Category: WWE News

By Steve Khan, WrestlingObserver.com

– Air Date: August 6, 2015 (Aug 5 in Canada)

– Location: Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, CA

The Big News:

After Charlotte submitted champion Nikki Bella on Raw, Naomi pinned Charlotte tonight. Also, Roman Reigns pinned Rusev clean.

Show Recap:

SmackDown opened with the Roddy Piper tribute graphic and video, greeted with cheers from the crowd.

Roman Reigns came out as they announced Reigns vs. Rusev for tonight. The first thing Reigns did was shout out to Sacramento. Reigns said he thought he’d be getting Bray Wyatt one-on-one at Battleground but Wyatt decided to have a family reunion with Luke Harper.

Reigns is cool with having family vs. family and challenged them to a tag match at SummerSlam with his “psychotic brother” Dean Ambrose. Reigns said Wyatt would be picking teeth out of his beard if they accept.

Rusev and Summer Rae interrupted, staying on the stage. Rusev told Reigns to get out. Reigns said nobody wanted to hear Rusev talk about Summer, who he dresses up like Barbie doll. That was funny, but the rest of Reigns’ promo was pretty dumb. Reigns said that we’re in America, which means we can’t understand what Rusev was saying, and called him a sexist pig.

They announced Charlotte vs. Naomi.

The New Day was walking backstage towards Gorilla. Big E saw a stagehand and made him do the clap. As the guy did this, Xavier Woods held up a toy basketball net over his head and Kofi Kingston dunked on him. Big E and Woods joyfully screamed and carried Kofi away he looked on proudly. This was amazing.

Mark Henry & Prime Time Players beat The New Day via pinfall

Darren Young hit an apron backdrop on Kingston and gave Woods an overhead belly-to-belly on the outside. After a break, the good guys worked over Kingston until he was able to tag Big E and the heels got the heat on Young from there.

O’Neil got the hot tag and ran over everyone. Young took out Big E with a neck breaker, O’Neil knocked out Woods with a pounce, and Henry used the World’s Strongest Slam on Kingston for the win. Good match. New Day work really well as a team and this probably wasn’t the time for them to lose.

Backstage, New Day complained about Mark Henry’s continued existence. Rich Brennan asked about their loss. They were all fired up and pissed that Henry was even in there, because he’s not a tag team champion, and should’ve retired a long time ago.

Big E referred to Brennan as Rick Bronson (I think) and told him to stop pointing the finger of negativity at them. They went nuts saying they would remain positive. They also started singing a new song, which I hope we see on Raw.

As they sang, Kingston grabbed the mic from Brennan who exited the frame. Kingston then tried to take the mic away as they left, but the mic wire was connected to Brennan who was pulled back onto camera. He looked on in disbelief as New Day left, still singing. This was amazing.

Charlotte video package. Charlotte thinks she can be the biggest star in the company and will main event WrestleMania, comparing herself to Ronda Rousey.

Charlotte (w/Becky Lynch) beat Naomi (w/Tamina & Sasha Banks) via DQ

They traded some athletic counters as the commentators talked about Rousey’s win. Charlotte quickly applied the Figure Eight, but Sasha interfered for a DQ. Lynch made the save and the referee announced via The Authority (or the ghost of Teddy Long) that the match would be restarted as a tag match. Commercial break.  

Naomi & Sasha Banks (w/Tamina) beat Charlotte & Becky Lynch via pinfall

This was the top of the hour segment. Lynch and Charlotte were in control but Tamina interfered and Team B.A.D. got the heat on Charlotte. Lynch got the hot tag and hit a T-bone suplex on Naomi, but Banks broke it up.

The heels got the heat again, this time on Lynch, and went to commercial. Charlotte got the hot tag and hit a spear on Banks but Naomi broke it up. Naomi just continued in the match even though she wasn’t legal and the commentators acknowledged this. Charlotte tried a rollup but Naomi reversed into a rollup of her own for the win. The crowd seemed into the faces but the finish fell flat.

They recapped the Rollins/Neville match from Raw and plugged Stephen Amell for Raw.

Stardust beat Zack Ryder via pinfall

Stardust won with Cross Rhodes/Queen’s Crossbow. After the match, Stardust called out Amell and told him not to let him down like Neville did.

They replayed some of Paul Heyman’s promo from Raw.

Big Show did a good little promo backstage, mockingly comparing Ryback to Rocky Balboa, while doing a Rocky impression. Show said Ryback’s next movie would be “Vacation,” and that Miz only has a part-time role in this match. Show said beating them would be a movie worth watching.

Roman Reigns beat Rusev (w/Summer Rae) via pinfall

Jimmy Uso said Reigns has aligned with someone who he knows will watch his back in Dean Ambrose (unlike his cousin Jimmy Uso). Rusev had control through a commercial break but missed a diving headbutt.

They traded punches and Reigns hit a clothesline. Reigns used a clothesline in the corner, followed by a clothesline, and then another clothesline, and then nine clotheslines in the corner, followed by a punch and apron dropkick.

Rusev came back with a spinning heel kick for two. Rusev used knees in the corners but Reigns hiked him up into a sitdown powerbomb, which was pretty impressive. Rusev hit a superkick but Reigns followed with a superman punch and they both collapsed.

Summer got on the apron and Lana ran out to a big pop. Lana slapped Summer, laughed and walked away. This distracted Rusev so Reigns used a school boy but Rusev kicked out and followed with a superkick. What a fighter. Unfortunately for Rusev, Reigns was able to come back with a spear for the win.

This was fine, although it’s too bad Rusev is losing now that he’s better than ever.

As Reigns celebrated, Wyatt appeared on the screen. Wyatt said he warned Reigns that he would bring down Roman’s empire and accepted his challenge for SummerSlam. “I welcome this war.”

Final Thoughts:

The SmackDown crew appears to be getting lighter every week. Reigns and Rusev were really the only “top” level guys on the show, and they were both used in the beginning and end of the show. The New Day really stole the show as a result.

I didn’t like the booking of the women’s match. They announced Charlotte vs. Naomi near the beginning of the show, but the match ended quickly after a DQ. The tag match was given time, which is good, but from beginning to end the whole thing felt like it was being drawn out, another result of the light crew. And after all that, Charlotte lost after sort of getting screwed. There’s no reason she should’ve lost at all.

– WWE Tough Enough last night did 856,000 viewers, down from 980,000 last week.

– Total Divas, on the other hand, did 1.012 million viewers, only a slight drop from 1.083 million viewers the previous week.

Results from tonight’s tapings in Sacramento, CA, to air in Canada Wednesday and in the U.S. Thursday:

– Roman Reigns opened with a promo noting he will face Rusev. He also said he and Dean Ambrose will challenge Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper at SummerSlam.

– Mark Henry & WWE Tag Team Champions Prime Time Players b New Day when Henry pinned Kingston with the world’s strongest slam.

– Charlotte NC Naomi.  Sasha Banks interfered and Becky Lynch saved.

– Sasha Banks & Naomi b Charlotte & Becky Lynch when Naomi pinned Charlotte with a small package.

– Stardust b Zack Ryder

– Big Show did a interview.  He talked about his match at SummerSlam which will be a three-way with Ryback and Miz for the IC title.

– Roman Reigns b Rusev with a spear.  Summer Rae tried to interfere but Lana stopped her. Bray Wyatt accepted the challenge for SummerSlam.

By: Kenneth Nida wrestlingobserver.com

Last week saw the shocking elimination of Mada after the Miz foolishly used his 1 save on Amanda. Cesaro made a brief guest appearance during the first challenge, and Team BAD appeared for Tamina Snuka to give each of the female competitors a Snuka Splash from the top rope.  

We open the show and it’s revealed the Miz will be a judge once again this week. The judges speak to each of the competitors, offering words of advice. We go back to the barracks after last week’s elimination where ZZ is upset with all the other competitors saying he should go home.

This week’s challenge theme is teamwork. To warm up, the competitors run the ropes, which ZZ has trouble with. The challenge involves the paired contestants working together to perform a minute of wrestling moves they planned out in advance. Amanda is completely thrown off by Chelsea’s selling, which she blames her mistakes on.

Josh and Tanner are playing pool together. Josh offers Tanner some advice on talking to women by roleplaying. Gigi talks to Sara, telling her she dropped her on her head. They tease Sara and Gigi being in the bottom 3 tonight. ZZ is in the gym with Josh working out. Josh is impressed with ZZ doing what he said he’d do.

The Prime Time Players are the Superstar guests for the week. The competitors are put into two teams, and have to work together to put out a building that’s on fire (in a controlled environment). ZZ reveals he was a volunteer firefighter so he knows what he’s doing. The first team completes the challenge in 12:02 after working together well. They oddly don’t reveal the second team’s time, but say they did okay. Team 1 ends up winning.

The competitors talk to each other, Josh and Tanner offering ZZ advice. Amanda brings up how Chelsea’s selling threw her off during the challenge. This devolves into a shouting match. The judges comment on how the men are doing much better at displaying teamwork, while the women seemingly all attempt to sabotage each other. It’s revealed that John Cena will be the guest on next week’s episode. Grilling the contestants, the Miz starts by saying Amanda let his compliment go to her head and that he created a monster by saving her. Paige calls out Chelsea for throwing her partner off with her selling during the challenge. Daniel Bryan calls out Sara Lee for not apologizing to Gigi when one of her slams scared her.

For the bottom 3 Daniel Bryan chooses Gigi, Paige chooses Sara Lee, and the Miz chooses Chelsea. Each competitor gets 30 seconds to plead their case. Paige uses her save on Gigi. Sara Lee gets 53% of the vote, Gigi gets 23% of the vote, and because Paige saved Gigi, Chelsea goes home with 25% of the vote.

For the second week in a row the judges have ended up saving the person who the fans like the least. Chelsea was the only person left in the competition with any wrestling experience, and she was essentially punished for it because of her selling. I also find it odd that the Miz said he chose Amanda for the bottom 3 when they were grilling the contestants, but after a commercial break chooses Chelsea.

Raw did 3.70 million viewers last night, virtually identical to last week’s 3.68 million, so the expected bump of a Roddy Piper tribute show probably meant little outside of a slight bump to the first hour as compared to the summer average.

8 p.m. 3.74 million viewers

9 p.m. 3.70 million viewers

10 p.m. 3.67 million viewers

The obviously printed and handed out Cesaro sections all over the lower bowl of the SAP Center were not produced by WWE to promote him, but it was actually a fan who printed out a ton of Cesaro section signs and passed them out to fans himself at the show.

STEPHEN AMELL TO GUEST STAR ON WWE® MONDAY NIGHT RAW®

STAMFORD, Conn., August 3, 2015 – Actor Stephen Amell, who plays the title role on the hit series Arrow, will guest star on WWE’s Monday Night Raw next Monday, August 10, at 8/7C on USA Network.  After several visits to Monday Night Raw, Amell will be appearing as a guest star for the first time.

Based on characters from DC Comics, Arrow tells the story of billionaire Oliver Queen who, after being gone for five years and suffering unimaginable ordeals, returned home to Starling City with a mysterious agenda and a set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime as “The Arrow” in this hard-hitting action series.

Next up for Amell is the role of Casey Jones in Paramount Pictures’ and Nickelodeon Movies’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.  Produced by Michael Bay, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 opens in theaters Summer 2016.

Monday Night Raw is the longest-running, weekly episodic program in U.S. primetime TV history and is one of the most-watched, regularly scheduled programs on cable, airing live every Monday night on USA Network.  Each week, it is rated one of the most socially active shows on cable television and continues to be a “must-stop” for celebrities to reach WWE’s TV audience and its more than half a billion social media followers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2015
**MEDIA ALERT**
Private Roddy Piper Memorial at The World Famous Comedy Store in Hollywood,
Planned for August 17, 2015

A private memorial is in the works for beloved pro wrestler, actor and comedian “Rowdy” Roddy
Piper who passed away last week at his home in Hollywood, California. Set to take place
Monday, August 17th at The Comedy Store, this private memorial will include friends from all
facets of Roddy Piper’s life and career which ran the gamut of wrestling, acting, stand up
comedy, live and broadcast TV, film and numerous business and charitable ventures. His
closest friends/colleagues in L.A. will share stories and experiences about Roddy over the
years.

Organizer and Roddy Piper friend, comic Steve Simeone said of the event “The Comedy Store
is the adopted home of so many ‘comic orphans’ and Roddy became like a dad or big brother to
all of us. He became family. I wanted to have a get together where we could get up and share
our favorite stories about this incredible man who we all love and will miss greatly. This is a
night for Roddy’s friends to celebrate what a great friend he was to all of us.”

Roddy Piper’s daughter, actress Ariel Teal Toombs had this to say about the memorial, “I know
a lot of people wanting something like this in L.A., especially because the funeral will be up in
Oregon and a lot of folks won’t be able to make that trip. It means a lot that Steve and the
Comedy Store family are putting this together.”

Memorial co-organizer, Pro Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts agent, producer and longtime friend of Piper, Rick Bassman commented, “Roddy’s sudden death has hit all in the Pro Wrestling and MMA worlds pretty hard. I’m very grateful that the Comedy Store is doing this and we intend to see that Roddy is remembered in a way that would make him proud.”

Also helping to organize this send off is Mitch Ackerman, Roddy’s best friend who remarked, “I
appreciate all the love and support from all the friends and fans of Roddy’s. Other than Madison
Square Garden I don’t think there is a more appropriate place to have this memorial than at the
Comedy Store ”

The Toombs family also wants the worldwide public who can’t attend his private funeral or
memorial to know that a moment of silence is planned August 11th at 10 am PST. Details here:
http://j.mp/RoddyPiper_MomentOfSilence
###
Contact: Noelle Kim NKPR
(310) 8493444
ProducerNoelle@gmail.com

courtesy WWE.com

by Jeff Hamlin. WrestlingObserver.com 

The Big Takeaway: 

The biggest news is the Seth Rollins-John Cena match at SummerSlam will be a Title vs. Title match. Rollins made it clear that the championships aren’t being unified, just that someone was walking out of Brooklyn as the WWE World Heavyweight and U.S. Champion. Rollins and Neville had the weekly 4-star open challenge match and Paul Heyman cut his monthly candidate for promo of the year. 

Show Recap: 

The entire roster stood out on the ramp, many of them wearing “Hot Rod” shirts, for a 10-bell salute to Roddy Piper. Bagpipes played as they faded to a tribute video. All of his famous Piper’s Pit moments were shown, including several still photos of Piper with Hulk Hogan. Another wonderful tribute to someone gone far too soon.  

Seth Rollins came out. He was smiling after watching repeated highlights of him breaking John Cena’s nose last week. Rollins said he was too sympathetic for his own good, and last week was a good example when he broke Cena’s nose. He got a noticable amount of cheers and “Thank you Rollins” chants. 

He sbowed several photos of Cena’s crooked nose after the match, and asked who wouldn’t feel sympathy for a face like that? Rollins wanted to stop the match immediately after Cena suffered the injury, but his sympathy and the referee allowed the match to continue. It was his sympathy that allowed Cena to win, but he will never let his guard down ever again. 

Rollins challenged Cena to a title vs. title match at SummerSlam, winner takes all. If Cena doesn’t have the guts to show up, he can just forfeit the U.S. Championship, but someone will hold both the WWE and U.S. Championships at the same time. 

Rollins said this was the site of his WWE World Heavyweight Championship victory at WrestleMania in April, then issued a WWE World Heavyweight Championship open challenge. 

For some reason, Jojo was in the ring to interview Rollins after a commercial. Rollins changed the rules and said there were two rules for the challenger….they had to be under 6-feet tall and under 200-pounds. They played El Torito’s music, but Neville came out instead to answer the challenge. So happy Vince could remind us that he could never get Floyd Meaweather, Connor McGregor, George St. Pierre or Uriah Faber over as money drawing stars. 

Seth Rollins (C) defeated Neville to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (13:04) 

Very good match where Neville missed a 2nd Red Arrow and Rollins hit the Pedigree for the pin. Neville hit a Red Arrow and fans thought it was going to be a title switch, but Rollins got his boot on the ropes. What was really strange was Neville didn’t look very much shorter than Rollins. Somebody watched their G1 this week, as Rollins debuted the Hiroshi Tanahashi Slingblade during the heat. Neville followed with a reverse Frankensteiner which the crowd brought for a near fall. Nevile used a jackknife cradle for another near fall, so close the referee had to noticeably hold up his count, which the fans gave him grief about. 

The “Did You Know” feature mentioned Daniel Bryan’s book being a New York Times bestseller. Wait, they promoted Bryan’s book? Isn’t that a fireable offense?  

The New Day and the Ascension defeated Los Matadores and Lucha Dragons (8:21)

Kofi Kingston pinned Kalisto after Xavier Woods distracted him, despite Toritio tripping him from the apron. Diego and Fernando hit stereo topes on Konnor and Viktor. Titus O’Neal and Darren Young were on commentary again. O’Neal asked Byron Saxton if he had a girlfriend, which he didn’t answer. 

Charlotte and Becky Lynch defeated The Bella Twins via submission (13:09)

Charlotte got the hot tag and made Nikki Bella tapout to the Figure 8. Michael Cole mentioned that Charlotte, Paige and Becky Lynch have dubbed themselves the “Submission Sorority.” Crowd was dead. The NXT Divas already feel like just another part of the show instead of something relevant. 

Jojo talked with Team BAD, who were watching from the back. Alicia Fox objected to Jojo’s question about Charlotte, Lynch and Paige taking over the Divas Division. Fox mentioned she made Paige tapout last week. Naomi said she was going to challenge Paige to a match tonight. Naomi also brought up Ronda Rousey, whose name got a huge pop. Naomi said they were the baddest women on the planet. They can’t even top Rousey on the mic. 

It was time for MizTV, and the Miz did a tribute to Piper’s Pit. He looked a little emotional about it. He went back heel and cut a promo on Ryback, saying he should forfeit the I-C title like Bryan did. Kevin Owens came out as a guest. Owens said he owned every single one of the Miz’s movies on Blu Ray.  

Owens said Cesaro was jealous of him. Cesaro came out with fans holding up “Cesaro Section” signs. Owens said Cesaro will never match his god given ability for this business. Cesaro said he was ashamed of Owens because he keeps walking away from matches. He called him embarrassment. Owens got up, and the chair stuck to Owens’ rear end. Cesaro challenged him to a fight. Owens said he’ll fight anyone, anytime, for the right price. But the price wasn’t tonight. Cesaro said Owens was about to do what he does best, which is “Walk, Owens, Walk.” Owens hit Cesaro from behind, but Cesaro recovered and tried to give him the Cesaro Swing, but Owens…well, walked.  

They showed a clip of Rousey’s postfight promo from Saturday night dedicating the fight to Piper. They keep enticing Ronda for WrestleMania.  

Rusev defeated Mark Henry (2:05)

Rusev got the pin clean with a Thurst Kick on Mark Henry. He delivered another one after the match. Summer Rae continues to do Lana mannerisms. I’m surprised she hasn’t copied the “Rusev Crush” line. 

In a clear reponse to the Investment Caller’s Call, JBL held up signs showing how much money people will save if they just watch SummerSlam through the WWE Network instead of on PPV. Then, in an attempt to entice people to buy the network, they showed a hot angle from 1985 Mid South Wrestling. Ummm….no…they really showed a scene from Swerved. Sort of like if the NBA Network debuted tomorrow, and instead of showing highlights from the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers, they showed clips from the 2015 Los Angeles Lakers. 

Bray Wyatt held a flower is a symbol of beauty, but if you remove all of its pedals, it becomes a troublesome weed. He said Roman Reigns has become their symbol of beauty, but he’s really do different from anybody else. Sheamus someone found his way into the Wyatt Liar and said he was going to drive his Brogue Kick into Randy Orton’s face tonight. Bray said the Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend, so tonight Sheamus was his friend. 

King Barrett defeated Zack Ryder (1:53)

Zack Ryder went for the Rough Ryder, but Barrett dipped under it and pinned him after the Bullhammer Elbow. Last half hour wil likely not be shown on the 90 minute versions of Raw. 

Paul Heyman was in the ring and showed the footage of the Undertaker jumping Brock Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said Undertaker can’t live with himself because he will never be able to beat Lesnar. Brock came out and threw part of the ring steps into the ring and stood on them while Heyman cut his promo. 

Heyman said the last time Lesnar wrestled Undertaker, the Undertaker left in an ambulance, spent a week in the hospital  and took a year to recover. In fact, Heyman said Undertaker called Vince McMahon and begged him for a rematch at WrestleMania. But Vince turned him down because he was afraid of Undertaker risking permanent injury. So Undertaker had to surprise Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said at SummerSlam, Lesnar will slap the “Repeat” in “Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat.” He said Undertaker was going to Suplex City. 

Heyman was on fire at this point, saying Undertaker wasn’t going to need an ambulance this time, he was going to need Last Rites. In regards to promos in the WWE, there’s Paul Heyman and there’s everyone else.  

Paige defeated Naomi via submission (7:25)

Paige won with the PTO. Crowd was pretty dead again. For all the talk of a Divas Revolution, they don’t have a Diva on the roster half as over as Lita was in 2000 or Trish Stratus in 2004. 

Stardust did a promo about Neville’s loss to Rollins. They’re back to Stardust doing an angle with Steven Amell, who tweeted that he will be at Raw next week in Seattle. 

They replayed the Piper tribute video. This led to a promo where Dean Ambrose and Reigns repeated the Piper line from “They Live” saying they came to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum, and they’re all out of bubblegum. JBL said the same thing earlier. Orton told Ambrose and Reigns to leave Sheamus to him.  

Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt, Sheamus and Luke Harper (16:39)

Good match with a really good finish. Reigns cleaned house at the end, giving Luke Harper a Superman’s Punch. Orton gave Wyatt an RKO, and Reigns pinned Sheamus after a spear. Buildup to the hot tag with Reigns was good and this was the 2nd best match on the show.  

SUMMARY: Show opened well, was nothing until the Heyman promo, and was nothing after that until the main event.