Submitted by Pierre Froide from the Accors Hotel Arena
– WWE Intercontinental Champion MIz (w/ Maryse) def. Dolph Ziggler
– Alberto Del Rio def. Damian Sando
ADR won with the cross armbreaker in a squash. After the match, ADR asked for a better opponent and issued an open challenge. Well…
– Fandango def. Alberto Del Rio via roll up in approximately 60 seconds
– Natalya, Alicia Fox, Eva Marie and Paige def. Team BAD (Naomi and Tamina), Summer Rae and Lana
End came when Paige got the pin on Tamina
– AJ Styles def. Chris Jericho with the Styles Clash
– Goldust def Curtis Axel
Accompanying Axel tonight? “Honorary Social Outcast member” Viktor. After the match, Outcasts attacked Goldust. R-Truth made the save and offered a handshake to Goldust, who accepted it.
– Big Show and Kane def. Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman
Strowman recieved a double chokeslam after the match.
– WWE US Champion Kalisto def. Ryback with the Salina del Sol
– Dean Ambrose and Sami Zayn def. Triple H & Kevin Owens
Les is back from his training camp weekend in New Orleans at Luke Hawx’s Wildkat Sports and ready to talk all sorts of things, like the camp this past weekend and the passing of Prince and Chyna this week. Les and Vic are BIG music guys so Prince was a major deal for both of them; after discussing Prince, some good health news for Louie Tillet, and the New Orleans weekend, we’ll get into the WWE career of Chyna. (10:46) Specifically, her time with HHH because it skyrocketed both of them to major stardom. How big a role did she have in HHH becoming a major main event player, how she influenced the role of women in wrestling, thoughts on her interaction with the male stars of the attitude era and more. We’ll veer slightly onto Conor McGregor’s current situation with UFC (40:23). No, we’re not MMA experts and we’re not spending a ton of time on the subject, but the story did cause a question about issues between wrestlers and promoters to pop into Vic’s head, so he’ll ask Les about it. From there, we’ll talk a little Trish Stratus, (50:43) who was honored recently at Cauliflower Alley and sneak in a story about the great Lance Russell (57:09) as well. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
Back after a brief absence, Les and Vic will discuss the happenings in WWE and reminisce a bit about a great territory. We’ll start with a unique experience Vic had earlier this week, then say a few words about the late Lord James Blears (7:17). From there, Les will get some stuff off his chest (12:00) and we’ll turn our attention to the McMahon family soap opera, (18:54) both in front of and away from the camera. The show closes with a ton of fun stories about what it was like for Les on his runs through Championship Wrestling from Florida,(44:07) meeting Gordon Solie for the first time, a record set alongside Wahoo McDaniel Les wanted no part of, who dished out some of the hardest chops Les ever took and more~!
In case you missed it, WWE’s NXT Experience was part of this past weekend’s Arnold Classic at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH, for the second straight year. A good portion of the NXT crew and coaching staff along with WWE Champion, COO, and NXT head Triple H himself were there to promote the brand over the two days which featured in-ring action, Q&A sessions, and even a portion of a tryout camp.
Day one’s highlight was HHH sharing a big surprise with us: Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
They spoke about fitness, inspiration, and made plenty of jokes. During the Q&A session, there were a few fans who tried to ask storyline questions about WrestleMania, and Roman Reigns, which lead to the champ being as confident as only he can be, smiling and holding the WWE Championship up. The ringside area filled up during this session which truly felt like a big deal.
The crowd itself was nothing like you get at your usual wrestling show as it was calmer than the rest of the Expo as most people (casual observers and families alike) were just enjoying watching the action. As one would expect, the biggest hits were Women’s champion Bayley, NXT Champion Finn Balor, and fan favorite Sami Zayn. Their autograph lines went hundreds deep, and their matches were fan interactive with many fun house show-esque spots to get everyone into the fun of wrestling.
Day 1 Results (matches happened throughout the day):
Apollo Crews beat Dylan Miley
Billie Kay beat Amanda
Johnny Gargano beat Riddick Moss
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Emma in a title match
American Alpha beat The Vaudevillains
NXT Champion Finn Balor beat Baron Corbin in a title match
Tye Dillinger beat Tino Sabbatelli
Eva Marie beat Peyton Royce
NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival beat King Constantine and Thomas Kingdon
Asuka beat Alexa Bliss
Kishan Raftar beat Dan Matha
Nia Jax beat Billie Kay
Apollo Crews beat Riddick Moss
Tye Dillinger beat Johnny Gargano
American Alpha beat NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival via DQ
Peyton Royce beat Alexa Bliss
Sami Zayn beat Samoa Joe
Day two (Sunday) had a much calmer vibe in the hall as the autograph lines were shorter, the matches had a little more time, and we spent a good portion of the afternoon with the coaches watching the tryout athletes. From what we could gather, a few were previously trained wrestlers, one big man was a power lifter, and there was a few other athletes from around the world.
The process was fascinating to watch up close. I tried to pay more attention to William Regal during most of it as Jason Albert was running the drills. Regal had even said the day before that he watches footwork as anyone who watched Breaking Ground knows for certain.
Our special in ring Q&A guest for Sunday was Mark Henry who spoke to Dasha Fuentes about his career, powerlifting, and his future. He spoke about NXT being developmental and said he was, in fact, WWE’s first developmental wrestler as he was signed before knowing how to wrestle in a time when the company hadn’t brought in guys like that before.
When asked about who he would have liked to face from history, he told a story about how Andre The Giant once picked him up off the floor at a live event and his dream match would have been against him. As for the future, Apollo Crews is who he said he would like to break in. When asked about WrestleMania and potentially being in the Andre Memorial Battle Royal, Mark said he wouldn’t want to be in it if he wasn’t going to win. It was a very good session as Mark Henry is one of those quality men who can be a WWE spokesman for as long as he wants.
Day 2 Results (again, matches went all day):
Apollo Crews beat Tino Sabbatelli
Chad Gable beat Riddick Moss
Aiden English w/ Simon Gotch & Dan Matha went to a no contest and was re-started as a tag match when Dylan Miley joined the mix
Dylan Miley and Dan Matha beat The Vaudevillains
Tye Dillinger beat Kishan Raftar
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Nia Jax w/ Eva Marie
Jason Jordan beat Johnny Gargano
Apollo Crews beat Riddick Moss
Billie Kay beat Alexa Bliss
Chad Gable w/ Jason Jordan beat Scott Dawson w/ Dash Wilder
Asuka and Peyton Royce beat Emma and Amanda
NXT Champion Finn Balor and Sami Zayn beat Samoa Joe and Baron Corbin
Overall, this was a fun weekend and was something that any NXT fan who has only seen the stars on TV should try to attend next year. It’s an affordable chance to see wrestling and have a chance to get up close with your favorites. They even implied that the event will be even bigger next year as this HHH and Schwarzenegger partnership has been beneficial to both sides.
For this week’s show from Indianapolis, airing in Canada on Wednesday and in the U.S. on Thursday:
– WWE Champion HHH came out to significant cheers. There was a podium with the title belt. They played the Reigns injury angle from RAW, and said he’d beat Reigns at WrestleMania.
Sheamus & Wade Barrett & Rusev & Alberto Del Rio beat Kalisto & Sin Cara & Neville & Dolph Ziggler
Barrett wrestled for the first time in months. Sheamus pinned Neville with the Brogue kick.
– Kevin Owens was being interviewed by Renee Young. He offered Dean Ambrose an I-C title rematch tonight. The idea was it was a grandstand challenge since Ambrose was “injured” from the Lesnar angle. Owens said that he wanted to wrestle Ambrose, but if he’s not there, he’s taking the night off. Big Show came out. This set up a title match for later in the show.
– Devon Dudley beat Jimmy Uso quickly with a roll-up.
– They did a video where they announced that Undertaker would be at Raw on Monday night in Nashville.
– They aired a Godfather Hall of Fame video.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens beat Big Show via countout
The finish came when Show was crotched on the top rope, fell to the floor, and couldn’t get back in the ring. Owens grabbed his belt and left as quick as he could before Show recovered.
Becky Lynch NC Natalya when Naomi and Tamina attacked both of them
Sasha Banks made the save. Charlotte came out and said the Lynch vs. Banks match for the title shot at WrestleMania will be on Raw on Monday night.
R-Truth beat Heath Slater
The finish saw Goldust punch Slater behind the ref’s back. R-Truth didn’t see it either, but when he saw it on the replay, he got mad at Goldust.
– New Day did an interview prior to the main event.
A.J. Styles & Chris Jericho & Mark Henry beat WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E/Kofi/Xavier Woods)
Styles made Woods tap to the calf crusher. There was a spot where Jericho jumped in the way of a kick by Kingston aimed at Styles and Jericho sold it big.
– Notes from tonight’s tapings:
They announced that Night of Champions would be taking place at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on 9/25 with the code WWEPRE for pre-sale tickets.
The major topic of conversation today is the upcoming Global Cruiserweight Tournament; the potential opportunity it represents for talent, what it means (if anything) in terms of WWE’s feelings about cruiserweights in general, and what you need to be prepared if you’re a cruiserweight who sees this as your big opportunity to get on the WWE radar screen. Les and Vic segue into discussing being a junior heavyweight in the territory era (25:02) and one of the greats regardless of weight class; the one and only Danny Hodge. From there, we’ll talk the latest regarding Undertaker’s Wrestlemania opponent (43:23) and what could be the end of Wade Barrett (and many missed opportunities) in WWE (51:44).
EVOLVE Wrestling held the second event of the weekend on their way to crowning their first Tag Team Champions. WWE COO Triple H was in attendance as William Regal was set to make an announcement along with NXT tag team Jason Jordan and Chad Gable signed autographs. Regal made an appearance during intermission which included EVOLVE Champion Timothy Thatcher and Matt Riddle where Riddle appeared to have challenged the champion to a future match.
– 2nd Chance Tag Team Tournament First Round Match: Team Tremendous (Dan Barry & Bill Carr) defeat The Premier Athlete Brand (Anthony Nese & Caleb Konley w/So Cal Val & Andrea), pinning Nese with “Book em, Danno!” The Premier Athlete Brand attack Tremendous after the match. Konley however leaves, stating he only cares about the EVOLVE championship. Peter Kaasa chases Anthony Nese away.
– Style Battle 2016 Round Robin Tournament Match: Matt Riddle submits Yehi to an inveted heel hook. Riddle is now 2-0 and Yehi is 0-2.
– Tommaso Ciampa pins Ethan Page with a running knee strike to the face. This was Ciampa’s EVOLVE debut.
– 2nd Chance Tag Team Tournament First Round Match: Catch Point (Drew Gulak & TJ Perkins w/”Hot Sauce” Tracy Willams & Matt Riddle) defeat Zack Sabre Jr. and Sami Callihan when Perkins submits Callihan in a cross armbreaker after a Detonation Kick. Frustrated by the loss, Callihan shoves Sabre Jr. and challenged him to a singles match tomorrow. Sabre Jr. accepted.
– Style Battle 2016 Round Robin Tournament Match: “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams w/Drew Gulak submits Peter Kaasa to a crossface. Williams is now 2-0 and Kaasa is now 0-2. Tomorrow night, the winner of Williams vs. Riddle wins the Style Battle tournament.
– EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Final Round Match: Johnny Gargano & Drew Galloway defeat the Bravado Bros. (Harlem & Lancelot Bravado) when Gargano submitted Harlem to the Garga-No Escape.
– EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Final Round Match: Heroes Eventually Die (Chris Hero & Tommy End) defeat Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta) with a Death Blow/knee strike combo to Romero.
The EVOLVE Tag Team Title Tournament finals take place Sunday in the same building with Gargano & Galloway take on Heroes Eventually Die for the Evolve tag team titles.
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs… Oh My! Part 7, The Finale
By: PeachMachine (@hendosfoodblog and @parkingcone)
This week…
TLC 7: December 13, 2015; Boston, Massachusetts, TD Garden
I figured I’d better review the most recent offering from the WWE TLC PPV series in the same manner in which I did the first six (read-along style) but I wanted to give it a little bit of time to digest before doing it to see the follow up on Raw. It was their best TLC, and the ending actually got decent heat, and played great into the story the next night with Vince McMachon returning and Roman winning the championship.
King, Cole, and JBL on the pipes. King sucks a bag of aardvark turds. He’s so out of place. Why does Vince keep him around? He’s not funny and his schtick is tired. I’m not saying they had someone better, but NOW they have someone better. I’m looking forward to Mauro Ranallo big time.
Pre Show Match: Sasha Banks (with Naomi and Tamina) defeated Becky Lynch by submission… but we’ll never see it.
The New Day (Big E. Langston and Kofi Kingston with Xavier Woods) (c) vs. The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara) vs. The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) for the Tag Team Championship in a triple threat tag team ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship
New Day needs to keep their intro to the same verbiage each time so they can get the crowd chanting along.
I’m surprised nobody has pointed out the wings on Kofi’s shoes. Awesome!
Lilian introduced the Lucha Dragons in Spanish, which, as a fluent Spanish speaker was muy bien. That’s Spanish. I’ll translate it for you someday.
She should have done the Uso’s intro in pigeon. I’m fluent in that as well. Pigeon is like half English, half Island slang, mixed with some Polynesian.
They should do a ladder match where no ladders are ringside. They could spend 25 minutes running around backstage looking for a scissor lift.
Two minutes in, the Usos are alone in the ring WITH A LADDER and decide to just throw it. They could have easily won. That’s why multi-team ladder matches are lame.
I really want to know the story behind Xavier and the trombone. Did he play it in 7th grade band class? Did he find one backstage and practice one day? Is he just wingin’ it?
King said, “He got chopped like a veg-o-matic.” Why is he still employed? Does anyone under 35 know what an “anything-o-matic” is?
Big E. pressed the ladder with both Dragons on it. That was cool.
There was a lot of innovation here with unique ladder spots.
Salida del sol from the top of the ladder! Luckily it was onto the gimmick ladder that broke at the wooden joint.
Woods tosses his trombone at Kalisto and Kofi unhooks the clip and grabs the belts for the win.
I’m still waiting for the tag team ladder match where one guy from each team grabs a belt and they are forced to be the new champions together.
Rusev (with Lana) vs. Ryback
In the pre match video, they recapped Ryback referencing “Teen Wolf” the TV show. What? There are a bazillion other shows that would have made more sense. First, Ryback is hairless.
Do you think Ryback sells a ton of beanies and necklaces at house shows? No? Me neither.
Just fire both these clowns. They HAD potential. Screw it. We want JOE!
If I was on WWE creative, and a wrestler came up to me and said, “I just got this sweet air brushed singlet that combines the skull of a wolf and a tiger.” I’d immediately bury that geek. Go get in line at Disney world with the other weirdos who wear wolf shirts.
When Ryback says, “Finish it!” it’s weird. It doesn’t make sense to tell your self audibly to “finish it.” You’d more realistically just think that.
Technical submission is the official result. That happened two weeks ago in the UFC too. It means when a guy doesn’t submit and the ref stops it anyway.
Ambrose and Reigns are back stage talking about being double champions.
Then they cut to the announcers and do a video recap of Del Rio vs. Swagger. Cole says that Del Rio hit Swagger with a chair because they have a chairs match coming up. My guess is that he got that backwards. Also, Swagger has a bowl cut. Why in the world are we allowing this, not just here, but in all of America? People, we need you to point out the dorks attempting to bring back the bowl cut. It sucked in 1993 and it sucks now. I guess it’s fine on a heel, but don’t let your friends go back to this.
Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. Jack Swagger in a chairs match for the WWE United States Championship
Remember a month ago when this title was great?
Swagger did the “Patriot Lock” through a chair, which is the same as me doing a bear hug to someone through a hula-hoop. Lame.
This match would have been awesome if not for the dorks involved.
Has anyone outside of Swagger’s immediate family bought his awful shirt? Probably the same people who bought a Ryback necklace.
I’ve said it before, but chairs matches suck. Del Rio won after doing the double stomp on Swagger on a pile of chairs. Lame.
Albert of the River does look amazingly tan.
The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Braun Strowman) vs. the ECW Originals (Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, Tommy Dreamer, and Rhyno) in an eight-man tag team elimination tables match
Rhyno joined ECW in 1999, so I guess that’s when ECW started since he’s an “original.”
I like to think that since they’re the “Wyatt family” that each of the other guys not named Wyatt married one of Bray’s sisters so they’re all brothers-in-law. Backstage they probably gripe about their wives being ball busters. “Bray, can you tell Sheila to relax about the baby’s crib? I’ll have it put together in time. SHE needs to pick a damn room color.”
Bray was wearing a double horned headpiece, so WWE must think there is money in facial accouterments.
This is the tenth tables match in WWE pay per view history, which were Cole’s words, so I guess “pay per view” isn’t on the banned term list.
Tommy Dreamer looks gross. He’s orange, and round, and has a stupid beard.
Strowman kicked his leg through a table, and that didn’t count as an elimination. Why not?
I’d rather watch Public Enemy vs. The Nasty Boys on the WWE Network. At least those guys didn’t try to do spots. They just beat the heck out of each other for real and didn’t sell.
So this happened: Rowan set D-Von on a table and climbed to the top, then Rhyno pushed him off so he didn’t land on D-Von, but as D-Von was rolling out of the way, the table broke. That makes two table breaks that just didn’t count.
Rowan got eliminated first by the 3D.
Luke Harper booted Rhyno through the table making it 3 on 3.
What actual purpose would red white and black camouflage serve? Would you wear it while hunting in a forest fire?
Wyatt slammed D-Von through a table with a urinage.
Harper dives on to dreamer who goes through a table. Now it’s 3 on 1.
Bubba Ray covers a table in lighter fluid, then just gets put through it by a choke slam from Strowman. Big tease, no pay off.
That match was a chaotic mess in a very mediocre way.
What a treat! Renee tells us that we get to hear from the kick off panel of Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, and Booker T. These bozos have nothing to say.
Then we got a pretty weak Royal Rumble promo. I’m sure those will get better.
Kevin Owens (c) vs. Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship
Owens did some nice crowd work making fun of Boston sports fans. To be fair, they ARE the most arrogant sports fans.
This was a pretty dang good match.
Ambrose counters the pop up power bomb and rolls through for the pin.
Ambrose wins!
Then Ambrose ran around like a maniac celebrating.
Good match.
Charlotte (c) (with Richard Morgan Fliehr) vs. Paige for the WWE Divas Championship
This is a confusing storyline. Paige brought up Charlotte’s dead brother, and then she turned baby face. What?
Flair is at ringside. This match is basically nothing.
Paige locks on a long sleeper.
Paige locks on the Figure Four.
The end was Paige hitting the Ram-Paige but Flair took Charlotte’s foot and put it on the rope. This lead to Charlotte taking off the turn buckle pad, and dropping Paige’s face onto the exposed steal, which led to the pin.
Sheamus (c) vs. Roman Reigns in a tables, ladders, and chairs match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
The “heat” in this feud is from Sheamus cashing in the MITB contract after Reigns won the title last month at Survivor Series. Oh, and then Reigns retaliated by saying that Sheamus’ testicles were the size of tater tots, in some sort of odd Burger King cross promotion. Zing.
When Sheamus was introduced, they hit him with a spotlight that completely whited him out. Ha!
How many refs does it take to hang up a championship belt? Two apparently.
I wonder if the height of the raised item in ladder matches is a standard?
Roman tossed Sheamus into a stacked up double table and chairs set up on the side of the ramp.
Sheamus got cut on his left triceps.
I can’t believe they allow Reigns’ running jump kick on the apron to be called the Drive By, which implies gang related murder.
Sheamus hit White Noise off the apron through a table. That should have been the finish.
The two took a double bump off the apron through the gimmicked ladder which was propped up by the announce table.
And now we get the agonizing slow ladder climbing which makes ladder matches unbearable.
Reigns hit the Super Man Punch on Sheamus at the top of the ladder and Sheamus took a table bump.
Reigns got royally screwed by the League of Nations running in.
Sheamus won after the League destroyed Reigns. Barrett was conspicuous by his absence. He’s apparently injured.
Reigns then decimated the League, and HHH came out.
Reigns destroyed HHH as well to get his heat back, or more correctly, just get SOME heat. It worked, as the crowd really got behind Roman.
Overall Thoughts: This was a dang good TLC PPV and possibly the best one yet. The ladder match to start, and the TLC match at the end were very good. Thumbs up for sure. Final rankings of the TLC PPV’s order: 7,4,6,5,3,1,2 – And a we put TLC to rest, I’d like to remind you, “Don’t go chasing waterfalls…”
