There were early reports that Kalisto’s injury was real but the incident on last night’s WWE RAW involving Kalisto and the Dudleys was storyline.
During Raw, Kalisto took a bump on his face outside the ring and was clotheslined by Devon and was acting as though he was injured, to leave Sin Cara on his own, to end up with the Lucha Dragons losing to the Dudleys in the tag team tournament.
That was a scripted part of the show and Kalisto is not going to be missing any action.
While Kalisto stayed down, they used a local extra and not a regular trainer as the person who attended to him, and never did an “X” symbol, although they did play it up as if he was hurt.
Nobody backstage was talking about it if as anything had gone wrong the rest of the night.
WWE officials have informed us that Undertaker will be doing two shows next week on the European tour.
Undertaker is scheduled to appear on 4/19 in London, which are the Smackdown tapings, and will be doing a 4/20 house show in Newcastle.
Yesterday we had been told that he would be off the tour, but it was explained that there was a misunderstanding and he is off most of the tour, with Kane replacing him in all the other cities that he was originally advertised.
Undertaker was originally going to work the entire tour doing tag team matches in most cities. Last week he was pulled from advertising on most of the shows, but not all of them. As of yesterday, he was being advertised for three dates on the tour.
Originally, the European Tour was scheduled to be headlined by Undertaker on one side and Daniel Bryan appearances on the other, so had Undertaker pulled out of the entire tour they would have lost both of its headline acts.
WWE Raw last night fell back to the expected normal numbers the week after WrestleMania with 3.52 million viewers.
Last week’s show did 4.08 million viewers, but the day after WrestleMania is usually very strong. The drop would be expected.
The number is along the lines of what the show has been doing since football season ended. Of the 12 previous shows this year that didn’t go against football, last night’s show beat out five of them and was below seven of them.
There was a different ratings pattern as the show started with a low first hour, but had a good second hour before dropping somewhat in the third hour.
Raw was the highest rated show on cable last night, with The O’Reilly Factor on FOX News in second place at 3.04 million viewers.
Dancing With The Stars, which featured UFC’s Paige VanZant, was the most-watched show on television last night with 12.51 million viewers.
The WWE announced today a new group of signings to developmental deals with the company.
Babatunde Alyegbusi – Alyegbusi got some publicity as something of a gimmick signing of the Minnesota Vikings last year as a 6-foot-9, 350 pound football player from Poland. He didn’t make the team, but his size got pub. The Observer had already reported his recent tryout.
Bianca Blair – Blair is a Crossfit competitor who was an All-American at the hurdles at the University of Tennessee and has been featured in a number of women’s fitness magazines.
Nikola Bogojevic – Bogojevic was a bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2014 Pan American Games and was training with the Olympic wrestling team.
Carolyn Dunning – Dunning is a bikini contest competitor within the bodybuilding bikini world.
Macey Estrella – A woman wrestler who trained with American Premier Wrestling who a Marine Corps SWAT team background.
Nicola Glencross – Better known as Nikki Storm, she has wrestled all over the world including with top women’s groups like Stardom and Shine, as well as many of the U.K. based promotions.
Terrance Jean-Jacques – A 6-foot-3, 265 pound All-American wrestler from the University of Iowa and University of Rhode Island.
Deniella Kamela – Kamela was on-air talent working for Fox Sports Arizona and trained under Rikishi and Gangrel at the Knoxx Pro Wrestling School in Southern California and was a cheerleader for the Arizona Cardinals and dance team member of the Phoenix Suns.
Michael Nicholls – The Australian-based Mikey Nicholls, who agreed to the deal last year but just started at the Performance Center recently.
Shane Veryzer – Better known as Shane Haste, he and Nicholls were a tag team in Pro Wrestling NOAH and the pair have extensive experience, including winning the Tag Team of the Year award in Japan in 2013.
TNA Wrestling, effective immediately, will no longer air a Tuesday night replay on Pop TV.
The only airing of the show tomorrow will be at 9 p.m. Eastern and 6 p.m. Pacific time.
Impact will have a second airing on Pop TV on Saturday mornings at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.
But any change of time slots isn’t the best thing right now when they are in negotiations to sell a stake in the company and it’s most valuable asset was nationwide prime time coverage, and the new time slots aren’t strong for the West Coast.
TNA has no house shows scheduled at this point and it’s next TV tapings are 4/21 to 4/24 in Orlando at Universal.
Just when WWE was basking in their victories in the stockholder lawsuit (dismissal) and many of the concussion lawsuits (most dismissed), a new complaint came down the pike on April 6th: Rene Dupree, real name Rene Goguen, sued over WWE Network royalties. Five days later, on April 11th, Dupree’s lawyers filed a notice of voluntary dismissal.
It’s the first Raw after WrestleMania season tonight in Los Angeles, but it promises to be an intriguing show on several levels. With the debut of Enzo Amore and Big Cass, Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin, along with the return of Cesaro, how will their second week be handled? Specifically, can the debut of Enzo and Cass be sustained, or was it a one-week sensation in front of the world’s largest gathering of insider fans in Dallas last week? Tonight’s show will also start the build towards Roman Reigns vs. A.J. Styles for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In particular, how Styles will be treated as a will be interesting. Will he be the latest person to have his weaknesses exploited by the company? Or will he built as a worthy challenger? The Miz, after retaining the Intercontinental Championship against Zack Ryder on SmackDown, will also appear, along with the returning Maryse.
Our coverage begins at 8 ET. Please join us.
The Big News: 2nd straight show that was very good. With the best workrate roster the WWE has had in years, they focused on having good wrestling matches and delivered Sami Zayn vs. A.J. Styles & Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens, both of which were 4 stars or better. While Roman Reigns was booed once again, they did have creative booking for an intriguing main event for Bray Wyatt teamed with Reigns to defeat the League of Nations’ team of Alberto del Rio and Sheamus. Also, Karl Anderson and Drew Gallows made their debut with a run-in to attack the Usos. There’s a tag team tournament to crown the number one contenders to face the New Day at Payback, which included the Usos and the Dudley Boyz advancing tonight. They’re already teasing the Dudleys vs. Enzo and Big Cass in the semifinals.
Show Recap:
The show was dedicated to Blackjack Mulligan.
Shane McMahon came out and was given control for last night’s show because of increased social media activity. He sounded odd like he was nursing an injured jaw or some sort of intestinal injury. He announced Natalya would face Charlotte for the WWE Women’s Championship, there would be a tournament for a new #1 contender to face the WWE World Tag Team Championship, and he congratulated A.J. Styles on winning the Fatal Fourway last way to face Roman Reigns. But Shane said Sami Zayn didn’t get a chance to fight in the fourway, so Zayn would wrestle Styles tonight. If Zayn wins, then the Styles vs. Reigns match would become a Three Way Championship match.
This brought out Kevin Owens, who said if Shane thinks Zayn deserves that opportunity, he must have knocked a few screws loose jumping off of the Hell in a Cell. Shane said Owens has had opportunities and lost them, like when he lost the Intercontinental Championship to Zack Ryder. Owens complained about not getting a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship and demanded it right now. Shane said Owens had to earn that shot against Cesaro, and the winner gets the Miz for the I-C belt.
Cesaro defeated Kevin Owens to become the new #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship (14:47)
Excellent match where Cesaro pinned Owens with a Neutralizer. Owens hit a frog splash for a two count. Cesaro’s left shoulder was taped, and the match revolved around Owens’ offense onto that arm. Later, Cesaro tried the Cesaro Swing, but could only do three rotations because of the injured shoulder. Owens tried the Pop-Up Power Bomb, but Cesaro escaped over Owens, rolled him into a Sunset Flip into the finish. Cesaro’s ring entrance is now a takeoff of James Bond, where he comes out in a three-piece suit with target hairs following up in the background, then he strips off the suit to reveal his wrestling trunks. Really good opener.
Charlotte talked to Ric Flair backstage upset she was having to defend her title tonight against Natalya. Flair said it was all Shane’s fault. It led to Dr. Phil making his first apperance. The crowd booed Dr. Phil, who told Charlotte he was disgusted that she had to rely on her father’s cheating in order to win and to stand on her own two feet. Charlotte didn’t want to hear that and walked off. Flair acted incredulous and started to shout “Whooo!” into Phil’s face. But Phil screamed “Whoo” at Flair, stunning the Nature Boy. This was so well scripted, fans were with Phil by the end.
Owens confronted Shane backstage and threatened to go after Zayn again. Shane said Owens would be escorted out of the building by security in order to keep it from happening again.
The New Day came out. Xavier Woods said the WWE tag team division was on fire like a game of NBA Jam. Big E. said the tag team tournament would be sponsored by Booty-Os.
The Dudley Boyz defeated Lucha Dragons to advance int he WWE Tag Team #1 Contenders Tournament (3:15)
Bubba Ray Dudley pinned Sin Cara after a 3-D. Kalisto got injured legitimately when he took a terrible bump over the top rope and appeared to injure his shoulder. Trainers were by his side the whole way. It looked like one of those bad roller derby bumps from the 70s when a skater didn’t catch themselves going over the rail.
Enzo and Big Cass came out to confront the Dudleys. Good response for Enzo and Cass as the fans knew who they were, but it wasn’t nearly on the level of last week. Devon Dudley told them they owed their creation to the Dudley boyz. Enzo shot back they owed their creation when his mother and father got it on. Cass gave the Saft catchphrase.
Owens was shown being escorted out of the building by security.
Reigns came out to a big-time negative reception. He got mostly cheered in San Diego in December, but this crowd was nowhere near as generous. He let the boos sink in for awhile and gave the exact same line about being “The guy” he gave last week. Reigns mention of Styles got cheered. Regins said he had respect for Styles and Zayn, but neither one of them had ever won THE championship.
The League of Nations came out. Sheamus wondered how confident Reigns would be if he had to face a member of the League of Nations at Payback. Sheamus talked about being stronger than ever after they kicked King Barrett out of the League of Nations, and they weren’t happy about being left out of the number one contender’s match last week. Rusev said he was better looking than Reigns and he should be the face of the WWE. Reigns said Rusev just proved he was the ass of the WWE. Alberto Del Rio started talking and cheered. Reigns challenged them to all come down and get their asses kicked.
The heels all jumped on Reigns, but the Wyatt Family appeared. Bray Wyatt, Erick Roawn and Braun Strowman cleared the ring quickly. Reigns looked uncertain to see the Wyatts in the ring. Shane came out and ordered a match between two members of the League of Nations against Wyatt and Reigns in a tag team match.
Another vignette from Primo and Epico, or whatever they will be named underr this new gimmick. They sniffed hibiscus, the official flower of Puerto Rico. They said you can’t grow flowers like hibiscus anywhere in America, so come visit Puerto Rico. From Los Boricuas to Los Matadores to Carlito and Santino Morella, failing to get Puerto Rico tag teams over has been a time-honored WWE tradition for 20 years now. And the next chapter is before us.
Natalya defeated Charlotte (C) by DQ, so Charlotte retains the WWE Women’s Championship (10:55)
Dr. Phil was at ringside. Another good match with Charlotte that had heat. Fans want to see her lose, which means her father’s lessons of being a heat-magnet heel for 40 years is rubbing off. Natalya nearly made Charlotte tap out with a Sharpshooter, but Flair pulled the referee out of the ring, just as Charlotte was tapping. The referee disqualified Charlotte. Earlier, Charlotte put Natalya into the sharpshooter, leading to a rope break. Phil was interviewed by Byron Saxton afterwards, saying he was disappointed that Charlotte had to rely on her father again to retain the championship. He tried putting over the women’s division, but it was clear he was just reeling off lines that were fed to him beforehand as he couldn’t name one other women’s wrestler on the roster aside from the one he was involved in the skit with.
Zayn did a promo with Renee Young. He got in that lame “Underdog from the Underground” line again. He said he’s been trying to get to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship all his career and he didn’t come this far to lose. Styles walked in. He looked four inches shorter than Zayn. Styles told Zayn he’s the only number one contender and he plans on keeping it that way.
The Usos defeated Social Outcasts to advance in the WWE Tag Team #1 Contenders Tournament (4:16)
Jimmy Uso pinned Curtis Axel after a schoolboy cradle after Axel started doing the Bo Train with Heath Slater, Bo Dallas and Adam Rose.
Postmatch, Karl Anderson and Luke (not Doc) Gallows ran out of the crowd and gave Jimmy Uso the Magic Killer. They threw Jimmy Uso around
Maryse dressed down a stage manager who gave her and the Miz a bowl of M&Ms. Miz’s contract called for no blue M&Ms. That’s a takeoff of the old Van Halen backstage tale about having a contract that included a clause about not being served brown M&Ms before or after concerts. David Lee Roth once said he included that clause in the contact just to see if anyone read those contracts. Maryse also scolded the manager for included domestic bottled water instead of French water. Meanwhile, Miz was sitting back with cucumber slices on his eyes. Jojo came in to ask Miz about a possible rematch with Ryder. Miz said he drives to work in an Audi 5000 while Ryder goes on the Long Island subway on his father’s pass. As for Cesaro, he said he had the Swiss Superman’s Kryptonite. He tried that line in a deeper voice twice, with Maryse reeling off the take numbers. Then Cesaro showed up and said he would roll out the red carpet for all the uppercuts he would throw on the Miz at Payback. Miz and Maryse are really a great tandem.
A.J. Styles defeated Sami Zayn to keep the main event at Payback a singles match (16:44)
Another terrific match. Styles won with the Phenonemal Forearm after Zayn failed to hit the Helluva Kick. Zayn hit the Blue Thunder bomb for a near fall that got the crowd involved after a bit of a lull. Fans did dueling chants as they exchanged the early holds. Styles clamped on the calf crusher but Zayn made the ropes. I guess the mindset here was to get Styles strong for the main event at Payback. Zayn had so much offense he wasn’t hurt doing the job.
WWE regular Seth Green was at ringside.
Styles and Zayn talked backstage when Shane walked in putting over both men for the previous match. Styles and Zayn slapped hands.
Chris Jericho hosted the latest edition of the Highlight Reel. Jericho said his guest tonight was the biggest star in WWE history…it was him. Fans would learn more about Jericho than they would ever had before. He started interviewing himself about how he became so successful. He offered fans the Gift of Jericho and offered them a chance to drink it in. He posed with his arms open. Jericho talked about being the first undisputed world champion after beating the Rock and Steve Austin in one night. Jericho’s reply mentioned beating Styles at WrestleMania, and said there was no one on the roster who could touch him right now.
Dean Ambrose interrupted him and came out with a potted plant and looked for a place to put it. Ambrose said it was his show now. Jericho didn’t know what he was talking about, but Ambrose pulled out a memo from Shane. Jericho said it was a speeding ticket. Ambrose took the paper back and handed him another memo. Jericho read the Highlight Reel has been cancelled and replaced by the Ambrose Asylum. Ambrose put on a clip-on tie, hung a posterboard sign over the Jeritron 5000 and introduced Jericho. Ambrose wanted to know what was up with Jericho’s scarf. Jericho got into his Javier Bardem voice, said the scarf cost $750 and said he doesn’t play by anybody’s rules but his own. Jericho said Ambrose should be smart or he would bury him. Jericho told Ambrose to get out of his ring. Ambrose said “So you aren’t going to tell us about the scarf?” Jericho slapped the microphone out of Ambrose’s hands. Ambrose gave Jericho Dirty Deeds. So the postponed Jericho-Ambrose program is on. Hopefully it will have a point, because in retrospect I have no clue what the point of the Ambrose-Brock Lesnar feud was.
It was announced that Goldust and R-Truth would team together for the resumption of the tag team tournament on Smackdown. Goldust confronted Truth saying Truth told him that were going to Los Angeles for an audition. Truth explained the tag team tournament was the audition. Goldust said they weren’t a tag team. Truth said he took someone’s advice, then looked over to Dr. Phil, who stated to say something. But Goldust’s outfit left him speechless and he just walked away.
Apollo Crews defeated Adam Rose (3:30)
Apollo Crews pinned Rose after a Spin Out Power Bomb. Crews really needs a good promo or else he’ll be another smiling babyface.
Another promo from the Puerto Rico boys, the Shining Star of the Carribbean appears to be the tag team name.
Wyatt did a promo saying that even though he despises everything that Reigns stands for, they appear to have an unbreakable bond. Wyatt, with a eerie smile, said Reigns could trust him.
Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt defeated Alberto del Rio and Sheamus (11:05)
Wyatt pinned Del Rio with Sister Abigail. It was clear the fans in L.A. wanted to turn Del Rio face. They also cheered whenever the heels got offense on Reigns. Fans were really into Wyatt as a babyface, who got the comeback after Reigns sold the majority of the match. When Reigns was setting up for the hot tag, Wyatt did a great tease of turning on Reigns, only to stick his hand out for the tag. Rowan and Strowman came out to brawl with Rusev near the end. Fans had no idea how to react to Rowan and Strowman at all. With Wyatt’s pending face turn, it appears Strowman has gone from being a potential Undertaker opponent to being the dancing hillbilly everyone thought he would eventually become. An interesting match from a booking standpoint and another good one.
Reigns and Wyatt engaged in a staredown as the screen faded to black as Wyatt grinned and Reigns looked concerned.
SUMMARY:
A strong show. Best top-to-bottom match quality show in quite sometime. It’s odd that the least over person on the roster holds the World Championship. The good news is the company’s depth has improved drastically since the start of the year, and it’s truly apparent now with Styles, Zayn, Cesaro, Crews, Owens and enough good tag teams to make up a tournament to face the New Day.
With the deluge of media publicity, including a cover story in USA Today, a two-part series on “Inside Edition” and even being the topic of conversation on the TV show “Politically Incorrect” and with an ESPN “Outside the Lines” segment scheduled for later this month, both WWF and WCW have taken separate directions that will no doubt determine the future of the wrestling industry in the United States.
New Japan just announced lineups for its next two major shows, coming off angles earlier today at the Invasion Attack show.
The first show will be on 4/29 in Kumamoto which will be a 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m Pacific show on a late Thursday night/early Friday morning from Kumamoto Grand Messe.
Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin for the IWGP IC title will headline, plus a grudge match with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale, Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata for the Never Open wight title and Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta defend the IWGP jr. tag title against Ricochet & Matt Sydal.
New IWGP heavyweight champion Tetsuya Naito and former champion Kazuchika Okada are in an eight-man with Los Ingobernables de Japon of Naito & Evil & Bushi & Seiya Sanada vs. Chaos of Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay.
The annual Wrestling Dontaku show is 5/3 at the Fukuoka Convention Center, which is a downsize for the usual International Center that they drew poorly in for G-1. Matches announced so far are Kushida vs. Jushin Liger for the IWGP jr. title, Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa defend the IWGP tag titles against former champions Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Goto vs Evil, Okada vs. Sanada and Naito vs. Ishii for the IWGP heavyweight title.
Cody Hall is expected to be okay after a major scare at today’s Invasion Attack show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.
Hall, who wasn’t wrestling, was one of six people on the floor when Nick Jackson did a swanton off the balcony of the building during the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega Never trios title defense against Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Yoshitatsu. Jackson landed mostly on Hall but not in a manner that looked scary. Upon landing you could see Nick talking to him and the match then continued.
Hall never moved and was carried out on a stretcher.
The report we got is that he was examined and there was not a concussion and no fractures. The belief is that he suffered a very bad stinger.
Part of the story of the match was that Yoshitatsu, whose career nearly Cody Hall is expected to be okay after a major scare at today’s Invasion Attack show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.
