WWE is going to be offering the first episode of “Breaking Ground,” a documentary on NXT, on its Facebook page and YouTube channel on Sunday at Noon Eastern time.
Future episodes, will be WWE Network exclusives. The show will be airing regularly on Monday nights right after Raw. There are currently 10 episodes in the series.
William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame will be the narrator of the show.
The show is a behind-the-scenes look at training to be a WWE performer. There will be ten episodes of the series.
Kevin Dunn will be the producer of the series, which is a co-production of WWE and 3 Ball Entertainment.
3 Ball Entertainment has produced reality shows such as Bar Rescue, Catch a Contractor and Sweat Inc. on Spike TV, My Cat from Hell on Animal Planet and Extreme Weight Loss on ABC.
Randy Orton missed this past weekend’s WWE house shows in Mexico and was not on Raw Monday night due to a dislocated shoulder. The extent of the injury is not yet certain pending the results of an MRI, and when he can return will be determined on whether if he needs or doesn’t need surgery.
On television, they noted Orton was not in Mexico and not at Raw, and almost portrayed it as him no-showing. Later in the show, they gave the impression from an interview with Dean Ambrose that the Wyatts had gotten to him.
Orton has a history of shoulder problems from injuries earlier in his career.
The Orton & Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper & Braun Strowman match scheduled for Sunday’s Hell in a Cell PPV has been canceled, and a six-man tag match with Sheamus & Rusev & King Barrett vs. Neville & Dolph Ziggler & Cesaro was put in its place around the pre-show time.
WWE prides itself as a platform for telling stories, and it most certainly is just that. The problem is that the stories being told at present tend not to be particularly good, and the stories that have the potential to be good are not told well. This can be attributed to, among other things, WWE seemingly misunderstanding or completely ignoring so many of the fundamental aspects of good storytelling.
Don’t get me wrong: professional wrestling is an exceptional medium for storytelling when it’s done right. Wrestlers can tell stories in facial expressions, in subtle movements, and sometimes in doing nothing at all. They can use their physicality to tell gripping stories that compel audiences to cheer or boo or gasp or scream. When aided by a creative mind and a silver tongue, they can speak to the masses and connect with them directly — one of the benefits of an art form that openly acknowledges and embraces the presence of the spectator.
When all of this coheres, it’s magic. Just look up and down the card at NXT TakeOver: Respect. Six matches, every one telling a tale to near-perfection. Every single individual on that show had a story to tell — from Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder to Bayley and Sasha Banks to William Regal and Eden Stiles. The commentary team did its part in contributing to the execution of the narrative — Corey Graves pointing out that Bayley working over Sasha’s hand had limited the latter’s ability to apply the Banks Statement at the end of the match was so incredibly refreshing because it actually rewarded the viewer for being invested in the little details. Even the crowd itself had utility in the narrative, particularly Izzy and her bow, who somehow wound up becoming stars in the main event. ‘Respect’ may be the WWE’s best show in years in terms of comprehensive storytelling if only because every segment had a function and everything served its purpose. The show even had a theme; it was right there in the event’s title, and it paid off in the main event.
On the main roster, however, WWE is preoccupied with a more conventional kind of episodic storytelling. WWE says it doesn’t see the likes of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor as competition because they are wrestling programs. WWE sees primetime dramas as being closer to direct competitors for its brand of totally-not-wrestling-yet-wrestling-centric-sports-entertainment because it sees itself as an entity that tells the same kinds of stories. Yet despite that focus, and despite staffing its creative arm with people who presumably understand the core components of what makes episodic television shows effective, WWE programming doesn’t come anywhere close to feeling like well-structured and -beloved shows such as Breaking Bad, Fargo, Hannibal, or Empire.
WWE routinely breaks a number of very basic rules of storytelling, much to the detriment of its product. I’m not even talking about aptitude that only the masters of the craft possess, either. I’m talking about the kinds of things that they teach in freshman-year creative writing courses. These mistakes are made frequently and unapologetically.
One of the first things you’ll learn in a good creative writing program is that you should always show and never tell. It’s a fundamental of effective storytelling — the audience cares less about how many adjectives a writer uses to describe a character as evil and more about how that character is depicted as actually being evil. And yet, telling the audience one thing and showing them something else entirely has been a significant factor in the gradual death of the so-called/oft-called Divas Revolution.
Relative to the idea of hearing one thing and seeing another, WWE’s product has the benefit of a commentary team that should, for all intents and purposes, play a role similar to that of the chorus in a Greek play. The commentary should be a character itself that is tasked with guiding the audience in the direction that the story demands and aiding their understanding of the action — just as Graves did to great effect in the main event at TakeOver: Respect. Inexplicably, the commentators in WWE are generally positioned as unreliable narrators in that they willingly convey even the company’s own recent history incorrectly. When John Layfield tells the audience that that Divas Revolution happened organically as if they were not watching the product in June, it’s not just insulting to the viewers’ intelligence, but it also makes it nearly impossible to ever take anything he says on commentary at face value thereafter.
There’s seemingly no interest in utilizing a three-act structure despite having an ungodly amount of programming time to fill. Imagine if WWE actually utilized a story arc typical of dramatic plots and leveraged SummerSlam as the inciting incident, Royal Rumble as the climax, and WrestleMania as the denouement. This, of course, would require some degree of pre-planning and a sense of patience, neither of which are the strong suit of WWE creative.
Secondary and tertiary characters in WWE are aimless at best and pointless at worst. In the introduction to Bambogo Snuff Box, Kurt Vonnegut told readers and prospective storytellers that, “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” It is possible to tell stories that don’t necessarily tie directly into the central narrative, but what other shows seem to understand is that even those ancillary characters and storylines need direction and purpose all the same. Since ending the angle with Stephen Amell, when has the viewer ever been given the distinct impression that Stardust, Neville, or Wade Barrett have wanted anything when they appear on television?
While there are stories and characters that work to varying degrees of effect on WWE’s main programs, segments on these shows are also rife with forced dialogue, inconsistent character trajectories, go-nowhere subplots, and any number of other confounding narrative problems. And the flaws of which I’m speaking are strictly within the scope of storytelling — this doesn’t account for bad matches, bad interviews with bad acting and bad blocking, dead crowds, and any number of problems exclusive to a wrestling product. If WWE is truly in the business of making movies, it’s less a production of Paramount and more some rushed hack-job from The Asylum (or WWE Films, for that matter).
One of WWE’s most confounding issues is the lack of a strong central narrative. If there is a tentpole story in the WWE Universe at present, it can be very succinctly summarized: “Seth Rollins is the champion, The Authority is bad, and everyone else is a loser.” This isn’t a particularly compelling story, is it?
WWE’s preferred brand of story tends to rely on a very basic good vs. evil dynamic (forget the notion of complex, grayscale characters). Given even that simplistic metric, WWE is somehow lacking the two components most vital to this degree of story: a triumphant protagonist to persevere over evil and a consistent central antagonist to stand in the way of the hero.
The Importance of the Conquering Hero
If I may go back to Vonnegut’s Creative Writing 101 again, the novelist recommended that stories should give the reader (or viewer in the case of WWE) at least one character to root for. Given the structure of WWE’s storytelling, it stands to reason that there should be at least one character to root for in the scheme of the main-event picture. While John Cena, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, and Dean Ambrose are positioned as the de facto heroes of the product, not one of the four has emerged as the sustained archenemy of The Authority and its face of the future, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.
Each of the four men has thumbed their nose at The Authority and challenged Rollins for his title at some point, but not one of them has quite achieved the distinction of becoming the WWE’s heroic central protagonist. This is because each man has only contested the championship when it has been convenient, and when their opportunity passes them by, they move on to another program with relatively little concern. This makes them more pretenders than actual heroes.
A proper protagonist should be singular in their focus on the ultimate goal, even in spite of trails and hardships laid before them. If Reigns’ destiny is winning the championship on the way to becoming the company’s new face, the audience should be aware that this objective is always in his periphery even when he’s caught up in, say, an interminable feud with Bray Wyatt and his “training wheels.” Everything he does should be a step toward that moment in the sun, and anything that isn’t is simply wasted motion.
Moreover, the story should focus on the hero’s struggle to succeed and not the inevitability of a villain’s failure. If one were to bastardize Joseph Campbell’s monomyth for the purposes of applying it to professional wrestling (and I may be the first), it might follow the pattern of a hero departing from a feud to pursue the world title, overcoming obstacles and conquering opponents along the way to the top contender spot, and ultimately winning that championship for the purposes of returning it to the people. This is the wrestling hero’s journey, and it is a journey that has been sorely missed on WWE programming for much of the past two years.
WWE’s last Campbellian hero was Daniel Bryan. Bryan, very much a David archetype against the WWE’s Goliath, was ostensibly pushed into his journey at the behest of The Herald — in this case, an audience that was rabid to see him get his due. Bryan answered the call and was spurred into facing WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, playing some combination of both the Mentor and Threshold Guardian archetypes, at SummerSlam 2013. Bryan conquered this challenge only to be betrayed by Triple H (The Shapeshifter), who acted accordingly because he felt that Randy Orton (The Adversary) would be better suited as the face of the WWE. Here, the WWE played the role of The Shadow — the story’s true antagonist, an overwhelming force focused on preventing Bryan from achieving the level of success for which the fans believed he was destined.
Bryan did succeed, however, and spectacularly so. His triumph in the main event of WrestleMania XXX was a victory earned almost entirely through the will of the audience, which is a significant reason why his championship win felt like a true catharsis; the audience was invested in Bryan’s story because they empathized with an undersized hero battling an overwhelming machine that didn’t want him to excel. The fans, in some ways, were Daniel Bryan. They felt his failures deeply, and they reveled gloriously in his successes.
Bryan’s story worked exceedingly well because it was spectator-participatory in a way that no WWE story has been in the time since. It was a narrative that had been building since Bryan lost the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in an (intentionally) embarrassing 18-second match at WrestleMania XXVIII and was immediately saved by thousands of fans who chanted for him by name. Two years later, those fans essentially carried him to the main event of the biggest show in professional wrestling by merely refusing to lose interest in him. It arguably proved to be WWE’s best-spun yarn in years — even if it was a story the company fought against having to tell with tooth and nail (and Batista). What’s more, it was less a story and more a journey, and one in which fans were completely along for the ride.
Since Bryan was forced to vacate the championship due to injury, no single character has approached that same level in terms of connection with the audience. It was a true case of capturing lightning in a bottle, but the brilliant part about it is that it followed a relatively simple formula. The template for Bryan’s success is easily observable and, with even a shred of prudence, replicable. Just look at what’s been done in NXT with Sami Zayn and Bayley; the journey can be repeated if you have the aptitude to understand why it works and how to do it again.
Today, there is no yin to Rollins’ yang. It very well could have been Ambrose — he was, for a time, receiving pretty incredible reactions across the board — but WWE’s insistence on being the primary manufacturer of one’s success in getting over set the ceiling on Ambrose’s achievement fairly low. The same was the case with Dolph Ziggler, who seemed primed for a similar journey after last year’s Survivor Series but quickly fell into mid-card oblivion for one reason or another.
Still, it’s less about finding a foe to pit against Rollins and more about finding a nemesis for WWE’s storyline corporate mechanism. Bryan’s story worked because it didn’t pit him against Orton, Batista, or even Triple H. It pitted him against the WWE itself, because the WWE is — and has been — the company’s one true villain for almost 20 years. Today, however, it seems unable to make up its mind about even that.
WWE as Primary Antagonist and Why It’s Not Working in 2015
As the WWF struggled to find its footing in late 1997 and early 1998, it put its weight behind emergent superstar “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who had himself made something of a wrestling hero’s journey from WrestleMania XIII to WrestleMania XIV. In that time, Austin had captured the zeitgeist by being brazenly anti-authority, and so it was only natural that his first major feud after winning the WWF Championship would be with a caricatured version of Vince McMahon and the equal-parts-stuffy-and-scummy corporate entity that he represented. This conflict worked exceedingly well, and it was a decisive factor in WWF turning the tide in the Monday Night War and developing into the juggernaut that it is today.
So successful was the Austin vs. McMahon dynamic that the company has attempted to replicate it over and over and over for the past 17 years. In some cases, some representative or extension of WWE Corporate plays the role of McMahon. In other cases, a McMahon plays that role. In all instances, the effect is not quite the same as it was in those early years.
WWE has built itself to be its own greatest villain for the better part of two decades, and it remains that way today with the continuance of on-screen authority figures and real-life executives Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. However, the current political landscape within and surrounding WWE has complicated this formula and diluted the effectiveness of WWE as its lead antagonist.
WWE needs to represent itself as a charitable company, and it does so frequently on the most visible platform it has: its weekly television programs. To bolster the effect of this, WWE also characterizes its employees as being equally benevolent, which works fine in the cases of on-screen heroes like Cena and Reigns. However, by depicting heels as being altruistic and generous in one segment and then expecting the audience to boo their underhanded antics in the next, WWE winds up self-cannibalizing its own narrative.
This effect is jarring enough when the subject is someone like Nikki Bella or The Miz, both of whom feature prominently in recaps of the company’s various acts of goodwill. It is increasingly more confounding — yet considerably more difficult to avoid — when the company’s top storyline villain also happens to be the most evident representative of its real-world corporate philanthropy: Stephanie McMahon.
Since being reinserted into weekly storylines in 2013, Stephanie has been the company’s chief antagonist, and an incredibly well-protected one at that. And, because she is the corporate face of the all-caring WWE, she has also been featured in nearly every segment run on Raw or Smackdown or various pay-per-views that spotlights the company’s efforts with terminally ill children or support of charitable causes. In many circumstances, these two portrayals of McMahon wind up existing on the same show. In some cases, they happen minutes apart.
This disparity creates something like wrestling’s equivalent of ludonarrative dissonance: the story leads the viewer to believe that Stephanie is the loathsome bully-in-power in spite of the frequent interloping of reality that reveals her to be anything but. Imagine a situation in 1998 where the grandiose Mr. McMahon mocking a crowd or thwarting Austin would be directly proceeded by footage of Vince McMahon shaking hands with troops and speaking humbly about their service.
This doesn’t have to be problematic for the narrative — Christopher Lee built a career playing villains in films, and he used that fame to advocate for children’s rights in his life away from the cameras. Lee, however, never once wiped off the pancake makeup halfway through a portrayal of Dracula to remind the viewing audience what a great human being he truly was before getting back to the business of sucking someone’s blood. And while a great many wrestling fans can make that distinction between storyline and reality, constant breaking of the fourth wall that confounds a character’s trajectory and pulls the audience screaming out of the narrative is a sign of bad storytelling regardless of the medium.
Even if this were not an issue, The Authority has been booked inconsistently enough for the past few months that it has confounded its position as the top villain. One week, Stephanie and Hunter are faces, the next week they’re heels, the next week Hunter is a face and Stephanie is a heel, the next week Hunter is a heel and Stephanie is mostly a heel but she cuts one face promo, etc. It’s difficult to expect the fans to keep up with character dynamics when they have the potential to shift three times in an hour.
This also doesn’t account for the fact that WWE, in so many ways, promotes itself as the star of the show. In 2015, World Wrestling Entertainment more often than not takes top billing over even the likes of Cena, The Rock, and Brock Lesnar. WWE promotes its product, its philosophy, and its philanthropy first; all others come second if they are even promoted at all. By this accord, WWE is pitting itself against itself by being its top star and its top villain simultaneously.
If WWE wants to position itself as being a social upstander on its weekly television programs, it’s going to become increasingly difficult to use that same platform to depict itself as the villainous top bad guy. WWE doesn’t have to take Triple H and Stephanie off television, but if they want to leave those characters occupying some strange gray area between good and evil, then it is imperative to create a strong main-event level heel to battle back the advances of a strong main-event level babyface. WWE has the right components, but they either haven’t been able to put them together or simply have forgotten how.
Seth Rollins as Unlikable Protagonist
If a story’s antagonist is charismatic enough a force, it can sustain the weight of a story on its own. The presence of the captivating and diabolical villain creates balance through conflict, and in stories where a hero must be chosen and subsequently pass a number of trials, it must also sustain as a point of focus while the hero takes their journey. The best Batman stories tend to pit him against The Joker and the Star Wars universe hinges on the battle between the Jedi and the Sith, but it’s not uncommon for functional and successful narratives to exist within those universes where the likes of Darth Vader and The Joker are the focal point.
Outside of Stephanie and Hunter, Seth Rollins is the most oft-featured talent on WWE television, typically showing up for the entirety of the first and final quarter-hours and appearing frequently in between. This, combined with Cena’s reduced role and the continued struggle to establish Reigns as a top star, suggests that it is Rollins who is the anti-hero protagonist of the WWE’s current narrative. And while Rollins is certainly charismatic in a number of ways, his booking as a perpetual loser makes it incredibly difficult for his character to sustain the narrative in a manner that will keep viewers hooked.
However, because of the combative nature of his relationship with The Authority of late, it’s entirely plausible that Rollins could very well develop into that conquering hero that WWE so desperately needs. Rollins’ standing as the corporate-backed face of the WWE has been eroding gradually as far back as May. Dissention between Rollins and Triple H and Stephanie foreshadows their eventual breakup on a nearly weekly basis, up to and including structuring the recent storyline with Sting around the idea of Rollins not being as great as Triple H. The machine behind Rollins seems almost indifferent to his existence at times and annoyed by it at others, which results in a confounding dynamic where the undeserving chickenshit heel champion is forced into disadvantageous situations by the very people who would presumably want to protect him the most.
Rollins is arguably among the most ineffectual heel champions ever booked by WWE, if only because it’s impossible to make a villain work if they lose nearly every battle they enter. The essence of an effective villain is wanting to see them toppled by the hero. There’s no heat building toward Rollins getting his comeuppance because he gets his comeuppance every single week on free television. WWE wants the weasely and cowardly Rollins to be its version of Joffrey Baratheon, but in having him lose nine of his last 10 televised matches, he’s more like their version of Henry Chinaski.
Yet, Rollins is consistently one of the most entertaining wrestlers on any given show. Though his 20-minute promos can be incredibly daunting exercises (more a knock on the writing and the paradigm of the 20-minute promo itself), Rollins has become exceptionally comfortable on the microphone. He’s also gotten quite good at pinpointing how to work a crowd — one need only watch the way he shut down an attempt at The Mexican Wave in the middle of his match with Cena at Night of Champions. Most important of all, whether he’s headlining a pay-per-view with Sting or wrestling Dean Ambrose in the middle of a throwaway Smackdown, Rollins puts everything he has into his matches. Of note, Rollins works a reckless-abandon style that is overwhelmingly babyface in nature and perfect for currying favor with fans.
This all makes sense if it foreshadows the next expected dynamic shift in Rollins’ character arc: when Rollins fails in his charge of keeping the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the court of The Authority, he will be cast out in favor of a new face of the future and positioned as the rising babyface looking for revenge against the machine that spurned him.
What’s more, the need for a strong heel to carry the title and fend off Rollins could be doubly advantageous if the kayfabe WWE front office’s chosen replacement for face of the company is the actual WWE front office’s chosen replacement for face of the company: Roman Reigns. By turning Roman heel and allowing him to better tap into some of his natural charisma, WWE has the potential to elevate Reigns’ star the same way a similar scenario elevated both The Rock and Triple H’s more than 15 years prior. What’s more, because Reigns is built the way he is, WWE could be less compelled to book him in a way that makes him look as weak as Rollins has, establishing him as a heel with a level of self-reliance that Rollins has never possessed. This, in effect, might allow the WWE to beg off of its dependence on a heeled-up version of itself as its main baddie.
This would give Rollins and Reigns the respective opportunities to become the emerging hero and the enduring, semi-independent villain that WWE sorely lacks, but only if WWE’s vaunted storytellers can properly connect the dots. It’s an easy enough template to follow, and it’s one that has helped make the careers of a not insignificant number of stars and guide the WWE through its boom period.
At Survivor Series 1998, Vince and Shane McMahon backed The Rock against Mankind in the finals of a tournament for the vacant WWF Championship, turning out the ever-unconventional Mick Foley in favor of the new “crown jewel” of its vision for a more perfect WWF. The formation of The Corporation positioned The Rock as a pawn of Vince and Shane who was nonetheless booked to be strong, and it helped catapult Foley into the position of being a top star, culminating in his infamous Schiavone-spoiled championship win on the first episode of Raw in 1999.
Despite three separate title reigns, The Rock was unable to get the better of Steve Austin six months later at WrestleMania XV, and less than a month after that loss, The Rock was dumped from The Corporation in favor of its new chosen son: Triple H. This catapulted The Rock, who had already been receiving favorable crowd reactions, into the position of the company’s next top face as he sought revenge against The Corporation and later the McMahon-Helmsley Faction.
By utilizing this simple story cycle, the WWF was able to build credible top stars who were ultimately capable of filling the vacuum at the top of the card when Austin was put on the shelf by lingering neck issues. There are impediments that could very well prevent this story from being told again with Rollins and Reigns — not the least of which being the company’s insistence on presenting Reigns as Cena’s heir-apparent in terms of public acts of charity and the hit that Rollins’ stock may be taking due to over-exposure and incessant losing.
But, to a point, it’s a story so simplistic that it’s almost impossible to tell without creating the desired effect. In the end, if whatever central story WWE creates ultimately fails in its charge, it’s worth remembering that a story is generally only as good as the author behind it. If the WWE prides itself as a great storyteller, but the stories it tells don’t work on a number of very basic levels, perhaps it’s time for the authors of those stories to consider doubling back and starting over with the fundamentals in mind.
The presale for WrestleMania 32 tickets will start on November 5th for the show that takes place on April 3, 2016 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
The password for the presale is RAWVIP, and the presale will start at 9 a.m. Central time.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m Central time on November 6th
The best tickets will be priced at $2,380 for the first eight rows of ringside, which will include a special stadium entrance and a WrestleMania folding chair.
Because they are going to attempt to sell more tickets than in prior years, the bottom price to get in is $18, the cheapest Mania ticket in several years. While they won’t put a legitimate 100,000 in the building, this show will almost certainly break the legitimate indoor attendance record for WWE, and they will almost certainly announce a number greater than the worked biggest attendance number in company history, 93,173 for WrestleMania III on March 29th, 1987.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.
WWE sent out a press release Monday afternoon listing former WWF Champion and legend “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as appearing on tonight’s edition of Monday Night RAW. Earlier today in ads for the show, Austin was not listed.
The press release was built around Brock Lesnar being both on Raw and on Austin’s podcast, but listed that Lesnar would be joined by Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Ric Flair on Raw.
Interestingly, the press release does not mention Undertaker as being on Raw, only mentioning him as being Lesnar’s opponent in the Hell in a Cell main event on Sunday. They also promoted that going forward, the Austin podcasts would feature “the biggest names in WWE as well as in the world of sports or entertainment”, which seems to indicate they are looking past just WWE talent and employees for future guests.
Keep up with tonight’s live coverage of RAW by Jeff Hamlin, hear our recap of the show on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio podcast, and be on the lookout for a recap of the Austin/Lesnar podcast by Bryan Rose later tonight.
The Big Takeaway: An unusual show, but a good one. The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair all appeared. Neither guise of Kane, who is wrestling the WWE World Heavyweight Champion on Sunday, showed up. There was an impromptu Shield reunion in the main event. Plus, the company had its top babyface appear in the opening segment, and never showed up again. And said babyface was treated as a heel.
Show Recap:
Steve Austin is out first. He talked about growing up in Texas going to the Sportatorium, where he got his start. Then he introduced the Undertaker.
Michael Cole and JBL billed the Undertaker’s match with Brock Lesnar as the final ever battle between the two men. Austin vanished as Undertaker made his entrance. The Dallas fans made the Undertaker the babyface, even though he’s been treated as a heel in the program. Undertaker said the depths of hell will look like the gates of heaven compared to where he’s going to take Brock Lesnar this Sunday.
Lesnar and Paul Heyman came out. Heyman cut his promo from the ramp. Heyman said his client wanted to gain revenge for the Undertaker’s tainted win at SummerSlam. He said after Undertaker losses this weekend, he’ll have to wonder what it’s like to live a legacy where he defeated everyone but Brock Lesnar.
Undertaker replied that when you take everything from a man, that man ends up fighting with nothing to lose. Undertaker motioned for Lesnar to come to the ring. Lesnar went to the ring despite the objections of Heyman. Lesnar jumped on the apron, laughed at the Undertaker, then jumped off. Heyman told Lesnar he did the right thing because now he’s in the Undertaker’s head. Crowd treated Lesnar as the heel and this was really good.
The rest of this show is going to be tough to live up to the opening segment because it will mainly feature characters we’ve seen for three hours every Monday night. Perhaps that’s why this segment opened the show, to sell the main event for this weekend before thousands of viewers switch to Monday Night Football.
The New Day’s promo included Big E. saying Everything is Booty in Texas, mentioning Dez Bryant’s foot and Tony Romo’s clavicle. Xavier Woods’ trombone was broken based on an angle on Smackdown where he used it against the Dudley Boyz.
The New Day defeated The Dudley Boyz and John Cena (8:35)
Woods pinned Devon Dudley with a schoolboy cradle while holding the trunks. John Cena did a rare plancha onto Big E., which distracted Devon. In the midst of all that, Kofi Kingston and Big E. rammed Bubba Ray Dudley into the post. Pretty good match where Big E. shook his ass several times while Cena was getting the heat.
Cole announced Randy Orton missed the tour of Mexico due to injury and wasn’t in the building tonight. They announced that Orton wouldn’t be at Hell in a Cell on Sunday, leaving Dean Ambrose without a partner for his tag team match against Braun Strowman and Luke Harper. Ambrose was shown talking to Dean Malenko and Fit Finley in the back.
Renee Young interviewed her boyfriend, who claimed that the Wyatt Family injured Orton and challenged Harper and Strowman to a fight tonight.
Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox defeated Naomi and Sasha Banks (8:48)
Nikki Bella pinned Naomi after the Rack Attack. Alicia Fox looked pretty good, including a spinning backbreaker on Naomi. Sasha Banks and Nikki had some rough spots during the hot tag sequence. Match was just there.
On an interview on Smackdown, Nikki Bella apparently said “Divas Revolution? No. It’s the Bellas’ Evolution.” You know things are bad when they’re lifting catchphrases from 1999 WCW factions that failed (I know, that’s being redundant). One that included Malenko and Shane Douglas, no less.
They announced that Corporate Kane has been suspended after a closed door meeting with the Authority for tonight’s show after his actions last week. This was an announcement made on the company website.
Shawn Michaels came out to a surprisingly tepid reaction. Michaels took a bite from a kid’s pizza on the way to the ring. Apparently, it went down the wrong way because he coughed throughout the interview. He brought up being in the first Hell in a Cell match against the Undertaker, and the 18th anniversary of that match will be this Sunday. Then he brought up Roman Reigns also being in a Hell in a Cell match against Bray Wyatt, and he believed those two matches will tear the house down.
Seth Rollins came out. The two went nose-to-nose and the crowd chanted for a match against them. Rollins said Michaels was supposed to introduce him. Michaels said he’s been getting instructions from the back for 20 years, then he forgets them once he gets to the ring. Rollins said Michaels got the order from his best friend, HHH. Rollins said he was the one who was going to stop the show this Sunday. Rollins billed himself as Shawn Michaels 2.0, but he was better than the original.
Michaels said if he had a nickel for every time he heard that he heard that someone was going to be the second coming of Shawn Michaels, he would be a billionaire. Michaels cut a promo that seemed aimed at various people that said he never once wanted to be the second coming of someone else when he was the greatest wrestler who ever lived.
Michaels brought up Kane. Rollins cut a promo on Kane, then requested to have his music played so he could leave. Michaels said the problem with being the second coming of anyone is they never listen to anything you say compared to an original. Michaels told Rollins that he had an match coming up next against Ryback, then asked to hit his music. Which they did. Great segment by Michaels.
Seth Rollins defeated Ryback (4:02)
Rollins worked over Ryback’s ribs, including a nice tope where Ryback landed against the announcers table. Ryback made a comeback, but Rollins kicked him in the ribs and pinned him clean with a pedigree.
Members of the Dallas Cowboys were shown at ringside.
They showed an angle from Smackdown where Summer Rae was a special referee for a match with Dolph Ziggler and Rusev. Rae helped Ziggler win. Afterwards, Rae came onto him, but Dolph said he wasn’t interested in being used.
King Barrett, Rusev and Sheamus defeated Neville, Dolph Ziggler and Cesaro (12:52)
King Barrett pinned Ziggler after Barrett kicked out of a cradle, and Ziggler wound up against the ropes where Sheamus gave him a Brogue Kick outside the ring. Neville worked almost the entire match, getting the heat after Rusev knocked him off the apron with a forearm into the announce table. At one point, Neville did a somersault plancha onto Rusev and Cesaro. There was nothing at all regarding Rusev’s romantic life, aside from Cole mentioning he’s now engaged. While Neville was getting the heat and Rusev pounded away on him, the fans chanted “USA.” At that moment, the only American in the ring was the referee.
Ric Flair didn’t even get a ring entrance for his appearance. He didn’t seem to know he was on camera and waited forever to start his promo. Flair brought up the Von Erichs and the Freebirds. Flair announced that Ambrose had found a tag team partner in Roman Reigns, which was strange since it was announced earlier that Ambrose would face Harper and Strowman alone.
Reigns came out. I guess they just used Flair to help Reigns get cheered because he disappeared after the Wyatt Family magically appeared on the ramp. Eric Rowan was back with the Wyatt Family with no explanation as to why he’s back with them, or why he’s even a heel.
Reigns pulled out two chairs and sat down in the middle of the ring. Reigns called out Wyatt to sit down in the other empty chair. Wyatt sat down in the chair, and Reigns told him face-to-face that Wyatt was a bully and his digs power by fear. He said Wyatt was afraid of being alone, and he was scared of Reigns.
Reigns kept poking at Wyatt until they wound up in fistacuffs. It ended up with Reigns using a chair across Wyatt’s back, and another chair to the shoulder of Rowan. Ambrose ran down to back up his partner.
Rollins, Stephanie McMahon and HHH watched this from the back. Michaels walked in. HHH talked about how they didn’t want Reigns and Ambrose to face Harper, Rowan and Strowman in a handicap match tonight. Michaels suggested Rollins be the third partner. Shawn insuinated it may be too heavy a load for Rollins to handle since he already wrestled tonight. Rollins objected to that and said he would join Reigns and Ambrose tonight in the main event. I can’t believe they would give away a Shield reunion on an one-off show. Wait, when did this become a six-man?
Charlotte (C) defeated Brie Bella via submission in a nontitle match (5:31)
Charlotte won with the Figure Eight. Nikki posed with Charlotte’s Divas title for heat. Probably the deadest match of the night so far.
Paige watched the match from the back. Young asked Paige if she was the person if she was the person who attacked Natalya on Smackdown. Paige didn’t answer. Young pressed her for a honest response. Paige said it could have been anyone, bringing up past names like Kaitlyn and Eve Torres, or Lita, Trish Stratus or even Alundra Blaze. Paige heeled on Young saying she was no Erin Andrews and she wasn’t as cute. Actually, Young did a better job asking questions than Andrews ever has. Granted, they were scripted questions, but still. Paige even called her Sally Jesse Raphael at one point. Is this 1985 again?
Kevin Owens (C) defeated Mark Henry in a nontitle match (3:38)
Kevin Owens was very good in getting heat since Mark Henry was in his home state. Henry seemed more animated, at one point screaming at Owens that he had been a bully in this company for 18 years. Owens actually got Henry up for the Pop-Up Power Bomb and the pin.
Ryback came out to go after Owens, who slid out of the ring. Henry threw Owens back in, and Ryback power bombed Owens.
Young asked Rollins about reuniting with the Shield. Rollins laughed that off and said he just wanted to prove to HHH and Michaels that he was the man. He said if Ambrose and Reigns wanted to relive the past, he would destroy them again.
The Wyatt Family defeated Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose by DQ (14:05)
The match ended when Strowman put the head and arm choke on Regins. Ambrose couldn’t budge Strowman, so he pulled out a kendo stick and repeatedly whacked Strowman with it. Strowman didn’t sell that and broke the stick over his knee. Ambrose tried to give Strowman a tope, but Strowman caught him and rammed his back into the ring apron. Reigns followed with a tope where he cleared the top rope by plenty onto the Wyatts. The final sequence appeared screwed up. Reigns gave Wyatt a spear, but Rowan fell over them. Reigns ended it by giving Rowan a spear.
Earlier in the match, Ambrose tried to make a hot tag. Strowman had tripped Reigns off the apron and thrown him into the barricade. That left Rollins, but just as Ambrose got to the corne, Rollins faked a knee injury. Wow, he really does want to be the next Shawn Michaels. Rollins walked out.
Crowd was so hungry for a Shield reunion, they chanted “This is Awesome” before the match started. When the Wyatts had a face-to-face staredown with Reigns and Ambrose, Rollins just stayed back and left his teammates hanging. Then he stepped up and stared down Rowan, and the crowd roared. Then Rollins told his teammates to get out of the ring because he was the architect. When Rollins saw Rowan was going to start the match, he tagged out.
SUMMARY: A good show, although I sense this was one of those shows where the main event was rewritten several times. Almost all the matches were solid. I still don’t think the Lesnar-Undertaker buildup has the juice it should have going into Hell in a Cell, but it was rushed since it was announced for HIAC to begin with.
At Sunday’s Progress Wrestling show in London, England, promoter Jim Smallman strongly hinted Tommaso Ciampa was WWE-bound.
Smallman said that he had talked with a friend from Blackpool, clearly meaning William Regal, and said that Ciampa’s last match would be on the company’s 11/23 show against Marty Scurll.
The 30-year-old Boston native, who had lost to Mark Haskins and was still in the ring at the time of the announcement, thanked the fans for their support and told them that he’d see them on television very soon.
Ciampa and Johnny Gargano have been working on NXT television, which tapes again this coming Thursday. Ciampa did well in the battle royal on this past week’s NXT, outlasting most of the contracted talent in it, which seemed to be a sign he was strong on the radar.
According to those close to the situation, Ciampa has not signed a WWE deal at this time.
WWE Main Event from Cincinnati featured Team Bella against Team BAD in a tag team match. Also, Adam Rose sang acapella while introducing himself on the way to being mauled. Likewise, the Cosmic Connection continue to drift in the universe as they collide with the remnants of a once popular dance craze.
Stardust (with The Ascension) beat Fandango
Before the wrestling began, a brief dance-off broke out for a few moments. No decisive winner in that contest but they started the match nonetheless. Stardust kept resorting to devious methods. Nevertheless, Fandango kept gaining the momentum throughout the match until Stardust sent Fandango sailing through the ropes and out to the floor. The Ascension at ringside started to close in on Fandango and Stardust went jumping over the ropes to the outside. Fandango somehow managed to escape and roll back in the ring where he started Fandangoing to taunt the villains before a commercial.
After the break, Fandango and Stardust slugged it out for several moments then quickened the pace. Ascension caused a distraction at ringside, allowing Stardust to gain an underhanded advantage. The dastardly Stardust began to pummel and work over a downed Fandango. After snapping Stardust on the top rope, Fandango started a comeback and fired up. Fandango jumped off the top for an attempted legdrop but missed. Stardust executed a disaster kick followed by the Queen’s Crossbow for the pinfall.
Backstage, Renee Young interviewed Team Bella. Brie basically said despite all the new divas trying to take the Bellas’ spot, the Team Bella is stronger than ever. Her and Alicia Fox mocked Team PCB. Fozzy called them “Team PMS” and a “hot mess.” Brie agreed but added all the divas were a hot mess as she brought up Team BAD. Nikki chimed in to say the new divas were spoiled brats. She also warned Charlotte about reclaiming her title at Hell in a Cell. Nikki concluded by saying it wasn’t a divas revolution, it was the Bellas evolution.
Ryback beat Adam Rose
Since the split from the Rosebuds, Rose sported trunks, a vest and eyeglasses as sang his name acapella repeatedly while doing his own introduction. It was as if he was attempting to sing his name in scales. The “Feed Me More” theme song and the Ryback entrance interrupted Rose’s singing act. In the match, Ryback basically mauled him. Rose cut him off briefly only to get mauled some more.
At one point, Rose attempted to sneak up on Ryback then begged off when his plot was foiled. Rose bailed out and starting running around the ring. Ryback gave chase and was cut off trying to get back in the ring. That delayed the mauling briefly yet Ryback hoisted Rose up for a delayed vertical suplex. Jimmy Uso on commentary said Rose should “just run,” which was probably solid advice judging by the story of the match up to that point. However, the tide changed after Ryback crashed into a ring post.
Rose began to kick and stomp at Ryback then delivered a missile dropkick off the middle rope. Rose dove off the top rope with an elbow smash for a two count. When Rose was applying a sleeper hold, Ryback led the crowd in chants of “feed me more” as he jacked Rose’s jaw. Ryback pounded his chest and signaled for his finisher. Following a meathook clothesline, Ryback used the Shell Shock for the pin.
Team Bella (Brie and Nikki Bella with Alicia Fox) beat Team BAD (Naomi & Tamina with Sasha Banks)
With Jimmy Uso on commentary with Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips, Uso openly cheered for his wife. They also put over Sasha Banks and her iron man match from Takeover. The crowd chanted “we want Sasha.” Brie and Tamina started the match but Brie quickly tagged out after being overpowered. Nikki was also overpowered by Tamina. Naomi tagged in and moments later did a tilt-a-whirl headscissors that sent Nikki to the outside. Nikki was crawling back to the ring before a commercial.
Following the break, Naomi was on offense until Nikki cut her off and snapped her arm on the top rope. Nikki distracted the referee as Brie stomped Naomi’s hand on the apron. Brie tagged in and began to work the arm of Naomi. The Bellas got heat on Naomi. She got a hope spot when she knocked Nikki down with a kick. Brie ran across the ring to knock Tamina off the apron and break up the attempted tag. Jimmy Uso referred to the Bellas as veterans. A handheld camera picked up Brie calling a spot with a running knee strike.
Eventually, Naomi made a hot tag to Tamina and she ran wild. Nikki jumped in to break up a pin attempt and she also elbowed Naomi, who rolled to the outside. Nikki walked into a superkick from Tamina. Uso called it a “superkick party.” Nevertheless, Brie gave Tamina the X-factor a moment later for the pinfall.
Typical house show match, Harper & Kane started, Harper took a powder or two, when Kane gained a clear advantage a few minutes in he gave the tag to Taker, Taker did his punches in the corner spot including scaring the ref, hit old-school at the second attempt, Strowman came in, Taker took his first of two bumps during the match off a running shoulder block from Strowman, sold for a minute or two on the mat and in the corners, hit his leaping clothesline on Harper for the transition, tagged in Kane, Kane took the long straight heat, teased the hot tag twice and got it at the third attempt, Taker house of fire, Harper fed him, punch, bump, punch, bump, snake eyes, running boot, leg drop, choke slam, double choke slam attempt on Strowman, broke the grip, Strowman dumped to the outside by both, Kane follows, discuss clothesline on Taker, Harper goes to follow-up, Hell’s Gate for the finish.
Seen worse, Taker moved well, Strowman didn’t do much nor did he bump IIRC. Assume will be the same on the other show.
Adam Rose went out on a stretcher today and his match with Fandango was stopped abruptly. We are told Rose is now fine now, and it was described as him getting his bell rung.
1.Hugo Knox beat Riddick Moss (new Mike Rallis name)
2.Marcus Louis w/Sylvester Lefort loses to bull Dempsey. Louis dropped the monster gimmick. Good move.
El Jefe Levis Venezuela came out for a promo about fiestas, and was interrupted by Tom Caden. Crazy big dude, who proceeded to join in on the fiesta.. Not bad.
Asuka, Carmella, and a girl who’s name I didn’t catch beat Emma, Cameron, and Peyton. Cameron didn’t look like she wanted to be there. Asuka got a big reaction.
Baron Corbin beats Angelo Dawkins- it could have been quicker?
Match of the night was a fatal four way tag with The Vaudevillains beating Jordan and Gable, Blake and Murphy, and the Hype Bros. Blake and Murphy are can’t miss live, highly entertaining and engaging with the audience. When Gable came in, they put on ear guards. Pin comes with a whirling dervish to BAMF.
Apollo Crews beats Dino Sabetelli.. Both guys are super athletes.
Bayley beats Eva Marie in a not bad match. Bayley definitely carried her through, but Eva Marie did her part, she needs get her arm drags down though, very lazy and not in anyway believable.
Main Event was Samoa Joe beating Tye Dellinger. Great Match. Fun to listen to the sounds of a Joe match in the front row. The crowd was full by appearance and kept the excitement up thoughout.
