Former WWE NXT Champion Sami Zayn, who has been promoted for the U.K. tour of NXT that starts on Thursday in Newcastle, is scheduled to be wrestling on the tour.
Zayn, who is returning after shoulder surgery six months ago, is advertised for these dates:
– Thursday in Newcastle – Friday in Glasgow – Saturday in Sheffield – Sunday in Blackpool – Monday in Nottingham – Tuesday in Cardiff – Wednesday in London (live NXT Takeover special)
The only match he’s advertised in is for Sheffield — a three-way match for the NXT title with champion Finn Balor and Baron Corbin. Also advertised on that show is Bayley vs. Emma for the women’s title and Samoa Joe vs. Apollo Crews.
Zayn was last seen feuding with Kevin Owens, dropping a NXT title rematch to him by ref stoppage on May 20th at TakeOver: Unstoppable. Zayn suffered his shoulder injury during a match with then-U.S. Champion John Cena on the May 4th edition of WWE RAW in Montreal, Canada.
– Big Show def. The Ascension. Mainly a lot of test of strength spots. Show was way over as a babyface.
– Hype Bros def. Stardust and Adam Rose. Mojo Rawley got a really bad Cena like gusher from his nose, but “stayed hyped”.
– Miz def. Fandango. Miz then called out anyone else, so Jack Swagger came out and beat him with the ankle lock in about 30 seconds. Miz then called out anyone else, this time being Mark Henry. He then challenged him to dance off instead. He did a hilarious jig to “Dirty Water” and then as Henry started to dance to Michael Jackson (glove and all) Miz attacked him. Henry laid him out.
– Goldust def. Bo Dallas. Bo was extremely entertaining and engaging as usual, but lost.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day def. Lucha Dragons & Dudleys in a really good match. The ref got distracted and Big E interfered with the Big Ending. Xavier got the pinfall but the Dudleys came back in and gave him a 3D.
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotted def. Paige. As you can imagine, Charlotte got the biggest pop of the night in her Cam Newton jersey. She and Paige had a great match with Charlotte winning with her Figure 8.
– Luke Harper def. R-Truth in a decent match.
– Roman Reigns def. WWE Champion Sheamus by DQ. Kind of entertaining at first, but it got boring really fast and turned into the worst match of the night. This is the same stuff you usually see out of both of them. Roman won by DQ after Sheamus got a chair.
Opening match was Big Show over Ascension in handicap match. Show tied for 3rd loudest Face response of night, although some of that was the First Match response. Ascension didn’t do much, and he pinned both of them at the same time.
Adam Rose & Bo Dallas vs the Hype Bros. – the crowd didn’t seem to care much about any of these guys or any thing that happened here. The group with me were vocal in responding to Bo Dallas, who seemed to be the only one trying to do more than sleepwalk through this, but we seemed to be about the only ones.
Miz beat Fandango next. Miz seemed to have some heat, but when he started to talk, people started filing out to the concessions/restrooms, so it may not be the kind of heat they’re going for. Several of the people with me popped for Fandango, mostly out of shock that he was still on the active roster. I liked the guy in NXT a lot…damn shame about the gimmick. Miz went over decisively and it wasn’t long.
Post match, Miz demanded real competition. Jack Swagger emerged to a loud pop, and promptly mopped the floor with Miz in a brief ultra squash. Swagger’s “We the people” mouth along may have gotten the single loudest mouth-along moment from the crowd of the night.
Miz recovered, got mic and said he would defeat anyone else. Mark Henry’s music hit to a shockingly loud and very sustained ovation. This was probably the 2nd loudest face pop of night…which , considering how poorly Henry has been booked in the last few years, I was very surprised by. Miz then said he wasn’t allowed to finish and said he would defeat anyone in a Dance contest. He put on Irish music and river danced. Mark Henry seemed stoic, as if he was about to pummel Miz, but instead gestured for the announcer to hand him some things. Lights went down, he put on a hat and glove and started dancing to Billie Jean . Crowd absolutely loved this. Miz laid into him after about 30 seconds, while his back was turned, mid dance. Then Mark Henry briefly dominated Miz, before landing a Word’s strongest slam, and leaving to another loud ovation.
Goldust vs Stardust was next. Goldust got a decent pop. Starudst didn’t get much. My hopes were high when I saw it would be these two. They didn’t deliver. Goldust seemed less active than in recent years. Maybe he’s still not totally recovered from the injury he just returned from, or maybe at his age he goes easier at non-televised events. Whatever teh case, this wasn’t exactly awful, but if this is what they’ve been working around the loop, then I can see why WWE was reluctant to let them have a prolonged feud on tv, let alone work a WM in a 1 on 1. It also felt much longer than it needed to be.
New Day vs Lucha Dragons vs Dudleys. New Day probably got the best Heel response of the night. Xavier was working the trombone and E had more energy than a sentient bag of cocaine. E did not stop moving the entire time , from squatting and strutting on the apron when not in, to patrolling it, facing outward and individually berating fans. Both Luchas also brought their A game, and probably got the loudest pops from their spots of anyone all night. the idiots in attendance chanted for tables the entire time that the dudleys were in, but there were no tables ringside and none anywhere near by to be broken. D-von looked to be having a real off night. a highlight was a fan ringside who had a New Day sign. Kofi went over to him, and like a great heel, promptly berated him for its poor quality, saying it looked like he forced a small child to make it. a nearby Xavier irritatingly chimed in “SMALL CHILD!”. New Day and Lucha’s put on the match of the night, by far, when they were in the ring together. Which was thankfully the majority of it. This match alone made it all worth while. New Day and Cesaro have been the only dependable highlights for awhile, with the other guys who I really enjoy usually getting booked in such a downright depressing manner (Neville, Ambrose, ADR, Barrett, Rusev, Titus, Ziggler), that it gets hard to sit through after awhile. and it’s been a long while.
On a related note, me and 2 other friends went to buy New Day shirts. Of the 2 Merch tables, only 1 had them, and we were told they were all out of anything bigger than a Large . We were going to pick up two 1 XL’s and one 2 XL, to save on the shipping, while we were there. But they seemed suspiciously low in supply. This was 35 minutes before start time. There was tons of Reigns, Charlotte and Rollins merch in supply though, and not much of it seemed to be moving.
Intermission
Charlotte vs Paige. Paige got loud response and it seemed to be 60/40 face. Charlotte’s response was almost as loud, but it seemed surprisingly closer to 70/30 heel. Which we found surprising, but hilarious. Paige also became the 2nd person of the night, following Stardust, to knock a sign out of the hands of the same guy in a red hat at ringside, who seemed like a plant. He ludicrously over-reacted to various things throughout the night, seemed to be constantly getting told things by some guy in a black wwe shirt, and he had a high dollar camera with him. Paige seemed to be more into the match than Charlotte. Not sure if her getting so much heat, threw off some of her plans, but Charlotte was clearly having an off night. I hope her and D-von Dudley had a high dollar wager going in the back about who got botch more spots, otherwise, the two of them were really having a bad time of it. Charlotte went over. and engaged in a prolonged lap around the rail slapping hands post-match. a 9-ish looking year old boy near aisle leaned up and screamed out “YOU SUCK CHARLOTTE!” at her with all the lung power he could muster, to which she replied “that’s not nice” before finally exiting.
R-Truth vs Harper. Truth rapped more of his song than usual. Then he got a pre-match promo about various things, such as Little Jimmy’s upcoming Christmas, and how greatfuly he was to be getting a WWE title shot here tonight. Announcer came over and leaned into his ear, “explaining” to him that he did not have a title match. which was the cue for Harper’s music. This match was very good, probably second best of the night. R-Truth got to show more of his offense than he usually gets to while getting treated like a jobber during his increasingly rare television appearances. Harper got to really get his Brody on too, and when he went on the offense, he was savage. Harper went over and while hooking the leg during the pin, he untied Truth’s shoe. It was subtle, but noticeable if you were looking. Not sure why that happened though.
Sheamus vs Reigns was next. Sheamus got loud heat, but not quite as much as New Day. He did try to up it though, by grabbing the mic and talking about how much this “no-account village full of hillbillies sucked and should be grateful for his presence”, which was a nice touch. Reigns, unfortunately, did get the loudest pop of the night, for which he repaid the crowd with the worst worked main event I have seen in over two decades of attending live wrestling shows. Shaemus, who I enjoyed tremendously as a cowardly bully hill in 2010-2011, and thought was a fairly good face up until 2014, seemed to be better here than he has lately. I thought Shaemus and Cesaro had a GREAT match about a month ago, but for most of 2015, Shaemus has kind of sucked. His best heel work seems to be as a bully/coward Heel, not as a Bad-Ass heel. Since Reigns has gotten the worst over-push since 98 Goldberg, Shaemus is almost forced to once again backpeddle, because god forbid someone not make Roman Reigns look like he could kick the entire planet’s ass in a handicap shoot. So, I give Shaemus a ton of credit for doing all he could here, but like Regal said of his match with Goldberg “I can only do so much out there myself, I cant start kicking myself in the head”. Reigns didn’t even break out the entire full 5 different offense spots he seems to know, and instead spent all night just clotheslining and punching. Clothesline, punch, clothesline, clothesline, punch. punch punch repeat. go on defense and sell. punch pun punch. spear. then Sheamus went for a chair to get DQed because god forbid Roman not get “protected” at a spot show in a nowhere town. post match, he hit the spear, which Shaemus sold like a he had been shelled by the Schwerer Gustav. Reigns then pranced about making goofy faces. the end.
The Big Takeaway: Zack Ryder beat Heath Slater in a short opener and Neville and Dallas showed glimpses of their old rivalry from NXT in a solid main event.
Show recap:
Zack Ryder beat Heath Slater (4:37)
Ryder looks in such great shape, you have to feel for the guy: he works pretty well, he’s over, if they let him be, and he has a good physique and genetics. They lock up and Slater shoves Ryder off only to turn round and eat a drop kick. Ryder shoulder barges Slater, but a hip toss is blocked and instead he is clotheslined. Slater then runs into Ryder’s boot and after a leapfrog, Ryder gets nailed by the big boot of Slater.
Slater takes over with knees and stomps and slows things down with a chin lock. When Ryder works his way out, he runs into a heel kick. Slater then chokes Ryder out in the corner with his foot and then returns to the chin lock. Ryder tries to work his way out but is thrown back to the mat. Slater’s suplex attempt is reversed and he runs into Ryder’s knees in the corner. Ryder hits him with a second rope missile drop kick, followed by a running forearm smash. He sets up and hits the Broski Boot but Slater kicks out at two. So, the Rough Ryder wins it for Zack Ryder.
Neville beat Bo Dallas (8:10)
Dallas and Neville are travel partners. Some would say that they’re odd bedfellows in many respects but after their NXT rivalry, they found each other to be very good company. They are both hoping that on the main roster that their rivalry can be reignited at some point. Clearly, that’s not the case here, but they really worked hard to show us a little bit of what made their program on NXT special.
On the bell, Dallas shoulder barges Neville to mat and exclaims, ‘Bo-lieve!’ to some good heat. Neville responds with a leg sweep and takes Dallas to all four corners in turn to deliver kicks to his midriff. Neville then snapmares him into a basement drop kick to the back of his head. When Neville springboard cross bodies Dallas, Bo calls for a time out. Dallas plays possum and grabs Neville and throws him outside as we head to a break.
When we return Dallas uses a cravat for some time on Neville. He wears him down for a two count and then off the ropes hits Neville with a huge forearm smash, but again can only get a two count. Neville gets in some kicks, but takes an almighty clothesline for a two count. Neville finally manages to get some breathing space when he dodges Dallas’ charge, sending him over the top rope to the outside. Neville uses a springboard moonsault on to Dallas on the outside and then rolls him back inside for the Red Arrow. Dallas has the move scouted, so Neville lands on his feet, turns round and hits him with an enzugiri. Neville then hits the Red Arrow for the win.
Elias Samson beat Josh Woods. Elias was the face tonight, as Woods interrupted his song about Citrus Springs. Hard hitting match. Woods has a lot of impressive wrestling ability.
Cameron beat Aliyah and Billie Kay in a triple threat match. Aliyah was the face in peril during this match against two heels. Cameron scored the pin on Aliyah after a few hope spots.
Bull Dempsey beat Angelo Dawkins. Comedy early on with Bull doing jumping jacks to annoy Dawkins. Seated splash off the top by Bull for the win.
In ring interview with Noah Kekoa, says he’s here for the people and this is his friend zone. Acting shy and naive.
Asuka and Carmella beat Alexa Bliss and Emma. Stat reaction for Asuka. Entertaining match as the faces were very over. Asuka caught Alexa with her submission for the win.
Tye Dillinger beat Tino Sabatelli. Tye was the face tonight, got worn down by Tino early on before hitting his exposed knee finish for the win.
Rich Swann and Levis Valenzuela beat Marcus Louise and Sawyer Fulton. Another great performance by Swann. After a lot of punishment by the heels, Swann made the hot tag to Levis who got the win with the windup punch.
Tucker Knight beat Axel Tischer with a butterfly suplex. Crowd was in to Knight here, a group of fans cheer for him at a lot of house shows, chanting for his silver boots and singing songs for him. Good match, a lot of hard hitting action.
The Vaudevillains beat Dash and Dawson by DQ in the main event. Back and forth match, well worked, finish came when English had hit the swanton and Dash pulled the ref out. Post match saw Enzo and Cass clear out Dash and Dawson, celebrating with the crowd to send them home happy.
Big Show defeated the Ascension in a handicap match. Played to the crowd a lot. Big Show won with a double choke slam.
Miz defeated Fandango, called out anyone else and Jack Swagger beat him within 30 seconds with an ankle lock. Miz then called out anyone else and Mark Henry came out and they had a dance contest. Mark Henry surprisingly had some good moves.
Hype Bros defeated Adam Rose and Bo Dallas. Hype Bros very over with the crowd.
Goldust defeated Stardust. An okay match. Crowd chanted Cody most of the match.
Tag Team Chamionship match
New Day defeated The Dudleyz and The Lucha Dragons. Fun match, Dudleyz hit Woods with a 3D after the match was over.
Charlotte defeated Paige to retain the title.
Luke Harper defeated R Truth in a surprisingly decent back and forth match.
WWE Chamionship Match
Roman Reigns defeated Sheamus by DQ when Sheamus threw a chair at Roman’s head. Reigns hit a spear to send the crowd home happy.
Tyler Breeze distracts Dolph Ziggler into the ignominy of losing a match to The Miz, thus setting up a presumed rubber match between the two at TLC. Hopefully they’ll remember to give Tyler an entrance this time.
The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler by pinfall (7:13)
Tyler Breeze and Summer Rae are already at ringside as the show opens to take in this clash of the titans from the comfort of their “VIP Lounge”. Dolph was tasked with confronting the pair upon his entrance to the ring, which consisted of him standing in front of them forever and unconvincingly selling his apparent rage. At one point, he actually held both fists by his sides and shook them in anger. Maybe hit the guy, or something? I know Dolph is dumb, but those VIP ropes do not in fact create an impenetrable velvet forcefield. At least knock over their drinks again. Really lame.
“The Zig Man”, as The Ryback likes to call him, does however throw his hoodie at the gorgeous ones after referee Mike Chioda rings the bell. Summer is not impressed. What a badass.
Perfectly acceptable TV match here, albeit with a weak finish. Miz used a referee-enforced rope break to cut off Dolph’s early shine, before throwing him shoulder-first into the ringpost to start the heat. Miz continued to work the shoulder after a commercial break, prompting one loud and eager Dolph fan in the crowd to try and get a “Let’s Go Ziggler” chant going. I reckon about five people joined in.
Ziggler’s comeback begins with a dropkick to counter a Miz flying nothing. This leads us quickly into a pretty decent near-falls exchange, ending with Dolph hitting a Fame Asser for two, after a second failed Skull Crushing Finale attempt from Miz.
Miz rolls out of the ring after this near-miss to collect himself. Dolph goes to fetch his opponent, but gets distracted by Tyler upon re-entry, allowing Miz to kick him and finally hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. Looks like we’re getting the Dolph/Tyler rubber match at TLC.
Sasha Banks w/Naomi and Tamina defeated Alicia Fox w/Brie Bella by submission (2:55)
Continuing the enthrallingly one-sided gang warfare between these two factions. Fox lost to Naomi thanks to a distraction finish a fortnight ago on this very show, while Sasha triumphed over Brie in similar circumstances on RAW. The story, in other words, is that Team BAD is using the numbers game to their advantage, in the absence of the Bellas’ “fearless” leader, Nikki.
Fox, for the record, works babyface again here, as did Brie on Monday night. Naomi distracted Lil’ Naitch early, allowing Tamina to superkick Alicia in the head from the outside – Foxy’s incredible sixhead providing her with a, quite frankly, unmissable target.
Briefest of brief comebacks from the honorary Bella, culminating in a sloppy tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Naomi tries the distraction again, but Sasha’s attempt at the always devastating schoolboy fails.
Alicia then voluntarily distracts herself, booting Tamina off the apron, before attempting a bodyslam and getting backcracked and Bank Statement-ed for the submission. Super-short, awkwardly worked match, that only existed to further drive home the aforementioned storyline. Such as it is.
Ryback defeated Bo Dallas by pinfall (4:11)
Bo gets fatter every time I see him now. Which is mercifully rarely. Tom Phillips makes reference to this in the most awkward way possible, segueing from talking about how poor Bo is at making friends in the WWE with the line: “He’s the type of guy who goes to the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory by himself.” What!?
Byron then goes on to speculate that Bo may have thought there was “inspiration in chocolate”, to which Tom replies “It shows!” I always regret the fleeting moments when I don’t tune these two geeks out.
Ryback misses a big (guy) splash early, allowing Bo to hit a DDT. Although Ryback’s kickout sends Bo flying right out of the ring, he still treats us to a victory lap anyway. So much jiggle.
“Flyback” (thanks, Byron) hits a missile dropkick, followed by a delayed vertical. He signals for the Meathook, but Bo rolls to the ropes to escape. Ryback rushes him and becomes the second of three babyfaces on this show to pay for it with an ensuing heat segment. Top work, road agents.
Bo’s heat is dull and uninspiring as always, which he tries to mask by screaming at the crowd and at his fallen foe. He yells at Ryback: “ARE YOU HUNGRY!?” Ryback promptly responds with a Shellshock for the pinfall victory.
– We get a recap of the main event storyline from RAW, climaxing with the newly-formed League of Nations standing tall at the show’s close.
Titus O’Neil defeated Stardust by pinfall (5:46)
Fortunately, Darren Young is not on commentary for this highly-anticipated rematch of last week’s countout win for The Big Deal. Tom, by the way, refers to this as the night’s “featured contest” on more than one occasion. Okay. I guess calling it the main event would be a bit Russian doll-y.
Shine for Titus to start with, consisting of a slam and – you guessed it – forehand chops in the corner aplenty!
Stardust then becomes heel #3 to take advantage of a rope break to kick off the heat segment of the match. He intersperses some hissing – and a cartwheel, at one point – to interrupt the tedium.
Titus blocks an attempted punch to spur his comeback, which he performs with Stardust’s silver paint all over one side of his bald dome, before hitting the Clash of the Titus for the win.
Final Thoughts
A second “featured contest” in three weeks for Titus. Unfortunately for him, both took place on Main Event. And he’s not getting any better as a worker.
This was an unremarkable show really, capped by a decent Dolph/Miz opener that was unfortunately marred by yet another distraction finish. At least it served a purpose in storyline however, as we look set to get a third singles match between Ziggler and Breeze at the TLC PPV. The result of that match, if it goes down, will tell us a lot about Tyler’s future career trajectory.
– Samoa Joe and Bayley were advertised but didn’t appear. – Return date is January 29.
1. Levis Valenzula Jr. def. Angelo Dawkins with a knockout punch. Some comedy with Valenzula dancing while applying a headlock and Dawkins losing his headbands.
2. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan def. The Vaudevillans when they hit their finisher on English. Jordan has a towel that says “CALL ME JAY JAY” to go along with Gable’s. Vaudevillans were working as the heels. Great hot tag spot to Jordan where he cleaned house with a t-bone suplex and a belly to belly.
3. Nia Jax def. Daria the Jersey Devil (from Tough Enough). Daria was dressed as an MMA fighter. Nice hope spot where Daria got a triangle on but Nia power bombed her out of it. Total squash otherwise. Nia cut a promo on Bayley afterwards.
4. Hugo Knox def. Tino Sabatelli. Knox is huge but can move. He hit a jumping enziguri and a split leg moonsault off the top for the win.
5. Bull Dempsey def. Sawyer Fulton. Tons of comedy. Bull had a Santa hat and Fulton stomped on it for heat. The story was Bull couldn’t slam him all match, but after a hulk up, he slammed him and hit the Whoopie cushion.
6. Asuka and Carmella def. Emma and Alexa Bliss. Asuka got Bliss with the chicken wing on a roll-up reversal. Asuka got a star reaction.
7. Apollo Crews def. Noah (Kekoa). Quick match.
8. Cameron def. Peyton Royce with some sort of neckbreaker. Not a lot of heat on Cameron for someone who was on the main roster for so long.
9. Finn Balor, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady def. Tye Dillenger, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson. Long heat segment on Enzo. Dash and Dawson have become great tag workers. They should have a great match at Takeover. Balor won with the foot stomp on Dillenger. Match of the night by far.
– Rich Swann beat Axel Tischer via an incredible standing splash maneuver
Great showing by Swann here. Instantly won over the crowd and worked a fast paced crisp match.
– Asuka, Adrien Reese and Aliyah beat Emma, Cameron and Billie Kay
Asuka caught Billie in the Asuka Lock.
– Tough Enough Josh promo segment where he was heelish and said his name is Bronson Mathews.
– Bull Dempsey beat Tino Sabatelli with a seated splash off the top
Comedy early. Bull did jumping jacks to upset Tino.
– Marcus Louis beat Oscar The Luchador with a rock bottom type slam
– Enzo, Big Cass w/ Carmella, and Levis Valenzuela beat NXT Tag Champions Dash & Dawson and Elias Samson
Pre match promo by Zo and Cass about taking the titles at Takeover. Long match. Cass hit a side slam followed by a top rope splash on Samson for the win. Post match, Cass told them to play Levis’ music and it was time to fiesta!
– Hugo Knox defeated Tucker Knight via spinning heel kick
Back and forth match.
– Nia Jax beat Daria in a squash
Tough Enough Daria was out to cut a promo but before she could start, Nia Jax interrupted and challenged her to a match.
– NXT Champion Finn Balor, Apollo Crews, and Tye Dillinger beat Baron Corbin, Constantine, and Riddick Moss
Long match, a lot of heat on Baron, crowd was behind Finn all the way. He received the the hot tag and finished off the match with the dropkick to the corner and the double foot stomp off the top.
Last week, WWE released Brad Maddox from his contract after the SmackDown tapings. This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with him for an exclusive interview to see how life is treating him now that he is out of the WWE and what he has planned for the new chapter in his career.
Some highlights from the interview that can be seen below:
– Whether using the word ‘prick’ in a dark match promo got him fired:
“It was because of that…That particular night was a bad decision on my behalf…I didn’t think anything of it, but Vince wasn’t happy about that. I don’t know if it’s a generational word that maybe used to be worse than it is now….I didn’t really think it through, but I should have been more careful in that moment because I knew Vince was watching. I tend to take chances at stupid times.”
– Being frustrated in WWE:
“It has been a long couple of years for me, working on angles and ideas trying to get (back) in. I’ve always wanted to wrestle…Absolutely, I wanted to wrestle from the get go…I could have talked to Vince more than I did, rather than sitting around in catering hoping that the writers were coming up with something for me.”
– Practicing promos with Vince and Stephanie:
“I’ve got to do some cool stuff. Going over promos with Vince in his office, or the bathroom of his office – for some reason! – with him and Daniel Bryan and Stephanie.”
– Why he choose OVW as a path into WWE:
“I researched on where to go. I didn’t want to waste my time, there are hundreds of thousands of indy promotions. I was either going to move to Atlanta – which was a good move because they shut down shortly after! – and I went to Louisville. Back then it was a lot different, you could actually train with the (WWE) contracted guys.”
– Additionally, we discussed why he watched WCW growing up, how he considers Joey Mercury a mentor, learning promos from Dusty Rhodes, being involved in angles with CM Punk, what he intends to do with his spare time and much, much more, especially in relation to his recent release and his frustrations around it.
