for Ambrose.

    Owens popped back in the ring and held up Ziggler for an electric chair drop but Ziggler slipped out, superkicked Ambrose, Owens superkicked Ziggler and Ambrose clotheslined Owens. Ziggler hit an X-Factor off the top but Owens pulled him out of the ring and threw him into the steel steps.

    Ziggler applied a sleeper on Owens, so Owens did his running senton onto Ambrose with Ziggler still on his back. Owens posted Ziggler and hit a nasty suplex on Ambrose. Ambrose landed right on his head and they replayed it repeatedly. As the referee checked on Ambrose, Owens went outside and sent Ziggler into the barricade with a fallaway slam.

    Ambrose recovered somehow and hooked Owens in for Dirty Deeds, but Ziggler jumped them from behind to hit a Zig Zag as Ambrose hit Owens with Dirty Deeds all at once. Cool spot. Ziggler superkicked Owens out of the ring and Ambrose hit Ziggler with Dirty Deeds for the win. 

    Fun match and the crowd popped big for Ambrose. Ambrose swung the title around and posed on the steel steps as the show ended. Cole said Owens was destroying a tree as this happened.

    Final Thoughts:

    This was a very normal Smackdown show, despite being live and having two title matches. The main event was worth watching. Hopefully Dean Ambrose is fine.

  • WWE RAW ratings down 13% from last week

    The Monday, December 21st edition of WWE RAW featuring the Slammy Awards show maintained its audience better than most weeks, and did better than most weeks this past Fall.

    The three-hour show did 3.37 million viewers, down 13 percent from last week’s unusually large number. However, it was still above the levels of most of the Fall season. Just two weeks ago, the show had fallen to 3.16 million viewers.

    Raw probably benefited from a low-rated NFL game on ESPN as competition as the Detroit Lions vs. New Orleans Saints game did 10.90 million viewers.

    The first hour started at normal Fall levels, but the second and third hour decline wasn’t there at the rate it usually is.

    The three hours were:

    • 8 p.m. 3.44 million viewers
    • 9 p.m. 3.37 million viewers
    • 10 p.m. 3.32 million viewers

    The show’s main event was WWE Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus in a cage match. The other big item of note is that John Cena returns next week, so it will be interesting to see how that affects viewership.

  • Full list of 2015 WWE Slammy Award Winners

    Superstar of the Year: Seth Rollins

    Diva of the Year: Nikki Bella

    Rivalry of the Year: The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar

    WWE Tag Team of the Year: The Usos

    Breakout Star of the Year: Neville

    Match of the Year: The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar at Hell in a Cell

    Double-Cross of the Year: Damien Mizdow eliminates The Miz from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania

    “This is Awesome!” Moment of the Year: The Rock and Ronda Rousey confront The Authority at WrestleMania 31

    LOL! Moment of the Year: R-Truth misunderstands his status (Raw, June 8; SmackDown, Nov. 19)

    The “OMG!” Shocking Moment of the Year: Kalisto’s Salida del Sol through a ladder at WWE TLC

    Extreme Moment of the Year: Roman Reigns levels The League of Nations and Triple H at WWE TLC

    Surprise Return of the Year: Sting returns, posing as Seth Rollins’ statue, and attacks The Architect (Raw, Aug. 24)

    Best John Cena U.S. Open Challenge: John Cena vs. Cesaro (Raw, July 6)

    The Hero in All of Us Award: John Cena

    Hashtag of the Year: #SuplexCity

    Celebrity Moment of the Year: Stephen Amell dives onto Stardust at SummerSlam

    “Tell Me You Didn’t Just Say That” Moment of the Year: Brock Lesnar coins “Suplex City” at WrestleMania

    Best Original WWE Network Show: Stone Cold Podcast

  • Paul Heyman backstage at WWE RAW

    Paul Heyman is backstage at Raw right now in Minneapolis.

    We don’t have it confirmed that Brock Lesnar is there, but it would makesense with it being the Slammy Awards show and this being in Minneapolis, where he lived for years.

    Tonight’s show should also get the ball rolling for this year’s Royal Rumble.

    Lesnar would be one of the leading candidates for the Superstar of the Year award.  Lesnar was not advertised as appearing on Raw until 1/11 in New Orleans, at which point he and Heyman would be appearing fairly regularly through WrestleMania.

    Check out our live coverage of WWE RAW.

    Sign up now to listen to Wrestling Observer Radio tonight with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discuss the fallout of WWE RAW tonight.