The Monday, August 31 edition of WWE Raw did the best numbers for the show since June 15 of this year — likely due a boost coming from the buzz created by the show the previous Monday.
The show did 3.89 million viewers, up 170,000 from the show the day after SummerSlam. The audience stayed relatively steady throughout the show.
The three hours were:
– 8 p.m. 3.87 million viewers
– 9 p.m. 3.99 million viewers
– 10 p.m. 3.83 million viewers
Notes from Tuesday’s TV tapings in Miami:
– The show opened with a comedy segment with the New Day complaining that the Dudleys are endangering furniture. The Dudleys came out, as did the Prime Time Players and it led to a match with Dudley vs. PTP.
– The Dudleys b Prime Time Players
– Stardust was to face Neville next, but The Ascension came out and laid out Neville which appeared to be on the orders of Stardust.
– Cesaro was doing an interview. Sheamus interrupted him.
– Sheamus b Cesaro
– The Miz TV segment with Lana saw Summer Rae come out and the two women got into it. Miz and Dolph Ziggler pulled them apart.
– Bo Dallas b R-Truth
– Charlotte b Tamina Snuka. Team Bella came out and Nikki raised the title belt in the air.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose b WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) via DQ
– Airdate: May 23, 1985
– Runtime: 40:41
I learned three things from watching this episode. Hulk Hogan was phenomenal in 1985. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan is one of the greatest talkers in the history of the business. King Curtis Iaukea has a disgusting forehead.
Let’s start there. I love pro wrestling blood. As we all learned from watching 20/20 in 1984, the blood is often self-induced. But there was something thrilling to see Ric Flair get pounded and then lift his head and see the crimson mask. You knew the guys who bled were a bit tougher than the guys who didn’t. Ever see The Miz bleed? Exactly.
But I think I have changed my mind a bit on that after seeing Iaukea on this week’s episode of TNT. We’ll get to him in a moment, and it won’t be pretty.
*****
The show begins with Lord Alfred Hayes shouting, “From the World Wrestling Federation it’s TNT.”
The first guests are Heenan and “strongman” Ken Patera. Patera was one of the most uncharismatic wrestlers ever. He absolutely needed a manager. They tried to dress him up a bit with some shiny clothes, but it didn’t really work. Patera talked at you, not to you. And why did he disappear for awhile, skipping WrestleMania?
McMahon is in full instigator mode, reminding Heenan that the last time he was here it was an embarrassing situation. He’s referring to Paul Orndorff firing him. I don’t remember this and have never seen it because this episode for some reason is not on the WWE network. But we will take McMahon’ word for it.
Heenan says he’s not the kind of man who gets embarrassed. “If I had done something wrong and I had been the average 8-to-5, clock-punching humanoid I could be embarrassed,” Heenan said.
Heenan was so great at being dismissive. Rather than show us the clip of Orndorff firing Heenan, we go to an episode of Piper’s Pit, where Heenan reveals to Piper that Orndorff canned him.
Piper introduces Heenan with some respect. “We have with us the greatest wrestling manager I have ever seen in my entire life,” Piper says.
Paul Heyman is certainly giving The Brain a run for his money, but in 1985 Piper’s statement was 100 percent true. Heenan reveals what happened like he’s in some sort of confessional with his priest. There’s an air of guilt and shame in his words.
“The world’s biggest no-good, lowlife ingrate, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff has fired me,” Heenan says.
Piper looks outraged and says “he cannot do that. He’s a coward. He’s Mr. Blunderful. He’s not worth wasting your time on.” Heenan is flustered and freaking out. “He was nothing until I took over,” he says, flinging his arms.
Orndorff did the job at WrestleMania and his reward for that was probably a big singles push as a good guy, and eventually a money-making run as Hulk Hogan’s No. 1 opponent.
Back in the TNT studios, Patera says Orndorff has “a lot of class, but it is low class.”
He claimed Orndorff’s career was mediocre until Heenan started managing him. Orndorff was cursed with a bit of what plagued Patera. Orndorff was a boring. He was a natural heel, and way better as a heel. He was way more unlikable than likable, so him turning on Heenan totally had to be carried by Heenan, who could make fruit salad look daring.
Heenan is pulling this whole segment off perfectly, a combination of paranoia, disappointment and unbridled rage.
“The day is going to come when I am going to be soaking my hands in epson salt to bring down the swelling because I am going to smack you so hard I am going to knock the taste out of your mouth,” Heenan says. Nothing like the little guy promising to destroy the musclehead.
Heenan says he remembers Orndorff, “out at Madison Square Garden like a cheap light bulb.”
Heenan then gets back to Patera, his new focus. He called Patera an Olympic Gold Medalist, which isn’t true, unless they had a category for best blonde curly perm. Heenan also claims Patera is undefeated, which isn’t true either.
We go to the ring with Patera pounding on some guy named Ronny Dee. Patera is 100 percent owning this guy, taking time to flex during the match, a move that would excite announcer Jesse “The Body” Ventura.
“Another little pose for the crowd: We like it Kenny,” Ventura says. Jack Reynolds is doing play-by-bay and asks why a man as strong as Patera needs to resort to choking his opponent.
Ventura says Patera needs to cut off the ring and take away the man’s air. “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat,” Ventura says.
Patera pins him with a swinging full Nelson that would excite Cesaro. He puts one foot on his chest like he just retired Randy “Macho Man” Savage.
Back in the TNT studios Patera says he is putting Orndorff and the Hulkster on notice.
“I want that World Wrestling Federation belt around my waste. I am undefeated and everyone knows this,” Patera says. Patera would have needed to purchase one of those $250 replica belts that didn’t exist in 1985 if he wanted to be champion.
McMahon seems less interested in Patera and goes back to talking about Heenan. He asks Heenan if he is doubting himself and his abilities after Orndorff canned him. Heenan seems committed to ruining Orndorff.
“I am going to financially and physically make sure the Paul Orndorff’s living in some doorway of skid row,” Heenan says.
Heenan portrayed a genuine sense of betrayal here. This wasn’t just a wrestler firing his manager. This was a son turning on his father and moving out of the house. Heenan was hurt and it showed.
Up next is King Curtis Iaukea. I used to think Abdullah The Butcher had the most disgusting forehead in the business. Iaukea gives him a run for his money. I have to admit that I didn’t take a lot of notes during the Iaukea segment. I was too busy staring at his forehead. How and why did McMahon even allow this guy on television?
McMahon says “You look fabulous,” almost like he was trying to be sarcastic. He looked anything, but fabulous. He was an abrupt reminder that maybe it’s not such a bad thing that we don’t see a lot of blood anymore in wrestling.
Iaukea’s forehead is simply disgusting. He didn’t seem to mind though. He seemed fairly happy.
Since it’s wrestling, of course, we had to sit through a gazillion cultural stereotypes, and listen to Iaukea talk about life in Hawaii and the surfer, care-free attitude. I guess all people from Hawaii just hang around at the beach all-day.
Then we get some bizarre promotional video of Hawaii, which featured lots of scenic shots of the ocean, mountains — and skin.
Iaukea says “you can’t miss me. I am the fattest Hawaiian on the island.” Points to McMahon for saying that he thought he spotted a Kielbasa tree during the video. Hayes also deserves credit for saying one of the men surfing looks like Don Muraco.
When they show the girls in bikinis, McMahon tells Hayes to “watch your heart.”
From the stereotypes of Hawaii we go to the squared circle to see some vintage footage of Iaukea teaming up with Baron Mikel Scicluna against Chief Jay Strongbow and Sonny King.
When the segment was over, Iaukea shook McMahon’s hand: “It is a great honor and privilege to be a professional wrestler. Thank you for having me here and please come my way so I can make you comfortable.”
A lot of these old-timers really seemed to treat TNT like it were a real talk show. They seemed genuine to be there and tried to answer McMahon’s questions with legitimacy. That was another great thing about TNT. It was a total unscripted work on many occasions, but some some of the guys didn’t seem to be in on the joke. McMahon, of course, was eating up all of it, perhaps the only guy on the set, who wasn’t guessing.
From there we go to Hulk Hogan, the man who 30 years ago was one of the biggest stars in the world. It’s sad to see how far this guy has fallen. Since he’s Hogan though, I don’t doubt that he will rise again. He always seems to do so.
In this segment we go to Madison Square Garden where Hogan is the ringmaster for the circus. Hogan’s “Real American” music plays over clips of him beating up guys like the Iron Sheik.
From there we see Hogan interviewed by Bruce Beck on the MSG network. Beck is pointing out that Hogan is making a difference in the lives of 18,000 “handicapped youngsters.”
Hogan at one point puts two kids on his shoulders and smiles, looking genuinely happy. Beck asks him what it feels like to help the youngsters. Hogan says that initially he was a bit sad, but once he got to meet all the kids he realized that the were “full of life.”
Beck asked Hogan if he felt it was important for an athlete to give back.
“You’ve got to,” Hogan said. “These are the people who support you. It makes you realize where you stand. I don’t know how to explain it. It just make you feel really good.”
Hogan came across super genuine here.
Back in the studio McMahon introduces Hogan, who gives him a huge handshake. With the big smile on his face, McMahon doesn’t seem to interested in figuring out who was responsible for the wrestling boom of the 1980s, he or Hogan. It looks like he is just happy to be cashing those checks.
Hogan turns the focus to wrestling and says Patera and Studd are the types of challengers that the WWF doesn’t need. He praises Orndorff for dropping Heenan.
“The first good move he did was firing Bobby “The Brain” Heenan,” Hogan says. “Since then I have seen a lot of good change in the man. I think Mr. Wonderful is right on the right track.”
As we would find out later, Orndorff’s firing of Heenan was all a ruse, a set-up for one of the greatest turns in history, leading to one of the best house show runs in history. But for now, Orndorff and Hogan are buddies. Ever notice how everyone Hogan hangs out with eventually turns on him? Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Orndorff, Bubba “The Love Sponge?” Jimmy Hart apparently is the only guy who has figured out how to get along with Hogan for more than two decades.
Hogan stays on the couch as McMahon introduces “Mean” Gene Okerlund, another guy McMahon stole from the AWA.
Okerlund was one of the faces of the WWF in the 1980s. He’s one of those guys everybody 35 and older remembers. Gene was funny and whipsmart. They show a clip of him interviewing WWF Women’s Champion Richter. During the interview Richter says: “I am not about to lay down on my back and let some woman cover me.”
Okerlund starts laughing on camera, while Richter plays serious refusing to break character. Okerlund was famous for his reactions during live broadcasts, infamously dropping the F-Bomb when a part of the set fell down behind him during an interview.
He’s in a good mood during this episode, however. He’s wearing a what dress hat. McMahon asks him where he got it and Okerlund responds that it is the last thing that Truman Capote gave him before he left.
Okerlund starts talking about the good days when he and Hayes would “cavort with an occasional maiden.” Hayes reminds us that they were maidens, not wenches, prompting Okerlund to say “not that we didn’t try, but it just didn’t work out that way.”
McMahon and Hogan make fun of Okerlund wearing dress pants and dress shoes, but no socks, but Okerlund is proud to show of his legs.
This segment was going great until McMahon had to show us the video — for the third time in TNT history — of Hogan training Okerlund. This is footage of Hogan forcing Okerlund to run, lift weights and eat raw eggs. It was funny the first two times.
Back on the set Hogan says he need to train Okerlund because he found out that he had seven maidens lined up and had to get Gene into shape.
McMahon asks Okerlund how he got the name “Mean Gene.” Okerlund admits that it was given to him by Ventura, a declaration that probably had Hogan quietly using colorful language in his head, since Ventura was another guy Hogan couldn’t get along with.
The show ends with McMahon, Hayes, Hogan and Okerlund heading to the band and Okerlund to play a few songs on the piano as the credits rolled.
TNT this week offered a great mix of past, present and future, with great jokes and humor from Heenan and Okerlund. It’s amazing to see Hogan in his prime, just oozing charisma without even trying. Had he played his cards right, he could have been an announcer, a voice of the WWE, rather than persona non grata. He’s a good reminder that no matter how big of a superstar you become, it is still McMahon’s world.s
Submitted anonymously
WWE Superstars:
– R-Truth def. Adam Rose. Rose did the party pooper gimmick he was doing at the weekend house shows.
– Neville and the Lucha Dragons def. Stardust and The Ascension when Neville hit the Red Arrow for the pin and win.
Post Raw:
After Cena and Sting left, Cena came right back out to his music. This led to…
– John Cena & Randy Orton def. Seth Rollins & Sheamus when Orton pinned Sheamus in 10 minutes after a lot of AA’s and RKOs.
Notes:
– The crowd was into Sting in the opening segment.
– The women’s beat the clock series was very disappointing. PCB and Sasha Banks got big reactions for their entrances, but it was quiet during the first two matches. Lots of Sasha and Paige chants for the short amount of time that lasted.
– Big reaction for Kevin Owens. Ambrose and Reigns were also over. No boos at all for Reigns.
– Dudleys and New Day got big reactions when they came out, but crowd got tired during this match.
– Cena reaction was about 75 percent favorable.
– Interesting that Rollins’ line about Sting killing WCW got a lot of boos. WCW did big business in Florida, but we’re talking 15-20 years ago and even further beyond that.
Hulk Hogan’s attempt to get back into the WWE going on Good Morning America today at this point hasn’t resulted in a change in comapny deicision making.
“At this time the WWE remains steadfast in its decision,” was the company’s response to Hogan’s appearance today.
The WWE announced Monday that it has released Zahra Schreiber, who is the girifriend of WWE champion Seth Rollins.
Schreiber had a swastika in the background during a 2012 social media post, which came out this past week. She defended it by noting it was not Nazi related.
“WWE released Zahra Schreiber due to inapproporiate and offensive remarks she made that were recently brought to out attention,” said the company in a statement.
By Dave Meltzer, WrestlingObserver.com
Hulk Hogan appeared on a taped segment of ABC’s Good Morning America today, and will also appear on Nightline, in an attempt to clean up his image a up his image after the reports of him making racial remarks in his 2006 sex tape were reported.
Hogan claimed he was at the lowest point of his life in 2006 when the tape was recorded, and was suicidal, that he had no idea he was being taped and was mat at his daughter over a situation involving her and her boyfriend at the time.
He claimed it was not a racist, that he was wrong to say it and is embarrassed by it, and claimed he used the n word based on the environment he grew up in in South Tampa and that he and his friends greeted people that way like it was nothing. He did say he belives he inherited a racial basis based on that envronment and begged fans to forgive him.
They presented it like WWE had erased his entire career, which is not the case, and claimed he was removed from the WWE Hall of Fame. While he was removed from the WWE web site, including his Hall of Fame profile, at last word WWE had not removed him from the Hall of Fame.
He was breaking down when he talked about how his daughter could have disowned him and didn’t, and said she showed him moore love than anyone. He said he was mad at Brooke when he made the recording but she told him she’s not mad at him.
He said that just because someone makes a mistake, you don’t throw them away and again said it was at the lowest point of his life and it was years ago.
He wants to raise awareness of the impat that hate language can have and said he’s give his right arm to be back in pro wrestling.
By Kyle S. Johnson for WrestlingObserver.com
In the premiere of Total Divas’ fourth season, Nikki Bella makes the somewhat audacious claim that she is (or at least has the potential to be) the female version of John Cena. Because she has been the WWE Divas Champion for so long, and because she and her sister are the most merchandised Divas (and, consequently, the biggest female merch-movers in the company), she probably feels as if she has a legitimate claim to that title.
But Cena is more than just WWE’s most protected performer and biggest money-maker. One could argue that his biggest value, at least to WWE’s mind, is in his unyielding dedication to charity. Among the focal points of WWE’s three-day run in Brooklyn was Cena granting his record 500th Make-A-Wish request for 8-year-old Rocco Lanzer, an effort that was played up to the hilt both on WWE programming and in the mainstream media.
As far as the mainstream is largely concerned, John Cena is a man who works tirelessly to bring happiness to terminally ill children who also just so happens to be WWE’s biggest star since The Rock. He is a beacon of hope that brings warmth to cold hospitals and lights the eyes of boys and girls who need someone to spur them on in their darkest hours. This strikes directly at the heart of another audacious statement tweeted by Stephanie McMahon: “philanthropy is the future of marketing, it’s the way brands r going 2 win”.
With Cena, it doesn’t feel like something tawdry and exploitive for the sake of a marketing ideology. It doesn’t seem like a performance forced for the ever-present camera eye. Cena comes across as having a very genuine enthusiasm for empowering children and instilling in them a sense of hope. His actions are such that you can almost sense that he would prefer that the camera weren’t there at all.
This aspect of Cena’s nature informs his in-ring persona. This is why for 10 years, Cena’s promos have extolled the virtues of working hard and being persistent in the face of adversity. This is why for the better part of a decade, he has donned colorful t-shirts branded with inspirational slogans—“Hustle, Loyalty, Respect”; “Rise Above Hate”; “Never Give Up”. This is why, despite the growing disdain voiced in booming chants of “Cena Sucks,” there will always be a chorus of high-pitched voices to retort “Let’s Go Cena.”
Cena is the face of WWE today not because he’s a great performer both in-ring and on the microphone (he is). He is not the face of WWE today because he exudes a natural charisma that befits a superstar (he does). He is not even the face of WWE today because he fits perfectly into Vince McMahon’s archetype of what a superstar should look like (he epitomizes it). He is the face of WWE because he is its one true goodwill ambassador. He connects not only with the mainstream of which WWE so desperately wants to be a part, but with the WWE’s most coveted demographic: children.
This connection is unquestionably the most important to WWE, because it results both in more money in the short-term and, if you can create long-time fans from youth, the long term. People have been begging for a Cena heel turn for 10 years, but because of his role as the company’s top good guy both on-screen and off, that has not (and probably never will) come to pass. If capturing the attention of children and creating life-long fans is WWE’s primary long-term business objective, then there is no better choice for the company’s female face than the new NXT Women’s Champion, Bayley.
Bayley as Brand Ambassador
In order for WWE to create a Cena-adjacent female face for its brand, that woman will likely have to live up to his same standard of connecting with young fans and performing acts of charity (preferably in a visible fashion). Nikki Bella and Eva Marie have an incredibly difficult time coming across as authentic in any respect on television (a fact easily gleaned from spending any length of time watching Total Divas, which is an unenviable task that I cannot recommend against strongly enough), making it hard to conceive of any scenario where they would seem genuine interacting with children in real-world situations.
But that is not the case with Bayley. Bayley has “it.” In this case, “it” is that same thing that John Cena has. It’s an effortless charm that appeals to the everyman and everywoman. It’s a natural human agency to do good, and an aspiration to put smiles on the faces of children. Bayley is the perfect, perpetually-smiling face of WWE because you don’t believe for one second that her smile is a put-on. One need only see the way Bayley interacts with Izzy, her superfan who can seemingly always be found in the crowd at Full Sail.
This characteristic of genuineness is perfectly malleable to WWE’s craving for good brand publicity through altruism. According to an email received by Bryan Alvarez on Thursday night, a long-time WWE employee believes that Bayley is “so ungodly over, especially with little girls,” that if she were to start granting wishes through Make-A-Wish, “she will destroy John Cena.” That would make her an invaluable asset to the company in a manner not terribly dissimilar to that of Cena, but only if WWE has the aptitude to harness it.
For the last year, there has been a concerted effort on the part of WWE to position Roman Reigns as the next face of the company. This is evident in a number of ways, not the least of which being his sudden ascent to the main event of WrestleMania. Given the WWE mantra of philanthropy being tantamount to good marketing, one need only look at the list of “Athletes Gone Good” for 2015 to see just how deep WWE’s desire to make Reigns the next top guy runs. It should come as little surprise that, as the face of WWE, Cena ranks second only to Cristiano Ronaldo on the list of most charitable athletes. WWE’s second-most-charitable star? Reigns. While it’s difficult to speculate that an individual’s charitable acts are the result of anything but benevolence, it’s also hard to imagine that Reigns’ place on this list is not the result of some calculated efforts behind the scenes.
In order for WWE to create a top female face who is on the level of John Cena, they will need to appear on these lists. They will need to be a visible role model to children, that same warming light in the darkness. For better or worse, this is how the WWE will market its top babyfaces from here on in, and it is for this reason that Bayley is their most logical next big thing.
Targeting the Right Audience
One of the biggest complaints about women’s wrestling in WWE for, oh, the last decade or two has been its overreliance on sexuality. Since the days of Sunny and Sable, the role of women in the WWE has largely been to serve as eye candy for the male audience. From the late ’90s and into the early-2000s, WWE made no bones about its intentions with its female talent—they were there to participate in bawdy storylines and be ogled by men.
Once the company opted to move toward more family-friendly programming, it made a withering attempt to mask the state of things. Gone were Playboy photospreads, replaced with considerably more tasteful Maxim photospreads. The women became “Divas,” and despite the fact that the denotation of the word is not particularly flattering, it was intended to provide the connotation of the women being powerful and, more importantly, sexy. Still, despite tidying up appearances, this left little in the way of true role models for young girls to get behind.
Even as great wrestlers have come and gone—Trish Stratus, Victoria, Gail Kim, Natalya, and AJ Lee are among their number—the singular focus has always been sex appeal. That focus on sex remains to this day, which is the only explanation why amidst a (hashtag) “revolution,” WWE’s current choice for the top female talent in the company is Eva Marie.
Eva Marie cannot, under any circumstances, be considered a good professional wrestler, which used to be a pretty sizeable chunk of what made someone a star in professional wrestling (or so I’ve been told). She has no discernable charisma to speak of, and she has absolutely no connection with the audience—especially not young girls. She can, however, be considered “hot.” In this, Vince McMahon presumably sees an untapped goldmine, which explains why her face has probably appeared on production trucks and in promo material more times than she’s actually wrestled in the past two years.
The last perceived “new face” of WWE was Lana, which would have been at least an improvement over Eva. But her push suddenly sputtered and halted, and in the span of a few short months, she went from jousting with the likes of Cena and The Rock on the microphone (and handling herself quite skillfully in the process) to being the denim-wearing girlfriend/valet of Dolph Ziggler. While Lana was substantially more entertaining as a heel manager than Eva Marie has ever proven to be at anything, they have no fewer than two things in common: Lana was almost certainly pushed entirely because she was “hot,” and she’s not what you could reasonably call a wrestler.
In the world of sports entertainment, being even a competent wrestler is ancillary to being a character. Certainly, if history reveals anything, WWE’s style of promoting suggests that it is only comfortable offering female characters in one of few stock archetypes. That spectrum runs something like: evil, catty, crazy, conniving, jealous, ditzy, self-effacing, and hot. There may be a few wrinkles in the formula here and there, but the song largely remains the same. Whether Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky are given the opportunity to break from this interminable mold and strike out on their own in some meaningful way remains to be seen.
It’s increasingly difficult to have any level of confidence with the way women are booked on WWE’s main roster, but it’s easy to see where they could theoretically get it right with Bayley. As a character and a personality, she’s got everything necessary to become a transcendent star and a vital component in WWE’s quest to claim newer and younger fans. As a wrestler, she’s shown that she can be compelling and, when matched up with someone of commensurate talents like one of the other three Horsewomen, outstanding.
According to Scott Keith, Bayley’s “I’m a Hugger” shirt was, at least for a time this month, the top-selling Divas item in WWE Shop despite Bayley having less than .05 percent the merchandise options that the Bellas have. Keith’s salient analysis of this fact: “The girl is going to rival Cena in merch sales one day, especially in the youth area.”
WWE has shown that it cannot properly execute a “revolution,” but perhaps it’s not too late to change the way it views and treats women. A major (and necessary) alteration would be to reevaluate just to whom they are trying to appeal. If the answer is young girls, then having Bayley at the forefront of the division is as good a place to start as any. With the right approach, she can and will sell t-shirts and wristbands by the truckload.
Bayley, with her goofy mannerisms and her vibrant outfits and her grandiose entrance accompanied by giant waving tube men, stands in such stark contrast to the typical WWE character template for women. She connects with kids and, thanks to her considerable in-ring talent, with hardcore wrestling fans as well, all without having to be objectified. She is, in so many ways, the polar opposite of an Eva Marie or a Nikki Bella.
She’s a classic white-meat babyface, a plucky underdog who never gives up and who the fans want to overcome the odds stacked against her. She may be the closest thing they’ve got to a female John Cena, and in some ways, she might even have the potential to be more important over time.
Submitted by J.J. Williams
They announced that a match will be taped tonight for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament.
– Apollo Crews b Elias Samson via press slam into a standing moonsault.
– Steve Cutler b Riddick Moss. This was a pair of non tv talent here. Moss worked as heel, Cutler wins via Front Fisherman Buster.
– Dana Brooke and Evil Emma b Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. Dana rolled up Billie for the win.
– Tye Dillinger b Noah Kekoa. Kekoa is a newcober and came out with a Hawaiian shirt and ukelele, which Tye ended up playing during the match. Dillinger wins via his knee to the back of the head maneuver.
– Enzo and Cass b Angelo Dawkins and Sawyer Fulton to advance in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament. Crowd was hot, a lot of How You Doin? chants. Cass cleans up after the hot tag, Enzo gets the pin after the splash off the top.
Intermission
– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley b Nia Jax via roll up pinning combination. Pre match, Bayley did a promo about being a fighting champion and putting the title on the line against anyone who wants a chance.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Vaudevillains b Jason Jordan and Chad Gable via whirling dervish.
– NXT Champion Finn Balor b Solomon Crowe with the Coup De Grace. Crowe worked heel in this match even attacking Balor pre match before the bell. Balor had his ribs taped and sold his Takeover injures throughout.
The following is from a third party:
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling takes a walk on the side of lunacy as we welcome WWE Superstar, “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose. Ambrose clawed his way to WWE with a fearless career on the independent scene, absorbing and dishing out punishment in equal measure. He competed in violent environments and unmanageably sacrificed his body with the goal of inflicting as much damage on his opponent as humanly possible.
Now as we wind down 2015 and look ahead, we look back with Dean on his affinity for Rowdy Roddy Piper, his feuds with Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins and what is next for a possible future WWE Champion. We are also joined by Dean Ambrose’s trainer Les Thatcher and hear directly from him the kind of student Ambrose was and what he thinks of the progress Dean has shown thus far in his career. Thatcher is also quite outspoken about the current state of WWE, NXT and the overall 2015 wrestling product.
How does his preparation differ from other stars in the WWE:
I like to take things moment to moment. I don’t try to be anything that I’m not because that would be in-authentic and I was blessed with certain talents and certain abilities and others I wasn’t. I try to do things I do and do them well and I don’t try to pretend to be anything that I’m not. If I’m in a bad mood, your gonna get Dean Ambrose in a bad mood. If I’m in a good mood your gonna get happy, fun Dean Ambrose that day. I would literally take whatever I’m feeling, that’s just what you will see in the ring.
I like to just be myself and I just go out there and kind of just do whatever I want to my own devices and it’s kind of just not just the fans but WWE slowly realized another Dean Ambrose isn’t going to walk through the door anytime soon. So I kind of occupy my own space and kind of carve out my own little spot. Fans don’t want to tune in and see you do the same things every week and when they hear your music for me they like to think that any wild thing may happen when I come through the curtain because sometimes I don’t know. I make as much up as I possibly can as I go along.
Memories of Rowdy Roddy Piper:
Everybody loves Roddy Piper. There’s so many of these shocking out of nowhere passings and it’s so weird because these are the guys that my generation grew up watching, it sucks. Everybody loves The Hot Rod and my favorite Roddy Piper memory is a very specific one because I recently not too long ago watched it. Starrcade 96 when he fought Hogan for the Championship when he came back to WCW, it was a terrible, sloppy match with two old guys but awesome and was such a spectacle.
The cool part of it was his entrance. One of the best entrances you will ever see if you really watch it and you are into the story and you really watch what he is doing, it’s like this death march to the ring. You have this on-going decade long blood-feud with Hogan and he knows that he is going to get beat up by the nWo and ganged up on 20-1 and it’s a one man war against the nWo and he’s just coming down the aisle as simple as can be, no flashy entrance or pyrotechnics. In WWE everyone has the special entrance.
In NXT they have a dance move that they do and they get in the ring the same way every time and its like their schtick. It was so refreshing to go back and watch that because he comes out and just stares at the ring and burns a hole with his eyes and walks down the aisle as simple as humanly possible. His eyes are just cold and it just tells so much, you know he is willing to go in there in the middle of that ring. He is going to fight to the end. If he walks away with the championship, cool but he’s prepared for this to be the end. It’s very intense and most people who watch it wouldn’t put that much thought into it but get on WWE Network, watch Starrcade 96 and just watch Piper’s entrance it’s such a cool thing.
Comparison to Superstars like Piper, Terry Funk and Brian Pillman:
I really can’t answer that because I try not to put any thought into what I am doing. I go by what I feel, whatever happens, happens. I think a lot of those guys probably thought the same way.
Why does he work so well with Seth Rollins:
Our styles just meshed well. First time we ever wrestled was in FCW. We never crossed paths before. It was maybe one of the first times that people started to pay attention to what was going on in Developmental just from a wrestling standpoint. I had a certain following and he had kind of ran with a different crowd on the indy scene like Ring of Honor and it kind of was a clash of indy worlds happening in Developmental. It just clicked immediately. I felt that stuff that he did was complimenting the stuff that I did.
The stretching and they physical stuff in the holds, it was such a phsyical style I was doing at the time and just kind of meshed with his and it was like peanut butter and jelly, like mixed perfectly together the stuff that we were doing. He is such a smart guy and visualizes and comes up with cool things and then you have just the way that I would like go off-the-cuff a lot of times, we could go out and wrestle thirty minutes and literally not talk at all before hand, it just meshes well and then you know WWE styles still mesh and it’s hard to explain. There’s just that certain chemistry with people. He’s so good, its like anyone can have a good match with Seth Rollins and we kind of bring out the best in each other from a healthy competitive standpoint and all the great opponents always had that together like Ric Flair/Ricky Steamboat and Nick Bockwinkel/ Verne Gagne.
Is their any one specific WWE Superstar looking to bring down the house:
I think all of the core group of guys right now, myself, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Cesaro, The Wyatts I think we all have that competitive chemistry with each other because we are kind of pushing each other and we are the guys kind of carrying the load right now as far as 300 nights a year. We are the guys who are counted on to tear the house down and wrestle 15-20 minutes on Raw each week and I think that’s a real healthy thing across the board.