Due to a bad shoulder. He was starting to figure it out but now this stops his momentum cold. Maybe he can come back with a character though as he’ll have more time to work on his presence and talking ability.
It’s the standard level of awesome that WWE 24 has always been. These thirty minute short form documentaries are awesome stuff (if not kayfabe destroying) as when else are you going to get to see something like this without waiting a few years for the three disc version? Check this show out as it’s just over half an hour and lets you relate a bit more to Reigns.
As a side note, I recorded the E:60 documentary but haven’t watched it yet. The extras on Colin Cassady and Tyler Breeze are great previews though and this has the potential to be amazing.
I’m not a financial guy so these are just highlights.
The Network now has 1.3 million paid subscribers worldwide. Naturally, they’re airing May as the second straight free month because screw you fans that paid since day one.
Wrestlemania drew 259,000 buys on regular pay per view, which will help offset some of the Network costs.
Live event revenue was up big due to Wrestlemania taking place in the first quarter this time.
WWE Studios is down. I’m as shocked as you are.
Now as you may know, Foley is my all time favorite wrestler so this might be a bit biased, which is completely different than all my usual writings. This was one of the most entertaining (notice that I didn’t necessarily say funny) things that has aired on the Network so far. Foley is a guy that clearly loves wrestling and knows how to make a crowd care about him. That’s exactly what he did here as he talked for about an hour with far too topics to list.
This is one of those things where you can’t give it a preview so I’ll just say check it out because it’s really entertaining stuff and a great look at someone who knows how to entertain wrestling fans.
King of the Ring Network Special
Date: April 28, 2015
Location: iWireless Center, Moline, Illinois
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler
This is a one off special with the returning King of the Ring semi-finals and finals taking place tonight. It’s just an hour long so the matches should have some time to build up instead of having to run through everything in just a few minutes. There’s potential for some good matches tonight so let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of the history of the tournament and some of the stars who have won before.
Jerry Lawler is brought out to introduce a package on how the final four advanced. It’s a bad sign that they seem to be stalling for time four minutes in.
Here are the final four:
Neville
Sheamus
Bad News Barrett
R-Truth
Sheamus says he’ll become the two time King and get rid of that little English guy to do so.
Neville was in NXT just a few months ago but now he could be King of the Ring. No one expects him to win tonight, but he’s defied expectations all his life. He was fine on the mic here so I wouldn’t mind hearing more from him.
King of the Ring Semi-Finals: Sheamus vs. Neville
Cole mentions Sheamus potentially becoming a two time King, just like Bret Hart. That’s a rare reference to the tournaments held when it was still just a house show feature. Sheamus makes fun of Neville’s height to start and takes him into the corner with ease. Neville comes back with some right hands and does his front flips followed by a spin kick to the ribs. A quick Irish Curse stops Neville cold though and the big man takes over. It works so well that Sheamus hits a second Irish Curse as the fans are entirely behind Neville.
Sheamus gets a bit too cocky though, allowing Neville to come back with forearms tot he face. He fights out of the ten forearms as well but gets sent face first HARD into the announcers’ table. Neville barely makes it back in time though, earning him another beating in the corner. Sheamus is starting to get cocky but here’s Ziggler to remind him what happened at Extreme Rules. The distraction lets Neville duck a Brogue Kick and kick Sheamus in the head. The Red Arrow gives Neville the pin and the BIG upset at 5:47.
Rating: C+. I believe in Neville. This is one of the first pushes in a LONG time where they’re strapping a rocket to a newcomer’s back and letting him ride it all the way, though there’s a good chance Barrett winds up winning the crown tonight so they can have him lose his next ten matches. Still though, I’m digging the heck out of Neville right now as they’re totally nailing his push.
Post match Ziggler wants to get what he earned at Extreme Rules and the brawl is on. Security breaks it up, but not before Sheamus’ eye is busted open badly.
Barrett says R-Truth shouldn’t be worried about his arachnophobia because it’s time for Bull Hammer-phobia. After he gets done with the has been Truth, he’ll move on to the never was Neville.
Truth has a plan tonight: win the King of the Ring and then declare a ban on spiders. That includes all the spiders, even the kinfolks. They’ll build a castle with a drawbridges and a moat. He isn’t sure about water in the moat because that might bring water spiders. Saxton: “What about your opponent, Bad News Barrett?” Truth: “Does he has experience killing spiders?”
King of the Ring Semi-Finals: R-Truth vs. Bad News Barrett
Truth grabs a quick rollup to start but takes a right hand to the ribs. Barrett puts him in the ropes for the big boot to the face and it’s off to the chinlock as the announcers discuss Nero. Back up and Truth hits some clotheslines and the front suplex for two. The ax kick misses but the side kick is good for another near fall. Truth’s Lie Detector gets two but the Winds of Change gets the same. Back up and the Bull Hammer sends Barrett to the finals at 4:40.
Rating: D+. What do you want me to say here? Truth had as much of a chance as I have of being Miss Nevada 1974 and everyone knew it. Barrett is a good option for the crown and there’s a good dynamic considering what happened on Sunday. Dull match here but at least they kept it short.
Video on Verne Gagne who passed away yesterday.
Dolph Ziggler says he couldn’t take Sheamus’ bullying last night or tonight so he had to do something.
We look at Neville beating Barrett on Sunday.
Barrett says it’s not fair that he has to fight so soon after beating Truth, but it’s also unfair that Neville has to fight him period.
King of the Ring: Bad News Barrett vs. Neville
Barrett goes after the ribs to start but Neville flips forward and snaps off a headscissors, followed by a kick to the jaw. That’s fine with Barrett as he clotheslines Neville to the floor to take the first real advantage. Barrett puts on something like an abdominal stretch on the mat but Neville fights up with more kicks to the ribs and legs.
A running kick to the side of the head and a German suplex get two on Barrett. Winds of Change gets the same and Wasteland is eventually good for another near fall. The Bull Hammer is countered into a rollup for two and Neville kicks him in the head. Neville has to bail out of the Red Arrow and charges into the Bull Hammer for the pin and the crown at 6:10.
Rating: B-. Eh yeah that’s probably the right move but man alive they could have pulled the trigger on something big here with Neville. At least there’s a story ready for a third match between the two of them, which might work better if they can manage to give then more than six minutes next time.
Barrett crowns himself and promises to rule with an iron Bull Hammer.
Overall Rating: C. Well they made good time. WWE does realize that they have all the time they need on their own network and don’t have to have this wrapped up with seven minutes to go in the hour right? They were flying through this match and the entire tournament when you think about it. It’s like they needed to get this whole thing wrapped up as fast as they could to get to the end result. It wasn’t bad but my goodness, slow down a bit.
Results
Neville b. Sheamus – Red Arrow
Bad News Barrett b. R-Truth – Bull Hammer
Bad News Barrett b. Neville – Bull Hammer
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of 1998 Pay Per View reviews at Amazon for just $3.99 at:
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It’s Hail To The Attitude Era time!This is a big waste of time with yet another montage of clips from the Attitude Era, which is basically all the Network exists for during the day. Basically it’s a few long packages on Sable/Marc Mero, Chyna/Mark Henry/Mae Young/Sammi and OF COURSE a history of Stephanie’s love issues. That would be fine for like ten minutes, but this goes on for over half an hour with a few montages of clips thrown in to fill in the time.
Jerry Springer could be any person in the world on this show and sounds like he’s reading off a teleprompter (which he probably was). It’s designed to be like a highlight reel of something he’d host, which is fine in theory but the run time just cripples this thing. Cut this up into thirds and it’s tolerable, but at half an hour I was skipping through it every few seconds. This doesn’t need to exist and I’d be stunned if it survives, at least in this form, until July.
And it’s about what you would expect.It runs less than seven minutes and shows Young eating breakfast with Seth Rollins. There’s nothing interesting here other than it being out of character. Rollins talks about a band he likes, his dog, what he wants to do when he retires and that’s about it. It’s quick, it’s unoffensive and you’re not likely to think about it ever again.
The only note here: there’s a shot where Renee turns her head and her hair falls over her face with her eyes looking at Seth and good night is that woman beautiful. Not hot like Trish or Lita but just stunningly pretty. Dean Ambrose is a lucky man.
You know what we haven’t had in a long time in WWE?A good mystery. Like a masked man, someone attacking others in the back but not getting caught, a mystery opponent (that was properly built up), finding out who was behind something, figuring out what something meant (like a logo/symbol being left backstage) etc. Everything is revealed in like a week at most and there’s no waiting on anything. Remember the search for Vince’s child, or who ran over Austin, or finding out what the Taz logo was? Mix it up a little and let us wait every now and then.
WWE does this from time to time. They’ve sent out a survey asking about potential DVD topics. Here they are with my thoughts on each.
* 20 Years Later: Best of 1996 – Matches and discussion from the best WWE and WCW PPVs as well as historic Nitro, Raw and ECW matches and moments.
Eh I could go for that, as at least it’s not yet another rehash of the Monday Night Wars period.
* Booker T – Extended WWE Network documentary plus matches, interviews and memories.
The documentary was good so sure why not. Booker deserves a 6 hour set or so.
* Bruno Sammartino – Bruno documentary with exclusive material filmed at his home as well as Bruno backstage at Wrestlemanias, plus archival footage and matches.
Take my money now. If they’re going to do this they need to do it soon as Bruno is going to be 80 this year. Get this while you still can.
* Dudley Boyz – Documentary and match collection.
Fine, though it could easily be expanded to include Edge and Christian and the Hardys.
* Eric Bischoff – Similar in vein to the Paul Heyman release, a documentary on the only man who came close to taking WWE down with matches and interviews as well as a documentary on his time in pro wrestling.
I’ve had my fill of Eric Bischoff in my life and his story is really well documented already.
* Greatest Rivalries: Eric Bischoff vs. Vince McMahon – Sitdown interview discussing the Monday Night War interspersed with footage from that era.
LET
IT
DIE!
* Greatest Rivalries: Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven – Dreamer and Raven discuss their feud with Joey Styles, interspersed with complete matches, clips and interviews.
I could see this one but it’s not my cup of hot chocolate.
* How to Become a Self-Made Millionaire with JBL – Following a day in the life of JBL, focusing on his life and how he made his fortune, including personal wealth tips.
That’s a bit outlier and I’m not sure how big the audience would be, especially given how big a market there are of these things already. This sounds more like a book.
* Hulk Hogan: Immortal – Hulk Hogan documentary and matches presented, built around the story of a Hogan bronze statue being created and released.
How many Hogan documentaries do we need? That statue thing sounds like a 20 minute special, not a feature attraction.
* Lex Luger – documentary on life and career of former WCW World champion.
Zero issue here as Luger actually has some good stuff and doesn’t get a lot of attention.
* OMG! ECW’s Top 50 Craziest Moments – A countdown of the craziest moments in Extreme Championship Wrestling and WWE ECW’s collective history.
Again, not my thing but there’s certainly a market for it.
* Roman Reigns – Documentary and match collection, built around Reigns heading into his first Wrestlemania.
Are you kidding? Win a title first.
* The Sheamus Experience – Sheamus interview as he tours Ireland plus matches, interviews and memories.
I could go for this but it wouldn’t be on the top of my pile.
* Stone Cold – One Man Show with Steve Austin.
This exists?
* True Story of Tribute to the Troops – Documentary on creation and execution of the annual WWE event for the United States military plus matches and memories from different events.
If it’s the original stuff the fine but the new glorified house shows need to just end already.
* WWE Divas – documentary looking at the past, present and future of women’s wrestling in WWE.
There’s some good stuff in there, but I don’t need to hear about Sunny, Sable, Trish and Lita again.
Wow that’s……pretty much the least surprising thing I’ve heard in a long time. I’d have loved to see Rousey in a WWE ring (or anywhere for that matter), but this was a long shot at best so I’m not at all surprised.