Paid Members air_raid Posted October 4, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 4, 2023 DECEMBER 2013 Yes, we’re going to have one title match after the TLC PPV. Groundhog Day! - it’s Randy Orton vs John Cena yet again, as fans continue to chant Daniel Bryan’s name or “boring” every week on TV, but don’t worry, Batista will be back in time for the Rumble. If you think it’s starting to sound suspiciously like things need refreshing because they haven’t made any lasting main event superstars in near 10 years, don’t worry - the top end of WrestleMania XXX will also feature Triple H, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker. MAIN EVENTS 7th-8th in Vancouver/Yakima it’s a reversion to Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan for the WWE title (but Punk on last) - far more palatable than the Big Show nonsense they’ve been enduring. After the titles have been unified it’s Randy Orton vs John Cena for all the marbles 26th/27th at MSG (14,000) and in Hartford, then 29th Hershey and 30th in Toronto while 28th in Newark it’s a tag with Cena and Rey Mysterio beating Orton and Alberto Del Rio. 6th in Stockton it’s a handicap match of John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio & Damien Sandow, next two nights in Sacramento and Spokane a swap sees Sandow added to the UST match and a straight Cena/Bertie title match - atop fairly decent cards with two Shield title matches. 26th-28th at the Allstate (10,000+) and in Indianapolis and Detroit it’s CM Punk vs The Shield in the utterly bizarre “1 beats 3” handicap match. THE CARDS CM Punk vs Luke Harper unexpectedly goes on last early month then Punks support after Christmas is Daniel Bryan & The Usos vs Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Harper inside a cage - the B show sounds rather good! There’s two returns to Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio after Christmas, plus Bertie loses twice to Sin Cara (now TAFKA Hunico) in Hartford and Toronto - the former he actually does the pouting open challenge after the loss then loses to Rey too. Likewise month end Big Show vs Kane happens in two regular then three cage matches - usually Booker T refs their match. It’s Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler vs Damien Sandow for the US title and Big E Langston vs Curtis Axel vs R-Truth for the ICT starting the month - giving way to three rounds each of Ziggler pinning Ryback and Big E vs Truth vs Sandow after Christmas while Axel finds his level, jobbing to Great Khali. Tag title has Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins continue then after Christmas it’s the Real Americans challenging - this goes in a cage twice for some reason. The reason being in reality so Cody can do a moonsault off the top. Kofi Kingston vs The Miz continues early month then after the break they get forced by Vickie to team again to lose to the Prime Time Players. It’s The Bella Twins vs AJ Lee & Tamina early month and The Funkadactyls vs Alicia Fox & Aksana, then after Christmas twice it’s Naomi/Cameron & the Bellas vs that pair, Rosa Mendes and Kaitlyn (who I don’t remember turning heel) plus Natalya vs AJ non title is possibly the only match that happens all five nights between Boxing Day and the 30th. Los Matadores vs Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre becomes 3MB & Ricardo Rodriguez (Slaters injured) losing to Diego, Fernando and El Torito month end. Early month it’s Zack Ryder vs Alexander Rusev - a rare loss streak for Zack, he rebounds beating Brodus Clay thrice after Christmas but loses to Ryback in Hershey and Toronto. Before Christmas there’s also Ryback vs Santino, Usos vs Swagger & Cesaro and Xavier Woods vs Hunico. After Christmas Bad News Barrett vs Tyson Kidd runs for three nights. Christian actually refs Show vs Kane in hometown Toronto. Mark Henry is back on the road, kind of - after Christmas he does a dance off with Fandango. VARIATIONS In case it needs spelling out, it’s Ambrose vs Ziggler in Stockton. In Vancouver only the Bellas tag is preceded by AJ vs Brie for the belt with run ins - for Yakima they consider this overblown. There is however a second women’s presence on the card - what had been a men’s singles in Vancouver morphs into Khali & Natalya vs Fandango & Summer Rae in Yakima. Post Christmas Hunico-as-Sin Cara varies - in Hershey he actually tags with Rey to open with the Real Americans. Prior to that there’s some crossover with the old “open challenge” schtick - at MSG he beats Axel who then loses to Khali, in Newark he pins “El Local” and Hartford with Del Rio you know about. Also in Newark - no, Ricardo doesn’t work twice - Real Americans beat the Matadores and 3MB in an opener to get their crack at the Rhodes boys later plus there’s a Brie vs Alicia Fox lumberjill match. Finally some shuffling on the last two nights as not everyone is working due to TVs the same nights. In Hershey there’s Ziggler vs ADR ref’d by Booker, plus Justin Gabriel vs Kidd - International Airstrike explodes!! In Toronto someone from the tag title match is off so Cody vs Cesaro goes down as a singles. MAIN EVENTS - NXT Just three shows in Tampa - NXT were never scared of the odd mixed tag and on 5th it’s Adrian Neville & Emma vs Bo Dallas & Sasha Banks. 12th the champs off, Neville loses to Alexander Rusev on last, 19th there’s a proper main - Dallas beats Billy Gunn no DQ. THE CARDS The Ascension vs Angelo Dawkins & Colin Cassidy happens twice for the belts then 19th Cass & Dawkins win a non title three way also featuring Marcus Louis & Sylvester LeFort. Women’s stuff has Bayley vs Becky Lynch on 5th, Bayley & Emma beating Lynch & Sasha Banks on 12th, and finally 19th Bayley & Emma beat Sasha and Raquel Diaz… who is Shaul Guerrero. Of all the family legacies they disregarded in favour of a name they could trademark, this was the one for me that made least sense in company rhetoric. There’s a repeat of Corey Graves vs CJ Parker and of Adam Rose vs Wesley Blake then on 19th Rose beats Graves ; also on 19th is Solomon Crowe vs Kalisto which based on how I’ve seen Crowe/Callihan work luchadors in person, I expect I’d have hated. TVs 2nd in Oklahoma City enmity between Punk and “the Authority” builds when Kane books Phil to wrestle The Shield at TLC (hmm), Bad News Barrett debuts his podium, Sin Cara (character) returns to Raw and upsets Del Rio, and Miz & Kofi continue tagging but also feuding, in a loss to RybAxel. Next night in Tulsa Gabriel vs Kidd happens between Main Event and SmackDown. 9th in Seattle Rusev beats Ryder dark, and the Slammys show features Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and others show up but amusingly they award a Slammy to The Rock, who doesn’t. Plus, Shawn tells Bryan his 2014 is going to be even bigger then later after Punk decks Triple H, he receives a superkick from HBK, who’s promptly dropped by Bryan. Hmm. Next night in Portland Ziggler actually loses to Axel in 14 minutes for Main Event and after tapings Cena beats Orton by DQ (zzzz). 11th in Fort Lewis WA they tape Tribute To The Troops - Henry & Big E best RybAxel dark and in interesting matches for either TV or wwe.com, Cena, Bryan & Punk beat the Wyatt Family and Rey & the Usos beat The Shield. 15th is TLC and some of the booking is mystifying - former World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler (who Vince never rated) loses to Fandango on the pre show, in the opener The Shield having spent all year rarely losing to any 3 men, manage to lose to 1 Punk, then in the second match AJ retains over Natalya in a waste of everyone’s time, famously that couple having their matches early so they can go to a wedding. Of course on last Orton beats Cena in a ladder match to retain the titles far too late for anyone to care about Cena vs Orton or the big gold belt. Next night in Dallas Kaitlyn actually jobs to Summer Rae for Superstars, Punk and HBK have words, Tons Of Funk disband when Clay turns heel on R-Truth, Woods and Tensai and Bryan goes 25 minutes with new unified champ Orton and even beats him by DQ before Randy leaves both him and Cena laying - after the show goes off the air Booker refs Orton vs Cena, which also ends on a DQ. Next night in Austin they tape the Christmas Raw, Ryder beats Kidd dark and Big E flirts with main event again teaming with Cena and Punk to beat The Shield by DQ. Night after in San Antonio is a pretty cool sounding taping - the Usos beat RybAxel before anything that airs, Ziggler loses to Cesaro for Superstars which sucks for him but was a very good match, after a loss for Cody & Dustin to the Wyatts that airs, immediately afterwards Cody/Goldie/Bryan beat Bray/Harper/Rowan just for those in attendance, then after Cena & Punk beat The Shield by DQ, dark Cena wins by DQ again… over Orton, which is getting duller by the week. 29th in Washington DC they tape the 3/1 SmackDown - Barrett beats Darren Young dark, Sandow and Kofi get 20 minutes for Main Event, and Punk & the Usos beat The Shield - they’re on the cusp, it feels, of going all the way with (this version of) Jimmy & Jey. Finally 30th in Richmond, Bryan runs a Wyatt gauntlet but then joins the Family voluntarily because reasons, Brock Lesnar returns and lays waste to Mark Henry, and dark Punk beats The Shield on his own again. To be fair the build for Punk/HHH and Bryan/HBK at Mania has been decent. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Ambrose (US champion) TWICE by Punk, Cody & Goldust (tag team champions) by Ryback & Axel (fuck me), AGAIN by The Real Americans, FUCK SAKE AGAIN by Rey & Show, BASTARD AGAIN by Harper & Rowan. I understand why Cody left, I really do. DEPARTURES As is tradition the company gives all its wrestlers a Christmas bonus of continuous employment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 6, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) JANUARY 2014 Look in my eyes, you will see… litigation between you and me. THE MAIN EVENTS It’s Randy Orton vs John Cena with a shite DQ finish 3rd-5th in Fayetteville, Greensboro and Roanoke, atop huge 9 match cards with decent support, and again 10th-12th in Wilkes-Barre, Buffalo and Montreal, 17th-19th in St Louis (just 6000), Cincinnati and Columbus, 24th/25th in State College and Reading and 31st in Miami (another weak 6000 gate). 4th/5th in Hampton & Fairfax there’s also 9 matches with CM Punk vs The Shield continuing on last, atop Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt in a cage match, same pair of matches 11th/12th in Glens Falls and White Plains and still Punk on top 18th/19th in Hammond and Kalamazoo - which go down as it stands as his final house shows for WWE. 25th in Canton the night before the Rumble, Bryan vs Wyatt in the cage goes on last. THE CARDS It’s Dolph Ziggler vs Alberto Del Rio first week, mid month Del Rio rebounds to beat Sin Cara for two loops. We have Big Show vs Kane everywhere except Wilkes-Barre first two weeks plus St Louis, then Show is losing to Bray Wyatt in Hammond and inside a cage in Kalamazoo while for some reason Kane loses handicaps to fellow heels Erick Rowan & Luke Harper - Show vs Kane (still planned for Mania at this point) returns in Miami. It’s Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans everywhere prior to Montreal and in week 3 plus once more in Miami after (OH YOU DIDNT KNOW) the titles have moved on. ICT of Big E Langston vs Damien Sandow occurs every night til the Rumble which is the only match with 100% consistency other than Orton/Cena. Early month there’s also The Miz vs Fandango, Bad News Barrett vs Justin Gabriel, R-Truth vs Bo Dallas and Zack Ryder vs Alexander Rusev - which is a sandwich, repeating in Pennsylvania - then mid month Miz loses to Barrett - did Miz not turn back heel already?? - Rusev beats Gabriel and Ron’s with Dango for two loops (and in Miami). Week 3 Miz is back with Kofi Kingston, Bad News is back with Tyson Kidd (including Canton) and Gabriel loses to NXT standout Tyler Breeze. In week 4, Kofi pins Ryback and Gabriel jobs for Fandango. We have The Usos vs Rowan & Harper in Fairfax and New York state, Sin Cara vs Ryback and Great Khali vs Curtis Axel (reprising in Canton) in week 1 plus the Prime Time Players vs Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal in week 1 and Wilkes-Barre, before “RybAxel” are repurposed to the tag ranks - they lose to the Players in Buffalo and through week 3. Also in Buffalo Heath Slater returns so 3MB lose to Los Matadores & El Torito which repeats in Reading. Tensai vs Brodus Clay as a grudge match early month twice end with Kane attacking Tensai leading to his match with Show. Third week, Clay starts losing to Xavier Woods. There’s Natalya & Emma vs AJ Lee & Tamina for two weeks then AJ vs Nattie non title in week 3 through Canton all end with even more pointless submissions to the Sharpshooter for the hapless champ. The Bella Twins vs Alicia Fox & Aksana runs first two loops, then there’s been a phantom split as it’s Fox vs Aksana week 3 - the animosity cleanly doesn’t last as they’re back teaming in Pennsylvania/Miami, losing to The Funkadactyls. VARIATIONS Someone’s missing so it’s Jey Uso vs Rowan in Hampton. In Wilkes-Barre it’s Matadores vs Ryback & Axel, in Montreal RybAxel beat the Players & 3MB in an opening eliminator to get a crack at the brothers Rhodes later, and Cesaro loses to Fernando (Epico) in singles. Ryders off in Wilkes-Barre, loses to Kane immediately before Kane’s regular loss to Show in Buffalo but beats Dallas non title in Montreal. Right before the Rumble - here’s poor old Rey Mysterio - in and out with injuries forever and about to get the worst reaction of his career for the crime of not being Daniel Bryan - in State College he tags with the Rhodes lads to beat Del Rio & the Real Americans, in Reading it’s Rey vs Bertie one on one. In Canton it’s Ambrose vs Truth and Cody & Goldust vs Real Americans vs Rollins & Reigns. Also in State College only the Matadores beat Slater & McIntyre 2 on 2, finally new matches in Miami have newly solo Titus vs Curt Hawkins, Adrian Neville vs Dallas non title, and 3MB losing to the Matadores & Sin Cara - some of the men in that match will wrestle each other for the next two years and longer. Not Drew, obvs. MAIN EVENTS - NXT A consistent main event - 3rd in Largo it’s Bo Dallas vs Adrian Neville for the title then the two trade wins non title 18th/19th in Lakeland and Daytona Beach. THE CARDS Near identical cards those back to backs - Adam Rose vs Tensai, Marcus Louis & Sylvester LeFort vs Mason Ryan & Jason Jordan, Corey Graves vs Troy McClain, Colin Cassidy vs Aiden English and CJ Parker vs Baron Corbin which goes all three nights. Otherwise of interest, it’s Bayley vs Sasha Banks in Largo, Bayley vs Becky Lynch in Lakeland and Bayley & Emma vs Lynch & Veronica Lane in Daytona. Also in Largo Rose beats Graves again, The Ascension retain over Cass & Angelo Dawkins, and Xavier Woods knocks off Tyler Breeze. TVs 6th in Baltimore is an “Old School Raw” with a host of the usual and not so usual guests including Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Mean Gene Okerlund and Diamond Dallas Page, highlights of actual action include Sgt Slaughter applying the Cobra Clutch to Sandow after Damien loses to Khali, the New Age Outlaws backing up Punk against The Shield, and 3MB losing to Rikishi & Too Cool. Oh and Brock Lesnar sends Mark Henry to hospital. Dark, Cena beats Orton by DQ refereed by Booker T. Next night in Philadelphia Rusev beats Ryder dark, AJ retains the belt against Kaitlyn, The Shield beat Punk & the Outlaws and after the show Cena… fuck it, I don’t care to write it again. 13th in Providence the Outlaws abandon Punk to get lamped by The Shield, Del Rio beats Mysterio by submission and Usos vs Bryan & Bray has Daniel run out of patience with his “leader” already ending with the memorable sight of Bryan atop the cage to the cheers of his adoring masses. Next night in Worcester Rusev beats Kidd dark, fair to say the glory days of Main Event are over if the longest match is Kofi vs Axel, Rey pins Del Rio and after the taping Punk beats The Shield in another handicap. 20th in Dayton Batista returns, ADR beats Rey to win their mini feud, Punk pins Mr Ass in his final singles match in WWE and AJ & Tamina lose to the Funkadactyls when the champ - having lost a million tags or non title matches to Natalya recently - gets pinned by Naomi. They’re concurrently making a big deal of the length of her reign on TV which makes everyone concerned look dumb - she’s as big a loser they’ve got. Next night in Grand Rapids Naomi beats Emma before the taping and Punk beats The Shield after it - his last non Rumble match. The Rumbke itself is a ridiculously noteworthy PPV - the Outlaws win the tag belts on the pre show, Lesnar utterly destroys Show, the live crowd savagely rejects Orton vs Cena and in general the return to Cena on top because Bryan’s their guy, Rey gets booed horrifically at number 30 for not being Bryan, and the crowd vociferously protests to Batista, the obvious winner, because he’s taking what should be going to Bryan, and in the closing stages give their support to Reigns… which the office will misconstrue as the “Universe” being ready for Roman to be their guy, which they aren’t, because Bryan’s their guy. Next night in Cleveland the Outlaws go to a no contest with Cody & Dustin when Lesnar attacks the challengers, AJ gives away ANOTHER fall to Naomi in an 8-woman, and Cena/Bryan/Sheamus beat The Shield by DQ to qualify for the Elimination Chamber when the Wyatts interfere… prompting an excitement level strong enough to turn The Shield eventual babyface, postpone their split and cancel plans for Ambrose vs Reigns at Mania. Next night in Toledo Rusev beats Kidd again, the PTP are split up, and The Shield beat Bryan, Sheamus and Rey. Finally 31st at Full Sail, Jordan beats Corbin dark and in the tapings Bayley beats Sasha but loses to Charlotte on separate episodes, Cesaro beats Gabriel, Woods puts over Rusev and Cody and ‘Dust best the Ascension by DQ. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Big E, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Orton, umm, Orton (WWE CHAMPION) by Kofi, Cody & Goldust yet again (tag team champions) by the Outlaws. DEPARTURES Ezekiel Jackson has surgery for an injury and his let out of his deal in April. Kaitlyn does that last TV job for AJ then walks away to go back to fitness modelling, launch her clothing line Celestial Bodiez, and to plan her wedding, calling herself retired by July. She comes back to do two matches in the Mae Young Classic in 2018, it's just for fun, not a real return. Shame, she was decent enough. Tensai puts over Adam Rose on those NXT shows and then moves into commentary, announcing his retirement by August and start coaching, eventually becoming head coach at the performance center, a role he's still in. I did enjoy the consistency of the character being turned into a Ton Of Funk after his previous turn dancing with Scotty. It was always inside him. CM Punk, hurt, sick, pissed off and faced with the prospect of wrestling (and beating) Triple H at Mania 30, decides to go home from Raw the day after the Rumble and heads back to his couch in Chicago despite being under contract until July. One source says the final straw was learning that he’d be losing to Cesaro in an Elimination Chamber qualifier thanks to Kane, but Punks never alluded to that in his own telling. Already galled by having been eliminated from the Rumble by Kane instead of making it to the end (he initially threatened to quit if Kane so much as touched him that late into the match), his drive to the arena is miserable and he says his breaking point is when he’s selected in a big round of drugs tests - he’s had enough to the point that it’s just not worth pissing in a cup to prove to the company he’s clean to carry on clocking in depressed. Among the many grievances he puts to Vince and Hunter before handshakes and being allowed to leave, include being asked to lose to Miz and Truth when he was at his peak of popularity, Hunter only agreeing to put him over now and not two years earlier when it would have made a difference, inconsistency and favouritism on many fronts - creative, sponsorships, schedule, Hunter reneging on his promise to put over Axel properly, false promises to himself of being promised more with Lesnar than just one high profile defeat, general morale being on the floor because only Cena and Orton have their voices heard, and the decision to go with Orton vs Batista for Mania at the expense of Daniel Bryan, which he calls out of touch. Which is hard to argue with. The rest of his story, getting terminated ON HIS WEDDING DAY, lawsuits etc, has been written about incessantly in the intervening years. Stranger things have happened but to date, he’s yet to be back in a wrestling capacity, only on WWE Backstage from November 19 to June 20 where he was actually an employee of Fox Sports rather than WWE itself. Let’s see what happens come Survivor Series. Edited October 6, 2023 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted October 6, 2023 Awards Moderator Share Posted October 6, 2023 Troy McClain? Where might I remember him from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 6, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 6, 2023 1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said: Troy McClain? Where might I remember him from? From such films as "Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die", and "Gladys, the Groovy Mule"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 7, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 7, 2023 FEBRUARY 2014 Did you know Hollywood Dave went on the road during his comeback? I didn’t. Bigger picture - NXT do Arrival which is spiritually the first of what we’d call TakeOver in the future. THE MAIN EVENTS 1st in Orlando (6500) it’s still Randy Orton vs John Cena but here Cena gets an eye injury so your fall back main event is… here comes Daniel Bryan bringing the cage with him 2nd in Kansas City (4000), though Cena’s back for cage matches with Randy 7th-9th in Oakland, San Jose and Fresno, 15th/16th in Phoenix and Las Vegas and 28th in North Charleston. 1st in Wichita it’s still Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt in a cage match but when both go to rescue Cena’s crew Big Show vs Kane comes over for top spot and the cage 2nd in Lakeland then it’s back to Wyatt pinning Bryan in straight matches 8th/9th in San Diego and Bakersfield. THE CARDS The Animal is back! It’s Batista vs Alberto Del Rio in Phoenix and Vegas. Big Show vs Kane continues for the first two loops. First week it’s Sheamus & The Usos vs The Shield.. you can tell they’re thinking of splitting the Hounds up, that’s not a match they’d have lost in 2013. Kofi Kingston vs Bad News Barrett early month is followed by Kofi starting challenging Ambrose for the US belt in Cali while Rollins & Reigns lose to Sheamus & Christian. Mid month we have The Shield trio vs Sheamus, Christian and Daniel Bryan on Cena’s undercard, plus Bray Wyatt vs Dolph Ziggler and Kofi stuck with Fandango. Second week (and North Charleston) it’s Barrett vs The Miz - I’m baffled as to Miz still getting babyface assignments so long - and we add Ziggler vs Damien Sandow too. Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans continues early month (picking back up in South Carolina) plus Big E Langston & Mark Henry vs Ryback & Curtis Axel sounds a good excuse for big lads clobbering, then a rather random six man in San Jose & Fresno sees Henry tag with west coast hero Rey Mysterio and Xavier Woods to beat Del Rio, Swagger and Cesaro. Also early month there’s continuations of Zack Ryder vs Alexander Rusev and R-Truth vs Fandango then in California there’s an ICT match of Big E vs Ryback vs Fandango (errr… OK) - that one reprises month end - and Ryder has to job for Axel. ICT is Langston vs Ryback out in the desert and - OH, YOU DIDNT KNOW? - The New Age Outlaws make defences against Zebs lads and the Usos in three ways. Adrian Neville vs Bo Dallas non title week 1 where it’s also Sin Cara & Los Matadores vs 3 Man Band before reverting to 3MB losing to Diego, Fernando and mascot El Torito in week 2. Early month we have Titus O’Neil vs Curt Hawkins then in week two Titus starts losing the revenge match to former partner Darren Young. It’s also Jey Uso vs Erick Rowan week 2. Natalya vs Tamina and The Funkadactyls vs Alicia Fox & Aksana which both sound fucking awful start the month off. Then it’s back to Nattie & Emma beating AJ Lee & Tamina, plus Cameron vs Aksana in singles. Mid month it doesn’t get better - The Bella Twins beat Summer Rae & Tamina. Why Rey is booked in San Jose and Fresno instead of on the crew booked for San Diego is beyond me. Either way by month end he’s only got two appearances left this run and we’ve seen the last of him on the road. VARIATIONS Mixed up Miz wrestles Sandow in Wichita, Wyatt in Kansas City and Del Rio in Oakland. In Kansas with Miz repurposed, Kofi beats Sandow AND then beats Barrett straight after! In Oakland only, it’s Fox that loses to Cameron, Big E vs Fandango, with Miz wrestling ADR, Barrett challenges Young after Darren’s win over O’Neil and remarkably it’s bad news for Bad News, and Henry/Woods vs Cesaro/Swagger. Unique to North Charleston are Del Rio beating Sin Cara and Axel losing to Tyson Kidd. MAIN EVENTS - NXT Just two house shows in a month the televised production is the focus - 7th in Crystal River it’s Adrian Neville vs Bo Dallas non title half way through (tag belts on last) and 15th in Orlando it’s The Ascension vs Baron Corbin & Danny Burch. THE CARDS A few repeats - it’s twice Sami Zayn vs CJ Parker, Colin Cassidy vs Tyler Breeze vs Corey Graves is consistent though the result isn’t, Mason Ryan vs Slate Randall recurs as does Adam Rose vs Sawyer Fulton. It’s Bayley vs Sasha Banks in Crystal River then Bayley and Emma beat Sasha and Charlotte in Orlando. TVs 3rd in Omaha is a giant Raw with developments and a tag title cage match but no dark action. Next night in Des Moines Rusev beats Kidd in their latest curtain jerker, Orton pins Christian in one of Captain Charismas last high profile singles matches for many years, and after tapings Bryan beats Wyatt by DQ. 10th at the Staples Center (near 17,500 sellout - fuck!) the Wyatts beat Rey and the Rhodes lads in the last thing I remember about Rey this run ; as he runs in for a 619 to Harper, Bray catches him in Sister Abigail’s Kiss which looks absolutely brilliant. After the show - here’s your Coliseum Video Tag Team Match Of The Month - the Wyatts lose to Cena, Bryan and Batista. Next night in Ontario Rusev beats Ziggler dark - that’s a scalp - and 18th in Colorado Springs he beats Ryder again. Elimination Chamber is memorable for the good and the bad ; good is the Wyatt Family beating The Shield in a blinding state of the art six man, bad is another terrible response to Batista, AJ needing Tamina to get her disqualified to retain against fucking Cameron to continue her lengthy but crap reign, the Outlaws needlessly retaining against the Usos and Kane costing Danny Bry the belt inside the Chamber, furthering my fear that it’s Bryan vs Kane at Mania. Next night on Raw in Green Bay the explicit build for Bryan vs Triple H starts to my relief and The Undertaker shows up to answer the open challenge of Brock Lesnar for Mania - I forget who wins. Next night in Milwaukee I guess Miz is still face? He beats Fandango before tapings. 27th at Full Sail they do Arrival (or arRIVAL I guess) which I watched in its entirety (apart from the Ryan vs Sylvester LeFort dark match obviously) not long after it aired and to be blunt, it was a stunning success. Special mention to Paige vs Emma, Cesaro vs Zayn and Too Cool showing up to put the Ascension over strong. Finally next night there’s NXT tapings, the Outlaws do a courtesy dark match with Tye Dillinger & Jason Jordan, Camacho gets a cheque losing to Neville and to Rose, Yoshi Tatsu reminds us he’s under contract doing a brief count out loss to Graves then a 3 minute pinfall one for a later episode, Sheamus beats Aiden English, Woods does jobs for Rusev and for Breeze, Nattie beats Charlotte by DQ and new champ Neville retains over Bo. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten this month on TV : Orton (WWE CHAMPION) by Bryan, AGAIN by Cena, AGAIN by Cesaro … just giving it away… Outlaws (tag team champions) by the Usos. DEPARTURES Not that I can tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 9, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 9, 2023 MARCH 2014 The Road To WrestleMania has been bumpy. THE MAIN EVENTS Still Randy Orton vs John Cena for the belt inside a cage 1st/2nd in Jacksonville and Moline the 8th at MSG and 9th in Jonesboro AR - this is wild - Cena & Batista face Orton & Bray Wyatt in the old pre-Mania cross feud tag. 14th in Waco and 16th in Dallas, 22nd/23rd at Nassau Coliseum and in Trenton, Orton vs Cena is back in the cage, 28th in Raleigh on an extremely rare night off for Orton (and Sheamus and Barrett and a certain three blokes in black) Cena tags with Cody Rhodes and Goldust to beat The Wyatt Family. New main event has Daniel Bryan vs Kane in a cage match 1st-2nd in Cedar Rapids and Bloomington IL and 7th in Winnipeg, then with THE six man having supported Bryan there, we move to Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan 8th/9th in West Valley City UT and Jackson TN before the full edition six man again runs underneath Bryan and the Big Red Machine in the cage 15th in Laredo, 22nd in Atlantic City, and 29th in Charlottesville VA in a plain singles match. THE CARDS We simply must talk first about The Shield vs The Wyatt Family which as well as 2/3 thereof being a main event also runs as support to Cena or Bryan in Winnipeg, all three shows in Texas - despite the rest of the talent getting at least one night off - and in week 4 plus Charlottesville… all won by @HarmonicGenerators boys. Daniel Bryan vs Kane continues as either a main or support to Cena. Early month it’s Big Show & Kofi Kingston vs Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins, week 2 Show challenges Ambrose - DQ finish (in Jackson The King refs it). First week it’s also Sheamus & The Usos vs The Wyatt Family (to add to the upsets of The Shield last month) then week 2 Sheamus is back wrestling Christian. Show vs Christian goes down in Laredo and Atlantic City and Show ends his month with Damien Sandow. We also kick off with Alberto Del Rio vs Sin Cara (LOSING to Sin Cara), The Miz vs Bad News Barrett and Dolph Ziggler vs Sandow (which reprises in the North East) then we move to Ziggler vs Del Rio, Kofi vs Sandow, Bad News vs Cara and Miz left beating Justin Gabriel - finally booked back as a heel on the road. In the Lone Star State and week 4 it’s Sheamus vs Del Rio yet again, plus Uniondale and Trenton have Miz vs Fandango - did he turn or not???? Kofi vs Bad News fills in some gaps in Waco and Charlottesville, likewise in Laredo and month end Ziggler & Emma vs Fandango & Summer Rae (WTF). ICT is Big E vs Ryback vs Fandango early month then E vs Jack Swagger in week 2 plus Big E vs Miz in only Laredo and Charlottesville. Tag action has Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans in week 1, then The Usos vs the Brotherhood vs Curtis Axel & Ryback for the belts and in the Rhodes’ home state of Texas, Usos vs Cody & Goldie vs Swagger & Cesaro. There’s still Zack Ryder vs Alexander Rusev and Tyson Kidd vs Axel week 1, it’s Mark Henry vs Heath Slater week 2 and Henry vs Sandow in Texas. Darren Young vs Titus O’Neil continues (sometimes twice in succession) with shenanigans (see below) in Dallas. Then in week 4 there’s total chaos - after Titus loses to Young in seconds then again to Henry, he and Barrett lose to Mizark & Young. And I wish that was the worst… see below. Natalya vs AJ Lee is more non title matches for the worthless champion to lose then week 2 and in Laredo AJ defends successfully against Cameron. Week 2 it’s a progress check for The Ascension vs Los Matadores and it’s Great Khali vs Brodus Clay in suburban Salt Lake City, Laredo and Atlantic City. The Bella Twins vs Alicia Fox & Aksana continues for two loops (I actually don’t mind “Foxsana” compared to a lot of other shit WWE portmanteaux). In Texas Nattie & Eva Marie vs Fox & Layla feels as thrown together as it gets then it’s back to what it was in week 3. VARIATIONS - FUCK In Cedar Rapids R-Truth beats Jinder Mahal, in Bloomington Xavier Woods does. Winnipeg has Batista vs Show, Usos vs Cody & Goldie, Christian vs Del Rio and Ziggler vs Miz. In Jackson Khali & Young drop Clay & O’Neil. In Dallas Titus loses to Young, then to Kofi, both in mere seconds, then a tag sees Kingston & Darren beat Bad News and O’Neil. I mean, is there any good way to stretch three matches out of two guys as nominal as Young and Titus? In Trenton only it’s ridiculous - where there’s two matches fewer otherwise with no Rhodes or Shield match, after the same three matches from Nassau and immediately after O’Neil & Barrett lose to Young and the Worlds Strongest Man, Titus’ final tantrum of the loop has him demand a match against partner Barrett, and - bad news for him - he loses. I’d love to meet the soulless fuck who thinks Titus O’Neil losing four matches in a row is entertainment. Unique to Laredo, a return to Sin Cara/Los Matadores vs 3 Man Band of Slater, Jinder and Drew McIntyre. In Atlantic City Slater loses to Sin Cara, Drew & Jinder to Diego & Fernando, and AJ loses another non title match to Naomi plus Big E vs Kofi vs Cesaro for the ICT. At Nassau only it’s Cody & Goldie vs RybAxel. In Raleigh only, it’s Big E vs Miz vs Kofi, the Real Americans beating Truth & Woods and Eva & The Bella Twins beat Foxsana and Layla, and next night in Charlottesville Sheamus beats Sandow prior to the learned one’s second loss to Show, it’s Cody & Dust vs the Real Americans vs Truth & Woods, and with the Bellas off Layla & Eva are magically mates, beating Aksana & Alicia. MAIN EVENT - NXT Just one - 21st in Fort Pierce it’s The Ascension vs Baron Corbin & Sawyer Fulton vs Jason Jordan & Oliver Grey. The quest for a lasting partner goes on for Jordan. THE CARD Undercard highlights are Paige, Bayley & Emma vs Sasha Banks, Charlotte & Alexa Bliss, Colin Cassidy vs Tyler Breeze, Sami Zayn vs Alexander Rusev and Corey Graves vs Aiden English. TVs 3rd at the sold out AllState (13,700+) Paul Heyman comes out to Cult Of Personality to nuclear heat, the Usos win the tag titles from The New Age Outlaws (should have done that one at Mania) and the Wyatts beat the Shield again when a split is teased between Ambrose and the others. Next night in Detroit, Main Event goes out live on the Network including a forgotten Bryan/Kane match that gets 18 minutes. 10th Raw in Memphis (near 15,000 sellout) Nikki Bella becomes the latest scrub to pin AJ in a tag, and Bryan & Show beat Orton & Batista when Bryan pins the champ. Next night in Little Rock The Shield stay together and turn fully fledged babyface betraying Kane to Show, then dark they beat the Wyatts. 13th at Full Sail Kalisto beats El Local dark then notable taping occurrences have Graves beat Zayn by stoppage when (here’s irony) Sami shows post-concussive symptoms, Camacho actually wins a match (over Grey), and Zayn & The Usos beat Graves & The Ascension. 17th in San Antonio - yes, they booked a Raw in HBK territory during Mania season just in case - they do a cheap Steve Austin-style “arrest” angle with Bryan, because as they’ve proven time and time again, they only have one playbook for top babyface - “What would we have done with Stone Cold?” Plus AJ gets pinned by Naomi in a tag. 24th in Brooklyn there is a confrontation between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar but no violence and Christian wins a four-way to get a crack at Big E next night on Main Event but he doesn’t wrestle that match (see below). Next night in Boston Sheamus vs Batista is a clobberfest and dark, Cena & The Shield beat Kane & the Wyatts. Finally 31st in Washington (15,000+ sellout) the go home for Mania has Orton vs Batista go no contest when Bryan attacks Trips then both of them. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Orton (WWE CHAMPION) by Bryan, Usos (tag team champions) by Real Americans, Big E (Intercontinental champion) by Del Rio, AJ (Women’s champion) by Naomi DEPARTURES Fort Pierce is the last official wrestling match for Corey Graves who never really recovered from his concussion ; he retires in December but as I’m sure you know, the company has looked after him. Christian also this month suffers a concussion that will, eventually and quietly, cause him to consider himself retired. He’ll return a couple of times in 2020 and the 2021 Rumble then later work full time for both Impact and AEW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 10, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 10, 2023 APRIL 2014 Shockingly the house shows after Mania 30 neither feature a European tour like normal, nor do they feature the champ! THE MAIN EVENTS It's John Cena & The Shield vs Kane & The Wyatt Family 12th/13th in Hidalgo and Chattanooga, then they're chasing the blood money again 17th-19th in Riad for Cena vs Randy Orton, vs Bray in singles, and partnering Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus against the family. 26th-27th in Louisville and Evansville Cena's new partners are Big Show and - look who's back - Rob Van Dam. 25th in Toronto we're back to The Shield vs The Wyatt Family then the next two nights in Rockford and Peoria, the lads are beating - Poundland Evolution? Or is that a disservice to Poundland? - Randy Orton, Ryback & Curtis Axel. THE CARDS Sheamus vs Batista is a hell of a match to add on month end, same shows Dolph Ziggler vs Alberto Del Rio is back on, and Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton both runs night 3 in Riad and opens in Illinois - the DQ prompts the six man main. Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Reigns vs The Wyatt Family is both the main in Toronto and on Cena's undercard night 1 in Riad. There's Mark Henry vs Cesaro night 1 and 3 in Riad. Early month there’s Big Show vs Damien Sandow and Sheamus vs Titus O'Neil, month end Big E & Henry vs Sandow & Brodus Clay, Bad News Barrett vs Tyson Kidd, Kofi Kingston vs Titus and Cesaro vs Sin Cara. Tag title has The Usos vs Ryback & Curtis Axel in Chattanooga and night 2 in Riad and vs Cody Rhodes & Goldust nights 2 and 3, month end, Usos vs "the Brotherhood" vs Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal. Month end we also add Zack Ryder vs Alexander Rusev, Justin Gabriel vs Bo Dallas, R-Truth vs Jack Swagger and Adam Rose vs Heath Slater. Week 1 it’s Natalya vs Alicia Fox and month end Nikki Bella vs Fox. VARIATIONS In Hildalgo it’s Big E vs Swagger, Usos vs Rhodes lads vs RybAxel, Darren Young vs Fandango. In Chattanooga, Big E vs Cody vs Swagger, Ziggler vs Cesaro, and Goldust vs Fandango. Riad night 1 has Sheamus vs Ryback, Sami Zayn vs Sandow, Ziggler vs Axel and Kofi vs Slater. Night 2 has Orton vs Henry, Ambrose vs Cody vs Ziggler vs Kingston, Sheamus vs Sandow, Cesaro vs Zayn and Goldust vs Slater. Night 3 has Ambrose & Rollins vs RybAxel, Kofi vs Sandow and Zayn vs Slater. In Toronto only Rob Van Dam is back and LOSING to Barrett plus Sin Cara beats Sandow by DQ. In Rockford, Xavier Woods & Cameron vs Fandango & Layla, Natalya & Paige vs Tamina & Summer Rae. In Peoria, its Woods & Naomi, and Tamina & Rosa Mendes in the respective tags. NO NXT HOUSE SHOWS THIS MONTH TVs So… Mania 30 is a tale of two perspectives. As a watch, the return to “fewer matches but they all matter” was welcome and the scope and stakes of Cena/Wyatt, Taker/Lesnar, Bryan/HHH and the WWE title three way and even the Andre Battle Royal (which convinced you they were making Cesaro a star) made it a great show. But thinking about that battle royal, while I disagree that everyone deserves to get on the Mania card (a backwards concept) the volume of guys that are solely in a battle royal who may have expected better is jarring. In terms of marquee value, status as former Word champions/presented as main eventers, or even just having had a great run over 6-12 months, I think “You’re in a battle royal” must have been disappointing to Rey Mysterio, Ziggler, Sheamus, Del Rio, Show, The Miz, Henry, and even Big E (Intercontinental champion), Sandow (former briefcase wanker) and Cody & Dustin who had one of the best storylines of the previous 8 months. Or maybe it was still special because it was the “WrestleMania XXX” battle royal, I don’t know. Next night, the “Raw after Mania” has RVD return, Paige surprise everyone by answering the challenge of AJ Lee and easily taking the belt from her, Rusev debut beating Ryder as he’s become accustomed to on house shows, the company capitalise on Cesaro’s big win and explosion of popularity by, ummm, leaving him heel and lumping him in with Paul Heyman, and The Shield solidify their hero status by costing Triple H the belts against Daniel Bryan. Next night in Lafayette Sheamus vs Titus is a dark match and The Shield beat the Wyatts in their TV rematch for Main Event. 15th SmackDown taping in Nashville Sheamus vs Batista is a strong TV main with a pinfall finish but dark after the show Sheamus actually beats “The Animal” in a Last Man Standing match. 22nd in Hershey Zayn pins Slater between Main Event and SmackDown, 24th at Full Sail Adrian Neville beats Clay in a no DQ title defence, Charlotte and Natalya make the finals of the Women’s title tournament and Big E beats Dallas in a “Win Or Go Home” match. 28th Raw in St Louis Bad News beats RVD to win the ICT contenders tournament, Reigns vs Orton goes to a non finish in their first TV match and dark Cena beats Bray by DQ. Finally 29th in Kansas City Santino vs Clay and Dallas vs Kidd both happen before tapings, and after the show The Shield beat the Wyatts again. No champions are actually booked to lose non title matches in the match they’re a champion in this month. Do I find that shocking? Yes I do. DEPARTURE Rey Mysterio does a job for Barrett on Raw after Mania then disappears. In the summer he’ll claim he wanted to leave but WWE extended his contract for another year without his consent. Come February he’s finally allowed out and by March is back wrestling again. Injuries had caught up with him and he’d become stale but despite such legally questionable circumstances around said contract extension, four years after his last match for WWE having reetablished his status as one of the best wrestlers alive, he’ll return, and again be a huge part of the company. I can’t think of another wrestler who I saw wrestle live, then not only saw wrestle again 15 years later but have the best match of the night. There’s not another like Rey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 11, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 11, 2023 MAY 2014 After a delay, the European tour arrives. Blame Saudi Arabia. Still no Bryan. Blame his neck. THE MAIN EVENTS It's a conclusion before Extreme Rules of John Cena & The Shield vs Kane & The Wyatt Family 2nd/3rd in Rochester and Syracuse. On tour we're back to Cena vs Bray as the grudge match 15th-18th in Rome, Torino, Innsbruck and Birmingham, and 22nd-24th in Dublin, Oberhausen and Berlin. 31st in Springfield IL we revert to Cena/Ambrose/Rollins/Reigns vs Kane/Bray/Harper/Rowan. Our other main event on the tour starts as Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton as a cage match in Glasgow on the 14th, then a streetfight 15th-18th in Newcastle (where uniquely they curtain jerk too in a standard match with a DQ finish), Leeds, Nottingham and Cardiff, and 20th in Sheffield. 21st-24th we pivot back to The Shield vs Poundland Evolution - Reigns, Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs Orton, Curtis Axel & Ryback in Orchies, Liege, Strasbourg and Rotterdam. THE CARDS On the first half of the tour Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs Curtis Axel & Ryback is broken off into a tag. Big Show vs Damien Sandow concludes before the PPV then Show vs Kane is back on (JESUS CHRIST) as a rotating cage, tables or last man standing match throughout the tour. Early month its Sheamus vs Jack Swagger, plus Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro which continues early tour along with Sheamus defending the UST against Alberto Del Rio (revisited in Springfield) ; a swap post TVs has Sheamus vs Cesaro (The Bar explodes!) and a return to Ziggler vs Del Rio. ICT has Big E vs Bad News Barrett and tag belts The Usos vs Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs RybAxel before the PPV, then on tour its initially Bad News vs Big E vs Swagger vs Rob Van Dam and Usos vs the brothers Rhodes vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan, then after TVs its usually back to Barrett vs E (which continues through Springfield), Usos vs Wyatt Family 2 on 2, plus a mental 8-man with RVD/The Miz/Cody/Goldie vs Swagger, Titus O'Neil, Justin Gabriel & Tyson Kidd. Umm... shouldn't Miz and Gabriel be on the opposite teams??? Other tour matches have Adrian Neville vs Bo Dallas for the NXT belt and Alexander Rusev vs Sin Cara, Brodus Clay vs Jinder Mahal (phantom face turn for Funkasaurus) and Los Matadores & El Torito vs Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater & Hornswoggle before TVs, Rusev vs Zack Ryder and Santino & Emma vs Fandango & Layla and R-Truth & Xavier Woods vs Drew & Jinder afterwards, and Sami Zayn vs Sandow throughout. Week one its Paige & The Bella Twins vs Tamina & Foxsana (yeah, I'm using it), moving on tour to Paige & The Funkadactyls vs Tamina, Layla & Rosa Mendes plus FOXSANA EXPLODES before TVs then Paige vs Natalya vs Tamina for the belt and... ummm..... Bellas vs Foxsana thereafter. Pat Patterson, first Intercontinental Champion, ring announces the ICT matches in Strasbourg and Rotterdam. VARIATIONS Kofi Kingston vs Fandango only happens in Syracuse. In Rome only Brodus loses to Slater and Jinder's in the six man. In Innsbruck only Cesaro plays babyface to pin Sandow and Zayn does a job for Dolph. It's Bad News vs Swagger, Paige vs Tamina for the belt refereed by Nattie and Big E/RVD/Brotherhood vs Miz/Kidd/Gabriel/Titus in Sheffield. In Orchies only its just Santino vs Fandango and the girls get a night off. It's Barrett vs RVD and Big E/Rhodes bros/Miz vs Swagger/Kidd/Gabriel/Titus in Liege. Finally in Springfield there's uniquely Usos vs only RybAxel, Kofi vs Cesaro, Paige vs Nattie, Ziggler & Summer Rae vs Dango & Layla, and Swagger jobbing to Adam Rose. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 2nd in Largo its Adrian Neville vs Tyson Kidd, 9th in Orlando Nev's with Tyler Breeze, 17th in Sebring - is this real? - Kalisto vs Alex Riley vs Viktor goes on last (won by Viktor!) and then 23rd in Daytona Beach Breeze does a job for Mojo Rawley. THE CARDS The Ascension vs Kalisto & El Local seems to be a feud with a tag title match in Dayton after Konnor loses to Local/Ricardo in Largo. Ascension also defend against the proto-Vaudevillains, Aiden English & Simon Gotch in Orlando. Mojo Rawley vs Tyler Breeze repeats in Sebring and Daytona. There's also defeats for Gotch & English against Mojo & Wesley Blake and against Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger. There's still bookings for Camacho, losing to Sami Zayn in Largo and Baron Corbin in Sebring but beating Marcus Louis in Orlando and Angelo Dawkins in Daytona. Our mate Slate Randall loses to Corbin in Largo. Bayley & Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks & Charlotte goes 3 nights out of 4. Kendall Skye is still about, she tags with Sasha in Sebring and beats Alexa Bliss in Daytona. TVs Extreme Rules is a mixed bag but focusing on the positives, The Shield shockingly go over Evolution at the first attempt and Daniel Bryan retains the big belts over Kane in a bells and whistles brawl that he shouldn’t really have wrestled - both are very enjoyable matches. Next night Raw in Albany, Ambrose is forced to defend the US title in a battle royal which kind of protects him because he doesn’t have to get pinned but does nothing for the winner, fellow babyface Sheamus. What a mess. Plus Bryan beats Del Rio in another strong match and the Wyatts beat The Shield thanks to Evolution. Night after in Buffalo Woods vs Sandow and Del Rio vs Truth are both dark. 19th Raw is a near 17,000 sellout at the O2 and it’s Beat The Clock - both show and crowd are terrible. And they beat Paige non title to Alicia in fucking London because of course they do. Next night apparently only 9000 come back for the SmackDown taping but they get Neville vs Zayn for the NXT belt before TVs and Cena vs Wyatt before they head home. 26th in Knoxville - make sense of this - they have Fox get pinned by Emma even though she’s going for Paige’s title at Payback. Dark, Cena beats Bray again. Next night in Atlanta Santino & Emma beat Fandango & Layla before Main Event, Ziggler pins Sin Cara between Main Event and SmackDown and dark main has The Shield beat the Wyatt Family again. Finally 29th at Full Sail it’s TakeOver (err, the first one) - Bayley beats Sasha dark, Charlotte beats Natalya to win the women’s title and Neville retains against Kidd in a very good match. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten this month on TV : Sheamus (US champion) by Cesaro, Paige (women’s champion) by Fox, Barrett, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Sheamus DEPARTURES That's the last booking for Slate Randall - he'll be back in the ring by September in FIP then bounce around before finally landing an identity long term in TNA as Eli Drake. Eventually he'll be back as Max Dupri in WWE where, of course, he's currently known as LA Knight. At the other end of the fortune scale, the matches on the Europe tour are the last in the company for Brodus Clay. He'll continue wrestling for a living, which I don't have a problem with, and as Tyrus will end up winning the NWA World title with in 2022. Which I do. A PERSONAL NOTE I went to the show at the NIA having not bothered with WWE live since 2003, mostly off the back of Mania XXX being decent and primarily because I had two mates who were up for it even though one was still in mourning for "The Streak" as a big Taker guy. I very nearly went to Nottingham the night before so I could see The Shield too but as I wouldn't be starting a new job until early June it was an expense I couldn't justify. At the time we were all aware that Ziggler vs Cesaro was a feud, hoped we’d see them wrestle and became psychotic with excitement when it was added to our preview on wwe.com - of course, it was a very good match but remembering this now the bigger reflection is just how much it felt like everyone wanted both these guys, especially Dolph, to become legitimate stars. Otherwise everything pretty much ranged from “forgettable but fun” to “really good” - Zayn was surprisingly over, apropos of nothing Alicia Fox is utterly stunning in real life (TV doesn’t do her justice) and of course, seeing a John Cena main event was great fun. Regardless of boos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 12, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 12, 2023 (edited) JUNE 2014 Probably the most devastating heel turn I recall this century. GUTTED I was. Plus Big Dave jacks it in again and one of my favourite tag teams of the 21st Century team for the first time. THE MAIN EVENTS It’s still John Cena vs Bray Wyatt 6th/7th in Detroit and Madison then 8th in Rochester it’s combined with the tag title run - Cena and The Usos beat Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Bray. 14th/15th in Hamilton and Erie there’s no Cena, the shows are up to 10 match cards (though these involve shenanigans stretching 3 or 4 men across 3 singles matches) and Roman Reigns beats Bray in streetfights on last. 20th-22nd Cena’s back working the streetfight but the numbers aren’t great - 8000 at Providence is the best of the bunch, 5000 at the Nasssu Coliseum and 7000 at the former Meadowlands are both weak. 28th the same main wraps the month in Bangor - Maine, not Wales. 7th/8th in Las Cruces and Rio Rancho - how sad - it’s Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton & Seth Rollins. 13th-15th in Saginaw, Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne with the ex-Shield lads elsewhere all three undercard titles are contested with Sheamus vs Kane on last for the US belt with a DQ finish. 21st/22nd in Reading and Newark we move to Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton then 28th our old friends in Portland dare to be different as ever - Reigns knocks off Kane in a Last Man Standing match. THE CARDS Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins is somewhat expectedly underway supporting Reigns all month. It’s Sheamus vs The Miz for the US belt early month, second loop Miz is back with Dolph Ziggler, week three yet a further retread has Ziggler beating Alberto Del Rio. ICT match Bad News Barrett vs Big E gives way to E losing to Cesaro and Bad News defending vs Rob Van Dam vs Del Rio. In week 3 we get Barrett vs RVD vs Kofi Kingston for one strap and Sheamus vs Cesaro vs Jack Swagger for the other. The Usos vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan for the tag belts is a sandwich in week 1 and 3/4 with Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs Curtis Axel & Ryback doing the same (by week 3 it’s Stardust) while in week 2 it’s a tag title three way and The Big Guy is losing to Kofi. Women’s title has Paige vs Natalya vs Alicia Fox for two weeks then week 3 the champ is muddled into a mixed six person with Santino and Emma beating Fandango, Layla and Fox. There’s Rusev vs R-Truth for two nights then Rusev beats Big E in Rochester, in week 3 and Bangor. Zack Ryder vs Bo Dallas (sadly Ryders unstoppable days seem long ago) is another sandwich month on loops 1 and 3 plus Portland. Week one has Adam Rose vs Heath Slater, Los Matadores & El Torito vs Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre & Hornswoggle, Sin Cara vs Titus O’Neil and Nikki Bella & Eva Marie vs Aksana & Rosa Mendes. Second loop there’s Sin Cara vs Fandango, Truth vs Titus in Erie will repeat in Bangor, plus Summer Rae & The Funkadactyls beat Layla, Rosa and Eva.. inconsistent booking of the heel/face dynamic is creeping in for wrestlers without a regular TV spot. That’s not going away any time soon. Week 3 we pick up Titus losing to Great Khali once or twice a night, The Ascension defend the NXT tag belts against Xavier Woods & Truth, the Matadores six man now has Slater and Tyson Kidd makes up the numbers, and Nikki vs Rosa in singles. If mention of Titus makes you wonder where Darren Young is - out until January with a torn ACL. VARIATIONS In Rochester Barrett beats Truth, in Las Cruces there’s Ziggler vs Fandango, Kofi vs Sandow and Cesaro vs Swagger. In Rancho Relaxo, Cesaro vs Swagger vs Kofi vs Sandow and Ziggler & Summer Rae vs Fandango & Layla. Barrett misses Saginaw so RVD beats Del Rio one on one. In Hamilton there’s no Fernando (Epico) - Diego & Torito beat Slater & Hornswoggle, Truth pins Axel, Rusev beats Woods, then shenanigans sees Sandow lose to Titus, then Dallas, then Rose. In Erie the Matadores & Torito beat Sandow, Slater & Hornswoggle, Rusev beats Axel, Dallas beats Woods, and Titus decides to lose to Rose after already losing twice to Truth. Sheamus vs Del Rio while another repeat is unique this month to Bangor where Khali vs Sandow and Paige & Nikki vs Fox & Mendes are also one offs. Similarly Kofi vs Miz doesn’t feel like a variation but Portland is the only occurrence this month - they also get Rose vs Swagger, Ziggler & Sin Cara beating The Ascension (huh?) and incredibly the only occurrence of Santino & Emma vs Fandango & Layla as a regular tag. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 6th/7th in Tampa and Fort Pierce it’s yet again Adrian Neville vs Tyler Breeze, 27th/28th in Leesburg and Cocoa it’s Sami Zayn challenging for the belt. THE CARDS Fuck me ragged, we’ve finally got to cards that repeat, near identical shows in two pairs! The Ascension vs Wesley Blake & Camacho runs early month. It’s Becky Lynch & Alexa Bliss vs Charlotte & Sasha Banks and Carmella vs Devin Taylor followed by two rounds of Charlotte vs Bayley for the belt and Becky & Bliss beating Banks and Mella. There’s two rounds of The Vaudevillains vs Tye Dillinger & Jason Jordan plus Baron Corbin vs Bull Dempsey then Bull beats Angelo Dawkins and Corbin pins Jordan. Kalisto vs Buddy Murphy and Travis Tyler vs Colin Cassidy round off early month. VARIATIONS In Leesburg Kalisto tags with future regular partner Sin Cara to beat Blake & Murphy, next night Kalisto pins Solomon Crowe. Also in Leesburg the Ascension retain against English & Gotch whereas in Cocoa the tags have the ‘villains beat Cass & Enzo Amore, and Marcus Louis & Sylvester LeFort fall foul of - who’s this tagging up now? - Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson. TVs Of notable results at Payback, some of that work they put into building Big E gets paid forward, putting Rusev over, Cena predictably and depressingly wins the Last Man Standing match to win the Wyatt feud (one eye on Bryan’s injury, probably) and less predictably The Shield whitewash Evolution in an eliminator in as strong a “putting over” as I can recall. Next night on Raw Batista asks for his title shot and when Hunter flakes on him he quits, then at show end Rollins breaks everyone’s hearts and betrays his Shield brothers. Next night in Cincinnati Rose beats Sandow dark and they solidify a Hunter/Orton/Rollins version of the Authority. 9th Raw they strip Daniel Bryan of the belts and do MITB qualifiers. Next night in suburban Green Bay Nattie beats Mendes before shows and the Matadores beat RybAxel between them. 12th at Full Sail Crowe beats Murphy in a dark match, Justin Gabriel, Summer Rae and Woods all wrestle, Kalisto & Sin Cara tag to beat the Vaudevillains and Neville beats Rusev by DQ. 16th Raw in Cleveland has Cody banish his recent confidence crisis by reinventing himself as Stardust - this is the beginning of the long crawl to the exit door really, isn’t it? Next night in Columbus the brothers Dust beat RybAxel between tapings of shows. 23rd Raw in DC some old school booking I approve of see the Usos and Harper & Rowan split wins in singles matches. Next night in Pittsburgh Rose pins Slater and Dust & Dust beat the Ascension after Main Event. Money In The Bank is hugely eventful with Rollins becoming briefcase wanker in one ladder match and Cena winning the vacant belts in another. I didn’t bother watching it at the time as it was pathetically obvious Cena would win. Next nights Raw in Hartford is full of incident - Paige acts like a heel then loses the belt to an unexpected AJ Lee in what feels like a double turn, they vacate the ICT because Wade is injured, The Miz comes back to TV to immediately be confronted by Chris Jericho - who is immediately attacked by the Wyatts, and reaction to Reigns remains hugely positive when he squares up to Triple H. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Usos (tag team champions) by Harper & Rowan, Barrett, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Sheamus, again to Ziggler, FUCK MY EYE AGAIN by Ambrose, umm, Sheamus (US champion) by Cesaro, Paige (women’s champion) to Naomi. The midcard is increasingly difficult to understand in terms of who is actually better than who (except anyone is better than whoever holds the ICT) and don’t ask me why they booked Paige to lose so many matches in her first title reign - nay, her first run of any kind on the main roster. DEPARTURES There’s a round of cost cutting releases - Yoshi Tatsu, Aksana, Jinder Mahal, Camacho, Curt Hawkins - and the most noteworthy, Drew McIntyre is released after a couple of years slowly circling the drain after promising beginnings. He’ll become a featured act in TNA, so featured in fact that one taping I attend, he’s in so many matches and angles I decide the show should be callled Total Nonstop Drew. Eventually they’ll have him back and he’ll fulfil some of his potential. Special mention also deserved by JTG who reacted to his release in good humour by tweeting "Damn ! Why I pick up my phone !" Just as the last time, Batista quits on TV and that’s actually it for him for real, again. As quickly as around Extreme Rules rumours were circulating that Dave was unhappy and would be leaving early for his Guardians Of The Galaxy publicity tour. Sources close to Vince immediately try to get it into the public domain that he’s unwilling to do the business they’re asking of him - namely losing to Bryan at Payback. Other sources say that it’s zero to do with any particular loss to Bryan or anyone but a myriad of broken promises over his booking, his payoffs, his schedule, how much promotional work he’s allowed to do for the movie etc. What we do know is he signed a two year contract and wrestled for less than six months, and Dave’s explicitly stated since that one of the promises broken was that he’d be coming back to be champion. In the intervening years Dave suggests he’d love to wrestle a house-shows-only deal (good man) like Y2J does for a while, and that he’d love a proper match with The Rock - neither happens. Nor does the company attempt to get him in for the angle at Mania 32 where the League Of Nations get flattened by legends. In 2018 they finally agree on a project which will lead to him wrestling Hunter at Mania 35 in his last match. Defiant to the last, Dave refuses to be just a smiling face at Ric Flair’s birthday party as planned and insists he attack Naitch to make himself the biggest villain possible for Mania. The guy just gets it. Edited October 12, 2023 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 13, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) JULY 2014 THE MAIN EVENTS We start off in Ontario - 4th/5th in Windsor and London it’s still Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt in a streetfight but 6th in Toronto the big guns come to work - John Cena beats Wyatt on last with Reigns propping him up vs Randy Orton. 5800 must have been desperately disappointing with those two AND a certain Ayatollah on the card. Then we’re off to Japan - 10th/11th at Sumo Hall it’s Cena vs Wyatt then Cena & Reigns vs Wyatt & Kane, 12th in Osaka John and Bray are already heading home so it’s Reigns vs Kane on last. 13th at MSG it’s again Cena vs Wyatt but now it’s a lumberjack match, next night in Wildwood John tags with Chris Jericho against Wyatt and Orton. 18th in Pensacola there’s another Reigns vs Kane main (last man standing) then next night in Tallahassee it’s again Cena vs Wyatt in a streetfight for the belt. 25th-27th the A show main is shuffled for Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Dallas - we’re building to SummerSlam with Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton. 5th/6th in Broomfield CO and Kingston (Ontario) we’re well and truly back to Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio for the US title in last man standing matches. Deja vu. 26th in Edmonton (5500) and 27th in Calgary it’s Chris Jericho vs Bray Wyatt… I bet drawing <4000 in the Saddledome bruised the legendary Y2J ego quite a bit. THE CARDS It’s a bit spotty at times. Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins is still regular and Ambrose & Roman Reigns vs Rollins & Kane supports Cena night one at Ryogoku Kokugikan and in Tallahassee. Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio is both a main event and supporting act at times. It’s Dolph Ziggler vs The Miz in London, night 1 at Ryogoku and in Osaka. We have Cesaro vs Kofi Kingston in Canada and second night in Tokyo and Cesaro loses to Rob Van Dam first and last night in Japan. Month end, Zigglers back with Del Rio, Miz is back with Kofi for his newly won ICT (the merry go round continues) and Cesaro loses to Big Show. Early month Big E vs Damien Sandow feels like another step backwards for E but at least it’s a win. Rusev vs R-Truth happens in London then in the North East is followed by a challenge from Jack Swagger - who Rusev also beats, that match stands by itself in Florida and month end. The Usos vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan runs for the belts every night in Ontario, to reprise month end, then night 1 in Tokyo and Osaka the family fall to new team Big E & Kofi - hey, that might have legs. Goldust & Stardust vs Curtis Axel & Ryback continues as a sandwich early and late month too, in New York & New Jersey it’s back to Usos vs Wyatts vs Dusts then in Florida to complete the symmetry, Usos vs Wyatts vs RybAxel. Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn occurs every night in Japan for the NXT title and I imagine it was rather good. Natalya vs Paige in Canada is quite frankly a run of losses for the flower of Norfolk that I could have done without knowing about but thankfully she nips it in the bud in Nippon, back to beating Alicia Fox. Mid month in Florida Paige, Nikki Bella & Summer Rae beat Fox, Rosa Mendes & Layla and month end Paige finally gets a run challenging AJ Lee for the title. Week one also has Great Khali vs Fandango, Sin Cara, Diego & El Torito vs Heath Slater, Titus O’Neil & Hornswoggle (Fernando/Epico has a knock) and The Funkadactyls vs Summer & Rosa… I thought Summer was a face now??? She’s booked as such later.. oh forget it. In the North East it’s Nattie & Nikki vs Charlotte & Sasha Banks (!) .. the focus has shifted to Nikki above and beyond her sister. Can’t imagine why. Plus a return to Zack Ryder vs Bo Dallas which runs to month end. In Florida Khali vs Sandow repeats, month end Sandow will lose to Sin Cara before demanding another match before losing to Khali. Month end it’s Truth vs Fandango and Diego, Torito & Tyson Kidd vs “Slater Gator” and Horny. VARIATIONS In Windsor Rusev beats Khali, Ziggler beats Fandango and Truth upsets Miz yet again. In Toronto Chris Jericho beats Miz, Rusev actually puts Ziggler down and Truth gets a night off. In Broomfield Dallas pins Xavier Woods and Adam Rose pins Kidd, night after the same winners beat the opposite opponent and to hell with who are the faces or heels, right? Next night Big E beats The Miz and Ziggler & RVD beat Rowan & Harper. At MSG Chris Jericho vs Randy Orton is pretty huge for midcard. Khali vs Titus and Rose vs Fandango only happen in Wildwood. Sheamus vs Cesaro vs Ziggler is unique to Pensacola, next night Sheamus vs Cesaro one on one. Also in Tallahassee for God knows why reasons, Sandow loses to Ziggler then to Rose, fucks off just long enough for Rusev vs Swagger then fucks back on again to lose to Khali as per the night before. But… why??? For reasons unknown Nattie & Emma beat Fox & Mendes in Edmonton but in Calgary it’s Natalya, Emma and Layla (isn’t she a heel…?) beating recent Layla partners Alicia & Rosa plus (shudder) Eva Marie. They don’t give a shit about the women really, do they? MAIN EVENT - NXT Well, this is awkward. 12th in Tampa it’s The Ascension vs Jason Jordan & Tye Dillinger for the tag belts. THE CARD Tyler Breeze vs CJ Parker, Dash & Dawson vs Blake & Murphy, Becky Lynch vs Carmella, Kalisto & Sin Cara vs Solomon Crowe & Elias Samson (!), Baron Corbin vs Garrett Dylan, Bull Dempsey vs Angelo Dawkins, Marcus Louis vs Colin Cassidy. TVs 7th in Montreal Reigns saves Cena from a Rollins cash in.. maybe that’s where they started turning on Roman? Everyone loves a cash in. Also Bret Hart does a segment with Sandow - back in the day that would have been a show of faith in Damien. Next night in Ottawa Sheamus beats Del Rio in a last man standing match which is the biggest match on Main Event for ages. Fantastic continuity error 14th Raw in Richmond - Cena gives Ric Flair the Big Gold Belt and tells him “keep it” appearing later with only the WWE title belt… but he’ll be carrying it again by SummerSlam. Whoops. Next night in Fayetteville Rose beats Slater between shows. 17th at Full Sail Crowe beats Travis Tyler dark, Bayley beats Sasha to become top contender, Neville retains over Breeze by DQ then dark Neville & Zayn beat Breeze & Kidd. Battleground is a completely forgettable PPV coming between two eventful ones where the only thing of consequence is Miz winning a battle royal (ugh) to win the ICT. I forgive you for not remembering what the main was - Cena vs Orton vs Reigns vs Kane. Next night in Miami, the Authority decide they don't want Cena leaving SummerSlam with the belt which is the trigger for Brock Lesnar to turn up, and dark Ambrose & Reigns knock off Rollins & Kane. Next night in Orlando Rose beats Sandow before shows, Neville retains the NXT title over Breeze inbetween and then after SmackDown - WHAT A FUCKING BONUS - Show beats Kane by count-out. 29th in Corpus Christi Dust & Dust beat a proto-New Day pair of Big E & Kofi between shows, finally 31st they tape more NXT telly - Crowe beats Murphy and Nattie beats Carmella in openers, Charlotte beats Lynch and Alexa Bliss in separate matches for different episodes and Bayley beats Banks again, the Lucha Dragons beat the Vaudevillains to win a contenders tournament and Show pins Cesaro dark. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Sheamus (US Champion) by Miz, ummm…. Miz, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Ziggler ONE NIGHT AFTER WINNING IT. DEPARTURE Most of them happened last month but they finally let Ricardo Rodriguez go this month, long split from Del Rio and paid well past he’d outlived his usefulness unless you count his matches as El Local which I don’t. Hilarious story you may have forgotten - Emma is briefly fired when she’s arrested for shoplifting, which they retract when they realise it’s an overreaction. She does one day of community service for the accidental infraction which she and her lawyers put down to a faulty self serve till, which I find very plausible. No contracted WWE wrestler, Australian or otherwise, is going to steal a $20 iPhone case. Edited October 21, 2023 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 15, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) AUGUST 2014 We’re about to complete the eight month journey from having two champions on the road to having none. MAIN EVENTS 3rd in San Antonio it’s again Roman Reigns vs Kane in a last man standing match with three title matches underneath. 7th in Melbourne and 9th in Perth it’s streetfights either side of Reigns beating Randy Orton in Sydney - all three of those are refd by Ric Flair. 16th in San Jose on the even of SummerSlam John Cena finally returns getting his eye in with Kane in another streetfight, which continues 22nd-24th in Stockton, Sacramento and Fresno. 2rd/3rd in Lubbock and San Angelo it’s Dean Ambrose & Big Show vs Randy Orton & Seth Rollins, 9th-10th in Abbotsford (British Columbia) and Yakima Randys back from Oz to go on last with and LOSE to Dolph Ziggler. 23rd-24th it’s Roman Reigns vs Rollins in Tables matches in San Diego and Bakersfield. THE CARDS Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton both main events Sydney and supports Cena in San Jose. Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins runs and runs. Chris Jericho vs Bray Wyatt happens often, ref’d by Flair in San Jose. It’s Dolph Ziggler vs Alberto Del Rio early month and The Miz vs Kofi Kingston for the ICT in Melbourne and Perth, after SummerSlam new champ Ziggler is giving Miz the rematch. US title has a sandwich for Sheamus vs Cesaro in San Antonio and Sydney and again in Stockton, and a triple threat vs Rob Van Dam in Melbourne and Perth. In Sacramento and Fresno, Bray Wyatt challenges Sheamus while in San Diego and Bakersfield Cesaro loses to Big Show and RVD pins Curtis Axel. Tag title has The Usos vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan go on most of the month then in Cali it’s a three way with the addition of Big E & Kofi. AJ Lee vs Paige vs Natalya for the belt runs early month then after the PPV and switch Paige defends against Nattie. Goldust & Stardust vs Axel & Ryback runs til SummerSlam. It’s Rusev vs Jack Swagger early month and California, and Big E & Diego vs Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil in Texas then Rusev vs Big E and Sin Cara, Tyson Kidd & El Torito vs Slater Gator & Hornswoggle week 2, month end Dusts beat Titus & Slater. There’s also Adam Rose vs Damien Sandow and R-Truth vs Bo Dallas both early month and in California plus Diego vs Fandango (Fernando still injured) in Australia and Nikki Bella & Emma vs Layla & Alicia Fox every night in Oz and late month even though Nikki’s turned heel. Month end Sandow repeats last months nonsense of losing to Truth before Rose then coming back out later to lose to Great Khali. Hulk Hogan shows his face in San Jose, along with Jimmy Hart, to say little more than how much he's looking forward to SummerSlam and Cena vs Lesnar, and how he wants to wrestle one last time. Which, of course, he never has. VARIATIONS San Antonio has Miz vs Truth, Kofi vs Dallas and Emma/Naomi/Nikki vs Fox/Mendes/Cameron. In Sydney ICT is Miz vs RVD (winning a battle royal) then unique to Perth Y2J/Usos vs Wyatt Family is combined into one six man. In Abbotsford only, Sandow loses to Show before to Rose. San Jose has Big E & RVD vs Cesaro & Ryback, Zack Ryder vs Swagger, Rose vs Slater and Paige & Rosa Mendes vs Natalya & Layla. In Sacramento only Fandango jobs for Ryder instead of Sin Cara. MAIN EVENTS - NXT Bumper month for the third brand. 1st/2nd in Largo and Starke it’s Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn vs Tyler Breeze for the belt. 8th in Cocoa Zayn alone gets a shot, 21st back in Largo that three way becomes a four way with CJ Parker, 23rd in Fort Pierce then 29th/30th in Tampa and Palatka it’s Neville vs Breeze vs Zayn vs Tyson Kidd non title - everyone except Neville winning one each. THE CARDS Fuck! Consistency is creeping in! The Ascension vs The Vaudevillains goes 50/50 on half the shows depending on if the belts are at stake, 21st thereafter English & Gotch are with Dash & Dawson. Prior, will-be Revival were mostly losing to Sylvester LeFort & Marcus Louis. That pair losing a few to Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy who in turn are coming off beating Tye Dillinger & Jason Jordan. There’s another near 50/50 with Charlotte vs Bayley every night. Kalisto & Solomon Crowe vs Blake & Murphy repeats, once Kalisto and Crowe stop wrestling each other. Becky Lynch & Alexa Bliss vs Carmella & Kendall Skye happens multiple times as do Bull Dempsey vs Angelo Dawkins and Baron Corbin vs Steve Cutler early month, month end Dempsey goes 50/50 with Mojo Rawley as does Corbin with CJ Parker and Enzo beats LeFort in singles. VARIATIONS In Cocoa a swap sees Cass & Enzo beat “the Mechanics” and LeFort & Louis beat Blake & Murphy plus Tyler Breeze has one night off from main event to beat Parker on Neville’s undercard. Unique to Largo (21st) Rawley pins Sawyer Fulton, in Fort Pierce he beats Parker and Fulton loses to Cutler. These names sound like a Preston North End side from the 50s. A couple of bodies missing in Tampa - to cover for Bliss, Kendall works babyface for the night teaming with Lynch to lose to Mella and Sasha Banks, and the Ascension retain against thrown-together Kalisto & Justin Gabriel. Next night the gals are back where they were and Konnor & Viktor beat Kalisto & Crowe as planned. TVs 4th Raw in Austin (10,000 gate) Reigns, Ambrose and Show beat Orton, Rollins and Wyatt as a dark main - I don’t like Bray tagging with The Authority. Next night in Laredo Del Rio actually loses to Swagger (on a patriotism-driven collision course with Rusev) for Main Event. 12th in Seattle Big E beats Fandango to open and Rose beats Xavier Woods between Main Event and SmackDown. SummerSlam of course features major developments - Brie Bella is betrayed by sister Nikki, who’s taken over as the sister that actually wrestles and is about to supplant AJ/Paige as star of the division (because reasons), reactions to Reigns are tepid when he’s forced to wrestle a Randy Orton match, sit in a chinlock for far longer than he should and sell too much in a match that goes longer that it should, and Brock Lesnar mercilessly crushes Cena (a spot meant for Daniel Bryan) to win the title, becoming the last man to brandish the Big Gold Belt. Next night in Vegas he’s give a new, singular belt and Y2J beats Wyatt dark. Next night in Landover Rose beats Fandango, 25th in Anaheim is the first time Sandow does the gig as Miz’ “stunt double” and finally night after in Ontario CA Truth beats Fandango dark, RVD beats Rollins by count-out on Man Event then loses a rematch by pinfall to air on SmackDown. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : AJ (Women’s Champion) by Eva Marie (fucking hell), Miz, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Reigns, Paige (new women’s champion) by Natalya one fucking night after winning it and FUCKING AGAIN the very next broadcast, Usos (tag team champions) by Goldust & Stardust DEPARTURES Alberto Del Rio is fired for an apparently unprofessional reaction to a company employee that allegedly told a racist joke. A Hispanic man with a short fuse? I can't imagine. Rob Van Dam puts Rollins over as described and declines to renew his contract. He’ll later state that he’s fed up with inconsistency as to whether WWE puts any value on the legacy of himself and ECW in general and more pertinently he doesn’t feel like the company is serious about presenting him as a genuine threat to the top spots. It’s hard to argue with that ; whether or not they felt the same risks hung over giving him a sustained push that hampered his previous run, it’s clear he wasn’t utilised the best a guy with his talent should be. Edited October 20, 2023 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 16, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) SEPTEMBER 2014 THE MAIN EVENTS 5th-7th in Fairborn, Terre Haute and State College PA it’s still John Cena vs Kane in a streetfight and again 12th-14th in White Plains, Springfield and Boston (just 4500 in one of their biggest cities) then again 19th/20th in Charleston and Lexington. Some chopping and changing cross-feud tags for the five shows after the PPV has John tag with Dean Ambrose against Randy Orton & Seth Rollins 26th in East Rutherford (5500 at the ex-Meadowlands is poor again), with Dolph Ziggler against Rollins and The Miz next night in Youngstown, then with Sheamus against Rollins & Cesaro 29th in Moline. I mean, anything that's a change from Kane is good at this point, right? 6th-7th in Hampton and Salisbury it’s Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins in tables matches then 13th/14th it’s streetfights with Reigns vs Randy Orton in (too hot, hot damn) Jackson MS and Monroe - crowds approaching 5000 is ok at the Mississippi Coliseum (holds 6500 for basketball) and the Monroe Civic Center. 21st in Huntsville a depleted crew is topped by Big Show vs Seth Rollins. 27th in Atlantic City (fittingly) the main event roulette lands on Dean Ambrose & Sheamus vs Randy Orton & Cesaro, next night in Toledo Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler face Orton & The Miz. So three nights in a row across the crews, Deano main events opposite Orton. THE CARDS We start with Dolph Ziggler vs Bo Dallas for the ICT, morphing into Ziggler vs Dallas vs The Miz the week after. A sandwich early and late month has Sheamus vs Cesaro for the UST. We start the month with Big Show vs Rusev (DQ finish) and The Usos & Great Khali vs The Wyatt Family, then second week we have Mark Henry vs Cesaro and Rusev vs Jack Swagger while it’s Show & Usos vs the Wyatts - Show vs Bray and Usos vs Harper & Rowan in White Plains and month end. Both in Huntsville and the following week it’s Henry vs Rusev (DQ finish). Amidst all that in week 3 Sheamus is back with Bray, there’s a tag title match of Usos vs Goldust & Stardust vs Big E & Kofi Kingston - boy, do these guys get used to wrestling each other - Cesaro beats Zack Ryder then loses to Khali. We have two weeks of Adrian Neville vs Tyler Breeze for the NXT belt concurrent to Sami Zayn vs Tyson Kidd followed, neatly, by two weeks of Neville vs Kidd and Zayn vs Breeze. All month it’s Paige vs Natalya - for the Women’s title for three weeks occasionally 2/3 falls or a submission match, then after the PPV without the belt Paige has to do the job again, which sucks. Other tag action has Dusts vs Los Matadores and Big E & Kofi vs The Ascension for two weeks, Diego & Fernando swapping wins with Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil in week 3 then month end … here it is! The Matadores lose one match each to every combination of Kofi, Big E and Xavier Woods. Some crossover has Sin Cara vs Titus on a couple of shows, in Fairborn he does the double over Slater then O’Neil which transitions to week 2 where Heath loses to Cara then to Khali - Slater loses to Khali as a standalone in Atlantic City when Titus has a night off, otherwise that week it’s Khali beating Slater Gator in a handicap. Otherwise it’s two weeks running for Adam Rose vs Damien Mizdow (yes), R-Truth vs Fandango and Brie Bella, Naomi & Eva Marie vs Nikki Bella, Cameron & Alicia Fox (sounds fucking dreadful) then month end, Emma, Naomi & Eva vs Layla, Cameron & Fox, Truth vs Stardust, Ryder vs Fandango and Swagger vs Dallas. Roman Reigns is injured, Ryback just had hernia surgery. VARIATIONS Unique to Boston, Seth Rollins pins Chris Jericho. Huntsville uniquely has Ziggler vs Miz then later vs Mizdow, Truth vs Dallas and Brie/Naomi/Emma vs Nikki/Cameron/Eva (yes, we’re not supposed to care whether Eva is a face or heel). MAIN EVENTS - NXT With the champ assigned to the main roster on the road this is a mixed bag - it’s Lucha Dragons vs The Ascension 5th in Cocoa, 6th in Citrus Springs and 13th in Starke it’s Bayley vs Charlotte - both are non title. 18th in Wauchula The Vaudevillains vs Blake & Murphy goes on last, 19th/20th in Orlando and Daytona Beach it’s English & Gotch losing to Konnor & Viktor. THE CARDS The Vaudevillains vs Blake & Murphy repeats and there’s also two rounds with Dash & Dawson. It’s Charlotte vs Bayley thrice then three rounds of both Charlotte vs Becky Lynch and Bayley & Alexa Bliss vs Sasha Banks & Dana Brooke. We continue Baron Corbin vs CJ Parker, Enzo Amore vs Sylvester LeFort and Bull Dempsey vs Angelo Dawkins from last month, and two occasions of Chad Gable vs Troy McClain. Those last three shows have repeats of Jason Jordan vs Wilder, Tye Dillinger vs Elias Samson and Colin Cassidy vs Marcus Louis. VARIATIONS It’s Sasha & Carmella vs Bliss & Lynch in Cocoa, vs Bliss & Kendall Skye in Citrus Springs, then Banks & Skye vs Alexa & Becky in Starke. In Citrus Springs Kalisto tags with Blake & Murphy to beat Dillinger, Jordan and Sawyer Fulton. Unique to Starke Kalisto beats Tye in singles, Parker beats Gable, Cass beats Jordan and Dash & Dawson beat Elias & McClain. TVs 2nd in Lincoln the Naomi vs Cameron grudge match happens dark before Main Event airs then before SmackDown Titus jobs to Rose - twice, as is his wont. 8th in Baltimore (just 7500) Wyatt beats Y2J inside a cage then dark Cena, Show & Henry beat the Family. Next night in Wilkes-Barre Zayn pins Kidd and Neville pins Breeze either side of Main Event. 11th at Full Sail Paige beats Becky dark and TakeOver : Four Way is another triumph on which the Kalisto & Cara relieve The Ascension of the tag belts. Next nights tapings have Dash & Dawson beat Blake & Murphy dark and Hideo Itami both debut beating Justin Gabriel and start his enmity with the Ascension - I bet you remember who he’s bringing in to help him. 15th Raw in Lafayette (700) Cena, Show & Henry beat the Wyatts again in a dark main, next night in Biloxi Kingston vs Breeze and Neville & Zayn vs The Ascension fit around the TV shows. Night of Champions has a few happenings - the Dust brothers finally win the tag belts back, defeating the Usos, Miz regains the worthless ICT from Ziggler, Jericho loses to Orton which will be his last TV contribution for a while, AJ Lee regains the Women’s title, and Brock Lesnar is booked to waste one of his contracted dates with a crap DQ finish with Cena. Next night on Raw the shitting on the ICT continues as Miz loses it back to Ziggler 24 hours after winning it (not even the first time this happened to him). Next night Breeze beats Vordell Walker and Neville retains over Zayn before the taping. 25th at Full Sail more tapings have Wilder beat Gable dark, the first use of Leva Bates doing a job to Charlotte and a bonus main of Rusev vs Swagger. Finally 30th in Milwaukee Zayn pins Woods before tapings. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten this month : AJ (Womens champion) by Fox They're seriously pushing the Womens belt as a contender to the ICT as "worst booked piece of crap title" this year. Paige lost nearly every week during her first reign and AJ hasn't fared much better in her two most recent reigns losing to scrubs like Eva Marie and now Alicia. All in matches around 90 seconds too. DEPARTURE Starke is the tenth and last wrestling match anywhere for Kendall Skye. A Performance Center type, they spent May to September trying her in face or heel spots and gauging if she was going to work out and in the end she didn’t. I’d never heard of her before this thread but I’ve mentioned her enough times that I thought I should mention the end for her too. We hardly knew ye. Edited October 16, 2023 by air_raid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 17, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 17, 2023 OCTOBER 2014 This company absolutely takes the piss when it comes to non title matches and this is the worst I've seen it since... actually it was only just before Mania 30 when they were pinning Orton every show, wasn't it? MAIN EVENTS It's John Cena vs Seth Rollins in streetfights 3rd-5th in Toronto (just 4700), Providence (5500) and Bridgeport. Poor gates. Then they're off to Kuala Lumpur for two shows 9000>x>10,000 in the Axiata which can hold a fair few more - Cena vs Rollins 10th, then Cena vs Bray Wyatt on first and Sheamus vs Rollins for the US title on last 11th. Recovery in Mexico City (13,500) on 18th - still Cena vs Rollins there and 19th in Monterrey. What a pair of jet-setters. 4th/5th in Trenton and Allentown its Roman Reigns & Big Show vs Randy Orton & Kane to, again, decent gates for the smaller arenas. 11th/12th in Macon and Savannah Deano beats Kane in streetfights. It's a tag streetfight with Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler vs Orton & Kane 17th-19th in Montreal, Quebec City and Topeka. THE CARDS Dean Ambrose vs Kane runs in Toronto as well as in those main events. It's Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro for the jobber title for two weeks and Sheamus vs The Miz for the UST in Toronto and night 1 in Kuala Lumpur and Big Show vs Bray Wyatt night 1 and into week 3, either side of Sheamus vs Wyatt, then week 3 we're back to Sheamus vs Cesaro. Weeks 1 and 3 it's Mark Henry vs Rusev with still a DQ finish with Rusev vs Jack Swagger in Georgia inbetween. Miz loses to R-Truth yet again and Swagger beats Bo Dallas - both of them in Bridgeport and through week 3. Early month it's any two of (will be) New Day vs Goldust & Stardust (non title for reasons unknown) plus The Usos vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan, both nights in Malaysia and the week after it's New Day vs Rowan & Harper concurrent to Dusts vs Usos for the belts elsewhere. AJ Lee vs Paige (sometimes 2/3 falls) for the Womens title runs for the duration. Week one there's Adrian Neville vs Tyler Breeze for the NXT title and Sami Zayn vs Tyson Kidd, night one in Kuala Lumpur and week 3 it's Neville vs Zayn. Otherwise Los Matadores vs Heath Slater & Titus O'Neil goes all month, there's two weeks of Adam Rose vs Damien Mizdow, early month Truth vs Dallas then in Georgia Truth vs Fandango and Great Khali vs Brad Maddox, before week 3 we get Sin Cara vs Fandango, Khali vs Mizdow and Naomi & Natalya vs Cameron & Layla (couldn't care less if I tried). VARIATIONS Unique to Toronto there is a return to Show & Usos vs The Wyatt Family. Swagger beats Miz in Providence. In Allentown only it's Brie Bella/Naomi/Emma vs Nikki Bella/Cameron/Layla. Night 1 in Malaysia there's Sin Cara vs Dallas and night 2 Show vs Miz and Neville vs Zayn vs Cara vs Dallas. Shenanigans in Georgia has spare man Zack Ryder beat Fandango after he loses to Truth in Macon, then in Savannah Ryder beats Maddox before he goes on to lose to Khali. In Macon its Brie, Natalya & Emma vs Nikki, Naomi & Alicia Fox (umm) then in Savannah babyface Naomi is out and enemy Cameron is back in. Umm.... Finally, Rose vs Justin Gabriel is unique to Quebec City. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 10 NXT house shows this month!! The Lucha Dragons vs The Ascension rematches for the tag belts go 2nd-4th in Jacksonville, Cocoa and Fort Pierce. 9th-11th in Orlando, Citrus Springs and Lakeland the biggest match is Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy vs The Vaudevillains, 17th/18th in Leesburg and Tampa its three ways between Cass & Enzo, the Vaudevillains and The Ascension. 24th back in Jacksonville we're back to Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn for the belt and 30th in Largo Neville & Zayn tag against frequent enemies Tyler Breeze & Tyson Kidd. THE CARDS Lucha Dragons vs The Vaudevillains repeat for the tag belts, Vaudevillains vs Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy, Dash & Dawson vs Blake & Murphy, and Cass & Enzo vs Dash & Dawson all happen more than once and most excitedly 9th-11th Dash & Dawson are going 2-1 with... Chad Gable & Jason Jordan. We have Hideo Itami vs Tye Dillinger fairly often plus Dillinger loses to Tyler Breeze in Citrus Springs and on last in Orlando, and Itami beats CJ Parker in Orlando and on 24th. There's a few instances of Bayley & Alexa Bliss vs Carmella & Dana Brooke, then six-womens with Charlotte for the babyfaces (lol) and Becky Lynch for the heels (lol) before three rounds of Bayley vs Becky. Baron Corbin vs Steve Cutler repeats then Corbin beats Elias Samson a couple of times and finishes his month vs Parker - winning them all. A couple of nights mid month there's Kalisto vs Sawyer Fulton and - how about this? - Parker pins Alex Riley, Jordan wrestles Fulton in Cocoa and Fort Pierce, and 17th/18th there's a repeat of Marcus Louis vs Angelo Dawkins. VARIATIONS One offs include Bull Dempsey vs Fulton and Louis vs Jordan 2nd in Jacksonville, Gable vs Dempsey in Fort Pierce, Itami vs Viktor in Citrus Springs, Parker vs Gable in Leesburg, Dillinger vs Gable in Tampa, Dillinger vs Cutler, Cass vs Louis and Tyson Kidd beating Breeze in Jacksonville on 24th, and Louis vs Elias and Dempsey vs Jordan in Largo. TVs 6th at the Barclays, near 12,000 is a decent gate but nothing interesting happens. Next night in Philly Breeze beats Woods before shows, Neville pins Zayn between them then night end Cena & Ambrose beat Rollins & Kane. 13th in Atlanta there's >10,500 and nothing dark happens but Cena wrestles Ambrose in a risible "contract on a pole match" - as if people still buy that either babyface is on the out! I hate shit like this. Next night in Birmingham Kofi beats Slater for an opener. 20th in Kansas City 10,000 turn up to see nothing that didn't air but TWO titles treated like shit (see below), next night in Wichita Zayn vs Titus and Neville vs Slater are bonuses plus Ziggler and AJ avenge their stupid defeats from the previous broadcast. 23rd at Full Sail, Dana beats Devin Taylor dark, Finn Balor makes his first appearance and tapes tagging with Itami to beat the former International Airstrike, go to no contest with Kidd, then tag with Itami to beat Kidd & Breeze. Plus Mia Yim takes a cheque to lose to Charlotte and Leva Bates works the Blue Pants deal to lose to Carmella. Hell In A Cell is a skippable PPV where nobody gives a shit about Orton and Cena wrestling in a Cell for the second time in just 5 years, all the champions retain and Ambrose vs Rollins is a fun match ruined by a Bray Wyatt spooky bollocks finish. Night after on Raw Ryback returns with a phantom face turn, crushing Dallas and Mark Henry turns heel on Show during their crack at the Dusts (because the world needed Show vs Henry again). Finally night after 7000 is a fairly disappointing gate for Houston, Rose beats Kidd, Kofi pins the diminishing Curtis Axel, and Ambrose beats Rollins by DQ in the dark matches. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten this month : Sheamus (US champion) by Miz, Ziggler, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Rusev, AGAIN by Orton, FUCKING AGAIN by Rollins, YET BASTARD CUNTING AGAIN by Cesaro, and TWICE ON ONE FUCKING SHOW by Kane then Rollins. FUCKING JOBBER BELT. Goldust & Stardust (tag team champions) in a three way vs the Usos and (winners) Cena & Ambrose, AGAIN by the Matadores, AJ (Womens champion) by Fox. Absolute fucking joke. DEPARTURES I don't think any. Common sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 19, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 19, 2023 NOVEMBER 2014 It’s tour time and shall we say it again? International tours have gone from World title fights every night in two cities at a time, to none. All because “the plan” needs Lesnar as champ to do a star-making job to Reigns. Let’s see how that one works out. ANYWAY. This.... iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis............................... STING. MAIN EVENTS John Cena vs Seth Rollins in a streetfight is still the main 2nd in Syracuse, then 5th-9th in London (just 6500 at the O2), Birmingham (<8000 in the NEC including myself), Manchester (just 8000 at the MEN) and Nottingham though 6th in Dublin a swap has him beat Bray Wyatt & Kane in a handicap. The streetfight with Seth continues 11th-15th in Brighton, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Boizano (nope). 2nd in Binghamton we start Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt, 6th in Cardiff Ambrose gets a win in a streetfight over Seth Rollins then 7th-9th in Belfast, Minehead and Leeds it’s handicaps with Wyatt and the aforementioned Kane. 10th in Bournemouth and 12th-15th in Newcastle, Glasgow, Braunschweig (no, me neither) and Frankfurt, it’s Chris Jericho vs Wyatt in streetfights during the first of Y2Js run of road gigs despite not being part of the TV - I can understand the appeal there. 30th in Springfield MO we’re back where we started - Ambrose vs Wyatt. THE CARDS It's Sheamus vs The Miz in New York and England but oddly abroad a roster refresh lands Sheamus with newly-singles-wrestler Luke Harper which was probably a good brawl. Dean Ambrose vs Kane is the obvious support on the Y2J-headlined shows. US title has Big Show vs Rusev with DQ finishes throughout. There are Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro rematches from the previous tour have Dolph avenging his losses on our shores (also in Binghamton it’s a streetfight) plus Goldust & Stardust vs The Usos all tour and domestically though sometimes non title. We have AJ Lee vs Nikki Bella & Paige handicaps - scheduled as tags with Brie Bella on AJs team but per her contractual obligation to do her sisters bidding, she’s not allowed to wrestle. It’s Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn for the NXT title then a three way with Tyson Kidd from Newcastle onwards. At tour beginning it’s Big E & Kofi Kingston vs Harper & Erick Rowan, Mark Henry vs Xavier Woods and Jack Swagger vs Damien Mizdow in Cardiff and England then over in France, Spain and Italy a rotating two of proto-New Day beat the “stunt double” and boss Miz while Jack beats new arrival Curtis Axel ; an exception being Brighton where Rowans still there so that tag and Sheamus/Miz still happen and Damien simply has a night off. Also, R-Truth vs Fandango has Dango issue an open challenge after losing then get crushed by Ryback, plus it’s Adam Rose vs Justin Gabriel, and second half Sin Cara vs Fandango and Los Matadores & El Torito vs Heath Slater, Titus O’Neil & Hornswoggle throughout. Other women’s match early month is Emma, Naomi & Natalya vs Layla, Cameron & Summer Rae - truly an international affair there. Second half of the tour Alicia Fox is in for Layla. VARIATIONS In Syracuse Paige loses to Fox (fuck me, why??) and its Henry & Truth vs Harper & Rowan (Henry turns on Ron). Meanwhile in Binghamton Natalya & Emma vs Nikki & Cameron, Zack Ryder vs Gabriel and Sin Cara vs Axel. Nikki has a night off in Nottingham - it’s AJ vs Paige for the belt. In Bournemouth there’s a shuffle with most big names at the Raw taping - it’s Ambrose vs Cesaro, Gabriel vs Fandango and the six-woman is split into Emma & Nattie vs Summer & Layla and Naomi vs Cameron. In Brighton only Brie actually wrestles that tag as advertised. Take that, Paris, Madrid and Milan. Several matches repeat from tour in Springfield but uniquely Ziggler defends against Harper and Kidd pins Rose. Party over already? MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in Citrus Springs The Vaudevillains vs The Ascension goes on last. 6th in Lakeland and 8th in Daytona Beach it’s Hideo Itami vs Tyler Breeze, then Itami tags with Finn Balor vs The Ascension 13th-15th in Largo, Orlando and Fort Pierce. 20th in Tampa it’s Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville non title then back to Itami vs Breeze 21st/22nd in Cocoa and Jacksonville. THE CARDS The Vaudevillains vs The Ascension starts the month before Konnor & Viktor move to main event, there is also a rotation where Dash & Dawson fight either Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy or Blake & Murphy all month. Charlotte vs Sasha Banks is a sandwich month, all non title, all won except Citrus Springs by Sasha, either side of three tags where Sasha and Becky Lynch beat Bayley & Alexa Bliss. It’s Baron Corbin vs Tye Dillinger, Bull Dempsey vs Jason Jordan for two weeks plus first week it’s Kalisto vs CJ Parker then Kalisto vs Aiden English one week and Simon Gotch the next and Parker vs Solomon Crowe until month end. There are six mans where Hugo Knox, Elias Samson & Steve Cutler swap wins with “Shoot Nation” of Angelo Dawkins, Sawyer Fulton and Chad Gable… not committed to Gable & Jordan as a pairing yet. Month end it’s also Dempsey vs Knox and Corbin back with Elias. Hugo Knox is an interesting story. If the name Stuart Tomlinson means anything to fans of football outside the Premier League, its because he had 70+ appearances in goal for Port Vale. VARIATIONS Citrus Springs has Corbin vs Parker, Becky vs Bayley, Tyler Breeze vs Elias and Kalisto vs Gable. Enzo beats Fulton in Lakeland then loses to Crowe in Daytona. Tampa has a unique semi main where Hideo Itami tags with Cass & Enzo to beat Breeze and The Ascension. In Cocoa only, Cutler loses to Marcus Louis. TVs 2nd in Buffalo Randy Orton is betrayed by the rest of the Authority as Hunter chooses Rollins over him, to excuse him on filming commitments, and in an odd one, Rusev beats Sheamus for the US title in a live Network exclusive (on "Backstage Pass"). 10th Raw taping in Liverpool (8500 at the Echo is a bit rubbish) Joe Hendry and Lionheart play extras for Rusev's segment and there's a fun dark main where Cena, Sheamus and Show beat Rollins and the lovable buffoons of J&J Security - Jamie Noble & Joey Mercury. Next night in the same building (just 2500 for SmackDown? Really?) - Justin Sysum & Nathan Cruz do a dark job for the Usos then after the show, Ambrose & Y2J beat Kane & Wyatt in a decent bonus. 17th in Roanoke, with Rowan and Harper "set free" by Bray, Harper wins the ICT from Ziggler reasonably out of nowhere. Show vs Sheamus goes to a no contest in a top contenders match (Lesnar not soiling his hands any time soon) and dark Cena & Ambrose beat Rollins & Wyatt. Next night in Knoxville Sin Cara beats Slater and Neville beats Axel between shows. Survivor Series features both Miz & Mizdow winning the tag belts in a four way (I have no memory of this reign) and Nikki beating AJ in seconds after unexpected help from Brie but the real story is the main where Cena's team beats the Authority team (despite - are you ready for a shock? - Big Show turning) where the frenetic finale (which St Louis seemed to love) has Sting make his debut and - this was insane at the time - Dolph Ziggler end the night last man standing. I thought this was up there with some of the best drama they'd done for years and couldn't believe they'd let Ziggler have a moment like this - false dawn as it was. It was also maddening that despite having used Sting's old crow theme for video game propaganda in the recent past, they lumbered him with a dull old Taker & Show theme for the dance proper. Next night on Raw there's a big moment for Ryback far, far too late as he lamps Henry in less than a minute, 25th in Fort Wayne The New Day debut as a trio in full gimmick and beat Axel and Slater Gator, and dark Ambrose beats Wyatt by DQ just as he did at Survivors. If you recall Adam Rose angles during this time with The Bunny wrestling matches and wondering who it was - it was Justin Gabriel. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Goldust & Stardust (tag team champions) by The Usos. Pedestrian month here! DEPARTURE Time is finally called this month on The Great Khali. Good fucking riddance. A PERSONAL NOTE I attended the Birmingham show, an immediate return after the previous tour after a lengthy absence from live WWE, mostly because my mates enjoyed it so much the time before. We were rather late getting there because we'd gone the wrong way, driver mistakenly thinking we were at the NIA again instead of the NEC, so realistically only properly saw the Brogue Kick and pinfall of the opener. I was a bit upset not to have seen The Miz wrestle properly - years later I'd see him in a dark match but he didn't get to do much there either. It was a fun show - of special note was the fun of another Cena no DQ shortcuts match, the emergence of Big E and Kofi as a tag team I had hopes for in a really fun match with the will-be Bludgeon Brothers (complementary styles), and the womens handicap - mildly besotted with Paige as I was at the time. My mates were a bit disappointed that Ziggler vs Cesaro was happening elsewhere on the tour but not for us - greedy bastards. At the time I’d probably have been mildly disappointed to learn Y2J had wrestled on the tour but I’d not gotten to see him, having never seen him live to that point, but I’d eventually tick him off at the Tokyo Dome. Overall still a fun show that definitely didn't dissuade me from going to see WWE live again - which of course, I would - and from a wrestling point of view leaning strongly towards the belief that house shows were better than TV tapings which sounded disjointed affairs with short matches and crap finishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted October 20, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 20, 2023 DECEMBER 2014 It's a really shitty month for champions - well, the ones that clock in. MAIN EVENTS Still John Cena vs Seth Rollins streetfights 5th-7th in Columbia SC, Augusta and Charlotte and 13th in Wheeling. 20th Cena’s off and while Winnipeg is by far the bigger market, Sioux Falls has the Big Dog - it’s Roman Reigns vs Kane and they draw a better gate (5500) than both the other Shield lads’ card (4000). After Christmas the streetfight is back on Boxing Day at MSG (14,000 is good but it’s far from full) then 27th at Nassau Coliseum it’s a handicap also involving Kane (both feature interference from “injured” Randy Orton) - 28th in Hershey and 30th in LA (13,000) it’s Cena vs Rollins and Orton vs Kane. 6th in Fairfax and the aforementioned Winnipeg it’s Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt in a streetfight - no shit DQ for once! Continues after Christmas, 26th at the AllState (10,000), 27th in Cincinnati, 28th in Pittsburgh and 29th in Richmond. THE CARDS It's Luke Harper vs Dolph Ziggler for the ICT (DQ wins for Dolph or retaining after he wins it back) most of the month. Rusev vs Jack Swagger for the US title continues before Christmas then after it Roman Reigns is going to non finishes with the champ - Swagger weirdly then slums it with Fandango where “fans vote” for a dance off rather than a match… which I find hard to believe. Big Show vs Erick Rowan rumbles on to see if fans will bite on Rowan as a babyface in singles - they won’t. Still The Miz & Damien Mizdow vs Big E & Kofi Kingston and New Day are still winning (non title) even though Miz and mate have won the belts, plus The Usos vs Goldust & Stardust - after the festive break the champs beat Jimmy & Jey and rotating New Day teams win “top contenders” three ways vs the Rhodes lads and new tandem, Cesaro & Tyson Kidd. It’s Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn for the NXT title after Christmas. We have Charlotte, Emma & Alicia Fox vs Paige & The Bella Twins week one then Paige is back doing jobs to that bore Natalya in Wheeling and Winnipeg. After Christmas it’s Emma & Fox vs the Bellas and Charlotte, Natalya & Naomi vs Cameron, Summer Rae & Sasha Banks. Cesaro vs R-Truth before Christmas has the wrong result, to be blunt. Ryback vs Curtis Axel is on and off plus Sin Cara vs Fandango before the break and after it, Los Matadores & El Torito vs Titus O’Neil, Tyler Breeze & Hornswoggle (Heath must be injured), Truth vs Adam Rose and Sin Cara vs Justin Gabriel. In Cincinnati Hulk Hogan makes an appearance, interrupted and squared up to by Rusev, before Reigns comes out and the match happens. I understand the theory of getting the rub from helping out Hogan but had I been there, I'd have been disappointed that The Hulkster didn't simply run off the big nasty stinking anti-American baddie himself. VARIATIONS In Fairfax it's Rose vs Titus, Kidd vs Alex Riley and Nattie & Naomi vs Cameron & Summer Rae. Wheeling has Ziggler vs Cesar, Ryback vs Kane and Wyatt is advertised but misses it so instead of a shuffle to give Ambrose a match, he simply comes out when Cesaro issues an open challenge after losing to Ziggler and clocks him with a kendo stick. Sandman much? In Sioux Falls there's Neville vs Breeze, Naomi & Emma vs Cameron & Sasha and Sin Cara, Matadores & Torito vs Cesaro, Heath Slater, Titus & Hornswoggle. In Winnipeg, in form Ryback beats Seth Rollins by DQ, there's Rowan vs Axel, Fandango vs Rose and - back from injury - Darren Young vs former Nexus pal Gabriel. At Nassau Coliseum mixed in with the dance offs - Fandango gets to wrestle! ... and loses to Ryback, while Swagger goes over Axel. In Hershey two matches are conflated - Rowan & The Usos get a turn in the winners circle against Show, Miz and Mizdow. Show abandons his partners, LOL. Missing bodies year end, in Richmond Kofi & Woods beat Dustin & Cody 2 on 2 and Axel gets to win a match, over Rose. In LA, Bad News Barrett is back in the ring teaming with the tag champs to lose to all three of New Day. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 4th-6th in Orlando, Cocoa and Citrus Springs its - bit random Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville vs Finn Balor vs Viktor. 18th in Tampa its Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs The Vaudevillains, next night in Jacksonville English & Gotch go over Dash & Dawson, 20th in Lakeland Cass, Enzo & Kalisto beat the 'Villains and CJ Parker. THE CARDS The Vaudevillains vs Dash & Dawson repeats, the Revival also again work multiple times with Blake & Murphy. There's a series of Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch vs Bayley & Carmella then a few of Mella vs (winner) Alexa Bliss vs Dana Brooke. There are more rounds of Baron Corbin vs Tyler Breeze and Tye Dillinger vs CJ Parker plus Bull Dempsey vs Solomon Crowe then Corbin vs Dillinger and Parker swapping wins with Dempsey. Angelo Dawkins & Sawyer Fulton vs Mike Rallis & Cal Bishop repeats, Big Cass vs Marcus Louis has an unexpected winner early month, Kalisto beats Blake in singles a couple of times and month end Chad Gable is doing the job for.... Braun Strowman. VARIATIONS In Orlando the Lucha Dragons retain over the Vaudevillains. Sin Cara is a busy man. Unique to Citrus Springs Gable and Jason Jordan lose to Blake & Murphy then next night in Tampa they put over - hoo! - Wilder & Dawson, plus Hideo Itami shows his face to beat Crowe. In Jacksonville Crowe beats a Tony Briggs, in Lakeland Crowe beats Bishop, Blake beats Briggs, "Shoot Nation" of Fulton & Dawkins actually beat Wilder & Dawson, and Dempsey revives his series beating Jordan. TVs 1st in Topeka on Raw AJ Lee & Naomi beat the Bellas and a rotten month for champions starts with Nikki submitting to the Black Widow. Next night in Oklahoma City Paige does ANOTHER job to Nattie dark and Harper loses by DQ to Dolph. 8th in Greenville there's a story which makes waves at the time but has largely been forgotten ; they use (NXT Womens Champ no less) Charlotte against the aimless Natalya and there's a backstage clash - Hunter wants the match to get decent time and Charlotte to win, but Vince gets his way and Nattie wins by pin in less than 3 minutes. What a joke. Plus Harper keeps losing by DQ, this time to Rowan, and dark Ambrose vs Wyatt goes to a non finish. Next night in Columbus they tape the next SmackDown and Tribute To The Troops and things are getting really samey since Survivor Series... for one show, Ziggler/Rowan/Ryback beat Harper/Show/Kane and for the other, Cena/Ziggler/Rowan/Ryback beat Rollins/Harper/Show/Kane. 11th at Full Sail the TakeOver : REvolution show has Dempsey vs Cutler dark, Kevin Owens debut beating Parker and Zayn wins the belt from Neville, after which he's immediately attacked by bastard Owens in one of those "acknowledging the wider wrestling bubble" situations that people seem to either love or hate. Next night we have TVs for NXT - Crowe beats Brian Kendrick dark, Blue Pants upsets Carmella with a small package (which will stand as her only televised win), and Zayn gives Neville the rematch. TLC is largely inconsequential except Ziggler wins the ICT back from Harper in a ladder match and in any meaningful sense thats the end of him in single for two years. Next nights Raw has AJ sprayed in the eyes by the Bellas and that's her gone until Mania season. Two nights later in Grand Rapids Sin Cara beats Axel dark. 21st in Sioux City Neville pins Breeze before the show and SmackDown has the best use of Kane in ages - he puts Ryback over in 2 minutes, and The Hulkster makes an appearance endorsing Ziggler. Hmm. 29th Raw, Barrett returns as a surprise and pins Cesaro after a terrible "worked shoot" promo from Cesaro about "decision makers" - Bad News' position here makes him look a babyface, even though he isn't. Nonsense all round. 30th in Norfolk Naomi beats Summer Rae and Sin Cara beats Breeze either side of Main Event. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Charlotte (NXT Womens Champ) by Natalya - technically the only one. DEPARTURES Merry Christmas, enjoy the dread of not knowing if your release is coming in January or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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