Tag: mainstory

Major implications for Wrestlemania 32 are in play Saturday night as the latest WWE special, Roadblock, takes place in Toronto, Canada.

The main event of the show will have Triple H making his first defense of the WWE World Heavyweight championship he won at the Royal Rumble against Dean Ambrose. The challenger has gone on to say that he plans on completely messing up plans for Wrestlemania by winning. Considering most Wrestlemania plans still aren’t completely concrete, it’s entirely plausible the original main event of Reigns/HHH might be changed due to recent crowd reactions. It’s a longshot, but we’ll see.

Other big matches include Bray Wyatt facing off against the former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a match many expected to see at Wrestlemania, as well as NXT champions The Revival (Dash & Dawson) competing against perennial challengers Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady in both teams’ WWE TV debut. The outcome could also have implications on the NXT tag team title match at Takeover: Dallas during Wrestlemania weekend if the challengers were to win. 

Also announced for the show: The New Day will defend their WWE tag team titles against Sheamus & King Barrett of the League of Nations.

The New Day started the show by coming out and doing a promo. They revealed that Booty-O’s are in fact real (well, there’s a box now at least) and revealed the box that said Booty-O’s on it. Big E pretended to be a child and ran down the Leauge of Nations while saying he’s going to beat Booty-O cereal so he doesn’t wind up like them. They were big time over as babyfaces.

WWE Tag Team Championship: The New Day (c) vs. The Leauge of Nations (Wade Barrett and Sheamus)

Solid match. It was a by the numbers, but everyone worked well for the most part. The New Day worked as the faces here as they started off hot, but Kofi ended up getting worked on by both Sheamus and Barrett. Sheamus had Kofi in a Cloverleaf but somehow was able to counter that into a pin for a nearfall. Big E made the hot tag. Kofi tried to jump over Barrett but there was some miscommunication or Kofi landed badly as something seemed off here.  Barrett had the pin on Big E but Xavier distracted the ref. Barrett was distraced, leading to Big E hitting the Big Ending to retain the titles.

Greg Hamilton interviewed Paul Heyman. He says that Brock chose to take revenge on Wyatt tonight. After getting a pop for mentioning the Toronto Raptors, Heyman pretty much says Wyatt will be counqered by the Beast.

They recapped the Styles/Jericho angles from Raw and Smackdown.

Jericho came out for a promo, telling Toronto to shut their filthy mouths right now. They had their chance to chant for him but instead they chanted for AJ. He ran down Canadians. He’s the greatest icon in the history of this country, he says, which spurs “We Want Bret” chants. He shuts them down immediately and says he’s ashamed to be Canadian. He moved from Canada because Canada literally stinks and Toronto is the anus. He mentions how Jack Swagger beat him for the World championship, something I don’t think one person on Earth remotely remembers. He’s not the flavor of the month, or the next big thing, he’s the only thing. Jericho’s much better off in a heel role at this point as his promos have been pretty solid since turning.

Chris Jericho vs. Jack Swagger 

This is a weird match to do in Canada as Swagger’s gimmick is that he’s an American patriot, and Jericho just cut a promo heeling on Canada. Work was solid, but the heat was off since they did not get into Swagger at all for obvious reasons. They chanted for AJ Styles and CM Punk. Jericho controlled a lot of the match,  and the crowd booed for Swagger’s brief comeback. Swagger reversed a Wall of Jericho attempt and hit the anke lock but Jericho escaped, hit an enziguiri and went for a codebreaker but Swagger countered and took him down. Swagger got the ankle lock again, but Jericho made it to the ropes. He shoved Swagger into the turnbuckle then submitted him with the Walls of Jericho.

NXT Tag Team Championship: Dash and Dawson (c) vs. Colin Cassady and Enzo Amore

Good match with lots of cool creative spots. Both Cassady and Enzo have improved as a team and Dash and Dawson are really good in their own right. Enzo and Cass dominated early, but eventually the heels isolated Enzo. He broke free at one point and dashed toward Cassady but was shoulder tackled right out of the ring in a cool spot. Cassady got the tag as they almost got the win with the rocket launcher but Dawson cut Enzo (who got the tag) off on the top rope. Enzo hit a cool looking DDT from the top rope to ward off the heels for a bit, but the numbers were too much for him as they finished him off with the Shatter Machine for a surprisingly clean win.

Natalya deadicated her match tonight to her Uncle Bret. You know what that means. Charlotte came in, amused. You’re merely a warm up and not even on my level. Natalya said well if I’m not a threat, then put the title on the line. Charlotte said no, Wrestlemania’s only a few weeks away. Nattie said well I guess Bret was right, all Flairs are cowards. Charlotte fell for that and agreed to put the title on the line.

WWE Divas Championship: Charlotte (c) vs. Natalya

Really good match. They were given time and did some great work throughout. Nattie’s really underrated in this divison, not that it’s a secret or anything but matches like this make it even more obvious. Charlotte worked on Nattie’s leg and posted it. After a chop battle Nattie made her comeback and went for the sharpshooter but Charlotte escaped and laid Nattie out with a big boot. Charlotte applied the figure eight but Nattie fought it and reversed. They rolled over several times until making it to the outside. Charlotte escaped out of the ring but as Nattie recovered Charlotte came back in and hit Natural Selection for a nearfall. Lots of great nearfalls. Charlotte went for the figure eight again but Natalya came back with the sharpshooter. Flair helped distract Nattie while in the sharpshooter which allowed Charlotte to get a roll up win with her feet on the ropes. 

Wyatt comes out for his match. He mentions how he’s counqered the Rock, John Cena and the Undertaker, but he’s never conquered me. He said he made a deal with the devil (The Authority? Vince?) and Luke Harper will now be with him for this match. 

Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper

Fun match while it lasted. Wyatt never tagged into the match, leaving Harper to work the match on his own. I guess he’s injured, or they didn’t want him to do yet another job. For being the new spookytime threat he hasn’t won a ton of big matches. Lesnar flung Harper around like a rag doll early, which is amazing given Harper’s size. Brock ate a big boot and Harper hit his discus clothesline for a nearfall. Brock fired back with suplexes and pinned him with the F5, clean as a sheet.

Sami Zayn vs. Stardust

An okay match overall, but it lacked heat as it went a bit too long and early parts of the match were pretty dull. Stardust dominated the early portions of the match and his offense wasn’t anything to write home about. A lot of stomps, a lot of rest holds. Sami fought back against a superplex spot but Stardust landed it and got a nearfall. Stardust ate a clothesline, which is where Sami made his comeback and eventually got the win with the helluva kick.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H (c) vs. Dean Ambrose

Really great world title match. Hunter looked way better than he did at the Royal Rumble and Ambrose is an excellent main event level match kind of guy. They did everything to make you believe that Ambrose was going to pull it off, including doing a dusty finish spot, until Ambrose made one mistake and lost because of it. Ambrose was in control of the match early, working on the nose in a cute spot, fighting Hunter on the outside and eventually started to work on the leg.  Hunter came back and threw him on the barricade. Hunter worked on him back in the ring, actually applying a Nagata Lock at one point. Ambrose came back and they had a pretty good back and forth match. Hunter went for the pedigree but Ambrose back body dropped him. He went for the dirty deeds, Hunter pushed him away, but Ambrose came back with the rabbit lariat. Ambrose went for a suicide dive but Triple H blasted him with a right had as he started to prepare the announce table. Ambrose made a comeback in the ring and hit a figure four, which is a good callback spot from earlier. Triple H escaped, but Ambrose came back with a sharpshooter, which was pretty funny.  Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds and pinned Hunter, but the refree waived it off, saying Ambrose’s feet were under the ropes. Ambrose threw Hunter on the outside and hit a big elbow, sending them both to the floor, then mocked Hunter with the DX crotch chop. Ambrose put Hunter on the exposed table, hopped on the barricade and went for another elbow but Triple H rolled out of the way and Ambrose crashed into the table. Triple H followed with the pedigree in the ring and pinned him to retain the title.