Survivor Series
Survivor Series Results
- Shinsuke Nakamura w/ Rick Boogs def Damian Priest via DQ – **½
- Becky Lynch def Charlotte Flair – ****¼
- Team Raw def Team SmackDown – Sole Survivor: Seth Rollins (Men’s Survivor Series Elimination Match) – **¾
- The Rock’s 25th Anniversary 25-Man Battle Royal – Winner: Omos – **½
- RK-Bro def The Usos – ***¼
- Team Raw def Team SmackDown – Sole Survivor: Bianca Belair (Women’s Survivor Series Elimination Match) – ***
- Roman Reigns w/ Paul Heyman def Big E – ***¾
This year’s Survivor Series was far from the best, but unlike some people would probably claim I wouldn’t say it was the worst either as while there were no major surprises or moments I thought the action in the ring delivered for the most part.
I thought the Becky vs Charlotte match was by far the match of the night as they took the animosity between them and put it into this match as this was somehow more brutal than their previous encounters. In the end, Becky picks up the win after she reveres an O’Connor roll and uses the ropes to score a pinfall moments after Charlotte had been caught doing the same thing. After the match, there was a WWE Digital Exclusive interview with Becky Lynch where she cuts a very emotional promo about the fallout between her and Charlotte which I highly recommend checking out, in fact here is a link to the video.
The Rock’s 25th Anniversary Battle Royal somehow turned into the Pizza Hut battle royal as there were Pizza Hut boxes placed near the ring and R-Truth even grabbed a slice during the match in order to try and gain favor with Otis and Omos, but it, unfortunately, didn’t work. This match was pretty much just a way to put over Omos as he eliminated the most people in the match and then went on to win the entire thing.
A big congratulations go out to Randy Orton who competed in his record-breaking 177th PPV match as he teamed with Riddle against The Usos in a really good match that saw RK-Bro get the win after Orton catches Jimmy with an RKO while he is in mid-air.
I did not find the men’s Survivor Series match to be entertaining or interesting at all this year and that could be due to the fact that there were quite a few guys in the match that I currently have no interest in, and then the one guy I like the most in the match gets himself counted out immediately. While the KO count out sucked it at least made sense as it fit his character, but then they go back to that well and have both McIntyre and Lashley get counted out which is way too many count outs and cheap eliminations for one match. It would’ve been nice to at least have a feel-good winner in Jeff Hardy after this underwhelming and messy match but ol’ Seth Rollins would be the sole Survivor this time as I guess he needs to be built up even more for his eventual title match against Big E.
Before I get to the last two matches I have to mention this crazy storyline that ran through the entire show that came completely out of nowhere. Early in the show, we see Vince McMahon pull up, and just like Pamela Anderson at the 1995 Royal Rumble, he had the wrestlers cheering for him as he exited the limo and he then showed that he was carrying a golden egg which got the wrestlers even more excited for some reason. We later found out that the egg was Cleopatra’s (I was hoping it was from the Gobbledy Gooker) and it is worth $100,000,000 and he was given the egg by The Rock and he assures us it’s not a prop from The Rock’s newest movie “Red Notice” (now airing on Netflix) and is the genuine article. Vince asks Reigns if he wants the egg, but he has no interest in it as his next contract will be for just as much as the egg is worth. Later in the night, McMahon is meeting with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville, and the egg has mysteriously gone missing which freaks out McMahon as he demands Sonya call the cops and after Pearce suggests one of the superstars took it Vince demands he go find the culprit and if he can’t find the person then he will figure out himself on Raw as he wants both rosters on the show.
So, let me get this straight they couldn’t get The Rock to appear in any form for his 25th Anniversary show which they promoted heavily but they did get the egg from his newest movie and that is somehow supposed to make up for him not appearing? Now we got a mysterious missing egg which will be part of a featured story on this week’s Raw to find out who stole it. This is all kinds of bizarre and ridiculousness but what else would you expect from a company being run by a 70+-year-old man who has lost all grasp of reality. I just hope the egg thief is revealed in the same way that Vince found out that Hornswoggle was his son by giving clues to everyone who is not the thief before revealing the thief and much like Hornswoggle was a let down as Vince’s son I hope Gobbledy Gooker is the thief, although I have a feeling this could be where we get The Rock.
The semi-main event of the show is the women’s Survivor Series match and unlike the men’s match, I am pretty much a fan of the majority of the women in this match (except Natalya) on one level or another. The only problem I had with this match outside of the shitty count out that eliminated Sasha is the fact that Natalya who is currently doing absolutely nothing on SmackDown was allowed to last longer than both Liv and Toni who both have big title matches coming up pretty soon, how are people supposed to take either woman seriously when they can’t outlast Natalya of all people, at least they did give Toni two eliminations before she was eliminated which is more than what they did for Liv. Having Bianca be a Sole Survivor was the right call, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have Liv be there with her at the end.
Outside of the ridiculous in-fighting between Sasha and Shotzi and Natalya lasting way longer than she should I thought this match was pretty solid, but I seem to be alone on that take and the crowd in the Barclay’s Center definitely didn’t agree with that take as they took this time to do the wave and chant for CM Punk which is not only disrespectful but at this point is annoying seeing as Punk is actually finally back in wrestling. If I were at a wrestling show I don’t care how bad or meaningless the match going on is, I would never chant another performer’s name who isn’t involved in the match as not only is it disrespectful, but it gives Vince and his stooges an excuse to let the performers go as they would claim the talent wasn’t over with the crowd, and in this match, it gives them an excuse to continue to shorten the ring-time of the women if the fans are going to react like this during the match where they do give them more time.
The main event between Big E and Roman Reigns started off slow and the crowd wasn’t into it but midway through they turned up the dial and it turned into a really good match and in the end after a few attempts at the guillotine choke and a couple of Spears Reigns comes out on top and he did it all on his own without the help of The Usos.
Although this show had its faults and the booking was weak in some of the matches I thought the action inside the ring was really good. I know that most fans were pissed that The Rock didn’t appear after being hyped up all night, but I wasn’t bothered by it as I’m pretty sure it was reported a few months ago that he wasn’t going to appear despite WWE wanting him there to celebrate his 25th Anniversary so I wasn’t expecting him to be there in the first place. While I don’t think I would recommend anyone go back and watch this show I thought it was completely fine for what it was and kept me entertained for the entire 3-4 hours.
Raw
Raw Results
- Riddle w/ Randy Orton def Dolph Ziggler w/ Robert Roode – **½
- Bianca Belair def Tamina w/ Natalya – **
- AJ Styles & Omos def The Street Profits via DQ – **¼
- Carmella & Queen Zelina Vega def Rhea Ripley & Nikki A.S.H. © (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship) – **¼
- Cedric Alexander def Reggie © (24/7 Championship) – *¾
- Bobby Lashley w/ MVP def The Mysterios – **½
- Damian Priest © def Sami Zayn (WWE United States Championship) – **½
- Big E © def Austin Theory (WWE Championship) – **¾
We open the show with a recap of the great egg catastrophe that happened at Survivor Series and then we go into the office of Vince McMahon who is with Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville and he wants updates on if they have caught the thief or not, after stumbling around with their words for a minute they admit they have some security camera footage but it is very blurry. Vince tells him he wants to find the thief before the end of the night and then says if someone brings him information that leads to who stole the egg then they will be heavily rewarded, and if someone brings him the egg itself they will be rewarded with a WWE Championship match tonight. Later in the night, we would see superstars destroying the backstage area looking for the egg but had no luck.
We would finally get the mystery of the missing egg solved as Sami Zayn would bring in Austin Theory who was holding the egg and when asked why he stole the egg Theory tells McMahon he was just trying to get a selfie with it and then gives a story about security being tight or something of the sort as I lost track. Zayn is disgusted with the actions of Theory, but McMahon actually likes the guts of Theory as it reminds him of himself at that age, Vince decides to drop the charges, and then he poses in a selfie with Theory and the egg and tells Theory he gets the title shot against Big E later tonight. Zayn is absolutely flabbergasted how this ended up turning into a good thing for Theory and as he kept on talking McMahon tells him to shut up and then says nobody likes a snitch.
Wow, this was quite an anticlimactic end to the mystery as I was expecting it to be some big reveal that would happen at the end of the night, but the mystery was solved within the second hour, and of all people, it was Austin Theory who was the culprit talk about a major letdown. It was clear that they had no idea what they were going to do with this story from the beginning as they just went through with it to promote The Rock’s movie seeing as there was a big payday attached to it. It probably would’ve been better if they had never done the theft story and just had a tournament or something where the winner gets the golden egg which is worth $100,000,000 sort of like when they used to do the Battle Royals in the old territory days and the winner would get a big cash prize. I loved the line that Vince gave Zayn about nobody liking snitches as that is all he surrounds himself with between Prichard and Johnny Ace.
We get our weekly RK-Bro backstage interaction and this week in order to become more like we see Riddle is using a fake mustache and goatee to look just like Orton and then he starts talking in a monotone voice like Orton does. Orton is obviously aggravated by Riddle’s shenanigans but he just lets him do what he is going to do as long as it leads to Riddle picking up a win over Dolph Ziggler. Riddle and Ziggler have a pretty good match and in the end, Riddle picks up the win with an RKO. After the match, Roode tries to attack but Orton hits him with a Bro-Derrick showing he can play along with Riddle when he wants to.
Becky Lynch comes to the ring for a promo and she talks about how her match at Survivor Series with Charlotte Flair was the culmination of almost a decade of friendship turned to hatred and all she wanted to do was to injure, embarrass, and maime Charlotte and she is sure Charlotte wanted to do the same to her. Now that she has beaten Charlotte she is done with her and is ready to turn the page to a new chapter because everyone loves something new and fresh. Becky then asks which fresh name would the crowd like to see on top and this leads to her going through a few different names, but then stops and says that she no longer cares what the fans have to say because they are full of crap. Becky then provides proof to that statement when she brings up the fact that there were ten women in the ring busting their ass last night and all the crowd cared to do was chant and do the wave. Becky then moves on to talking about Liv Morgan saying the fans like her now because she is the underdog, but she hates to break it to everyone that every dog doesn’t have its day and nobody is taking the title off “Big Time Becks”.
Later in the night, Liv Morgan is interviewed but before she can answer the question she is interrupted by Becky Lynch who dumps on Liv for once again underdelivering just like at Money in the Bank when the fans were cheering for her but Nikki A.S.H. grabbed the briefcase and once again Liv was outshined. Becky calls Liv an embarrassment and then starts mocking her for almost crying until Liv finally rares back and knocks Becky on her ass with a forearm.
I thought Becky was fantastic on the show as both her promo in the ring and the confrontation with Liv backstage were fantastic and the best part was her calling out the fans chanting and disrespecting the women in the Survivor Series match and even though she is a heel she was saying nothing but the truth. I have to say that I am highly looking forward to the Liv vs Becky title match and I hope Becky helps Liv put on the best match she has ever had because even though she has improved quite a lot over the past couple of years she has yet to have that one match that blows everyone away.
Bianca Belair comes out and cuts a promo on being the sole survivor for the Raw team and then she calls out Doudrop, but Tamina comes out instead and for one night only she is reunited with Natalya. This match was nothing special and Bianca gets the win after a KOD. After the match, Doudrop attacks Bianca from behind and then hits her with the seated crossbody. We then see Doudrop walk off arm in arm with Natalya and Tamina. Oh, dear God please do not have Doudrop align with either Tamina or Natalya as she doesn’t need to be a part of a faction as she is a big enough ass-kicker on her own.
Seth Rollins comes to the ring for a promo and of course, he gloats about being the sole survivor at Survivor Series, and then he runs down all the members of his team and why they were failures in the match and when he gets to Balor he laughs at him getting eliminated by Sheamus. We then get Finn Balor coming to the ring, but Rollins attacks him during his entrance and while Balor gets the best of Rollins at first it eventually turns around as Rollins throws Balor into everything around ringside. Rollins throws Balor back in the ring and hits him with a Curb Stomp and then as he sees Balor trying to get back to his feet he runs back to the ring and hits Balor with a second Curb Stomp. Rollins goes back up the ramp and then we get a dumbass fan attacking Rollins as he tackles him to the ground, but Rollins grabs a facelock until security and referees pull the fan off Rollins.
The Rollins promo was nothing special as it was pretty much the same Rollins promo we get week after week, but I thought the attack on Balor was very well done. I really can’t understand how or why a pro wrestling fan in 2021 would take anything a wrestler says or does so seriously that they would want to jump the barricade and attack them, but I guess it goes to show that there are more crazy people in the world now than ever before. Thankfully Rollins was okay and the attacker was arrested, charged, and most likely won’t be allowed to come back to a WWE show which is a light punishment for what he did.
We got a tag match where AJ Styles and Omos beat The Street Profits via disqualification when Angelo Dawkins pulls out a fire extinguisher and sprays Styles and Omos with it. I don’t get why a babyface team would ever do anything to intentionally get themselves disqualified, even if they are facing off against a giant.
Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. defend their tag titles against Carmella and Queen Zelina Vega in the next match and after a pretty forgettable match we see the heels send Rhea into the ring post and then Queen Zelina hits Nikki with the Code Red to pick up the win and we have new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. I was not expecting this title change, but I guess it was time to change the titles to another team that can hold the titles until they find another team to beat them. I will say congratulations to Zelina for winning her first title in WWE.
We get a fun little match for the 24/7 Championship as Reggie defends his title against Cedric Alexander and after a quick match, we get Alexander winning the title after hitting the Lumbar Check. After the match, the lower card guys from both rosters run out looking to go after Alexander, but as he turns around Dana Brooke dives off the top with a blockbuster and ends up winning the title off of Alexander. The rest of the guys just stare at her and each other not knowing what to do as they can’t attack a woman, so Dana just celebrates to end the segment. I definitely didn’t see Dana Brooke becoming 24/7 Champion happening on the show, but congratulations to her on finally winning a title in WWE.
We get a conversation between the Mysterios where Dominik feels bad that he didn’t come to help his dad last week when he was in the Hurt Lock, but Rey tells him not to worry about it as he has faced giants before and every time he holds his chin up high and is ready for the fight and for that reason he doesn’t need his son to fight his battles. Rey then says he is proud to fight alongside his tonight against Bobby Lashley. We are set to have a handicap match with the Mysterios facing Bobby Lashley, but before the match begins MVP gets on the mic and talks shit about Rey’s role as a father, and for that, he is disappointed in him. MVP says that when Rey tells Angie that he is the reason that their son got hurt then Rey can give Angie his number and he’ll help her out.
We finally get to the handicap match and it may be one of the best handicap matches I have ever seen as Rey had yet another great David vs Goliath match and Dominik was able to hang in there and not drag the match down any. There was one cool spot that saw Lashley looking to ram Dominik into the ring post, but Mysterio connects with a dive out of nowhere to prevent that from happening. I really enjoyed this match and so far I am enjoying this feud between Lashley and The Mysterios.
Big E is interviewed in the back and when asked about his loss to Roman Reigns he says he let a lot of people down, but this time he has nobody to blame as it’s all on him, but he isn’t going to wallow in self-pity as tonight he has a title match against Austin Theory. He assures that after he retains the title tonight he is going to be feeling pretty good.
Damian Priest comes out for his United States Championship open challenge and it looks like Apollo Crews is going to accept the challenge as he and Commander Azeez walk out and we actually get Azeez on the mic as he hypes up Crews. Crews talks about how he is more powerful than ever and he will show everyone he would make a better champion. Priest finally cuts Crews off and talks about how they are in New York and then talks himself up and just when it seems like we are fixing to get the match Crews declines to fight Priest tonight. Sami Zayn then comes out and he is still pissed at not being rewarded for finding the egg thief and he says that he is not leaving without taking home gold and if Crews isn’t going to accept the challenge then he will.
Zayn and Priest have a good match and just like all of his recent matches Priest eventually freaks out and gets all bug-eyed and then he beats the crap out of Zayn, but this time he at least keeps the beating in the ring and ends up actually winning the match with The Reckoning rather than once again getting himself disqualified.
It’s finally time for the main event as Big E defends his WWE Championship against the egg thief Austin Theory and before the match can even begin we get Seth Rollins coming down to ringside to have a closer look and shortly after the match starts we get Kevin Owens coming down for a closer look as well much to the displeasure of Rollins. Theory looked really good in this match as he was able to hang with Big E, but as expected Big E ended up picking up the win after a Big Ending after Theory got distracted by Rollins and KO arguing at ringside. With Rollins and KO at ringside, I was surprised to see this match have a clean finish as I was sure we were going to get interference leading to a disqualification.
After the match, KO and Rolling continue to argue on the floor and then start shoving each other until Big E comes out and throws Rollins over the commentary table and while this happens KO runs away, and then as Rollins tries to come back Big E hits him with the Big Ending. Big E and KO continue to trash talk each other while Rollins recovers on the floor to end the show.
This was quite a newsworthy episode of Raw for both good and bad reasons as there were several really good matches, a couple of title changes, and a great promo by Becky Lynch, however, this is Raw so there have to be negatives to balance out the positives and this week the biggest negatives were the dumbass fan attacking Rollins as well as the very anti-climatic blow-off to the stolen egg story.
NXT 2.0
NXT 2.0 Results
- Tommaso Ciampa def Grayson Waller – ***½
- Kacy Catanaro & Kayden Carter def Indi Hartwell-Lumis & Persia Pirotta – *½
- Santos Escobar w/ Legado Del Fantasma def Malik Blade – **
- Cora Jade def Mandy Rose – **¼
- Ivy Nile w/ Diamond Mine def Yulisa Leon – **
- Briggs & Jensen def Grizzled Young Veterans – **
- Carmelo Hayes © w/ Trick Williams def Johnny Gargano & Pete Dunne (NXT North American Championship) – ***¾
Due to the already long length of this week’s article, there will be no play-by-play recap for this week’s NXT or NXT UK matches.
We get our usual WWE signature video and in the middle of it, we hear a voice telling them to cut the video, and then we eventually see that it’s Grayson Waller who is in the ring with a mic in his hand. Waller then berates Tommaso Ciampa saying that he is not a larger-than-life superstar like he is and then he goes on to compare himself to others in the past who have gotten booed but ended up being big stars in Hollywood. Waller is eventually cut off by the entrance of the NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa who he is set to face in our first match of the night. This was by far the best match Waller has had yet as these two put on a great match and it helped legitimize Waller as someone to take seriously as before this match I thought he was just a good promo and average in the ring.
We go to a backstage interview with LA Knight who talks trash about Waller and then Joe Gacy walks up and talks some of his safe space nonsense and the interaction ends with them agreeing to have a match later tonight.
We get a video from earlier of Toxic Attraction arriving and Mandy talks about how Cora Jade isn’t in her league and is nothing but a poser. As they continue to walk through the backstage area Dakota Kai joins them and they walk past a bunch of glass and plunder on the floor and as they walk past we see that Kay Lee Ray was the one responsible for the mess as she was smashing things with her baseball bat.
Cameron Grimes comes to the ring looking depressed as his hair and beard were cut off last week by Duke Hudson. Grimes cuts an emotional promo about getting bullied as a kid with people saying he wasn’t good enough, but he has shown them that he is good enough, and after many nights of sleeping on the concrete and scraping for change he has shown that he holds it down. Grimes then talks about how he made it big in wrestling and even struck it rich but through all of that he kept his hair and beard long to remind him where he came from and last week Duke Hudson took that away from him and in the process, he humiliated and embarrassed him, but Hudson made a big mistake as he also made him angry. Grimes then calls out Hudson as he is tired of talking, but instead of coming out, we get video footage of Hudson from a barbershop.
Hudson jokes about what he did to Grimes as he says he hardly recognizes him and then he says Grimes should be thanking him for the free haircut as he is trying to transform him from a troll that lives under the bridge to a normal human being, but Grimes doesn’t want to hear any of what Hudson has to say as he wants him in the ring and when he doesn’t come out Grimes calls Hudson gutless and nutless. Grimes then challenges Hudson to a hair vs hair match at WarGames which Hudson accepts. Hudson says at WarGames he will take the rest of Grimes’ hair and then shows a ziplock baggie full of the hair he cut off Grimes.
I thought this was a really great segment and finally, they did something to make me care about this feud as I could care less about the poker games but the promo Grimes cut and the interaction he had with Hudson on this episode makes me want to see their match.
Indi Hartwell-Lumis and Persia Pirotta are interviewed backstage and Indi says that Dexter Lumis is going to be fine even though Hayes and Williams injured the hand he draws with. Perisa tells Indi she can sit this one out if she needs to as she can do it on her own just like she did last week, but Indi insists that she wants to be in the match, and then she dedicates the math to her husband.
We get a vignette for a new member of the women’s roster named Tiffany Stratton and she is a rich daddy’s girl who has a valley girl accent and her daddy says it’s time for her to take over NXT. Is it just me or does it feel like we have had hundreds of women in WWE who have had this same kind of gimmick, it seems like WWE doesn’t know how to book a female heel unless she is the stereotypical popular, rich, & beautiful mean girl who is snobby and looks down on everyone else? I wonder since she mentions her daddy so much in the vignette if he will become a character or if he will be one of the wrestlers, it would be a funny twist if this “daddy” she is talking about isn’t her actual dad but is a sugar daddy.
Indi Hartwell-Lumis and Persia Pirotta are in action against my favorite tag team in NXT Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter who name have guns that blow smoke during their entrance. We get a fun little match where the main story of the match is that Indi doesn’t have her full heart and focus in the match as she is worried about Lumis and because of that she keeps looking at her ring finger. Indi ends up losing the match for her team after Kacy hits a splash off of Kayden’s shoulders as she sits up on the top rope.
We get a short video on Santos Escobar and then he comes to the ring along with Legado del Fantasma as he is in action against Malik Blade. This was a squash as Escobar dominated Blade for the majority of the match before finishing him with the Phantom Driver. Elektra gets on the mic after the match and says that they never needed Xyon Quinn and now that Santos Escobar is back they are stronger than ever.
Von Wagner and Kyle O’Reilly come out as Wagner claims they have unfinished business seeing as when Legado beat them he had his foot on the rope. We the get Imperium making themselves known as they are standing on the balcony and they run down both teams saying neither are worthy of challenging them, but once they figure out which one of them will be the next challenger they will be happy to face them at WarGames. I’m guessing we are going to be getting a triple threat match for the tag titles at WarGames.
We go to the back where Cora Jade is getting ready for her match with Mandy Rose when her WarGames partners Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez walk up arguing as Zoey Stark tries to keep them calm. Cora finally gets enough of the yelling and tells them they are not going to do the can they coexist thing as it’s boring, old, and outdated which is exactly what all the fans have been saying for years. Cora then tells her team they need to find a fourth partner for WarGames and while they go find a fourth partner she is going to go kick some Toxic Attraction ass.
We get an interview with Tony D’Angelo where he talks about betting on the triple threat main event and I know I am in the minority but I just don’t care for this guy at all.
Up next we get Mandy Rose taking on Cora Jade in the battle of hot vs cute. Mandy and Cora have a decent little match, the finish sees Mandy getting distracted by Kay Lee Ray who comes to the ring smashing things with her baseball bat, Mandy flinches as KLR throws the bat into the ring and this allows Cora to roll up the NXT Women’s Champion for the win. Mandy and KLR stare each other down as Mandy can’t believe what just happened.
We get a really good promo by Carmelo Hayes on why he is going to retain his NXT North American Championship in the main event tonight.
We get a promo by Joe Gacy who talks a lot of nothing and then we see Harland lay his hand on the shoulder of Gacy which brings a smile to Gacy’s face as he leans his head over toward the hand of Harland. People used to talk about how Bray Wyatt used to say a whole lot of nothing during his promos, but he doesn’t have anything on Gacy as the material he is given is absolute crap.
The women’s babyface WarGames team is celebrating Cora’s victory over Mandy and then Cora asks if any of them knew Kay Lee Ray was coming out there. KLR walks up and says she is in as their fourth partner for WarGames and then tells them she will be the one in next week’s WarGames advantage ladder match which satisfies her teammates.
We were set to have Joe Gacy vs LA Knight, but Knight is attacked during his entrance by Grayson Waller and they fight to the back. Joe Gacy apologizes for what happened as he was hoping to teach Knight how to peacefully handle his anger issues. Gacy is cut off by the entrance of Diamond Mine and Malcolm Bivens says that he is going to steal the spotlight from Gacy since he tried to steal it from the Diamond Mine last week. Bivens tells Gacy to get his thesaurus reading ass out of the ring as Ivy Nile has a match up next. Gacy says that while he respects that Ivy has a match he doesn’t like their tone and then he talks about how the cruiserweight championship shames those of a certain body type. Strong says he doesn’t care about Gacy nor does he care about a weight limit and that he will face Gacy at WarGames. Bivens says Strong is going to beat Gacy at WarGames like a Lil Jon track and then he does the Lil Jon “Yeah!”. Bivens tells the Creed Brothers to take the trash out of the ring, but as they step forward Bivens immediately tells them to fall back as Harland has appeared behind Gacy, the segment ends with Gacy smiling at Harland.
I guess the NXT Cruiserweight Championship is turning into the X-Division Championship where anyone can challenge for the title no matter their weight, I guess this had to be done once the majority of cruiserweights were released from the company. I had heard for years just how good Malcolm Bivens was as a manager and while it took a while for him to get the chance to show how good he is in NXT, I now see exactly how good he is and I hope they keep him for the long haul as he could be a major asset to the company as a mouthpiece.
It’s time for the latest adventures from MSK in their search for the shaman. This week they are driving down the road when they get pulled over for driving too slow much to their surprise. The officer tells them to get out of the car and Carter is worried because he “has too much cake” and Lee confirms that he is indeed thick, the officer wants them to open their bag, and just when they are fixing to do so a car speeds by them and the officer lets them off with a warning so he can chase down the speeding car.
Ivy Nile is in action against a newcomer by the name of Yulisa Leon, I wasn’t expecting much going into this match but it was fun for the time they got. Ivy Nile is going to be a star for this company (if they don’t release her) as she is a little pitbull in the ring who seems very versatile in her offense. Ivy hit Yulisa with a nasty clothesline in this match which was very impressive and I also liked her showing off by doing pushups and situps while she had her opponent down. I also like Ivy’s version of the Dragon Sleeper where she reaches behind and grabs her own hand to apply more pressure. This Diamond Mine stable is one of my favorite things in NXT right now.
We get a video package for Solo Sikoa that shows him working out with a heavy bag and he talks about how he now walks alone.
We see Grizzled Young Veterans walking backstage and they steal some guy’s wallet and then we see Grayson Waller and LA Knight still brawling as they push that same guy into some kind of steel structure.
We get a video from Boa where he says that Mei Ying has passed on her power and spirit to him, but he doesn’t know how to control it, but once he does learn to control it he will be unstoppable.
Our next match sees the Grizzled Young Veterans taking on the team of Jensen & Briggs. I didn’t find this match to be anything special outside of GYV’s plan to fake an injury going wrong leading to their loss. I wish Briggs and Jensen had kept their cool chokeslam and powerbomb combo finisher instead of this high-low move they have been doing as of late as the former is more creative than the latter. I also think Briggs needs to lose the ugly denim vest he wears during matches. We also got some more brawling backstage between Waller and Knight during the match.
It’s finally time for the main event as Carmelo Hayes defends his NXT North American Championship against Pete Dunne and Johnny Gargano. This was a really good match which you would expect given the three men in the match and at certain points, in the match, it seemed like anyone could win, but in the end after interference from Tony D’Angelo, we see Hayes pick up the win after hitting the guillotine leg drop on Gargano.
After the match, the brawl between Knight and Waller leads into the ringside area as they run into Tony D’Angelo which leads to him fighting with Knight, and eventually, the heels start gaining control as Hayes looks to smash the hand of Gargano just like he did with Lumis, but Tommaso Ciampa comes out to prevent that from happening. Ciampa lays out Trick Williams in the aisle with a chair and then heads to the ring where he helps the babyfaces fight off the heels and send them retreating and then we get the entrance of Bron Breakker and he makes it official as he yells out WarGames! The show comes to a close with the two WarGames teams brawling in the ring. Our official men’s WarGames match will be Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne, & LA Knight vs Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Tony D’Angelo, & Grayson Waller.
If it wasn’t obvious how much Undisputed Era’s absence has changed NXT already you don’t have to look any further than this WarGames match as this year’s match doesn’t feel like two teams raging war against each other rather it’s four separate singles feuds put into one match and that is just not as appealing as having two united teams. I think it may have been better if they had used Diamond Mine in this match as they are at least a faction rather than four complete individuals and to make it worse they made Bron Breakker a heel out of nowhere just so the heels can have a fourth member to their team. I guess the new school vs old school thing is kind of cool but I really don’t consider LA Knight as old school NXT. I’m sure the match itself will be good, but the build to it just feels like it was thrown together at the last minute.
The only things from this episode of NXT that I would recommend watching is the promo by Cameron Grimes and the main event, everything else is skippable.
NXT UK
NXT UK Results
- Jordan Devlin def Mark Andrews – ***
- Isla Dawn def Aleah James – *½
- Jinny def Angel Hayze – *¾
- Noam Dar © w/ Sha Samuels def Sam Gradwell (NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship) – ***¼
We open the show this week with a match between Mark Andrews and Jordan Devlin after Devlin interrupted a Subculture interview last week. It took me a while to get into this match but as it went on it picked up and I started enjoying it and by the end of it I thought they had a solid above-average match.
Sid Scala announces that Moustache Mountain will get their tag title shot against Pretty Deadly in two weeks. We would later get a video package showing both teams’ perspectives on the title match as Moustache Mountain was excited to have a chance to be back on top once again, while Pretty Deadly is looking forward to beating Moustache Mountain once again and this time in front of a live crowd.
We get a recap of last week where Charlie Dempsey turned heel on Gallus and joined up with Teoman and Rohan Raja. We then go into the locker room of Gallus who are upset with what happened with Dempsey and we are set to have a lot of matches featuring these six men.
We get a recap of Sam Gradwell being pissed at Noam Dar and Sha Samuels for being too loud last week and then we see more footage where we go to an apartment complex where apparently both Sam Gradwell and Noam Dar live and Gradwell is woken up by Dar and Samuels being too loud partying. We go back live where Sam Gradwell is complaining about his match with Dar not being for the Heritage Cup Championship and as he is complaining Dar and Samuels walk up and are arguing against making the match for the title. They would all be quieted down when none other than long lost NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint walks up and although he is the general manager he still decides to leave the decision to Scala who makes the match for the title.
It’s nice to see Mr. Saint back as I was starting to wonder if we were ever going to see him again as he was starting to become one of those villains on TV where you never see them, but you hear their second in command mention them a lot.
Our next match of the night sees Aleah James taking on Isla Dawn after Isla attacked her last week and took her scrunchie for her box of trinkets. I didn’t think this match was all that great and I can’t point out exactly why that is, but this one just didn’t do it for me. After the match, Isla grabs her little box and decides to give Aleah her scrunchie back and then does some awkward creepy movements and has her eyes rolling back in her head. I guess the story is that Isla took the valuables of the opponents she lost to and now that she is starting to win she will return those valuables to their owner once she beats them, this story is just as dumb as the creepy witch character she is trying to portray.
Xia Brookside is in the office of Sid Scala once again and she wants to know when she is getting her title shot against Meiko seeing as Scala promised her, but Scala corrects her saying he never promised her anything, and then she starts talking about how her daddy talked to him finally Scala tells her she can have her title match next week. Xia then starts complaining about it being next week as she needs time to train and to prepare but Scala tells her it’s either next week or not at all, so she reluctantly agrees and then storms out of his office. This is the most personality Xia has shown since she came into NXT UK and she is pretty entertaining in this role, so I am interested in seeing where the character goes. Nina Samuels would later try to get Meiko’s take on this match as she was training, but Meiko just stares at her and Emilia tells her to get lost.
The next match was supposed to be Angel Hayze vs Dani Luna, but Dani never comes out, however, Jinny does come out and she apologizes to Subculture as Dani is going to be gone for quite a while. Jinny says she is going to do things on her own from now as she has ended her business relationship with Joseph Conners and she is going to start another winning streak and she is going to start with Angel Hayze. There was not much to this match as Jinny pretty much dominated, but the viciousness she showed during the match impressed me and that is why I gave this match a quarter of a star higher than the other women’s match on the show.
We go backstage where Dar and Samuels are hanging out and they tape over the names of the former Heritage Cup Champions which are on the trophy.
We get a lengthy video package to hype up the Ilja Dragunov vs Rampage Brown match that should be happening next week, but they never said anything about it happening next week on the show, so I have no clue if it’s happening next week or not. The video package was really good as it gets both men’s perspectives on their upcoming match.
We see Mark Andrews standing outside the trainer’s room waiting on Flash Morgan Webster for an update on his shoulder, Kenny Williams walks up and starts talking trash saying they need to rename the trainer’s room to Subculture’s dressing room. Andrews walks towards Williams but he walks off not wanting any part of a fight.
It’s finally time for the main event as Noam Dar defends his NXT UK Heritage Cup Championship against Sam Gradwell. Gradwell picks up a rare first-round fall after hitting Dar with the knee brace and the Samoan Driver. Dar plays opossum during the break between rounds acting as if he is knocked out as he uses it to sucker Gradwell in for a small package which ends up being unsuccessful, Dar ties up the score during the 2nd round after he hits a Nova Roller. In the 3rd round, Dar really starts to go after the previously injured knee of Gradwell as he locks in the Champagne Super Knee Bar and tries to remove the brace, but somehow Gradwell is able to hang on until the round comes to an end. Gradwell tries his best to make a comeback in the 4th round but anytime he goes on the offense Dar kicks the leg taking the big man back down. Dar locks in the Champagne Super Knee Bar and this time Gradwell has no choice but to tap out giving Dar the win.
This was a solid match and it felt like it went by quicker than most Heritage Cup matches which I guess could have to do with the first falls happening in the first two rounds. If I had to pick one guy who I have really changed my mind about this year it would be Sam Gradwell as he has really done a lot to win me over with his work this year and it was interesting to see him as the babyface in this match.
This episode was all about the opening and closing matches as well as the video package hyping up the Dragunov vs Brown title match, you can skip everything else on the show and not miss anything.
SmackDown
SmackDown Results
- Jeff Hardy & Drew McIntyre def Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss – **½
- Cesaro def Ridge Holland w/ Sheamus – **¼
- Angel w/ Humberto def Rick Boogs w/ Shinsuke Nakamura (Thanksgiving Leftovers Throwdown) – *1/4
- Sasha Banks & Naomi def Shayna Baszler & Natalya – **½
- Black Friday Battle Royal – Winner: Sami Zayn –
We open the show with Kayla Braxton in the ring and she talks about the rumors of Brock Lesnar’s suspension being lifted, but before she can say anymore Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman make their way out to the ring. Once Reigns and Heyman finally get to the ring after what feels like 10-minutes, Heyman wants Kayla’s mic, and after hesitating she finally gives it to him which is a mistake as he brings up these Brock Lesnar rumors and says there are no rumors on the island of relativity. Heyman talks down to Kayla as he falls her a fake journalist and a rumor monger and the next time she is around Reigns she should have facts and not rumors and until she becomes a legit journalist she should leave the ring of Roman Reigns and with that Kayla makes her exit from the ring.
Heyman hands the mic to Roman Reigns and he says the problem with rumors is that they give losers false hope and everyone is a loser compared to him and Lesnar is the biggest loser. Reigns mentions how he has beaten everyone to the point where management is desperate to find him a challenger and that is why they set up this battle royal for tonight’s main event. Reigns says it doesn’t matter who wins the battle royal as he will smash them all. Reigns says that when his days are done, which could be sooner rather than later the whole world will acknowledge him.
I thought this was a decent opening segment but I have to say that the fun back and forth that we usually see between Kayla and Paul Heyman started to feel uncomfortable tonight as he was going at her hard on the mic and unlike their usual interactions his tone was more intimidating and she just stood there and took it the entire time without having a chance to say anything back.
Our first match of the night is a tag match where Jeff Hardy teams up with Madcap Moss to take on Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss. This was a typical TV match and although I still hate the Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss gimmick I thought they were solid during this match. The finish saw McIntyre hit the Claymore on Moss and then Hardy follows that up with a Swanton Bomb for the win.
Kayla Braxton is confronted by Paul Heyman once again backstage and he is still using an intimidating tone and this time it’s even more uncomfortable as he stands behind her the entire time and the facial expressions she is having during this make her look uncomfortable with him, and whether accidental or intentional it doesn’t help that one of the straps on her dress has fallen off her shoulder. Heyman asks if she has any updates and then he tells her Lesnar got himself suspended on purpose so he could hide away from Reigns. Heyman says if Kayla doesn’t have some confirmation or denial about Lesnar by the end of the night she will be fired or at least that is what Heyman is pushing for, but then again that might just be a rumor.
We are ready for the next match as Ridge Holland will be making his SmackDown in-ring debut against Cesaro, Ridge Holland’s hero Sheamus will be on commentary during the match as well.
Good job WWE way to get over a new talent by having him lose his first match in less than five minutes. This was a good match for what we saw of it but the limited time and the wrong finish made me have to knock my rating down.
Drew McIntyre is in the office of Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville and he wants to make sure he is in tonight’s battle royal, but Sonya tells them they have yet to finalize the participants, but they will let him know when they do.
Our next match is a Thanksgiving Leftovers Throwdown match between Rick Boogs and Angel. Thanksgiving may be behind us, but WWE can’t resist having their holiday-themed gimmick match. This was a gimmick match where neither of the participants used the gimmicks, but instead, Nakamura kicks the leg out from under Humberto who is standing on the table with the leftovers and is also playing Boogs’ guitar and sends him through the table. Garza ends up picking up the win with the Wing Clipper. The best part of this entire match was Pat McAfee on commentary as he gives us the line of the night when he says “Things are messy in my pants right now!”
Kayla Braxton catches up with Adam Pearce and asks him about the rumors of Lesnar’s suspension being lifted and while stranger things have happened he doesn’t expect Lesnar’s suspension to be lifted anytime soon.
Charlotte is in the ring and she talks about how Becky had to resort to cheating in order to beat her at Survivor Series and that Becky’s win was hollow and all that match proved is that she is the better woman and Becky’s success is because of her. Charlotte says she is still the most dominant woman in sports entertainment. Toni Storm comes out and says she was right about Charlotte losing to Becky making her vulnerable and she realizes that Charlotte is now coming after her seeing as she was brave enough to step up to the high and mighty Charlotte Flair, so she decided to come out to make it easier for Charlotte. Charlotte finds it cute that Toni thinks she is coming after her but she barely knows Toni exists. Charlotte somehow tries to relate wiping her feet on the apron to their being levels and her being on a different level than Toni, which made zero sense. Charlotte wants to know how Toni would like her to embarrass her tonight and then tries for a cheap shot, but Toni ducks and throws Charlotte out to the floor. Toni goes out after Charlotte and gets a pie to the face (as the food from the Thanksgiving leftovers match is still at ringside) Toni just stands there and then Charlotte comes back and hits her with another pie to the face and Toni still does nothing and that is how the segment ends.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!! Do you mean to tell me that Charlotte not only gets to verbally tear down Toni, but she gets to hit her twice in the face with a pie and then Toni just has to stand there like a statue and not retaliate? I can not tell you how fucking pissed I am right now that they continue to devalue Toni Storm and make her look weak and stupid. Do they not realize there are fans that have no clue who Toni Storm is, and for those fans, they are being given zero reasons to care about Toni or reasons to want to see her succeed. I wouldn’t have been as mad at this segment if the rest of Toni’s time on the main roster hadn’t been complete nonsense, they don’t use Toni for months, and then when they do decide to use her she can’t do anything to get herself over with the crowd because Charlotte can never be seen as weak or vulnerable. Thank God that Liv is feuding with Becky instead of Charlotte as that forearm she hit Becky with on Raw would’ve never happened. I have officially reached the point where I look at Charlotte the same way most people look toward Triple H in 2003-2004 as her invulnerable booking is getting absurd. UGGHHHH! Why is this company so fucking inept and not realize what they have in front of them!
We get footage from earlier today where Sasha Banks confronts Sonya Deville as she blames her for the SmackDown Women’s team not winning as Sonya made a team of traitors who turned on her and then says that if Naomi had been on the team they would’ve won. Sasha wants to know what Sonya’s deal is with Naomi but Sonya tells her to watch herself and tells her she can’t rewrite history and Sasha’s team losing is on her. Sonya says she doesn’t have an issue with Naomi, but Sasha asks if Sonya is jealous of Naomi because she is more athletic, more popular, has a bigger following than her, or is it because she is a 2x SmackDown Women’s Champion while Sonya has been relegated to a suit. Sonya says that suit makes her the boss and then she makes a tag match for tonight.
We get another comic book vignette for Xia Li, this week Xia tells a story of her kicking the ass of one of her brother’s bullies and as we see the actual Xia she tells us she is a protector, avenger for those who are wronged, and she doesn’t fear the wicked she fights them. These vignettes are making me more interested in Xia than I ever was for her entire time in NXT.
It’s time for the women’s tag match as Sasha Banks and Naomi take on Natalya and Shayna Baszler and for this match, Sonya Deville will be on commentary.
I went back and watched this match for a second time as I saw people on Twitter talking about how Naomi seemed off in this match and half the people were blaming Naomi while the other half was blaming Shayna, but from what I saw neither seemed off as I thought this match was quite good and all four women did a good job in it. It’s nice to see Naomi finally get a win as she hasn’t seen many of them as of late. It was interesting to see Sonya nod in approval of Naomi after the match and actually tell her good job as I wasn’t expecting that, it will be interesting to see where the feud goes from here. Given what happened at Survivor Series I was surprised to see there was no follow-up on the Sasha vs Shotzi feud, in fact, Shotzi wasn’t on the show at all this week, hopefully, she is ok and hopefully, Vince hasn’t already gotten bored of her.
We go backstage outside the office of Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville where a list of the names in the battle royal is posted, Drew McIntyre walks up to see his name is not on the list and then he stares off into space.
It’s time for the main event Black Friday Battle Royal to become the #1 Contender for the WWE Universal Championship. Sami Zayn, Viking Raiders (with new music), and Ricochet get entrances, and just when it looks like the match is fixing to start we get the entrance of Drew McIntyre who runs down to the ring with his sword and the ring clears as nobody wants to lose a limb. Adam Pearce runs down to try and calm McIntyre down as the show goes to a commercial break. We come back and McIntyre has vanished so clearly he wasn’t as mad as he acted like he was. For anyone else who considers battle royals to be a guilty pleasure like me and want to know who the participants in this match are I will tell you, they are Angel, Cesaro, Drew Gulak, Erik, Happy Corbin, Humberto, Ivar, Jeff Hardy, Jinder Mahal, Mace, Madcap Moss, Mansoor, Rick Boogs, Ricochet, Ridge Holland, Sami Zayn, Shanky, & Sheamus The match starts and we see that The Bloodline is watching the match from backstage and we see that being the Head of the Table has its perks like getting to watch TV while sitting right in front of it instead of from the side like the poor Usos are having to do.
This is a battle royal so you know what to expect for the majority of it as it’s a lot of punching, kicking, and struggling in the corner. I have to say that Shanky may be one of the least intimidating and least hyped giants to ever step into WWE as he is unceremoniously eliminated by Madcap Moss early on in the match. Ridge Holland and Sheamus try to work together but Cesaro gets the best of Holland once again as he eliminates him and the debut of Holland just got worse. Corbin and Moss do a stupid spot where Moss tries to eliminate Corbin but is stopped and then Corbin eliminates Moss and then they laugh about it as it’s so funny to be eliminated from a battle royal where the winner gets a Universal Championship match. We get a shot of ringside where we see that Adam Pearce stayed out there after coming out to control McIntyre and we also see Kayla sitting at ringside as she will be interviewing the winner.
Viking Raiders last a lot longer than I would’ve expected and they hit Zayn with a double team move and he falls through the ropes which made it obvious who was going to either win this math or be the runner up as WWE love doing this trope in battle royals and Royal Rumbles. Sheamus finally eliminates the Viking Raiders and now that the ring is cleared out we get some actual wrestling between the final four in the ring which are Sheamus, Corbin, Hardy, & Ricochet. Sheamus eventually eliminates Ricochet and then the heels try to team up to throw out Hardy, but that alliance doesn’t last long as Corbin eliminates Sheamus and then Hardy eliminates Corbin right after. It looks like Hardy has won, but cue the WWE battle royal trope music as Zayn runs back in the ring and eliminates Hardy to win the match.
Zayn is celebrating like you would expect him to celebrate and as we look into the locker room of The Bloodline we see them laughing as they know this is going to be an easy title defense for Reigns. Zayn is set to be interviewed by Kayla, but she starts receiving a message through her earpiece, and then a big smile comes across her face as she has breaking news. Kayla tells us that Brock Lesnar has been officially been reinstated and he will be making his return to SmackDown next week. The different reactions to this news given by Zayn, Pearce, and The Bloodline are fantastic as that news makes all of them shit their pants and the glee Kayla took in announcing that was the cherry on top, the only way it could’ve been better if she had just told Heyman to suck it. The show ends with The Usos and Roman Reigns staring at Heyman as he looks like he has seen a ghost.
This episode of SmackDown had a lot of issues going on such as Ridge Holland losing his SmackDown debut match, the terrible Thanksgiving gimmick match, the infuriating segment with Charlotte and Toni Storm, and the uncomfortable interactions between Heyman and Kayla early on in the show, but I really enjoyed this closing segment just for how sudden the reactions of everyone changed by the announcement of Lesnar’s return.
In the news
Karen Q who was playing the role of Mei Ying in NXT had had her name changed to Wendy Choo (please don’t give her a gimmick based around sneezing) and she is not the only one in NXT undergoing a name change as several referees received new names as well as Aja Smith is now Daphne Lashaunn, DA Brewer is Dallas Irvin, and Tom Castor is Derek Sanders.
Ronda Rousey was asked recently during a stream on her Facebook page what her contract status is with WWE and she didn’t seem to be sure what the status is exactly, but she guesses that she probably isn’t and then followed up by saying that is a question for the lawyers, she would also state in a recent interview that she keeps in touch with Stephanie McMahon. Well, if anyone had any questions about how much Ronda cares about her time in WWE I think this answers the question as I feel like someone who was fully invested would know for sure whether they are employed or not.
After some further investigation, it appears that the guy who attacked Seth Rollins had intellectual disabilities, and the reason for the attack was that the attacker was getting scammed out of money by a guy online who was catfishing as Seth Rollins. While I still stand firm that nobody should ever jump the barricade and attack a wrestler (nor should a wrestler ever reach into the crowd to attack a heckler or hit someone who pats you on the back or arm while you in the crowd, yeah I still remember what CM Punk did to that one fan in 2018) but given this situation I am glad that Rollins didn’t attack him like some fans insisted that he should’ve done.
It looks like the legacy of the McMahon and Levesque family in wrestling is going to continue into the next generation as Stephanie McMahon stated during an interview with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT’s that her oldest daughter Aurora Rose (who is 15) is already getting the bug for the business and has started training, but in-ring is not where she plans to stop as Stephanie states that Aurora said from a young age that she wants to takeover Vince’s job. Stephanie also stated that her youngest daughter (who is 11) is also interested and she can’t wait to see what she will do as she is all about personality. I have to say that I feel for these girls if they get into the business as the fans are going to eat them up and never give them credit for anything as they will instantly scream nepotism, it was bad enough for Triple H when he married Stephanie it’s going to be 100x worse for his kids. I have always said and still stand by it that WWE would’ve never given the women a real chance to succeed had Triple H and Stephanie not had daughters. Triple H and Stephanie wanted to make sure that if their girls did get into the business the women’s division would already be built up and credible so that it doesn’t make their daughters look bad once they start in the company.
In some unfortunate news, PWInsider reports that WWE has no plans to release the documentaries Superfan: The Story of Vladimir and Icons: Lex Luger. I am really bummed about this one as I was really looking forward to the Vlad documentary and I feel bad for him that his chance to be honored and appreciated for his dedication is not going to happen.
Andrew Zarian reports that WWE came up with the idea to build Survivor Series and Raw around The Rock’s new movie Red Notice back when they thought The Rock was going to be on the show and then decided to stick with that plan once they were aware he wasn’t going to show due to the fact that they had a substantial financial obligation to promote the movie.
The latest news on the contract status of Johnny Gargano is that he signed a one-week extension in order to get through WarGames and because of this WWE is very pleased with Gargano. Unlike with Adam Cole’s expiring contract situation, it isn’t as certain that Gargano will be leaving the company as WWE is still trying to get him to sign a multi-year contract. As for his wife and baby mama Candice LeRae, her contract is set to expire next May, however, WWE may add time to the contract due to her being out on maternity leave which would mean the contract wouldn’t run out until 2023.
Fightful Select reports that the plans for what Tegan Nox was going to do on the main roster changed several times and she wasn’t even aware of what brand she was going to during the draft and in addition to that she found out about being split from Shotzi through social media.
Fightful reports that WWE is very high on Ken Doane (Kenny Dykstra) as a producer as he was the sole producer for a couple of dark matches and even produced talent that is older than he is.
There is already some interest to bring up Odyssey Jones from NXT to the main roster.
WWE has filed to trademark the name “Sofia Cromwell” as well as “ECW” for the purposes of video games and merchandise.
Coming up this Week
Raw:
- Big E vs Kevin Owens
- Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor
- Edge returns
NXT 2.0:
- Kay Lee Ray vs Dakota Kai (WarGames advantage Ladder Match)
- Men’s WarGames Advantage Ladder Match (Participants voted on by fans)
- Legado del Fantasma vs Von Wagner & Kyle O’Reilly (NXT Tag Team Championship #1 Contender Match)
- Joe Gacy all-inclusive invitational
NXT UK
- Meiko Satomura © vs Xia Brookside (NXT UK Women’s Championship)
SmackDown:
- The return of Brock Lesnar
