Wichita, Kansas: – NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ede Virag beat Charley Lutkie – Jack Nasworthy beat Bill Ely
1956
Kansas City, Kansas: – Ernie Dusek, Emil Dusek and Joe Dusek beat Jim Dobie, Larry Hamilton and Sonny Myers 2 falls to 1 – Mighty Atlas beat Mario DeSouza 2 falls to 1
1960
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – AWA Tag Team Champions Hard Boiled Haggerty & Len Montana beat Verne Gagne & Joe Scarpello – Gene Kiniski beat Bob Rasmussen – Wilbur Snyder beat Tommy O’Toole
1962
Jacksonville, Florida: – Eddie Graham defeated Boris Malenko to win the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title
1972
Honolulu, Hawaii: – AWA Tag Team Champions Ed Francis & Billy Robinson beat Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens dq (only recognized in Hawaii) – The Destroyer beat Dory Dixon – Tosh Togo drew Jack Carson – Sam Steamboat beat John Foley
1973
Rockford, Illinois: – Weightlifting: Ken Patera beat Billy Graham dq – AWA Tag Team Champions Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens beat Billy Robinson & Geoff Portz – Tony Rocco beat Ric Flair – Greg Gagne drew Rene Goulet
1980
Shreveport, Louisiana: – Killer Karl Kox defeated The Grappler for the Mid-South Mississippi Heavyweight Title
Omaha, Nebraska: – Mad Dog Vachon beat John Studd dq – Adrian Adonis beat Greg Gagne – Dino Bravo & Tito Santana beat Jesse Ventura & Jerry Blackwell – Buck Zumhofe drew Steve Regal
1986
San Juan, Puerto Rico: – Al Perez defeated The Mighty Igor to win the WWC Puerto Rican Heavyweight Title
1992
Knoxville, Tennessee: – The Rock N’ Roll Express defeated The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane & Tom Pritchard) in a Steel Cage match to win the SMW Tag Team Championshipin
1994
Chicago, Illinois: – Tito Santana defeated Cowboy Bob Orton Jr. to become the first American Wrestling Federation World Champion
2003
Miyagi, Japan: – Gedo & Jado defeated Hiroki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi in a tournament final to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
2010
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: – Sheamus defeated John Morrison in the finals of a one night tournament to win the WWE King of the Ring
The Big Takeaway: Adam Rose continues to lose with this woeful gimmick and The Miz and Zack Ryder, of all people, had a good match in the main event.
*****
R-Truth beat Adam Rose (3:32)
Adam Rose came out for a promo. He blamed the WWE universe for blocking his path to fame. He said that in the future everyone would talk about him because he’s going to be “so famous”. This was dull but he got good heat.
Straight off the bat, Truth tries an O’Conner roll, but Rose kicks out and they exchange arm rings. They chain wrestle until Truth stops Rose in his tracks and gyrates his hips at him. Then he hip tosses him and Rose begs for mercy, going to the ropes. The ref stops things, urging Truth to back off, but Rose takes the opportunity to use a cheap shot and then throws Truth outside and does a running kick on the apron.
Rose rolls Truth back in and goes for the cover, which only gets a two count. He beats him down with elbows and a chin lock but a backdrop gets Truth out. Rose’s charge to the corner is blocked by Truth’s elbow and then Truth gets the heat with clotheslines, a heel kick, but then he misses a scissors kick. Rose hits Truth with a discus clothesline and covers him for two. Then Truth stays down, playing possum, and after the ref checks on him he pops up and hits Rose with the Lie Detector for the win. What a heel!
The Miz beat Zack Ryder (7:02)
I saw Miz live at the house shows on the European tour recently and was really reminded what a great heel he can be, particularly given the right context. He plays The Miz very well. Ryder, meanwhile, was featured on last week’s Breaking Ground where they profiled Mojo Rawley and focused in on the tag teams. He really comes off as a thoughtful and dedicated guy who just desperately wants to play a role that is taken seriously in this company. Anyway, here, these two had a good match.
Miz takes his glasses off at the bell – I still quite like this spot. Ryder shoulder barges him, so Miz takes a walk. When he slides back in, he uses a shoulder barge of his own and then mocks the ‘Woo’ fist pump. Miz goes for a neckbreaker, but it is broken up by Ryder who hits him with a beautifully timed drop kick, followed by a face plant. Ryder sends Miz over the top rope to the outside and then missile drop kicks him through the ropes. He rolls him back in, but as Ryder is mounting the apron, Miz sends him flying into the announce table. We head to a break.
Miz is stomping Ryder as we return. When Ryder kicks out of a pin at two, he hits him with elbows. Ryder takes a buckle bump well and Miz does his running corner clothesline. Miz comes off the top with a double axe handle, but is punched in the stomach by Ryder and so they both go down. Ryder then gets some hope with a flying clothesline, but a top rope drop kick is dodged by Miz who hits him with a DDT for two. Then Miz tries for a suplex but it is reversed into a neckbreaker by Ryder for two.
Ryder then misses the Rough Ryder, Miz misses a charge to the corner and so Ryder goes for the Broski Boot. This is scouted by Miz, who rolls outside. Miz then counters a sunset flip, and holds the ropes while pinning Ryder. The ref spots it and breaks up the pin. Ryder charges and misses a cross body and hits the ropes, so Miz hits the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. This was an entirely solid match.
Two-time IWGP Champion and current NJPW star A.J. Styles missed today’s New Japan show in Yamaguchi, Japan, due to a back injury.
Styles & Yujiro Takahashi were scheduled against Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata, but Goto & Shibata were awarded the win via forfeit. Goto & Shibata beat Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu after some changes to the undercard.
According to those close to the situation, Styles took the show off for rest and treatment and he is expected back in action shortly. Styles & Takahashi’s next tournament match is scheduled against ROH tag team champions Michael Bennett & Matt Taven for this Tuesday in Fukuoka at Hakata Star Lanes.
The 38-year-old Styles had been out of action a few weeks ago with back problems before the tour, causing him to miss two ROH dates. He is set for some big matches in the months ahead, facing ROH Champion Jay Lethal at December’s Final Battle iPPV and Nakamura at January’s Wrestle Kingdom 10.
Here are quick results for the 11/24 World Tag League show held in Ishikawa, Japan:
The Addiction vs. Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale
Mostly back and forth. Fale took it into the crowd at one point for a brawl. Addiction worked as the babyfaces and looked great; they have great timing as a tag team. Fale tried to splash Kazarian and Daniels but they moved out of the way and he splashed Tama Tonga. The Addiction then hit Celebrity Rehab and got the win.
The Kingdom vs. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson
They had a good match. Same Maria spots you’ve seen in every other encounter they’ve had this year- she went into the ring at one point, Anderson danced, Maria danced, and Anderson walked right into a superkick. Gallows and Anderson eliminated Bennett, however, and Taven walked into a Doc Gallows superkick, eventually leading to their win after a Magic Killer.
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata
Decent match. Nagata and Okada were in first and they had a nice exchange. Nakanishi was in there a lot, more than you would think given his limitations. At one point Nakanishi had Okada in the torture rack and Nagata put Yoshi-Hashi in the armbar but both managed to escape. I wish that would be a finish for once, that’d give that spot some credibility. Okada eventually pinned Nakanishi with the rainmaker.
– Show opened with Roman Reigns out for a promo, pusing his TLC title match with WWE Champion Sheamus. Sheamus came out and called Reigns a walking, talking Adele song. They almost went at it.
– The Dudleys beat Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman via DQ when Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper interfered and put Bubba through a table.
– Paige pinned Becky Lynch.
– They did a Thanksgiving comedy segment. It was a Thanksgiving dinner party with The New Day, Heath Slater, Adam Rose and The Ascension. The Gobbledy Gooker showed up. It was revealed he was Xavier Woods.
Jack Swagger beat WWE U.S. Champion Alberto Del Rio via DQ for using a chair. Swagger made his own comeback on Del Rio after.
– The Usos came up with a plan that was revealed later.
– Lucha Dragons beat WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) in a non-title match when the Gobbledy Gooker turned on New Day. It turned out it was Jey Uso in the costume. It later came out the Usos beat up Woods and stole his costume. Then Jimmy brought out Woods, all tied up, and Jey splashed him off the top.
– Dean Ambrose won a three-way over Dolph Ziggler and Tyler Breeze to earn a WWE Intercontinental title shot when Ambrose pinned Breeze with Dirty Deeds.
This past weekend saw televised shows from the big three MMA organizations in North America with differering results.
UFC —
UFC Fight Night 78 from Mexico featuring Kelvin Gastelum vs. Neil Magny in the main event did a below average 750,000 viewers for Fox Sports One for the main card, but a well above average 732,000 viewers for the four fight prelims show that was also on FS1.
The show wouldn’t have been expected to do a great rating with the main event, especially with Magny replacing the popular Matt Brown who was injured in the lead-in to the event. Additionally, the TUF Latin American 2 final matches were on the main card featuring 4 completely unknown fighters to the US audience since that series only aired on UFC Fight Pass in the US.
The year to date average for UFC Fight Nights on FS 1 now stands at just under 908,000 viewers, so Saturday’s show was 17% below that average. However, that number is still 9.5% higher than the 2014 average of just under 829,000 viewers.
Better news for UFC was the continued trend of the FS 1 prelims doing well above average. The 732,000 viewers for that show were 23% higher than the year-to-date average of 595,000 viewers. That number is also up 9.3% from the 2014 average of 544,000. The prelims bouts had an unofficial “Mexico vs the World” theme with the biggest name on that portion of the show being longtime UFC/WEC fighter Scott Jorgensen, a loser to Alejandro Perez.
This week’s numbers was down significantly from the 903,000 viewers for UFC Fight Night 57 one year ago this weekend. That show had a much bigger main event with Frankie Edgar vs Cub Swanson. The prelims for that show were also slightly higher at 777,000 viewers with veteran Yves Edwards being the biggest name.
Bellator —
Bellator 146 on Spike TV was right at its year to date average for regular Friday night shows with 650,000 viewers. Headlined by Melvin Manhoef vs Hisako Kato, the show was virtually identical to the year to date average of 656,000 viewers. It was also up 19% from the most recent non-“tentpole” show in October which did 555,000 viewers. The year to date average is down 3.5% from last year’s 676,000 viewers. There is no similar show from last year to compare to as Bellator took an extended break after the Bellator 131 show with Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar.
WSOF —
WSOF on NBC Sports Network did a disappointing 148,000 viewers for an event featuring a one night lightweight tournament for a title shot in 2016. The 25th show in company history had its lowest viewership total since 96,000 viewers watched WSOF Canada on Feb 21, 2014. It was their third lowest total in their run on NBC Sports Network.
Although the show was advertised around the lightweight tourney, there was only one fight actually announced ahead of time featuring former Strikeforce fighter Jason High vs Estevan Payan. The 148,000 viewers for the show is 23% lower than the year-to-date average of 192,000. The 2015 average is down 11% from the 2014 average of 216,000 viewers.
Despite the steady numbers for Bellator and the gradually rising UFC numbers, there has been a steady decline for World Series of Fighting that traces back to their high water point when almost a million viewers tuned in to their one and only live card on the main NBC network in July of 2014.
Former WCW & TNA commentator Scott Hudson didn’t hold back in a two-hour conversation with IYH Wrestling Radio, unloading on current WWE announcers, the failed Invasion angle, and the recent Reid Flair death mention in an angle with Charlotte and Paige.
Excerpts provided by IYH’s Vic Vic Schiavone with the full interview available here:
– On the current state of wrestling commentary:
“Well first, Michael Cole sucks. That guy couldn’t call a one-horse race. Unfortunately, the best announcer they have on RAW is Byron Saxton, and they don’t let him show his stuff. JBL…he’s terrible, he’s horrible…They don’t know what to do, but then again I’ll give Cole at least a little bit of credit in that he’s doing what he’s told. If he wasn’t doing what he was told, he would be working for Joey Styles at the dot com office. And that’s sad, is that they’ve got the best announcer in the last twenty years on staff not announcing. The guy for New Japan, Mauro Ranallo, he’s the best announcer in wrestling and it’s not even close. He’s fantastic. The guys on Ring of Honor, Kevin Kelly and the rest of that bunch, they’re good, too. But the announcing on basically every WWE product across platforms is atrocious.
I’ve gotta say this, I’m a huge mark for The King (Jerry Lawler); he could read things out of the phone book and I would listen. So I love The King, take him out of that equation, otherwise the announcers there are worthless. But, to their everlasting credit, they’re doing what they’re told. And Vince (McMahon) is happy as a clam, watching ratings…and viewership and everything else and gimmick sales go right in the tank.”
– On the WWE Invasion angle:
“Keep this in mind…when they bought us out, should there ever have been a bigger angle than the Invasion Angle? Because you had ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) thrown in there, too…That angle, start to finish, should still be going today, fourteen years later. And the problem is one person’s fault, and that’s Vince McMahon. He would not in his dying breath put over a WCW talent or an ECW talent. Now…some guys got over in spite of Vince trying to bury them, but Vince’s whole idea was to bury both companies. It wasn’t to make money by saying “Oh my God, this is WCW vs. WWE vs. ECW”, it was “This is WWE, stop. WCW and ECW guys are job guys.” That’s all he wanted, that’s all he saw, and he did not care that he was sitting on a 20-million dollar profit. He was comfortable with a 2-million dollar profit because he got to bury WCW and ECW.”
– On the current state of wrestling:
“Actually I like all the guys in The Shield, the Wyatt Family guys are entertaining to watch, but the guys out there now, to bring this whole show full circle, it’s all promos. When we had WCW, we had the Power Plant and we brought in the bunch called The Natural Born Thrillers ((Chuck) Palumbo, (Mark) Jindrak, (Shawn) Stasiak, Reno, Mike Sanders). All those guys, with the exception of Sanders, they were all horrible promos. I mean, terrible. But they were great athletes…I mean you go back and watch that stuff they were incredible workers, but they couldn’t cut a promo if you had a gun to their head…And it’s like The Natural Born Thrillers are now the entire roster of the WWE top to bottom: great looking guys, average to fantastic workers, no promo ability; none. I think I mentioned on some discussion the other night that I had online that listening to Roman Reigns cut a promo has all the fire of a Dr. Ben Carson haiku reading. And that’s probably being kind to both of them.”
– On using Reid Flair’s death as part of an angle:
“Well, there’s been so much made of that from Monday night with Charlotte and Paige, but…has the death of Ric Flair’s son ever been used in an angle before? No. But has something as disgusting because it’s real been used in a promotional angle before? Sure…Katie Vick…Hunter accused Kane of murdering and I guess burying a high-school cheerleader…That obviously wasn’t real, but that’s disgusting. And there have been other disgusting things like Blackjack Mulligan’s heart attack…there was a David and Mike Von Erich memorial parade of champions…they named the show after the two dead guys, much less invoking the name of Reid Flair Mondaynight on RAW. The fact that it’s raising so many eyebrows means that wrestling might have actually not had to resort to that level of angle to get stuff over for so long that this seems so disgusting when in the whole course of history it has been lapped several times in the disgusting category.”
Mexico City, Mexico: – Sammy Stein defeated Lobo Negro for the World Lightweight Title
1950
Atlanta, Georiga: – Lord Finis Hall defeated Jack Kennedy to win the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title
1952
Huntington, West Virginia: – Ed Francis defeated Joe Scarpello to win the Midwest Wrestling Association Junior Heavyweight Title
1956
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: – Nicoli & Boris Volkoff defeated Reggie & Stan Lisowski to win the Chicago version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles
1960
Amarillo, Texas: – Nikita Mulkovich won the Amarillo version of the NWA North American Heavyweight Title from Pancho Lopez
St. Paul, Minnesota: – AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Gene Kiniski – Joe Scarpello beat Aldo Bogni – Bob Rasmussen drew Larry Hennig
1961
Calgary, Alberta, Canada: – Tiny Mills & Jack Daniels won a tournament to win the Stampede International Tag Team Titles
1965
Osaka, Japan: – Giant Baba defeated Dick the Bruiser to win the vacant NWA International Heavyweight Title
Mobile, Alabama: – The Mysterious Medics defeated Ken and Chris Lucas to win the Gulf Coast version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Title
Tampa, Florida: – Hiro Matsuda & Dick Steinborn defeated Kurt & Skull Von Stroheim for the Florida version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles
1966
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Thanksgiving card attendance was 7,462 – The Alaskan & Big K beat Larry Hennig & Harley Race – Killer Kowalski won 14 man battle royal – Billy Red Cloud drew Reggie Parks – Killer Kowalski beat Doug Gilbert – Verne Gagne beat Steve Druk – Jim Raschke (Baron Von Raschke) beat Blackjack Daniels
1970
Macon, Georgia: – Bob Armstrong & Paul DeMarco defeated Buddy Colt and Skandor Akbar to win the NWA Macon Tag Team Titles
1972
St. Joseph, Missouri: – Omar Atlas defeated Harley Race for the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title
1975
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: – Pat & Mike Kelly defeated Dale Lewis and Siegfried Steinke for the Vancouver version of the NWA Canadian Tag Team Titles
1979
Shreveport, Louisiana: – The Fabulous Freebirds (Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes) defeated Bill Watts & Buck Robley for the Mid-South Tag Team Titles
St. Petersburg, Florida: – Bad Leroy Brown defeated Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young) to win the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title
Bayamon, Puerto Rico: – Invaders I & II won the WWC Tag Team Title, defeating Terry and Dory Funk, Jr. – Dick Steinborn won the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Title by defeating Jose Rivera
1980
Greenville, North Carolina: – Ric Flair defeated Greg Valentine to win the Toronto version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title
Memphis, Tennessee: – Guy Mitchell & Roger Kirby defeated Ken Lucas & Ricky Morton to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Titles
1983 (Thanksgiving Day)
Dallas, Texas: – Chris Adams defeated Jimmy Garvin to win the WCCW American Heavyweight Title
Greensboro, North Carolina: (First Starrcade) – Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood defeated Jack & Jerry Brisco in a No DQ match to win the NWA World Tag Team Title – Ric Flair defeated Harley Race in a Steel Cage match to win the NWA World Heavyweight Title – Roddy Piper defeated Greg Valentine in a Dog Collar Chain match
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Attendance 13,162 – AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Mad Dog Vachon by dq (Special Referee: Ray Stevens) – Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat AWA Tag Team Champions Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell dq – Rick Martel drew David Shults – Brad Rheingans double count out Mr Saito – Superstar Billy Graham beat Buck Zumhofe – Billy Robinson beat Bill White
1988 (Thanksgiving Day)
Jackson, Tennessee: – Jeff Jarrett defeated Eric Embry to win the WCWA Light Heavyweight Title – AWA Champion Jerry Lawler beat Kerry Von Erich
Carolina, Puerto Rico: – Ron Garvin defeated Carlos Colon for the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Title – Ricky Santana defeated Bobby Jaggers for the WWC Puerto Rican Heavyweight Title
Atlanta, Georgia: – Ivan & Nikita Koloff defeated the Russian Assassins in a chain match – Dusty Rhodes & Bam Bam Bigelow defeated NWA World Champion Ric Flair & NWA U.S. Champion Barry Windham via disqualification – Sting & Lex Luger fought NWA Tag Team Champions the Road Warriors to a double countout
Richfield, Ohio: – Andre the Giant (w/ Bobby Heenan), Dino Bravo (w/ Frenchy Martin), Mr. Perfect, Harley Race, and Rick Rude defeated Jake Roberts, Ken Patera, Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, and Scott Casey (sub. for B. Brian Blair) – WWF Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior, the Blue Blazer, Jim Brunzell, Sam Houston, and Brutus Beefcake defeated the Honkytonk Man (w/ Jimmy Hart), Greg Valentine, Ron Bass, Bad News Brown, and Danny Davis
1990
Jonesboro, Arkansas: – Jeff Jarrett & Cody Michaels defeated Doug Gilbert & Tony Anthony for the USWA Tag Team Titles
1993
Boston, Massachusetts: – The Heavenly Bodies defeated The Rock N’ Roll Express to win the Smoky Mountain Tag Team Titles
1996
Norfolk, Virginia: – The Giant won the 60 man, three-ring, World War 3 battle royal – WCW Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko defeated Psicosis – WCW World Tag Team Champions Scott Hall & Kevin Nash defeated The Faces Of Fear and The Nasty Boys in a Triangle match
Here are quick results for the 11/23 World Tag League show held in Mie, Japan:
B Block: The Kingdom vs. Tetsuya Naito and Evil. Match was just there. Lots of stalling from the heels, who worked over the Kingdom most of the match. Crowd was pretty dead for most of it which hurt the match as well. Kingdom made a great comback and were nearing the finish when Bushi ran in and sprayed mist on Benett, which allowed Naito to hit Destino for the victory.
A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin vs. The Addiction. Pretty good back and forth match. Crowd was into it slightly more than the first due to Elgin and Tanahashi’s work and chemistry together. The Addiction were going for near falls when Tanahashi took out Daniels. Elgin then hit a deadlift powerbomb and Tanahashi followed with the high fly flow on Kazarian for the win.
B Block: Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows vs. Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto. Anderson and Goto were brawling into the crowd at on point. Another good, solid back and forth match. This had the most heat out of anything on this show. Shibata escaped from the Magic Killer and the faces went on offense. Goto took out Anderson on the outside with a plancha as Shibata was putting the sleeper on Gallows. He followed that with the penalty kick and pinned him.
Current Standings:
Block A:
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin- 4 Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano- 2 Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi- 2 Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata- 2 Christopher Daniels and Kazarian- 0 Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga- 0 Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma- 0
Block B:
Evil and Tetsuya Naito- 4 Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata- 4 Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima- 2 Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson- 0 AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi- 0 Matt Taven and Michael Bennett- 0 Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii- 0
But first, viewers were treated to the now obligatory Adam Rose C-show pre-match promo, in which he blames the fans for his previous gimmick not getting over. This was the same old, same old – delivered in a weird hybrid of his the Adam Rose voice and Ray Leppan’s actual voice – with one exception. He finished by introducing us all to the returning Brad Maddox.
Brad gets some mic time of his own as he rushes down the ramp, calling the fans “morons” and reminding them that he was fired as RAW General Manager in this very building last year. He attributes his black attire and new dyed-blonde hair to an “identity crisis” and has just enough time to favourably compare the latter to the “puke-orange” University of Tennessee colours before the producer cuts him off abruptly!
Boring match here, with The Usos coming off poorly for taking so long to put away jamokes of this stature. Not helped by Tom and Byron on commentary, who bury Maddox by speculating that he may have been the worst general manager of all time.
Personally, I thought he excelled in that role. The role of wrestler? Not so much. Although Bradley had the words “REAL GOOD” embroidered on his black tights, his heel work was anything but here – including a seemingly never-ending heat segment at the expense of Jimmy Uso.
Jimmy eventually tagged out when Brad apparently attempted a Rough Ryder in the corner, crotching himself on the top rope. Jey came in off the lukewarm tag and cleaned house, leading to the finish of stereo superkicks to Adam Rose followed by a Superfly Splash from Jimmy. Poor Adam. This time last year he was wrestling on the Survivor Series main card.
– Tom Phillips, now sporting facial hair in an attempt to make him look older than 16, throws to a video package featuring Titus O’Neil helping to raise money for a Navy Seals Museum. This featured Titus smiling widely, shaking hands and bumping fists. It also featured his advocate-in-chief, Batista, telling us how great “The Real Deal” is. Is he over yet?
– Backstage, the lovely Jojo wants to ask Titus some hard-hitting questions about his vital main event match with Heath Slater tonight. Titus cuts her off to do some dumb comedy with tag partner, Darren Young. Darren has bad breath! He’s going to turn Heath Slater into the ONE MAN BODYCAST! Oh man, my sides. He then finishes this lead balloon of an interview by creeping everyone out, hitting on the lovely Jojo (“You don’t have to buy a t-shirt, ‘cause I’d give you one! Woooo!”). Is he over yet?
Naomi w/Sasha Banks and Tamina submitted Alicia Fox w/Brie Bella and the worst hairstyle ever (5:53)
Seriously, Foxy’s new hair needs to be seen to be believed. She has voluntarily given herself the largest receding hairline known to womankind. It’s incredible.
The third Bella worked face here, falling victim to the dreaded distraction finish. Usual bad divas match, in which they poorly attempted some silly looking athletic spots with no underlying psychology. Also featured the loudest spot call in history, when Naomi emerged from the corner after rubbing her buns in Fox’s face, shouted “RANA!” on camera, and then proceeded to do a ‘rana.
Finish made Fox look like an idiot (as all WWE babyfaces apparently should), voluntarily running over to swat away both Sasha and Tamina from the apron, leading to a rollup and Naomi’s new submission finish – a leg-based head-and-arm choke. Looked kinda crummy, to be honest. Kinda really crummy.
Titus O’Neil pinned Heath Slater (6:35)
The “Terrible Announcing Line of the Night” award goes to Byron Saxton, who proclaimed upon Slater’s entrance that he is “like a cat who refuses to use the litter box….he does his own thing!” Jesus.
Either Byron or Tom helpfully informs us that these two men formed a tag team on this very programme just over a year ago. The now-defunct SlaterGator also featured on last year’s Survivor Series main card. Their opponents? Adam Rose and The Bunny!
Long shine segment for Titus consisting solely of him slapping Heath in the chest repeatedly. Nice moveset there, homes. Heath eventually transitions to the heat by raking the eyes off a slam attempt. Titus’ comeback emanates from a Slater headlock and consists of a big boot and what can only be described as a pumphandle drop. Genichiro Tenryu, I hope you’re taking notes.
The finish was a Clash of the Titus off a top rope flying nothing attempt from Slater. We then get an overlong in-ring celebration from Titus. Awkward. He eventually resorts to leaving the ring and imposing the Millions of Dollars chant on an unwilling child at ringside. Seriously, is he over yet?
Final Thoughts
A bit of a showcase for O’Neil, who has emerged on the scene three decades too late to avail of the natural charisma and star quality he so plainly has. Unfortunately, these days, not being able to work is a major drawback. This is the guy who managed to get two bad matches out of Sami Zayn, remember? Rest of the show was a non-event really, with none of the wrestling climbing above adequate. Far cry from the Sasha/Becky and Neville/Owens matches of the last few weeks.
