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Tag: WWE

  • WWE News: Tough Enough and Total Divas ratings

    Last night’s episode of Tough Enough did 1.22 million viewers, the best of the three episodes so far and up from 1.05 million the week before.

    Total Divas last night opened its season to 975,000 viewers.

  • WWE News: Monday’s Raw rating

    While up from last week’s record modern era seasonal low, Raw’s numbers will still at low levels Monday night, doing 3.65 million viewers.

    The number was up about 190,000 from the prior week.  The audience remained steady based on the hourly breakdowns.

    The three hours were:

    8 p.m. 3.64 million viewers

    9 p.m. 3.69 million viewers

    10 p.m. 3.62 million viewers

  • WWE Superstars July 4 TV results & recap: Adam Rose v Fandango, The Ascension win!

    By James Cox, WrestlingObserver.com

    The Big Takeaway:

    The Ascension faced the Mega Powers for the umpteenth time, but beat them for once, with the crowd still enjoying the novelty of Axel and Mandow. Adam Rose and Fandango are still kind of feuding under the radar with Rose winning here, tweaking his character to try to get more heat.

    The Ascension beat The Mega Powers (4:28)

    Viktor and Mandow start in the ring together. Viktor runs into an elbow and Mandow quickly tags in Axel. Jimmy Uso on commentary is asked about how his brother is doing and noted that he is ahead of schedule but wouldn’t be back in action until the fall. Axel goes up top for ten punches on Viktor. This crowd love counting along. Mandow comes back in and the pair hit double back elbows on Viktor and then clothesline Konnor outside.

    Viktor comes back into the ring and Konnor tries to distract Mandow and Viktor takes advantage with a quick pin attempt. When it doesn’t pay off, Viktor uses stomps. The Ascension then start to use a series of quick tags, cutting of the ring. They use that half Boston crab/leg drop to the back of the head combination and Konnor goes for a cover and then puts on a rear chin lock.

    A double clothesline sees both men go down. Both make tags, with Axel getting the heat. He lands the big boot, tears his shirt and then takes out Viktor with an atomic drop and clothesline to send him packing. Mandow goes outside, but is rammed into the apron by Viktor and this distracts Axel. Konnor hits Mandow with a big boot and then they use the Fall of Man for the win.

    Adam Rose (w/ Rosa Mendes) beat Fandango (5:44)

    Adam Rose and Rosa come out to cut a pre-match promo. They finish each other’s sentences and have a pretty boring dynamic of being a ‘power couple’. They remind me of Laycool. Rose finishes by saying, “its all about Adam.”

    This is pretty short and quick for a Superstars main event at just under 6 minutes. Rose uses hip toss on the bell to try to fluster Fandango and postures to the crowd. Then they chain and run the ropes and a shoulder barge followed by a drop kick give Fandango the early going. He clotheslines Rose over the top rope and then hits a fairly graceful slingshot cross body on to Rose on the outside.

    Back in the ring a side suplex by Rose sends both men down. Fandango gets up first and uses an atomic drop and quick clotheslines to get him in control until Rose grabs him and lands a swinging neckbreaker to break up the charge. A DDT by Rose gets him a two count. Fandango retorts with a power slam and gets two.

    Fandango continues with Flair chops and then tries a backslide cover but can only get two. Fandango uses a sitout suplex slam and then Rosa distracts. Rose launches Fandango off the apron into the dasher boards. Rose brings him back in, and ends it rather suddenly with the Party Foul or, as he is now calling it, the Disaster Piece.

  • WWE Tough Enough episode 3 (July 7) results & recap

    By Kenneth Nida, WrestlingObserver.com

    Last week’s episode saw the competitors swim with alligators, take bumps off the top rope, and argue for entirely too much time. ZZ continued his trend of being the most entertaining thing on the show, but actually avoided the bottom three. Alex was eliminated after arrogantly declaring “Knowledge means nothing.”

    This week’s guest WWE Superstar is Seth Rollins. Hopefully he contributes more than Roman Reigns’ 45 seconds of speaking from last week’s episode. The show opens up with an introduction for the judges, each judge speaking briefly about the show so far. We then cut to the reactions of the contestants after last week’s elimination. Dianna then decides to leave the show and is picked up by her fiancé at 2:00 a.m.

    Billy Gunn wakes the contestants up at dawn for some exercise. He’s very upset with the fact that Dianna quit, asking if anyone else wants to go home. Seth Rollins makes his appearance for the first challenge, which will involve character building. Each contestants pick a card with a character theme such as “American Hero” and “Farmer’s Daughter”. Each contestant gathers props, which Seth Rollins offers advice on before he leaves. His appearance lasted longer than Roman Reigns, but it was equally pointless.

    We go back to the live show, where the judges offer their thoughts on Dianna quitting the show. Paige is quite upset that their time was wasted on a quitter. Back at the barracks, Sara Lee is the first contestant to show off her character through a ring entrance. She takes the stage as Jayde the “Queen of Mean” (with a surprising lack of latex or a whip). The judges don’t really understand her character, saying her music is doing more for them than her performance. Patrick as the “Evil Intellectual”, carrying Lita’s dog as his minion impresses the judges. ZZ upsets the judges with an overly comedic entrance. Billy Gunn even says it’s insulting – I’m curious about what he thought of Santino.

    Patrick wins the challenge on the men’s side, while Giorgia wins among the women. Lita notes this is the second week in a row both have won. They announce that there will still be an elimination even though Dianna went home. ZZ is frustrated because he feels misunderstood. Gabi recruits Sara Lee to be her ally. The two trash talk the other women. Patrick and Tanner get into an argument which escalates into a fight which is quickly broken up.

    We go back to the live show for the elimination. The judges grill the contestants. Somehow Daniel Bryan’s question to Sara Lee about not appearing to be mean, turns to Paige and Hulk Hogan asking about ZZ’s bulge that he showed off in his entrance. This week the bottom three are, Daria as chosen by Daniel Bryan, Sara Lee as chosen by Paige, and ZZ as chosen by Hulk Hogan. It’s announced the contestants will get a second chance to do their ring entrance before the vote. Sara Lee comes across as a bit meaner, ZZ plays to the crowd, and Daria improves drastically in the eyes of the judges.

    Each contestant then gets 30 seconds to plead their case. This time, they actually started the voting after the contestants plead their case, as opposed to before like in week’s past. They also take time to ask the other contestants who they think should go home before the votes come in. The judges decline to use their one save. ZZ got 52% of the vote, Sara Lee got 34% of the vote, and with 14% of the vote Daria is eliminated. Daria speaks briefly on the outpour of support she got from the LGBT community after she came out on the show.

  • WWE Superstars taping results, post-RAW notes

    Submitted by John Pinkus

    Superstars:

    Heath Slater vs Neville: Heath got decent amount of heat, which resulted in fairly loud chant for Neville. Neville won with the red arrow, but Heath had to readjust his position before he jumped.  Overall, good opening match.  

    Ascension vs WWE Tag Champions Prime Time Players:

    Chicago, like everywhere, doesn’t like these painted goofs.  Not much of a match, Titus had to wait a long time for the hot tag from Darren.  Titus proceeded to throw around dudes around.  This was followed by a short parade of finishers, pin by Titus on Viktor, I believe. 

    Other RAW Notes

    – Noelle Foley was in the front row with the guy dressed up like a clown. 

    – Post match:  Instead of a dark match, John Cena, talking in a slightly higher pitched voice, did his best to verbally put over Cesaro.  He called Cesaro back into the ring, for Cesaro was being helped to the back by the refs.  Cena then talked about the various matches he has at All State Arena, from his debut to having a match with a guy who won his title then jumped over the railings. (Light CM Punk chants.)  He talked about how when you preform well for this Chicago crowd, they let you know about it.  He was got emotional telling Cesaro you deserve their praise for how well you perform each time you get the chance.  He said he earned the right to challenge for the US title after their last two matches.  Finally, he asked the crowd to give Cesaro one last ovation, and Cesaro did his little air punch pose. 

    The chants for Cesaro were much louder during this post match promo then during their actual match. And, like I said before, Cena appeared to be pretty emotional during the whole thing. It almost, almost felt like a retirement speech.  The crowd was very appreciative of what Cena was trying to do for Cesaro, and they gave him a standing ovation after Cesaro left the ring.  Though, Cena did say Chicago was the greatest wrestling city in America.  I hope they air this promo on their website at some point.

  • Surprise return at WWE show in Rockford tonight

    David Otunga, who has been under contract for the past few years even though had not been used as a wrestler, returned on tonight’s house show in Rockford, IL.

    Mr. Otunga is jacked to the max.

  • WWE house show report 7-4 Winnipeg Rollins vs. Ambrose

    By Neil Fishman

    Here is the results from the July 4th, 2015 WWE Live House Show from Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    The show started with the Canadian National Anthem. 

    (1) The Prime Time Players def. The Ascension to retain the WWE tag team titles.

    Titus O’Neil got the pin in the match.  Not much to it.  A lot of rest holds and a bit too long but a good opener for the crowd.

    (2) Fandango def. Adam Rose

    Adam Rose came out and started heckling the live crowd, talking about Rosa not being with him so she could look after the new puppy he got her.  Fandango came out and won with a rollup in a short match.

    (3) Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow def. Brad Maddox & Heath Slater.

    Brad Maddox came out first.  He said he was going to bring out a special tag team partner who he was going to team up with the first time and become the best tag team in WWE History.  Heath Slater came out and they hugged on the ramp.  Out came the Mega Powers to a huge pop!  Axel won the match with a leg drop on Maddox.  A pretty good comedy match.

    (4) Roman Reigns def. Bray Wyatt

    Great match back and forth.  Bray is really over here, much more than Roman Reigns to the live crowd.  Roman won when Bray went for the Sister Abigail but Reigns got out of it and hit the spear off the ropes for the win. 

    Intermission
    They had a crowd vote for the Diva’s match coming up after the break.  We could vote for either a singles match or tag match.  Kind of a weird crowd vote for a diva’s match but I digress.

    (5) Natalya & Alicia Fox def. Summer Rae & Cameron.

    After intermission, they announced that the crowd chose the Tag match with Emma being the special guest referee.
    Match was fairly slow especially when Cameron was in.  Match ended when Summer Rae was yelling at Emma for a slow 2 count when Emma pushed Summer Rae into Natalya and Natalya hit the sharpshooter for the win.

    (6) Ryback def. Big Show & The Miz in a triple threat match to retain the I.C. title

    The match started with The Miz trying to convince Ryback to team up and take out Big Show.  When Ryback said no, The Miz went to Big Show and tried to convince him to team up to take out Ryback which they did for only a short period of time.  Nice spot in the match when The Miz did a sunset flip on Big Show but he couldn’t pull him over for the pin so Ryback grabbed Miz’s legs and flipped him up into Big Show’s groin.  Got a good laugh from the crowd.  Finish came with Miz on the outside of the ring, Ryback gave Big Show the Shell Shock, Miz came in the for save.  Ryback then gave Miz the Shell Shock right after and won the match.  

    (7) Seth Rollins def. Dean Ambrose to retain the WWE world title in a Winnipeg Street Fight. 

    Definitely the match of the night.  They fought in and out of the ring but didn’t enter the crowd the entire match.  Crowd chanting heavy for tables.  Match finished with a nice sequence.  They teased a table spot for a little bit until Rollins hit Ambrose with a powerbomb into a leaned up table against the turnbuckles.  2 count.  Ambrose got back up and hit a dirty deeds for 2.  Ambrose than grabbed another table, set it up, hit a top rope elbow onto Rollins through the table when Bray Wyatt came out, broke up the pin and hit a Sister Abigail for the DQ.  With Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt double teaming Ambrose,  Roman Reigns came out and cleared the ring.  Ambrose and Reigns celebrated with the crowd and that ended the night.

    Overall it was a great show with Rollins and Ambrose definitely having the best match.  Hopefully when they come back next time, they can come with a few different wrestlers as it was essentially the same crew as the December 2014 show they brought.  Great time as always and the crowd was hot the whole night for the show.

    Biggest Pops:

    Dean Ambrose
    Ryback
    Bray Wyatt
    Natalya
    The Mega Powers
    Roman Reigns (for the most part)

    Biggest Heat:

    Seth Rollins
    Adam Rose
    The Miz

    By S Carson

    Matches, in order:

    PTP vs Ascencion for tag team championships, Titus pins Konnor after ragdolling him (15 mins)

    Adam Rose vs Fandango, Fandango wins (8 minutes)

    Axelmania / Macho Mandow vs Brad Maddox and Heath Slater, Axel pins Maddox after leg drop (10 minutes)

    Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt, Reigns pins Wyatt after one spear (18 minutes, very good match)

    Natalya / Alicia Fox vs Summer Rae / Cameron (special guest referee Emma), Natalya pins Cameron after 8 boring minutes

    Ryback vs Big Show vs Miz for Intercontinental Championship, Ryback pins Miz with shellshock (15 minutes, good match)

    Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins (street fight) for WWE WHC, Rollins pins Ambrose after Bray Wyatt interferes and hits Sister Abigail on Ambrose. Reigns comes out after the match to spear Wyatt (30 mins, too many rest spots but otherwise a good match)

  • WWE: Now is the Time to Pull the Trigger on Cesaro

    In what will almost certainly be the best Raw match of 2015, Cesaro answered John Cena’s U.S. Title Open Challenge Monday night and took the champion to the limit in a 20-minute classic. The ending of the match, which saw Cesaro’s Sharpshooter being broken up by Kevin Owens seemingly moments away from victory, left the distinct impression that Cesaro is on the verge of being a major player in WWE. Cesaro’s history since debuting on the main roster in 2012 might suggest otherwise.

    As anyone who has followed Cesaro since his days in CHIKARA and Ring of Honor can attest, he possesses the tools necessary to be a top star in WWE. He very well still can be just that. But in order for this to happen, WWE needs to pull the trigger right now.

    Flirting With Stardom

    After debuting on Smackdown in April 2012, Cesaro embarked on a fairly substantial winning streak and eventually captured the United States Championship in a little under four months’ time. He held the belt for 239 days, but by the time he dropped the belt to Kofi Kingston, he had already been diminished to a comedy role thanks to a ridiculous yodeling gimmick that lasted all of a few weeks.

    Cesaro was then inexplicably paired with anti-immigration cartoon character Zeb Colter, an incongruous situation hand-waved with his status as a legal immigrant from Switzerland. He would be paired up with Jack Swagger as “The Real Americans,” and they would do next to nothing of note as a tag-team for the next nine months. Meanwhile, Cesaro was simultaneously working in a feud with then-NXT-newcomer Sami Zayn that resulted in a series of exceedingly great matches between 2013 and 2014. Cesaro would also score a big win on the February 14, 2014, Smackdown with a clean pinfall victory over WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton. Nothing further ever came from it.

    At WrestleMania XXX, Cesaro split from Swagger after an unsuccessful attempt at winning the WWE Tag Team Championship, putting his former partner in the Cesaro Swing. He would appear in the inaugural André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal later in the show, which he ultimately won by body-slamming Big Show out of the ring in a fashion reminiscent of Hogan slamming André at WrestleMania 3. To further establish the connection, Hogan himself presented Cesaro with the trophy the next night on Raw and gave him an endorsement. To cap off the segment, Cesaro announced that he was dumping Colter for a new manager—Paul Heyman. The idea, it seemed, would be to accentuate Cesaro’s incredible in-ring acumen with Heyman’s mic work to elevate him as a true top-tier star.

    While these elements combined should have vaulted Cesaro into a role as an emerging babyface, Cesaro was kept as a heel, made to drop the swing that had just begun to get over with crowds, and given some truly horrendous entrance music that Cesaro himself has admitted is awful.  To make sure that he had almost no chance of succeeding further, Cesaro was also booked to lose consistently to mid-card talent like Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, and Big E.

    Cesaro and Heyman ended their partnership in July, and a five-month slog filled with countless mid-card losses followed. This all but guaranteed that whatever juice Cesaro had left from his big win at WrestleMania would dry up.

    The Missing “It Factor”

    The handling of Cesaro was so baffling that it caught the attention of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who took the occasion of his podcast interview with Vince McMahon in December to ask what Cesaro needed in order to become a top-level superstar. McMahon responded by faulting Cesaro for everything from a perceived lack of an “it factor” and charisma to an inability to establish a connection with the audience because of his nationality and European-influenced in-ring style. Austin noted Cesaro’s inconsistent booking since the split from Swagger and Colter, stating that he believed it had negatively impacted his organic growth at a time where he was beginning to get over, and he asked how McMahon felt that he could be booked to regain that momentum that he had lost. McMahon’s response: “I’m not certain.”

    This led to a segment on the December 29 Raw where Cesaro sat in a corner of the ring ala Raven and addressed criticism from “WWE decision-makers” who claimed that he didn’t connect with the audience. His response: “I don’t connect; I deliver.” This was immediately overshadowed when Cesaro flubbed a line, referring to the ring’s “four ropes.” Despite recovering quickly and correcting himself, he was buried on commentary on the way to a loss to the returning Wade Barrett (who also knows a thing or two about stop-start pushes).

    By this point, Cesaro had already begun his tag-team partnership with Tyson Kidd, another immensely talented and underutilized performer. They quickly took to calling themselves “The Brass Ring Club”—a knock on McMahon’s claim that Millennials like Cesaro and Kidd were unambitious and unwilling to grab the brass ring—but the name didn’t stick. The team thrived, however, winning the WWE Tag Team Championship at Fastlane in February and defending the belts at WrestleMania 31.

    Kidd and Cesaro dropped the championship to The New Day at Extreme Rules, and they came up short in a two-out-of-three falls match at Payback and a six-team Elimination Chamber match. On June 7, WWE announced that Kidd had been injured during a dark match with Samoa Joe, and spinal fusion surgery spelled the end of the team.

    Why Now is the Time for Cesaro

    In the wake of Kidd’s injury, the question of what would come next for Cesaro arose. After a week off of TV, Cesaro returned to the ring in a highly-competitive match with NXT Champion Kevin Owens on the June 18 Smackdown. After another week off TV, Cesaro appeared on Monday to challenge John Cena for the United States Championship. Their match is almost guaranteed to be the best match on Raw this year, and it’s certainly one of the best Raw matches of the past several years.

    Consistent with the premise of Cena’s U.S. Open Challenge, Cesaro was given a platform to show the audience what he can do, and he delivered to a magnificent degree. The match was every bit an offensive showcase for Cesaro, and he and Cena both had the crowd completely into the match for the full 20 minutes.  

    In McMahon’s interview with Austin, it was said that one of the things inhibiting Cesaro’s progress is that the audience seems incapable of feeling him; that he is unable to project in such a way that the audience cares about him. The audience on Monday night sounded very receptive of Cesaro, and he carried himself like a superstar should. One has to wonder if Vince McMahon finally saw the “it” that he’s been looking for for so long. “It” was most certainly there, but the question is whether Vince McMahon is capable of seeing it or not.

    During a sequence wherein Cesaro cuts Cena down to his knees with a flurry of European uppercuts, the camera cuts suddenly to black. Here, Cesaro had allegedly given Cena a double middle finger salute. Upon closer inspection, Cesaro appears to have flashed Cena his ring fingers, perhaps suggesting to Vince that this is where the much-discussed brass ring belongs.

    If WWE has any hope of elevating Cesaro to the next level, there is no better time to start than now. Not tomorrow. Today. This wouldn’t even require a monster push along the lines of what Kevin Owens has received since his main roster debut. It would be as simple as gradual, consistent upward trajectory—something from which Cesaro has never benefitted in the WWE. Cesaro has something resembling forward momentum for the first time in more than a year, and it would be foolish to squander it.

    If there’s one thing that the past few years have proven, it’s that manufacturing the energy necessary to propel a superstar into the fans’ good graces is an incredibly difficult task for WWE to undertake. Cesaro’s match with Cena provides him with the best spotlight he’s had since his segment with Hulk Hogan, and the fact that he visually had the champion beaten solidifies that he is a contender for Cena’s U.S. Championship. So keep him there at that level.

    John Cena is in a unique position on the card where he ostensibly acts as the Cerberus guarding the gates to the main event picture. If you do not make it past Cena, you are stuck in the hell that is the WWE mid-card, an infernal place occupied by the likes of Dolph Ziggler and R-Truth. Cesaro has been in this hell long enough to know this, and he should be hanging around the gates looking to break through as long as possible.

    Kevin Owens’ meteoric rise could be for naught if he regresses once his feud with John Cena ends. Thus, it stands to reason that Owens should continue working with Cena as long as possible until he is ready to ascend into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture. At the very least, we would all be guaranteed a few more fantastic matches along the way.

    A great way to extend this feud and, by extension, continue building both Kevin Owens’ star power and the importance of the United States Championship is to incorporate additional variables into the mix. This is where Cesaro should fit in.

    Cesaro had his match with Owens, and he came up just short in a way that didn’t make him appear weak. In his match with Cena, Owens got involved by breaking up the Sharpshooter, stating after the fact that he is the only one who gets the beat Cena for the title. This not only leaves the viewer with the image of Cena on the verge of defeat in a submission hold in the middle of the ring, but it establishes the idea that even Owens felt that Cesaro had the title won.

    This leaves Cesaro with a legitimate case for a rematch. It’s a position not terribly dissimilar from when Neville presumably had Cena beat with a Red Arrow before Rusev crashed the ring and caused the disqualification. Neville immediately slid back down the card and into a feud with Bo Dallas, which has cooled him off considerably. In order to capitalize on Cesaro’s sudden momentum, this cannot happen.

    If Cesaro were to remain involved in the United States Championship picture and the ongoing Owens/Cena storyline, he could benefit immensely. It would also serve the dual purpose of keeping Owens and Cena together and building a pool of opponents for both men to work with in the months ahead. Keeping Cesaro buoyed to the United States Championship picture could very well prevent him from treading water.

    If Owens drops the NXT Championship to Finn Balor at the WWE Network special in Japan this Saturday—and it’s very likely that he will—this gives Balor an almost automatic springboard to make the leap from developmental to main roster, assuming that Owens walks away with the U.S. Title at Battleground. Keeping Owens, Balor, Cesaro, and possibly another up-and-coming talent or two orbiting around Cena allows them an opportunity to harness his star to build their own.

    Cesaro is also booked for the Tokyo show—in a match against Diego of Los Matadores. WWE is pushing the special hard, and they’re pushing it on two factors entirely: Balor vs. Owens for the NXT Championship and a Brock Lesnar match. Kofi Kingston has been listed as Brock’s opponent since the show was announced, but this fact has gone conspicuously unmentioned on television. This leaves open the possibility that WWE could slot in somebody else to wrestle Brock.

    So why not Cesaro? Why not use the venue to establish him as being at least someone in the vicinity of Brock Lesnar’s level? There’s a certain sadistic joy in imagining Brock rag-dolling Kofi around the ring, but just imagine how the audience would respond if Cesaro were able to manhandle Brock with a couple of power moves. It would most certainly make for another great showcase for Cesaro, and it would be a great way of maintaining the progress that seems to have been made in a single night.

    There are a number of directions that WWE can go with Cesaro’s star seemingly back on the rise, but the only wrong way is backwards. For the first time since WrestleMania XXX, that natural momentum that Austin mentioned seems to have returned. After a phenomenal match that had fans eating out of the palm of his hand, Cesaro has shown that he can connect. Now it’s time for WWE to deliver.