– Air Date: February 18, 2016 (Feb 17 in Canada) – Location: Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA
– The Big News:
Brock Lesnar stood tall over both Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose, who may not be on the same page anymore.
– Show Recap:
Kevin Owens joined Michael Cole, Byron Saxton and Jerry Lawler on commentary for the opening match. Cole explained that Mauro Ranallo was attacked with a crowbar ill but would return next week. Owens accused Cole of firing Ranallo because he realized Ranallo was better. After Cole repeated that Ranallo was sick, Owens said he’s sick because he heard Cole’s commentary on Raw.
League of Nations (w/King Barrett) beat Dolph Ziggler & Lucha Dragons via pinfall
Cole confirmed that Kalisto would be defending the U.S. Title on the Fastlane kickoff show in a 2 out of 3 falls match against Alberto Del Rio. Kalisto and Sin Cara did suicide dives to Del Rio and Sheamus. Ziggler followed by doing Dean Ambrose’s flying elbow to Rusev. LON worked over Sin Cara and his shoulder after a break.
Ziggler made the hot tag, ran wild, and did the air guitar thing. Owens accused him of stealing that from Eva Marie, which is amazing. Del Rio and Rusev laid out the Dragons outside the ring, while Ziggler got a near fall on Sheamus after a fameasser. Owens jumped off commentary to distract Ziggler. It worked, and Sheamus killed Ziggler with a Brogue kick for the win. Dumb finish. Owens was great on commentary.
They plugged Brock Lesnar for tonight as well as the main event.
Sasha Banks beat Tamina (w/Naomi) via submission
Tamina came out to the Team BAD theme, unlike on Raw last week. After 2 minutes, Naomi jumped on the apron but Banks knocked her off and hit Tamina with a wheelbarrow bulldog into a crossface for the tapout win. Naomi and Tamina attacked Banks afterwards, but Becky Lynch made the save. As Lynch helped Banks to her feet, she pushed Lynch away and left.
Backstage, Lynch confronted Banks. She said they need to get along at Fastlane, otherwise they’ll lose to Team BAD who will carry that momentum into WrestleMania. Lynch has dreamed about getting her WrestleMania moment, but has had enough of Banks’ ego. Lynch was about to leave, but Banks pulled her back and said they’d never be friends, but she hates to lose. They shook hands. This was not great and it felt overwritten.
Chris Jericho came out and got some “Y2J” chants. He called out AJ Styles to give him an answer, but got The Miz instead. Miz said everyone was tired of Jericho and Styles playing footsie and said he had an announcement. Jericho hoped the announcement was that Miz would take two weeks off and quit.
He asked the crowd if Miz should quit and they chanted “Yes!” Miz said he wasn’t quitting and mentioned something about being at a Grammy party at the Playboy Mansion. His announcement was that Jericho had to face him right now. Jericho punched him with the mic and Miz bailed, leading to a commercial break. Good thing Jericho was in his gear.
Chris Jericho beat The Miz via submission
Jericho won with a Walls of Jericho after a good 12-13 minute match. Afterwards, Jericho grabbed a mic, gave Miz a hand and called him a great performer, but said Y2J came out on top again. He called out Styles again and this time he came out.
Jericho said Styles wants a rematch because he wants to make a name for himself, but it’ll have to come at the expense of someone else. Jericho respects Styles more than anyone in the locker room, calling him one of the best in the business, but Jericho doesn’t like him, so the answer was no.
Styles wasn’t happy and attacked Jericho with strikes, knocking him out of the ring. Jericho jumped back on the apron and Styles tossed the mic back at him, asking if he changed his mind. Jericho said Styles made a stupid mistake. He accepted the match but said Styles would regret it.
Backstage, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose stood in a hallway (waiting for the camera to start rolling, I guess). Reigns chose this exact moment to ask Ambrose if he was alright after losing on Raw. Ambrose said he was fine, it was just a rough week. They bumped fists and Reigns was about to leave to get ready for their match, but stopped to tell Ambrose not to try Dirty Deeds again. Ambrose said it was a joke and thought it was funny.
They parted, and the camera followed Ambrose who immediately ran into Paul Heyman, conveniently standing around the corner. Ambrose was being his usual self, which made Heyman uncomfortable. Heyman told Ambrose that Lesnar was here looking for him. Ambrose feigned concern and asked for advice. Heyman didn’t have any, so Ambrose smiled and said he’d have to figure it out on his own. He told Heyman to make sure Lesnar doesn’t keep him waiting. This might sound fine on paper, but like the Banks-Lynch segment earlier, it felt phony and overwritten.
Elsewhere, Jo-Jo asked New Day about Edge and Christian. In a promo where New Day mocked Edge and Christian for being out of date, Xavier Woods mimicked Allen Iverson’s famous “practice” speech, and Kofi Kingston made a Chappelle’s Show reference. They said it wasn’t the ‘90s, it’s 2016 – the year of the GIF, and they debated the proper pronunciation of “GIF” (both are correct). They sent Jo-Jo away and so they could play the trombone and dance. I didn’t like this.
Non-title: WWE Divas Champion Charlotte (w/Ric Flair) beat Natalya via submission
Charlotte won with the Figure Eight. Afterwards, Charlotte did the Yes chant so Brie Bella ran out. She hit Yes kicks and went for a running knee, but Flair pulled Charlotte out of the ring. Brie held up the title and did more Yes chants and Charlotte yelled “No! No! No!” This was fine.
Another Goldust and R-Truth segment backstage. Truth did a rap informing Goldust he didn’t want to be partners.
The Wyatt Family vs. Big Show, Kane and Ryback was made official for Fastlane. Bray will be in his clan’s corner, not in the actual match.
Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose beat The Dudley Boyz via DQ
Reigns came out last. The Dudleys worked over Ambrose forever until he made the hot tag to Reigns. Reigns sized up D-Von for the superman or spear or whatever when Brock Lesnar’s music hit. Lesnar and Heyman came out, so Ambrose and Reigns faced the stage. The distraction allowed the Dudleys to attack them from behind, but Reigns hit D-Von with a superman punch and Ambrose caught Bubba with a flying elbow. Ambrose hit a suicide dive on D-Von but was attacked by Lesnar for a DQ (I guess).
Reigns and Ambrose ganged up on Lesnar, but Lesnar hit both men with suplexes. Reigns punched Lesnar and went for a spear, but Lesnar moved and Reigns collided with Ambrose. Reigns was about to go back after Lesnar but Ambrose attempted a Dirty Deeds, so Reigns countered with a Samoan drop. Lesnar then picked up Reigns and nailed an F5.
Triple H came out with the title to pose on the stage and Lesnar stood tall at the bottom of the aisle.
Final Thoughts:
Having Brock Lesnar on Smackdown is nice and it appears they really are taking a greater interest in the show. The final angle was fine, but the show overall was just ok.
The long legal ordeal of former UFC and PRIDE star Wanderlei Silva came to somewhat of a resolution Wednesday as the Nevada Athletic Commission reduced his lifetime suspension issued nearly a year and a half ago down to three years.
The catch is that the suspension is retroactive to the date of what caused his incident —- dodging a drug test before his never-did-happen fight against Chael Sonnen at UFC 175 — which was on May 24, 2014. Silva can apply to fight again on May 25, 2017, and must provide a clean drug test when he does so.
The 39-year-old’s lawyer Ross Goodman is expected to file an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court as he feels it wasn’t legal for the NAC to test Silva while he was unlicensed.
Earlier Wednesday, Silva shared a poster of himself and Fedor Emelianenko for August 2016. While he’s ineligible to fight anywhere that recognizes licenses, that doesn’t completely put him out of the running to fight in Japan or another DGAF country if he wants to.
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The newest issue of the Wrestling Observer is one of the best of the year. A very detailed look at the end of Bryan Danielson’s career and retirement. Looking back at sports, pro wrestling and the ramifications that are and are not being talked about. Danielson’s retirement is a big story, both his short and long term impact on pro wrestling. How his story will act as a catalyst for change not only within pro wrestling but all contact sports. If you are a wrestling fan, a sports fan or a science fan, this may be the most important issue of the year.
Bryan Danielson’s retirement speech, career highlights, home town, character both in and out of the ring, booking, the crazy way he ended up as champion for the first time, the birth of the “Yes” chant, the build to WrestleMania 30 & 31, the various exams, why he wanted to continue wrestling and WWE didn’t, his goals outside of WWE and why he changed his mind in the last few weeks.
The quandary he was in about continuing his career, how his career began, the formation of ROH and the changing landscape of independent wrestling, the changing ideas of what a pro wrestling headliner can look like, the first time I ever saw him wrestle while sitting with Red Bastien and Nick Bockwinkel
The suspension of Titus O’Neil, a longtime WWE star talking about going into another sport, another star looking at retiring soon, lots of WrestleMania plans including an early summer major match, Steve Austin’s WrestleMania status, update on promotion of Stephanie McMahon, star who may be interested in returning, Fast Lane, A.J. Styles talks his beginnings in WWE and how hard he tried to hide the Royal Rumble story, how DDP figured in Styles’ return, Linda McMahon forms a new company, Roman Reigns in Raw main events, WWE cuts five in developmental, new WWE books. New announcer hired, Update on many Tough Enough competitors from the past season, plans for a WWE show taped this summer, international star WWE has interest in, as well as a look at all the weekend house shows from WWE & NXT with business notes.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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In case you missed the news, Jim Ross continues to get work everywhere and will do some boxing commentary for CBS Sports Network, likely for Premier Boxing Champions. No start date was announced.
Here’s spoilers for this week’s Smackdown. The full line-up for Fastlane after the show has Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Title, Charlotte vs. Brie Bella for the Divas title, Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks vs. Naomi & Tamina, Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler for the IC Title, Ryback & Big Show & Kane vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman, and AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho III.
Our Zach Dominello has a new column up about why The Miz focusing on being a mentor is best for, well, Mizness.
Our Bryan Alvarez and peers from other sites were featured in this Motherboard piece on why wrestling podcasts are popular.
Bryan and Mike are also giving away a copy of SUNNY SIDE UP on DVD on Wrestling Observer Live (Sports Byline was sent 5 copies to give away), and the contest is to try to guess who is getting the Vince McMahon Sr. Award of Excellence on Monday. You can listen along and play every day on Sports Byline USA at noon Pacific/3 ET, and links to listen are on the front page of the website.
Voices of Wrestling analyst Brandon Howard did some additional must-read analysis of the WWE Q4 financial call. Especially of note from Brandon:
“The infograph WWE released on Thursday along with their press release seemed to claim their YouTube channel had received 8 billion views for the full year of 2015. Just by looking at their YouTube channel’s “About” page, which publicly lists all-time video views, you can see that’s not the case as the channel has accumulated about 7.5 billion video views all-time (since May 2007). Based on archived instances of that web page that I found, I estimate YouTube video views for WWE in 2015 at about 3.5 billion. I’m guessing they’re including in that total the views of all WWE videos on YouTube that are uploaded by other users, which WWE has made copyright claims on.”
Lots of MMA media are making the mainstream sports media rounds talking about Ronda Rousey’s admission that she briefly contemplated suicide after her loss to Holly Holm. Friend of the site Ariel Helwani was on The Dan Patrick Show this morning talking about Rousey and more.
Gleison Tibau has agreed to drop his appeal and accept the two year suspension handed down by the USADA for his drug test failure last month. He actually said in an interview that he’d used the substance (EPO) out of competition and “we thought (it) wouldn’t be anything”. So whoever WE is, presumably his team, they figured EPO was perfectly fine to use outside of competition. He claims his conscience is clear because he took it “without imagining I was doing something wrong.”
Recently re-signed UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem says that he’ll be headlining the UFC Sunday, May 8th show in Rotterdam in his home country of the Netherlands. No opponent has been announced.
Invicta FC announced its next show will be on March 11 in Las Vegas’ Tropicana, headlined by an atomweight (105 lb) title fight between champion Ayaka Hamasaki vs Amber Brown. Former UFCers Jessamyn Duke and Roxanne Modaferri will also fight on the show in separate bouts.
ONE Championships announced its next show will be on March 18 in Myanmar. Teenage sensation Christian Lee will be featured on the card after he’s finished each of his first two pro opponents in under two minutes.
Fox, Rosa, and Paige are at a restaurant. Its lunch time. Rosa, pregnant, asks if the baby can still breathe if she holds her breath.
Nattie greets a fan outside of RAW. Inside, Nattie grabs Mandy’s breast. We’re 30 seconds in and this show already has a lot going on. Mandy starts groping Nattie. Eva Marie goes to get something to eat, and Mandy asks Nattie to train her. What is the make-up budget for this show? Nikki tells us that she’s about to become the longest reigning Diva’s Champion in history. It means a lot to her.
Paige and Rosa are out to lunch again with Mandy, Fox, and Eva Marie. Paige and Rosa talk about how they are wearing the same underwear.
Nikki is stretching in Brie’s house. Their mom comes in and starts yelling at Nikki for not stretching more. She tells her that she has to go to a doctor and stop doing the Rack Attack. Brie tells her that Nikki should instead shove her opponent’s face into her boobs as her finishing move.
Fox, Rosa, and Paige pull up to a party store in a huge-ass 4×4 truck. Rosa is shopping for her baby shower. Paige and Fox decide they are going to make it a goth/Halloween theme. Mandy talks about how she wants to work super hard and train and focus on being the best WWE Diva she can be and, like, stuff. Eva Marie is talking about how she just got her own “social media” guy who is going to follow her around and take her picture. Mandy wants her own “social media” guy.
Nikki and John are going out to a fancy restaurant, and Nikki thinks John looks cute. John admits that he just bought 55 suits when he was in New York… Wait, he bought 55 suits? Nikki thinks it’s a little weird that he bought 55 suits on one trip to New York, too. But she thinks he looks incredible. Nikki looks distressed, but not about the suits. Her neck really hurts and John gives her a massage. Cena is worried so he gets her into the Ferrari and they leave dinner. John Cena bought 55 suits in one trip to New York. 55 suits.
Back in Florida, Eva Marie is teaching Mandy how to use social media. Eva Marie pushes Mandy in the pool. In the gym, Sheamus tells Nikki he is selling his house and he’ll probably never have a family. Nikki is having hard times lifting weights. Backstage at Smackdown, Nattie is talking about how cute cats are. The pyro in the arena scares Rosa. Brie yells at Fox for planning a gothic themed baby shower for Rosa.
In a car, Brie is yelling at Nikki for not yawning after she yawned. Nikki is stoked that she’s going to be in the history books as the longest reigning Divas Champion of all time. Nikki is going to the doctor to get OZONE shots in her back. Everyone is telling Nikki to take care of herself and take some time off.
*****
Back in Florida, Nattie is working out at the performance center waiting for Mandy, who shows up really late in Converse. Nattie is pissed. She has one day off a week and Mandy asked her to drive two hours from Tampa to Orlando in order to help her train. Mandy wants to take a selfie before they start. Nattie finally has had enough and leaves. Mandy does not even understand why Nattie is pissed. Mandy apologizes and Nattie agrees to stay and help.
In Memphis, Rosa, Fox and Paige are in a car and Paige finds out she’s going to be on Conan. But it’s on the day of the baby shower. She tells them she actually wants the baby shower in California, not Florida. Nobody listened to her. Fox tells her she’s being selfish.
In another car, Nattie tells Nikki that all the NXT girls text TJ. Nattie tells Nikki she has to power through the pain. Again, Nattie with the worst advice (like when she offered her father alcohol, even though he’s sober). Backstage, Rosa starts to unload to Mandy about how mad she is about the baby shower. Mandy stares at her blankly. Nattie and Brie are talking about Nikki’s back, and now that she’s in front of Brie, Nattie tells Nikki to take it easy. The girls are eating in catering and Rosa comes in and confronts Fox. This baby shower is getting nasty.
*****
Backstage at RAW, Fox apologizes to Rosa but she’s actually not sorry.
Nikki is about to fight Charlotte, if she wins she’s the longest reigning Diva’s Champion in history. Her back is ruined though. This is crazy. It’s amazing to think what these athletes do to entertain. I know this show is fake but my respect for Nikki is real. Nikki becomes the longest reigning Diva’s Champion of all time.
Brie says that Nikki will never have kids to share this moment with. To celebrate the Divas go out to dinner with Dolph Ziggler. Dolph talks about having sex with the belt on. Brie gives a speech about how great Nikki is. Fox stands up and gives her own speech where she apologizes to Rosa. Rosa forgives her but she refuses to apologize back. She shouldn’t. Paige says it’s time to haze Mandy and asks her who the hottest Superstar is, and she says Dolph Ziggler, who has a big smile. Ziggler asks her if she’d rather have a reality show or be champion. She lies and says she would rather be the champion. Nattie thinks she’s genuine. Mandy says she would be in a long term relationship with Nattie. Paige says they respect Mandy. Everyone learned a lot of lessons this week.
They went to a lot of nice looking restaurants, but the big takeaway… John Cena bought 55 suits on one trip to New York.
It hasn’t been two months and already, Mauro Ranallo has become a fan favorite for those tuning to WWE Smackdown every week. That’s why there was a lot of concern at Tuesday night’s Smackdown tapings in Ontario, California, when Michael Cole came out to announce with Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton instead of everyone’s favorite Canadian wrestling personality (outside Lance Storm of course.)
Fear not: the actual story is that the 46-year-old Ranallo came to the building, but was sick with the flu and the company made the decision to send him home rather than work the show. He’s still with the company, still on Smackdown, and all is still right with the world.
Some of the concern was heightened because there were so many questions asked via Twitter that got no response from the social media-friendly and president of #RetweetCity.
No Mauro Ranallo announcing. Michael Cole was in his place.
Kevin Owens makes his way down the ring to do color commentary.
Lucha Dragons and Ziggler vs Del Rio & Sheamus and Rusev. Barrett watches from ringside. Sheamus kicked Ziggler with interference from Owens.
Tamina accompanied by Naomi vs Sasha Banks. Sasha over Tamina via cross face. Short match. After the match Team Bad attacks Sasha, Becky Lynch makes the save. Becky attempted to help Sasha when on the mat but Sasha pushed her away. Sasha and Becky shown backstage, talking about their WrestleMania moment.
Jericho comes out and says he will give AJ Styles his answer and asks him to come out so he can tell him face to face. Out comes Miz and says he’s tired of Jericho and AJ playing footsies. Miz says Jericho has a match with him. Miz goes for the offense but Jericho blocks and hits miz with the mic on the head. Jericho beats Miz via walls of Jericho. Jericho invites Styles come out again, out he comes. Jericho says the answer is No, AJ hits Jericho out of the ring. Jericho comes back to the apron and says that was a stupid move. Gives AJ his rematch at fast lane. By the way AJ’s left eyelid is swollen.
Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns are shown backstage. Says let’s do our thing in the ring. Ambrose continues to walk and runs into Paul Heyman and mentions Brock Lesnar is here and looking for Ambrose.
Jo Jo backstage interviewing New Day regarding Sunday on Edge and Christian’s peep show.
Out comes Natalya. Followed by Charlotte and Ric flair. Charlotte over Nattie Brie’s music plays and she rushes the ring to attack Charlotte. Charlotte attemps figure four, Brie blocks it and does the kicks. Got the whole arena chanting yes.
Truth and Goldust backstage segment
Wyatt’s come out next, Bray cuts short in ring promo regarding Sunday’s match.
Promo shown from Mondays main event
Wyatts vs Show, Ryback, and Kane at fast lane.
Ambrose and Reigns vs Dudleys up next. Crowd is ecstatic for Ambrose. During the match Lesnar appears and attacks both Reigns and Ambrose. Roman about to super man punch Lesnar but Lesnar pushes Reigns into Ambrose . Lesnar f5s reigns.
Triple H music plays and stands by the stage with the belt staring at Lesnar.
Reigns and Ambrose play to the crowd.
Challenge the dudleys to come back out, they do and baby faces clean them out quick.
Due to President’s Day, the Monday night ratings will be delayed until some time tomorrow.
Ratings are expected tomorrow in the early afternoon.
Raw is not expected to pull a good number, even though they are coming off a stronger than usual number for the Daniel Bryan retirement show the previous week. Between a main event of Big Show vs Braun Strowman and going head-to-head with the Grammy Awards, and several shows that have hit seasonal 17 year lows, it doesn’t look good. The only thing that could save it is if there was lingering interest from the show the week before.
The preliminary numbers for the Grammy Awards on CBS were just under 24 million viewers, making it among the most-watched non-football shows of the past year.
The WWE has confirmed today the WWE Network exclusive cruiserweight show that we had been reporting about the past few weeks in the Observer.
The show, entitled the Global Cruiserweight Series, will air on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m., following NXT.
It will be a 32 man tournament of wrestlers who all have to be under 205 pounds, and will be taped at the NXT tapings.
The first episode of the show will be on 7/13, and the championship match will air on 9/14.
The winner of the tournament, which is expected to include a number of wrestlers who are not signed with the promotion, will obviously end up with the promotion and be billed as the best cruiserweight in wrestling.
Brianna Danielson, who wrestles as Brie Bella, may be the next WWE performer to retire.
The wife of Bryan Danielson, who announced his retirement last week on Raw, expects to retire this summer, confirming a report in last week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The couple was on ABC’s Good Morning America today to discuss his retirement, when she said that her days were limited in wrestling.
The report didn’t show a clip of her stating it on camera, but the summer time frame was part of the news story.
“It’s time for me to hang up the boots,” she said. “That day is very close.”
Bryan said that he wants to spend his time now educating young athletes to the seriousness of concussions. In the report, both Danielsons talked about Bryan’s seizures stating that he at first kept them from his wife and when he had one in front of her, implored her not to tell anyone for fear he would not be allowed to wrestle.
It should be noted that Bryan Danielson’s last seizure was about four years ago and has not been a recent issue.
A week after the most memorable single segment in recent wrestling history, Monday Night Raw will have its go-home show for Fast Lane in Anaheim, CA. Piggybacking off Daniel Bryan’s retirement, Brie Bella will appear to build up her Divas title shot against Charlotte at the PPV. Of course, the focus of the show will be to build the three-way main event between Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. After Ambrose got laid out twice last week by Lesnar and the paltry attempt to get his heat back, the company will likely try to get him strong again since he’s the only one involved in the main event that doesn’t have a clear direction for WrestleMania.
Also, the Dudley Boyz will appear after turning heel last week. Coming off another very good match on SmackDown, A.J. Styles and Chris Jericho will likely continue their program.
Our coverage starts at 8 ET.
Some updated notes for tonight from Dave Meltzer (6:30 PM EST):
The WWE is starting to push a Big Show vs. Braun Strowman match, which is likely to set up a Wyatt Family vs. Show & Kane & Ryback match or something approximating that for Fastlane on Sunday.
Locally they are advertising Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens & Rusev, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, because more often than not, the locally advertised match doesn’t end up happening.
As noted, there are no special non-wrestlers advertised for tonight’s show, with HHH the major name who isn’t usually touring, but he’s on almost every Raw.
*****
The Big Takeaway: Kevin Owens recaptured the Intercontental Championship when he pinned Tyler Breeze in a Fatal Fiveway match, which was ordered by Stephanie McMahon in order to punish Dean Ambrose in the opening segment. Kane returned in the main event because he was a Vince McMahon creation in 1997 who is healthy enough to wrestle, and also because God hates us all.
Show Recap:
Dean Ambrose came out and said sometimes when the biggest bully on the playground comes after you, sometime you got to get your fingernails dirty and you have to do what you have to do. He acted like he got the best of Brock Lesnar last week. That was so delusional, it was almost like a heel statement. He challenged Lesnar to come out. Stephanie McMahon showed up instead because…opening segment. Stephanie brought up valid points about Ambrose needing Roman Reigns in order to deliver a cheap shot on Lesnar. Ambrose wanted to skip the talking and get to the fighting. Stephanie said she would get to the fighting because this was Monday Night Raw. So she talked for another five minutes. Followed by another talking segment with the New Day, Owens an Ambrose. And Brie Bella opening the second hour with an interview.
Stephanie asked the fans if they wanted to see Ambrose get F-5’d tonight. Fans were supposed to boo. They cheered. Stephanie said Ambrose would get an F-5, but it meant a Fatal Fiveway match, with Ambrose defending his Intercontinental Championship. If Reigns interfered, then Ambrose would lose his spot in the Fast Lane main event.
The four challengers for Ambrose’s title were Kevin Owens, Stardust (who evidently earned the title shot by losing to Zack Ryder last week), Tyler Breeze (earning the title shot with a .230 winning percentage. Sort of like turning on the TV for the AFC Divisional Playoffs and seeing the Tennessee Titans), and Dolph Ziggler.
Kevin Owens won the Intercontental Championshp by pinning Tyler Breeze in a Fatal Fiveway that included Dean Ambrose (C), Stardust and Dolph Ziggler (12:35)
Owens won the championship by pinning Breeze with a Pop-Up Power Bomb. Very good match. Finishing sequence was Ambrose going for the Dirty Deeds on Stardust, but Ziggler ran in and gave Ambrose the Zig Zag, leaving Stardust laid out. Breeze threw Ziggler out of the ring, but Owens ran in and gave Breeze the finisher. So Ambrose lost the belt without getting pinned. At one point, Owens delivered cannonballs to Ambrose, Ziggler and Stardust, who were laid out in opposite corners. Owens attempted a cannonball on Breeze, who responded with a beauty shot. First half of the match was Ambrose working against a challenger one-on-one while three others rested outside. Owens power bombed Breeze outside the ring onto Ziggler and Stardust. Ambrose followed by teasing finishers with Owens, leading to a tope onto Breeze, Ziggler and Stardust.
Ambrose walked around pissed backstage when Renee Young asked him how frustrated he was. Ambrose said he had nothing left to lose and he would face HHH at WrestleMania, who had everything to lose. Owens asked Young “does that give your goose bumps?”
Owens did an interview with Young. Ziggler walked in and sarcastically congratulated him. Ziggler said there wasn’t a spotlight in the world big enough for the both of them. Ziggler said he had beaten Owens the last two weeks, and said Owens should tell the world he deserved to face him at Fast Lane. Owens declined. Later, it was announced Owens would face Ziggler for the championship.
The New Day came out. They promoted an appearance by Edge and Christian by reviewing the segment they had on Raw last September. There will be an episode of the “Cutting Edge Peep Show” at Fast Lane. Kofi Kingston said you never bring a kazoo to a trombone fight. Big E. said Edge and Christian’s appearance was the worst thing since Coldplay played the halftime of, and Xavier Woods stopped him from saying the Super Bowl. There’s some sort of inside joke at work there because the NFL is very sensitive about it’s copywright of the Super Bowl. They ran down Mark Henry, who walked out on them last week during the main event tables match. Henry came out to face Big E.
Some fans rememberd the Chris Jericho chant of “Rootie, Tootie, Bootie,” but many more chanted “New Day rocks.”
Big E. defeated Mark Henry (4:41)
Weird finish. Big E. got Henry up for the Big Ending, but Henry looked like he was supposed to escape over top of him. Instead, Henry escaped and collapsed, and Big E. simply pinned him. It looked like Henry got hurt legit. Big E. told the referee to check on Henry and looked concerned while Kingston and Woods stayed in character.
Brie Bella was interviewed by Byron Saxton. Fans chanted “Daniel Bryan” since it was only the “Yes” chant that was over two years ago and not Bryan himself. Brie started to answer when Charlotte and Ric Flair came out. More fans were interested in chanting “Whoo” than listening to Charlotte, who said Bryan was in a league of his own. Brie corrected her and said he still is in a league of his own. Charlotte said she would understand if Brie wanted to forfeit her match with Charlotte at Fast Lane to be with her husband. She said Bryan lost everything, his dream, his career. Brie said she didn’t owe Charlotte any explanations, but Bryan supports her 100%. Charlotte said Brie means she supports her and Daniel 100%. She said Brie also took the match because they needed the money. Charlotte asked the crowd if she attacked Bryan personally? Crowd started chanting “Yes.” Charlotte said Brie needed to go home and be with Brie Bella and Bryan. Charlotte said she didn’t need Brie, and neither do the fans. But Nikki and Bryan did.
Brie accused Charlotte of trying to mess with her head. She said Charlotte knew she wasn’t an easy beat. All Charlotte has done is added fuel to her fire and she’s disgusted seeing the champion Charlotte has become. Charlotte told Brie she could only imagine what Brie’s goat-faced vegan babies were going to become. Brie slapped Charlotte over that one, laid in a few Yes kicks and sent Charlotte packing. Charlotte is a good heel promo.
A.J. Styles defeated The Miz via submission (11:49)
A.J. Styles won with the calf crusher. Good, competitive match that Styles did a solid job in carrying the Miz in. Chris Jericho was on commentary, and it was scary how much better he is on color than anyone else in the company. He goes Styles more over in this match than Jerry Lawler, Saxton, JBL put together. Not to be outdone, JBL even brought up Kenta Kobashi in relating how Styles is going from being star in Japan to a star in WWE.
Postmatch, Jericho got in the ring and congratulated Styles, who interrupted him and challenged him to third match at Fast Lane. Jericho said he would give his answer on SmackDown.
The Dudley Boyz came out and teased getting the table, but only did so to tease the fans as part of their heel turn. Bubba Ray Dudley called out the Usos, but said they wouldn’t show up after he and Devon put them through tables last week. Devon Dudley said the Dudleys weren’t some Guns n’ Roses farewell tour or a retro act from the past. They were the baddest tag team on the planet. Bubba said the tables were done forever, and if the fans wanted to see that, go to the WWE Network. Bubba said their legacy would be defined by being 9-time WWE Tag Team champions, not by a piece of furniture. All the chants of “We want tables” would now fall on deaf ears. Well, at least Les Thatcher will cheer them. Bubba said they no longer cared what the fans chanted.
Summer Rae defeated Paige (3:40)
Not many matches on Raw nowadays qualify as really bad, but this one does. Summer Rae mainly did chokes with her legs. She pinned Paige after reversing an attempt at the PTO into a small package. Crowd was asleep.
Paul Heyman did an in-ring promo. Heyman said he wanted to lay down a message on behalf of Lesnar face-to-face to Reigns, who came out to a mixed reaction. Surprising since the last time they win in southern California, he was as over as a top guy as he’s ever been. Heyman said he has the utmost respect for Reigns, but he feels that he can’t get past Lesnar. Heyman said Reigns’ goal is to win at Fast Lane and fight HHH for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, so he could go to his wife and child with the championship. But Reigns has a huge challenge because not only does Lesnar stand in Reigns’ way, but so does Ambrose. So Reigns has a choice: his daughter or his best friend, a man so close to Reigns, he’s like a brother. There are those who choose friends over family, and those are the ones who wind up in divorce court. There are others who choose family over friendship, and those are the ones who sit alone in the locker room and potentially stand alone as the champion of the world at WrestleMania with fireworks going off over their heads. But that’s the sacrifice you have to make in order to have a chance at the championship Reigns’ want. Heyman said Reigns’s enemy is Lesnar on Sunday night, but so is Ambrose.
Reigns started to speak and got noticeable boos. Reigns thanked Heyman for saying what was on his mind. Reigns said he was willing to pay the price for what he wants. He doesn’t have a problem fighting Ambrose, who he defeated. Reigns said he’s never beaten Lesnar, but he did beat he ass. Reigns said Heyman was right, he had everything on the line. But he was going to win at Fast Lane and then beat HHH at WrestleMania. They shook hands. Heyman had a blowaway promo.
Then the Dudleys came out and jumped Reigns from behind. Reigns tried to make his own comeback, but Bubba Ray hit him with a big boot. Ambrose came out for the save, sending Bubba packing. Reigns hit Devon with a Superman’s punch. Michael Cole broached the subject of Heyman perhaps setting up Reigns for the Dudleys to jump him.
Suddenly, as Ambrose and Reigns shook hands, Ambrose tried to give him Dirty Deeds. Regins escaped. Ambrose told Reigns if he wanted to make it to WrestleMania, he needed to be quicker than that. Reigns smiled at Ambrose and they shook hands again. Crowd booed because they wanted to see the two go at it.
They announced the creation of the Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award, which Cole said “would be the most prestigous award the WWE has ever presented.” The recipient would be announced next week.
Social Outcasts did an inset promo comparing themselves to various NBA stars who were members of the Dream Team. Adam Rose said he was Robert Shapiro, which shows somebody on the writing staff watches FX.
Heath Slater defeated Zack Ryder (2:07)
Ryder did a somersault tope onto all members of Social Outcasts. Bo Dallas distracted Ryder, leading to Heath Slater getting the pin with an Implant DDT. I kept waiting for Vince McMahon to show up and interrupt this match.
This week’s horrible R-Truth-Goldust segment took place was set at a restaurant, where Truth was on a date with a woman. Truth told her he would walk through hell in gasoline-dipped underwear for her. Goldust showed up as a waiter. Truth said this wasn’t Table for 3 on the WWE Network. Goldust brought champaign, which Truth said he didn’t order. Goldust said it was on the house. Truth said they weren’t In His House. Goldust said of course not, it wasn’t 1996. Of course, the champaignewound up being spilled on the woman and that was that.
Alberto Del Rio is facing Kalisto in the non-PPV portion of Fast Lane for the U.S. Championship. At this point, I’m firmly convinced Dorian Roldan has been in charge of Del Rio’s booking since he returned to WWE. It’s the biggest waste of money since the Cleveland Browns signed Dwayne Bowe.
Alberto Dio Rio, Sheamus and Rusev defeated Lucha Dragons and Neville (8:49)
Del Rio won with the double stomp off the top rope onto Sin Cara. The League of Nations now firmly in the hunt with the New Blood and Aces and Eights for the “Least Over Top Heel Group in History.” Sheamus is supposed to be the top heel in the company, at least in regards to regular wrestlers, and no one cared about him at all. Not to mention Neville was just an afterthought in this match. As was Rusev. This was a textbook lesson of how not to use what is developed in NXT.
Excellent feature for Black History Month on Booker T, which showed him being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. It’s sad that someone so talented had the top push of his career during WCW in 2000, when the company was the most unwatchable product off all time.
Video posted earlier today showed Tamina and Naomi jumping Becky Lynch, with Naomi giving Lynch a Superkick.
Michelle Beadle was shown at ringside.
League of Nations celebrated in the back when Young interviewed Del Rio, who said Kalisto’s victory was a fluke. Del Rio said Kalisto was lucky and nothing more than a little mosquito. he said he let Kalisto beat him. That’s really putting him over. He challenged Kalisto to a best-of-three falls match at Fast Lane.
Becky Lynch defeated Naomi via submission (2:08)
Lynch won with the Disarm-her. Then came a preposterous moment. Tamina and Naomi jumped Lynch. Naturally, that was built for Sasha Banks to make the save. The only problem was, she came out and walked to the ring. And she stopped to take off her earrings. During the time it took Banks to get in the ring, Lynch had her ass handed to her, complete with Tamina delivering a Samoan Drop. It was like watching the Sandman in ECW make his full ring entrance while Tommy Dreamer needed to be saved. Finally Banks got in there and the ring was cleared.
The Wyatt Family came out. Bray Wyatt said freedom awaits all of you inside his embrace. Freedom from a dying world, because this world was a slave shackled in pretty colors. Wyatt said his followers would walk with him inside the fires of the apocolypse. He offers everyone paradise, and all he asks in return is for everyone to bow to him. Wyatt said the fans have to make a decision, or he will have to make a choice for them. Just like he made a choice for Kane, for Ryback and just like the choice the Big Show will have to make against the Big Show right now.
The Big Show defeated Braun Strowman by DQ (2:29)
Erick Rowan and Luke Harper ran in for the DQ. If you’re trying to make Strowman the next monster heel, I don’t think having him take a vertical suplex from the Big Show is the way to do it. He shouldn’t leave his feet until WrestleMania. But there he was, taking the suplex before the run-in.
Postmatch, Ryback ran down for the save and speared Harper. The numbers quickly caught up to him. Then, of course, Kane came up through the ring for the save. He and Show gave Harper a double choke slam.
SUMMARY: Where are the heels? People were asking that question in November when Seth Rollins went down. Now it’s mid-February, and there’s still no answer. In fact, it’s only gotten worse. They’ve tried Sheamus. No one cares. They’ve tried Del Rio, who would have been better off as a babyface coming in. Instead, they stuck him with Zeb Coulter in a pairing that went nowhere, now they’ve shifted him to a heel group that’s going nowhere. It doesn’t help the pattern of sameness this company has fallen into that they keep resorting to Kane as a savior when his act grew tiresome years ago. The best program in the company right now is Jericho-Styles, with Jericho doing a great job of playing a Bret Hart-style subtle heel. On the bright side, the two segments building up the main event for Fast Lane were very good tonight.
Classic Miz promo about getting his tooth knocked out by AJ, AJ comes out and beats him in a really good match with near falls, winning with the Calf Crusher. AJ got biggest pop of night.
Social Outcasts (Adam Rose and Heath Slater) vs. Dudley Boys
Dudleys as faces win with a 3D
Baron Corbin vs. Fandango vs. Viktor of The Ascension
Corbin got an ‘NXT’ change. Fandango was the face. Corbin won.
Luke Harper and Erick Rowan vs. Neville and Kane
Kane hits Harper with the chokeslam and then tags Nevile who hit the Red Arrow for the pin.
Sasha Banks & Natalya & Becky Lynch vs. Team BAD and Cameron
Cameron fit in well with Tamina and Naomi. Becky and Sasha were even in popularity. Sasha pulled out the Banks Statement and Naomi tapped out.
Lucha Dragons vs. Los Matadores
Lucha Dragons got a huge pop as usual and won a good match with the Matadores.
Chris Jericho vs Bray Wyatt (w/Braun Strowman)
Back and forth match the whole time and Jericho really performed great. Jericho got in the Walls of Jericho and hit a Lionsault. Strowman tried to distract Jericho on the apron, but Jericho sidestepped a charging Wyatt, sending him into Strowman and then hit a Codebreaker for the pin and win.
