The Road to Takeover Dallas & WrestleMania 32: The Good Shit

[supersonic]

Hell in a Cell 2015: The Good Shit

On the preshow, a pretaped Kevin Owens promo airs from outside the STAPLES Center. He buries sports fandom for it attracting the “simple-minded.” That’s interesting coming from a professional wrestler. He accurately says he’s aware the Lakers suck, and points out the foolishness of the Magic Johnson statue, calling him a false idol just like Ryback will be tonight.

Rusev, Sheamus, & Wade Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler, Neville, & Cesaro - ***1/4
(Good to see Rusev and Sheamus teaming together, without explanation, after what happened at MSG.)

And now, the PPV portion.

US Champion John Cena quickly gets through his promo, not wanting to waste any time. Zeb Coulter returns for the first time in over a year, saying Cena divides audiences, but it’s time for people to become united and for Cena to be dethroned as well, someone who will do much bigger things with it.

US Title Match (Open Challenge)
John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio

Great novelty pop for Alberto, perhaps the only thing he enjoyed about this segment, as he appeared to get as much bliss out of this return as I did. This match simply sucked, as Cena appeared disinterested and lost in several minutes clean to Alberto. It was amusing to hear the commentators try to narrate it as Alberto’s return catching Cena off-guard. Both looked like they’d rather be elsewhere than opening a WWE supercard event inside the West Coast’s most prestigious arena.

There’s a cliché that the people never know what they really want. They can come up with a million ideas, have it handed to them, and they’ll still be unhappy. There are times when this cliché is accurate.

Nobody demanded, nobody requested, nobody wanted, nobody needed to see Cena’s epic run as US Champ, after so many classic matches and breakout performances from opponents, come to an end not just to Alberto Del Rio (who was as over as a heavy metal band at a black gospel church when being fired in August 2014), but in such anticlimactic fashion. This was far more inexcusable than Undertaker’s Streak ending in disappointing fashion; that sucked due to Taker’s concussion.

Nobody demanded, nobody requested, nobody wanted, nobody needed to see Zeb Coulter and Alberto Del Rio ever patch things up and unite. They displayed zero chemistry together. I’d argue that whoever pitched and laid out this entire segment committed a suspend-able, if not fire-able, offense. There was nothing good about this segment. NOTHING. Don’t tell me the pop at the end meant anything, as it was just a pop for the title change novelty and nothing more. Dogshit segment.

What’s even more irritating about Alberto dethroning Cena, on this particular night, and with this being Cena’s last night before taking some time away?

Let’s rewind to June. Cena’s in the middle of a juicy feud against Owens. A friend of mine brought up something I hadn’t even picked up on; neither of the first two Cena vs. Owens classics had even spilled to the outside, 100% of the action staying inside the ring. So here’s what I had in mind at the time, and now knowing that Cena would be taking time off after this very show, I present the following:

Battleground 2015 – Cena has a US Title open challenge against someone other than Owens and retains; Owens has a post-match brawl with Cena, getting the last laugh after making quick work of a jobber.

SummerSlam 2015 – Cena vs. Owens III with a Dusty Finish, that being a double count out due to a brawl that becomes so heated they have to be pulled apart. The Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns feud ends here in a hot-as-shit chaotic tag match involving Luke Harper and Dean Ambrose.

Raw: SummerSlam 2015 Aftermath – Cena and Owens have another brawl to close out the show, an extremely heated brawl on par with Brock Lesnar and Undertaker the month before, and both agree to a fourth match under Last Man Standing rules at Night of Champions 2015. This brawl is the white-hot segment going into the fall as an incentive to not tune out against Monday Night Football and the MLB playoffs.

Night of Champions 2015 – Cena barely wins the Last Man Standing match in a controversial fashion that leaves a sour taste.

Raw: Night of Champions 2015 Aftermath – Owens viciously assaults Cena, briefly putting him out of action, and steals the US Title.

Raw: Hell in a Cell 2015 Go-Home – Cena makes his return from injury to target Owens and says he wants to give Owens one last shot at the US Title rather than steal it. They agree to settle it once and for all inside Hell in a Cell. There's no Cell overkill since Wyatt vs. Reigns ended in Brooklyn.

Hell in a Cell 2015 – Owens wins the feud and dethrones Cena’s epic, interrupted reign as US Champion inside Hell in a Cell, and puts Cena out of action again, with the narrative being “this time it may be for good.”

This five-month feud establishes Owens as a force to be reckoned with going forward, whether it be it a returning Sami Zayn or against main-eventers like Brock Lesnar and Undertaker, come April 3 in Dallas. It also spares us from Owens wasting his time in a feud against Ryback. You tell me that doesn’t sound plausible and far more effective than what we actually got.

Hell in a Cell
Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns

This was a glorified plunder-fest, a good but not special one. Highlight include kendo sticks, face-smashing into a chair stuck on the Cell, and Reigns eating a Uranage Slam off the apron through a table on the floor, igniting a light “This is awesome” chant. With a table mid-ring, they had a struggle on the turnbuckle, and Reigns got underneath Wyatt to powerbomb him through the prop for a great near-fall.

Both sold this powerbomb and earlier punishment after that spot, and there were lights “This is awesome” chants. Honestly though, the crowd should have been going crazy here as both men were down, which is a failure on both characters not being over as strongly as they’re pushed. They excited the crowd again with a Sister Abigail being turned into a roll-up, then a Superman Punch being a near-fall. Moments later, Wyatt ate a spear through a table on the floor for another great pop, triggering light “This is awesome” chants again.

There was a great counter, as Wyatt blocked a spear and hit the Sister Abigail for a near-fall, and Wyatt can only laugh in reaction. But Wyatt cost himself when he sit up the sticks to protrude outward, talked shit to Reigns, got thrown towards the sticks, and then ate a spear. I’d like to see these work a Cell match against others, as both have thrived in gimmick matches against other opponents. ***1/4

Big E & Kofi Kingston cut another entertaining pre-match promo, burying the Lakers and mourning the absence of Xavier Woods tonight, while also carrying his broken trombone. They retain again to nobody’s surprise.





Hell in a Cell
Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker

Taker shuts the door with authority to a tremendous crowd pop as he enters the Cell. Crowd has hot duel chants as they have a slug-fest to begin, including Taker knocking Lesnar off his feet in the corner. A great piece of psychology early when Taker uses his hips to throw Lesnar to the floor during a German Suplex attempt. Moments later, Lesnar is showing color as he gets shoved forehead-first into a steel post.

After Lesnar is thrown in the ring and disgustingly wearing a crimson mask, he immediately gives Taker a spinebuster to regain the advantage and uses a chair, then collapses to sell the inflicted damage and get his color wiped off. Outside the ring, Lesnar continues the attack but Taker blocks a suplex attempt to deliver a snap suplex of his own on the floor.

Dueling chants again once they’re back in the ring, and Taker slams Lesnar’s throat on the top edge of the chair. Taker is now showing color as well btw. Lesnar gets an adrenaline rush upon being Irish Whipped into a corner and has Taker now visiting Suplex City. After 3 German Suplexes and an F5, Taker sill kicks out and the doctor comes to check on Lesnar again, only to get tossed aside. Lesnar executes another F5 for a wonderful near-fall. No need for Lesnar to get frustrated, as it took 3 F5s to end the Streak.

Lesnar introduces steel steps into the ring, then uses it to club Taker for another nearfall. Lesnar delays for a brief fraction of a second using them again to strike the fallen Taker, who takes advantage and rolls out of the way. Lesnar again takes too long due to blood loss and exhaustion so Taker shoves him away with his feet. Taker locks in the Hell’s Gate on the prone Lesnar, who pummels his way out of the submission and throws in a few punches more before collapsing.

Lesnar then rips the apron mat, exposing the padding and then wooden panel underneath as Taker sits up. Taker chokeslams Lesnar onto the unpadded wooden board. However, he is too exhausted to even attempt a cover. Lesnar then eats a follow-up Tombstone Piledriver for an incredible near-fall, surprising Taker and both are down in exhaustion again.

When Taker gets up, he motions to finish Lesnar, only to eat a low-blow and follow-up F5. That brings their iconic feud to a proper storytelling conclusion, with Lesnar winning every encounter except for one in which Taker did the same to him but in illegal fashion. This will get the same rating as the original 13 years earlier, and therefore I’d say is roughly the same level of excellence, but this lacked the genre-defining ingredient of No Mercy 2002. Perhaps that’s because of the pink breast cancer awareness ropes and lack of unfathomable underdog story, but make no mistake – this is tremendous. ****1/4

Post-match, Taker is left alone and thanked by the crowd, but is attacked by the Entire Wyatt Family, who then carry him out like a human sacrifice as the show goes off the air. Like I care about that feud.

Voices of Wrestling’s Joe Lanza is correct – an overall awful show until the fantastic main event. Nothing else is required viewing.

[supersonic]

If you plan to read this, get comfortable. This is a long entry thanks largely to a plethora of match quality.

ROAD TO SURVIVOR SERIES 2015

Raw – October 26, 2015: The Good Shit

The Authority inform WWE Champion Seth Rollins that since he’s beaten so many challengers, it’s time to establish a new #1 contender tonight. There will be four singles matches involve the various winners from Hell in a Cell 2015, with the four winners of those matches meeting in the main event for a WWE Title shot.

MISSED RATINGS OPPORTUNITY: As stated, I’m tired of guys breaking themselves down quicker by wrestling multiple times on the same card. Have the four WWE Title Shot Qualifiers tonight, then the actual WWE Title Shot match on SmackDown! Maybe even better, have two of the qualifiers tonight, two the qualifiers on SmackDown!, and then the winners are advertised a few days in advance for the following week’s Raw.

Anyway, Roman Reigns interrupts to tell Rollins he’s be dethroning him.

WWE Title Shot Qualifier
Kofi Kingston vs. Roman Reigns

Big E & Kingston bury the style and greasy hair of Reigns, then brag about being champions unlike him. The Dudleyz are in their past, Xavier Woods is in their hearts, and their opponents tonight in the ground. They’re once again sporting XW arm bands.

Kingston got cocky early over brief cat-and-mouse, with E on the outside gloating. Reigns got the upper hand of course since he’s a juggernaut, and I love New Day calling a timeout as the match broadcast takes a commercial break. Back from commercial, Reigns has continued dominating, so E talks shit to distract Reigns on the outside. This allows Kingston to blindside Reigns with a baseball slide and regain control for a couple minutes. But nothing was gonna stop Reigns from making a comeback and winning, with E taking a Superman Punch on the apron for trying to distract Reigns again. ***

WWE Title Shot Qualifier
Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro

Owens focuses on Michael Cole early so Cesaro attempts a schoolboy rollup. Owens would try the same shit later and pay for it again as Cesaro blocked a suplex attempt, hitting a delayed vertical suplex of his own. The rest of the way was pretty much an action-packed contest, including a mutual clothesline on the outside, a running European uppercut on the outside, a somersault plancha off the apron, a countering sequence featuring a giant swing turned into a baseball slide attempt, that Cesaro rotated on his feet from, only to leave himself prone to a DDT. The second giant swing attempt would be Cesaro’s undoing, as Owens stayed in the ropes while Cesaro debated with the ref, leaving him prone to eat a superkick and pop-up powerbomb. ***1/4

Zeb Coutler deems the duo of himself and Alberto Del Rio to be Meximerica, complete with a flag that is half-Mexico, half-America. I would love to meet the person who, with a straight face, pitched this idea. Easily a future WrestleCrap Hall of Fame induction.

WWE Title Shot Qualifier
Alberto Del Rio vs. Neville - ***

WWE Title Qualifier
Big E vs. Dolph Ziggler

Tyler Breeze & Summer Rae are at ringside. E cuts off Ziggler early while Kingston gloats “hips don’t lie” on the outside. This really turned out be a highly competitive contest, as it was back-and-forth action. Off the top of my head, highlights include E slapping Ziggler’s ribs to the tune of “New Day rock/sucks” while locking in an Abdominal Stretch, E immediately hitting Ziggler with a clothesline after being distracted by Kingston, and a Fame-Asser being countered into a powerbomb. The end came when E got overzealous against the former World Champ, charging in the corner only to have a shoulder eat the ring post, then immediately going down to the Zig-Zag. I’ll be curious to see if Ziggler and Reigns, be it together or with separate partners, request a Tag Titles match after beating the champs tonight. ***1/4



Why is Dean Ambrose happily allowing eight combatants to battle for a WWE Title shot while he sits on the sidelines?



WWE Title Shot – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Kevin Owens vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Roman Reigns

Rollins is providing commentary. Plenty of fresh matchups in this one, so this should be interesting. In particular, this will be the first time ever Owens and Alberto collide, as Owens was hired the same month Alberto got fired.

It starts as Owens vs. Ziggler and Alberto vs. Reigns, but quickly gets away from that with both matchups spilling to the outside. Alberto takes out Ziggler and the heel champions target Reigns, but he fights them off since he’s a juggernaut, then takes out Ziggler when he gets back in the ring. Reigns seems very much more adored than usual from the San Diego crowd. Reigns continues cleaning house with multiple drive-by slides on the heels, only to eat a lethal superkick instantly from Ziggler as it goes to commercial.

Back from commercial, the heel champs double-team Ziggler in the ring while Reigns is still selling the superkick. They takes turns on Reigns to keep him out of the quation, then actually go at it for the first time ever after Owens doesn’t allow Alberto a pinfall attempt. They definitely show some chemistry and Owens rolls to the outside after a superkick.

Reigns gets back in to capitalize on the emotional Alberto, dominating the US Champ. Alberto is punched out, and now Ziggler’s in for a babyface showdown and the Zig-Zag is blocked; I don’t believe a Ziggler vs. Reigns singles showdown has ever taken place, not even when the Authority would use the Shield to bury Ziggler two years earlier. Reigns eats Ziggler’s dropkick and stalling DDT for a near-fall, which causes Rollins to express some tremendous anxiety.

A terrible Fame-Asser attempt is rightfully scouted by Reigns and turned into a powerbomb; as this happened, Rollins said it wasn’t fair to Ziggler to have his qualifier match just moments before this while Reigns got a two-hour break. While Rollins of course doesn’t care about Ziggler and is just being a politician since he knows Reigns is his biggest threat in this series, he is correct actually. By competing in the first match, Reigns benefitted from more than a two-hour break – he got to scout everyone else, so he saw and copied Big E’s exact same counter to the Zig-Zag. Ziggler had a huge disadvantage going in this, since he was in the last qualifier, he had 10, maximum 15 minutes to do any film study in addition to getting any standard medical attention. All the more reason to have spread out this series over different broadcasts.

Reigns delivers a Superman Punch to Ziggler, then gets shoved by Alberto and he tries to steal the pin, but it’s a near-fall. Crowd’s starting to go crazy here. Owens shoves Reigns into steel steps, then eats an Enziguri from Alberto. Alberto tries that on Ziggler but the latter scouts from their series in 2013, then he delivers the Fame-Asser for a near-fall. That makes sense since that’s a signature move, not actually an established finisher. Crowd’s going crazy again as Rollins puts over the match.

The exhausted Alberto and Ziggler get up simultaneously with the former gaining the advantage, while Owens and Reigns are still outside selling their attacks. Ziggler attempts a Superplex, but gets placed on the shoulders of Owens for a Doomsday or Electric Chair move; as Alberto sets up for his end of the bargain, he’s Superman Punched by Reigns. Owens tosses Ziggler off his shoulders, who then superkicks Reigns out, only for Owens to give him a treat to Suplex City. Owens delivers a cannonball to Alberto, who simultaneously eats a Drive-By Slide from Reigns.

Owens and Reigns have a stare down and San Diego is HOT. Reigns eats a Superkick, gets Irish Whipped, and he counters the Pop-Up Powerbomb by Superman Punching Owens in mid-air for the victory! Rollins may as well be shitting his pants as he tries convincing everyone, including himself, that Reigns will fail once again. They then have a stare-down and Reigns confidently walks away as the broadcast goes off the air.

A truly great match with fresh encounters, a yin-and-yang dichotomy of a heel showdown and a babyface showdown, nonstop action, elements of film study, and absolutely sensational counters. Of course, there was the tremendous San Diego crowd as mentioned adding to this, pounding the barricade and counting along with the near-falls, chanting for Reigns as he got in the face of Rollins. I absolutely adore this match, and I shit you not, I was blissful to see Reigns win, not just from a business and booking analysis perspective, but because this match got me to establish an emotional connection to him. I cannot wait to see Rollins vs. Reigns, for the top prize in the business, in a main event supercard slot, with a VERY likely title change and coronation, take place. It’ll be nice for the two of them to redeem all of their prior singles matches on TV, which have ranged from nothing special to tedious shite. ****

Main Event – October 27, 2015
Brie Bella vs. Becky Lynch - ***

NXT – October 28, 2015: The Good Shit



An excerpt of the wonderful Finn Balor: The Demon Revealed re-airs from the summer.

American Alpha vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano

Chad Gable and Ciampa start with a knuckle lock that goes back and forth, including the counters with eventually Gable winning that battle. Ciampa & Gargano eventually cut the ring in half on Gable, which is perfect since he’s smaller and has connected incredibly with the Full Sail audience. However, before that segment, Gargano’s left arm was damaged when Jason Jordan was in for a brief period. That got really bad for Gargano when he charged at Gable on the apron, only to get a cross arm-breaker locked on. Gargano was tremendous selling the left arm, trying to shake off the pain when waiting for the tag or after delivering chops later.

After the hot tag to Jordan, he ended up getting the ring cut in half on him as well, eating a number of vicious attacks including a slingshot DDT by Gargano. The indy superstars played the default heels which made for great crowd psychology, Gargano choosing to yank Gable off the apron to prevent Jordan from making a hot tag. Once Gable managed to get tagged in again though, it was all over, CIampa being taken out of the equation and then Gargano eating the Grand Amplitude. Damn good tag team wrestling. ***3/4



Who is Apollo Crews? Pt. 2

This edition focuses on his brief time in WWE so far, particularly his debut and the battle royal from two weeks earlier. Simply put, while he admits to still have plenty of room for improvement, he is here to be champion, and next week, he will dethrone his good friend Finn Balor.

Samoa Joe vs. Tyler Breeze

Breeze takes a bunch of powders early to lure Joe, who takes the bait out of anger. Breeze’s control is brief though since he cockily relaxes on the top turnbuckle, leaving him prone for Joe to unleash a fury on him, ending and peaking with an Elbow Suicida going into the commercial break.

Back from break, Joe continues dominating. Breeze regains control by blocking an Irish Whip and a series of strikes along with a modified Lungblower. Once again though, he allows his frustration to distract him into an argument with the referee during a five count, and thus allows Joe to regain control. Breeze cuts him off with a dropkick, and after a bit more control, Joe regains control and pretty much controls the rest of the match, not being thrown off of a Sunset Flip counter off of a musclebuster attempt, ending with a counter in the Coquina Clutch. This would turn out to be the unadvertised NXT swan song for Breeze. I’m worried about him on the main roster for the reasons I stated before, plus he got no reaction in San Diego, which was otherwise a hot crowd earlier in the week. ***1/4

SmackDown! – October 29, 2015: The Good Shit

IC Champion Kevin Owens interrupts Roman Reigns and does a very weak burial of what happened on Monday, so Reigns challenges him to either put up or shut up.

Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns

Reigns dominates early and then doesn’t allow Owens any breathers on his attempted powders. The domination continues and then Owens eventually gains control with a Stunner on the ropes. After an Irish Whip and Fall Away Slam on the barricade, he idiotically takes time to gloat in the ring, having learned nothing from his feud against John Cena, and the juggernaut Reigns immediately makes a comeback because of that.

Owens attempts to forfeit the match by count out, but Reigns doesn’t allow that either. Back in the ring, Owens regains control briefly thanks to a successful German Suplex, but is scouted for it on the second attempt as well as when setting up for a cannonball, eating a jumping clothesline while charging at Reigns. Reigns attempts a Fireman’s Carry but is fought off so he plays Owens on the top turnbuckle. A Superplex attempt by Reigns is blocked, then a Super Fisherman’s Swinging Neckbreaker is as well, so Reigns delivers a Superman Punch, knocking Owens to the floor. The IC Champ forfeits the match by count out, leaving with his IC Title through the audience. Incredibly interested in an actual feud between these two in the future. ***1/4

Big E & Kofi Kingston debut Unicorn Horns merchandise while still sporting enlarged XW armbands, then provide commentary for a meaningless fourway tag match. They make a mockery of the entire experience, bringing back memories for me of the nWo and original DX. Phoenix crowd chants “We want New Day!” as well, proving they’re far more ambitious about getting over than most of the roster.

Dean Ambrose and Cesaro, while clearly looking like stars in their various attire, deliver dialogue towards each other in absolutely atrocious fashion.

Tyler Breeze assaults Dolph Ziggler after the former World Champ’s gimmick hardcore match against the Miz. Good to see a vicious side, but there’s still not much depth to his gimmick.

Raw – November 2, 2015: The Good Shit

The Authority confirm Seth Rollins will defend the WWE Title against Roman Reigns at Survivor Series 2015. That should be epic. To prepare for that event, each will select four partners for a 10 man Survivor Series Styles Elimination match in the main even tonight.

Tyler Breeze distracts Dolph Ziggler, causing a loss to Kevin Owens. The booking towards Breeze & Summer Rae is quite moderate, which is the concern I had. Nobody cares about him taking a selfie while posing over Ziggler’s prone body. These writers probably saw the Cassie Cage character’s selfie fatality get all kinds of praise in Mortal Kombat X released earlier in the year, and wonder why something similar ain’t working here. That’s because Cage, a fucking fighting game character, has more depth to her than snobby, narcissistic selfie addict, plus it was a clever display of evolution from that franchise's developers and writers.

Rollins recruits Owens for his team, with the condition that he’ll owe Owens one in the future. Wonder if this segment will be remembered in the future.

Becky Lynch delivers quite the strong promo, channeling her quirky personality in effective fashion, not even thwarted by Brie Bella’s barbs.

The New Day, including Xavier Woods, volunteer to help Rollins in tonight’s main event, which he accepts. Love this 100% heel champions team, and all of them are actually OVER, leaving Alberto Del Rio out since he wouldn’t belong. The team makes sense too since Rollins has a history of teaming with New Day and Owens.

Divas Title Shot – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Brie Bella vs. Paige vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks - ***1/4

For the main event, the heel champions come out first. The New Day are visibly pissed that Reigns has recruited the Usos, Jey back in action for the first time since WrestleMania 31. Ryback’s also been recruited and to nobody’s surprise, Dean Ambrose has as well.

Survivor Series Style Elimination Match
Seth Rollins, The New Day, & Kevin Owens vs. The Usos, Dean Ambrose, Ryback, & Roman Reigns

The cocky Woods is eliminated immediately by the Usos.

Confirmed during this match is that Randy Orton is out of action for an extended period of time due to a shoulder injury. Another domino falls to obliterate Vince McMahon’s plans for Dallas, as well as my fantasy card. Pretty boy Orton going up against the freak Bray Wyatt in a battle of mentals just wasn't meant to be on the grandest stage in company history, and I suspect that Orton was gonna be slotted against Brock Lesnar that night.

The heels dominate Jey for a bit before he tags in Jimmy. Absolutely insane to see the Usos execute Stereo Planchas on Big E & Kofi Kingston, considering Jey is returning from a shoulder injury and just moments after Michael Cole broke the news about Orton on commentary. The Usos eliminate Kingston in the meantime for a 5-on-3 advantage. E immediately goes after Jey and with the help of Owens eliminates him after a Big Ending. Owens moments later eliminates Jimmy with a pop-up powerbomb to make it a trios match now.

Owens and Reigns have a battle with Rollins trying to bail out his partner, then Ambrose inserts himself as the equalizer, He gets ran over by E on the outside, then Ryback runs E over too. Rollins distracts Reigns to allow Owens to land a superkick, but both legal men collapse since Owens is selling damage. The match goes to a commercial break.

Back from commercial, the heels dominate Reigns. Rollins goes for a rest hold, but two things keep it from being tedious as compared to Bray Wyatt: Rollins at least bothers to reestablish his grip, squeezing as much as he can, and the production team airs the prior eliminations during this valley. Reigns of course teases a comeback, only to be cut off via a Sling Blade. Owens piles on once tagged in and is of course cocky, then tags Rollins back in for a double vertical suplex. As Rollins trolls Reigns, he only ignites a successful comeback after getting overzealous and Reigns get the hot tag.

E and Ryback have a heavyweight battle in the ring with Owens trying to help out, so Ambrose gives him a missile shotgun dropkick and then a rebound lariat on the outside. Rollins throws Ambrose into the steel steps as Ryback eliminates Big E via the Shell Shocked. The Usos will obviously gun for the Tag Titles immediately, but I wonder if Ryback will request a shot as well. Rollins immediately attacks Ryback from behind and eliminates him via a Pedigree, making this quite the star-studded tag match remaining of Rollins & Owens vs. Ambrose & Reigns.

Rollins knocks Reigns off the apron so Ambrose can be legal after being thrown into a barricade by Owens. A Pedigree is blocked but Rollins prevents a hot tag. Ambrose still fights him off and keeps Owens at bay while Reigns is struggling to be ready for a tag. Rollins benefits from an Owens distraction but gets pounced on by Reigns to break up the pinfall attempt, and Reigns gets in as many shots as possible on the WWE Champ.

Owens gets tagged in to pick the bones of Ambrose, mocking him in the process and talking shit to Reigns. I absolutely LOVE Owens grinding his forearm and clubbing the face of Ambrose with crossfaces while talking shit. That’s the kind of violence I wanna see and wouldn’t be in violation of PG standards.

Ambrose emphatically kicks of a Rollins springboard knee strike, and the Denver audience is behind him as the heels continue to cut the ring in half on him. Owens cuts off an Ambrose comeback and leaves him open for Rollins, but Rollins just keeps talking shit and that allows Ambrose to make a comeback, including Rollins hitting a springboard knee strike on Owens. Ambrose finishes Owens off with a follow-up double underhook DDT, leaving Rollins alone against the two men he broke onto the main roster with and then betrayed to reach the top. I’d expect Ambrose to request an IC Title shot now.

Rollins attempts to bail twice but Ambrose & Reigns cut him off, not letting up whatsoever. This is a one-sided destruction that brings back memories of Prince Nana against Austin Aries & Roderick Strong, but because Rollins is actually a champion combatant, he doesn’t quite get his comeuppance, attacking Ambrose & Reigns with a chair to disqualify himself.

Post-match, Rollins continues attacking Reigns, wanting to soften him up for Survivor Series 2015. But once back in the ring, Reigns takes him out of the ring via a Superman Punch, and the champ retreats, leaving his former best friends to stand united together in the ring while he desperately clutches his title on the entrance ramp as the broadcast ends.

Thoroughly entertaining match with all kinds of interesting stories come out of it, and I enjoyed this a bit more than the Survivor Series 2014 main event. A surprise return, new potential contenders for the champions, various compelling matchups, and a poetic ending between three men literally 17 months in the making. Of most importance, I am legitimately anticipating Rollins vs. Reigns in what should be a high note conclusion to a horrendously booked reign, even if it means Sheamus may ruin the moment. Of course, with what was about to happen in less than 24 hours, this match only becomes even more poetic as I’m about to detail. ***3/4

WWE in Dublin, Ireland – November 3, 2015

Finn Balor vs. Sheamus



Good but nothing special house effort. ***

Of far more importance, and in no way considered the Good Shit, the injury bug now strikes WWE Champion Seth Rollins, shredding his right knee in the main event against Kane. There’s absolutely no way the injury is better than it looks, and that not only means he’ll have to forfeit the WWE Title and thus Rollins vs. Reigns is cancelled, but yet another domino falls to obliterate WrestleMania 32 plans. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed Rollins was to face Triple H, which was obviously inevitable and can still be done upon his return. I of course was hoping that’d be done sooner and we’d finally have the former Shield colliding for the top prize, nobody else involved. There’s an incredibly strong chance that can still come, but in addition to Undertaker vs. Sting and Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton, I have to kiss Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns goodbye. At least in the latter two's case, the door isn’t shut forever, and it was truly poetic that the final moments of Rollins in a match during the 2015 calendar year would be trying to thwart off Ambrose & Reigns.

NXT – November 4, 2015: The Good Shit

The Revival interrupt Carmella as she gives a medical update on Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore, mocking her and the sprained MCL they gave Cassady, while also vowing to win the NXT Tag Titles next week.

American Alpha have an amusing promo, realizing that they’re ascending and by becoming the best team in the business, everything else (winning the titles) will come to fruition. Chad Gable says they’ll become the “world’s greatest tag team,” which Jason Jordan frowns upon.

Emma denies being terrified by Asuka, telling Dana Brooke that she’ll need to give the puro star a proper welcoming. Looking forward to it.

NXT Title Match
Finn Balor vs. Apollo Crews

New NXT championship matches tradition here as the lights dim and a spotlight shines on the combatants during the introductions. Love it.

They have a stalemate before the commercial, which kicks in after just a couple minutes tops. They continue having a back-and-forth with various dropkicks and suplexes, neither gaining significant control yet. Balor finally gains control when he avoids an elbow drop and hits a soccer kick. He cuts off a comeback attempt, returning to the Cobra Clutch.

Crews uses his power to break the hold and then dropkicks Balor to gain control. The timing is impeccable in this match, as Balor regains control by knocking Crews out of the ring with an Enziguri and then follows up with a somersault plancha. For whatever reason, the match goes to another commercial just five minutes after the first one.

Balor has maintained control, not letting up. He looks to attempt a Reverse Bloody Sunday, but Crews blocks it and hits a Fall Away Samoan Drop. After being teased, each man hits a signature move, Crews the Military Press Slam (but Balor gets the knees up on the follow-up standing moonsault) and Balor the Reverse Bloody Sunday. Balor hits the running shotgun dropkick but the double footstomp is evaded. Crews lands a Yakuza kick, but Balor has enough to land a Pele kick before collapsing. The crowd is quite enthused with this match. Unfortunately, Baron Corbin interferes to have the match thrown out, specifically targeting Crews due to being butthurt and entitled about the battle royal a few weeks earlier. ***1/2

Samoa Joe arrives to fight off Corbin, who takes a powder. Balor and Joe are left in the ring, the latter appearing conflicted before attacking the champ! Joe is still conflicted as he continues the assault and leaves the champ laying with a musclebuster, screaming “I did this to you!” Joe leaves the title on the fallen Balor, obviously gunning for it as hinted two months ago. TREMENDOUS BOOKING and I cannot wait for this dream match to occur.

SmackDown! – November 3, 2015: The Good Shit

Alberto Del Rio vs. Neville - ***1/4

IC Champion Kevin Owens interrupts Dean Ambrose’s interview with Renee Young, politicking and trying to dismiss Ambrose pinning him on Raw. Owens gets incredibly smug saying Ambrose has to prove himself in singles tonight, which Ambrose is looking forward to. These two have got some EXCELLENT verbal chemistry potential.

We get confirmation of WWE Champion Seth Rollins shredding his right knee in Dublin. He’s out 6-9 months and a tournament will be held to crown a new champion at Survivor Series 2015, with more details to come next week.

Dream Match
Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose

Great dynamic early as Ambrose locks an arm twist on and Owens immediately goes to a rope demanding a rope break, so Owens slaps his head as he lets go. They exchange headlocks, with Owens saying “my headlock’s better than yours.” Awesome. Ambrose gets a couple arm drags so Owens takes a powder as the broadcast takes a commercial break.

Ambrose lands another arm drag and then works on the left fingers of Owens when the broadcast returns. Owens regains control and cuts off Ambrose, only to eat a crossbody and clothesline to the outside. Back in the ring, Owens cuts Ambrose off with a stunner on the ropes, then delivers a receipt by tossing Ambrose into the barricade twice, boasting over it.

Owens continues dominating in the ring, talking trash while locking on a sleeper hold. He cuts off a comeback attempt to continue dominating and talking trash. He fucks up by wasting time telling Jerry Lawler to pay attention and Ambrose takes advantage. Owens attempts the Super Swinging Fisherman’s Neckbreaker, but Ambrose cuts it off to deliver a Superplex and make the match even. Ambrose delivers a tornado DDT that Owens takes a beautiful bump for.

Owens delivers a Schwein after blocking a crossbody for a near-fall. He’s getting visibly frustrated, concerning that he won’t be able to knock Ambrose out of IC Title contention. He talks trash to Ambrose on the top rope; that stupidity costs Owens as Ambrose punches him down and delivers a shotgun missile dropkick. Ambrose eats a Stun Gun, but evades a pop-up powerbomb, eats a superkick, and then uses the momentum to deliver a rebound lariat. Awful scouting by Owens there, especially due to history against Nigel McGuinness.

The match comes to an end when Ambrose kicks Owens in the guy, but the IC Champ sells it as a low-blow. The replay confirms the obvious, that Owens lied and embellished like NBA players flopping and NHL players diving. Referee Charles Robinson scolds him and Ambrose goes on the attack with a couple suicide dives, and Owens scurries away. Poor Robinson being involved in ANOTHER controversial finish in 2015. Looking forward to this dream feud continuing after that outstanding storytelling finish. These two have tremendous chemistry. ***1/4



Raw – November 9, 2015: The Good Shit

Looks like a great sellout crowd in Manchester tonight.

Triple H kicks off the show to put over former WWE Champion Seth Rollins, and the crowd chants “Thank you Rollins!” He acknowledges that Roman Reigns earned a WWE Title shot two weeks ago, then requests him to appear. The previously announced tournament begins tonight, and HHH offers Reigns a bye to the final if he agrees to replace Rollins as his protégé. Reigns declines, incorrectly stating that he’s “always” achieved his success on his own. I must have missed all of 2013. Reigns is slotted in the tournament as a result of this with 15 other participants.

So a few things coming out of this to go over:

This segment obviously telegraphs Triple H vs. Roman Reigns for WrestleMania 32. Not sure what makes Reigns sympathetic in this scenario; he lacks that type of charisma that Daniel Bryan had in the same spot two years earlier against HHH. HHH also put over Reigns here as a potential A+ player, while he constantly dismissed D-Bry as a B+ player. In addition, while HHH outright sabotaged D-Bry left and right, here he’s just simply putting Reigns in a tournament, no actual disadvantage. The psychology is thus completely missing for what the goal is here.

I’m wondering if Jimmy Jacobs pitched this tournament idea with Reigns being inserted, as it’s incredibly similar to ROH in 2013. Michael Elgin had earned an ROH Title shot by defeating Jay Lethal at Supercard of Honor VII, then the ROH Champion Jay Briscoe was briefly shelved due to injury a couple months later. A tournament was held to crown a new ROH Champion, and rather than Elgin getting any kind of bye, he was inserted with 15 other participants.

Speaking of 16 participants in this tournament, an absolutely terrible idea with John Cena away and Randy Orton on the shelf. Perhaps had this particular week been in North America, Brock Lesnar would’ve been flown in as a last-minute star power emergency, as he obviously deserved and had a claim to challenge for the WWE Title. I also wonder where the Hell is Chris Jericho? He can easily be inserted based on his resume and star power alone; nobody would deny his claim to be entitled to a spot in the tournament. So without Cena, Jericho, and Lesnar, I would’ve made this an 8-man tournament instead, for this is your first round which is revealed throughout the night, but I’ll list here:

Big Show vs. Roman Reigns
Sheamus vs. Cesaro
Alberto Del Rio vs. Stardust
Kalisto vs. Ryback
Kevin Owens vs. Titus O’Neil
Wade Barrett vs. Neville
Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz
Dean Ambrose vs. Tyler Breeze

Reigns, Cesaro, Alberto, Owens, Barrett, Neville, Ziggler, Ambrose. That’s your proper tournament, and Sheamus can decline a spot when offered by the Authority since he’s got the MITB contract.

Kevin Owens manages to turn the UK fans against him, burying them for worshipping the Queen of England. Perfect promo here and I cannot wait for this guy to be in the main event picture again.





WWE Title Tournament - 1st Round Match
Sheamus vs. Cesaro

Sheamus comes out with Wade Barrett before the commercial break. During the break, Barrett talks shit to future soccer HOFer Wayne Rooney, saying he’d love to fight him, but wouldn’t wanna embarrass Rooney’s son. The Manchester crowd pops when Barrett buries Manchester United as well.

This was another quality addition to one of my favorite bell-to-bell rivalries in the company. Sheamus and Cesaro were pretty much even early, but Cesaro I’d say dominated the second act. Sheamus did a tremendous job avoiding the giant swing, which I think for crowd heat purposes, was a mistake to book. Really shitty circumstances entered their ugly head when the two had a vertical suplex battle that had both spill to the outside, causing Cesaro’s right elbow to violently strike the apron. Imagine the brief pain when accidentally stubbing your funny bone, and multiply that by 100.

Cesaro is visibly injured as he constantly clutches his right arm. He tries to avoid using it, but force of habit gets him to use it at times, although he does use his left arm to deliver some European Uppercuts. Two incredible counters from him were ducking a Yakuza kick and locking Sheamus in the Scorpion Death Lock, and rotating out of a Uranage Backbreaker, immediately dropping the Irishman with an Alpamari Waterslide.

The finishing sequence came on the outside when Cesaro executed a running European uppercut, causing Sheamus to fall over the barricade. Barrett distracted Cesaro, allowing Sheamus to attack the former indy sensation from behind. Sheamus talks shit to Rooney, then Barrett has his turn. Barrett makes the mistake of placing his finger on Rooney, giving the soccer icon the legal right to slap him to a tremendous pop. Sheamus allows himself to be distracted and Cesaro capitalizes with a modified cradle pin for the victory. Very good match and the injury looked legit for Cesaro, however it added to the psychology of this match and he did a great job working with it. Looking forward to the Cesaro vs. Reigns quarterfinal, as it’s a powerhouse singles match I’ve been wanting to see since around WrestleMania XXX season. ***3/4





The New Day are outraged by being completely left out of the WWE Title Tournament. They have a point for sure when looking at that tournament roster again.

NXT - November 11, 2015: The Good Shit

Baron Corbin squashes Tye Dillinger in seconds, and then gets in a heated brawl with Apollo Crews, who’s pissed about being fucked out of the NXT Title. Tremendous fire by Crews here, further putting over how valuable that title is to him.



Bayley reacquires her NXT Women’s Title from a bailing Alexa Bliss, then runs into Nia Jax. Bliss attacks Bayley from behind, while Jax grabs the belt and stares at it before handing it back to the champ.

NXT Tag Titles Match
Vaudevillains vs. The Revival

Vaudevillains dominate before the commercial break, including work on the left arm each on Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder. The challengers play clever games to gain a brief advantage but that fails. It takes Dawson giving Aiden English’s left knee a chop block for an advantage going into the commercial break.

Back from commercial, the Revival continue attacking English’s left knee. A Dragon Screw, strikes, submission, slamming it against the ring post, their attacks are just pure textbook. This is obviously terrific psychology and storytelling, but I must also mention the old-school brilliance of the ring being cut in half on English. English teases a hot tag only for Dawson to cut him off and the Revival continue their underhanded tactics.

It doesn’t get any prettier for English as the challengers continue attacking his left knee. He finally gets a hot tag to Simon Gotch, who’s a textbook house of fire. Gotch idiotically tags the injured English back in and he gets immediately chop-blocked. Corey Graves thankfully points out Gotch’s stupidity for that. Gotch goes after the Revival to the outside but they take him out to isolate English, delivering a top rope stomp on the left knee. Dawson forces English to tap out to the Reverse Figure Four Leg Lock. No snowflakes, but damn tremendous storytelling to elevate a heel team for their title victory.

The Revival cut a backstage promo, proud of themselves for claiming the NXT Tag Titles after staying true to themselves for a dozen years in the business.

Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss for the NXT Women’s Title next week. Once again, crazy concept to advertise matches more than 2 hours in advance.

Samoa Joe explains his actions, claiming to have carried Finn Balor on his back en route to them winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament. That’s a pretty subjective perspective even with Balor’s knee injury at Takeover: Respect. What makes sense though is that Joe’s pissed for Balor not going to bat for Joe to challenge him for the NXT Title. Joe says it was insulting for him to be in the battle royal, having earned it. He’s correct in that regard based on him not losing at all for five months, but then says that the day he walked in the door, he was owed and ENTITLED to an NXT Title match. Who can really blame Joe for this after seeing Kevin Owens walk in and manipulate his way to a title match in just two months? Balor interrupts and vows to kick Joe’s ass as refs hold both back. Joe attempts to goad Balor, then shoves a ref into Balor for a cheapshot Coquina Clutch and they can’t pry him off! Joe poses with the title, then drops it on Balor. Tremendous main event segment that showed up, got its point across, and didn’t overstay its welcome like main roster segments with similar goals so frequently do.

SmackDown! – November 12, 2015: The Good Shit

WWE Title Tournament – 1st Round Match
Wade Barrett vs. Neville

Gotta point out that Booker T.’s WWE Title match history was quite fuzzy, stating this is the biggest match of Neville’s career. He obviously forgot about Neville already having a title shot 3 months ago against Seth Rollins, which is surprising because Booker was making quite a few boxing and MMA references during this match, including Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier, and Muhammad Ali.

Neville gets the advantage early thanks to some headlocks, so Barrett uses his own tall frame to place Neville on the apron and force a rope break. Barrett then drags Neville by the hair and slams him down to gain an advantage. Barrett dominated the majority of the match’s remainder, being vicious but also a bit too cocky like he’s Kevin Owens. The Manchester crowd picked up on him being the obvious default him against his fellow Brit, although it wasn’t as heated as Owens would make it, or even Sheamus earlier in the week.

Barrett requested Jerry Lawler to proclaim him the next WWE Champion on commentary, allowing Neville to walk the barricade and surprise him with a front somersault. This brought the match even and Neville hit a Standing Shooting Star Press in the ring. Barrett blocked a Deadlift German Suplex but still cut him off with a back kick to the gut. After a kickout, Barret cornered referee Charles Robinson and asked “How much is he paying you?”

After teasing the deadlift version earlier, Neville got the Snap German Suplex Variation on Barrett but ran into a shitty Winds of Change for a near-fall. That would’ve been an awful finish. Neville blocked the Elbow Smash finisher, hooking Barrett’s right limbs for a cradle variation. While in a fireman’s carry position, Neville took advantage of Barrett talking more trash, planting him with a DDT and finishing him off with a Sky Twister. Quality first round match here, and I liked the four Europeans in the tournament were slotted against each other in Manchester. ***1/4

Quarterfinal matches for the next Raw in Greenville, SC:
Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns
Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto
Kevin Owens vs. Neville
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler

Why not have a couple of those on SmackDown! next week to spread this out for ratings?

Raw – November 16, 2015: The Good Shit

WWE Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match
Kevin Owens vs. Neville

Back-and-forth match at first, with Owens eventually taking a powder when Neville gets on the top rope. Neville then improvises and hits a Moonsault Press on Owens to the outside going into commercial break. When the broadcast returns, Owens has regained control thanks to some attacks on the outside. He talks his usual trash while dominating, even blaming the ref for a slow count at one point. Neville stays in the game with comeback attempts, with it becoming legit when Owens takes too long setting up a corner-to-charge. Because of that Neville hits a Snap German Suplex and middle-rope Sky Twister for a near-fall. A full Sky Twister gets evaded but Neville gets on his feet to hit an Enziguri. Neville goes for another Sky Twister but Owens moves so Neville lands on his feet again, only to eat pop-up powerbomb, taking a wonderful bump for it, and the IC Champ advances. Quality addition to their quality series. ***1/4

WWE Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler

Really good psychology here, as after some a struggle for each to get control, Ambrose targets Ziggler’s left leg. He didn’t quite attack it like the Revival would, but it would come in handy later. Ziggler was great at teasing the superkick, which Ambrose constantly evaded; meanwhile, Ziggler did a great job avoiding various signature moves such as Ambrose’s suicide dive, the rebound lariat, and double underhook DDT. When Ziggler tuned up the band like Shawn Michaels, it actually meant something since he had yet to successfully land one superkick yet.

They each had some great counters for each other as well. Ambrose pulled off a backslide near-fall on a swinging neckbreaker attempt, while at another point Ziggler stalled Ambrose on a rebound lariat by kicking the knee and hitting a Fame-Asser for a great near-fall. Every teased move came to fruition at some point, including a great rebound lariat from Ambrose after eating a Stunner, and he sold that damage by struggling to get up. Another great and highly critical moment came when Ziggler landed a Super Facebuster on Ambrose, re-aggravating the pain in his left knee while Ambrose intelligently rolled out of the ring. Ziggler was quite exceptional selling the left knee, constantly hopping around.

They had a brief strike exchange with Ziggler head-butting Ambrose and going for a Zig-Zag. That got blocked so Ziggler went for a schoolboy pin, but Ambrose blocked that and positioned Ziggler for a successful double-underhook DDT. I found this MUCH more interesting than their 2013 series, surely because this time Ziggler wasn’t in the middle of a counterproductive burial. When Ambrose inevitably turns heel, I’d love these two to have a marquee program. ***1/2

The New Day dismiss the milestone of Undertaker’s 25th anniversary, saying their one-year anniversary is far more important and newsworthy. They also bury the Usos, claiming to be responsible for Jey’s shoulder injury, and then mock their chant. Of course they’d take credit for something they’re not responsible for at all. Tremendous promo.

WWE Title Tournament Quarterfinal Match
Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns

Reigns has a pre-match promo in which he claims he has never sold out. Fuck off jabroni, you broke through as part of a mercenary and Authority enforcement faction. I wouldn’t be surprised if plot hole writing like this gives his detractors extra reason to hate the Reigns character – he’s very clearly full of shit there. Cesaro has his right arm bandaged due to last week’s injury.

After a lockup, Cesaro teases a European uppercut on the clean break. After some headlocks, they exchange kip-ups to competitively one-up each other. A creative moment early occurs when Cesaro does a cartwheel off the turnbuckle to escape Reigns and gain control. He hits a gut wrench suplex on Reigns, catching the former Royal Rumble winner off-guard. Reigns gains control via a tilt-a-whirl slam but continues selling his abdomen, which is costly. Since Reigns stalls due to the pain, Cesaro regains control with a springboard twisting European uppercut.

The real story of the match begins. Reigns uses his leg strength to block a giant swing and then charges at Cesaro in the corner, only for his right shoulder to hit the middle turnbuckle, then Cesaro immediately shotgun dropkicks him from behind, jamming that body part into the steel post. Absolutely brilliant to bring this match even and on the same body part after Cesaro’s injury last week.Reigns is in agony on the outside so Cesaro capitalizes with a running European uppercut going into the commercial break.

Cesaro is still working on the right arm and shoulder of Reigns, having him in a submission. Reigns is tossed to the outside, then he scouts Cesaro coming with the uppercut again, dropping him with a big boot. Reigns once again is only brief with his control though, once again still selling his right arm. This allows Cesaro to hit some more uppercuts. Reigns displays more great scouting, cutting off another uppercut attempts with a forearm, but his force of habit has him using the damaged right arm. He uses it also for more strikes, but the pain stalls him and Cesaro is on him like white on rice with uppercuts.

Reigns won’t allow Cesaro to regain control though, using his right arm to hit another clothesline and then executing a belly-to-back suplex. Cesaro scouts the drive-by slide, and grabs Reigns to hit the giant swing then follows that up with a Scorpion Death Lock! This is just tremendous. Reigns is reaching for the ropes, so Cesaro puts him in a Cripple Crossface and keeps it locked on when Reigns attempts to roll out of it; of course his right arm is the one locked.

Reigns powers out and uses the positioning to hit a Samoan Drop, but Cesaro was awesome trying to grind his face to prevent it. Little things like that add so much to a match’s storytelling. Both exhausted men get back and Cesaro is launched to the outside, his damaged right arm striking the apron. Because of this, Cesaro is prone to a successful drive-by slide and Reigns is back in control. In another brilliant moment, Reigns shakes off his right arm after various strikes with it; this brief selling allows Cesaro enough time to block another strike by hitting that body part. Cesaro is clearly in pain and his stalling allows Reigns to roll over and deliver a sitdown powerbomb for a near-fall. Both men are once again down in pain and exhaustion.

Reigns is up first, signaling for the Superman Punch to Greenville’s disapproval. But Cesaro uses the leaping of Reigns to lift him up for a European uppercut counter! Incredible near-fall for that one. However, just like Reigns, he used his damaged right arm, so he’s selling it. Cesaro dropkicks Reigns off the turnbuckle onto the apron, then goes for the apron superplex. Reigns blocks it and delivers a Superman Punch and sets up for the spear. Cesaro counters that with an uppercut and goes for the cradle facebuster, but Reigns deadlifts him overhead. Cesaro lands on his feet and Reigns goes for antoher cloethesline, but Cesaro turns that into a backslide near-fall. Reigns lands another Superman Punch and immediately hits a spear, finally putting down the pesky Cesaro. They shake hands afterwards, a true show of respect.

An absolutely excellent match between two powerhouses that couldn’t be any more different from one another. Visually they couldn’t be any different, their styles are totally different, their personas are totally different, and they blended together beautifully. Since they’d very rarely collided in matches involving other participants and I don’t believe had ever done so in singles before, this was definitely a fresh matchup. Tremendous counters, scouting, psychology, selling, and I loved the mirror image right arm damage narrative weaved into this.

Reigns may never win many of his naysayers over just like John Cena, but bell-to-bell he’s talented enough to be elevated into truly special matches; enough of him working programs against the likes of Big Show and Bray Wyatt; put him in the ring with studs like Cesaro, Cena, Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, etc. Of course, MAJOR kudos to Cesaro being a team player and working this match on a very real injury, going above and beyond to make sure the company’s top project not only shines, but learns from him. He’s definitely redeemed himself for SummerSlam 2015, the Greenville crowd far more connected to his comebacks and counters than Brooklyn was. That’s not an error or typo. One of the best Raw matches EVER. ****1/2

The rest of the tournament will take place at Survivor Series 2015.

The semifinals are Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose. MISSED SMACKDOWN! RATINGS OPPORTUNITY HERE, plus you guys know how I feel about double-duty.



NXT – November 18, 2015: The Good Shit

Nia Jax makes quick work of Carmella.

Alexa Bliss cuts an effective promo for tonight’s main event for the NXT Women’s Title against Bailey. She’s informed by a referee that GM William Regal has banned Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy from ringside.

Emma makes quick work of a jobber.

Dana Brooke challenges Asuka for a rematch next week, which is obviously accepted.

Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe for the NXT Title is official for Takeover: London. OH FUCK YES~!

A promo from earlier in the day airs from Joe. Regal doesn’t want Balor to jeopardize their match, but Joe says the reality is he has the week off to protect Balor. Contract signing next week.

NXT Women’s Title Match
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss - ***1/4
(Plenty of “Hey we want some Bayley!” chants and Bliss has a great gotten-to face. Looking forward to being a part of that chant in Dallas.)

Nuclear heat post-match as Eva Marie informs Bayley they compete next week for the NXT Women's Title. She’s absolutely terrific when she gets tired of the booing and says “Shut up, ya dorks.”

SmackDown! – November 19, 2015

Cesaro works his last match of 2015, with the news coming days later that he’ll be out 4-6 months to get shoulder surgery. No shock based on what happened in Manchester. While there’s never a good time to be injured, for the sake of his creative direction, perhaps it was a blessing: he was just starting a surefire feud of the year contender with Stardust. I’m sure Vince McMahon had no big plans for him, but this is yet ANOTHER domino to obliterate my dream WrestleMania 32 card, as I had Cesaro slotted to finally get his elusive singles victory over John Cena for the US Title.

The New Day have fun mocking Kalisto for being a short luchador. I legit laughed over it.

An otherwise terrible, utterly meaningless go-home show. The WWE Title Tournament semifinals needed to be on this broadcast.

No sympathy here for the lack of depth, and the main roster deserves incredible kudos for one of the most compelling match quality months of 2015. I’ve pitched so many ideas on what to have done with the tournament, but ultimately it was impossible for the company to dig itself out of the hole, as this was a culmination of not protecting its midcard backbone as insurance policies for this kind of emergency situation.

[supersonic]

Survivor Series 2015: The Good Shit

WWE Title Tournament Semifinal Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns

Some good psychology in this one as Alberto first targeted the right shoulder of Reigns to gain control, coming just six days after it being damaged against Cesaro. That would be short-lived though as Alberto would switch up his target to the left shoulder, perhaps as a force of habit. There were definitely great teases that paid off in this one, and the left shoulder of Reigns played a significant part in that regard. Teased moves that got delivered later included the Superman Punch, spear, superkick, stidown powerbomb, and cross armbreaker, with Alberto keeping that locked on when placed on the turnbuckle and using his leverage to go over the ropes and cause more damage. It was ballgame though once the spear got hit to nobody’s surprise. This is probably Alberto’s best one-on-one match quite easily since his return. ***1/2

Jo Jo interviews Reigns backstage, getting congratulations from Dean Ambrose with them hoping to face each other in the tourney final. After Ambrose leaves, IC Champion Kevin Owens interrupts, who vows to be the one facing Reigns later and he’ll sabotage his coronation, putting his accomplishments over.

WWE Title Tournament Semifinal Match
Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose

Another quality semifinal here. Owens would cost himself terrific opportunities to finish off Ambrose due to his egotistical desire to gloat, talk trash, and make demands towards Michael Cole. Not the most effective direction to take for someone who’s trying to not just reach the mountaintop, but keep Ambrose from IC Title contention. He was hilarious taking Ambrose on a self-proclaimed tour to Chinlock City.

Perhaps had Owens spent more time in the film room than on coming up with new forms of trash talk, he would’ve seen obvious signature moves coming at first such as the suicide dive and rebound lariat. The latter is inexplicable for Owens when of course considering his feud against Nigel McGuinness back in the day. To his credit, he scouted the signature moves when Ambrose would to that well again, catching Ambrose on the second suicide dive attempt and dropping via a light F5 onto the commentary table, but not a devastating one at all.

Owens picking up on Ambrose’s habits came into the equation during the finishing sequence. Ambrose evaded the pop-up powerbomb, but landed a superkick. Ambrose tried using the momentum for a rebound lariat, only to eat another superkick. Ambrose is Irish Whipped for another pop-up powerbomb attempt, but he hits a hurricanrana, catching Owens off-guard just long enough to hit the double underhook DDT to advance to the finals against his best friend Reigns. These two obviously have standard match chemistry; I want a blood feud now. ***1/2

Just like back in July, the New Day bury Atlanta, including hometown boy Xavier Woods, who is sporting an all-time great heel hairstyle, only further making him come across as a condescending prick. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, they’re grateful to be Tag Champs, while also pointing out their partners’ accomplishments, that being Sheamus (Mr. MITB) and Wade Barrett (the 2015 King of the Ring.) They then brag about having more titles than the Braves, Hawks, and Falcons combined for great heel heat, and Woods rub in another dig at them for good measure. I cannot believe seeing Sheamus dance to the New Day’s theme music, then he cuts an absolutely curtain-jerker type of buzzkill comedy promo. Absolutely wretched booking of Sheamus in that moment there when it was so obvious how this evening would end.

WWE Title Tournament Final
Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns

The crowd is largely behind Ambrose to the surprise of nobody who understands audiences in 2015. With this being their first ever singles match on the main roster, the atmosphere isn’t quite as hot as I’d want it to be. There are so many reasons for that and I'll briefly go over that in the match assessment.

Despite the handicapped booking going into this, these two good professional wrestlers managed to have a good match with some solid psychology, specifically Ambrose targeting the left arm of Reigns, including locking in a Fujiwara Armbar. Reigns did a good job selling the damage on that joint inflicted by Ambrose and Alberto, including snapping it into place which I appreciated. They also sat up simultaneously near the end of the match and challenged each other into a striking contest. Ultimately, after a match that had some very good scouting due to these regular tag partners being so aware of each other, Reigns scouted Ambrose going for the corner elbow smash, so he hit him with a spear to capture his first WWE Title.

For a culmination, no matter what was about to happen, I should be using an exclamation mark, not a period, when describing Reigns finally reaching the mountaintop. Maybe if the semifinals had been before this show, giving 3 to 6 days of advertising for this Ambrose vs. Reigns final, this would’ve been more heated and deserving of an exclamation mark. I'm sure these guys both pulling having already wrestled earlier in the night, when also considering the schedule WWE has for its roster, didn't help. But this feels flat, despite Ambrose congratulating him and all kinds of pyro and confetti. This was a good Raw main event masquerading as a historic PPV collision.

Triple H comes out to congratulate Reigns, but the handshake is refused. Reigns instead spears the COO, but then gets Yakuza kicked by Sheamus, who is cashing in his MITB contract. Reigns kicks out, but eats another Yakuza kick as Sheamus reclaims the WWE Title and celebrates with HHH. Unlike the closing moments of SummerSlam 2013 that this is obviously ripping off, there’s no visceral atmosphere at all to this segment. The crowd doesn’t care about Reigns as he stands in the ring empty-handed.

I had said that Ambrose vs. Reigns, bell to bell, was a good match. However, because I factored in the Randy Orton cash-in at SummerSlam 2013 and Seth Rollins cash-in at WrestleMania 31 when handing out ****1/2 each to John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, I have to include this flat cash-in as an entire Ambrose vs. Reigns segment. Ambrose vs. Reigns was a clean three snowflakes, only to be taken down by a cold storytelling moment that was awfully built to. So therefore, Ambrose vs. Reigns officially gets no rating from me.

This ending segment was so lazily written. Reigns obviously isn’t sympathetic like D-Bry. In addition, D-Bry was suckered by a turning HHH, and Orton, stale as he was before that wonderful summer night in Los Angeles, was a significantly hotter, far more formidable threat than Sheamus here when he cashed in. There was no surprise turn to make the psychology work here, and it’s absolutely stunning that Sheamus was in no way groomed for this moment to be taken at least somewhat seriously the moment he won the MITB contract. As pointed out to me, why the fuck didn’t his feud against Orton earlier in 2015 ever have the contract up for grabs? Why did Sheamus got so easily chokeslammed by Kane two months earlier? Why was he booked as lighthearted midcard filler the night of him cashing in?

With that said, because of how abysmally WWE progressed towards this moment, I said this at the time, and I’ll say it now: due to how poorly Sheamus had been and would continue to be booked once he’d cash in, I’m glad to see it done now during the least important period of the year. Get that shitty elephant out of the fucking room before ‘Mania season hits, as nobody would’ve wanted his MITB contract looming over the WWE Title match at AT&T Stadium.

[supersonic]

ROAD TO TLC 2015 AND NXT TAKEOVER: LONDON

Raw – November 23, 2015: The Good Shit

The Authority books Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Title in a TLC match to headline TLC 2015. Rusev vs. Reigns is tonight’s main event. I’m not wasting my time and energy, nor yours either, breaking down everything wrong with the creative direction of Reigns chasing the dastardly Authority and their henchmen champion Sheamus. I have full faith in Sheamus and Reigns providing a quality match though, but holy shit the TLC novelty event couldn’t have been replaced at the last-minute with a standard event after all the injuries?

Today marks the first anniversary of the New Day. Even their material is flat, as they go way over the top with props to mock and bury country music, going on tangents to get heat from the Nashville crowd. This is a HUGE drop from their SummerSlam 2015 peak.

Rusev vs. Roman Reigns - ***

Reigns wins by DQ thanks to an attack by Wade Barrett. Reigns gets medieval on Sheamus & Rusev moments later with a chair. The three Europeans had been teaming together regularly, so while I wouldn’t have booked Reigns to fend off all three by himself so early on the road to TLC 2015, at least it’s not a new faction the company is trying to pass off as a force to be reckoned with.

Awful, AWFUL episode saved by Rusev and Reigns being workhorses.



NXT – November 25, 2015: The Good Shit

With NXT GM William Regal still recovering from emergency neck surgery, Michael Cole has been assigned by him in the interim tonight. He informs the Full Sail audience that he received a phone call from “corporate” approving Eva Marie’s challenge to Bayley for the NXT Women’s Title and the match will take place tonight as she requested. Tremendous trolling direction here.

Cole oversees the Finn Balor and Samoa Joe contract signing, the former coming out first and venting about what he’ll do to Joe in London. The latter simply arrives, signs contract, leaves, without one bit of eye contact. As Balor is leaving, Joe attacks him from behind and then leaves him laying after a Coquina Clutch.



Eva Marie has Tom Phillips interview her in Regal’s office, claiming she’d need a bigger space to train for tonight’s main event and that the GM won’t mind. She says it’s time for a “real woman” to hold the title, then introduces Nia Jax as her ally.

The Asuka vs. Dana Brooke rematch is a total ruse, as Brooke talks shit from the ramp and that allows Emma to attack Asuka from behind and leave her laying with an inverted STF.



WWE senior official Charles Robinson arrives and will be overseeing tonight’s main event to ensure no controversy per “corporate.” Fantastic trolling.

NXT Women’s Title Match
Bayley vs. Eva Marie

Nia Jax accompanies Eva Marie. Corey Graves is tremendous justifying the possibility of Eva having all the odds stacked in her favor, citing “responsibility to stockholders.”

Tremendous little smoke-and-mirrors spectacle. After Eva has some shine, Bayley surprises her with a belly-to-belly suplex and the match is obviously over, but Jax removes the ref before the count of 3. Eva rolls up the distracted Bayley and Robinson comes in to make the count. He also stepped in when Bayley was going for a corner attack. Just fantastic. Eva landed a Shiranui for a near-fall and a second attempt was blocked, as she would inadvertently by shoved into Robinson. Bayley went for a Super Belly to Belly Suplex but was knocked was dragged out by Jax. Bayley retaliated by grabbing both feet to slam her on the apron, then hit the Super Belly to Belly Suplex for the win as the original ref had regained consciousness. Post-match, Jax attacks Bayley and poses with the belt before dropping it on the champ.

SmackDown! – November 26, 2015: The Good Shit



IC Title Shot – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze

IC Champion Kevin Owens provides commentary to just obviously scout the competition, no ulterior motive. He was ON FIRE in this match with so many tremendous gems, the peak being when asked about his potential opponents bring to the table. He acknowledged Ambrose’s scrappy brawling skill to match his, said he’s proud to have nothing in common with Ziggler, and compared his gorgeousness to that of Breeze’s. Jerry Lawler had him clarify and Owens doubled-down on that statement.

The match itself was very good as would be expected between these three workhorses, in the same territory as the Ambrose vs. Ziggler quarterfinal match the week before. Breeze brought some terrific scouting to this one, perhaps having learned from losing to Ambrose in the first round two weeks earlier. On a rebound larat attempt by Ambrose, Breeze grabbed his feet to block it and that allowed ZIggler to strike the former indy sensation, temporarily marginalizing him.

This had terrific timing over and over again, with a key point coming when Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag on Ambrose, and Breeze desperately broke it up in the nick of time because that’s actually an established finisher. When Ambrose later went for the rebound lariat again, Breeze ducked it and that allowed Ziggler to eat it, then Breeze shoved Ambrose out to take the near-fall. Breeze would take Ziggler out with the heel kick, leaving himself open to the double-underhook DDT. Ambrose has a staredown with Owens, but the champ walks away. ***1/2

Raw – November 30, 2015: The Good Shit

Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze - ***1/4

Divas Champion Charlotte agrees to face her friend Becky Lynch as her dad can be at ringside. Speak of the devil, Ric Flair shows up.

Charlotte feigns an ankle injury while Ric distracts the ref so she can roll up Lynch. Backstage after the match, Charlotte says it’s just tough love now that they’re in the big leagues, then they do the pinky swear, albeit Lynch is really disappointed and hurt by her actions and attitude.

Sheamus vs. Reigns ends up with Reigns winning by DQ thanks to Rusev attacking him while the WWE Champ got bailed out of the ring by US Champ Alberto Del Rio and Wade Barrett. Sheamus announces the four of them have formed the League of Nations. This doesn’t sound very promising considering how all four had been booked coming into this. I documented already how mishandled Sheamus was when the writers KNEW he was getting the top title at some point. Barrett was a jobber mixing it up with the likes of Stardust and R-Truth. Rusev was damaged, perhaps permanently like Sheamus in 2012, by the saga involving Lana, Dolph Ziggler, and Summer Rae. Alberto was as flat as most Midwestern geography thanks to the absolutely abysmal, utterly pointless Meximerica gimmick with Zeb Coulter. But maybe, just maybe, this formation will be a shot in the arm for all four individuals. Lord knows the company needs it due to depth issues.

LON thankfully win their first match together in the main event against Reigns, Dean Ambrose, & The Usos thanks to some New Day assistance. It makes sense for New Day to try doing anything to sabotage the Usos, as they’d already fucked with them and the Lucha Dragons earlier in the night. New Day are getting a bit overexposed, but hey, depth is lacking. I'd have also preferred LON to divide and conquer to win without assistance from anyone else, even if they use dastardly tricks of their own, with New Day attacking the Usos afterwards to pile on.

NXT – December 2, 2015: The Good Shit

Next week’s main event is confirmed as Finn Balor & Apollo Crews vs. Samoa Joe & Baron Corbin.

Tom Phillips interviews the Revival, who aren’t worried about defending the NXT Tag Titles against Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore at Takeover: London, threatening to go after Cassady’s other knee this time.

James Storm makes one other appearance that I’d forgotten about in a squash over Adam Rose.

To hype up their match tonight, American Alpha interrupt the Vaudevillains interview and vow to eventually become NXT Tag Titles Champs.



After Emma wins a squash match, Asuka appears on the Titan Tron and confirms they’ll collide at Takeover: London. Emma is clearly rattled, realizing she may have bitten off more than she can chew. OH FUCK YES~!

Nia Jax assaults Bayley during an interview, clearing wanting an NXT Women’s Title shot.

Samoa Joe vs. Tommaso Ciampa

At the risk of this sounding like a shoehorned homer reference, this somewhat felt similar to me a 2015 Divisional Round playoff game when the Carolina Panthers visited the Seattle Seahawks. CAR had been on a 5 game win streak, while SEA was on a white-hot 6 game regular season win streak and had a Wild Card Round bye thanks largely to a ferociously resurgent defense. The win-loss records made the matchup lopsided on paper, and when factoring the stakes of the game, with it being at CenturyLink Field, and on prime time to boot, there was no way the Panthers were gonna pull the off the upset.

So why do I bring up that game and compare it to this match? It’s because while the Seahawks proved to clearly be the superior team en route to hosting the NFC Title game the following week and eventually advancing to Super Bowl XLIX, the Panthers gave an admirable effort, keeping the game far closer than it had should’ve been for a significant period until Kam Chancellor’s pick-six off Cam Newton. That is the story that this match told. Ciampa gave an absolutely admirable effort to topple a buzzsaw that had his sights set on his confirmed NXT Title match. He slugged it with Joe, he went after Joe’s left arm to marginalize much of his moveset, and got the former ROH Champion in a guillotine choke. While in that position he also went for the Kimura lock on Joe’s left arm.

But like that fateful pick-six Chancellor got off of Newton, Joe set everything back in place to ensure his victory en route to challenging for the top prize, seating Ciampa on the top rope during the Kimura Lock, and then hitting him with a deadly Enziguri. It was ballgame from there – Uranage Slam, musclebuster, Coquina Clutch, Ciampa taps out, thanks for coming. I’m sure Ciampa was able to raise his asking price on the indies due to this match, and deservedly so. No snowflakes from me, but a very effective match to remind Joe not to look past anybody.

SmackDown! – December 3, 2015: The Good Shit

Becky Lynch appears to be way too trustworthy of Charlotte after the cheap win she got this week.





The New Day vs. The Usos vs. Lucha Dragons in a ladder match for the Tag Titles is confirmed for TLC 2015. Should be an action-packed spectacle.

Roman Reigns defeats the League of Nations by count out. I was willing to be open-minded and optimistic that LON would be a shot in the arm for its members. Instead, despite the severe lack of depth, gotta keep making sure Reigns looks strong over everyone else even on free TV. The annual cold period just can’t be avoided by this company I guess.

Raw – December 7, 2015: The Good Shit

Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler - ***1/4
(Post-match has Dean Ambrose throwing popcorn and soda in the face of Owens. Glad we get this instead of heated interviews and promo wards, this is definitely maximizing this dream feud.)

MizTV
Guests: Divas Champion Charlotte & Ric Flair

Miz manipulates Charlotte into revealing her heel turn, constantly trying to bury him for any hard questions he asks, and then proclaiming she’d love to talk shit to Paige. Of course Paige shows up and they have a brawl after Ric gets slapped, but Paige scurries away since they’re both heels. The smarter move to cement Charlotte’s heel turn would’ve been for Sasha Banks to be getting the title shot at TLC 2015 since it’s in Boston. Banks would be a far more interesting arrogant default babyface as well without doing any damage whatsoever to Becky Lynch being on the side questioning Charlotte’s attitude change. In fact, it could build more heat between Banks and Lynch as well.



NXT – December 9, 2015: The Good Shit

Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore vow to achieve vengeance and dethrone the Revival for the NXT Tag Titles at Takeover: London. Effective promo with genuine emotion.

Emma is confident she’ll pull off the upset against Asuka next week, citing that she’s the one who laid the groundwork for the Divas Revolution on NXT before the Network launched.

Emma & Dana Brooke appear as an attempt to cost Asuka her match against Deonna Purrazzo. Instead, Asuka cancels Purrazzo’s plan to take advantage by immediately roundhouse kicking her for a KO victory.

Apollo Crews reminds NXT Champion Finn Balor that once they’re finished with Samoa Joe and Baron Corbin next week, he’s coming for the title again.





SmackDown! – December 10, 2015

IC Champion Kevin Owens has an attorney represent him to sign the title match contract, but of course he shows up to sucker attack Dean Ambrose, then scurries away when it doesn’t go his way. This attorney segment involving Kevin Steen worked because it was live with very little dialogue from the one-time character, preventing overexposure of terrible acting. In addition, in late 2011, Steen was an unhinged character that wouldn’t seek legal action for anything. In 2015, he’s a manipulative politician that cuts throats to get to the top. Just ask Sami Zayn.

There couldn’t have been any more of a contrast in building to the December 2015 supercards. I have no emotional connection whatsoever with TLC 2015 although I’m sure a few of the matches will deliver, while I’m fucking stoked as shit for Takeover: London.

[supersonic]

TLC 2015: The Good Shit

Tag Titles – Ladder Match
Big E & Kofi Kingston vs. The Usos vs. Lucha Dragons

Xavier Woods has standard hair, which is brought up because he says Boston doesn’t deserve a special occasion hairstyle. They say tonight they cement themselves as the faces of the tag division. They did that six months ago when Tyson Kidd’s career ended and Jey Uso was still out. They bury the Usos for Jey getting hurt and the Dragons for being short, saying this isn’t “WWE Junior.” They also bury their face paint and masks because “we are stars.” They do their version of a 5 second pose for the “next Wheaties box cover.” Woods is providing commentary during the match as well.

This isn’t the kind of match to analyze move for move or even in terms of psychology. This was obviously a stunt show and that’s not a criticism, but a pure gem. In a time that ladder matches are constantly becoming great examples of the law of diminishing returns, this managed to stand above the rest of the pack, easily the best one since the Money in the Bank 2013 PPV opener.

All I can really do in this match is list off all the highlight reel moments off the top of my head in this match, and there was no shortage of them. Sin Cara #2 sacrificing his body by doing a somersault plancha to the outside on a ladder, an Uso eating a dropkick from Kingston while the ladder was in his face and Woods played the trombone, Kalisto hitting a monkey flip 450 splash on a ladder, Kingston being stuck in a Tree of Woe and getting hit with a ladder, this was a nonstop demolition derby of epic proportions.

I certainly cannot forget one of the more creative spots in this match, in which both Lucha Dragons were on the primary ladder with E planted underneath, but he BENCH-PRESSED THE LADDER WITH TWO GROWN MEN STANDING ON IT. This caused Sin Cara #2 to fall off the ladder and Kalisto was still on it, a very perilous. Thankfully the Usos caught him when he jumped off, only to eat a Black Hole Slam for his troubles. What an ingenious spot, as it brought something new to the ladder match history while showcasing the strength advantage the New Day had with Big E.

Of course, the highlight of them all was truly jaw-dropping both for entertainment and concern for these athletes’ well-beings, as Kalisto hit a Sitdown Shiranui to Jey coming off the top of the ladder… onto a ladder platform. UN. FUCKING. REAL. The pop for this was just out of this world.

The finish came shortly after that highlight, as Kalisto was the only one left standing of the six official participants and started to climb the ladder. Woods left the commentary table again and threw his trombone at Kalisto to distract him. This allowed Kingston to yank Kalisto off the ladder, who took a tremendous rotation for his bump, and the New Day retained, bringing this legitimate barn-burner to an end as the audience reveled in it. ****1/4

Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns take turns visualizing how they’ll become IC and WWE Champs tonight respectively, wishing each other luck and ready to celebrate after the show.

IC Title Match
Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose

Owens buries Bostonians for being attached to their sports teams and feeling accomplished when their teams succeed, saying they’re just spectators and nothing more, then compares it to Ambrose for not having done anything of note yet. He of course dismisses that Ambrose beat him just three weeks ago.

Ambrose dominates early but gets cut off thanks to an Owens back elbow. Eventually they’d spill to the outside and that’s when this match kicked into gear. Ambrose went for a rebound lariat on the outside, but Owens caught him and executed a Fall Away Slam on the barricade in picture-perfect fashion. After being tossed towards the timekeeper area, they teased a count out near-fall on Ambrose.

Ambrose kneed Owens in the back on a Senton attempt, but the champ would tease a comback on an elbow drop attempt by Ambrose, giving him one visit to Suplex City. Ambrose would however avoid a cannonball, allowing him to hit an elbow drop. They teased their finishers with Ambrose hitting the double underhook DDT, and they had a SENSATIONAL false finish as Owens got two fingers on the bottom rope. As Ambrose sold the emotion, Owens went on the attack but Ambrose kept avoiding the pop-up powerbomb, turning the second attempt into a hurricanana pin. Would have preferred an extended reign for Owens to build traction and culminate in a loss to Sami Zayn at AT&T Stadium, but there needed to be a babyface title win on this show. ***1/4



WWE Title – TLC Match
Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns

Dueling chants early, but not for either of these two. “We want Cena!” “Cena sucks!” That right there is a culmination of John Cena earning the hardcore type of fans’ respect after all these years, as well as the abysmal booking of these two throughout 2015.

They started hot and heavy here, having a true slugfest right at the very beginning. In fact, these two heavyweights just clubbed the fuck out of each other and killed themselves to put on the best show possible and compensate for the poor booking. To a degree, it worked. Some of the stunts in here were wince-inducing while simultaneously inspiring, seeing these two give everything they had to be the champion of the company.

As far as bumps through plunder that stood out, there would be: Sheamus being toseed into the TLC props entrance area (which could’ve VERY badly for him), Reigns being backdropped and then suplexed through tables, Sheamus giving Reigns a Schwein off steel steps through a table, and Reigns giving Sheamus a Samoan Drop off the apron through a ladder platform, damaging the champion’s right arm in the process. Oh yeah, speaking of bumps and bruises, Sheamus had a gash on his left tricep through almost the entirety of this match, a nice little display of the brutality in this heavyweight fight. I can certainly appreciate the story of Sheamus going above and beyond to brutalize Reigns, as it sells his awareness of what a formidable juggernaut the challenger is.

The atmosphere was a bit lacking, which doesn’t keep this match from being the classic it should’ve been. This felt very much like a classic BJ Whitmer plunder gem, but didn’t have the enthusiastic crowd to put it over the top, and again that’s because of the booking. However, the crowd was believing when Reigns hit a Superman Punch to Sheamus on the ladder, causing the champ to fall off and through a table in the ring. It was an electrifying moment, highly creative and perfectly timed to have Boston buying into Reigns getting his coronation at long last.

But Rusev and Alberto Del Rio would come to the aid of Sheamus, attacking him. They took Superman Punches to the outside while Sheamus sucked up every bit he could muster to climb the ladder and retain the title, but the juggernaut Reigns got back in the ring. Sheamus then Yakuza kicked the former Tag Champ, then climbed the ladder and pulled down the title to retain, getting a celebration from his fellow League of Nations members on their shoulders. It’s odd that Ambrose and the Usos are missing, although much more for the former based on the conversation he had with Reigns earlier and he hadn’t been put through a brutal ladder match. ***3/4

Reigns is fed up though, so after recovering from the Yakuza kick, he spears Rusev & Alberto while they’re carrying Sheamus, then pummels them all with a chair. The Authority come out as do numerous referees to calm him down, and Triple H is fantastic with his acting, loosening up his tie and some buttons on his shirt to sell the stress. After checking on the champ, HHH approaches Reigns only to get Superman Punched!

HHH is being carried out but Reigns continues the assault, then powerbombs the Cerebral Assassin. The table doesn’t break however, so he delivers an elbow drop to make it happen for good measure, triggering “Thank you Roman!” chants. He’s about to leave and then sees the referees bringing HHH, so he runs back and spears him, triggering the chants again! For those who believe this attack was unwarranted, this was a breaking point of everything the Authority had done since April 2014 to him and his friends. Absolutely sensational segment to win the bloodthirsty Boston crowd over, and I was legitimately into it, smiling to see this Reigns project succeed.







Raw – December 14, 2015: The Good Shit

Roman Reigns has no regrets about last night when talking to Stephanie McMahon. When she labels him a disgrace, he says that’s a more accurate term to describe her entire family. Steph drops the bombshell that her father Vince is on the way. It’s AWESOME to see Philly behind Reigns here after the debacle nine months earlier.



Owens once again gives tremendous interviews when Jo Jo finds his backstage. He now wants to drive Ambrose to the point of legit insanity and recapture the IC Title.

Vince McMahon shows up during the R-Truth vs. Bo Dallas match, having it thrown out and demanding them to leave ringside. He has Stephanie go back to Connecticut, wanting to handle Roman Reigns on his own.

He of course cuts a great promo, saying Reigns is now sweating and demands him to come to ringside after a commercial break. Reigns refuses to apologize, not giving in to Vince’s aggressive demand. Vince gets ahead of himself, preparing to beat an apology out of Reigns, but WWE Champion Sheamus comes out. He wants the honor of forcing Reigns to apologize. Sheamus is so cocky about beating Reigns again, he wants to put the title on the line against him. Philly’s on board, but Vince denies it. Reigns makes a cringeworthy comment about “old, shrived up prunes,” but whatever, the crowd’s stoked that Vince approved the match. If Reigns doesn’t win though, he’s fired. Vince kicks Reigns right in the nuts before leaving.

The New Day come out selling the pain from the night before and put over everyone involved, asking the Usos and Lucha Dragons to come out. Both units are skeptical of the trio even with New Day having photo highlights of the classic ladder match. Kalisto in particular brings up that Xavier Woods attacked him with the trombone, resulting in a shitty apology from Woods that nobody buys. Everyone shakes hands since the New Day are insistent that they respect both teams. This attitude got the Philly crowd to chant “New Day rocks!” But as both duo teams leave, the New Day start boasting about still being Tag Champs, including bumping around, so they get their asses kicked and the crowd boos! Tremendous segment to put focus on the tag division and sell the fantastic match they had the night before. This was an excellent bounce-back for New Day, and it’s obvious that their push has helped the entire division.

Becky Lynch is unaware that Ric Flair intervened to help her and Charlotte win.

WWE Title vs. WWE Career
Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns

Vince McMahon is sitting at ringside in support of Sheamus. Fucking Irish supremacist.

The champ’s pale skin displays the bumps and bruises from their brutalizing TLC match just 24 hours earlier, and it’s a testament to both men that they could pull off a good match like this. Of course, the booking of the past 24 hours played a significant part in this match delivering the moment that everyone was expecting to come much sooner in 2015.

They pulled off their usual arsenal and paced it well with the various counters, but what made this stand out was just how much Philly was pulling for Reigns finally. Vince was absolutely tremendous selling the emotions of every near-fall, ever so cocky about Sheamus, ever so panicky about Reigns. If there was one actual wrestling moment that stood out to me, it would be when Reigns was busted open after a headbutt. He did grab his head before the color showed, so hopefully he bladed rather than doing the idiotic, career-shortening hardway bullshit that Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness pulled in this city 8 and a half years earlier.

The atmosphere of course kicked up a notch in the third act, which started when Sheamus ate a Superman Punch for certain defeat, only for Vince to drag out the ref and tell him to sit down, then permitting him when Sheamus got the distraction advantage. Vince had a chit-chat with the ref over that, allowing Rusev & Alberto Del Rio to come to ringside. Reigns immediately took the latter out of the equation with a Superman Punch, but ate a kick from Rusev.

Rusev tossed Reigns back in the ring and stood on the apron to boast, perhaps sacrifice himself in case the challenger hadn’t taken enough punishment to stay down yet. He got Superman Punched for his troubles and Sheamus was up to attempt a Yakuza kick. Reigns avoid that and gave him a Superman Punched, then gave one to Vince as well at the crowd’s delight! Sheamus took advantage of the distraction and finally hit the Yakuza kick for an excellent near-fall and the crowd is fully behind Reigns. Sheamus goes for it but Reigns scouts it, spearing him and finally reaching his culmination as the crowd genuinely erupts! In a terrific piece of storytelling, Reigns sweeps the fallen Vince off the apron to the outside like a sack of garbage.



Seeing that online post-match exclusive, it now becomes clear that despite not seeing it on-screen, Reigns must have asked his friends to not intervene, he wanted to test himself to overcome the odds just like he said to Triple H the month before. It was a very clear parallel seeing Reigns on the Usos’ shoulders in celebration, having overcome the odds on his own, compared the Sheamus accepting every bit of assistance possible in the closing moments of the prior night’s match and then sitting on his partners’ shoulders like he’d done it on his own. Obviously a terrific, historic moment, and a good match elevated by the circumstances, similarly to Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan. This isn’t the best moment of the year due to Brock Lesnar and Undertaker’s brawl, but it’s one that should be remembered for years to come, and of course means even more having taken place in Philly, nine months after the Royal Rumble 2015 mess. ***1/2

The obvious question: can the writers come up with an effective follow-up direction heading into the most important period of the year for Reigns?

[supersonic]

NXT Takeover: London: The Good Shit

Triple H kicks off the show with a hype speech. Zero issue with this after getting carted off earlier in the week. A month before this, I witnessed in person at CenturyLink Field an ambulance take Mike Iupait off the field as a precautionary measure when his neck took a bad angle. He then started against the Bengals the following week. HHH merely took some blows to his face, back, and abdomen, and he proved his toughness in 2001 during his first quad tear. This didn’t bury Roman Reigns at all.

Emma vs. Asuka

Emma is of course accompanied by Dana Brooke. “Asuka’s gonna kill you” chants as the match starts.

They exchange waistlocks and arm twists early, then have an extensive hammerlock exchange on each other’s left arms. Neither will let up on it, Asuka rolling with Emma just like she did with Brooke two months earlier. Emma ends it with an elbow, so Asuka locks a Fujiwara amrbar on her right arm, then kicks her repeatedly and hits a running hip attack to the outside.

Brooke distracts Asuka to allow Emma to gain the advantage. Emma works on the arms and shoulders after some attacks, screaming out of frustration while dishing out the punishment. She locks a Full Nelson and the crowd gets behind Asuka to make a comeback, which she does with elbows strike and a backslide pin. That’s quickly cut off by Emma though as shes continues the attack, including an Irish Whip into the corner that hurt Asuka’s back. Brooke is tremendous talking shit to her.

Asuka teasing a comeback only to get cut off thanks to simple slap that knocked her to her knees, but manages to hit a missile dropkick to end Emma’s dominance. As they’re getting up, they have a striking exchange and Emma makes the mistake of running the ropes as that allows an Asuka comeback. Asuka brings out numerous attacks including a dropkick, spinal kick, dropkicks, and another hip attack.

She unleashes some Yes kicks but Emma catches her right leg. Asuka ducks a punch and Emma ducks a spinning backfist, and Emma gets a jackknife pin near-fall. Asuka successfully lands some spinning backfists and another hip attack for a near-fall. Asuka has been exceptional selling her arm, shoulders, and neck, which comes into play when Emma strikes it create some desperate distance. Emma avoids a corner charge and immediately locks in a Tarantula while Brooke talks shit.

Asuka eats a Butterfly Suplex in the corner and running corner charge then takes more punishment. Emma sets her up for the inverted STF and Emma goes for the modified old-school Curb Stomp, but Asuka grabs the legs to apply an Ankle Lock, then delivers a German Suplex. This is tremendous as Asuka continues to strike while also selling her head and neck. She goes for the Crossface Chickenwing but Emma prevents her hands from locking. Emma gabrs the ref and pushes him to the corner to back Asuka into him andknock him out.

Brooke throws a weapon to Emma, who has a tug of war over it with Asuka. Of course Asuka is caught by the ref with it, but he believs her about not using it. Emma tries taking advantage of the distracted Asuka with a rolling reverse cradle, but that was a fatal mistake. Asuka kicked out and immediately used that positioning to lock in the Crossface Chickenwing as the crowd went bonkers. Emma tapped out by Brooke distracted the ref and got banned from ringside by him. Emma was about to use the weapon, but got knocked with the roundhouse kick to bring this classic to its conclusion. A sensational opener in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Give me Bayley vs. Asuka in Dallas please. ****



NXT Tag Titles Match
The Revival vs. Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore

Challengers went after Scott Wilder’s left arm early, including Cassady using his height to lock on a Standing Position London Dungeon. After some more work on Wilder, the champs cut the ring in half on Amore, targeting his left arm as well thanks to it striking the ring post, with my highlight there being a Hammerlock Northern Lights Suplex. They did a tremendous job of building up the hot tag, including Amore being placed in a drop toe hold to make sure of it.

Once Cassady got in he was a house of fire, knocking the champs to the outside so Amore had himself get tossed out to the them and bring in Scott Dawson to do so some work. However, Cassady found himself getting dominated when Dawson attacked his recently healed left knee, allowing the Revival to target that with various strikes and submissions, once again preventing a hot tag to Amore. The hot tag would be made with Cassady giving Amore some elevation on a splash. That would be a sensational false finish though as Dawson pulled Amore out of the ring during the count. He used Carmella as a shield so she slapped him and Cassady went after him, only to get tossed into the ring post. This allowed the champs to hit a double-team Gutbuster on Amore for the win.

Damn good tag team wrestling with tremendous officiating as well, as the referee refused to allow a non-legal pin during the match, and that second may have cost the champs an early victory. Cutting the ring in half, working on body parts, even Wilder in the post-match squeezing his left hand to still sell the damage to boot, zero complaints about this match. ***1/2

Baron Corbin cleanly wins a disappointing match against Apollo Crews. The highlight was Corbin telling Crews to “go back to Ring of Honor.”





Nia Jax has a staredown with Asuka during his pre-match backstage interview. Not in Dallas, please.

NXT Women’s Title Match
Bayley vs. Nia Jax

Crowd is signing “Hey Baby!” towards Bayley at the beginning. I wonder if any other female has ever connected with an audience and gained their respect as much as she has.

Had ROH ever been able to book a James Gibson vs. Takeshi Morishima match, I imagine it would’ve been an awfully similar, superior version of this one. That’s not a criticism of this match, but the dynamic of it was incredibly similar, with the finish reminding me of Gibson’s time in ROH to boot. Jax used her size to dominate Bayley, but her lack of experience, composure, and conditioning ultimately became her undoing. Bayley did a great job of attacking at any chance possible, while Jax often got cocky on her pinfall attempts or just failed to move with a sense of urgency. That usually wouldn’t work, but because that was the story of this match, it worked beautifully, and Bayley went above and beyond to carry this match. Once she got Jax to sit down while locking on the guillotine choke, there was no way she was leaving without a submission victory, forcing the monster heel to tap out. Again, give me Bayley vs. Asuka in Dallas dammit. ***1/4



In addition to Zayn’s return, booked for next week is Vaudevillains vs. Hype Bros. vs. American Alpha vs. Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy. That has potential to be fun.

NXT Title – Dream Match
Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe

Joe absolutely DOMINATED the first dozen or so minutes of this match. Balor would make his cut off attempts to ensure this wasn’t a squash, but for awhile it looked like it could have been all for moot. The domination came when Balor attempted a double-foot stomp to Joe on the steps but it got avoided. When Balor charged at Joe seconds later, he ate a Uranage on the floor. A highlight of Joe’s dominance for long-time fans of his was his combination powerbomb, kickout into a Boston Crab, and then applying a Crippler Crossface. Balor would roll into a pinfall, but Joe kicked out and used the positioning to reapply, then changed it to a shoulder submission, softening him for more of the musclebuster and more of his arsenal.

After the destruction of the first dozen or so minutes, Balor finally made a comeback with a DDT. From this point it was pretty much a competitive match, with Balor’s answer to Joe’s earlier Elbow Suicida being a somersault Plancha to pop his fellow 10,000 or so Brits. They pulled Enziguris, Pele Kicks, forearm smashes, this really was an action-packed match full of bombs being thrown in attempt to break each other down for their ultimate finishers. Balor would even hit a double-foot stomp on a kneeling Joe for a near-fall and went for the Reverse Bloody Sunday but Joe cut off, only to get hit with multiple strikes and a second Sling Blade.

Joe would bounce back with a senton after avoiding the corner shotgun dropkick, kicking out after Balor got a Sunset Flip pinfall attempt counter on a musclebuster. Once Joe kicked out, he ate one of numerous Pele Kicks, with both down in exhaustion. The crowd was ecstatic for them to break the 10 count. After more competitive action, the finishing stretch came when Balor knocked down joe with multiple running shotgun dropkicks. He’d go for his “Coup de Grace” foot stomp finish, but Joe got up and attempted a musclebuster, only to be knocked down and ultimately eat it for the finish. A tremendous slugfest reminiscent of ROH’s glory days and living up to my dream match expectations. ****1/4



Had Corbin vs. Crews not disappointed, this is on par with Takeover: Respect. As is, this is just a shade below. In other words, SEE THIS IMMEDIATELY.

[supersonic]

ROAD TO ROYAL RUMBLE 2016

SmackDown! – December 17, 2015: The Good Shit

The New Day brag about winning the epic ladder match at TLC 2015, and claim the Usos and Lucha Dragons are just jealous about it. They go OTT by trying to sabotage fans from enjoying their antics.

Charlotte helps Becky Lynch win against Brie Bella.



Kevin Owens is focused on getting the IC Title back from that “cockroach” Dean Ambrose, saying “he cannot survive me.” He promises bad things for Dolph Ziggler in their match tonight, saying he won’t stop until he hospitalizes him.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***
(Owens goes for a post-match assault but Ambrose arrives to brawl with him. As Ziggler is leaving, Owens superkicks him. Ambrose checks on Ziggler who assumes it’s Owens, so the champ eats a superkick from the former World Champ to the delight of Owens.

Raw – December 21, 2015: The Good Shit

The 2015 Slammy Awards Show



Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***1/4





John Cena returns next week in Brooklyn to face US Champion Alberto Del Rio. Definitely missed him.

The New Day is pissed that the Usos won Tag Team of the Year. Even more damning than Neville winning Breakout Star of the Year. Big E hilariously threatens to spoil The Force Awakens, but Kofi Kingston stops since he hasn’t seen it yet.





SmackDown! – December 22, 2015: The Good Shit

The New Day are still justifiably about pissed about being snubbed for Tag Team of the Year, and song an entertaining rendition of “We Wish You A Booty Christmas and a Happy New Day.”



IC Title – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***1/2

NXT – December 23, 2015: The Good Shit

Vaudevillains vs. Hype Bros. vs. American Alpha vs. Wesley Blade & Buddy Murphy

The London crowd is fully behind AA, particularly Chad Gable. Incredibly fun spectacle with Gable dominating early, then once he tagged himself in got the ring cut in half on him by Blake & Murphy. Once Jason Jordan got tagged in, he threw suplexes aplenty, triggering a “Suplex City” chant. A big chunk of the participants fought to the outside, so Jordan gave Murphy an overhead belly-to-belly suplex over the top rope onto the pile, then he and Gable finished off Blake with the Grand Amplitude, and the ref never once failed to remember who was legal. ***1/2

An interview from last week with the Revival airs, one I didn’t find online. Dash Wilder gives Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore credit for their effort, but Scott Dawson says the Revival are clearly the best tag team on this planet.

Sami Zayn’s return to action is a wonderful moment as expected. Unfortunately, he has a long, tediously competitive match against Tye Dillinger. I’m sure this was done to give Dillinger some shine. It failed.

Raw – December 28, 2015: The Good Shit

Vince McMahon warns WWE Champion Roman Reigns that Triple H will be coming for vengeance soon, and Reigns won’t see it coming. Don’t care about any of the other silliness in this, even if well-executed.



Sasha Banks defeats Becky Lynch after Charlotte had stayed away to oblige Lynch’s request to let her win matches on her own.

The New Day refuse to sing for Brooklyn due to being robbed of the Tag Team of the Year Award and not even being nominated for OMG Moment of the Year. This is fucking hilarious.



Finally, an actual brawling feud between these two. Now if only could have a true promo confrontation for the ages like I know they’re capable of.

It’s definitely good to see John Cena back. Don’t care about him feuding with the League of Nations, but we all learned just how valuable he truly is during his two-month absence.

The Rock will appear at WrestleMania 32!

Raw – January 4, 2016: The Good Shit

Neville vs. Kevin Owens - ***1/4
(Post-match brawl between IC Champ Dean Ambrose and Owens when the latter tries to further assault Neville. Ambrose gives Owens an elbow drop through a commentary table, saying to come get the IC Title if he wants it so badly.)



Chris Jericho returns to the main roster! The segment sucks, but who cares? The roster needs his star power depth during the most important time of the year.

Vince McMahon informs WWE Champ Roman Reigns will be defending the title at Royal Rumble 2016 in the Rumble match itself.



SmackDown! – January 7, 2016: The Good Shit

Making his new debut as the program’s lead commentator is the legendary Mauro Ranallo. No complaints whatsoever here.



Renee Young asks Kevin Owens for a minute of his own, so he gives her 60 seconds and checks her watch while he claims he dethrones the “cockroach” IC Champ Dean Ambrose tonight. Hilarious how adamant he is about the 60 seconds.



Raw – January 11, 2016: The Good Shit



John Cena is confirmed to be out of action for several months and will miss WrestleMania 32 due to shoulder surgery. FUCK, now the obvious match against Undertaker is off the table. Just unreal.

Divas Champion Charlotte says she learned from Paige to throw ethics and sentiment out the window.



Becky Lynch gives a great interview voicing his disappointment in Charlotte and vows to defeat her again.

Brock Lesnar’s in the Royal Rumble match! OH FUCK YES~! His presence will be HUGELY instrumental in rejuvenating that concept as a special box-office attraction, which is badly needed after the past couple years.

NXT – January 13, 2016
Sami Zayn confirms he’s gunning for the NXT Title, while Samoa Joe claims otherwise based on what happened at Takeover: Unstoppable and based on his performance against Balor. Baron Corbin says that based on defeating Apollo Crews, he should be #1 contender, then Joe references beating him at Takeover: Brooklyn to say he has no claim. It’s so awesome to see Samoa Joe and an unmasked El Generico doing business together for an inevitable singles match that nobody else ever booked.



SmackDown! – January 14, 2016: The Good Shit

IC Champ Dean Ambrose challenges Kevin Owens to face him in a Last Man Standing match for the title at Royal Rumble 2016. OH FUCK YES~!

Becky Lynch challenges Divas Champ Charlotte to a title match at Royal Rumble 2016. Look forward to it.

Raw – January 18, 2016: The Good Shit





Kevin Owens is great on commentary as usual during Dean Ambrose’s match.

The New Day vs. The Usos for the Tag Titles is confirmed for Royal Rumble 2016, as is Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto for the US Title. A terrific card on paper and unofficial night of champions.

NXT – January 20, 2016: The Good Shit

Rich Swann makes his WWE debut in a losing effort to Baron Corbin.

Next week’s main event is Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin for an NXT Title shot.

Dry month of build on top. Huge missed opportunities for the midcarders and curtain-jerkers to not get any airtime at all to discuss their rare opportunity to become WWE Champion in the Royal Rumble match. Whatever, with all the rumors going on, I’m anxious for Royal Rumble 2016.

[supersonic]

Royal Rumble 2016: The Good Shit (AKA The Entire PPV Portion)

Kevin Owens gives another fantastic interview, citing his main roster debut victory over John Cena as evidence that tonight, he reclaims the IC Title from Dean Ambrose in their Last Man Standing match, and then will later win the WWE Title in the Royal Rumble match. Total babyface if he wasn’t a rude jabroni.

IC Title – Last Man Standing Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens

Not including any trios action, easily the best Ambrose match in WWE to date, perhaps of his entire career actually, definitely in the same conversation as his feuds against Seth Rollins and Jimmy Jacobs. Owens brought his trash-talking A-game to this one, with gems such as “I hate you” (which Ambrose repeated back to him), “Stay down!,” and even early in the match when their wrestling telepathy went off ever so briefly and Owens told Ambrose “you’re going my way.”

The psychology of the match built up beautifully as both men gave valiant efforts to be the alpha and leave the evening as IC Champ. The first near-fall was great as Owens tossed Ambrose around on the outside, then hit him with a cannonball that broke down the barricade. Other great moments would be Owens being back-dropped into chairs on a powerbomb attempt, the build to the pop-up powerbomb later on as a near-fall, and of course the Super Swinging Fisherman’s Neckbreaker through a table.

The finish came when Owens stacked some chairs together and placed Ambrose on them, planning to squash him through the chairs via a moonsault. But the overzealous ego of Owens caught up to him (surprisingly so considering he ate double underhook DDTs, the second on a chair, and rolled out of the ring to avoid the 10 count.) His cockiness cost him opportunities to dish out additional punishment on Ambrose earlier; in this case he inexplicably forgot that he set up stacked tables in this corner, so when Ambrose got up, he simply shoved Owens the outside, he did a front somersault through them. A truly epic, climatic finish that his match deserved.

With so much content nowadays and WWE’s failure to market this instant classic afterwards, I fear this match may not go on to have the historic reputation that it earned. Simply put, this match lived up to the expectations I had for these two to eventually collide the day that Kevin Steen signed with WWE.

As a PPV broadcast opener, this is one of the greatest EVER. It’s in the same class as celebrated gems such as the Rockers vs. Kato & Pat Tanaka, Jushin Liger vs. Brian Pillman, Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart, Pillman vs. Johnny B. Badd, Psychosis vs. Rey Mysterio, Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko, Malenko vs. Ultimo Dragon, Mysterio vs. Billy Kidman vs. Juventud Guerrera, Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero, MITB 2007, the Money in the Bank 2011 and 2013 PPV openers, Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan, and D-Bry vs. Triple H. This kicked an event off into absolutely high gear and had Orlando rocking.

As a Last Man Standing match, this is right in the conversation with Triple H’s classics against Chris Jericho and Randy Orton, as well as John Cena’s classics against Umaga, Edge, and Wyatt. It might actually be the very best LMS of all-time.

This is also one of the all-time elite IC Title matches, in the same class as Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, Mr. Perfect vs. Bret Hart, Bret vs. Davey Boy Smith, Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty, both of the HBK’s PPV ladder matches against Scott Hall, The Rock vs. Triple H, Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley, and Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio. This is not a hyperbolic statement – this is a match that years in the future when viewers revisit this event, they will truly grasp what a work of art plunder match this truly is. Now I just wonder how these two will top themselves when they inevitably have a main event feud. ****1/2

Tag Titles Match
Big E & Kofi Kingston vs. The Usos

Jericho had destroyed their trombone, so the New Day have a moment of silence for it, only for Xavier Woods to show up with a new one to the crowd’s delight.

Crowd treated the Usos as total heels in this, simply because of what an entertaining act the New Day had become. Early in the match, the Usos even played dirty, which was justified knowing that Woods would be interfering inevitably to play the numbers game. Speaking of Woods, he earned his paycheck on this night. When the crowd chanted “Play Francesca,” he set the trombone down and refused, not allowing the crowd to dictate. He would later quote Shang Tsung from the Mortal Kombat film, telling an Uso “your brother’s soul is mine… you will be next.” Then near the end he ordered Big E to “finish him!”

There was of course some great wrestling in this one packed with cutoffs and tremendous spots. I particularly loved the perfectly executed superkick that was blocked by Kingston’s roundhouse kick, allowing him to get the advantage and a takedown. The match truly peaked at the end, just like the prior match, when Kingston got tagged by E and Jimmy didn’t see it. So Kingston ate a gorgeous close range superkick, then Jimmy went up top for a splash. While in the air, E got in the ring and caught him, immediately dropping him with the Big Ending to the crowd’s delight and Woods celebrating on the trombone. So far so good for this PPV. ***1/2



US Title Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto

One of Alberto’s most motivated efforts since returning, perhaps because this is an opponent he can bounce ideas off of. Very crisp match for the most part, but even the botch that I’ll get into was improvised into something that worked. Alberto did his best to keep Kalisto often at a distance, using his size and arm length advantage also to hit devastating attacks on numerous high-risk move attempts. But Kalisto would keep finding a way to sucker Alberto in, using his quickness in the finishing stretch to seal the deal.

I recall a Skull Crush Hurricanrana, Springboard Twisting Press, and botched Code Red in which Kalisto slipped off and landed head-first. However, Alberto’s body still went backward with the momentum, allowing Kalisto to improvise with a cradle pinfall attempt. Kalisto managed to evade the cross armbreaker, while Alberto blocked a Super Sitdown Shiraniu, instead countering it with a Super Reverse Vertical Suplex. But once Alberto’s head hit the turnbuckle and Kalisto immediately hit a follow-up Sitdown Shiranui, it was ballgame for him to recapture the US Title.

If Alberto can find just the right dynamic to heat him up as a character like Big E & Kofi Kingston did, I’d love to see these have a blood feud. Under the right circumstances, we could have this decade’s version of Rey Msyterio vs. Eddie Guerrero on our hands here. ***1/4

Divas Title Match
Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Charlotte is of course accompanied by her father Ric Flair. Lynch targeted her left arm early to set up for the seated Fujiwara arm bar, but didn’t do enough damage to make it mean something. Perhaps that’s on Charlotte to become a better seller, but whatever. Charlotte would gain control by blocking some boots in the corner and hitting a neckbreaker, and she deserves tremendous credit for heeling it up while on offense. I’d have liked to see Lynch show more fire in her comebacks, but perhaps the plan is for her to be the female Cesaro and Bayley will become the female Daniel Bryan in that regard.

The finishing stretch would come when Lynch successfully blocked a top-rope move in the corner and turned it into a cross armbreaker, which the champ eventually ended with a powerbomb. She missed Lynch on a baseball slide, hitting her dad instead. Lynch rolled up and locked on the seated Fujiwara armbar, so Ric threw his jacket on Lynch to distract the ref, allowing Charlotte to hit an eye poke and spear to retain. ***

In the post-match, Charlotte continues assaulting Lynch and poses with Ric. The theme song for Sasha Banks plays and Charlotte is clearly rattled by her new obvious challenger. Banks slides Lynch out of the ring, saying this is her spotlight, teases being BFFs with Charlotte again, and then hits her with a Lungblower and Banks Statement! Tremendous moment that the crowd ate up, and why wouldn’t it? This is an important event drawing tourist hardcore marks and it’s in NXT’s home city of Orlando. I cannot wait for the obvious, inevitable three-way at AT&T Stadium.

The 2016 Royal Rumble Match for the WWE Title

The one major detriment is getting taken care of first: this match did a TERRIBLE job in getting Roman Reigns over as a sympathetic character. In fact, I wonder if Kofi Kingston’s elimination took place simultaneously as the League of Nations (sans Wade Barrett) attacked Reigns with Vince McMahon cheering it on, as a means of making it appear to the TV audience that the crowd, who would legit be upset about Kingston’s elimination, is pissed about Reigns getting screwed.

With that out of the way, this was otherwise an excellent Rumble match, the best edition since the classic in Phoenix 3 years earlier. Without question, there were 3 peaks in this match, which I’ll be going over of course. What made this stand out so well was the pacing of this and different stories it told, especially the various teasing of interesting matchups that could come in the future.

For the first half of this match, the debuting AJ Styles was unquestionably a huge breath of fresh air as so many familiar WWE names piled into the ring. I for one couldn’t be happier for the enormous he got when the phrase “I am phenomenal” popped up on the Titantron; this was a world-class, Hall of Fame level performer that had spent more than a decade never getting his just recognition, and then had to jump across the Pacific Ocean to make that happen. When considering that he had never been treated seriously in prior negotiations with WWE, this may objectively be more inspirational than Daniel Bryan’s rise to headlining the biggest show of the year.

Of course, the debuting Styles was by far the crowd favorite in this match, a testament to how poor the writers had been with its roster in 2015. There’s the other dynamic that there were so many fresh, and in some cases legitimate dream matchups for him in this one. I love the fact the reigning Wrestler of the Year Award winner’s first in-ring foe was the WWE Champion Roman Reigns. That moment was like two worlds truly colliding, the best of each one. The other major opponent for him in this one was Jericho, and they seemed INCREDIBLY eager to work with each other. I know that I had been looking forward to them colliding for a dozen years, having given up hope a couple years back when Styles got a significantly better offer from NJPW. I certainly was thirsty to see them have a singles match at AT&T Stadium coming out of this main event.

Another standout performer in this one was Kofi Kingston as mentioned. The New Day were hilarious as he was entering the match, and then we got an incredibly creative false elimination for him to continue that tradition first started by John Morrison. As Kingston was being clotheslined out of the ring, the New Day were right behind, and he landed on Big E’s shoulders to the crowd’s delight! The New Day ran around in celebration over this, and it was truly a peak moment for the entire evening, not just this match.

There were plenty of other standout performers in this one, and I’m gonna keep going over them. Kevin Owens, while motivated by selfish reasons, gave an inspiring performance as he limped to the ring, still sore from the MOTYC brawl that opened the PPV a couple hours earlier. His immediate fisticuffs with Styles provided for an off-the-charts atmosphere, and who couldn’t love him superkicking Styles right as he had Neville in position for the Styles Clash, followed by “welcome to WWE!” and then tossing him outside?

It was sheer genius for Owens to get those honors rather than IC Champ Dean Ambrose as originally planned, because as mentioned Styles was by far the crowd favorite, even more than a certain Beast that was to smash his fingerprints all over this roller-coaster. I also liked that Styles was eliminated right before Ambrose’s entrance; I’m sure that barring injury, those two will eventually collide, and having that matchup not happen yet will make us ache for it in the future. Ambrose and Owens of course picked up on their hatred for each other before they eventually had to remember there were other participants.

The second peak moment would be Sami Zayn’s entrance into this match, one that I easily foresaw coming as soon as his shoulder went out and the reports said wintertime for his ETA. Owens was sensational selling the shock of Zayn’s appearance, having convinced himself that he’d never pay for the sins committed against his former best friend, even though he had shown up earlier in the month to troll him some more. It was a sensational moment for the two to pick up on their feud going into the biggest show in company history, and what a beautiful piece of art to have Zayn eliminate Owens, sabotaging his attempt to capture the biggest prize in the business.

The next standout performer to go over would be Brock Lesnar, who came in and turned the match into Suplex City as expected. What I said about Styles being gone before Ambrose came in? Multiply that by 1000 in this case, as it would’ve been a huge mistake to have Lesnar or Styles putting each other over on this night. The time will eventually come for them to do business together. It was also fantastic booking to have their arcs completely separate in this match, as it meant there was really something for everyone.

Lesnar and Jericho didn’t much business in this match, which was a bit disappointing to me. However, there were plenty of doozies involving Lesnar in this one, including obliterating Bray Wyatt’s cronies and even taking Dean Ambrose to Suplex City on occasion. Seeing Lesnar manhandle Ambrose was something I’d been wanting to see for a couple years, and now that we had a taste, they visually looked like a great contrasting matchup for each other.

An interesting moment to me Jack Swagger entering and getting immediately obliterated by Lesnar. Considering the combat sports history both men have against Cain Velasquez, I’d be curious if Lesnar could so easily squash Jake Hager in a shoot. I absolutely loved Lesnar just stiffing the shit out of Braun Strowman early on a lariat to know him down in a showcase of heavyweights as well. Lesnar in this match totally lived up to expectations, even after Bray Wyatt told his Wyatt Family members to help him eliminate the Beast.

It was good to see Dolph Ziggler some shine in this one; and perhaps it was a good thing he came in right after Lesnar was eliminated, not having to get completely feasted upon by the Beast. Keeping him away from Styles makes that interesting dream match for later down the road as well. Another great moment was when Lesnar hadn’t been eliminated yet, just leaving a path of destruction in his wake, and the Miz came out. Rather than enter the match, Miz joined the commentary team and said he would wait for a convenient time to step in the ring, which came after all the monsters were out of the match.

As Sheamus entered the match, Reigns reappeared, having been taken to the back for medical attention after the cheap mugging by the LON, and Superman Punched him. The crowd still hated Reigns, perhaps losing respect for him leaving the match for so long after Ambrose and Owens battled without hesitation despite brutalizing each other in their classic. With Reigns now mentioned, it’s time to mention his pretty good bewilderment expression when Triple H was the final entrant, although he should’ve clearly seen that coming.

HHH and Reigns had a staredown, the latter easily disposing of Ziggler with a Pedigree, the former easily disposing of Wyatt with a spear. While on the surface that could be viewed as burials of the midcard backbone, neither were tossed out, as instead the main-eventers were too focused on each other to eliminate them. Once they went at it, their matchup was quite good, making me actually look forward to their obvious main event to come at WrestleMania 32.

A teased matchup for down the road would be when Wyatt and HHH had a staredown, and the former chose not to form an alliance to take out Reigns, instead having a battle of his own with the Game. Once Wyatt, Jericho, and Ziggler got taken out, the final four became basically a mini-tag collision of Reigns & Ambrose vs. Sheamus & HHH.

Reigns took care of Sheamus, but then HHH scooped him up from behind for an elimination in the third and final peak moment of this match, leaving it to Ambrose vs. HHH!

The crowd was fucking rocking here, happy for Reigns to be gone and knowing a new champ would be crowned. This was ingenious booking, as Reigns vs. HHH at the end likely could’ve been lackluster or had the crowd rooting for the NXT godfather. The crowd was solidly behind the damaged Ambrose, hoping he could pull off the miracle against the fresh HHH, but it just wasn’t meant to be, as HHH captured his 14 WWE/World Title. As stated, an excellent piece of business that must be seen, especially seeing Styles as an incredibly fresh coat of paint in the match’s first half. ****





It’s quite puzzling that the camera angle wasn’t corrected on the on-demand stream, but the company managed to remove Ric Flair kissing Becky Lynch to fuck with her.

This is probably gonna be the North American show of the year. Every match delivered, including one that I compared to numerous highly-regarded all-time classics. Need I say anymore?

[supersonic]

ROAD TO THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Raw – January 25, 2016: The Good Shit

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***



Dream Match
Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles

Styles won an arm twist battle early, so Jericho just clubbed him and hit a back elbow to do some damage. Styles regains control after a leaping lariat, but Jericho cuts him off in the corner. Minor fuck-up by Jericho being in the wrong corner at first to hit a springboard dropkick to the running Styles off the apron, finally gaining some advantage. It becomes clear what Jericho’s aiming to do when he says “C’mon kid” then slaps his head. This feels somewhat similar to Bryan Danielson’s demeanor towards Styles at ROH’s Main Event Spectacles.

Styles teased a comeback as the crowd rooted for him, but Jericho tripped him on the apron as the broadcast went to commercial break. Back from break, Jericho still has control and then they knock each down with mutual crossbodies. Styles hits a tremendous striking combo that he learned in NJPW followed by Stinger Splash. Jericho elbows Styles while on his shoulders and goes for the Boston Crab, but that’s blocked and he eats the planned fireman’s carry neckbreaker.

A Northern Lights Suplex and bridge is countered into a backslide by Styles, but Jericho regains control with an Enziguri. Styles cuts off a running charge and then delivers a springboard foream for a nearfall. Styles mistakenly goes for a hurricanrana, which is turned into a visually flawless Boston Crab. He reaches the ropes to the Miami crowd’s delight. After getting up, he hits a Pele Kick counter but misses a Frog Splash. Jericho eats knees to his gut on a Quebrada attempt, then blocks the Styles Clash, but gets pinned Sunset Flip style for Styles to get the victory. Post-match, Jerico holds on to the handshake, obviously bothered by being defeated by someone he tried using to keep his name relevant. This is a great first chapter for a rivalry. ***1/2



Rich Brennan awaits to advertised major star to return tonight, and Miz shows up in a limo. He’s interrupted by a large pickup truck, and out walks THE ROCK~!

Miz tries to shame Rock for stealing the moment, so he gets buried and told to park the truck. Miami legend Rick Ross gets some love. Rock runs into Big Show and discusses their 2000 Royal Rumble match finish, admitting Show should’ve won and his life could’ve been so different, perhaps getting all the Hollywood roles. Show breaks his laptop and breaks down in tears, while Rock condescendingly puts him over.

Rock then runs into Lana, who doesn’t look thrilled to see him. He strongly claims they engaged in sexual activity in the hotel room after their segment 16 months earlier in Brooklyn. Rusev then shows up and just takes it. Rock congratulates him on the engagement, then says he’s got a spouse that’s “flexible as all Hell.” If you’re gonna bury someone, then all I ask is at least do it this way. BE FUCKING ENTERTAINING IN THE DELIVERY LIKE DWAYNE JOHNSON. As he continues walking to the entrance, he gives Pat Patterson a shout-out then reaches Gorilla position, getting his hometown South Beach crowd hyped for him to walk through the curtain.

Crowd chants “this is awesome!” before he says a word. Rock starts getting everyone hyped for WrestleMania 32, then says he doesn’t even remember the black commentator’s name. Rock then goes “off-script” when he notices fans in wrestling costumes sitting front row to a huge pop. After the Hulk Hogan guy, he says “the weed is good in Miami tonight, obviously.” Randy Savage guy goes last since the crowd had been chanting for him. Absolutely tremendous improvisation.

He says it’s time to get hyped for tonight, then FUCK YES NEW DAY INTERRUPTS HIM~! Xavier Woods puts Bryon Saxton over and acknowledges him by name which Saxton appreciates. “Watch the product.” They brag about dominating the tag division, then ask the “People’s Champion” where his gold is to put themselves over as Tag Champs and even pointing out their golden trombone. Big E says he’s a pretty smart man saying he just like LeBron James, he got the Hell out of Miami for greener pastures. “He says he did it for the people, but he did it for the paycheck.”

He puts them over for being extremely entertaining, then describes their unicorn horns head bands as “llama penises.” This guy knows how to make the juvenile humor to not be low-rent unlike Jericho. He mocks Big E for being gotten to, saying “she’s getting upset.” Then he throws a “nerdy” jab saying it looks like “the Incredible Hulk banged Erkel.” Rock then invites them into the ring so he can shove the trombone up their candy-asses.

New Day then have a “champions huddle,” excluding Rock since he’s not a champion. Rock calls out the silliness of that, telling them to get in the ring. They then say Miami doesn’t deserve for this to “get real” and attempt to fuck off, only for Rock to say he made a Plan B in his family. The Usos then come out and have a brawl with the champ, dragging them to the ring for a 3-on-3 melee! As usual, Woods is saved for last and takes the most punishment, including the People’s Elbow!

An absolutely five-star segment that never once dragged for its approximate half hour of uninterrupted time on the broadcast. The crowd was bonkers, the burials were the most entertaining I’ve ever seen, Rock’s improvisation elevated this to new heights, the New Day got to have a dream verbal confrontation with the greatest entertainer in pro wrestling history, and the Usos got a rub at the end as well, effectively giving the tag division a rub. Flawless entertainment here and in a normal year, would’ve easily been the best Raw segment of 2016. But of course, while this would be the blissful hometown yin in the most geographically Southeast major metro area of America, a tear-jerking hometown yang would await us in the largest metro area in the opposite corner of the nation to challenge for that spot.



Stephanie McMahon confirms the WWE Title Shot main event at Fast Lane 2016 in Cleveland will be Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns. It’ll be interesting to see Ambrose and Lesnar go at it. Obviously Ambrose is in the match to do the job. What’s puzzling is for Reigns to be placed in a match taking place on Ohio soil against Lesnar and a Cincy guy when the goal is make him the babyface franchise player. Oh well, match should deliver.



Main Event – January 26, 2016
Jack Swagger vs. Kevin Owens - ***
Rusev vs. Ryback - ***1/2

NXT – January 27, 2016: The Good Shit

A good Asuka video package airs that’s less than 2 minutes. Weird how a one-hour show can fit this in.

Ditto for Baron Corbin.

Alex Riley cuts an incredible self-importance promo, failing to realize how irrelevant he is in spite of the years he’d spent in WWE.

Finn Balor vs. Apollo Crews headlines next week in a non-title match.



SmackDown! – January 28, 2016: The Good Shit

The New Day cut a funny promo trying to shame the Rock for his verbiage this week, then the Miz shows up to pile on, trying to play the Hollywood card.

US Title Match
Kalisto vs. Neville - ***

Raw – February 1, 2016: The Good Shit

Paul Heyman cuts his usually great promo to sell Brock Lesnar’s upcoming match against Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. Unfortunately, once Ambrose interrupts, his confrontation with Lesnar is lackluster.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***

MizTV
Guest: AJ Styles

Great heat segment here as Miz told the story of Styles taking so long to come to WWE, and never allowing the newcomer to speak. This of course got to be too much that Styles went mental on Miz. VERY bad decision for Miz to be smug to this guy, proving he hasn’t done his proper film study of Styles against the like of Low Ki, Samoa Joe, Paul London, Bryan Danielson, and Christopher Daniels when they’ve pissed him off. I imagine there’s plenty of NJPW stuff displaying that testiness of his as well. Crowd was fully behind Styles here while Miz attempted to bury him.

The New Day cut another amusing promo shaming the Rock for the week before, saying to think of the children! Interesting to see them point out a child and presumably his father in Bullet Club shirts, with the camera showing them multiple times.



NXT – February 3, 2016: The Good Shit

Carmella has a good pre-taped interview with Tom Phillips so she can explain the importance of her upcoming NXT Women’s Title shot against Bayley. Zero interest in the match but this is pretty convincing.

NXT Tag Champs The Revival gladly welcome another defense against Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore so they can have once again prove to the best tag team on the planet.

NXT GM William Regal has a rematch planned to determine an NXT Champion. He informs the entitled Baron Corbin that he for sure lost against Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn. Those two will be facing each other in one-on-on action.

Finn Balor vs. Apollo Crews - ***1/4

SmackDown! – February 4, 2016
The Miz vs. AJ Styles - ***1/4
In the post-match, Chris Jericho and Styles agree to a rematch next week in Portland. That’s enough to convince me to make the drive.

[supersonic]

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN…

Music I find appropriate while reflecting on this historic event:



Raw – February 8, 2016: The Good Shit

Various Bryan Danielson related videos, including video packages and thoughts of his peers:

Spoiler: show

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens - ***1/4



MizTV with guest Chris Jericho gets turned into The Highlight Reel after Jericho buries Miz for not being entertaining. Miz is great protesting as well as questioning why AJ Styles attacked him last week. Miz is pissed when footage of his teeth being fucked up airs, claiming to have auditioned last week for Stephen Spielberg. Jericho laughs at his diatribe and recites “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” That’d be far more appropriate to sing for Mark Briscoe.

Miz is seriously tremendous being so easily gotten to, pointing out Jericho also lost to Styles and that it’s eating him alive, which Jericho admits is true. We Seattleites start chanting for Styles, which displays just how much of a global star he’s become considering he has very minimal history here. This week in their rematch, Jericho will remind Styles that he’s still the best in the world. Styles comes out, granting me the first time I’ve seen him live in a decade (ROH’s Vendetta.) Miz attacks Jericho from behind, only to get taken out by the two all-time greats. The workrate legends have a staredown then a melee that Miz ruins, so he’s taken out again for his trouble.







The New Day successfully recruit Mark Henry in amusing fashion to be their partner tonight in their tables match against the Usos and the Dudleyz.

The Usos and Dudleyz win the tables match thanks to a 3D. In the post-match, the Dudleyz FINALLY make their badly needed heel turn on the Usos. Bubba portraying his Bully Ray character is exactly what this thin roster needs now with Bryan Danielson’s retirement official in addition to all the stars shelved. This makes sense as well – the Dudleyz have been in danger of becoming totally irrelevant.

Various Danielson videos pre-ceremony, including WWE highlight reel and family moments:

Spoiler: show

BRYAN DANIELSON’S RETIREMENT CEREMONY

“For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

Look at those grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

Lou Gehrig on July 4, 1939, announcing his retirement at Yankee Stadium

I am not going to dive deep into this segment, as instead I will allow Dave Meltzer to speak for me:

There is a Pandora’s Box in the sports world, and Bryan Danielson’s version of the Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech as he retired from pro wrestling on the 2/8 Raw at the Key Arena in Seattle, was one of many key moments as the box continues to open wider.

Danielson, better known as Daniel Bryan, announced his retirement at the age of 34 in a nearly 25 minute speech that combined humor, sadness, unbridled joy, and nearly every other emotion possible. In reality, it was a longer and even better version of the sports speech it has already been compared with, even if it will never come close to the notoriety. It was also the single greatest segment in the history of modern televised pro wrestling.

As far as my own takeaway from this segment: I am privileged to have come home and experienced this moment in person. While bittersweet, I could not have fathomed witnessing this incredibly important life chapter for both Bryan Danielson’s life and career, and to have it in Seattle, OUR hometown, to boot. There's also the surreal dynamic of having this come the day after Marshawn Lynch's retirement as well.

In my 3 years since I returned home, I have been blessed to experience some tremendous gridiron football and professional wrestling, in addition to unforgettable moments that moved me to tears. While of course an extremely different flavor of fandom-defining entertainment, this ceremony is equivalent to the Seahawks’ Super Bowl XLVIII Championship Parade in February 2014. Like that parade, this speech was truly larger-than-life, and now after a few more embedded attachments, I will give my thoughts on a special career, inasmuch as I can only 7 weeks removed from this retirement speech.

Footage from after the broadcast:

Spoiler: show

While many of Danielson's peers of his career, including John Cena, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn, Randy Orton, Austin Aries, and Hideo Itami, were either on the shelf or on NXT at the time of this event, I do like the symbolism that some on the stage carried:

Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, Ryback, and Darren Young - NXT Season 1 and Nexus

The Miz - NXT Season 1, Danielon's first WWE feud and title win

Mark Henry - Danielon's first feud in his rise to relevance in WWE

Sheamus - Danielson's first feud and WWE breakout match opponent

Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns - WWE's weekly TV opponents in his rise to the tippy-top

The Authority - WrestleMania XXX

Kevin Steen - indy circuit peer and opponent

AJ Styles - indy circuit peer and one of Danielson's greatest career opponents with numerous MOTYC wars against each other

















I’m not gonna be able to do a true deep dive on Mr. Danielson’s career quite yet. That time will come in 2019 when I catch up on my retro indy viewing to his rivalry-ending, mutual ROH farewell match against his greatest opponent Nigel McGuinness.

Instead, I will take this time to share the gravity of what a special contributor to the professional wrestling business he was (and possibly could still be.) Before I even do that though, we must remember that this is a major fork on the Road to WrestleMania 32 journey, and with that in mind, I must address the following:

This is the final domino in completely, utterly obliterating my dream card to take place come April 3 at AT&T Stadium. While we now know for sure there were no plans to ever clear him out of concern for his own well-being and the company’s medical practice integrity, we didn’t know for 100% sure until February 8, 2016. With Bryan Danielson’s official retirement, my most anticipated match, AND his most anticipated match as well, that being the dream David vs. Goliath collision course against Brock Lesnar, is now permanently shelved. That absolutely sucks for me as a fan, without question. While my thirst for Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan could never touch what I had for Shawn Michaels vs. Eddie Guerrero, this was the closest competition possible for that spot.

So now all of the following matches I had hoped to see have been removed from what was supposed to be the biggest show in company history:

Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan
Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton
Undertaker vs. Sting
Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns
John Cena vs. Cesaro
John Cena vs. Undertaker

UN. FUCKING. REAL.

With that out of the way, I can now return to focusing singularly on Danielson.

I’m gonna bring up a name that Danielson will always be compared to, another legend that he unfortunately never got to do business with. On June 25, 2007, my wrestling fandom innocence was emotionally bent over and assaulted by the unspeakable actions of Chris Benoit. As I went through the difficult five stages of grief to process the tragic deaths of not just Chris, but more importantly Nancy and Daniel, I was taught a difficult life lesson, which would be to avoid the sin of false idolization.

My mentality as a fan still developing into a man at age 20 coming out of the Benoit family tragedy was to not just avoid false idolization, but become highly cynical towards celebrities of both the mainstream and underground levels. After all, Benoit had hidden so many demons until it was too late, so why would I ever again be foolish enough to view athletes and entertainers as nothing more than carnies putting on a show that I pay to see?

On March 31, 2008, I was moved to tears by Ric Flair’s unforgettable retirement ceremony, less than a year since the Benoit family tragedy. However, I still had my guard up. I still loved consuming and discussing this wacky form of entertainment, but I was overly cautious, never once wanting to become emotionally attached to a person I only know through his body of work, not as a loved one or even at least as a peer or colleague.

Bryan Danielson, because of his patience and kindness to me on multiple occasions in my encounters with him, as well as the genuinely big heart he that conveyed beyond the structures of his chosen profession, reminded me that I could truly get behind someone again. He reminded me that I could genuinely be happy for someone I celebrate as an athlete and entertainer. Like Steve Borden, he reminded me that not every celebrity and popular figure is a demon when the cameras turn off.

More than the fact that a decade later, his masterpiece against Roderick Strong at Vendetta remains the greatest match I’ve ever witness in person, Danielson’s traits as a human being are what have had the greatest impact on me. His cream-of-the-crap workrate, extremely underrated charisma, and rise to the top of the business are all just delicious gravy for a human being filled with substance.

While I will not falsely claim something as ludicrous as knowing Bryan Danielson on any kind of personal or professional level, I am comfortable enough in stating that I know he is a quality person and role model. It is because of him that I no longer have such a strongly cynical viewpoint of entertainers, using my fully developed adult brain to make better judgments of character and sometimes give these strangers the benefit of the doubt, whether it’s a professional wrestler, multi-million-dollar team sport athlete, or film star.

Without question, Bryan Danielson is a Hall of Famer and will be inducted in the two that matter in the coming years. While everyone of course feels sadness at his career being cut so swiftly, there’s no denying the one emotion he expressed when considering everything he’s done for us: gratitude.

If you ever read this Mr. Danielson, thank you for everything. Thank you for reminding me that this world is filled with kind souls and rejuvenating my optimistic attitude about those who entertain us for a living. This seedy business is incredibly blessed to have had you play such an inspiring part in it, and I can only imagine the future stars who will learn from your contributions. I wish you nothing but the absolute best in whatever the next chapter of your life ends up being.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

The Danielson write-up was heartfelt and superb. Good stuff.

[supersonic]

ROAD TO FAST LANE 2016

Main Event – February 9, 2016
Heath Slater vs. Zack Ryder - ***

NXT – February 10, 2016: The Good Shit

Asuka assists NXT Women’s Champion Bayley and Carmella from an assault by Nia Jax & Eva Marie. What really matters: Asuka makes it clear to Bayley she’s gunning for the title.

Samoa Joe vows to beat Sami Zayn next week and end up NXT Champion.

SmackDown! – February 11, 2016: The Good Shit

The Dudleyz cut a great promo, saying they’re tired of being tried as a one-note nostalgia act. No more tables shtick as they gun to reclaim the Tag Titles. Like anyone believes they’re sincere.

Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles

Damn good performance from Jericho here, as he was on fire with so many small details to paint the picture of this superior rematch. The pacing and cutoffs were top-notch as could be expected, but he was the one to elevate this. I loved him repeatedly kicking Styles at random points, daring Styles to step up his aggression. There was also a terrific moment of selling when Styles cut him off with a dropkick to the midsection. When Jericho hit a Quebrada moments later, he delayed for just a split to go the cover due to the pain in his abdomen. Styles was his usually great self, but Jericho stepped up his game as well, and it made sense based on his overall superior control to come out the victor here, setting up what’d be on obvious rubber match for Fast Lane 2016. ***3/4

Raw – February 15, 2016: The Good Shit

IC Title – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Stardust vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Kevin Owens - ***14
(Owens reclaims the IC Title but without pinning Ambrose of course.)

Ambrose welcomes more obstacles. Owens gloats and demands Renee Young to say he was right. Ziggler gets in his face and challenges him for the belt at Fast Lane 2016 based on having beaten the new champ clean twice this month. Owens of course declines.

The Miz vs. AJ Styles - ***
(Styles challenges Chris Jericho to the expected rubber match for Fast Lane 2016. Jericho declines, saying he’ll have an answer on SmackDown!)

Paul Heyman asks Roman Reigns to come out and hear his statement face-to-face. He respectfully states he believes Reigns cannot get past Brock Lesnar this Sunday, but says should he go on to stand above them all by dethroning Triple H for the WWE Title at AT&T Stadium, he must of course get past his best friend Ambrose. Either do what’s best for his daughter or what’s best for his friendship. Will he make friends and end up in divorce court, or put his family first and hold the top prize? Reigns isn’t rallted though, making reference to already facing Ambrose for the title. After Heyman leaves, the Dudleyz attack Reigns who’s saved by Ambrose. Been wanting that particular tag match for months. Ambrose teases a double underhook DDT on Reigns. Solid segment.

Vince McMahon will present a Vincent J. McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award next week in Detroit.



NXT – February 17, 2016: The Good Shit

Baron Corbin demands of NXT GM William Regal to be in the NXT Title Shot match, but Regal says he lost and his decision is final. Corbin feels this is stealing and warns about “eye for an eye.”



SmackDown! – February 18, 2016: The Good Shit

Confirmed is Kevin Owens defending the IC Title against Doph Ziggler in the challenger’s hometown of Cleveland this Sunday. Owens provides his usual excellent commentary during the trios match pitting Ziggler and the Usos against Rusev, Sheamus, & Alberto Del Rio.



Fabolous is in the house with his son. He’s 13 years late and in the wrong location for his invitation to Safeco Field.

[supersonic]

Fast Lane 2016: The Good Shit

US Title – 2/3 Falls Match
Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio - ***1/2

IC Title Match
Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler

Typical good match between these two, though I preferred their prior Cleveland match last summer since Owens was white-hot at the time feuding with John Cena. Owens dominated the first several minutes, delivering numerous trash-talking gems such as trolling Ziggler about dueling chants in his hometown and saying he could do this all night. Ziggler would generally cut Owens later via multiple superkicks, which while a sound “if it works then do it” strategy, hurt the crowd psychology when he tuned up the band. I appreciated that clean as a sheet, Owens went over after the pop-up powerbomb. ***1/2



Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles

The best match in their series thanks to an electrifying finish. It was competitive early with various cutoffs, the best one coming later when Jericho hit a sling-shooting Styles with a dropkick on the outside. Jericho did a fabulous job working the back of Styles with the Boston Crab and even a Liontamer on the outside. Eventually, the finish came when Jericho attempted to work the back more going for a double underhook backbreaker, but Styles turned into a Styles Clash. It was genuinely surprising for that to be a false finish, causing Cleveland to start rocking. But once Styles locked on the Calf Crusher, there was no way out for Jericho, despite making an absolutely tremendous effort not to tap out. His facial expressions were absolutely priceless, making the submission hold as he tapped out look like a million bucks. Post-match, Jericho teases a brawl but shakes hands instead. ****

WWE Title Shot – No DQ, No Count Out Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

Ambrose gets shoved out at the start by Lesnar, who then takes Reigns to Suplex City and hits an early F5 just like last year at Levi’s Stadium. Ambrose would reinsert himself by hitting a shotgun dropkick on Lesnar to break up a move, so Ambrose got his fucking ass kicked with a lovely visit to Suplex City for him as well. On the outside, Ambrose took a scary bump on an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. I hope he didn’t suffer a concussion there.

Ambrose & Reigns would team up on Lesnar when he got low-blowed by the former, having just caught Reigns in mid-air and about to hit an F5 through the commentary table. Instead, they gave him a Shield powerbomb through it to take him out. Ambrose went for the attack first on Reigns, realizing both were pussyfooting around as the crowd popped for their teamwork. In the ring they had a sensational battle, peaking with Ambrose beating Reigns to the punch via the rebound lariat.

Lesnar was reawakening so they went back out and repeated their teamwork from earlier, the crowd going crazy again. Then they had another terrific battle, this time with Reigns getting the upper hand. As he was about to Samoan Drop Ambrose, Lesnar had reawakened and was back in, having Ambrose eat the Samoan Drop while Reigns was simultaneously taken to Suplex City. This took Ambrose out of the equation briefly.

Lesnar and Reigns picked up where they left off last year with another tremendous powerhouse battle, this time Reigns hitting him with a second speak. Unfortunately, the fatigued Reigns couldn’t go for an immediately cover, so Lesnar immediately capitalized with the Kimura Lock! Reigns used his power to lift Lesnar but couldn’t break the hold. He was saved by Ambrose, who smacked the Beast in the back with the chair, then assaulted his best friend with it as well. As predicated by anyone with a clue, Reigns would gather enough of himself to finish Ambrose off with a speak, bringing this hot classic to an end. Fucking awesome match dripping with storytelling and I’m looking forward to Lesnar eventually in singles against these two, as well as them having their dream three-way still eluding the main roster. ****1/4

Post-match, WWE Champ Triple H comes to the ring and has a heatless staredown with Reigns. Seriously, that was it. No brawl at all, with the bookers arrogantly thinking the crowd would pop for this moment to tease them headlining Jerry World.

There was some absolute utter shit on this show. The Good Shit was aplenty, all of it of different varieties, and peaking with two legitimately great matches. Totally must-see show.

[supersonic]

ROAD TO ROADBLOCK 2016

Raw – February 22, 2016: The Good Shit



OH FUCK YES~!

Vince McMahon presents the Legacy of Excellence Award in his father’s honor, but the crowd doesn’t take him seriously at all as he discusses his ancestry over the past century. It of course goes to his daughter Stephanie. She has a speech prepared for such a touching moment. She’s admittedly hilarious claiming there’s crowd support as they’re booing this out of the building. She takes time to give her hubby Triple H a shout-out.

HERE COMES THE MONEY~!

With that, comes the return of the prodigal son Shane McMahon in the third best moment of the year to date. DETROIT IS FUCKING BONKERS. His presence immediately oozes “fresh coat of paint” for this otherwise stale McMahon family bullshit and he’s obviously taken aback, similar to AJ Styles debuting the month before. “This is awesome!”

Shane stops his dad from a hug, then also declines a handshake as the crowd is still marking out for him. He then tells his sister that she’s not worthy of the award. Vince wants him to play nice and they could talk behind the scenes. Shane says the time is now to do it publicly. Stephanie gets butthurt and then cuts a rant about Shane being a sideline skeptic while the Authority have run the show.

Shane then realizes “she doesn’t know” about something to Vince, then points out the oppressive regime of the Authority causing stock price decrease, ratings declines, and talent injuries. Stephanie labels him a quitter and says he knows nothing of success, using tonight’s packed house as evidence. Shane asks Vince if it’s time to inform her, which Vince is hesitant about it.

Apparently, Shane bailed Vince out several years ago, cutting a deal that allowed him to leave without losing his place in line. Shane says the Authority only rose because he allowed it, then Vince refuses to deny Shane’s information when Stephanie asks. She’s incredibly condescending to him, only to be asked by Vince to leave, and she’s demanding to know if Shane’s being truthful. Vince admits there’s some truth to the situation, while Shane says all of it is. “At the time it was best for business.” Awesome.

Stephanie finally fucks off, claiming she’ll never forgive her brother. Vince offers him money but Shane says isn’t the issue at hand. Shane wants control of Raw! Whatever takes it to end this Authority oppressive regime on top, I’m on board. Vince used the “publicly traded” excuse to keep Shane at bay, but Shane won’t have it, insisting instead on inheriting his spot on the throne. Crowd pops huge when Vince gauges their interest of what Shane wants.

Vince offers what Shane is demanding, as long as he’ll compete and win a match of Vince’s choosing. Should Shane lose, Vince gets “the lockbox” to remove his son’s leverage. Vince then names the match.

Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon. WrestleMania 32. Hell in a Cell. That’s… unique. It also clearly displays how badly the midcard heels were booked throughout 2015, as none of them are hot enough at this time to face Taker. A weird but definitely not boring segment, one of the best of the year so far.

The New Day vs. Lucha Dragons & Neville - ***1/4
(Terrific comment by JBL as New Day were in control, saying if Matt Millen had hired them then he’d still have a job.)



Paul Heyman cuts a promo with Brock Lesnar by his side as usual. This is tremendous as he articulates that Lesnar is the real main event, and the reason for the parking lot assault before the broadcast is because Ambrose didn’t just rob Lesnar out of being in the main event and winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania 32, but he turned their match involving Roman Reigns the night before into a street fight as soon as he used a chair on the Beast. It’s interesting to hear Heyman, the owner of ECW, dismiss Ambrose as a hardcore archetype.

Ambrose arrives driving an ambulance and wearing a neck brace, but can’t stand as he approaches ringside. Lesnar steps on his face and then Heyman literally drops the mic on him for good measure. As Heyman & Lesnar are about to leave, Ambrose grabs the mic and challenges the former UFC World Heavyweight Champion to a hardcore match at AT&T Stadium. Lesnar gives him an F5 on the floor, then Heyman says the challenge is accepted. I cannot wait to see Ambrose get elevated in that spectacle.

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh is in the house! Damn I miss the rivalry in the NFC West.

Chris Jericho and AJ Styles agree to become a tag team. Quite the stacked list of makeshift partners for each in their careers – for the former, there’s the Rock, Big Show, Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, and Christian. For the latter, there’s Kurt Angle, Low Ki, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels.





NXT – February 24, 2016: The Good Shit

NXT GM William Regal announces Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn in 2/3 falls in 2 weeks to determine the #1 contender to the NXT Title. In addition, a new talent acquisition debuts next week.

Indy sensation Biff Busick debuts under his real name of Chris Girard in a losing effort to Apollo Crews.

NXT Champion Finn Balor will face former NXT Champion Neville next week. No complaints here, although not sure why it’s non-title.

SmackDown! – February 25, 2016



Raw – February 29, 2016: The Good Shit

Horrible episode with two matches built I’m looking forward to:

Big E & Kofi Kingston vs. Chris Jericho & AJ Styles next week for the Tag Titles in Chicago.

Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE Title. Earlier leak said Roadblock 2016 on March 12 in Toronto. Not the proper stage for this match, but I’ll take it.



NXT – March 2, 2016: The Good Shit





OH FUCK YES~!

Finn Balor vs. Neville - ***3/4

SmackDown! – March 3, 2016: The Good Shit

Renee Young informs Divas Champ Charlotte she will defend the title against Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a three-way at WrestleMania 32. One of my most anticipated matches in Dallas.

Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose - ***1/4

Raw – March 7, 2016: The Good Shit

Kevin Owens vs. Neville - ***1/2
(The post-match is far more important, as Owens attempts a post-match assault on Neville but Sami Zayn finally re-debuts on the main roster to have fisticuffs with the IC Champ. Neville and Zayn team up on Owens, causing him to scurry away. Tremendous pop, but why wasn’t this done 6 weeks ago?



Dean Ambrose vows to dethrone WWE Champ Triple H this Saturday at Roadblock 2016. HHH of course comes out to interrupt and bury him for not being corporate or driven. Ambrose uses dialogue that is a bit of a diet version of CM Punk, but the dynamic really works between these, making it clear this should’ve been happening at AT&T Stadium, title involved or not. Roman Reigns could’ve gotten the bragging rights clean win over Brock Lesnar.



Tag Titles Match
Big E & Kofi Kingston vs. Chris Jericho & AJ Styles

Killer match in front of a killer Chicago audience. Jericho started and the New Day tried getting cute, so he and Styles hit stereo slingshot planchas to the outside. Back from commercial break, the champs got the heat on Jericho. The crowd was noticeably rooting for Styles to get tagged in; once the hot tag was in, he kept the pace and atmosphere strong.

Highlights off the top of my head include a springboard 450 splash by Styles, which is pretty amazing to see a 38-year-old with his mileage pull off. There was also the Trouble in Paradise being turned into a Boston Crab, as well as E catching Jericho early and attempting the Big Landing. By far the peak moment of the match was the flawlessly fluid springboard moonsault inverted DDT by Styles on Kingston, just blowing the roof of Chicago with that.

While Kingston was in the Boston Crab, Xavier Woods tried pushing the ropes towards his stablemate. Styles attacked him to eliminate the numbers game, only to get scooped and drilled into the barricade by E. Kingston reached the ropes and tagged in E to have a battle against Jericho. E got up and Jericho went for the Codebreaker, only for E to scoop him with his strength advantage and drop him with the Big Landing to retain. ***3/4

In the post-match, Styles went to console Jericho, only to get hit by 3 separate Codebreakers! When Renee Young finds Jericho backstage, he says he got fed up with the chants for Styles. So that makes Jericho’s perspective of Styles quite clear. Jericho wanted to prove his superiority against a world-traveled workrate MVP candidate and it bit him. He then wins the rematch and agrees to the rubber match, only to get even further embarrassed by tapping out due to the Calf Crusher’s excruciating pain. Since Jericho knew he couldn’t beat Styles, he tried leeching off of him to stay relevant and recapture some gold. That plans falls through, so he has no further use for Styles and is butthurt over the fact that being in his mid-40s means his time is starting to pass. I cannot wait for Round 4 in Dallas.

NXT – March 9, 2016

NXT GM William Regal announces Baron Corbin will face Austin Aries in the former multi-promotional champion’s WWE debut match at Takeover: Dallas.

Samoa Joe wins a disappointing 2/3 falls match against Sami Zayn. It’s a rematch against Finn Balor for the NXT Title at Takeover: Dallas. First match was tremendous, so this should be no different.

SmackDown! – March 10, 2016: The Good Shit

Sami Zayn is the guest for MizTV. This is an astonishingly boring way to get him over with the main roster, as Miz didn’t take him seriously while talking about his history with Kevin Owens. This would’ve been far more suitable for a video package or pre-taped interview with Michael Cole. Don’t use the excuse that it’d bore the crowd; this show airs multiple video packages every week recapping Raw, so there’s plenty of time and Cole would’ve made Kevin Owens interrupting far more interesting.

Chris Jericho cuts a tremendous promo blaming the crowd for his betrayal of AJ Styles, and after telling them to go to Hell, he says Styles is just a rookie and his career will go down in flames. To symbolize, he lights a Y2AJ T-shirt on fire and then tosses it inside of a trash can that had gasoline in it. Absolutely tremendous visual to have the fire burning in front of his sociopathic facial expression.

The Entire Wyatt Family vs. The Usos, Dean Ambrose, & Dolph Ziggler - ***1/4

[supersonic]

Roadblock 2016: The Good Shit

The New Day cut an amusing promo burying the League of Nations and revealing Booty O’s cereal.

Paul Heyman cuts a brief but tremendous promo pontificating what Brock Lesnar will do tonight to Luke Harper & Bray Wyatt.

Chris Jericho cuts a great anti-Canada promo to piss Toronto off, and he’s glad he left. So of course proud American Jack Swagger came to face him, rather than proud Canuck Sami Zayn.

NXT Tag Titles Match
The Revival vs. Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore

Have a feeling JBL will love the champs. The challengers dominated early, and it took Amore’s left shoulder hitting the ring post for the champs to find their groove. They constantly worked that body part as expected, cutting the ring in half as is their MO. The teases for the hot tag were tremendous as well, peaking with my highlight when Dawson desperately shoulder-tackled Amore out of the ring before reaching Cassady. Tremendous.

Once the hot tag was made, Cassady was his usual house of fire. He eventually got taken out though with the Shatter Machine. This gave the champs to control they needed over Amore to hit the Shatter Machine on him as well, and that was ballgame. As predicted, JBL loves the Revival. ***1/4

WWE Title Match
Triple H vs. Dean Ambrose

Good match but this definitely wasn’t the best they could do. I appreciated Ambrose clipping HHH’s left knee after several minutes and targeting that joint. Perhaps that would be a sound strategy, even if using weapons for assistance, once he faces Brock Lesnar three weeks later. This still felt very much long a house show main event, lacking the highly dramatic twists and turns. I wasn’t super high on the finish, as Ambrose should’ve clearly seen HHH motioning to avoid the running elbow drop on the commentary table. Then as soon as Ambrose avoids a count out defeat, he immediately eats the Pedigree and it’s over, no struggle, no drama, just anticlimactic. These two have a blood feud in them. ***1/2

[supersonic]

THE FINAL ROAD TO NXT TAKEOVER: DALLAS & WRESTLEMANIA 32

Raw – March 14, 2016: The Good Shit

IC Champ Kevin Owens is great on commentary during the Miz vs. Sami Zayn match.



Triple H vs. Dolph Ziggler

Enjoyed this a bit more over the Ambrose match two days earlier. Ziggler was given quite a bit of shine in this one, actually dominating early with headlocks. HHH would get the heat with a back elbow, tossing Ziggler around on the outside. He’d get too cocky though, allowing Ziggler to hit him with a foot to the face on a top-rope knee drop attempt.

They had a count out false finish and Ziggler was able to sniff the immediate Pedigree based on what happened to Ambrose. However, the Cerebral Assassin knew the Zig-Zag was coming as his back was turned, holding his ground and taking advantage of Ziggler’s exhaustion to finish him off with the Pedigree. Really good stuff. ***3/4

Roman Reigns returns to give Triple H a tremendous beating and he even shoves a ref. Too bad that based on the company’s goal, it’s a complete crowd psychology disaster though. HHH had savagely beaten Reigns after a match a few weeks earlier, so now Reigns is just giving him a receipt.

NXT – March 16, 2016: The Good Shit





Austin Aries clearly explains what an entitled bitch Baron Corbin is, and that in his WWE debut match at Takeover: Dallas, he’ll teach the lessons from his extensive experience to Corbin.



SmackDown! – March 17, 2016: The Good Shit

Kevin Owens and AJ Styles have a lovely exchange. As the IC Champ leaves, he tells Styles and Renee Young that they have the same haircut.



Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles - ***
(Distraction finish by Chris Jericho on Styles, then he lays him out with a Codebreaker and mockingly chants his name.)

Raw – March 21, 2016: The Good Shit

Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles - ***1/4
(Another distraction finish.)









NXT – March 23, 2016: The Good Shit

Finn Balor has a glorified squash over Rich Swann, and not a boring one. He seems to have more of a killer instinct going into the rematch against Samoa Joe.



An American Alpha video package airs, and the stars so far have been lining up perfectly. They absolutely loved their times in amateur wrestling, only to lose on grand stages. In Dallas, they’ll show that they learned from defeat.

SmackDown! – March 24, 2016

Paul Heyman does an outstanding job reminding everyone exactly what could happen in Brock Lesnar’s hardcore match against Dean Ambrose at AT&T Stadium. He also says Mick Foley and Terry Funk are only alive because God hasn’t answered his prayers yet. Yep, no more tweener shit from these two. Heyman calls out Ambrose on Lesnar’s behalf but instead Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, and Erick Rowan answer. Ambrose comes out and indirectly helps Lesnar out, only for them to go after each other with Ambrose’s kendo stick. Lesnar drops Ambrose via an F5.

Dave Meltzer recently stated that he had heard writer Ryan Ward was promoted from NXT to this show. This segment sure felt like his fingerprints were on it – it was brief, it made its point, it gave just the right sample of violence, and now I’m more excited to see this match take place. I’m even still a bit intrigued about what the Wyatt Family will be up to. When’s the last time anyone said that?

Raw – March 28, 2016: The Good Shit

Undertaker and Shane McMahon trade barbs to hype up their Hell in a Cell match this Sunday. It became a brawl with Shane getting the upper hand thanks to him jumping out of the Last Ride and then using a TV monitor. He then capped it off with a flying elbow drop through the commentary table, leaving Taker laying. The Dead Man sits up before Shane has even left though, causing a staredown. While seeing Shane get this much shine is a bit difficult to take seriously, since his persona isn’t an epic bad motherfucker like Stick from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this was executed incredibly well and Brooklyn ate it up. From that perspective, mission accomplished making Shane presentable as a threat towards a quarter century icon that has only defeat on the grandest stage, as long as he can mind his surroundings.

Chris Jericho accepts the challenge of AJ Styles for a match at WrestleMania 32. Fuck off with any complaints – I’ve been waiting a dozen fucking years to see this happen on the grandest stage.



Paul Heyman cuts another outstanding promo with Brock Lesnar by his side, putting Dean Ambrose as smart and crazy like a fox. Apparently the term “weapon” is banned but he says he’ll use it anyway because that’s what the hardcore match on Sunday implies, and that Ambrose will not be rising his star status at Lesnar’s expense. Ambrose comes out with a wagon and fills it with weapons, completely ignoring the amused Lesnar. I’m looking forward to this chaos.

NXT – March 30, 2016: The Good Shit

NXT Champion Finn Balor says Samoa Joe is obsessed with the wrong things, and that Balor has proven his own obsession by dethroning Kevin Owens for the title while also having already survived Joe. "Two more days, Joe... two more days."

A special look at Shinsuke Nakamura airs with him receiving deservingly endless praise.

Baron Corbin vows to end the career of Austin Aries in Dallas, saying it'll happen in an arena and Aries can pair up with Virgil at convention centers begging to be remembered. Tremendous heel promo here.



Sami Zayn welcomes the opportunity to face Nakamura in Dallas, treating it just as seriously as his IC Title shot in the ladder match coming two days later at WrestleMania 32. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Balor and Joe have an excellent brawl to close the show, with Balor displaying the most aggression so far in his NXT tenure.

The difference in build and presentation throughout the road to Dallas obviously couldn't have been any greater. I have not been impressed with the actual storyline build of either roster going into the biggest weekend of the year, but I'll be damned if I don't believe that both shows will present some gems to be remembered in the annals of time.

Clearly, Takeover: Dallas is the most important event in NXT history, and will very likely end up being voted the 2016 Show of the Year. WrestleMania 32 has a chance to be a major turning point for the company going forward in terms of direction, presentation, and roster. While I expect the status quo to not truly change, only doing so for a brief period, I believe that the big four brands coming to Dallas this weekend, that being WWE, ROH, WWN, and WrestleCon, will collectively bring upon a weekend that will become the stuff of legend.

This journey has had its amazing ups, its incredibly depressing downs, neon signs of hope, and mind-numbing paths taken. While the defining stories coming out of this year will be the abrupt retirements of Sting and Daniel Bryan as well as the unprecedented injury bug, this must also be a year to be remembered as one that changed WWE's hiring philosophies forever. As I left the Bay Area a year ago, I could not have foreseen that both legendary names mentioned would be left off the Show of Shows, never to wrestle again, but I also would not have foreseen Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles coming into the fold.

In addition as will be shown at the end of this entry, this may have been the greatest match quality year in WWE history. Now if only the booking and roster elevation can match up to it starting this weekend.

In a year with frustrating booking, there are major indicators of shots in the arm looming overhead. It is because of that and an off-the-charts all-star roster that this journey will continue next year for Orlando.

Those of you who have read this, thank you once again for following along on this marathon of a journey.

The Road to Takeover: Dallas & WrestleMania 32: Top Ten Matches in Chronological Order

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns – WrestleMania 31 ****½
Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch – NXT Takeover: Unstoppable ****½
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens – Money in the Bank 2015 ****½
Finn Balor vs. Chris Jericho – WWE Live in Tokyo 7/3/2015 ****½
Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor – The Beast in the East ****½
Sasha Banks vs. Bayley – NXT Takeover: Brooklyn ****¾
Seth Rollins vs. John Cena – SummerSlam 2015 ****½
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks – NXT Takeover: Respect ****½
Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns – Raw 11/16/2015 ****½
Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens – Royal Rumble 2016 ****½

This concludes this project, as The Road to Orlando 2017: The Good Shit, will begin with both reviews of NXT Takeover: Dallas and WrestleMania 32.