Even going against the highest rated Monday night game of the season, Raw did well above its fall season average with the Vince McMahon show-long arrest angle.
Raw did 3.53 million viewers, placing it third for the night on cable behind the Broncos-Bengals game that did 15.81 million viewers and an episode of SportsCenter.
The angle, as expected, helped maintain the audience as there was less of an audience drop as the show went on as is typical of Raw. The return of John Cena also played a part in that.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.70 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.49 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
Monday was the final episode of Monday Night Football. With the exception of the 1/11 show, which goes against the college football championship game, Raw will now be free of its top competition, and ratings should rise about 10 percent from the level they have been if history is an indication.
Smackdown New Year’s Eve edition spoilers – 12/31 (taped Tuesday 12/29)
By John Athridge
The crowd is pretty full for a Smackdown. The hard camera side is basically full at least. I missed the first two matches, but I was told that Darren Young beat Curtis Axel in the dark match.
Main Event
R-Truth beat Heath Slater.
Titus O’Neil beat Adam Rose.
Jack Swagger submitted Stardust with the ankle lock in about 10 minutes. They worked awfully hard for a Main Event match.
Smackdown
Show opened by replaying the Vince arrest angle from last night. They announced the main event of Reigns and Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Owens.
New Day came out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They said their New Year’s resolution was nothing because they are perfect. They said the people needed to change because they didn’t vote for the New Day for the Slammies. They read a list of resolutions for the people so they’d finally appreciate the New Day. Mildly funny. The Lucha Dragons came out. They argued and challenged the New Day for a match even though Sin Cara is injured. The Dragons then brought out the Dudleys for a 6 man match.
The Dudleys and Kalisto beat the New Day when Kalisto pinned Kofi. The Dudleys then put Xavier Woods through a table with “Happy New Year” spray painted on it.
During the commercials, they played New Year’s wishes from various wrestlers.
Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) beat Goldust in a short match. Summer then said they had a huge New Year’s announcement. Tyler said that starting in the New Year, the two of them would be going their separate ways. But they left the crowd with one last “Gorgeous Selfie”.
Backstage, Bo Dallas was giving out New Year’s Re-Bo-lutions (including telling Curtis Axel to start wearing deodorant). He ran into Dolph Ziggler. After a few insults back and forth, they announced a match between them later.
Braun Strowman and Luke Harper (w/Erick Rowan) beat the Usos. Strowman got the submission after some quick interference from Rowan.
They announced John Cena’s return to Smackdown for next week.
Alicia Fox and Brie Bella beat Tamina and Naomi when Brie pinned Naomi after a couple of minutes.
They announced that there will be a house show in DC on Sunday March, 27th. Thought we were getting the go home Raw before Wrestlemania here, but apparently not.
Dolph Ziggler beat Bo Dallas with a superkick after selling for a few minutes. Not much else to it.
Reigns came out to a decent reaction, but nothing spectacular. Ambrose seemed to get louder cheers.
Reigns and Ambrose beat Sheamus and Kevin Owens by DQ when Owens pulled Reigns out of the ring and crotched him on the ring post after about 10 minutes. Owens and Sheamus beat down Reigns and then Ambrose. Owens was about to powerbomb Ambrose through the announce table when Reigns recovered to give them both Superman punches. Reigns and Ambrose then posed on the announce table. Got a decent reaction, but not much of a main event.
Key Takeaway: TakeOver: Respect draws near as we follow several NXT personalities as they prepare for the big event. The focus on TakeOver adds some much-needed urgency to the show.
Recap: As with the past few episodes, this edition of Breaking Ground wasn’t focused on one or two competitors, but the episode’s focus on the road to TakeOver: Respect helped make up for it.
Bayley visits Natalya at “Night of Champions” and picks her brain a bit about the upcoming Iron Man match. Natalya reassures her that she’s the right person to lead the way for the young NXT female locker room as champion. Later, Bayley shoots promos for the match and gets a bit choked up as she discusses the importance and historical nature of the bout, which they emphasize is the first time females have main-evented a live WWE special. When she arrives at Full Sail for the event, Bayley seems a bit relieved that the day has arrived – she mentions how she’s been constantly running around preparing and promoting the event (and while she does this in voice-over, she is constantly shaking hands with different people at the arena backstage who greet her) that she’s a bit wired at this point. In a cool moment in this episode, Bayley gets a chance to play with her own action figure as Mattel comes to do facial scans of other NXT stars.
Nia Jax is getting ready for her TV debut (which was taped after TakeOver, but appears in this episode because of narratives). Her mom has flown in and helps her prepare. Nia has no idea what to do for her entrance. Her mom advises her not to over-analyze her entrance and just enjoy the moment when she walks out there. Her mom mentions what she has already overcome, and Nia tells the story of getting in an accident with a drunk driver in August 2014 (with The Rock’s mom with her in the car). In a funny moment, Rhyno and Baron Corbin joke around with her about being nervous about her debut, sharing horror stories of their past debuts. (Rhyno came out during the commercial break because he thought the generic rock music was his entrance music, advising her to “remember her music.”) She likes her new gear. Her debut happens, the crowd reacts well to her. She tears up discussing how much it all meant to her having her mom there. (Weirdly, she has a talk with her mom outside the venue wearing her more recent gear with the cool shoulder-pads.)
Sami Zayn begins doing conditioning in-ring with Tye Dillinger. He goes through a series of holds while a trainer assesses him. He notes afterwards it’s unclear if he’s going up to the main roster or not, as it wasn’t clear to him if his Montreal match with John Cena was a full call-up or a one-off.
In a strange quirk, last week’s cliffhanger with Dana Brooke getting injured is not really followed up on. They establish that she was hurt and injured some muscle in-between her pectoral and her shoulder, but she decided to work through it as the trainers felt whatever damage had been done wouldn’t get worse. She does get choked up a bit chatting with Jason Jordan prior to Takeover, but she gets to make her TakeOver debut with Asuka regardless.
In lesser news: Tino Sabbatelli gets video feedback from Adam Pearce and Matt Bloom, and does extra work in the ring at the Performance Center with the hopes of working his way back up from the beginners class to the touring roster. Tyler Breeze and his girlfriend adopt a stray dog that followed him to the Performance Center. Jason Jordan and Chad Gable order custom track suits for their TakeOver match, but they don’t arrive in time.
And the beginning of “TakeOver: Respect” is this episode’s big cliffhanger, as we’ll follow up on that event in next week’s season finale.
Final Thoughts: A fairly strong episode of Breaking Ground, if only because of the focus on TakeOver and the time it spent with personalities like Bayley, Nia Jax and Sami Zayn who the show has spent time with and given reasons for viewers to care about.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including tons of thoughts on the RIZIN show with the doom of Kazushi Sakuraba, Raw from Monday, Big Show and whether or not he’s number one in the Royal Rumble, texts, calls and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Brock Lesnar’s next opponent in WWE will be Sheamus as things are advertised.
A Lesnar vs. Sheamus match has been announced for a 1/8 house show at the Toyota Center in Houston. It is one of two Lesnar house show appearances thus far announced for this year, with the second one being on 2/16.
Lesnar is advertised for a Raw return on 1/11 in New Orleans, which will likely be the night that his role in the Royal Rumble show will also be announced.
Lesnar’s contract signed in April called for more dates, including an occasional house show, than his prior two contracts. Lesnar did two house shows, one in Tokyo and one at Madison Square Garden, that ended up as live network specials. But his third, held on 12/19 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, was strictly a house show match with Alberto Del Rio.
Jorge Arias, who works as Sin Cara in WWE, suffered a dislocated left shoulder last night in his match with Big E on Raw in Brooklyn.
The spot, replayed multiple times saw Arias on the ring apron when E scooped his leg and pulled him off the apron and he took a bump off the apron to the floor, landing badly on the shoulder.
The match was halted temporarily as The New Day backed off and played to the crowd while the trainer came out. Even though it seemed clear he was hurt, even more so as the match continued, the match did in fact continue to its planned conclusion of E winning with the Big Ending, although he very much was protecting the left shoulder when he did the move.
Arias did spots while the left arm was pretty well hanging there.
Sin Cara on Twitter acknowledged the injury saying “Not even a dislocated shoulder could stop from performing in this great city.”
There is no word on how long he may be out of action. WWE officials stated that a full report is not in but the injury is not believed to be anything serious.
From Emerson & Brian Witner and Guy Ironstone (of WrestlingOutsiders.com)
Attendance was between 2,000 and 3,000
Dolph Ziggler pinned Tyler Breeze. After the match Dolph left the ringside area and superkicked an inflatable reindeer.
Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow (who are still a team, believe it or not) defeated Los Matadores. The Colons played heel in this match.
Fandango pinned Bo Dallas with a sit out suplex.
Luke Harper, Erick Rowan & Braun Strohman defeated Tommy Dreamer & Dudley Boyz when Harper pinned Dreamer with a discus lariat.
-Intermission
Titus O’Neil pinned Stardust. I had to ask if they could go back to intermission instead.
Divas Champion Charlotte submitted Paige with the Figure Four.
In a No Disqualification Match, Kane pinned Bray Wyatt after a chokeslam through a table. The Wyatt’s tried to interfere, but Dreamer and the Dudleys ran in for the save.
The show went 2 hours, 10 minutes including a 20 minute intermission.
Despite recent speculation that he wouldn’t be at Wrestlemania in 2016 due to ongoing movie commitments, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson confirmed via Instagram Monday that he would indeed make an appearance at the WWE’s marquee event.
The show is expected to set an all-time pro wrestling attendance record and Rock admittedly wants to play his own part in helping set that attendance record.
Wrestlemania 32 will be held at AT&T Stadium in Dallas as part of a big weekend that also features an NXT TakeOver event, the annual Hall of Fame ceremony and the always-raucous post-Mania RAW, traditionally the hottest and most highly rated show of the year.
This will be the fifth straight Wrestlemania appearance for Johnson, who had a two-year break during which he and the company were on tenuous terms in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he made his return to host the Atlanta show, and got involved in the WWE championship match between John Cena and The Miz, leading to a challenge to Cena at the following year’s show in his hometown of Miami, which would end up being a non-title match.
Following that show, Rock announced that he was “back” and his goal now was to win the WWE World title. He did just that at the following year’s Royal Rumble, ending CM Punk’s year-plus reign. This set up a return match with Cena, who had won the Rumble match. Rock dropped the belt to Cena in the main event of Wrestlemania 29 and suffered a serious injury in that match. The injury delayed the filming of the big-budget Hercules movie and put into question the idea of Rock ever wrestling another match.
In 2014, at the New Orleans Superdome (or Silverdome), the Rock made an announced and unadvertised appeared in the show’s opening segment. He, Steve Austin and Mania host Hulk Hogan went back and forth in an entertaining verbal sparring match. The three shared beers without any physical confrontation.
At least year’s show in another unadvertised, but not unexpected, appearance, Rock appeared again to break up a Stephanie McMahon/Triple H interview segment. This led to a verbal barrage by Stephanie on the Rock in which she also got physical. Not one to bestow physical violent on a woman (especially in this PG era), Rock introduced then-UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey to physically confront Stephanie. Rousey was seated at ringside and entered the ring in perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire show.
This was expected to set up a potential match, or even matches, involving Rock, Rousey, Stephanie and Triple H at this year’s show. Rousey’s movie commitments and UFC contract led to her being taken out of the equation fairly early, and it was reported a couple months back already that Rock would not be available for a match either.
His appearance on the show this year should help to some degree, but him not being in a match will prevent it from making a major impact. Nothing is going to top last year’s appearance and we’ve already seen him wrestle in high-profile matches at recent shows. But this certainly won’t hurt and gives WWE a name with some mainstream credibility to put on the show’s marquee and in advertising hype for the event.
As the company has done so often since 1999 in an attempt to build a new babyface, Roman Reigns is now being booked like Steve Austin. Vince McMahon got arrested. Reigns was the last man standing in the end. Then Vince came out at the end of the show to announce that Reigns would defend the championship against Sheamus next week with a special referee: Vince McMahon. It was a two segment show and the rest was boring.
Show Recap:
Vince McMahon started the show with Tony Chimmel doing the ring announcing. McMahon claimed he had to undergo dental surgery after the Superman’s punch that Roman Reigns delivered two weeks ago. He ordered Reigns to come out.
McMahon told Reigns that he practically incapitated HHH and disrespected Stephanie McMahon. Vince said HHH would get revenge on Reigns when he least expected it. And he said Reigns literally kicked him out of his own ring. McMahon said he owns his ring, he owns the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and sooner or later Reigns will understand he owns Reigns. Reigns responded that the fans own the WWE World Championship. Crowd started a “Daniel Bryan” chant which McMahon ordered them to shut up. Then they started a “CM Punk” chant as the two talked over them.
McMahon brought up Reigns’ predecessors the Wild Samoans. Hardly anyone knew that in the crowd. McMahon reminded Reigns he was one generation away from having a bone through his nose. McMahon said he made Reigns’ uncle Afa wrestle every night of the week and there was nothing left of him once it was over. Then there was Reigns’ father Sika, which McMahon claimed to have used him up. McMahon said paid Sika with Reigns dead peanuts. No one really reacted because they didn’t remember Sika. Plus, when did the Samoans become the Road Warriors at the gate?
Reigns shoved McMahon down. McMahon started claiming he had a neck injury in the most phony tone possible. Stephanie came out to check on him with police officers in tow. Stephanie ordered Reigns arrested. One of the detectives refused saying they were there to provide security, not be Stephanie’s personal police department. Damn, I wish somebody had told that to the police in the late 90s. Depending on the city, the show and the superstar, police were more involved in wrestling angles than actual police work some weeks.
Stephanie started to get in the detectives’ face until he ordered her to step back or else she would be arrested. Vince tried to smooth things over, but next things you know Vince started to get in the detectives’ face. Stephanie reminded her father to sell his neck again. Finally, three officers came in the ring and put the handcuffs on McMahon.
The detective then read Vince his rights, complete with the line “If you can’t afford an attorney…wait, that doesn’t apply to you.” Vince was led through the crowd with Stephanie protesting the whole way as Reigns smiled and help up his belt.
Vince was shoved into a police cruiser with Stephanie screaming about how she was going to sue the police damage. Michael Cole speculated Vince could be charged with assaulting an officer.
Neville defeated Kevin Owens (:21)
Neville escaped a Pop-Up Power Bomb and pinned Kevin Owens with a victory roll. Wrong crowd to pull this upset because the fans chanted for Owens before the match. The pin was booed. Owens attacked Neville afterwards.
As Neville was being helped to the back, Owens ran back out to clothesline Neville into oblivion. He was about to power bomb Neville onto the apron when Dean Ambrose ran down for a pull-apart brawl.
The official announcement that the Rock was coming to WrestleMania was made. Byron Sexton started to do the “Can you smell” line, to which Cole ordered him never to do again.
Jojo interviewed Becky Lynch, who was jumped by Team BAD while Charlotte wrestled on Smackdown. Charlotte tweeted earlier that she wouldn’t appear tonight on Raw, but Lynch said she wasn’t worried or angry about it. She spoke about coming to Brooklyn when she was penniless and now she was on Raw.
Sasha Banks did prematch mic work putting over Boston to get heat. Naomi said Brooklyn was a garbage-filled, overrated, overpopulated, polluted stank dump.
Sasha Banks defeated Becky Lynch (15:40)
Banks won with a cradle following a series of reversals after Banks hit the Bank Statement. Lynch attempted to clamp on Disarm-her, but Banks escaped. They tried to have a match with rest holds to build heat, but this crowd wasn’t playing along. It got “boring” chants, which seemed to throw them off their game because they weren’t on the same page in certain spots. An average match.
Renee Young was outside the police station where Vince’s mugshot was posted. She confirmed that Jerry McDevitt was at the jail and Stephanie had shown up with high-profile attorneys.
The New Day pranced down with Xavier Woods talking about winning the World Tag Team Champions in Brooklyn in August. It was the very building where the trombone made its debut. Kofi Kingston teased singing a new song, but Woods heard the trombone (named Franchecha) that the fans didn’t vote for them to win a Slammy. Kingston said everytime the New Day comes out, it’s an OMG moment. For instance, for all the parents at home has their children misbehave, they should call the New Day because the New Day will fight their kids. Woods said “Oh my God, Kofi, aren’t you a father?” Kingston said “Exactly! OMG!”
Kalisto defeated Kofi Kingston (2:45)
Kalisto pinned Kingston with a huracanrana. Before the finish, Kalisto dropkicked Woods off the apron, but Big E. Caught him. Sin Cara ran off the steps and gave both men a crossbody.
This led to Woods challenging Cara to face Big E. Immediately.
Big E.defeated Sin Cara (4:36)
Cara legitimately injured his shoulder after taking a bump to the floor off the apron, and the doctor had to stop the match. While this was going on, the fans started a dual chant of “We Want Cena” “No We Don’t.” After the stoppage, Woods screamed the Rocky IV line “It was supposed to be an exhibition!” From the Ill-fated Apollo Creed-Ivan Drago fight. It was a gutsy performance from Cara, especially when he gave Big E. A rolling senton off the top rope. After Kingston and Woods got involved, Big E. Won with the Big Ending.
Cena is on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Magazine.
MizTv started to do a year-in review which was quickly interrupted by Ryback, who said 2016 would be the year of the big guy. Golddust came out and wondered if this was the year the Miz would win a SAG Award, an Oscar, or some Golden Globes. Then Zack Ryder came out to a big pop. Ryder claimed that Brooklyn was “New Zack City” and said 2016 would be the year of Ryder. Miz started to talk about how he tried yoga in January when R-Truth came out. R-Truth said when fans cast their ballots for Superstar of the Year, cast their vote for the Truth. Miz reminded Truth that the Slammys were last week. Then Heath Slater showed up and said he had a lot to say. Before he could start, the Big Show walked down. Slater said nobody cared what Show had to say. Slater managed to block the subsequent right hand with his chin.
Ryder and Golddust were also knocked down. Truth punched himself in an attempt to knock himself out. Show gave him a choke slam. Ryback and Big Show squared off, with Show tossing Ryback over the top rope.
Crowd chanted “Please Retire” at Show. Instead, he said he was going to enter himself into the Royal Rumble and would accept position number one.
Ryback defeated The Big Show by countout (2:53)
As Ryback was about to deliver a meathook clothesline, Show rolled out of the ring and walked out. A totally meaningless segment, and the same can be said of the last 45 minutes of this show.
Sheamus came out and debated the crowd for cheering Vince’s arrest and vowed to carry out a beat down on Ambrose and the Usos tonight.
The League of Nations defeated the Usos and Dean Ambrose (16:50)
Sheamus pinned Jey Uso with the Brogue Kick. Jey was about to give Sheamus a splash when Rusev held his leg, giving Sheamus time to get his knees up. A double hot tag match that lost the crowd early . Fans chanted “This is Boring” with Sheamus in there. Jimmy Uso did a tope spot onto Rusev. Crowd chanted for Lana, who again was missing with no explanation. She’s really someone who would give the League of Nations the right spice.
Post match, Owens ran out of the crowd to attack Ambrose. It led to a camera shot worth it’s weight in gold where Owens power bombed Ambrose off the announcers table onto another announcers’ table. Pieces of the table flew everywhere and you’ll likely be seeing replays of that spot on opening vignettes for years to come. Ambrose sold it great acted like he was in convulsions and had to be carried out by referees. Owens feels like the most over heel on the roster in terms of getting a reaction, albeit a heel that fans want to like. But as we saw in Philadelphia two weeks ago, he knows how to turn a crowd.
Vince, Stephanie and someone trying to be McDevitt stormed out of the police station without taking questions from reporters who were standing by. It’s amazing how the company can be so meticulous in its planning for angles regarding the owner, but can’t figure out where Lana is.
Cena made his return to the usual chorus of people hating him. He pointed out a guy who wore a t-shirt with “Cena” crossed out. He ran down Alberto Del Rio for not defending the U.S. Championship once on Raw since he won it at Hell in a Cell. Del Rio came out with the rest of the League of Nations and said “The Champ is Here.” He said Brooklyn didn’t deserve to have a U.S. Championship match. Cena did a speech putting over Brooklyn. The jibber-jabbered back and forth with Cena trying to goad him into defending the championship. Del Rio refused to put the belt on the line. Cena called him a one-hit wonder who lost his manhood. Del Rio said he was going to send Cena home tonight for good, then finally agreed to put the title on the line.
Cole and JBL did a tribute to Lemmy of Motörhead, who passed away this afternoon after a brief illness. It was impressive they had a video package put together so quickly regarding his life because his death was announced just a few hours ago. If you haven’t, check out the documentary on Lemmy that aired on VH1 Classic, a great tribute to a great performer.
John Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio (C) by DQ, so Del Rio retains the U.S Championship (14:04)
The only match on the show worth anything. Del Rio clamped on the armbar, but Cena made the ropes. Cena went for the AA, but there was a ref bump as Del Rio kicked the referee. Rusev and Sheamus ran down. Rusev hit Cena with a thrust kick. Del Rio covered him, but Cena kicked out. With the referee still down, Sheamus tried to give Cena a Brogue Kick, but Sheamus hit Rusev. Cena gave Sheamus the AA, but Del Rio gave Cena a back stabbed and a superkick that he used to beat Cena in October, but Cena again kicked out. Del Rio went for the arm breaker, but Cena hit the AA. Rusev )(shook off that Brouge Kick fast) and Sheamus ran in for the DQ.
Sheamus gave Cena the Brogue Kick. The Usos ran down for the save but they were quickly disposed of.
Reigns came down for the save, giving Rusev a spear on the floor and Del Rio a superman punch. Sheamus and Reigns had a staredown. Sheamus entered the ring with a chair, but Reigns gave him a Superman punch and a chair shot across the back.
Vince McMahon came out and said he was going to sue the city of New York. Vince said Reigns would face Sheamus for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship next week. The special referee would be Vince McMahon, and Vince kept repeating “Happy New Year” to end the show.
The Big Takeaway:
Part of the problem with booking Vince McMahon to appear on these shows is he’s one of the few larger than life personalities the company has left. Once he appears in the opening segment, then leaves and goes away for two-and-a-half hours, the crowd heat has nowhere to go but down. It was capitalized with some poorly booked segments, namely MizTv. Reigns was received very well.
RAW: Additional live Brooklyn notes
From Mike Omansky
The Barclay Center was sold out and WWE announced a return date of Monday, March 28th, the RAW before Wrestlemania.
Presale on Ticketmaster…code: RAWISBK
Pre-“RAW” – SUPERSTARS
DARREN YOUNG W ADAM ROSE, finisher and pin. Not much at all.
JACK SWAGGER & MARK HENRY W ASENSCION, when Henry pinned Conor after the world’s strongest slam. Decent match. Swagger worked most of it; got beaten down; made the hot tag; over shortly after that.
Post-“RAW”
A “massive” 6 man tag had been advertised on local TV spots in the past 2 weeks, but it didn’t take place. After it went off the air, we got the usual skit in lieu of a match. League of Nations members attacked Cena; Reigns helped Cena and Cena finally got the AA on Del Rio. In the process, Cena teased a turn on Reigns (had a chair in hand), but that was momentary.
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back with a post-holiday edition! Because the Christmas Show was Thursday, Vinny will finally – better late than never – review last Monday’s Raw, then it’s time for, no kidding, THE GREATEST SHOW EVER, NWA World Championship Wrestling. Yes, from the worst show to the best show ever in the span of one week! A fun show as always so check it out~!
