1500 tickets for a 1/16 NXT house show in Chicago at the Portage Theater, the group’s debut in the market, sold out in one minute today.
At this writing, there are 48 tickets left on Stubhub with a cheapest ticket price at $145. There are also tickets available in other secondary market sites and through area ticket brokers, but are for well above face value and there are not a great deal of them available.
Tickets for a 1/30 NXT show in Royal Oak, MI, just outside of Detroit, sold out their pre-sale allotment on the first day as well.
Also, it appears as if the entire pre-sale allotment for the NXT event on April 1st in Dallas, TX, is also sold out. The show, set for the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, seats about 7,000. A public on-sale is scheduled for Saturday, but it’s likely only a small amount of tickets will be made available which is usually the case in these situations.
The go-home show leading to Final Battle was the second installment in the current series of Ring of Honor television episodes from the Nashville Fairgrounds. The focus was on building the pay-per-view and every match had some purpose in an upcoming PPV match. Jerry Lynn returned to ROH for an interview segment and a confrontation with ROH world champion Jay Lethal. After this show aired, ROH announced Lynn would also appear at Final Battle.
The show opened with the entrance of Adam Cole. The announcers, Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuiness, talked about Cole’s upcoming match at Final Battle against Kyle O’Reilly.
Adam Cole beat Corey Hollis
Cole began squashing him while showcasing a variety a moves like a fireman’s carry into a neckbreaker and a shining wizard. Hollis made a comeback but Cole quickly cut him off. Though he was over with the crowd, the villainous Cole mocked some ringside fans. Hollis sidestepped an attempted superkick and used a schoolboy to roll up Cole for a nearfall.
Moments later, Cole hit a bicycle kick that they had teased earlier in the match. Hollis countered a suplex into a stunner then did a fireman’s carry into a spinebuster. Hollis jumped off the top rope and ate a superkick. Cole picked him up for a suplex into a neckbreaker for the pinfall. Afterwards, Cole remained in the ring to cut a promo. He promised to keep it short and said when he makes a promise he means it. He promised to beat O’Reilly at Final Battle and “end” him in Ring of Honor.
Last week on ROH TV, the show ended with three tag teams brawling. In a follow-up, Kevin joined Nigel (who is also the matchmaker in storyline) in announcing a three-way tag match at Final Battle with the Briscoes vs. Young Bucks vs. ANX.
Related to the tag team picture, the next match on the go-home show showcased War Machine as they readied to challenge the Kingdom on the PPV for the tag team titles.
War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) beat the Washington Bullets (Jon & Trey Williams)
In an updated version of a Road Warriors squash match, Hanson and Rowe wrecked shop on the Bullets. They did power moves all over the place and manhandled their opponents. Rowe held one Bullet over his knee while Hanson jumped off the ropes with flying legdrop for the pin. War Machine looked impressive and menacing.
Before the next match, Mike Posey from “the hood” in Trussville, Alabama, marched to the ring with a posse. His five-person entourage included three dudes and two women. In doing a white rapper gimmick, Posey began rapping badly and dissing Dalton Castle. Poesy’s entourage encouraged his behavior.
Dalton Castle beat Mike Posey
The announcers talked up Castle’s return grudge match at Final Battle with Silas Young over who should rightly have custody of The Boys. Castle took most of the offense in this match with Posey. At one point, the entourage caused a distraction allowing Posey some offense. Posey dove off the top rope into the arms of Castle, who caught him and tossed him over the ropes on to the posse at ringside. Castle gave Posey his finish, the Bang-a-Rang, to score the pin.
In a post-match promo, Castle eloquently compared himself to the Aurora Borealis and vowed to kick Silas Young’s ass before calling him out right then. Instead of Silas confronting him, The Boys sauntered to the ring and confronted Dalton.
With Dalton distracted by The Boys and their newfound attitudes, Silas attacks him from behind and gives him the Misery finisher to leave Castle down and out. The Boys raised the hands of Silas and acted as if their time with the “Last Real Man” truly has transformed them, creating another layer to the drama that will play out at Final Battle.
In an in-ring interview segment, Kevin Kelly brought out Jerry Lynn. Kelly asked Lynn about his recent surgery and Lynn thanked the fans for their support during his recovery. Kevin brought up the upcoming ROH world title match at Final Battle and asked for Jerry to predict a winner.
Though he tried to avoid directly answering the question, Kelly pressed him while Lynn dodged the question putting over both guys in the process. Cue House of Truth theme music and Jay Lethal emerges carrying his ROH world title belt while also accompanied by Truth Martini and Taeler Hendrix.
Lethal confronted Lynn, who offered a friendly handshake. Lethal no-sold the handshake and said he was out there for one reason, which was he really wanted to hear the answer to the question. Lethal instructed Lynn to “turn your hearing aid up because he asked you a question.”
The expression on Lynn’s face immediately changed. Lynn said he knew Lethal and his family for years.
“You are not the Jay Lethal that I knew back then,” Lynn said. “You’re an arrogant prick!”
Lynn then basically said that overconfidence would be Lethal’s downfall and AJ Styles will beat him to become the champion. The crowd chanted for AJ in response. Lethal ordered the audience to shut up before saying Lynn and everybody else blindly follows AJ and Lethal said he “don’t give a damn” what Lynn thought. He threatened to kick Lynn’s ass.
Lynn countered by bringing up he has known Lethal’s parents for as long as he has known Lethal. Lynn said Lethal wanted to make them proud, but by attacking him they would be ashamed instead. Lethal thought it over for a moment before snapping.
Lethal yelled at Lynn saying he was standing in the ring with the ROH champion and claimed he was the greatest wrestler in the world. Lethal shouted about climbing a ladder this past year to get where he is while AJ only climbed a step stool. With just a touch of trepidation in his voice Lethal continued screaming about AJ being pushed to the main events and the title picture unfairly.
Lethal went on to say he would not attack Lynn because he needed Lynn healthy so Jerry could console AJ when Lethal beats him at Final Battle. Lethal said that is when AJ will learn Lethal himself is the greatest just like he claims. Before storming off, Lethal concluded with the proclamation, “I am professional wrestling.”
Following an announcement of Moose vs. Michael Elgin being signed for Final Battle, a video package highlighted their feud. Their story is they both want a shot at the ROH world title and each stands in the other’s way on their journey to a title shot.
Alex Shelley came to ringside to provide guest commentary for the main event tag match. They quickly recapped the scene from last week in which Shelley unveiled himself as the mysterious masked character that had been causing grief for Chris Sabin and the Addiction. Shelley is set to team with Matt Sydal and ACH in a six-man tag match at against the Addiction at Final Battle.
Matt Sydal & ACH beat Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta)
Sydal and Romero start slow but quickly picked up the pace with Sydal executing a monkey flip and later a hurricanrana on Romero, who begged off. ACH and Baretta squared off. At one point, ACH did a backflip then immediately sprung up with a dropkick.
After a commercial break, Roppongi Vice were in control with Romero getting heat on Sydal. ACH came in off the hot tag. He does a crossbody off the top, an enzuigiri on Romero and catches Baretta on the outside with a soccer kick. ACH then runs across the ring, springs off the middle rope with one foot and does his crazy flip dive over the ropes to the outside.
Romero and Baretta cut off ACH with a series of great double team moves. Sydal makes a bling tag only to get caught with sliced bread from Romero. However, ACH jumps off the top with a double foot stomp on Romero. Sydal and Baretta exchange strikes with Sydal gaining the advantage. Romero jumped in to make the save for Baretta and ACH jumps in to make the save for Sydal moments later.
ACH did a handspring over the ropes into a dive on the floor. Sydal went for the shooting star press but Baretta got his knees up. Roppongi Vice went for their finisher. As Romero did a springboard off the top rope, ACH flew in out of nowhere off a springboard to wipe out Romero. Sydal executed a code red on Baretta to score the pin.
Happy Star Wars day! There will be no spoilers in this review because…this has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. Instead we’re heading towards the Tokyo Dome, as the name suggests, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of tag matches related to the event. We’ll also see the NWA Jr. Heavyweight title on the line as Tiger Mask IV defends against Jushin Thunder Liger, and in the main event Shinsuke Nakamura battles the king of the hip attack, Ryusuke Taguchi. All here live at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
They first aired a video highlighting the big moments of 2015 in New Japan, everything from WrestleKingdom to their joint shows with Ring of Honor in the US to what went down a few weeks ago at the World Tag League tournament.
TenKoji & Jay White vs Nagata, Nakanishi & David Finlay
The usual good tag opener. Kojima and Finlay had some nice exchanges. Finally went to hit the ropes but Kojima clobbered him with a lariat and pinned him.
Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe vs. Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka
Nice match. The crowd got really into it towards the end as Komatsu and Tanaka are great at selling and heightening the drama of a match. The World Tag League winners dominated a lot of the match. There was a submission spot that people got into where Tanaka wouldn’t submit to a Boston Crab by Makabe. They had some good back and forth until Makabe pelted him with a lariat to the throat, then hit the king kong knee drop from the top rope for the win.
Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahashi
Just a match. Not a really good one, honestly. They just did some plodding work throughout and Yujiro’s antics only led to the finish. He and Yujiro worked part of the math, a lot was Sakuraba facing off against Cody Hall. Hall used power spots while Sakuraba grinded him down. He went for an armbar as Yujiro was about to break it up, but Yano low blowed him, distracted the ref and hit Hall to allow Sakuraba to get the submission win.
Liger wore a completely different outfit here. If you’ve seen him in the past when he’s wrestling heavyweight matches (like in matches against Great Muta and Hashimoto) it’s something similar to that, with a different mask and no bodysuit, just tights. Liger looks in tremendous shape for someone that’s fifty years old. Tiger Mask tried for the tiger suplex at one point but Liger hooked Tiger Mask’s leg and they both fell. Crowd was dead for this for whatever reason despite both working hard and having a pretty good match. Liger submitted after Tiger Mask took him down with an armbar, then transitioned into a chickenwing and Liger verbally submitted.
Tetsuya Natio, Evil and Bushi vs. Hirooki Goto, Mascara Dorada and Captain New Japan
Solid match. They were teasing something between Naito and Milano Collection AT as Naito made him open the ring ropes for him. Naito then teased like he was going to attack him, but did nothing. Dorada accidently kicked Goto as Naito tripped him into the ropes and Bushi smashed Dorada’s face into the apron, sending him out of the ring. The usual finish here as Captain New Japan fought bravely against Evil and Naito but he eventually fell to Evil’s STO.
Bushi ripped off Dorada’s mask after the mask and said he’d be the next CMLL welterweight champion. He grabbed Dorada’s belt and posed with it before making his exit with the belt.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
Taguchi was over tonight. Nakamura went for the boma ye but Taguchi fell to the floor. Taguchi came back with a hip attack and a springboard crossbody to the floor. Taguchi had him in the ankle lock at one point too. Taguchi went for a sliding hip attack but Nakamura rolled out of the way and took him down. Taguchi kicked out a boma ye from the top rope. Nakamura rolled out of a hip attack and struck down Taguchi with another boma ye knee strike for the win. Really nice back and forth match and way better than one would expect.
Elimination Match: Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, Yoshi-Hashi and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Juice Robinson, Kushida and Hiroshi Tanahashi
Chaos worked as the heels and dominated Kushida in the match, nearly getting him eliminated from the top rope (those count in elimination matches in Japan). Shibata and Ishii worked together and the crowd was very into the elimination teases. They both made it to the apron where Shibata was about to take out Tomohiro Ishii to the floor when Yoshi-Hashi came in and dropkicked Shibata, sending both he and Ishii to the floor, eliminating them. Yoshi-Hashi and Robinson then went at it, which didn’t last long as Robinson missed a moonsault, which allowed Yoshi-Hashi to eventually pin him with the senton.
Tanahashi came in and soon submitted Gedo with the Texas Cloverleaf, which left him and Okada together. They teased some back and forth, but it didn’t last long as Okada managed to get him over the top rope, eliminating him. That left Kushida, who worked over Okada’s arm. Okada gained control, hit a high fly flow to mock Tanahashi, and pinned him with the rainmaker to win the match. Good stuff throughout and the crowd was into it.
Overall, this was a fine card. Watch the NWA Jr. title match if you can, and the top two matches were great. One of the better Korakuen Hall house shows in a while.
At Bellator’s September Dynamite show, it was announced that Fedor Emilianenko would return to MMA on New Year’s Eve for a new Japanese promotion which we later learned would be called Rizin Fighting Federation. Former Pride president Nobuyuki Sakakibara made the announcement but didn’t announce an opponent for the former Grand Prix champion.
Several names have been rumoured to be Fedor’s opponent with word first leaking out (and quickly denied) that the opponent would be former Super Fight League fighter Jaideep Singh. Seemingly every non-UFC heavyweight who didn’t already have a fight booked was linked at one point or another, and late Thursday night, the promotion held a press conference, to announce Fedor’s opponent on December 31st.
And that opponent is…Jaideep Singh.
At the time of the original rumours, Singh had only fought one in MMA, a 2013 bout in which he submitted 0-1 fighter Alireza Tavakoli. He’s since fought for the DEEP promotion in Japan, scoring a 2nd round KO over Carlos Toyota (6-6-1). Fedor and Singh will be the main event of “Breakfast with Fedor” — a show that will be broadcast on New Year’s Eve on Spike TV at 10 AM Eastern. The show will feature fights from the three shows that Rizin will be running that weekend, two of which involve current Bellator fighters Brennan Ward and King Mo Lawal in separate fights.
Emilianenko was at one time considered the top heavyweight and pound-for-pound fighter in all of MMA. He had a 10-year winning streak snapped at the hands of current UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum in June 2010. He went on to get knocked out in his next two Strikeforce fights against Bigfoot Silva and Dan Henderson before returning to Russia and Japan. He won twice for M1 Global and once for Dream before retiring after a June 2012 KO of Pedro Rizzo.
WWE Smackdown results (12/17): Roman Reigns Speaks, Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler
Air Date: December 17, 2015 – Location: Prudential Center in Newark, NJ
The Big News:
Watch Raw next Monday if you would like a follow-up to Raw last Monday.
Show Recap:
Smackdown opened with a recap of the Roman Reigns story from Raw, including Stephanie McMahon slapping the crap out of him. They also included a shot of The Usos and Dean Ambrose jumping in to celebrate after Reigns won.
Reigns came out through the crowd, WWE title belt on his shoulder. He said winning the championship felt good, but doing it on his daughter’s birthday was so much better. Reigns figured he doesn’t have much time left in the company after spearing Triple H and punching Vince McMahon. The line about punching Vince got a big reaction.
He advised the people at home not to punch their bosses. Reigns said he’d face his repercussions on Monday, but tonight isn’t Raw, it’s Smackdown (and no one is in charge I guess). Reigns added that we haven’t seen Triple H since TLC. I guess they forgot Smackdown airs after NXT Takeover.
Sheamus came out and said he wants Reigns to enjoy every moment with the title because it won’t be long before he has it again. Reigns was ready to fight now, but of course Sheamus wasn’t going to. Sheamus said the Authority has launched an investigation against Reigns, which means he can’t be on Smackdown tonight.
Reigns told Sheamus he could make him leave. Sheamus put over Reigns’ fighting spirit, but Stephanie told him if Reigns didn’t leave voluntarily they’d take alternative measures, and about 10 security guards came out on stage. Reigns didn’t budge so security went after him. Most of them were tiny, so Reigns took them out easily. The best spot was after one security guard couldn’t get over the top rope, Reigns shoved him out violently and the guy splatted on the mats.
There was one larger security guard left and Reigns took him out with a superman punch. Reigns posed with the title and Sheamus frowned. Reigns was universally cheered in this segment but I wouldn’t call it a huge reaction. Of course, that could have something to do with the number of people in attendance. Nobody was booing, anyway.
Non-Title: U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio beat Ryback via submission
They explained that Ryback requested this match. Before it started, Ryback said Del Rio is going to wish he never came back, and he’s going to eat the League of Nations (or something). Somebody in the crowd had a Mexican flag and Del Rio held it up for a moment during his entrance.
They messed up a spot where Ryback went for the Lou Thesz press but Del Rio didn’t go down, so Ryback just punched him until he did. Ryback made his comeback which actually included a missile dropkick. Ryback hit a meat-hook clothesline and went for Shellshocked but Sheamus, Rusev and Wade Barrett all ran out to the League of Nations music.
Ryback shoved Del Rio away for some reason, and the distraction allowed Del Rio to lock in the armbar. Ryback tried to fight out but eventually tapped. Afterwards, the League beat up Ryback, and Rusev applied the Accolade. The match was no good and I have no idea why Roman Reigns didn’t come out here.
Backstage, Tyler Breeze told Summer Rae that Titus O’Neil was an uggo. Goldust randomly appeared behind them and made weird noises. Summer sprayed hairspray in his face and he eventually left. Okay then.
They plugged a WWE house show at The Forum in Los Angeles on Saturday featuring Brock Lesnar. It was just a quick plug by the announcers, not a commercial.
Titus O’Neil beat Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) via pinfall
No Darren Young at ringside. Goldust came out in the middle of the match and sat next to Summer in the VIP section. O’Neil made his comeback as this was happening. Goldust grabbed the selfie stick and took a selfie with Jerry Lawler. He also tried taking one with Breeze as Breeze yelled at him. The distraction allowed Titus to hit a sitout powerbomb for the win. Two straight distraction finishes.
Backstage, Dean Ambrose told Renee Young that Kevin Owens’ mind games won’t work. Ambrose said he won’t go away, and if Owens wants him all he has to do is ask. Ambrose said he puts it all on the line every night and that’s how he won the title. Ambrose wished Owens luck if his plan is to drive him crazy.
In his dark room backstage, Bray Wyatt said being extreme wasn’t enough. Each member of the Wyatt family added a stupid line. Strowman said he enjoys the feeling of someone taking their last breath in his arms. Ok.
Non-Title: Lucha Dragons beat WWE Tag-Team Champions Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods (w/Big E) via pinfall
Xavier Woods said the Lucha Dragons and Usos didn’t accept their gratitude on Monday because they’re jealous, just like everyone else. Kofi Kingston plugged their unicorn horns, which light up. Woods said when they dance, it’s not for the fans, but for themselves. They chanted New Day rocks. This was not good.
The announcers put over how great the ladder match was at TLC. (They also did this for the tables match earlier.) Like last week, Big E tried and failed to play the trombone. They had the heat on Kalisto forever. He tried to make a tag but Big E yanked Sin Cara off the apron and Kingston clotheslined Kalisto from behind.
New Day danced, very proud of themselves. As they danced, Sin Cara jumped in the ring and did a crazy dive which knocked Woods off the apron and took out Big E at the same time. With Kingston standing on the middle rope, Kalisto did a powerbomb into a pin for the victory. Crowd did the Lucha dance after the win. Not much of a match but I liked the finish.
Backstage, Renee asked Dolph Ziggler what it was like being collateral damage. Ziggler was tired of being called collateral damage and said the Intercontinental Title means more to him than anyone. He admitted that maybe he has become an afterthought and that was his own fault for not winning the big one [after just saying he was a former IC champion (also, he was World Champion twice)]. Ziggler said he worked hard and never calls in sick and never lost his smile. He dared Owens to top him tonight. Maybe this read well on the script, but this was stupid and Ziggler comes off so insincere.
Becky Lynch beat Brie Bella via submission
Before Lynch came out, Team B.A.D. were in the first row and their music played as Brie waited in the ring. Why was their music playing if they’re just spectating? And why do they have tickets if they work there?
The crowd chanted “We want Sasha” as soon as the match started. If Team B.A.D. being in the crowd wasn’t enough, Charlotte came out during the match to her music. The distraction allowed Lynch to make a comeback. Brie countered with a missile dropkick and running knee. Lynch followed with an Exploder suplex.
Lynch pushed Brie into the ropes and the referee was somehow distracted, allowing Charlotte to trip Brie. Lynch saw what happened, but applied the Disarmer anyway for the win. I didn’t mind Charlotte interfering since it plays into the story, but it would be nice if they eliminate the number of crappy finishes elsewhere on the show.
Backstage, Charlotte and Lynch argued. Lynch said they won on Raw because Ric Flair interfered, and she won tonight because Charlotte interfered. Charlotte said she just wanted Lynch to win. Lynch said she wants to do it on her own, which is why she accepted Brie’s challenge. Charlotte said she didn’t want Lynch to lose. Lynch was offended that Charlotte thought she couldn’t win on their own and she stormed off.
Elsewhere, Kevin Owens told Jo-Jo that it doesn’t matter what Dolph Ziggler wants, this was about Owens getting his IC title back from the cockroach Dean Ambrose. Jo-Jo again asked Owens about Ziggler. Owen gets that Ziggler wants revenge, but now he’s going to end up in a hospital.
They announced New Day will defend their tag titles against the Lucha Dragons on the live Smackdown on Tuesday.
Dolph Ziggler beat Kevin Owens via DQ
Ziggler tuned up the band and went for a superkick but Owens caught him and hit a belly-to-belly suplex. Owens also used a German suplex. Ziggler countered a pop-up powerbomb into a superkick for a nearfall.
Owens back body dropped Ziggler to the outside and they tried to sell it like he hurt his neck or shoulder. Owens went after him and clubbed away. The referee warned Owens to get back in the ring, but Owens tossed Ziggler over the announce table for a lame DQ. Ziggler miraculously recovered and jumped off the table onto Owens, but Owens just pushed him into the steel steps like he was nothing.
Dean Ambrose ran out to make the save. He went for Dirty Deeds but Owens bailed. Owens superkicked Ziggler as he was being helped out by referees, so Ambrose chased him off. Ambrose went to check on Ziggler but Ziggler superkicked him. The announcers debated whether Ziggler thought Ambrose was actually Owens.
Final Thoughts:
They basically told you in the opening segment that this show would be a placeholder since the main story won’t be followed up until Monday, and that was definitely the case. Besides Reigns beating up ten security guards, the opening segment was basically pointless. The Authority wanted him banned from the building, but he refused. After refusing to leave, he never showed up again anyway – even after the League of Nations attacked Ryback in the very next segment.
Also, this show featured two distraction finishes, a win by interference, and a DQ in the main event.
These matches were taped for next week’s NXT TV show.
Jason Jordan and Chad Gable vs The Hype Bros vs. The Vaudevillians vs Blake and Murphy (w/ Alexa Bliss)
Jordan and Gable might be more over than anyone in the entire company right now, at least in the UK. They came out to a humongous pop with chants from the crowd the whole way through the match. Typical overbooked opener, everyone got their spots in. Jordan was incredibly pumped up from the crowd reaction and played to the crowd alot. The other teams were booed incessantly. Vaudevillians worked over Gable for most of the match. The hot tag to Jordan got another crazy pop and he hit a number of incredible suplexes, getting a suplex city chant at one point. The finish came after Jordan his an absolutely ridiculous belly to belly over the top rope onto the other teams on the outside, spot of the match, if not the night. Jordan and Gable hit their double finisher for the win. Really really good.
Elias Sampson vs Bull Dempsey
A pretty nothing match. No one really cared about Sampson. Not much happened. This was basically a comedy match. Bull did jumping jacks which Sampson watched from the corner. A fairly botchy match at times. Sampson got “You’re just a poo poo Seth Rollins” and “You’re a hipster” chants. Sampson wins out of basically nowhere after a few minutes. Basically nothing.
After the match, “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and now we have for you a special BONUS MATCH!” which led to immediate Ole chants.
Sami Zayn vs. Tye Dillinger
Tye Dillinger comes out first, and was very over with his 10 gimmick (10 signs were probably the most common ones I saw; there weren’t that many overall). He would’ve been a face except out comes his opponent. The crowd goes insane for Sami. He goes up the stairs and does his arm-ruining waves. Sami was incredibly over, but they’re going to have to cut this down if they show it because about half the match was them reacting to the chants, all the usual stuff you’d expect, “Welcome Back” and Oles and everything. Tye gets “poo poo Hair, No Fans” and “Topknot Wanker” chants. A good match. Sami teases his arm injury and Tye works that arm a bit, but nothing to make you worried. Great Blue Thunder Bomb out of nowhere gets a 2, and a Helluva Kick for the win.
Sami stays in the ring with a mic. Huge amount of chants; he gives up speaking a couple of times because it’s so loud. Basically just imagine every line here interspersed with one chant or another for him. He says it’s great to be back, that every time he’s on a high, like winning the title or going on Raw to fight John Cena (boos), it seems like things take a nosedive for him, but today, that trend is reversed. He talks about the tour up until this point and is hilariously dumbfounded that we boo the hell out of all the other towns he brings up, “is this some British heat thing?”. Big things are coming for NXT in 2016, and for him, he says, and makes to leave – but then comes back into the ring, because ever since Triple H got to say it, he’s wanted to. “We are NXT!” Super babyface stuff, basically, but he was beloved for it.
In what could be a precursor to a big PPV buyrate, Saturday’s UFC 194 prelims did a record 1,931,000 viewers on Fox Sports One, double their 2015 prelims average of 987,500.
The numbers shatters the record set earlier this year by January’s UFC 183 prelims that did 1,546,000 viewers that Miesha Tate in the featured prelim fight of a show headlined by Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz.
Saturday’s four-fight prelim show headlined by Urijah Faber vs. Frankie Saenz garnered the highest number for a UFC PPV prelim show on any broadcast partner since the UFC 126 prelims on February 5, 2011 on SPIKE TV did 2,000,000 viewers for a 60-minute two fight broadcast featuring Donald Cerrone and Chad Mendes in separate fights. This was also during a time period when UFC was on television far less frequently and that number, while good, wasn’t thought be particularly notable as many Fight Night shows were either at or near that number.
Saturday’s viewership total was higher than all but one FS1 Fight Night show which was January’s UFC Fight Night 59 headlined by Conor McGregor vs Dennis Siver. That show was on a Sunday after the NFC conference championship game.
The company’s final prelims average on FS1 for 2015 is 1,073,273 viewers – a 47% increase over the 2014 average of 728,444.
In other UFC ratings news, the TUF 22 Finale featuring Frankie Edgar vs. Chad Mendes did 893,000 viewers, up from the July TUF 21 finale (691,000) but down from the December 2014 TUF 20 finale (989,000) The FS1 prelims did 809,000 viewers, way up from July’s 470,000 and the December 2014 prelims’ 719,000.
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – Henry Ordemann beat Jess Reimer (Westergard) to capture the American Heavyweight Title in 2 out of 3 falls
1956
Miami, Florida: – Jerry Graham defeated Bobby Wepner to win the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title
1963
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – Verne Gagne won the AWA World Heavyweight Champion by defeating The Crusher in 2 out of 3 falls – Bill Miller drew Moose Evans – Tiny Mills & Larry Hennig no contest Rene Goulet & Maurice LaPointe – Marcel Semard beat Pee Wee Lopez – Marquis DeParee beat Lee Mattson
1977
Honolulu, Hawaii: – AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel drew Missing Link Pampero Firpo – Sam Steamboat beat North American Champion Tor Kamata – Bill Francis & John Tolos beat Steve Strong & Jesse Ventura – Billy Whitewolf drew Rocky Tamayo – Don Muraco beat Duke Savage – Chris Markoff beat Buck Zumhofe
1979
Houston, Texas: – Gino Hernandez & El Gran Markus defeated Jose Lothario & El Halcon for the NWA American Tag Team Titles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: – AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Greg Gagne – Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura beat The Crusher & Steve Olsonoski – Dino Bravo beat Super Destroyer Mark II – Mad Dog Vachon no contest Super Destroyer Mark III – Buck Zumhofe drew Ron Ritchie – Peter Sandor Szabo beat Chris Curtis
1983
Shelby, North Carolina: – Dick Slater defeated Greg Valentine for the United States Heavyweight Title
1992
Tokyo, Japan: – The Hell Raisers (Road Warrior Hawk and “Power Warrior” Kensuke Sasaki) defeated Scott Norton & Tony Halme (aka Ludvig Borga in WWF) for New Japan’s IWGP Tag Team Title
– Sabu defeated The Dirt Bike Kid and Mikey Whipwreck in a triple threat match to win the EWA Jr heavyweight title
2003
Nagoya, Japan: – Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Osamu Nishimura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie to win New Japan’s IWGP Tag Team Titles – Heat (Minoru Tanaka) defeated Jado to win the Jr heavyweight title
Orlando, Florida: – Randy Orton defeated Rob Van Dam to win the Intercontinental Title (Mick Foley was the special referee) – Ric Flair & Batista won a Tag Team Turmoil match to become the World Tag Team Champions defeating the Dudley Boyz, Scott Steiner & Test, Rob Conway & Rene Dupree, Hurricane & Rosey, Mark Jindrak & Garrison Cade, Lance Storm & Val Venis – Triple H defeated champion Bill Goldberg and Kane in a Triple Threat match to win the World Heavyweight Title
2008
Buffalo, New York: – Jeff Hardy defeated Edge and Triple H to win the WWE Championship – Batista defeated Randy Orton – John Cena defeated Chris Jericho to retain the WWE World Title
2014
WWE TLC | Cleveland, Ohio: – Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper in a Ladder Match to win the Intercontinental Title – John Cena defeated Seth Rollins in a Tables Match – Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose in a TLC Match – Rusev defeated Jack Swagger in a Chairs match to retain the United States Title
As WWE was airing their final big event of the year with TLC, SI.com media critic and wrestling fan Richard Deitsch broke the news that longtime boxing, MMA, and New Japan Pro Wrestling play-by-play man Mauro Ranallo will be announced Monday as the new lead announcer on WWE Smackdown when the show moves to USA Network in January.
Ranallo told SI that Michael Cole had reached out to him a month ago to ask if he had interest in working with WWE. Ranallo sent along some clips, including some commentary he did for a mock Floyd Mayweather vs. Warren Buffett fight for a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder conference. From the interview: “This was an opportunity I did not think I would get at this point of my career and I jumped on it,” Ranallo said. “I have been a lifelong fan of the product. Michael said that when Vince saw the Warren Buffet video, it seemed to cinch it. They believed I could sell the entertainment part.”
Ranallo will continue to call both boxing for Showtime and GLORY kickboxing for ESPN, but will be a full-time employee of WWE, working backstage at RAW and other broadcasts in an unspecified capacity. While it wasn’t mentioned in the piece, it can be assumed Ranallo will no longer be calling NJPW on AXS TV. It’s also uncertain who his broadcast partners will be.
The 45-year-old Ranallo got his start in combat sports in the pro wrestling business at just 16 years old for Vancouver, Canada,’s All-Star Wrestling. He has always been a fan and advocate for wrestling, slipping in plenty of references during many a fight he’s called cage/ringside.
Show started with a 4 way match between Cortez Castro, Mr Cisco, Kill Shot and Joey Ryan. I am not sure if Joey was at an earlier taping or if this was his debut. Crowd popped biggest for Joey in this match.
Before the match Catrina came out of her office and announced that the winner of this match would win a spot in the Aztec Warfare match. I’m not certain if this match was for a separate episode or not.
Good match overall. Lasted under 10 minutes. Kill Shot in particular looked very good in this match. The two members of the Crew (Cortez and Cisco) at two points in the match got into each other’s faces and argued when they each broke up a pin attempt being made by the other. In the end Kill Shot hit a double foot stomp on Cortez and stumbled afterwards and before he could gain his balance and turn around for the pin Joey Ryan snuck in to get the pin and win an opportunity for the Aztec Warfare match.
AZTEC WARFARE match after this. Before the match Vampiro came into the ring and let the audience know that Catrina had set up this match since Fenix had won the Lucha Underground title. He would enter #1 and then Mil Muertes would enter in at #20, last in the 20 man match.
So Fenix came out for a big pop. And then Melissa Santos announced the next participant. She said they are from San Diego, CA and the crowd started the stir and after a moment she announced Rey Mysterio came out at 2.Huge pop. Probably the biggest pop of the night. This Aztec Warfare match lasted anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. I don’t think I could name every spot because at times there was multiple things going on at once. It was a bit hard to keep track of everything.
Notable Spots:
– REY Mysterio ended up hitting a 619 and then a frog splash on the #4 or 5th entrant Argenis very early on. After hitting the frog splash there was a lot of Eddie chants.
– Fun Spot – Jack Evans came out while three faces (Mysterio, Puma and Fenix) were stomping on King Cuerno. Evans called for them but neither looked at him. Then he spring boarded and they moved out of the way so he landed his splash right on the mat. Then the three faces all stomped on him which led to Mundo trying to join in on the stomping and the faces all looked at him and started hitting him.
– Another fun spot – Joey Ryan came out and handcuffed himself to a side gate and announced that he was going to stay there and win the match since no one could pin him as he was handcuffed to the railing(more on this later)
– PJ Black made an appearance late in the match. I couldn’t see much of his out of the ring action from where I was standing. However later in the match he ended up being pinned by Texano JR
– When Brian Cage entered he ended up fighting with Mundo on the outside. Mundo threw him into the office window and then much later into the match Cage then attacked Mundo and threw Mundo back in for him to get pinned by Prince Puma. Later on in the match Mundo came back and knocked out Cage by hitting him and smashing a cinder block on his head which led to Cage being pinned.
– Finally Mil Muertes came out with still around 6-9 people still left in the match. As he was down the steps Pentagon JR came out from behind with a chair. Pentagon hit Muertes several times with a chair and then threw him in the ring for Mysterio to hit a splash on him and REY and then Puma on top of Rey to pin Muertes and get him out.
– Muertes after a minute to recover from this was furious and chased off Pentagon. Catrina then started to yell and then slap Vampiro for mentoring Pentagon JR. And then out came Dario Cueto to a huge pop. He said that he was the boss and this was his temple. He announced that there is one more participant in this 20 man match. It was his brother Matanza.
Note on Matanza’s appearance he was about the same height as Pentagon JR. He had on a leather mask with a black skull cap underneath. The mask looked like a mix from something out of an insane asylum with it covering his mouth leaving little thin lines for air and it wrapped around his head not fully covering his head so it showed his black skull cap. Kind of looked like the Jason X mask but it was leather and wasn’t exactly the same as that mask. Just reminded me of that mask is all. Matanza was wearing for an outfit a garbage collector outfit. Similar to a Wyatt family outfit that Daniel Bryan and Rowan wear. Except Matanza’s was a dirty grey one that also had blood. His mask also had spots of dried blood on it.
Anyway the match ended after Matanza took out several people. He took out Texano JR. He took out Chavo after Chavo tried to get him to attack some of the faces. Matanza took out Aerostar as well with a german suplex bridged into a pin. One of the very first people Matanza took out was the Lucha Underground champ Fenix. It was a little anticlimatic when he pinned him. Audience was certainly stunned. He pinned Fenix with a powerslam as his finish. Matanza sold very little. No sold a stunner from Mack and then pinned him after with the German Suplex into a pin. Came after Joey Ryan and smashed him against the gate and then broke the handcuffs and destroyed him in the ring. After he took out all those people all was left was Rey and Puma.
Puma and Rey double teamed Matanza. Eventually he threw Rey out of the ring and then took out Puma. Rey put up a bit of a fit after a long stare down. Matanza caught Rey’s legs when he attempted a 619. Slammed Rey down. Rey kicked out. Rey hit another 619. Matanza kicked out at 1 i believe. Matanza then beat down Rey and won the Lucha Underground title.
Notes on Matanza. He was as I said about the height of Pentagon Jr. He was a strong man. He was also very agile. He did a standing shooting star press at one point which was impressive.
Show 2 —
So this next taping started with a promo by Cueto. He announced that they needed to figure out a number 1 contender for his brother’s title. He also announced that there would be a new tournament for the number 1 contender for the Trios title. And then Pentagon JR came out. I don’t speak much spanish but I understood that Pentagon wanted to know why he wasn’t in the Aztec Warfare match. Cueto said he wasn’t championship material which the crowd booed. Pentagon was super over by the way. Pentagon then said he wanted a match with Cueto’s brother for the title tonight. After Cueto said no he then had him in position to break his arm as he did last season many times. Cueto eventually said yes to the match before Pentagon could break his arm.
Then came out Sexy Star accompanied by Mack. She faced Cheerleader Melissa( I belive it was her. Not 100% but I do think it was her in the mask) she was accompanied by Marty the Moth. I didn’t catch the name they announced for Melissa. Cheerleader Melissa won in a short match.
Then there was a trios elimination match for the Trios title. Ivelisse, Angelico, and Son of Havoc (champs) beat the Disciples of Death. Very good and entertaining match. Ivelisse was the first to get pinned. One DoD then got pinned by Angelico. Some awesome spots in this match. No jumping off rooftops or anything but it was a good match. Angelico got pinned next setting up a 2 on 1. Havoc got a pin on one DoD and was about to get another before Catrina knocked him off the top rope. Ivelisse came out and superkicked Catrina and allowed Havoc to retain the Trios titles.
There was a tag team match for the second episode they taped. It was a tag team match with Mundo and he had a female partner. I didn’t catch her name. She was a blonde with pink at the tips of her hair. They faced off against the Crew (Cortez and Mr Cisco). They had a short match. Mundo and his partner were mainly playing heels. They worked Cisco for most of the match until Cortez picked up the hot tag. Cage came out and Mundo tagged himself out and stayed on the opposite side of the ring. Cage stood on right outside of the ropes and Mundo was too scared to break up a pin and so the Crew picked up the win. Mundo ran off with his partner before Cage could attack. This match came after the Cueto promo. Then came the Trios title match and then the Sexy star match and ended with the Pentagon match.
Main Event: Pentagon JR vs Matanza. This was basically an extended squash. Crowd was super into Pentagon. He was really over. Pentagon kicked the hell out of Matanza but Matanza sold very little. He threw Pentagon outside slammed him into the ring post on right on Pentagon’s back and threw him into the crowd’s chairs two different times. He then slammed Pentagon into the gate railing. Pentagon was selling a back problem. Pentagon got a little offense in. Got to hit Matanza with a back breaker but Matanza no sold it. Matanza ended up pinning Pentagon after the powerslam. Vampiro ran in to check on Pentagon and threw up the X sign to get him help. He yelled for an ambulance. Matanza knocked out Vampiro and continued his attack on Pentagon and eventually slammed him throw the announce table. Matanza left to loud boos with Cueto at his side. Pentagon left on a stretcher. The show ended with loud chants by the crowd chanting Cero Miedo. Stryker was seen in shock and held up his microphone so the tv audience could hear the chanting for Pentagon after he left on the stretcher.
