House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

MARCH 2017

Strap yourself in - after Fastlane we’re going to have 18 solid months with no Universal title on the Raw shows.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 

4th in LaCrosse it’s Bray Wyatt vs AJ Styles for the belt then 5th/6th in Rockford and Bloomington then 11th in Fairfax Wyatt defends against Luke Harper and AJ loses to Randy Orton, alternating what goes on last. 12th at MSG is fucking loaded with Orton vs Styles on first, Wyatt vs John Cena on last and a certain Beast Incarnate in between then 13th in Charleston Cena vs AJ in a streetfight goes on last with Wyatt/Harper underneath - these continue 18th-20th in Albany, Amherst (MA) and Worcester, and again 25th/26th in Johnson City and Raleigh.

THE CARDS

It’s Dean Ambrose vs Baron Corbin for the ICT, Dolph Ziggler vs Apollo Crews before or after Crews beats Curt Hawkins, tag title of American Alpha vs The Usos, and two rounds each of Heath Slater & Rhino vs Tyler Breeze & Fandango and Mojo Rawley & Kalisto vs The Ascension in week 1. Much the same in week 2. Asuka, Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch & Tamina vs Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Natalya & Carmella at MSG and in Charleston is the first time the same Women’s match happens twice all month (see below). Kalisto/Slater/Rhino vs Hawkins/Breezango repeats there too. Randy Orton vs The Miz comes around again in Charleston and Worcester. In Fairfax and through week 3 it’s a six-way title match of Bliss vs Becky vs Mickie vs Nattie vs Tamina vs Carmella, and a further slight shuffle in that third week in New York/Mass has Kalisto/Slater/Rhino vs Hawkins & The Vaudevillains while Mojo pins an alternating half of The Ascension. Week 4 we have Asuka/Becky/Tamina vs Alexa/Natalya/Carmella, Kalisto vs Hawkins and Mojo/Crews/Rhino/Slater vs Breezango & Vaudevillians, still Orton vs Miz and Ambrose vs Corbin.

The injured Naomi was clearly scheduled for everywhere you see Tamina’s name.

VARIATIONS 

The big one is at MSG where Raws Kevin Owens does a job for Brock Lesnar in a match you may not know happened. Ambrose vs Luke Harper vs Corbin vs Miz Is also unique to that huge show. Those jumbled women’s matches I mentioned have LaCrosse see Bliss vs Mickie vs Nattie vs Tamina, Rockford get Bliss vs Becky vs Mickie vs Nattie vs Tamina and in Bloomington it’s Becky & Tamina vs Mickie & Nattie. Otherwise in Bloomington the two undercard tags become one 8-man. Fairfax has Kalisto vs Miz and Rawley/Slater/Rhino vs Hawkins/Breezango.

MAIN EVENTS - RAW

10th/11th in Buffalo and Toronto - fuck! - it’s Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn & Finn Balor vs Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe & Triple H. Fuck! 12th Kevs needed at MSG so in London they run Y2J vs Zayn vs Joe for the UST, Big Dog on last. 17th-19th Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman is still the main event in Syracuse, Allentown and Hershey. 24th in Montreal specially for the locals Zayn beats Owens in a streetfight on last with Reigns vs Joe underneath, next night with our friends in Portland ME a DQ in Zayn/Owens leads to a tag match playa, before 26th in White Plains it’s back to the massive six man with Hunter involved.

THE CARDS

Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman repeats in Buffalo and London, it’s still Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs The Bar vs New Day vs Enzo Amore & Big Cass for the tag belts and naturally Bayley vs Charlotte, concurrently Sasha Banks & Alicia Fox vs Nia Jax & Dana Brooke, plus Adrian Neville vs Rich Swann for the CWT and in Ontario two rounds of Big Show, Sin Cara, Goldust & R-Truth vs Bo Dallas, Jinder Mahal & The Shining Stars. Third week of the month Finn Balor & Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe starts up, comings and goings see a shuffle in Buffalo, Syracuse and Allentown - tag title a three way, Cass pins Jinder. Week 3 we also move to Sasha & Bayley vs Charlotte & Nia, and Sin Cara, Golden Truth & Curtis Axel vs Dallas, Titus O’Neil and the Stars - CWT unchanged. Balor is displaced to beating Jinder in Hershey and Montreal but gets Portland off. Week 4 I’m massively confused - it’s Banks, Bayley & Brooke vs Flair, Jax & Fox. Plus Neville losing to Austin Aries and two rounds of Axel & Golden Truth vs Titus & the Stars after which O’Neil talks himself into losing to Sin Cara too. Still tag title 3/4way and/or Cass vs Jinder.

With the U belt on less than part time Bill Goldberg and Seth Rollins still wrapped in cotton wool to get him to Mania, it’s unfortunate that the US title is on Y2J who’s only around half the time.

VARIATIONS 

It’s Brock Lesnar vs Show in Buffalo and Reigns vs Show in Toronto - yes, Show does double duty even though his road schedule is really starting to wind down. In Hershey there’s Chris Jericho & Sami vs Owens & Joe. In White Plains the six-woman gets split into another round of the title match and Sasha & Dana vs Nia & Fox, Reigns slums it with Jinder and uniquely Axel, Kalisto, Goldie & Truth beat Titus, Dallas and the Stars - Sin Cara has a night off.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT

2nd in Columbus and 4th in Warren it’s Shinsuke Nakamura & Tye Dillinger vs Bobby Roode & Andrade Almas either side of two singles in Cleveland - Roode retains over Dillinger on last. 9th in Largo Roode defends against Buddy Murphy, next night in Daytona Beach Roode and Almas beat Aleister Black & Kassius Ohno, 11th in Orlando Nakamura & Ohno beat Roode & Patrick Clark. 16th in Ocala it’s Dillinger, No Way Jose & Liv Morgan vs Killian Dain, Alexander Wolfe & Nikki Cross then next night in Gainesville it’s Nakamura vs Almas again. 23rd in Cocoa Wolfe & Dain fall to Dillinger & Hideo Itami, next night in Jacksonville Nakamura & The Street Profits beat Almas & Authors Of Pain before 25th in Tampa Nakamura & Dillinger beat Riddick Moss & El Vagabundo (who we know is Elias) half way up the card while on last Sanity lose to Jose, Ohno and Ruby Riott.

B shows - while the big guns are in Ohio 3rd in Lakeland Authors of Pain vs Street Profits goes on last, next night in Crystal River it’s Rich Swann vs Noam Dar. Two shows at Axxess highlight a mix of NXT regulars and incoming UK hires, biggest matches being Swann vs The Brian Kendrick or Hideo Itami vs Drew Gulak on 30th and probably Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs Billie Kay & Peyton Royce on 31st.

THE CARDS

Authors Of Pain vs Street Profits for the belts repeats in Lakeland, Daytona and Cocoa. In Ohio, Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa win 2 and lose 1 against all three pairings of Sanity. Asuka vs Liv Morgan repeats for the title. Twice there’s Kassius Ohno vs Patrick Clark, No Way Jose vs Kona Reeves, Nikki Cross vs Macey Estrella and Aleister Black vs El Vagabundo. Ohno pins Kona in Cleveland and Jacksonville. Black vs Riddick Moss happens twice month end, Daria Berenato vs Aliyah repeats in Crystal River and Tampa and Daria works Macey both in Daytona and at the second afternoon of Axxess where they actually go on last.

VARIATIONS - SELECTED 

In Columbus it’s Asuka vs Cross and Morgan vs Macey. The men shuffle in Cleveland - Black pins Clark, Jose drops Vagabundo. It’s Ruby Riott vs Daria and Ember Moon & Aliyah vs Mandy Rose & Kimberly Frankele in Lakeland, Ember/Ruby/Victoria Gonzalez vs Mandy/Kimber/Andrea (Sage Beckett/Rosie Lottalove) in Crystal River. In Largo there’s Shinsuke Nakamura vs Riddick Moss, Black vs Reeves, Young/Dain/Cross vs Profits/Liv and Lana vs Aliyah. In Daytona, Asuka/Liv/Aliyah vs Kimber/Billie Kay/Mandy. In Orlando it’s Liv/Aliyah/Gonzalez vs Macey/Daria/Kimber, Black vs Andrade Almas (!), Ruby vs Mandy and AoP vs Profits vs Heavy Machinery vs Dain & Wolfe. In Cocoa there’s Ruby vs Nikki and Bianca Belair, Liv and Aliyah lose to my fantasy bitch stable, Mandy, Billie & Peyton Royce. In Jacksonville Wolfe & Dain are back with Machinery 2 on 2, Macey beats Kimberly and Ember & Ruby beat the Iiconics. In Tampa there’s Hideo Itami vs Oney Lorcan and Ember vs Kimber. TJP vs Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado vs Toby Nese deserve a mention from 30th Axxess show, Ruby vs Kimber goes on last, next night a UK heavy card starts with Tyler Bate defending the UK belt against (ugh) Joseph Conners, plus eternal rivalry Toni Storm vs Jinny, a job for TK Cooper to Jimmy Havoc, and what was probably the best match of the day in Pete Dunne vs Mark Andrews.

TVs

5th at Fastlane Reigns kills more time with Strowman, the PPV win streak of Charlotte comes to an anticlimactic ending as she loses her latest rematch to Bayley, and Goldberg squashes Kev in seconds thanks to Y2J predictably distracting him, to build the expected Goldberg vs Lesnar and Jericho vs KO matches for Mania. 7th SmackDown in Indianapolis Alpha/Rhino/Slater vs Ascension/Breezango is a dark opener and Cena & Nikki warm up for Mania by knocking off Carmella & James Ellsworth. 13th Raw in Detroit features both Austin Aries vs Ariya Daivari and Kendrick & Nese vs TJP & Akira Tozawa on the live broadcast, week after at the Barclays it’s Kendrick vs TJP one on one. 21st SmackDown in Uncasville Alpha lose the tag titles to The Usos after a mere two months - disappointingly the belts won’t even be contested at Mania. Finally 27th in Philadelphia Austin Aries vs Noam Dar is a match I’d never dreamed would happen on Raw.

NON TITLE WHINING 

Beaten on TV this month : Bayley (Raw Women’s Champion) by Sasha, AGAIN by Nia, Alexa (SmackDown Women’s Champion) by Mickie, American Alpha (SmackDown tag team champions) by The Usos

DEPARTURES 

I don’t think so.

Edited January 16 by air_raid

[air_raid]

APRIL 2017

Mania is in the books, belts have changed hands. Nearly all of them, in fact.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN

After the traditional post-Mania rest, it's Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt vs AJ Styles for the belt 15th-16th in Springfield and Cape Girardeau and again 22nd/23rd in Kalamazoo and Hammond either side of Orton vs Styles vs Baron Corbin 17th in Bowling Green KY and 24th in Peoria.

THE CARDS

Three constants (nearly) throughout are Dean Ambrose vs Baron Corbin for the ICT, Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan (yes, that's back on) and Mojo Rawley vs Dolph Ziggler which will bend your mind when I tell you Mojo wins the lot of them. Week 1 we get The Usos vs American Alpha in tag title rematches (repeats in Peoria), Heath Slater & Rhino vs Tyler Breeze & Fandango plus Apollo Crews vs Curt Hawkins, then week 2 Alpha vs Breezango vs Slater & Rhino and Mojo & Kalisto vs The Ascension. Our womens title match is consistent for the first 3 shows (and Peoria) - Naomi vs Becky Lynch vs Mickie James vs Carmella vs Natalya vs Tamina. After the "Superstar Shakeup" Bowling Green gets Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn for the US title plus Shinsuke Nakamura gets on the road with the main roster to knock off Ziggler - both repeat in Peoria, the US title actually goes on last.

VARIATIONS

Bowling Green being shuffled, they get Mojo and new babyfaces Breezango vs the Ascension & Jinder Mahal. Naomi is off in Kalamazoo, the previously rested Alexa Bliss referees Becky & Mickie vs Natalya & Carmella, then in Hammond its Naomi vs Bliss vs Lynch vs James vs Nattie vs Mella. In Peoria Rawley beats Aiden English and Breezango beat the Ascension plus the Womens title match also has a shuffle post "Shakeup" - Naomi beats Becky, Carmella, Nattie, Tamina and Charlotte.

MAIN EVENTS - RAW

With no Universal Champion around, 14th in Providence (6000) its Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe then 16th its a fun-sounding Rollins & Chris Jericho vs JoeKO in Champaign and Cincinnati. Y2J has a couple of nights off so its Rollins vs Joe one on one 21st/22nd in Rapid City and Bismarck, before the tag resumes 23rd in Fargo.

THE CARDS

A delightful tag title match goes down week one with The Hardy Boys vs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs The Bar vs Enzo Amore & Big Cass, plus Bayley vs Charlotte vs Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax for the Womens title and Adrian Neville vs Austin Aries for the CWT throughout and two rounds of Sami Zayn vs Curtis Axel complete week 1. Week 2, its Club vs Bar, Finn Balor vs Jinder Mahal, Cass vs Titus O'Neil, Zayn back to losing to Braun Strowman and Sin Cara, Goldust & R-Truth vs Curt Hawkins & The Shining Stars.

VARIATIONS

In Providence Axel jobs to Jinder and Big Show pins Titus. In Champaign Jinder loses to Show and Titus has a night off, in Cincinnati its a handicap match.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT

8th in Largo there’s a standalone show after TakeOver and tapings - it’s Hideo Itami, Aleister Black & Kassius Ohno vs Andrade Almas, Tino Sabbatelli & Dylan Miley (Lars Sullivan). We’re in WCW country 13th-14th - it’s a dream team pairing with Shinsuke Nakamura & Hideo vs Bobby Roode & Almas in Atlanta, in Spartanburg that hard hitting duo get The Revival (oof) half way up and Roode defends against Tye Dillinger on last, then in Concord NC Nakamura & Dillinger reunite to beat Roode & Scott Dawson. 21st in Crystal River Hideo tags with No Way Jose to beat Andrade & Patrick Clark. 27th in Kansas City Hideo & Aleister beat Roode & Almas, 28th/29th in St Charles MO and Southaven MS Bobby retains over Dillinger again.

B shows - 1st its the 3rd afternoon of Axxess and a fairly eclectic NXT/205/UK card is topped by Akira Tozawa vs Ariya Daivari. 14th in St Augustine it’s Alexander Wolfe, Killian Dain & Nikki Cross vs Heavy Machinery & Sarah Bridges (Logan), next night in Gainesville Roderick Strong & No Way Jose vs Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli. 28th in Venice Moss & Sabetelli are on last with the Street Profits, 29th in Orlando Moss loses to Kassius Ohno in singles.

THE CARDS

Hideo Itami vs Andrade Almas month end is an obvious highlight. Mid month there’s tag title repeats of Authors of Pain vs Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano, month end DIY beat Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain. There’s Asuka vs Ember Moon for the women’s belt concurrent to Ruby Riott & Kimberly Frankele vs Mandy Rose & Daria Berenato. Asuka also retains against Daria in Spartanburg, then by Kansas City she’s using the “Sonya DeVille” name that sticks and Asuka & Ruby Riott drop The Iiconics while Sonya beats Aliyah. Mid month also has two rounds of Kassius Ohno vs Kona Reeves and Dylan Miley vs Steve Cutler plus Tye Dillinger vs Patrick Clark repeats in Atlanta and Kansas City. Month end it’s Clark vs Miley and Eric Young does jobs to No Way Jose, plus twice Aleister Black vs Cezar Bonini.

VARIATIONS

Axxess has Rich Swann & Mustafa Ali vs Travis Banks & TK Cooper, TJP vs Drew Gulak, Toni Storm vs Jinny (again) and Brian Kendrick vs Jack Gallagher. In Largo it’s AoP vs Street Profits, Riott vs Nikki Cross, Liv Morgan & Macey Estrella vs Fire & Desire, Pete Dunne vs Clark and TJP vs Gallagher. In Atlanta there's Black vs Reeves, and AoP vs DIY vs The Revival. In Spartanburg, Ruby & Ember vs Kimber & Mandy and Black vs Clark. In Concord Black vs Almas (!) and Itami vs Clark. In St Augustine, the Iiconics vs Macey & Victoria Gonzalez, Liv vs Bianca Belair, Jose vs Riddick Moss and Akira Tozawa vs Tony Nese. In Gainesville, Liv vs Andrea (Rosie Lottalove), Cross vs Sarah Bridges and Dain vs Montez Ford as a singles. In Crystal River Asuka vs Mandy, Lana vs Liv, Gallagher vs Ariya Daivari, Sanity vs the Profits vs Bollywood Boyz and Ohno vs Miley. Kansas City, Ruby & Aliyah beat The Iiconics. In Venice Lana beats Kimber and Belair & Rose beat Morgan & Bridges, next night Lana beats Sarah, Mandy beats Liv and semi main has Heavy Machinery beat the Profits.

TVs

Nearly 15,000 at the AmWay on the 1st attend a well-executed but not particularly memorable Take:Over - apart from them showing Drew McIntyre in the crowd. Next night of course is WrestleMania (Sun) which is full of great matches and big happenings - probably the most I've enjoyed a Mania between 30 and today. Standing out - Styles vs Shane McMahon as a fun bump n stunts opener, The Hardys returning to genuinely pop me and win the Raw tag belts, Naomi getting a feel good title win and best of all, Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar having the match they could have had at Mania 20 - a superb exchange of big bombs that neither short-changed nor outstayed its welcome. That's not to say it was perfect - the crowd shit on the Cena/Bella proposal, Wyatt vs Orton was a terrible "spooky bollocks" display, and The Undertaker vs Roman Reigns was a boring main event punctuated with a heavy implication that this was Taker's last stand.. which of course, it won't be. The Raw after Mania has Roman cut his best promo ever, false dawning a heel turn amazingly with just five words - “This is my yard now.” Plus The Revival make their Raw bow upsetting New Day (another false dawn), Balor return to telly from injury tagging with Rollins against Joe & Owens and they tease Lesnar vs Strowman and Vince announces Kurt Angle as the new GM. Night after, still in the Amway, Rowan returns to TV back aligned with Wyatt, Dillinger gets called up and answers an open challenge from Hawkins, and Nakamura debuts before cameras Alpha beat The Vaudevillains and after the show Shinsuke knocks off Ziggler. Next day at Full Sail the Profits beat Moss & Sabbatelli dark, and Drew tapes wins over Oney Lorcan and Almas. 11th in Boston (8000) it's worth pointing out that Jinder, who is about to be pointed towards the WWE title, does a job for Mojo Rawley. Dark, Nakamura goes over Ziggler again. 17th Raw in Columbus, a forgotten one has Y2J do a nice clean submission job for Joe. Next night in Lousville (8000) Breezango beat the Ascension to curtain jerk, on SmackDown Live Jinder wins the contenders match for the next shot after Payback, and dark Nakamura pins Ziggler yet again. Next day at Full Sail the only real headline is Itami becoming top contender. Oh, and "Lacey Evans" now using that name. 24th Raw in Kansas City (8500) there's a Rhino TV sighting as he beats Titus for Main Event, and Strowman loses a dumpster match (lol) to Kalisto because of Reigns. Yes, with Lesnar on top, Reigns and Strowman are back to wasting time beating each other up even though they literally just did a program before Mania. Finally 30th in San Jose they squeeze in Payback - eventful in many ways, Jericho wins the US title back from KO, Alexa makes her mark on Raw by winning the belt from Bayley at the first attempt, an utterly bizarre bit of booking has new Raw property Wyatt win his feud with WWE Champ (SmackDown's) Orton by pinning him in a non-title "House Of Horrows" spooky bollocks cinematic match, and on last Braun actually beats "The Big Dog" who wrestles the match like a babyface but loses anyway. It's like Mania and that sneering appearance on Raw the night after didn't happen ; he's still the top babyface main eventer who isn't champ and looks further away from it than ever.

NON TITLE WHINING

Beaten on TV this month : Ambrose, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Corbin, Owens (US champ) by Ambrose, Naomi (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Charlotte, Orton (WWE CHAMPION) by Wyatt.

The bigger crime here for Deano being that having been WWE Champion in September, the chess board moved so fast that he’s pre-show fodder (with Corbin) when Mania arrives, collateral damage of the rapid fire changes required to move from him/Styles/Cena to Wyatt vs Orton. Not the first time they've fumbled him and not the last, even though he stays over like Rover. 

DEPARTURE

This month is the end of Chris Jericho as a regular on the road. He'll appear on a house show in Singapore in June and one episode of SmackDown in July but by the end of the year he'll be out of contract and starting promo work for his appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 12 - which Vince will be fine with on the belief that it's a one-off even if contractually Jericho doesn't need to honour that understanding. Jericho works a Raw in January 18 and then the Greatest Royal Rumble in April which is his last appearance for the company, with WK'12 having marked the start of two years work with New Japan. The final straw for Y2J, he's been fairly vocal about, was Vince promising him that he'd be wrestling Kev for the Universal title quite near the top of the Mania 33 card, with Jericho going over - only to have it yanked out from under him in favour of Goldberg taking the belt to Mania to lose it to Lesnar and him and Owens fighting for the US title in the second match. He's fed up of Vince moving the goalposts, at last, and follows Cody Rhodes out the door. Time will tell if he follows him back in!.... topical innit.

It's funny - both these guys are pretty divisive, but this match is definitely worth a watch. I really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

Edited January 9 by air_raid

[CavemanLynn]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

It's funny - both these guys are pretty divisive, but this match is definitely worth a watch. I really enjoyed it.

I know you meant Nakamura and Ziggler, but I had to mute the two smark douchebags sniping throughout. Although it did have the unexpected effect of getting me into the match when Ziggler hit a neckbreaker after dickhead #2 was oooh-so sure it was getting reversed. "Let's Go Home Now." Yes. Fuxk off.

[air_raid]

13 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

I know you meant Nakamura and Ziggler, but I had to mute the two smark douchebags sniping throughout. Although it did have the unexpected effect of getting me into the match when Ziggler hit a neckbreaker after dickhead #2 was oooh-so sure it was getting reversed. "Let's Go Home Now." Yes. Fuxk off.

Ha! I watched it on mute initially so didnt notice this. Can't remember the last fancam match I watched unmuted for this very reason. Even when you're lucky enough that those recording aren't doing hammy commentary thinking they're hilarious, there's always the danger of nearby bellends.

[CavemanLynn]

16 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Ha! I watched it on mute initially so didnt notice this. Can't remember the last fancam match I watched unmuted for this very reason. Even when you're lucky enough that those recording aren't doing hammy commentary thinking they're hilarious, there's always the danger of nearby bellends.

It's one of the reasons I love the Doink vs 123 Kid fancam so much - the kid with his dad starts off all too-cool-for-school, but then the match goes on and he starts whooping and marking out like the rest of us. Different eras and all that, I suppose.

Edited January 8 by CavemanLynn

[air_raid]

MAY 2017

OH NO. Oh, fuck sake, no. What the actual fuck.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN

Terrible warning of what's to come 1st in Stockton - Randy Orton & Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan & Jinder Mahal. Off on the European tour, it's a three way between the next three WWE Champions, Orton vs Jinder vs AJ Styles, 4th-8th in Glasgow, Cardiff, Valencia, La Coruna and Bournemouth, then 10th-14th at the NEC and in Sheffield, Newcastle, Stockholm and Copenhagen. 22nd at the Eastern Michigan University "Convocation Center" in Ypsilanti (a grand name for a basketball court) its Orton & Sami Zayn vs Jinder & Baron Corbin. 27th in Knoxville Kevin Owens defending the US belt against AJ goes on last with the new "champ" in a tag underneath, 28th-29th in Chattanooga and Macon it's Jinder vs Styles for the belt, and OF COURSE, the shitty new champion is losing with a shitty DQ finish.

So there you have it. Raw doesn't really have a champion and SmackDown may as well not either.

THE CARDS

It's Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn for the UST and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Dolph Ziggler every night of the tour - the latter occurs domestically too. 22nd and 27th there's two instances of AJ Styles challenging Owens, then 28th/29th we move to Zayn & Nakamura vs Owens & Ziggler. The Womens title match is Naomi vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte vs Carmella vs Natalya as a five-way before TVs then after Tamina makes up the numbers for the same six-woman tag they did in Stockton. Back home Lynch & Flair beat the three heels in handicap matches. Somehow in the move to SmackDown Charlotte underwent a phantom face turn! Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan continues most of the month - it's funny how regardless of who was the face, Harper always won their feuds. The Usos vs American Alpha vs Primo & Epico is the tag title match on tour. We have Sin Cara, Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs Aiden English & The Ascension then often English talks himself into a match with Mojo Rawley which he also loses, then after TVs we switch to Tye Dillinger & Breezango vs English/Konnor/Viktor and Mojo jobbing for Baron Corbin. Either side of Europe in Stockton and Ypsilanti there's Alpha vs Usos, Breezango vs Ascension 2 on 2 and Dillinger vs English before Mojo beats Aiden, then month end Dillinger vs Corbin goes 50/50, Sin Cara beats English before or after Rawley does and Breezango beat the Colons. In Cardiff and Bournemouth there's also Tyler Bate, Trent Seven & Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne, James Drake & Joseph Conners.

VARIATIONS

In Stockton there's Styles vs Owens vs Zayn (oosh) for the US title. Local interest! In Glasgow there's an addition of Bate, Seven & Wolfgang vs Dunne, Tyson T-Bone & Conners, at the NEC Dunne/Conners/Drake lose to Bate/Seven/Dan Moloney, in Newcastle its Bate/Seven/Saxon Huxley. Unique to Ypsilanti, Naomi/Charlotte/Becky beat Nattie, Mella and James Ellsworth (LOL). The tag for Jinder in Knoxville has him tagging with Corbin to lose to Zayn & Nakamura. Because he's a loser. Also, Ziggler does a job for Dillinger. He's not much better currently, is he?

MAIN EVENTS - RAW

We've got no title match but Finn Balor & Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt & Samoa Joe rolls on 3rd-5th in Rome, Bologna, Dublin and Dublin, 6th in Belfast it's two singles with Rollins pinning Joe then Balor pinning former WWE Champ Bray on last, 7th it's reunited as a tag in Liverpool though The Big Dog goes on last. 9th-13th Rollins tags with Roman Reigns instead in Lille, Zurich, Stuttgart, Liege and Rotterdam and after a break that main continues 26th-28th in Pikeville KY, Greensboro and Augusta GA.

THE CARDS

Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman in a streetfight or tables match props up Rollins/Balor before TVs. Dean Ambrose vs The Miz is on every night for the ICT on tour. Tag title is The Hardy Boys vs The Bar vs Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs Karl Anderson vs Luke Gallows before TVs and a three way after them as Karl is losing to Finn Balor, his former boss, which both continue in the southern States. Bayley, Sasha Banks & Mickie James vs Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax & Emma before TVs gives way to Bliss vs Bayley for the belt and Sasha & Dana Brooke vs Nia & Alicia Fox thereafter. Back home, it’s Bayley/Banks/Mickie vs Bliss/Nia/Fox. Adrian Neville vs Austin Aries for the CWT is a sandwich month ; in mainland Europe it’s a three way with Aleister Black which I imagine was both well received and pretty good. An eight man with Heath Slater, Rhino, Goldust & R-Truth vs Titus O’Neil, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas & Curt Hawkins has Slater & Rhino drop out for Apollo Crews and Kalisto second half of the tour. Back in the US the Golden Truth are split up and Axel has yet another phantom turn - it’s Curtis, Truth & Rhino vs Goldie, Titus and Elias Samson.

VARIATION

In Lille only, Kalisto vs Hawkins is a singles leaving their partners to contest a six man.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT

We've got two rounds of Hideo Itami & Tye Dillinger vs Bobby Roode & Andrade Almas 4th and 6th in Phoenix and San Diego either side of Roode vs Dillinger for the belt in Riverside CA. 11th in Daytona Beach a mixed six person has Hideo, Asuka and Aliyah go over Almas and The Iiconics, next night in Largo a thrown-together Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno & Buddy Murphy beat Andrade, Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli, then 13th in Dade City (?) Strong & No Way Jose beat Killian Dain & Sawyer Fulton... huh??? Champ's back 18th in Highland Heights KY, Roode & Almas lose to Itami & Roddy, no better luck next night in Evansville with Strong & Aleister Black. 26th in Cocoa, Strong/Murphy/Jose beat Roode/Moss/Sabbatelli then the night after in Fort Pierce Drew McIntyre & Lars Sullivan vs Roode & Cezar Bonini goes on last.

B shows - as previous Sanity are on top when the big guns are elsewhere - Roderick Strong & Heavy Machinery vs Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain 5th in Gainesville, Wolfe/Dain/Nikki Cross lose to Street Profits & Liv Morgan next night in St Petersburg.

THE CARDS

Drew McIntyre vs Patrick Clark on and off throughout, plus Hideo Itami beats Dream-to-be from West coast to East - at least, in Riverside and Largo. It's Asuka vs Sonya Deville for the belt early month (and in Evansville) concurrent to Ruby Riott & Lacey Evans vs Mandy Rose & Bianca Belair - then Bianca pins Lacey last two shows of the month. Two or three rounds each early month also of Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli, Kassius Ohno vs Oney Lorcan and No Way Jose vs Kona Reeves. The Street Profits also beat The Ealy Twins twice throughout the month.

VARIATIONS

In Riverside there's Asuka & Evans vs Fire & Desire, Ruby vs Bianca, Andrade Almas vs Ohno and McIntyre vs Lorcan. Gainesville - Lana vs Sarah Bridges, Gran Metalik vs Drew Gulak and Liv Morgan vs Kimberley Frankele. In St Petersburg it's Aliyah & Danielle Kamela jobbing for The Iiconics, Roderick Strong dropping a DQ to Killian Dain and Lana beating Kimber. In Daytona it's Heavy Machinery vs Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler, Lana vs Danielle and Buddy Murphy & Strong vs Cezar Bonini & Lars Sullivan. In Largo its Lana vs Lacey, Machinery vs Dain & Alexander Wolfe yet again and Belair & The Iiconics beat Kamela/Morgan/Bridges. In Dade City Asuka retains over battle royal winner Bianca, the Profits lose to Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli. Highland Heights get Ohno losing to Dain, Wolfe & Eric Young doing a non-finish with DIY, Asuka vs Riott vs Nikki Cross, Sonya vs Lacey and Aleister Black vs Lorcan. In Evansville Ohno recovers to beat Wolfe, McIntyre pins Blake, Dain pins Lorcan, Jose beats Clark and Ruby beats Lacey. Cocoa has Riott vs Rose and Sonya vs Liv, Fort Pierce has a big 8-person with Young, Dain, Wolfe & Cross beating Riott, Profits & Demitrius Bronson - the biggest of his grand total of 21 wrestling matches ever. Black pins Moss, Strong goes over Lorcan and Liv pins MaryKate - Sage Beckett/Rosie Lottalove/Andrea going by her real given name.

TVs

2nd in Fresno Kev wins the US title straight back from Chris Jericho who's virtually finished up as a full time character, and our dark matches have Harper pin Viktor before shows and a proper Coliseum Video Tag... nah, I can't do it. Orton, Styles and Nakamura beat Ziggler, Rowan and Jinder. Hardly sounds a fair fight. 6th-7th in Norwich there are UK Championship tapings for the Network which include all the usual faces but of special note, on night 1 there's TJP vs Rich Swann and The Brian Kendrick & Tony Nese lose to Akira Tozawa & Saxon Huxley, next night TJ & Kendrick beat Swann & Dan Moloney, and Tozawa pins Nese in singles. Some good news at the gate 8th at the O2 - 14,500 for the Raw taping. Next night 12,500 is still excellent for SmackDown, Dillinger pins English before tapings and Nakamura pins Ziggler again after them. 15th they get 10,000 in Newark for Raw too! Really! Newark! This is where Goldust betrays Truth. Next night in Manchester NH Dillinger's curtain jerking again and on the show proper Jinder beats Styles as a warning to us all. 20th at the AllState TakeOver : Chicago features Pete Dunne relieve Tyler Bate of the UK title in a belting match and tapings for the telly have the debut of the Velveteen Dream character at last. Next night at Backlash there are not enough words in the English language to explain how annoyed I am at Jinder Mahal being elevated from jobber to WWE Champion. I understand the business rationale but seriously.... when you try to expand into a new market, most companies wouldn't consider screwing around with the product to make it QUITE as unpalatable to the existing core markets as they did here. It's a scripted sport, and they came nowhere near successfully scripting that we should buy this loser on top. Nowhere fucking near. 23rd in Toledo a dark opener has Dillinger, Harper, Rawley and Alpha beat English, the Colons and the Ascension, 30th in Atlanta its a six man of Dillinger/Harper/Rawley vs Aiden/Konnor/Viktor.

NON TITLE WHINING

Beaten on TV this month : Ambrose, obviously (Intercontinental champion) by Wyatt, Naomi (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Carmella.

DEPARTURES

I don't think so.

 

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I was at the SmackDown show in Newcastle - my last WWE show to date. I bought a ticket quite late because I wanted to see Nakamura / Nakamura’s entrance live. Pity he had to be in there with Ziggler. AJ Styles being on the card was a reason too, I hadn’t seen him in person before. Pity he had to be in there with Jinder. I remember Orton got by far the biggest pop of the night.

I couldn’t tell you much more of the card. I vaguely recall the UK six man, and I’m confident in saying Zayn vs Owens was match of the night. Not because of work rate or anything, more because Owens decided to have fun going full panto villain and it felt like a proper “house show” match due to all the crowd work.

Edited January 9 by HarmonicGenerator

[tiger_rick]

Reading the first episode of PowerSlam in the 1994 year book they released, Fin mentions in the WWF round-up section that "Mabel and Typhoon are now a regular tag-team" and says they'll be managed by Oscar and feud with Yoko and Crush. Been reading @air_raid's 1994 notes to see if it was mentioned. History of WWE has them teaming for one match on a Wrestling Challenge taping. Wonder if a plan was scrapped or it's just a bad take from Fin (or a bad take picked up from Meltzer).

[air_raid]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Reading the first episode of PowerSlam in the 1994 year book they released, Fin mentions in the WWF round-up section that "Mabel and Typhoon are now a regular tag-team" and says they'll be managed by Oscar and feud with Yoko and Crush. Been reading @air_raid's 1994 notes to see if it was mentioned. History of WWE has them teaming for one match on a Wrestling Challenge taping. Wonder if a plan was scrapped or it's just a bad take from Fin (or a bad take picked up from Meltzer).

Yeah, Typhoon got brought in as a panic measure when Quake bolted and they needed something for towns where Yoko vs Earthquake was advertised. They taped consecutive episodes of Challenge where Mabel & Typhoon saved a jobber from a post-match beatdown from Yoko then that match for the week after, on July 2nd. While there was nothing in the 4th or 18th Observer about it, Herb Kunze did post on 14/07 to rec.sport.pro-wrestling (remember Usenet?) ;

"There have been frequent complaints about the tag team situation in both WCW and the WWF. Have no fear, the WWF is springing a new awesome duo on us: Mabel & Typhoon."

So, assuming Fin absorbed as many NEWZ sources as possible, I think it was not his original misassumption. But definitely someone put two and two together and made five. Or as the Americans say, five.

[Chili]

I believe Mo was injured too so they needed to fill that gaping gap in the card too. Mo.

[air_raid]

18 minutes ago, Chili said:

I believe Mo was injured too so they needed to fill that gaping gap in the card too. Mo.

Weird fact is that in kayfabe it was an Owen Hart Sharpshooter to blame for his injury, and that match (and post match assault) aired on telly in May and he was out until November. However it was taped on 12th April and MOM worked two further tags on 23rd and 24th house shows, replacing advertised-but-departed Steiners... concurrent to a series of Yoko vs Mabel matches. So on 23rd, if reports are accurate, Mo & Mabel beat the Quebecers by count-out in Richfield, then they rushed Big Vis over the lakes to work Yoko as scheduled in Sarnia, Ontario, then night after in Flint the 'Mission beat the Heavenly Bodies then Mabel went to his scheduled double count-out with Yoko on the same show, while the resultant swap of opponents left the Quebecers with the Bushwhackers in Cincinnati. Imagine having to do double duty at Mabel's size.

[Chili]

6 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Weird fact is that in kayfabe it was an Owen Hart Sharpshooter to blame for his injury, and that match (and post match assault) aired on telly in May and he was out until November. However it was taped on 12th April and MOM worked two further tags on 23rd and 24th house shows, replacing advertised-but-departed Steiners... concurrent to a series of Yoko vs Mabel matches. So on 23rd, if reports are accurate, Mo & Mabel beat the Quebecers by count-out in Richfield, then they rushed Big Vis over the lakes to work Yoko as scheduled in Sarnia, Ontario, then night after in Flint the 'Mission beat the Heavenly Bodies then Mabel went to his scheduled double count-out with Yoko on the same show, while the resultant swap of opponents left the Quebecers with the Bushwhackers in Cincinnati. Imagine having to do double duty at Mabel's size.

Not just the double duty, but the travel, it's mad what wrestlers do and that's just two nights I'm focusing on there.

[tiger_rick]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

I believe Mo was injured too so they needed to fill that gaping gap in the card too. Mo.

Is that why Mabel had a singles match with Jarrett at SummerSlam? I've never known why that was. Or cared, tbh.

[Chili]

2 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Is that why Mabel had a singles match with Jarrett at SummerSlam? I've never known why that was. Or cared, tbh.

I think they were trying him out as a potential singles star for a bit because, well you've seen Mabel and you know what Vince is like.

[air_raid]

13 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Is that why Mabel had a singles match with Jarrett at SummerSlam? I've never known why that was. Or cared, tbh.

10 minutes ago, Chili said:

I think they were trying him out as a potential singles star for a bit because, well you've seen Mabel and you know what Vince is like.

Weirdly enough the original plan for Double J at SummerSlam had been pencilled in at one point to finish his feud with Doink properly by beating him on PPV, but they changed it to Mabel.... I'd say because Vince was keen on pushing Mabel but the loss and manner of it was a bit weird if they wanted to push him. Obviously, getting Jarrett ready for Razor was more important.