Monday Night Raw
Date: November 26, 2018
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

We’re coming up on TLC and the card is already starting to come into focus. Last week saw two big matches set up and you can imagine some more taking place tonight. We also don’t know any of the big gimmick matches yet, which are often some of the most important things on the show. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Lio Rush and Drew McIntyre in the ring. They talk about how great their Thanksgiving was, though they didn’t indulge themselves like these common people. They’re all thankful for everything they do, including what they did to Braun Strowman last week.

We see last week’s attack that put Strowman on the shelf and then go to Birmingham, Alabama where Strowman says he’ll be on the shelf for a while. His surgeon has never seen an injury like this before nor worked on an arm this size. He’ll be back though and what happened last week will look like a paper cut compared to what he’s doing to the three of them.

Back in the arena, Corbin is fine with winning via forfeit at TLC and becoming permanent GM. He’s going to remember everyone who didn’t respect him…and there go the lights. It’s Elias time and he runs down the idea of Corbin as permanent GM. Anyone would do a better job, including Rush, even though he would violate some kind of child labor law. This week’s song says little more than Lashley sucks and it’s time for a match after a break. Long promo here that accomplished absolutely nothing. Elias is already collapsing under the weight of bad face jokes.

Elias vs. Bobby Lashley

Corbin, McIntyre and Rush are at ringside. Lashley’s new nickname seems to be the Almighty. I’m sure that’ll work just fine. Elias chops his way out of the corner to start but gets taken down into an early chinlock. Back up and Elias sends him outside, setting up a baseball slide, much to Lashley’s friends’ annoyance. Lashley comes back in and drops Elias with a right hand for a choke with the boot.

The chinlock goes on again until Elias gets sent to the floor. A hard posting has Elias in trouble and we take a break. Back with Elias hitting a running clothesline, followed by the jumping knee. A top rope elbow gets two with Rush pulling the referee out for the DQ at 9:24…or not as Corbin says this is No DQ, which he didn’t get the chance to announce after Elias interrupted him.

Elias fights back but gets pulled to the floor and has to deal with Corbin and McIntyre. It’s time for the guitar but Corbin jumps him from behind. Lashley stomps on the guitar and Corbin chairs Elias out to the floor. A double whip sends him into the barricade as the beatdown just keeps going. McIntyre gets in a great looking shot with a reverse Alabama Slam onto the steps, followed by Lashley hitting the spear. Lashley finally throws him back inside and a gator roll gets the pin at 14:11.

Rating: D. The angle part at the end made this feel way longer than it should have been and that doesn’t work well for a match. It’s a good sign for Elias that he’s getting this kind of treatment, though the latest heel trio isn’t the strongest thing in the world. The show still needs some top faces and having them beaten down like this isn’t helping things.

Post break Corbin fires a production worker for the spotlight on Elias. Alexa Bliss comes up to him and offers her services for anything Corbin might need. Since this is no longer the Attitude Era, Corbin puts her in charge of the women’s division. That would make her the third heel authority figure on this show.

Dean Ambrose was at his doctor’s office earlier today and said he won’t be at the show tonight in the toxic waste dump of Milwaukee. That’s why Rollins was fine with an open challenge for the title tonight because there was no chance Dean would be in the arena. As for tonight, Dean is getting his shots to avoid all the diseases that the fans carry. There is nothing that can wash away Rollins’ sins though and at TLC, Ambrose is putting him out of his misery for good.

Renee Young still won’t talk about what’s up with Dean.

Lucha House Party vs. Revival

In case last week wasn’t enough. Before the match, the Revival talks about the tag team etiquette that the House Party didn’t show last week with their lucha rules. And again, this is under Lucha House Rules, meaning it’s 3-2. Metalik dropkicks Wilder down to start and it’s off to Kalisto to climb onto Dorado’s shoulders for the splash. Dawson comes in for a torture rack kneeling backbreaker, followed by various drops for two. Not that it matters as the luchadors all come in and take over on Dawson, including the Salida Del Sol. The shooting star finishes Dawson off at 2:32 and I want to pummel whoever wrote this nonsense.

We look back at Nia Jax breaking Becky Lynch’s face.

Bayley and Sasha Banks sell stuff for Cyber Monday.

Video on Lars Sullivan.

Here are Nia Jax and Tamina for a chat. Nia says she has a lot to be thankful for this year, mainly being breaking Becky Lynch’s face. That brings her to Ronda Rousey, so we see Jax beating Rousey up at Money in the Bank. Then it was Charlotte beating her up at Survivor Series, leaving Ronda to talk about how hard a champion has to fight. Nia is now on top of the mountain but here’s Rousey to interrupt.

Rousey yells at her about how Nia is from a warrior culture who likes to hit people in the face. She could fight the champ right now, but Jax just got done washing Becky’s crusted blood off her hand. The double teaming seems imminent but Natalya runs in….and gets jumped by the Riott Squad. Rousey makes the save.

We recap the Drake Maverick issue from Survivor Series and ensuing jokes.

Maverick is ready to see the AOP crush Bobby Roode and Chad Gable.

Tag Team Titles: AOP vs. Chad Gable/Bobby Roode

Gable and Roode are challenging. Maverick goes after Roode’s robe and the distraction is enough for Akam to get in a few shots in the corner. Gable comes in with a missile dropkick and the armbreaker over the ropes to keep Rezar in trouble. Maverick now has the robe on and stands on the stage for the GLORIOUS pose as we take a break.

Back with Roode coming in off the hot tag but getting caught in a fall away slam from Akam. A low bridge sends Akam outside though…and we cut to Maverick in the robe in the bathroom where he puts the robe in the toilet and….yeah I think you get the idea. Roode is so distraught that it’s the sitout powerbomb/neckbreaker combination for the pin to retain at 9:04.

Rating: F. Nope.

Alexa comes in to see Banks and Bayley and thinks they need to get to know each other. Banks isn’t happy but Bliss offers them the chance to go to the ring for an open forum from the fans. The two of them aren’t pleased but seem to agree.

Finn Balor is ready to face Baron Corbin tonight.

Ember Moon vs. Alicia Fox

Mixed Match Challenge playoffs preview, with Ember’s new partner….Curt Hawkins. He and Jinder Mahal, with the Singh Brothers, are here as well. Fox kicks her in the face for a very early two and a neckbreaker gets the same. The chinlock doesn’t last long and Moon hits the spinning suplex out of the corner. The Eclipse finishes Fox at 1:53.

Post match Hawkins celebrates like he won in a funny bit. No Way Jose comes out and Ember gets dragged into the conga line and starts dancing because WWE has no idea how she is supposed to work.

No Way Jose vs. Jinder Mahal

Jinder kicks him down to start and it’s off to an early chinlock. Some knee drops keep Jose in trouble and the chinlock goes on again. Jose comes back with a middle rope crossbody and some clotheslines but Mahal drops him across the top rope. The Khallas gives Mahal the pin at 4:27.

Rating: F. A four minute match shouldn’t include two chinlocks. How can your offense be that limited when you’ve been doing this for so many years now? While I don’t think this is the resurgence of Mahal’s career, it’s painful to watch his terrible matches and seeing him win brings back some really harsh memories.

Intercontinental Title: Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler

Open challenge and I actually collapsed a bit when I heard the record scratch. Ziggler says he’s going to get back to being the best in the world by becoming champion again. They hit the mat to start and Ziggler can’t quite keep up. Instead Rollins sends him outside and we take a break.

Back with Rollins in trouble and Ziggler ripping at his face. The chinlock goes on, Ziggler chokes on the ropes, and the chinlock goes on again. Ziggler puts on a third chinlock before throwing him outside for a second break. Back again with Rollins making a comeback and hitting the Sling Blade. An enziguri rocks Ziggler and Rollins heads up, only to get crotched back down. He shoves Ziggler down but misses the frog splash, setting up the Fameasser to give Ziggler two.

Ziggler’s jumping DDT is blocked so he settles for two off a small package instead. The sleeper goes on but Rollins drops him back and hits the low superkick for two. Rollins misses the Stomp and walks into the Zig Zag for another near fall. After looking at some fans being excited, Ziggler heads up top but Rollins catches him with the superplex into the Falcon Arrow to retain at 22:45.

Rating: B. It was a good match and I’ll give them some big points for the non-finisher ending, but egads I never need to see these two fight again. The match took a long time to get going but things picked up a lot after the break. I was starting to get into it at the end and that’s the best thing I can say about something on this show. As usual, Rollins is one of the more entertaining people, even if he was out there with Ziggler.

Here’s Bliss to host the open forum with Bayley and Banks. The first question is what would either of them change about the Raw women’s division. Sasha wants to send Bliss back to Smackdown but Bliss asks why Banks has let Bayley drag her down. That goes nowhere though as here are Mickie James, Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke to jump Banks and Bayley (last night Brooke was on the Starrcade special teaming with the two of them). Bayley and Banks clean house with ease anyway.

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

Balor goes straight at him but gets hit in the jaw. Just to get the self parody going. Corbin has a chinlock on less than thirty seconds in. Corbin gets sent outside for a kick to the chest and we take a break. Back with Corbin holding another chinlock and sending Balor into the corner. That means ANOTHER chinlock, followed by a clothesline, followed by the fourth chinlock in less than ten minutes. This isn’t the kind of thing you want in a featured match.

Deep Six looks to set up the End of Days but Balor is right back with the shotgun dropkick. The Coup de Grace misses though and Corbin grabs a mic, making it a 2-1 handicap match with Drew McIntyre joining him. Balor flip dives onto McIntyre and dropkicks Corbin into the timekeeper’s area but McIntyre jumps him from behind. The Claymore is good for the pin on Balor at 13:25.

Rating: D-. Corbin is just so bad in the ring and this was more of the same heel abuse of power stuff that we’ve seen for the better part of forever. Balor was just cannon fodder here and the match was bad because they let Corbin run things instead of doing anything exciting. Terrible main event.

Post match Lashley comes out for the triple beatdown to end the show. At least McIntyre seems to be away from Ziggler now and that’s some of the only good news on this show.

Overall Rating: F. As I said earlier, nope. This was a complete wreck of a show with about 1947 chinlocks and one terrible match after another. They were doing every warmed over leftover that they could find here. Rollins vs. Ziggler again. Corbin vs. Balor again. Jinder Mahal still being employed again. The heel authority figure that we’ve seen for TWENTY YEARS NOW again, and this time he spawned a new heel authority figure.

I guess it’s WWE’s version of a greatest hits show as they just do the same things they’ve done all year and present it like it’s new. Hopefully Christmas comes early this year so they can be asked to do something more interesting come Rumble time. Like Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman! Again!

Results

Bobby Lashley b. Elias – Gator roll

Lucha House Party b. Revival – Shooting star press to Dawson

AOP b. Chad Gable/Bobby Roode – Sitout powerbomb/neckbreaker combination to Roode

Ember Moon b. Alicia Fox – Eclipse

Jinder Mahal b. No Way Jose – Khallas

Seth Rollins b. Dolph Ziggler – Falcon Arrow

Baron Corbin/Drew McIntyre b. Finn Balor – Claymore

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series 2014
Date: November 23, 2014
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler

Now this is going to be an interesting one as the whole show is built around one match and that one match’s big surprise. Last year they made no secret about the show being entirely built around one single match, which wound up making the way to make the whole thing work. That one match is Team Cena vs. Team Authority for Cena and company’s jobs vs. the Authority having power. The jobs were thrown in at the last minute to really hammer home who was going to win but that’s not always the worst thing. Let’s get to it.

Pre-Show: Fandango vs. Justin Gabriel

This is the NEW AND IMPROVED Fandango, meaning he has Rosa Mendes and now wears a white shirt. We’re ready to go after the dance sequence that kills even more time. They slowly punch each other to start with Gabriel, who has skeleton tights for no apparent reason (JBL: “The leftovers from Giant Gonzalez.”), getting knocked to the floor.

Back in and Justin breaks out of a chinlock and gets two off a springboard kick to the face. For someone who flies around as much as Gabriel, the fans are almost totally silent. A suplex slam (as in a suplex where Fandango never left his feet) takes Gabriel down and the guillotine legdrop is good enough to put Justin away at 3:10.

Rating: D-. You know how Fandango still hasn’t done anything since his “rebirth” here? After this match it really surprises me that he still has a job as this was so horribly boring. Naturally they did the same match again the next night on Raw because maybe they just didn’t get the point across here. Really boring match.

Pre-Show: Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger

The battle of the former Real Americans. On the way to the ring, Cesaro talks about the history of Swiss neutrality before picking Team Authority. He proclaims his allegiance in various languages (which is NOTHING that could ever be capitalized in around the world) until Swagger and Colter come in to pick Team Cena. Swagger gets a quick rollup for two to start, earning himself a gutwrench suplex.

The Patriot Lock has Cesaro in early trouble but he’s still able to throw Swagger down with a German suplex. More suplexes set up a chinlock. Back up and Swagger grabs a German of his own, followed by a chop block to stay on the leg. The Vader Bomb is blocked but Swagger grabs the Patriot Lock. That goes nowhere and more Germans are rolled, only to have Swagger counter into the Patriot Lock again for the submission at 5:23.

Rating: C-. They crammed a lot of suplexes into just five minutes. This also shows you how much better a match can be if you have interesting people in there. Swagger isn’t the best in the world but there’s at least a reason to care about him and more than one note to his character. I’ll take Cesaro being all serious and speaking different languages over HE’S A DANCER IN A WHITE SHIRT any day.

The opening video recaps the main event, which was set up on Vince’s whim. That’s the problem with so much of what the Authority does: whatever happens can be changed by either the two of them or Vince because they’re the ultimate powers. No matter how the story goes, someone with power can come in and change anything at the drop of a hat. Why hasn’t Vince come back and changed something else on a whim? Eh no real reason other than the plot hasn’t called for it. That’s really bad writing.

Here’s Vince to open things up with talking. Vince talks (see, I told you that’s what he was going to do) about how epic this is really going to be and brings out the Authority because we haven’t heard from them in the first five minutes. The sucking up begins immediately but Vince cuts them off to bring out Cena.

Vince recaps the main event as we’re just burning through pay per view time here. Cena asks if the Authority will leave on their own accord if they lose tonight. HHH says that Cena is going to have a bad holiday because four men’s responsibilities will be on his head after tonight. Those four men are going to be forgotten about because they’re the ones with everything to lose. Cena will keep his job because he’s such a big star, but he’ll have that on his head forever.

Stephanie suggests that someone on Team Cena will turn on him because they have to think of themselves. She says the Authority will still have their jobs at headquarters and run things from afar, but Vince says not so fast. They’ll still have desk jobs and be in charge of different departments but they’ll have no authority on screen.

One more thing: if the Authority does lose tonight, only Cena can bring them back. That’s the moment where they gave away the ending and everyone knew the Authority would be back by the end of the year at the latest. Stephanie goes into full STEPHANIE IS SHOUTING mode but Cena says the Authority will lose tonight.

So to recap the recap (which took us to fifteen minutes into the show): the Authority will still have jobs and huge salaries but they just don’t have to deal with the headaches of running the show. On top of that, Cena can bring them back because FOREVER means until Cena says otherwise. This is all stuff that could have been done on Raw but why not waste pay per view time on it. I know their line is “But it’s a free month on the Network!” That’s not an excuse to do something stupid like this as it’s a really bad way to get the show going when this could have been done in five minutes on any given TV show.

Tag Team Titles: Usos vs. Miz/Damien Mizdow vs. Los Matadores vs. Goldust/Stardust

Goldust and Stardust (villains here) are defending and Mizdow is one of the most popular guys on the roster because of how hard he’s been working with the stunt double character. Diego and Stardust start things off as Cole reads Stardust’s latest riddle. A quick rollup gets two on Stardust before it’s off to Miz who is stopped by OLE! Mizdow does his stunt double stuff on the floor as JBL talks about Papa Shango putting a curse on Mizdow years ago. This isn’t a rousing start to the commentary tonight.

Miz won’t tag out, again missing the point of having a stunt double. Jey comes in to chop Diego but Goldust tags himself in and chinlocks the Samoan. The fans continue to want Mizdow but Stardust waves them off and uppercuts Jey instead. This time it’s Miz tagging himself in but Fernando tags Jey and flips off the top and onto Miz.

It’s FINALLY off to Mizdow, only to have Goldust tag himself in ten seconds later to bring the crowd back to silence. Lawler brings up a great point: if Mizdow comes in and Miz is on the apron, shouldn’t Mizdow just stand there? Stardust comes in and stomps Fernando before cranking on both arms to slow things down a bit. Goldust stomps Fernando on the floor (brothers think alike) and we hit the chinlock. Things stay slow as we hear about Grumpy Cat appearing on Raw. I had been trying to forget that guys.

Stardust loads up what looks like a Tombstone but Fernando spins out into a tornado DDT (good one too) and it’s off to Jimmy. Now we pick things up a bit with the Usos cleaning house with Umaga attacks and superkicks (and a shaking camera, which has happened multiple times tonight). Goldust powerslams Jimmy down for two but the double Uso dive takes down a few people.

There’s the Falling Star from Stardust, giving us this brilliant exchange: Cole: “That’s the Falling Star!” “JBL: “I have no idea what that is!” Cole: “It’s the Falling Star!” JBL: “I know!” Torito gets thrown onto the pile and Diego does the same. Back in and a quadruple Tower of Doom takes down Los Matadores and the champs, allowing Mizdow to tag himself in and pin Goldust for the titles at 15:25.

Rating: C. This was a big longer than it needed to be but the payoff was exactly what it needed to be. There was no reason to wait any longer on giving Mizdow something and this opens the door for some new possibilities in the story. The match was fun but they could have cut out a few minutes to make it flow better. It’s fun enough though (annoying commentary aside) and a good way to open the show, after the long talking of course.

Miz takes both titles and Mizdow keeps posing.

Larry the Cable Guy is guest hosting Raw. As usual, WWE is about ten years behind the pop culture times.

Vince will be on the Steve Austin Show. Now that could be entertaining and it kind of was if I remember correctly.

Adam Rose and the Bunny do a toy commercial until Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil come in to set up a match for later. Fans: “NO! NO! NO!” Is it bad that I miss the Bunny and wanted to see more of him?

Team Paige vs. Team Team Fox

Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae, Layla

Alicia Fox, Natalya, Emma, Naomi

Natalya is accompanied by Tyson Kidd, who clearly doesn’t care in a great short run character. Paige and Natalya start things off on the mat and we hit the King’s Court reference which turns into a discussion of Lawler having a foursome. Paige is sent to the floor for a quick spank from Natalya (because of course) before it’s off to Layla vs. Emma, neither of whom are still on the main roster. Lawler: “Emma could trip over cordless phones.” That’s not very hard to do King.

It’s back to Paige for a headbutt and THIS IS MY HOUSE. How can she afford this many houses? Cameron comes in to break up a tag attempt and this could go badly. The fans want Mizdow again and good grief it’s the Daniel Bryan story all over again. You just had him for fifteen minutes when he won a title. Be happy with what you got and shut up already. Emma rolls over and tags Naomi for the big showdown that no one wanted to see. Naomi runs through Cameron and a bad looking wheelbarrow Stunner gets two.

Everything breaks down and Cameron does an awful bulldog, allowing Naomi to roll her up for the elimination at 6:12. Summer kicks Naomi down to take over, only to miss a splash. Fox comes in as the announcers ignore the match to talk about old Survivor Series teams. The heels bail so Fox tries to get a CHICKEN chant started. It’s off to Layla for her bouncy cross body but a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gives Alicia the elimination at 9:29.

Summer comes in and misses a charge, allowing Natalya to dropkick her down. It’s off to Paige who takes over, only to have Summer do Paige’s scream and get decked as a result. Emma comes in for the Dilemma, a forearm to Paige on the apron and the Emma Lock for the submission on Summer at 12:04. So Paige is all alone and starts with Emma, who quickly faceplants her down. Natalya eats a superkick so it’s off to Naomi for the Rear View and the headscissors DDT for the final pin at 14:16.

Rating: D-. Oh sweet goodness the Divas Revolution needed to happen soon. This match felt like it was going on forever with almost none of them looking like they should have been out there this long. Between “CHICKEN! CHICKEN!” and Layla’s face offense under the guise of a heel and Cameron being the disaster that only she can be, this was horrible with Paige and Natalya not being able to hold it together.

Kidd, who didn’t do a thing all match, celebrates more than anyone else in a great touch. That’s the highlight of the last fifteen minutes.

We recap the pre-show, which also included the return of Bad News Barrett. As usual, Cesaro gets left out. The best part: Renee Young with long hair. I had forgotten about that and it says a lot that she’s just as beautiful with her hair hacked off.

The panel talks for a bit.

We recap Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose, which started when Wyatt targeted Ambrose in October for whatever reason Bray picks his next target. There was something about Dean’s dad being in prison but it was never really explained. Ambrose said he didn’t care why Wyatt did it anyway so it didn’t really matter. Tonight is the first match.

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt

They slug it out to start (shocking) before heading outside (even more shocking) where Dean takes over with some clotheslines. Back in and Bray runs Dean over before knocking a dive out of the air with a right hand. I can never get used to Bray’s blood red tattoos as they always fool me. We hit a seated full nelson on Dean (always nice to see them mix up the rest holds) before he fights up for a double cross body.

They go outside for the third time for a double clothesline and both guys are down again. Back in and Dean takes over before doing Bray’s lean upside down out of the corner in a nice touch. Dean ties him in the ropes and kisses Bray on the head before a dropkick and legdrop get two. Bray counters the Rebound Lariat into a release Rock Bottom for two as this match really hasn’t taken off yet.

The middle rope backsplash misses because it would have killed Dean and the top rope elbow gets two for Ambrose. Back up and Bray EXPLODES with a clothesline and he makes it even worse with another Rock Bottom onto the steps. That’s only good for two so Bray grabs a mic and says they could have ruled the world together. Dean has chosen his path though so Bray grabs a chair and drops to his knees like he did with Cena at Wrestlemania. Dean isn’t Cena though and he hits Bray with the chair for the DQ at 14:00.

Rating: C+. Much like the Cena match at Wrestlemania, this felt a lot more like it was designed to set up something else (which it was) instead of being a big showdown. Bray’s babbling gets to the point where you stop caring what he’s talking about and that doesn’t make for the most interesting matches. No matter how you look at it, the whole thing always feels like you’re waiting on the next big thing, which gets repetitive in a hurry. It’s still a fun brawl though and got going after the first few minutes.

Post match Dean lays Bray out and elbows him through a table. That’s not enough for him as he buries Bray under another table and a pile of chairs. That’s only T and C though so why not pull out a ladder? Dean climbs the ladder but is all like “this is the free month so you have to pay to see me dive off.” Referees won’t let him shove the ladder onto the pile either.

The Authority gives their team a long pep talk, including Stephanie crying at the thought of only having a huge salary and working in an office. This is one of the problems of having such a big main event: there’s so much time to fill which certainly couldn’t have been filled with another Survivor Series match. This talk eats up WAY too much time and is summed up as “we’re betting everything we have tonight so win or else.”

Adam Rose/The Bunny vs. Heath Slater/Titus O’Neil

Slater and the Bunny get things going but Rose tags himself in quickly. Heath gets him on the mat before it’s off to Titus for some forearms to the back. Rose dives over and makes the tag. Lawler: “Maybe we should explain why there’s a bunny in the ring.” Cole: “Well it’s actually a man in a bunny suit.” Good grief just start speaking gibberish to us since they clearly think we’re that stupid. The Bunny pins Slater off a middle rope dropkick.

The Rosebuds leave with the Bunny.

More commercials. Counting the opener, the pep talk and all these commercials, there’s probably been seventeen minutes wasted, or about the same amount of time spent on a quick Survivor Series match.

The injured Roman Reigns has a satellite interview where he talks about wanting to be here punching people. We’ll make it nineteen minutes of filler. Reigns will be back in a month.

Team Cena says they’re ready.

Divas Title: Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee

AJ is defending and Nikki has Brie as her unwilling assistant. After the big match intros and Brie gets on the apron for a distraction, followed by kissing AJ (and launching a thousand fanfics). The Rack Attack gives us a new champion at 38 seconds in the Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus finish. Allegedly this was the way the match was going the entire time and it wasn’t cut down, making me shake my head even more.

Of course the sisters are back together with an eventual explanation of “we’re sisters.”

Ambrose vs. Wyatt is announced for TLC in the namesake match.

We recap the main event. The Authority is all corrupt so Vince came in and said let’s put their power up against Team Cena. John put together a team of the few people who would fight with him so the Authority made them as miserable as they could. It’s a simple story but they’ve made this feel like a legitimately huge match.

Team Cena vs. Team Authority

John Cena, Big Show, Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan

Seth Rollins, Kane, Rusev, Mark Henry, Luke Harper

Cena’s partners’ jobs vs. the Authority’s authority. Harper is Intercontinental Champion and Rusev is the undefeated US Champion. The eleven entrances eat up even more time but in a good way this time. They’ve done a really good job at making this feel like a big deal and it’s working well here. Henry and Show start but HHH has to get in one last pep talk, allowing Show to knock him out for the elimination at 50 seconds.

It’s Rollins in next but Show chops him down to the floor. Kane comes in but Show drags him into the corner for the tag off to Cena, who pounds on Kane even more. Now we get a showdown that the fans find bigger than it probably is with Rowan vs. Harper. This was during that short period where Rowan was a genius, which has been completely forgotten since. Rollins tags himself back in before anything can happen and is immediately caught in the wrong corner.

Ryback comes in to join in on the fun but Rollins tags out to Harper. That’s fine with Ryback as he grabs a vertical suplex, only to get punched in the face by Kane. The big bald is beaten down as well so we’ll try Rusev. A spinebuster ends the slugout but Shell Shock is broken up. Everything breaks down and it’s a Curb Stomp from Rollins and the jumping superkick from Rusev to eliminate Ryback and tie us up.

Show comes back in but Rusev escapes a quick chokeslam attempt and brings in Harper. A dropkick of all things puts Show down and it’s back to Kane for some stomping. Kane follows Harper’s suit with a (basement) dropkick, followed by the Gator Roll (he’s stopped using that) from Harper. Show throws Harper away too so it’s off to Ziggler, who Harper beat (through some shenanigans) to win the title.

The heels start taking over on Ziggler with Kane’s sidewalk slam getting two. A comeback is stopped by a boot to the face and it’s off to Rusev for some knees to the ribs. Ziggler tries to punch Rollins in the face but gets caught in a downward spiral into the corner. We hit the chinlock for a bit before the running DDT plants Rusev. Everything breaks down again and we hit the parade of finishers (always a favorite).

Rollins is thrown onto a pile but Rusev throws Ziggler onto that pile. It’s time to load up the announcers’ table but Rusev misses Ziggler and splashes through the table instead, leading to a countout at 21:02 to make it 4-3. Cole: “COUNTOUTS ARE A FACTOR! COUNTOUTS ARE A FACTOR! COME ON DOLPH! COME ON DOLPH! ZIGGLER’S IN! ZIGGLER’S IN! RUSEV IS OUT! RUSEV IS OUT!” Get the parrot a cracker and shut him up already.

Back in and the exhausted Ziggler tags Cena for a quick AA to Kane. Rollins makes the save with a Curb Stomp and everyone is down. A double tag brings in Harper and Rowan with Erick cleaning house. Kane’s chokeslam is broken up but the springboard knee from Rollins sets up Harper’s discus lariat to put Rowan out at 24:14. So it’s Show/Cena/Ziggler vs. Rollins/Kane/Harper and we get a big six man staredown….until Show KO’s Cena, turning heel again to fill his quota for the year. Rollins steals the pin to eliminate Cena at 25:11. Now THAT is a shock.

Show stares down at the Authority and then walks out at 26:30, leaving Ziggler down 3-1. Ziggler can barely stand after the long beating he took but it’s now the Shawn formula in 2005. The fans want Orton (who was put out by Rollins a few weeks ago but why have the hometown boy here to make the save when you can have him on a movie set instead? To make it worse, Stephanie chants “OH YEAH! OH YEAH! OH YEAH!” in what was supposed to be cheerleading.

Kane throws Ziggler into the barricade and Rollins drags him over to the corner for some tags to the eliminated partners. Kane’s superplex is broken up though and a quick superkick and Zig Zag make it 2-1 at 29:35. Harper is right in though and kicks Ziggler’s head off to send him outside, followed by a nice suicide shove. A great sounding superkick gets two on Ziggler and the sitout powerbomb amazingly only gets the same. Ziggler somehow grabs a rollup (and jeans) for a fast elimination at 31:35, leaving us one on one.

Dolph can barely stand but he still grabs a DDT for two. Rollins has way more gas though and hammers Ziggler down, only to miss a top rope knee. The Fameasser gets two out of nowhere as HHH and Stephanie are losing their minds on the outside. Noble and Mercury are dispatched and the Zig Zag connects but HHH pulls the referee out at two.

The J’s are dispatched again and Stephanie is knocked off the apron (onto HHH of course because Heaven forbid she not have a soft landing). Another Curb Stomp misses and there’s a second Zig Zag for two with HHH breaking up the pin one more time. HHH beats on Ziggler for a bit and hits a Pedigree…..and there’s a crow.

In one of the biggest surprises of all time, STING makes his WWE debut (with JBL listing off his resume to make sure you know this was planned in advance) and HHH is in shock. Sting decks HHH’s crooked referee and does the big staredown with HHH, setting up the Death Drop (sold really well too). Sting pulls Ziggler on top of Rollins (who hasn’t moved in over six minutes) for the final pin at 44:07.

Rating: A. I liked this even better knowing what was coming. They did a really good job of setting up the story here as both teams were in enough trouble at different points to keep it interesting with the Cena elimination being the biggest of them all. I was genuinely surprised when that happened and it holds up well enough as a moment today. The near falls near the end were great as well, making this a really great match. This should have been a total star making performance for Ziggler but since WWE is in charge, it was pretty much forgotten in about a month.

HHH looks like reality sets in while Stephanie shows her horrible acting skills one more time. For once I’m fine with the focus being on them but good grief that screeching is killing it. On top of that, everyone knew they would be back sooner than later and it didn’t even last a month.

Overall Rating: B-. This is the definition of a one match show and thankfully that one match delivered because the rest of this show was pretty horrible. Everything from the end of Ambrose vs. Wyatt to the start of the main event was a waste of time or boring, as was so often the case in WWE at this point. The main event bails the show out, but that’s the ONLY thing worth watching on here.

Ratings Comparison

Fandango vs. Justin Gabriel

Original: D

2015 Redo: D-

Cesaro vs. Jack Swagger

Original: C-

2015 Redo: C-

Usos vs. Miz/Damien Mizdow vs. Goldust/Stardust vs. Los Matadores

Original: C+

2015 Redo: C

Team Paige vs. Team Fox

Original: D-

2015 Redo: D-

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt

Original: B-

2015 Redo: C+

Slater Gator vs. Adam Rose/The Bunny

Original: N/A

2015 Redo: N/A

AJ Lee vs. Nikki Bella

Original: N/A

2015 Redo: N/A

Team Cena vs. Team Authority

Original: B+

2015 Redo: A

Overall Rating

Original: C

2015 Redo: B-

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2014/11/23/survivor-series-2014-i-believe-it/

 

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series 2012
Date: November 18, 2012
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Attendance: 8,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, John Bradshaw Layfield

While the main event is easy enough to explain, the other big match on the card is one of the more confusing in recent memory. Originally, the Survivor Series match was scheduled to be Team Mick Foley vs. Team CM Punk. However, Punk was put in the title match instead so Team Punk became Team Ziggler. A series of injuries and storyline changes resulted in the match being completely different than originally announced. It also didn’t help that Ziggler and Foley had almost no interaction on television and no real reason to be angry at each other. Let’s get to it.

Pre-Show: 3MB vs. Zack Ryder/Santino Marella

It’s Slater and Mahal (Jinder Mahal, who never did much) here. Ryder starts with Mahal as Matt Striker rips Ryder on commentary. Mahal takes him down with a shoulder block but gets caught in an armdrag. Off to Santino who works on a headlock before it’s off to Slater for another armdrag. Ryder comes back in as the announcers talk about Halloween a good three weeks since it’s been over. McIntyre holds Slater’s belt from the floor to avoids Santino’s dropkick. Tag off to Mahal who gets two off a knee drop.

Back to Slater for some shots in the corner but he gives up the hot tag to Santino for all his usual antics. Heath punches him down and brings Jinder in again for some knee drops off the ropes. Santino misses a double clothesline which gives Slater another near fall. The Band stays on Marella but he backdrops Mahal down, allowing for the lukewarm tag off to Ryder. The Broski Boot connects and everything breaks down. A Rough Ryder connects on Slater but the legal Mahal sneaks in with a full nelson slam for the pin on Zack.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t much to see. It isn’t a bad match or anything but how good can a match be when 3MB is getting a clean pin? That’s not exactly a match that’s going to light the world on fire. Also, you’re trying to get a crowd going for a show, you have Santino Marella, and he doesn’t get the hot tag?

The opening video talks about the history that has taken place at this show, ranging from Undertaker and Rock debuting, Montreal, and Rock and Cena teaming up for the first time ever. We then shift over to the main event hype videos you would expect, focusing on the World Title matches and….nothing else. Seriously Foley vs. Ziggler isn’t mentioned here at all. There is a nice idea of Punk surviving as champion at various amounts of days into his reign.

Team Clay vs. Team Tensai

Brodus Clay, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara, Rey Mysterio

Tensai, Primo, Epico, Prime Time Players

This is a bonus match to fill out the card. Clay is a big man who likes to dance, Tensai is formerly known as Albert/A-Train, Epico and Primo are cousins from Puerto Rico, Kidd is a high flier from Canada and the Prime Time Players are Titus O’Neil and Darren Young, a team who used to fight each other on NXT. This was also back when Tensai was all evil but was a total joke by this point, just as he had been all along.

Kidd works on Epico’s arm to start before taking him down into a headlock. Epico is sent to the floor but manages to send Kidd face first into the apron to take over but it’s quickly off to Gabriel. A sunset flip gets two for Justin and he cranks on Epico’s arm as well. Back to Kidd for a headscissors before putting on another armbar. That doesn’t last long as Mysterio comes in with a low dropkick for two.

Young gets the tag and is almost immediately sent face first into the middle buckle, allowing for a tag off to Sin Cara. The masked men hit a combination wheelbarrow slam/X-Factor for two on Young, sending him over to the corner for a tag off to Primo. Cara hits a quick cross body for two and a sunset flip gets the same as this is a very fast paced match. Tensai gets the tag and runs over Cara with a few slams as JBL lists off Tensai’s Japanese accomplishments.

Off to Titus as Sin Cara is in a lot of trouble. Another slam puts Sin down and it’s off to Primo for a camel clutch. Tensai comes back in to work over the downed Cara but goes after the rest of the team instead of covering. Sin Cara gets up for an enziguri, allowing the hot tag to Clay. Brodus cleans house and the Players, Epico and Primo are sent to the floor. Kidd and Gabriel hit stereo dives to take out the cousins followed by Asai moonsaults from Cara and Mysterio to take out the Players.

The monsters are going at it back inside and Clay botches his high collar suplex, making it into more of a lifting downward spiral. Tensai avoids a charge in the corner and shoulders Brodus down, setting up a backsplash for the elimination. Gabriel comes in with some kicks to the side but gets taken down by a big shoulder block. Off to Titus for an abdominal stretch followed by a backbreaker. Back to Tensai for two off a backsplash but he misses a second one, allowing Gabriel to get a quick rollup for the elimination.

Titus comes in to stomp on the spent Gabriel before it’s back to Epico for a chinlock. Epico misses some elbow drops, allowing Gabriel to make the tag off to Tyson. Kidd heads to the apron but gets sent to the floor where Primo gets in a cheap shot. Back inside with Primo now legal but getting forearmed in the face. Cole says Primo has been a general out there.

Back to Titus who crotches himself off a missed big boot, allowing Tyson to kick him in the side of the head, setting up a rolling cradle for the pin and an elimination. Young comes in to keep the pressure on Kidd before it’s back to Epico for some rolling belly to back suplexes. Not that they matter though as Kidd sweeps the legs and puts on the Sharpshooter to get rid of Epico. Cole of course talks about Montreal.

Primo comes in now but gets elbowed in the ribs for his efforts. He comes back with a quick belly to back suplex, only to go up top and dive into a dropkick to the ribs. The hot tag brings in Mysterio who rolls through a sunset flip and kicks Primo in the face for two. A seated senton looks to set up the 619 but Primo moves to the side, only to get caught in La Majistral for the pin. Darren Young is left all alone and it’s finishers a go-go until Rey finishes him with a top rope splash for the win.

Rating: C. The winners were never really in doubt but this was the right way to get a show going. The fast paced stuff worked very well here with all of the smaller guys hitting their dives to wake the crowd up and give them a fun match. It’s no masterpiece or anything but it did exactly what it was supposed to do. A little trivia for you: that loss makes Tensai 0-5 at Survivor Series, good for the worst record ever at the show.

Kaitlyn is on her way to the ring when someone in black attacks her. Kaitlyn fights back to reveal a blonde wig which falls off as the attacker leaves. Eve pops up and acts all shocked even though she’s evil at the moment. The attacker wound up being Aksana in a meaningless story.

Divas Title: Kaitlyn vs. Eve Torres

Eve is defending. Kaitlyn jumps her to start and pounds away in the corner before sending Eve out to the floor. The champion is sent into the barricade and apron before heading back inside for some hair pulling. Eve kicks her in the ribs and slams Kaitlyn’s head into the mat over and over for two. Off to the corner for some choking and an elbow to the back gets two on Kaitlyn.

Eve puts on a figure four choke before clotheslining Kaitlyn down for no cover. Kaitlyn pops back up to break up the moonsault, sending Eve out to the floor. Back in and Eve is tossed around by the hair followed by a fireman’s carry gutbuster for two. Eve comes right back by sweeping Kaitlyn’s legs out and finishing her with a swinging neckbreaker.

Rating: D. As is the case with the Divas around this time, there isn’t much to brag about other than the girls looked good in their outfits. Kaitlyn just wasn’t that good in the ring and didn’t get much better in the future. Eve was better but her character had hit a ceiling around this time.

Team Ziggler argues over who is the leader.

Team Foley argues over who will survive. Foley unites them in a BANG BANG chant, save for Orton. Foley: “Randy?” Orton: “I hate you.” Foley: “He’s ready.”

US Title: Antonio Cesaro vs. R-Truth

Cesaro (known as the Swiss Superman) is defending and asks why Americans are thankful. The only thing he can think of is how great of a champion he is. Truth gets a quick rollup, sunset flip and rolling cradle for two each before thrusting his hips a bit. Cesaro comes back with a headbutt and a clothesline before pounding away on Truth in the corner. Off to an armbar but a USA chant gets Truth to his feet. The champion shoulders him in the corner and puts on a body vice to keep Truth down again.

A knee to the ribs gets two as JBL lists off some facts about Cesaro’s rugby career. Cole brushes him off and starts listing off rugby facts of his own, sending JBL into a hilarious rant about Cole not listening and asking if Cole is a parrot. The gutwrench suplex gets two for Cesaro and an uppercut gets the same. Back to the body vice for a bit before Truth makes his comeback. Some clotheslines take Cesaro down and a spinning kick to the face gets two. A front suplex gets the same for Truth but the ax kick misses and Cesaro Neutralizes him to retain.

Rating: D. Other than JBL’s rant there was nothing to pay attention to here. These kind of title defenses tend to be very dull as someone like Truth isn’t going to take the title off Cesaro. For the life of me I don’t get why Cesaro isn’t a bigger deal than he is today. The guy has everything you would need but he doesn’t get that big push.

We get a clip from Raw of voicemails from AJ (a psychotic Diva who grew obsessed with various wrestlers), saying that she wants to end her relationship with Cena, but she loses control when she sees him. AJ claims that Ziggler hacked her phone and set those up. Ziggler makes fun of Cena’s, ahem, performance issues, drawing out Cena as backup. AJ slapped Ziggler down without Cena doing a thing.

Here’s AJ with some evidence against someone for something. Over the last month Vickie has been trying to prove that AJ is having an affair with Cena (remember that they’re both single at this point) which AJ thinks means Vickie has something to hide. This brings out Vickie, ranting as always about how much power she has and how she’s being disrespected.

AJ has pictures of Vickie eating with various wrestling personalities and this is scandalous! I’ve spent a long time trying to block this storyline out of my head but now I’m remembering how dumb it was. Vickie is shown in a one piece leopard swimsuit dancing with Brodus causing her to shout a lot. Slapping is threatened but they both get fired for touching the other, so here’s Tamina Snuka to destroy AJ on Vickie’s behalf. This story would keep going for WEEKS.

Paul Heyman talks about how Punk is now #8 on the all time list for longest title reign and will be rising up the ranks even further after tonight because he’s the best in the world. Heyman is just awesome at promoting his guys.

We recap Big Show vs. Sheamus. Not much of a story here other than they had a war at Hell in a Cell with both guys kicking out of each others’ finishers in a great match. Tonight is a rematch.

World Heavyweight Championship: Sheamus vs. Big Show

Big Show is defending. It’s another brawl to start with Sheamus pounding away but Big Show gets in a few shots of his own to take over. The big chop misses in the corner and Sheamus gets in some more shots to little avail. Finally Sheamus wakes up and goes after the knees before tying Show up in the ropes for the forearms to the chest. Big Show escapes to the floor but Sheamus dives off the apron to get in even more right hands to the head.

Back in and Sheamus goes up top but Big Show spears him out of the air in a cool looking crash. They head outside again with Show sending Sheamus into the steps. Sheamus is thrown back in and can barely move. Big Show steps on Sheamus’ ribs a few times as the match has slowed way down. A huge elbow drop gets two and we hit the nerve hold. Sheamus fights up quickly but walks into a side slam for two as the match stays in slow motion. Since the slams aren’t working, Show just stands on Sheamus’ head. Sheamus fights up and grabs a sleeper but Big Show throws him off.

Big Show is getting winded so Sheamus pounds away as much as he can, only to miss a charge and go shoulder first into the post. The Final Cut gets two and Show goes to the middle rope, only to be caught in an electric chair of all things for two. They slug it out from their knees and Sheamus takes over, knocking Show down with a running ax handle.

The Brogue Kick and chokeslam are countered and Sheamus gets two off White Noise. Now the fans are getting into this again. Sheamus loads up the Brogue Kick again but takes out the referee by mistake. Four people immediately come out to check on the referee as the replay shows the champion pulling him in the way. Big Show knocks out Sheamus and one of the referees counts a pin to end the match out of nowhere.

Rating: C. The match was slow for the most part and the ending hurts it even worse. This took all the good stuff out of their match at Hell in a Cell and turned it into a dull imitation. This needed to be two monsters firing bombs at each other until neither guy could get up but instead it was your usual Big Show match at about 4 miles per hour.

Post match Show is disqualified and Sheamus lays the alleged thirty one chair shots on him. I never remembered it being that many and that’s because it’s more like eighteen and a Brogue Kick. Big Show crawls to the back as WE WANT ZIGGLER (Mr. Money in the Bank) chants are ignored.

Team Ziggler vs. Team Foley

Dolph Ziggler, Alberto Del Rio, David Otunga, Damien Sandow, Wade Barrett

The Miz, Kofi Kingston, HELL NO, Randy Orton

So as I said, it was supposed to be Punk vs. Foley over old school vs. new school, but Punk was put in the main event and Ziggler was picked despite having no issue with Foley. The match was originally Punk/Sandow/Miz/Del Rio/Rhodes, but Cody got hurt and Miz felt he didn’t deserve the spot, so Miz was replaced by Barrett and Cody was replaced by Otunga.

Ryback was originally on Team Foley but was moved to the main event and replaced by Miz in a Raw poll. As you can see, the match is a huge mess and almost no one was interested in it for the most part. HELL NO (Kane and Daniel Bryan) are the Tag Team Champions and Kofi is Intercontinental Champion of course. Sandow is an intellectual.

Kofi grabs a quick rollup for two on Otunga to start. David avoids a quick Trouble in Paradise but gets caught by a dive on the floor. Otunga’s trunks are pulled up a bit as Bryan comes in with his kicks. Off to Sandow for the Russian legsweep and the Wind-Up elbow gets two. Bryan fights out of a chinlock and fires off the kicks to the chest to send Sandow out to the floor. Damien says good luck and walks out but Kane will have none of that. Back in and Bryan’s big kick to the head sets up a chokeslam for a fast elimination.

The Tag Team Champions get in an argument for no apparent reason, allowing Ziggler to hit a quick Zig Zag on Kane for the pin. That makes the move look strong if nothing else. Orton and Miz get in a quick fight for some reason but Randy catches a sneaky Ziggler in the slingshot suplex for two. Off to Kofi for the matchup that will not die with Ziggler being launched face first into the buckle for two. Back to Bryan who gets poked in the eye, allowing Dolph to tag in Barrett.

Bryan shouts NO a lot but misses a charge into the corner, setting up Barrett’s big boot in the ropes. Otunga comes in again and the YES Lock goes on almost immediately for the submission. It’s 4-3 with Foley in the lead as Del Rio comes in with a chinlock on Bryan. Back up and Del Rio misses a charge into the corner, allowing Bryan to kick him out to the floor. Kofi gets the not very hot tag and kicks Del Rio down, setting up the Boom Drop for no cover. Instead Ziggler distracts Kofi so Trouble in Paradise misses, but Kofi runs up the corner for a cross body and two.

Wade comes right back with the Bull Hammer for a quick pin, getting us down to 3-3 (Orton/Miz/Bryan vs. Barrett/Ziggler/Del Rio). Orton comes in right away and suplexes Barrett down before cranking on the arm. Miz doesn’t seem interested in a tag but Bryan is glad to come in and work on an arm. A middle rope dropkick gets two and Bryan snaps off even more kicks. Barrett avoids a big one and tags in Del Rio but Alberto has to fight out of a quick YES Lock attempt.

Alberto tries a running enziguri in the corner but hits the arm instead, setting up the cross armbreaker for the elimination. Miz comes in for the first time and scores with some left hands before it’s back to Orton for his traditional stuff. Back to Ziggler who takes over on Randy with a big elbow followed by a chinlock. Orton fights up and launches Ziggler into the air in a nice crash.

A double tag brings in Barrett and Miz with the American connecting with the corner clothesline. The Skull Crushing Finale is countered into a pumphandle attempt (called Wasteland by Cole) but Miz escapes into the Finale for the elimination to tie us up at two. Del Rio comes in next but charges into a DDT for two. Alberto grabs a German suplex for two but gets pulled off the middle rope in a crash. Miz misses the corner clothesline and gets enziguried for an elimination.

That leaves Orton vs. Ziggler/Del Rio with Alberto starting for his pair. Orton fires off some punches but gets caught by a cheap shot, allowing Ziggler to come in and slow things down. Alberto is back in very quickly with a double stomp to the ribs but goes up top, only to dive into a dropkick. Ricardo trips up Orton, earning him Socko down the throat. Ziggler accidentally dropkicks Del Rio and gets sent into the post. A quick RKO takes out Alberto and it’s one on one now with Orton having that evil look in his eyes.

Orton immediately goes into RKO mode but Ziggler holds the ropes and hits the Zig Zag for a quick near fall. So it can beat Kane after he’s taken no damage at all but Orton kicks out at two after twenty minutes? Score one for the Viper. The Fameasser misses and Orton hits the Elevated DDT despite bleeding from the mouth a bit. Orton loads up the Punt but walks into a superkick for the pin.

Rating: C-. Here’s the problem again: the match isn’t bad but there’s no reason for these guys to be fighting each other. Yeah they’ve all feuded with each other at some point in the past, but there’s nothing going on setting up this match. It’s really just ten guys fighting each other with a minor feud here or there. There was no reason to care about this match and that’s exactly how the match felt. Decent match, but the absence of emotion held it back.

We recap the main event. Punk has been champion for a year almost to the day, Ryback got screwed over by referee Brad Maddox inside the Cell and Cena gave Ryback his spot in the Cell due to injury. The solution was a triple threat match.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Ryback vs. CM Punk

Punk, with Paul Heyman in his corner, bails to the floor to start and gets chased by both challengers. Ryback finally catches him in the corner but Cena wants to do it himself and pulls Ryback away, allowing Punk to get in shots on both guys. Ryback kicks him in the chest and Cena adds a bulldog before Ryback clotheslines Punk to the floor. It’s the battle of the heroes with Cena pounding away but Ryback escapes the AA and knocks Cena to the outside.

Punk is back in now and scores with a snap suplex on Ryback, but the monster pops right back up and gorilla presses the champion into a fall away slam. Cena comes back in with a belly to belly for two on Ryback before putting on a chinlock. Punk breaks it up with a top rope ax handle and Cena falls to the floor. Another ax handle attempt is caught in midair but Punk takes Ryback down with a neckbreaker. Cena sneaks in with a rollup for two but Punk DDTs him down for two more.

With Cena down, Punk channels his inner Austin Aries and puts on the Last Chancery but Ryback lifts Punk into the air for a powerslam. Cena grabs the ProtoBomb on Ryback but Ryback pops up, leading to a slugout. The shoulder blocks look to take Ryback down but Punk pulls John to the floor and sends him into the steps. Punk’s springboard clothesline gets two on Ryback and we hit the chinlock. Ryback fights up and slams Punk down followed by the Meathook. Cena breaks up the Shell Shock and puts Ryback in the STF but it’s Punk with the Macho Elbow for the save.

Everyone is down now and Punk might have hurt himself on that elbow. He’s up first but can’t hit the GTS on Cena. Punk and Cena slug it out but Ryback clotheslines both guys down to take over again. Ryback sends both guys to the floor for some reason but they double team Ryback down as a result. A double suplex puts Ryback through the table and they head inside for the real showdown.

Punk grabs a GTS out of nowhere for two and Heyman is livid. The AA gets the same result other than Heyman being relieved. Punk comes back with the running knee but the bulldog is countered into the STF. Ryback makes the save and throws Cena into the barricade to put him down. The Meathook and Shell Shock lay out Punk but Cena makes a diving save. The Shell Shock lays out Cena as well……but here are three guys in black to destroy Ryback. They pound away on Ryback and take him to the floor for a TripleBomb through the table. Punk crawls over and pins Cena to retain.

Rating: C+. It’s probably the best match of the night but that’s not saying much at this point. Punk winning was a good idea and set up more stuff down the line which is the best possible outcome. You could feel the wind blowing as Ryback fell down the card though and he wouldn’t really recover. Fairly good match but nowhere near enough to save the show though.

The three men would be revealed as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose (DUN DUN DUN!), which Cole tells us during Punk’s celebration to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Man alive has time been cruel to this show. Watching it live there was some drama, but looking back you have two LONG Survivor Series matches with no real story behind them and two screwjob finishes in title matches. Shield would become a bigger deal but no one knew that at this point. This was a “tune into Raw tomorrow night” show and that’s not good for the Survivor Series.

Ratings Comparison

3MB vs. Zack Ryder/Santino Marella

Original:

Redo: D+

Team Clay vs. Team Tensai

Original: B-

Redo: C

Eve Torres vs. Kaitlyn

Original: D-

Redo: D

R-Truth vs. Antonio Cesaro

Original: D

Redo: D

Sheamus vs. Big Show

Original: C-

Redo: C

Team Foley vs. Team Ziggler

Original: C-

Redo: C-

Ryback vs. John Cena vs. CM Punk

Original: B-

Redo: C+

Overall Rating

Original: D+

Redo: D

About the same down the line. It sucked back then and it sucked now. I actually watched most of this show late and while still tired from a flight the first time around but apparently it had more problems than that.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2012/11/21/survivor-series-2012-a-filler-ppv-disguised-as-a-major-show/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

 

Monday Night Raw
Date: November 12, 2018
Location: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

It’s the Stephanie Show this week. That’s the entirety of the official Raw preview: a photo of Stephanie with a promise of her addressing the World Cup controversy. I’m sure this will include discussions of how disappointed she is with everyone and how Raw must be the most ridiculous adjective filled show that only Stephanie can be proud of because only WWE seems to care about this battle for brand supremacy which was only first mentioned a few weeks back and won’t be mentioned again a week after Survivor Series. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Veterans Day video. Nothing wrong with that.

Tag Team Battle Royal

Lucha House Party, Bobby Roode/Chad Gable, Ascension, B-Team, Heath Slater/Rhyno, Revival

The winners get to be the captains for the Raw Survivor Series team (EGADS WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE???). Lucha House Party has all three members in for some reason…and here’s Braun Strowman to clean house for no logical reason. Strowman goes outside and runs some people over and we’ll say it’s a no contest (in a battle royal) at about 2:30.

Strowman has a seat in the ring and says he’s tired of waiting for the Acting General Manager Baron Corbin (Stephanie has been rubbing off on him)….and here’s Stephanie to interrupt. She talks about Shane McMahon disrespecting the locker room by declaring himself the best in the world. Braun gets up and yells that he doesn’t care about Shane or representing Raw.

Stephanie screeches about how he better care, just like the rest of the roster. That’s not happening because he’s tired of being treated like a meat castle. Get Corbin out here right now. Stephanie has a proposition: represent Raw and win the men’s match and he can have whatever he wants. Like, trains! Strowman wants a Universal Title match with Brock Lesnar, but first he wants Corbin.

Stephanie says done, but Braun wants to pick the stipulations. He also wants Corbin to sign a waver so he can’t get in trouble. That might take some more time but Stephanie seems cool with it. All she asks is to have Strowman not lay a hand on Corbin to prove he’s a proud member of the Raw roster.

Cue Ronda Rousey with Stephanie trying to introduce her but getting the microphone taken out of her hand. Ronda has been waiting for a challenge and Becky Lynch can do that. Now it’s Baron Corbin coming out for a pep talk but Ronda flips him over and leaves. Strowman is waiting on Corbin, but doesn’t touch him. He’ll be waiting after Survivor Series though.

This could have been worse as Stephanie was kept to a minimum, but it’s not doing much better about having the ridiculous focus on Raw vs. Smackdown. It’s not an interesting story and we’ve been here several years in a row now. Strowman wanting Corbin and then Lesnar again is fine, but just do those matches with regular elimination tags instead of this forced brand vs. brand stuff.

Ember Moon vs. Tamina Snuka

Nia Jax is in Tamina’s corner. Tamina throws her into the corner to start but Ember is right back with kicks to the leg. A sliding basement Downward Spiral sends Tamina outside. Ember follows but gets distracted by Jax, allowing Tamina to run her over. Back from a break with Ember fighting out of a chinlock and diving onto Jax….and bouncing off of her. The springboard crossbody gets two on Tamina but Jax offers another distraction. Tamina superkicks Ember down and hits the Superfly Splash for the pin at 8:35.

Rating: D. I kept writing Nia instead of Tamina because they’re basically the same person. They look similar, they wrestle the same powerful style and they’re even family. Now for some reason, WWE finds this more interesting than Ember, who they took the time to develop and build up in NXT. Why bring her up at all if you’re not going to use her for anything more than cannon fodder?

We look back at the Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins story, including the AOP taking the Tag Team Titles from Rollins last week and getting beaten down by Ambrose after the match.

Here’s Rollins for an in-ring interview with Corey Graves. Rollins wants to know what’s up with Ambrose, but Dean isn’t man enough to come out here and face him. Ambrose pops up on screen in front of a car with a burning barrel next to it. Dean says maybe he’s doing this because Rollins treated him like a joke for too long.

See, Dean was the same guy all along and maybe one day his brothers can forgive him. Nah that’s not true, because Dean used to think that the Shield was stronger together. The truth is the Shield made him weak so he pours gas over the Shield vest. Ambrose: “Burn it down.” He throws it into the barrel and Rollins is even angrier. It’s nice to have a reason from Dean and the symbolism was great, but if Dean doesn’t win the feud, none of this really matters.

We look back at Drew McIntyre soundly beating Kurt Angle last week with the ankle lock.

Here’s Angle…..’s music with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre actually coming out instead. Drew says they came here to take over and wants to know if the fans believe him now. First they broke the Shield and then he broke Angle. Last week Drew broke him down and then Angle started crying. Drew has never been so disgusted and he’s not allowing any more nostalgia acts on this show (make your own Ziggler jokes) but here’s Finn Balor to interrupt.

Balor says Drew crossed the line last week but Drew cuts him off to say dignity isn’t a right reserved for all. Last week, Drew kicked Finn’s head off because Balor is the problem with wrestling today. It’s all about emotion to him so go cry to the Balor Club. Balor says he’s been dealing with bullies for his whole life so let’s do it right now. Drew says deal, but it can be against Dolph instead. Balor seems happy but Drew headbutts him down before the bell.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Finn Balor

Balor is staggered but says ring the bell anyway. Ziggler knocks him down without much effort and we hit the chinlock. Back up and Balor gets in an enziguri from the apron but gets crotched going for the Coup de Grace. Cole declares this as Ziggler taking over as we take a break.

We come back with Balor kicking him in the head for a double knockdown. A quick double stomp gives Balor two but Dolph is right back with the Fameasser. Balor fights up again and sends Dolph outside for the big flip dive onto both of them, only to miss the Coup de Grace. Ziggler grabs a rollup but gets reversed into a second rollup to give Balor the pin at 12:15.

Rating: C-. I got more out of this match than I got out of all the Balor vs. Bobby Lashley matches combined. The trilogy of matches served no apparent purpose other than to fill time, didn’t advance either guy and offered no emotion from either of them. This match, while not exactly a classic, had a purpose, told a story, and made Balor look impressive for fighting from behind while setting up another match. That’s actual booking, rather than just throwing matches out there.

Post break Stephanie puts Balor on the team and gives him, Ziggler and McIntyre a pep talk about how they need to destroy Smackdown, including her brother Shane (WE KNOW WHO YOUR BROTHER IS! STOP ACTING LIKE NO ONE KNOWS HIS NAME!).

We look back at Becky Lynch calling out Ronda Rousey last week on Smackdown.

Rousey wasn’t mocking Becky last week and lists off a bunch of things that Becky learned while she was learning armbars. Becky is so hypersensitive that she’s the millennial man with skinny jeans and avocado toast. Ronda isn’t Charlotte and Becky isn’t Oliver Twist. Her fans have been here with her every single week and she didn’t change the definition of “fight like a girl” so the face of the women’s revolution could call herself the man. Nia and Tamina (ERG) come in and wish her luck. Great intensity from Ronda here, though pretty clearly reading from a script.

Here’s the Riott Squad to talk about breaking Jim Neidhart’s sunglasses last week. Ruby is rather emotional about what she did because Neidhart is a future Hall of Famer. She went too far last week…and enjoyed every second of it. Neidhart was a legend and he must have worn those glasses to shade his vision of Natalya, who is such a disappointment. Natalya’s music plays but she comes through the crowd to get at Ruby. The three on one takes her down though and it’s a Hart Attack for Natalya. It was an obvious fake out on the apology but Ruby sold it very well and I could go for seeing Natalya beat her up.

Survivor Series rundown.

Tag Team Battle Royal

Lucha House Party, Bobby Roode/Chad Gable, Ascension, B-Team, Heath Slater/Rhyno, Revival

Yes they’re actually doing this AGAIN because WE NEED CAPTAINS BLAST IT! Slater gets tossed out early, meaning Rhyno has to leave as well. Kalisto saves Lince Dorado, who pulls Scott Dawson to the apron with him. Gran Metalik gets rid of the Revival but Ascension gets rid of the luchadors. There goes the B Team as well, leaving us with the Ascension and Roode/Gable. A neckbreaker/moonsault combination hits Viktor but Konnor makes the save. Not that it matters as Gable pulls Konnor over the top for the win at 3:08.

Rating: D-. What kind of a battle royal is barely three minutes long. That would be a good one in case you weren’t paying enough attention. I’ve ranted enough about how stupid it is to have these captain spots when it’s all just a part of the battle for brand supremacy anyway. Gable and Roode are fine as a team and they win one of the most meaningless awards ever. Good for them.

The tag match will be on the Kickoff Show. At least it’s going to be short…I think.

Here are Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar for a chat. Heyman gets in his usual start and says Strowman deserves congratulations. At Crown Jewel, Strowman proved that he is an ALMOST unbeatable monster when it took five F5’s to put him down. Further congratulations to Strowman for getting back into the title picture after such a loss.

Congratulations are also in order to the Smackdown locker room for avoiding the beating that is coming to AJ Styles this Sunday. Heyman recaps AJ’s loss to Lesnar last year and makes a Hotel California reference (Heyman: “For those of you who don’t get the reference, go home and Google it b******.”). There is no one on Raw, Smackdown, NXT or in the UFC who can hang with Lesnar and no one he wants to beat up more than AJ. That’s why this Sunday, Lesnar will show that he’s the champion of champions.

Heyman is about to call that a spoiler but Jinder Mahal of all people interrupts. Last year, Mahal was focused on facing Lesnar and it cost him the WWE Championship. Mahal has a mantra for Lesnar, and Brock is actually willing to let him come in and say it. Lesnar to Heyman: “You should really hear this. After all, you’re Jewish.” Mahal explains shanti and the required beating cuts him off, with the Singh Brothers taking the most devastating German suplexes I’ve ever seen. Brock throws one of them over the top at Jinder but the Singh bounces off of him. That earns Mahal an F5 for improper catching technique.

Survivor Series Qualifying Match: Bobby Lashley vs. Elias

Before the match, Lio Rush talks about how perfect Lashley’s physique is and we get some poses, including the double glutes. Thankfully Elias cuts them off but he’s making a phone call. Elias introduces himself and tells child protective services that Lashley has kidnapped a child and is forcing him to point out various muscles. He was even bent over in front of the child! The authorities need to get here soon because Lashley and Rush have a tendency to make people fall asleep in a hurry. Lashley wants to fight so Elias says he sucks and heads to the ring.

We’re joined in progress with Elias fighting out of a chinlock and sending Lashley to the floor for a knee from the apron. Lashley sends him into the post though and Rush grabs Elias’ leg for the countout at 2:11. Well at least he didn’t take a clean fall this soon into his face turn.

Post match Elias grabs Rush and sends a charging Lashley into the post. Rush tries to run but gets thrown onto Elias for his efforts.

Here’s Alexa Bliss, flanked by Mickie James, Tamina and Nia, to announce the captains of the Raw women’s team. Bliss talks about the great team she’s put together, which includes Natalya who is off channeling her aggression to use on Sunday. That leaves one open spot (I had forgotten Alexa wasn’t in the match because she’s in the ring, since WE MUST HAVE A CAPTAIN WHO ISN’T EVEN IN THE MATCH!) so the winner of the following match gets the final roster spot.

Sasha Banks vs. Bayley

Banks goes for an early rollup and knees Bayley in the head to knock her off the apron. The Meteora gets two but Bayley elbows Sasha off the apron this time. Sasha sends her into the post though and hits the running Meteora to drive Bayley head first into it again. The third Meteora only hits post though and they’re both down.

Bayley is right back up with a Bayley to Belly on the apron (find a new place to fight) as we take a break. Back with Bayley’s top rope elbow hitting knees (apparently Bayley’s elbow is less effective than a cabinet door because Sasha’s knee is fine) so the Bank Statement goes on, drawing in Tamina and Jax for the double DQ at 8:32.

Rating: D+. The violence was good but egads I’m sick of these endings with the double DQ’s. Granted that might just be because Tamina has been in three different segments tonight and I just want this show to end. This was fun while it lasted with the Bayley to Belly looking great, but the ending was lame, which isn’t exactly surprising.

Post match Bliss laughs it off and introduces Ruby Riott as the final pick. The Riott Squad comes out but we cut to the back where Becky Lynch has Rousey in the Disarm-Her. She lets it go and comes to the ring, where the Smackdown women (complete with Charlotte, who is suddenly fine with everything from Tuesday, and Mandy Rose/the Iconics, who aren’t on the team in the first place) come in for the big brawl.

Ronda comes in but her arm is done. Becky, who looks to have a broken nose, grabs a chair and hits her in the arm again as the Smackdown women destroy everyone. Another chair to the arm has Rousey in trouble as Bliss watches on from the ramp. A long staredown between Rousey and Becky (the blood on her face adds a lot)….doesn’t end the show.

We cut to the back where Stephanie is yelling at Corbin over what just happened. She’s still yelling as we cut back to a furious Rousey to end the show. The big brawl was really good and Becky looked like a STAR, but closing on Stephanie yelling took the life out of what was an otherwise great closing segment.

Overall Rating: D. I’m really torn on this one as there’s some good stuff included (the closing segment, Ambrose/Rollins, McIntyre looking to have completely eclipsed Ziggler, Ronda’s fire and Lesnar wrecking Mahal and company) but then there’s nearly EVERYTHING else, which almost completely focused on either Stephanie, Tamina (I still need someone to tell me what WWE sees in her) or this obsession with having captains who pick the teams for Survivor Series.

I’ve been watching wrestling since the late 1980s and I’ve been a WWF/E fan for that entire time. Out of every show they do, Survivor Series was my favorite for a long time. I know it doesn’t matter as much compared to Wrestlemania or the Royal Rumble, but I’ve always liked that team concept and taking all these feuds that have been going on and piling them together into one match where you get some fun combinations.

Now though, WWE has taken that away. There’s no personal feud between the two brands and the focus is all on the show’s bosses. The feuds are now on the teams themselves and we get some invasion angle to set up the matches. The fun part of it is gone and now it’s all about Raw vs. Smackdown and brand supremacy and picking captains who sometime are and sometimes aren’t on the team. That’s all the last two weeks are going to be while Stephanie yells about how important this is to Raw and makes everyone feel beneath her.

I’ve been a wrestling fan for a long time and this is one of the first times where I’ve ever felt like what they’re doing isn’t for me. I used to look forward to Survivor Series every year and now I can’t wait for it to be over so we can move on to something I’ll probably like a lot more. Survivor Series used to be fun and now it’s just a show where they can get in as many buzzwords as they can while making sure the wrestlers look as unimportant as they can. Thanks for that WWE. It took 30 years but you finally took the fun away from my favorite show.

Results

Tag Team Battle Royal went to a no contest when Braun Strowman interfered

Tamina Snuka b. Ember Moon – Superfly Splash

Finn Balor b. Dolph Ziggler – Rollup

Chad Gable/Bobby Roode won a tag team battle royal last eliminating Ascension

Bobby Lashley b. Elias via countout

Bayley vs. Sasha Banks went to a double DQ when Nia Jax and Tamina interfered

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 29, 2018
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

It’s the go home show for Crown Jewel and the question now is how they survive the fans not wanting to hear about the show. When Undertaker can’t make mention of the show without being booed out of the building, they’re in serious trouble. Brock Lesnar is here tonight too and that means a lot of Ladies and Gentlemen. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with the Roman Reigns announcement from last week. Nothing wrong with that.

Here’s Baron Corbin with the Universal Title to say that personally, he wants Reigns to beat leukemia but professionally, he hopes he’s never back on Raw. He likes the feeling of this title on his shoulder…and here are Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman to interrupt. Corbin starts hyping up the title match but Heyman cuts him off for stealing his shtick. This Friday, history will be made when the Universal Title goes back on Lesnar’s shoulder where it belongs. That’s a guarantee instead of a prediction and you don’t get that very often.

You know something big is happening in the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup Finals and the Academy Awards, but this time you know for a fact what’s coming. Cue Braun Strowman to say Lesnar is going to get these hands. Corbin tries to separate them and gets powerslammed. Lesnar and Strowman stare each other down until another powerslam leaves Corbin laying. Brock picks up the title and puts it on his shoulder so Corbin gets powerslammed again. That means an F5 for Strowman and Brock poses. Just a hype segment for the title match and it was fine.

We look back at Dean Ambrose turning on Seth Rollins.

Finn Balor vs. Bobby Lashley

Balor gives Corbin a Too Sweet sign as he’s carried out. I knew it would be Lashley before the announcement because they’ve only done the match once and that means it’s time to do it at least once more the next week. Lio Rush comes out to say that Balor didn’t deserve that win last week because he has way too much false bravado. Maybe Balor can help cheer for Lashley instead of standing there in his leather jacket. Lashley takes him straight into the corner for some shoulders to the ribs and a side slam. The nerve hold goes on as Rush says Lashley smells like money. Does Rush just walk around smelling Lashley?

Balor gets up and dropkicks him to the floor for the big flip dive and they’re both down as we take a break. Back with Balor in trouble and the nerve hold going on again. Balor fights up and punches his way out of a powerbomb attempt, setting up the double stomp to the ribs. Lashley’s spinning Dominator gets two, at least partially because Lashley stops to adjust the headband. The delayed vertical suplex is escaped and the Sling Blade drops Lashley. Rush shoves him off the top to break up the Coup de Grace and the DQ at 8:59.

Rating: C-. I’ll take that over Lashley taking another pin though it’s not like Balor really benefits from this. These two have no direction of note at the moment and it’s a little disappointing that things haven’t picked up a bit with the empty space on top of the card. You would think they might see what sticks up there but having Lashley get pinned one week and then Balor win via DQ the next isn’t going to get them there.

Post match Lashley beats Balor down and Rush gets in a slap. He gets a message on his phone and seems very pleased.

Back from a break, Lashley and Rush go to see a banged up Corbin. He liked seeing Balor get what was coming to him and thinks Lashley should get a reward. Therefore, he’s now in the World Cup of Wrestling, replacing John Cena because he didn’t qualify in the first place.

After Evolution, Becky Lynch interrupted Ronda Rousey after an interview and said she’ll see her soon. They meet at Survivor Series.

Lita/Trish Stratus/Bayley/Sasha Banks/Natalya vs. Riott Squad/Alicia Fox/Mickie James

Alexa Bliss is with the villains. Trish takes Logan down to start and does the same off a flying headlock takeover. She does it to Logan again with a headscissors to Riott at the same time. Lita comes in for a clothesline to Morgan in the corner and the DDT plants Morgan again. It’s too early for the moonsault so Bayley and Banks hit stereo baseball slides and dives off the apron as we take a break.

Back with Fox in trouble as Banks and Trish drop a double elbow. Fox takes over on Banks though and it’s off to Mickie for a chinlock. Notice that Mickie talks a lot of trash during the hold. So many people would just sit there and glare at the camera. It adds a little something and keeps the hold from being so bland, which is a nice little touch. Logan comes in for a chinlock of her own and screams a lot while holding onto Banks.

It’s off to Fox, who gets kicked into the wrong corner, though she manages to knock down everyone but Natalya. That means it’s off to Natalya for a basement dropkick and the discus lariat for two. Everything breaks down and Bayley and Lita hit stereo Twists of Fate, setting up a top rope elbow from Bayley to Morgan and the moonsault to Riott. Lita holds Fox for the Hart Attack clothesline from Natalya (Shouldn’t she be playing the Neidhart role?) for two, followed by the Sharpshooter to make Fox tap at 13:24.

Rating: C. This was straight out of the night after Wrestlemania XXV with Ricky Steamboat in the ten man tag. The legends looked fine (Lita barely ever hit the moonsault that well when she was active) and even one of the modern wrestlers got the win. This was perfectly fine and it’s not like Fox losing is a new thing.

The winners pose and Bayley bows to Trish and Lita.

Nia Jax says she’s cashing in her title shot at some point after Survivor Series. Ember Moon comes in and says she feels like she caught lightning in a bottle last night when she eliminated more people than Nia. That’s not cool with Jax, who thinks she’s being disrespected, so a match is set up for later.

We look at Ambrose turning on Rollins again.

We look at Undertaker and Kane attacking DX at Super Show-Down.

Here’s Elias for a song. He got here early because Ric Flair had been wanting to hang out with him. Flair told him that Elias was his favorite and Elias already knew. As per Flair’s request, here’s a clip of Elias laying out Baron Corbin last week to a rather positive reaction. As much as it hurt him to break one of his Fender guitars, that felt good. Elias has a song for Corbin tonight but since Corbin can’t be out here right now, he’ll take the music to Corbin.

He heads to the back, denies Dana Brooke a song, tells a guy to take a cake to his dressing room, and knocks on Corbin’s door. Corbin says go away, but Elias tells him to silence his phone and sings about Corbin being a disappointment and a taller stupider version of Kurt. Corbin comes out and is told that he used to be the lone wolf but now he’s just Stephanie’s….and here’s Jinder Mahal to jump Elias. Their match is next.

Jinder Mahal vs. Elias

Jinder jumps the banged up Elias at the bell and hits a chinlock with a knee in the back. That’s switched to an abdominal stretch for a good while until Elias mule kicks him down. That sets up some clubberin in the corner and Drift Away is good for the pin on Mahal at 4:06.

Rating: D. It’s nice to have Mahal down where he belongs with almost no mention of him being the former WWE Champion in that abomination of an idea. For a first match with Elias on the side of good….it could have been worse. He fought through adversity and won, but putting him in there against Mahal wasn’t the brightest idea in the world. Hopefully the eventual match with Corbin is a little better.

Here are the World Cup brackets:

Seth Rollins

Bobby Lashley

Kurt Angle

Dolph Ziggler

Jeff Hardy

The Miz

Rey Mysterio

Randy Orton

Video on Kurt Angle.

Angle says everyone better be ready, because he’s coming to prove that he’s still the best in the world.

Ascension vs Bobby Roode/Chad Gable vs. AOP

The other four jump the AOP before the bell and send them into metal objects. Joined in progress after the break with Cole talking about how it’s not clear what’s going to happen to the Tag Team Titles. Roode gets pulled off the apron to break up a hot tag attempt from Gable and Konnor hits a spinebuster for two with Akum making a save. Gable dropkicks Konnor into Akum to send him outside and it’s Rolling Chaos Theory into a neckbreaker to give Roode the pin on Viktor at 1:08.

Post match the AOP destroy all four of them.

Some kids with cancer tell Roman Reigns to get better.

Another look at Ambrose turning on Rollins last week.

Here’s Rollins without the Tag Team Title to thank the fans for all the support they’ve given Reigns. Last week was a crazy night that ended with him winning half of the Tag Team Titles. Then his best friend turned on him and maybe it was Seth’s fault. Maybe Ambrose couldn’t forgive Seth for four years ago when Rollins did the same thing to him.

The only person who can answer that is Dean himself but if Ambrose doesn’t want to be found, he’s not going to be found. However, Rollins knew he could find Ambrose here so if he wants the spotlight so badly, come out here and get it. Ambrose’s music plays but no one comes out. Ambrose pops up in the crowd without saying anything so Seth says at least he faced Dean like a man when he turned his back on him.

Dean comes down a few steps but still won’t say anything. Seth yells about Dean spitting on them on the most emotional night in the history of the Shield. Dean made it all about himself and now he has the spotlight, plus all of Seth’s attention from now on. With nothing being said, Seth goes up the aisle after him but Dean gets out having never said a word. They’ve got something here and watching Dean and Seth tear into each other could be amazing.

Rush talks about how the only thing left for Lashley to accomplish is to be the best in the world.

Video on DX being ready for the Brothers of Destruction.

Nia Jax vs. Ember Moon

Ember wastes no time in trying the Eclipse but Nia pulls her down and drops a big elbow for two. The bearhug goes on and Nia throws her into the corner with no effort. Of course the charge hits the post (it’s an epidemic around here) and Moon flip dives off the middle rope to drop Nia again. Nia is back up anyway and throws Moon inside…but here’s Tamina to interrupt. It doesn’t seem to matter as Nia runs Moon over and drops a leg for the pin at 3:24.

Rating: D. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and now we’re setting up Nia vs. Tamina. I know I get annoyed at Tamina being around but this feud is going to be the worst thing they can do for her because it’s going to showcase the problem: Nia is everything Tamina is supposed to be but better. Nia is bigger, stronger, moves better, has more charisma, isn’t as injury prone, is from the same family and is even younger than Tamina. How in the world am I supposed to be interested in Tamina when there’s a better version across the ring from her?

Tamina and Nia have a post match staredown.

Lucha House Party vs. Revival

It’s Lince Dorado and Kalisto for the House Party here and I’m completely down with this. The tag division needs more teams and there’s always room for a luchador tag team. Kalisto kicks Wilder out of the corner to start as Graves already can’t stand the House Party. Wilder comes back in for a hot shot and belly to back suplex before handing it off to Dawson for a snap suplex. Dawson grabs a Gory Stretch before knocking Dorado off the apron. A little trash talking is a bad idea though as Kalisto hits a springboard Salida Del Sol to finish Dawson at 3:20 as Dorado dives onto Wilder.

Rating: D+. While I shed another tear over the Revival losing to another team, it’s a good idea to send the House Party to the main roster. It’s not like they have anything else to do on 205 Live and with the new names showing up, moving them on is hardly a stretch. Kalisto is a former US Champion so he can certainly hang on the main roster. Makes more than enough sense to me.

Here are Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre for a chat about Crown Jewel, which McIntyre isn’t on. Now that they’ve broken the Shield, Drew is looking at Lesnar vs. Strowman for the Universal Title. Ziggler says that’s cool, but Angle saying he’s going to win the World Cup isn’t so cool. He’s looked up to Angle for most of his life but now things have moved on. Ziggler is the best in WWE and the best in the world so he’s going to steal the show again.

Apollo Crews vs. Dolph Ziggler

Joined in progress with Ziggler charging into an elbow. The jumping clothesline gives Apollo two but he seems a bit shaken up. Ziggler pulls him off the top for a close two but Apollo is up again. That means a very delayed gorilla press into the standing moonsault for two on Ziggler. Apollo takes too long going up again though and the frog splash hits knees. A superkick finishes Apollo at 2:57.

Clip of Undertaker and Kane filling graves in front of tombstones for Shawn and HHH. The tone deafness of this company is amazing at times.

Here are Kane, because running Knoxville is a part time job at best, and Undertaker for the big closing segment. The fans chant for Undertaker, who says it’s not easy to reach the end. But when the reaper calls, no matter how hard you fight, it’s your time to go. I’ll let it sink in that UNDERTAKER is talking about how you have to go when your time is up. Kane says what started as a whisper has now become a deafening cry.

This Friday at Crown Jewel (minor booing), the Brothers will take the battered souls of DX to the firey gates. It will be the end of DX’s error, but that’s on Friday. Tonight, DX is being summoned to the ring right now to have their souls destroyed. Cue HHH (with glow sticks, because WWE can’t decide if this is supposed to be serious or fun) without Shawn so Kane goes up the ramp after him, allowing Shawn to sneak in and superkick Undertaker. DX bails as Undertaker sits up (after going down from something he shouldn’t fall for) to end the show. This was four old guys talking about how old they are like they’ve done for years now.

Overall Rating: D+. This was the hard sell show for Crown Jewel and….it kind of worked. The thing is, the show isn’t that interesting on its own. WWE has hit the brakes on it in a hard way because of all the controversy around it and the card never looked all that great in the first place. There’s a tournament for a prize that seems to have no meaning beyond Friday and four other matches, one of which might not even happen if the rumors about Daniel Bryan are true. That’s not exactly inspiring stuff.

That being said, this show was much more in WWE’s wheelhouse: focusing on one show (announcing Lynch vs. Rousey was a one off segment and didn’t take away any focus from Friday) and hyping it up as hard as they could. That’s been lacking due to Super Show-Down and the Evolution, so it was a necessary thing to do. It’s too little too late to really excite me over the concept, but at least it’s an effort, which is more than they’ve had so far.

Results

Finn Balor b. Bobby Lashley via DQ when Lio Rush interfered

Trish Stratus/Lita/Bayley/Sasha Banks/Natalya b. Riott Squad/Alicia Fox/Mickie James – Sharpshooter to Fox

Elias b. Jinder Mahal – Drift Away

Bobby Roode/Chad Gable b. Ascension and AOP – Rolling Chaos Theory/neckbreaker combination to Viktor

Nia Jax b. Ember Moon – Legdrop

Dolph Ziggler b. Apollo – Superkick

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 22, 2018
Location: Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Commentators: Corey Graves, Renee Young, Michael Cole

It’s the go home show for Evolution so expect a lot of hearing about Nikki Bella vs. Ronda Rousey, which somehow is the highest profile match we can have on what was supposed to be a top level show. Other than that we have Crown Jewel next week, even though we’re not allowed to hear where the show is taking place. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Here’s Roman Reigns to say that he can’t fight every day. He’s been wrestling for eleven years and now it’s back. Therefore he has to vacate the title and seek treatment. He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 22 years old and now he has to do it again. Reigns was done with football but the WWE gave him a chance. Whether it was cheering or booing, the fans always reacted to him and that’s what matters most. The best thing for him to do right now is to go home and focus on his family and his health.

This is NOT a retirement speech because he’s coming back to this ring when he’s healthy again. When he comes back, it’s not about titles but about a purpose. He wants to show his family and friends that when live throws a curve ball at him, he crowds the plate and swings for the fences. Reigns leaves the title in the ring and walks away, only to be greeted by Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose on the stage for a big hug and one more Shield pose.

The announcers are nearly in tears talking about what happened and wish Reigns the best.

Finn Balor vs. Bobby Lashley

Lio Rush hypes Lashley up as he throws Balor around. Balor knocks Lashley to the floor and chases after Rush, only to get run over by Lashley as we take a break. Back with Balor caught in a nerve hold as Rush keeps up the LASHLEY chants. Finn fights up but has to escape the delayed vertical suplex. The Sling blade looks to set up the Coup de Grace but Lashley pops up and blasts him with a clothesline. Balor is fine enough to grab a rollup for the fast pin at 8:29.

Rating: C-. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and it’s not like the fans cared about it after what opened the show. I know it’s hard to think about the title picture at the moment but Reigns leaving is going to open the door for a lot of new names in the main event picture. Balor could be one of them and a clean win here might suggest that being the case.

The announcers talk about the future of the Universal Title. Nothing has been determined yet but we might be getting updates throughout the night.

We look back at Drew McIntyre hitting the Claymore on Braun Strowman last week.

Dolph Ziggler and McIntyre say they have to look over their shoulders every night. McIntyre says when Strowman got done with Ziggler, he was coming for him so it was attacking first. After tonight, Ziggler won’t have to worry about a thing. McIntyre leaves to go monster hunting.

Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott

Preview of the six woman tag at Evolution. The early Riott Squad distraction lets Ruby beat Banks down from behind and we take an early break with Banks in trouble. Back with Banks getting elbowed in the face for two but sending Ruby into the buckle to get a breather. The right hands set up the double knees in the corner, followed by the middle rope Meteora. The Bank Statement goes on and draws Sarah Logan in, only to have Bayley make the save. That’s enough of a distraction for Ruby to send her into the corner, setting up the Riott Kick for the pin at 8:44.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here, though again there’s only so much energy you can have all night long. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it and that’s making it hard to focus on the show. For a setup for the six woman tag, this was perfectly acceptable, even if this story has been going on for what feels like ever.

We see the Undertaker and Kane’s promo from last week.

Nia Jax says she’ll win the battle royal.

Here’s DX for a chat. They talk about being afraid of things but neither of them are scared of anything. Shawn: “Ain’t neither of us running for Mayor!” The other word running around has been nostalgia, which Shawn hoped was just a Greek word for “new merch”. It’s really a polite way of saying old. But then again, the #1 movie at the box office came out 40 years ago and two weeks ago, they sold out a 70,000 person stadium. HHH: “Maybe old is just another way of saying “we’re better than you””.

I’ll let you make your own jokes and stick with HHH saying the DX logo has been around for twenty two years. HHH talks about how there’s another X that says the future is better too. Shawn: “And we’re running that too!” They’re not coming to Crown Jewel to make you laugh, but to hand you a beating. Shawn loads up the catchphrase but some electrical noises go off….followed by a gong.

Undertaker and Kane appear on the screen, saying pride goes before destruction. DX can bring their delusions and try to retrieve their lost respect. They’ll unleash their utter contempt because Shawn can’t outrun the reaper or survive the Brothers of Destruction. The Brothers will own their souls for eternity and torment them in the deepest pits. They pour dirt into a grave. On a show where the Universal Champion says he has leukemia. And before they go to a country that is in the headlines for murdering a journalist.

We see the Reigns promo again.

Wrestlers have sent out tweets to Reigns.

There will be a new champion crowned at Crown Jewel when Strowman faces Brock Lesnar in a one on one title match.

We look back at the Bella Twins/Ronda Rousey segment from last week.

Here’s a somewhat shaken up Paul Heyman for a chat. His thoughts and prayers are with Reigns and he’s proud to have been in a locker room with that much pride for their friend. Tonight, Reigns was a man who sacrificed what he loved because he couldn’t be the Universal Champion. When you’re Universal Champion, you’ve earned the right to have people point at you and say you’re the best. Until 8:05pm EST tonight, we had the right to brag that the Universal Champion was the best in the world.

But now, no one is the champion so we need to find a new best in the world. There is only one person worthy of being champion and it certainly isn’t Braun Strowman. The only person who deserves to be walking into the Octagon as the Universal Champion is Brock Lesnar, and Strowman isn’t in his league. Cue Strowman and reality sets in quickly. Strowman says he’s going to bring the title back to Raw and when Reigns gets back from beating leukemia, he’s the first man in line for a title shot. For now though, Lesnar is going to get these hands. Strowman goes to leave and walks into the Claymore from McIntyre.

Post break Ziggler praises McIntyre, who says he did what most of the roster won’t do. He’s a grown man who doesn’t check under his bed for monsters. When Strowman shakes the cobwebs clear, he’ll realize that he needed them. Tonight, they defend the Tag Team Titles.

Here’s Elias to play a little guitar. Before he gets into the song about Apollo Crews though, here’s Apollo to cut him off.

Apollo Crews vs. Elias

Crews dropkicks him to the floor to start and hits a moonsault off the apron as we take a break. Back with Elias holding a chinlock for a rather long while until Crews powers up. The jumping clothesline drops Elias and the standing shooting star press gets two. A fall away slam into a Samoan drop is good for the same but Elias grabs the rope to avoid the toss powerbomb. The jumping knee to the face sets up Drift Away to finish Apollo at 8:00.

Rating: D. Well so much for Crews. I’m still not sure what the point is in having Elias out there for these nothing matches over and over, but at least they’re doing something with him and keeping him in front of the crowd. That’s certainly better than having him sit on the bench for weeks at a time and letting the fans forget about him. Still though, give him a push already.

Kurt Angle talks about how tough the World Cup of Wrestling is going to be. He talks about (as in reads cue cards about) all of his possible opponents with highlight packages of all seven of them. Angle has done a lot of things, but now he has the chance to be the best in the world. On this one night, he can do it all again.

Back from a break and here’s Elias to try the song again. This time it’s Baron Corbin interrupting, saying it’s his job to keep the show moving. Stephanie McMahon has sent him out here for something far more important than Elias playing his little guitar. He better quit staring at Corbin too, because if Stephanie didn’t like him, Elias would be fired.

Elias says he was in his own little world there for a second and writing a song in his head that he’s going to sing right now. The new song is about how Corbin is a coward and a puppet but Corbin has the mic cut. Elias walks off but comes back and blasts Corbin with the guitar. The face turn is a long time coming, but I’m not sure how well it’s going to work. Still though, you couldn’t hold it back much longer.

We look at the Bellas turning on Ronda Rousey two weeks ago.

Here are the Bellas and Rousey to sign. The twins bail as soon as Rousey shows up but she says she’s not going to beat them up tonight. Instead, she’s going to sign a contract so she can beat them up on Sunday. She even offers to put her hands behind her back because if they can beat her up like that, her own mother would kill her. They have her word, which is Ronda’s bond.

The Bellas come in and mock her for not being as good in judo as her mother or for not retiring undefeated from UFC. Nikki says Ronda’s mother is already ashamed of her so imagine what it’s going to be like when a Diva beats her for the title. She even slaps Ronda, who signs and promises to end Nikki on Sunday. This was WAY better than last week, partially because it didn’t go on for ten minutes. Now hopefully Sunday’s match follows this week’s example and not last week’s.

Reigns’ speech again.

Rollins and Ambrose say there are no words to talk about how they’re feeling, so tonight they’re going to win for Roman.

Dana Brooke vs. Nia Jax vs. Tamina vs. Ember Moon

One fall to a finish. It’s a brawl to start as the announcers try to push Tamina vs. Nia as an interesting battle. Nia drops Dana and hits a flip splash but gets superkicked to the floor by Tamina. Ember goes up and hits the Eclipse to pin Tamina at 1:37.

Evolution rundown.

Here’s Titus O’Neil on the stage to introduce a group of breast cancer survivors with title belts.

Trish Stratus and Lita are ready to fight on Sunday and aren’t worried about Mickie James and Alexa Bliss. Alicia Fox comes up to make fun of them but here’s Mickie from behind for the cheap shot brawl. Security breaks it up but Trish and Lita run back in to beat them up. Trish: “That’s how we did it in the Attitude Era.”

Tag Team Titles: Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre

Ziggler and McIntyre are defending. It’s a brawl to start with the champs being knocked outside to send us to an early break. Back with Rollins hitting a suicide dive onto both champs but McIntyre kicks him down back inside. Ziggler comes in, teases a superkick to Ambrose, and goes with a chinlock on Rollins.

That doesn’t last long as Rollins fights up and throws him down, followed by an enziguri on McIntyre. Ziggler is fast enough to get over and pull Ambrose off the apron though, leaving Rollins to take the reverse Alabama Slam. Back from a second break with Rollins making a blind tag and dropping a frog splash for two on McIntyre as Ambrose dives onto Ziggler. McIntyre gets put in the Tree of Woe but of course sits up to throw Rollins down.

Rollins is fine enough to superplex Ziggler into the Falcon Arrow as the fans are going nuts on these kickouts, probably because they know a title change is coming. The Stomp misses so Rollins lifts Ziggler up for a powerbomb into McIntyre. Dean comes back in but Dirty Deeds is broken up and a Claymore sends him outside.

Ziggler sends Rollins shoulder first into the post and gets two off the Zig Zag. The Claymore/Zig Zag combination is broken up by Ambrose but here’s Strowman as Rollins and Ziggler clothesline each other. McIntyre gets up to fight Strowman but they brawl into the crowd. Ziggler tries to grab a title but gets Stomped for the pin and the title at 19:16.

Rating: B. Well….yeah. This was the most obvious title change in recent history but at the same time, it’s the only thing they could do. With the Reigns situation, dedicating the match to him was the best thing they could do to guarantee an invested crowd during the title change. Another entertaining match too.

Post match the celebration is on….until Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds on Rollins. The place gets REALLY quiet as Ambrose pounds away on him and shouts about Rollins thinking he’s funny. The beatdown is on with Den throwing a title at him and then peeling back the floor mats for Dirty Deeds on the concrete. Dean rips off the Shield shirt and leaves through the crowd to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. I’m giving this one a big break tonight because of the opening announcement changing everything. That being said, I’m less interested in seeing either Evolution or Crown Jewel than I was coming in, though I’m wanting to find out where some other things are going. This week’s show made those two pay per views feel more like things we have to get through rather than something I want to watch, which is a really bad sign. Not a great show, but you have to give them a break on some parts of that.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Main Event
Date: October 18, 2018
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Percy Watson, Nigel McGuinness

This is an interesting week as Raw was a run of the mill show but Smackdown reached one of the biggest milestones you can achieve. Now in theory that should mean that Smackdown gets some more time on this show over Raw, but stranger things have happened around here. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Rhyno vs. Konnor

They start with the power struggle and an exchange of chops goes nowhere. A short arm clothesline gives Konnor one and the front facelock goes on. Back up and a collision puts both guys down again but it’s Rhyno up first with a flying shoulder. Konnor kicks him in the face for two but misses a big elbow. Rhyno can’t hit a powerslam though and it’s an STO to give Konnor the pin at 5:12.

Rating: D+. I get that they’re trying to rehabilitate the Ascension a little bit and that’s a fine idea. The problem is that it’s not a practical one. You can’t have a team be that worthless for so many years and then just have them start winning without some kind of change. Maybe it’s a face turn, maybe it’s a gimmick overhaul or maybe it’s something else, but the fans aren’t going to buy them suddenly winning matches after being so pathetic for so long.

Quick look at the opening to Smackdown 1000 and the Evolution reunion.

Video on the Bella Twins turning on Ronda Rousey.

From Raw.

Here’s Rousey to say that the Bellas at least owe her an explanation. Cue the Bellas with Nikki saying the people paid to see them and not her. They don’t owe her an explanation because this is show business and not show friends. Ronda disrespected them and disregarded everything the two of them have done for this business. It disgusts them to see Rousey as the face of the women’s revolution because Nikki deserves to be champion.

They made the term Divas mean something and children look up to her. If that’s the case, the future of America is worse than I thought. The Women’s Title wouldn’t exist without the Divas Title. What is she going to do? Try to break their arms? Fans: “YES! YES! YES!” Ronda says she tried and thought they were friends, but now she knows they’re just a pair of do nothing Bellas.

They were there because of the men they were with and at Evolution, their arms are coming off. The only thing that is going to stop her is a referee and that hasn’t gone well in the past. Brie says the two of them have knocked down more doors in a week than Rousey ever has.

Rousey lists off the places she’s dominated before getting in the line of the promo with “the only door you ever broke down was to John Cena’s bedroom.” BIG gasp on that one. Rousey wants to fight now but Nikki just does her dance as security comes out to get rid of Ronda. They get taken down as well and Ronda calls the Bellas (now gone) out here again.

This was REALLY bad (save for that Cena line) with terrible delivery of awful lines and a story that no one with a brain is going to accept as realistic. Everyone came off looking worse here and it went on a good ten minutes longer than necessary. But hey, I’m sure TMZ will be talking about it.

From Smackdown.

Here’s Edge (with Tony Chimel doing his intro for old times sake), with the shoulder length hair again, for the Cutting Edge. This has always felt like his show because this is where some of his greatest achievements took place. He cashed in Money in the Bank on the Undertaker and had a No DQ match against Eddie Guerrero that people still talk to him about to this day. He even married and divorced Vickie Guerrero. However, he’s been watching the show for the last few weeks and now he needs to be Smackdown’s moral compass.

Therefore, his first guest is Becky Lynch, who Edge sees a lot of himself in. Becky says she modeled her career after him so that means a lot. Edge talks about not being someone who was supposed to succeed and having to scratch and claw their way to the top, just like Becky. The thing is though, Becky didn’t make the right choice.

If there was a friendship that got in Edge’s way, he crushed it, leaving a trail of burnt bridges. That’s not the right way, no matter how many titles you win. The path that Becky is on will lead to her sitting alone, looking at all of her titles on the wall, by herself. The bigger problem is she won’t even like herself.

Becky says it’s true that she doesn’t like herself because she loves herself. She tells Edge to get out of the champ’s ring and make sure you don’t hurt your neck again going through the ropes. Cue Charlotte to say that it’s not cool to go there. The fight is on with agents and referees having to break it up in short order.

Also from Smackdown.

World Cup Of Wrestling Qualifying Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Non-title. This is Rey’s first singles match for WWE in four and a half years. Nakamura takes him down to start and drops a knee for an early one. A front facelock has Rey in some more trouble but he’s right back out with a headscissors. Rey knocks him outside for the sliding splash underneath the bottom rope. Back in and Rey gets caught in the Tree of Woe and we take a break.

We come back with Rey hitting a top rope seated senton and a top rope hurricanrana getting two. Nakamura kicks him in the head but misses Kinshasa, allowing Rey to headscissor him again. After Nakamura crawls over to the ropes, it’s a 619 into the springboard frog splash for the pin at 10:10.

Rating: C-. This was watchable enough but some of the spots weren’t exactly hitting and Nakamura was his usually uninspired self. Mysterio looked good in spots but it certainly wasn’t a match that would make you thrilled to see him back. It’s more like he’s lost some weight and come back after not being around for a bit. I’m glad he’s back, but it wasn’t exactly anything major.

For a change, here’s something from Smackdown.

Tag Team Titles: New Day vs. The Bar

New Day is defending and since they’re wrestling, Booker T. and Jerry Lawler are running New Day’s commentary booth. Woods headscissors Sheamus down for a basement dropkick and an early near fall as we cut to Lawler and Booker for more analysis than the regular team gives in a week. Cesaro takes over on the arm and it’s off to Sheamus for a double elbow as we take a break.

Back with Sheamus missing a charge into the corner and the hot tag off to Big E. Cesaro comes in as well and gets Rock Bottomed out of the corner, landing on his head. Sheamus misses the Brogue Kick and gets speared through the ropes, leaving Woods to hit a Shining Wizard for two on Cesaro. Back in and the Midnight Hour is broken up but Cesaro makes a blind tag. Big E. hits the Big Ending on Sheamus but gets Neutralized for two with Woods making the save as we take a second break in less than seven minutes.

Back again with Big E. missing a charge and getting caught in a powerbomb/top rope clothesline combination for two with Kofi Kingston breaking up the cover due to feet on the ropes. The Bar loads up the announcers’ table but here’s Big Show to chokeslam Kofi through it instead, leaving Sheamus to Brogue Kick Big E. for the pin and the titles at 13:38.

Rating: C. This was the Iron Sheik/Nikolai Volkoff “do something to make it memorable” title change and that’s fine. The tag division means nothing on this show so switching the titles doesn’t change a thing anyway. Hopefully the Usos can get back in there now as they’re more than overdue to be in the title scene again.

From Raw.

We go to the bowels of some building where Undertaker and Kane talk about the lack of respect. Michaels didn’t stay in the shadows out of respect but out of fear. They will unleash everything on DX for the first time ever and all of Shawn’s fears will be realized. HHH can crawl back to the board room and Shawn can hide in retirement. DX had three words for them, so they have three words for DX: Rest In Peace.

Zack Ryder/No Way Jose vs. Revival

Jose even has the full conga line with him. Dawson and Jose start and that means some dancing. Some arm cranking has Dawson in trouble and it’s off to Ryder for all of ten seconds. Wilder comes in and gets punched down but Dawson offers a distraction so Wilder can pull Jose down by the afro. To be fair it’s kind of Jose’s fault for having such large hair. Back from a break with Jose still in trouble as Wilder slaps on a chinlock.

Dawson comes back in and drops a knee for two but Jose elbows him in the face. The hot tag brings in Ryder to clean house and he slips out of a double suplex into a double neckbreaker. Revival heads to the floor and gets dropkicked, leaving Jose to high crossbody Wilder for two. Dawson makes a blind tag though and it’s the Shatter Machine for the pin on Jose at 9:58.

Rating: D+. I liked this a little more than I was expecting to with Jose getting to show off what he could do. That being said, there wasn’t much you could do with two jobbers against a good team like Revival. Of course you don’t get to know that much about Revival being good because there’s no time to get them on TV more than once every…oh few months more often than not.

From Raw again.

Shield vs. Drew McIntyre/Dolph Ziggler/Braun Strowman

Shield does their entrance through the crowd after using the stage earlier. Strowman tells Ziggler to start the match and show him something so it’s Dolph vs. Rollins to get things going. Ziggler takes him down with a headlock, saying he could do this all day. Ambrose and Rollins have an accidental collision and the ensuing argument lets Strowman run everyone over. Reigns gets dropped as well and we take a break.

Back with McIntyre still in control of Reigns and Ziggler coming in for the chinlock. Reigns shrugs him off but it’s McIntyre coming in and taking a clothesline. Strowman cuts him off with a corner splash, only to have McIntyre tag himself in and stomp away. That’s not cool with Strowman, who tags himself in and yells at McIntyre a bit. A missed charge in the corner lets Reigns muscle him up for the Samoan drop (not as effective since we saw the same spot earlier in the night) but McIntyre and Ziggler knock Rollins and Ambrose to the floor.

The Claymore/Zig Zag combination gets two with Rollins and Ambrose making the save. The hot tag brings in Rollins, who clotheslines McIntyre and tags Ambrose in to start cleaning house. Strowman blocks the double suicide dives but Reigns comes off the apron with the Superman Punch. Back in and Dean rolls McIntyre up for two with Ziggler making the save. Dirty Deeds hits McIntyre but the referee takes forever to cover, allowing Ziggler to shove Rollins into the cover for the break.

That means another fight and Ambrose tries Dirty Deeds but Rollins shoves him away. Ziggler shoves them together and gets two off the Zig Zag on Ambrose. Reigns breaks up the Claymore/Zig Zag combination and Strowman goes shoulder first into the post. McIntyre Claymores Strowman by mistake (he seemed to miss but they moved the camera just in time to cover it) and a spear cuts McIntyre down. The TripleBomb finishes Ziggler at 14:34.

Rating: C+. This was nowhere near what they did last week and that’s probably because it’s the third time this match has taken place in about ten days. Ambrose and Rollins’ issues can take a backseat for another week, but it’s pretty clear that this isn’t over yet. That being said, the interesting thing here is Drew, who seems all but poised for the big turn after kicking Strowman in the face.

Post match Strowman powerslams Ziggler but eats a Claymore (and a great one at that), allowing McIntyre to leave to end the show. To quote JR: “Oh I like this. I like this a lot.”

Overall Rating: D+. So yeah, it’s not the most surprising thing in the world that the 1000^th episode of the second biggest wrestling show in the world was treated like any other show. We did however get more of the Bella Twins, because that’s how WWE works. It was interesting that World Cup got almost no attention save for the one World Cup qualifying match, as WWE continues to try to hide the fact that the show is actually taking place.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 15, 2018
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

We’re two and a half weeks away from Crown Jewel from…..wherever WWE wants to announce it from being at the moment. Tonight we have more World Cup qualifying matches, which seems to be the main force of the entire show. Other than that, expect the tall old guys to talk about the smaller old guys. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Here are Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to open things up. McIntyre declares them the greatest three man group in WWE history and they didn’t need matching suits to do it. We look at the end of last week’s show with Dean Ambrose walking out. After the show, he said he doesn’t think he fits in anywhere anymore. Back in the arena, McIntyre says they’ve broken the Shield.

Finally, Ambrose has had his eyes forced open and the Shield is broken. Strowman says that means there is no one watching Reigns’ back at Crown Jewel. Speaking of Crown Jewel, McIntyre is ready to qualify and win the tournament. Ziggler doesn’t know about that, because they might have to face off in the finals. McIntyre says it would be a shame if that happened because Ziggler isn’t him.

Cue Reigns and Rollins to say the team is fine. Ziggler asks where Ambrose is because he might just have to win in a forfeit. Rollins says Ambrose always shows up and Reigns talks about Strowman going to the back of the line. The fans start booing so Rollins sucks up to Philadelphia by talking about cheese steaks and how this is a fighting town. Let’s just do the qualifying match right now. This was longer than it needed to be and really didn’t change anything.

World Cup of Wrestling Qualifying Match: Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre

Non-title. McIntyre headlocks him to start and holds onto that for a bit longer than you might expect. A shoulder puts Rollins down so he jumps up and starts an exchange of kicks to the face. Rollins hurricanranas his way out of a powerbomb to send McIntyre outside, of course meaning the suicide shove. Since it’s the most obvious move in the world, McIntyre catches him and hits a belly to belly.

McIntyre pulls the ring skirt up but gets sent into the barricade so here’s Ziggler for a distraction. That’s enough for Rollins to be pulled into the exposed steel underneath the ring to bang up his arm. Back from a break with McIntyre working on the arm (as he should be doing) but getting superkicked down. The reverse Alabama Slam is countered into a victory roll for two, followed by the Blockbuster for the same.

Rollins heads up top and catches Drew in the Tree of Woe, so of course McIntyre sits up and pulls him down by the head. You know, because he can just do that. Rollins is fine enough to run the ropes for a superplex into the Falcon Arrow (big pop) but McIntyre Falcon Arrows him first for two off a great counter. Back up and Rollins turns on the fire with a clothesline to the floor and back to back suicide dives to Ziggler and McIntyre. Ziggler breaks up the Stomp and here’s Ambrose from the crowd to even things up. McIntyre jumps Ambrose but gets Stomped on the floor. Only Rollins beats the count back in for the win at 13:30.

Rating: B-. Good match with Ambrose coming in for the help, though I’m not sure what the point was in having him walk out to end the show and be back here like nothing happened just half an hour in. I’m very relieved that they didn’t have McIntyre lose clean here, and at the same time the Intercontinental Champion doesn’t take another bad loss. This was actually thought out booking for once, which is always well received.

Post break Rollins and Reigns are glad Ambrose showed up on Lunatic Time. That’s not cool with Dean, who says he’s only good for some laughs until they need to be bailed out. Reigns and Rollins say that’s not what they meant as Dean leaves to get read for his match.

Stills of Undertaker vs. HHH and its fallout at Super Show-Down.

We see D-Generation X reuniting last week.

We go to the bowels of some building where Undertaker and Kane talk about the lack of respect. Michaels didn’t stay in the shadows out of respect but out of fear. They will unleash everything on DX for the first time ever and all of Shawn’s fears will be realized. HHH can crawl back to the board room and Shawn can hide in retirement. DX had three words for them, so they have three words for DX: Rest In Peace.

There will be a battle royal at Evolution with the winner getting a future Women’s Title match.

Ember Moon/Nia Jax vs. Dana Brooke/Tamina

I actually forgot Tamina worked here. Her not having a match since the Royal Rumble might have something to do with that. Tamina takes Ember down into a chinlock to start and we go split screen to mention a bunch of people in the battle royal, including Torrie Wilson as we continue the false narrative that Torrie ever had any business in the ring.

Tamina shoves Ember across the ring and it’s off to Jax for a power battle that no one was asking for. They headbutt each other and Tamina escapes the Samoan drop. She can’t pick Nia up though and it’s a headbutt to stagger Tamina instead. The second Samoan drop attempt works but Tamina can’t cover. It’s off to Dana, who takes the Eclipse for the pin at 7:36.

Rating: D-. This is one of the things I’ve been dreading about Evolution: the pretending that certain people are any good or belong on such a stage. Torrie was eye candy who could barely do more than two moves and Tamina is the least interesting wrestler in years. I know they need to fill in the roster, but can we please stop pretending that all of the past women are important or that a lot of them belong anywhere near a major show? There were some incredibly talented female wrestlers, but that doesn’t mean they’re all on the same level because they wrestled here at the same time.

Post match Tamina superkicks Jax and teams up with Ember to throw her over the top. Ember tries to throw Tamina out but Dana eliminates them both.

We look back at the Bella Twins turning on Ronda Rousey. And no Cole, the world hasn’t been talking about this. Just stop.

Here’s Rousey to say that the Bellas at least owe her an explanation. Cue the Bellas with Nikki saying the people paid to see them and not her. They don’t owe her an explanation because this is show business and not show friends. Ronda disrespected them and disregarded everything the two of them have done for this business. It disgusts them to see Rousey as the face of the women’s revolution because Nikki deserves to be champion.

They made the term Divas mean something and children look up to her. If that’s the case, the future of America is worse than I thought. The Women’s Title wouldn’t exist without the Divas Title. What is she going to do? Try to break their arms? Fans: “YES! YES! YES!” Ronda says she tried and thought they were friends, but now she knows they’re just a pair of do nothing Bellas.

They were there because of the men they were with and at Evolution, their arms are coming off. The only thing that is going to stop her is a referee and that hasn’t gone well in the past. Brie says the two of them have knocked down more doors in a week than Rousey ever has.

Rousey lists off the places she’s dominated before getting in the line of the promo with “the only door you ever broke down was to John Cena’s bedroom.” BIG gasp on that one. Rousey wants to fight now but Nikki just does her dance as security comes out to get rid of Ronda. They get taken down as well and Ronda calls the Bellas (now gone) out here again.

This was REALLY bad (save for that Cena line) with terrible delivery of awful lines and a story that no one with a brain is going to accept as realistic. Everyone came off looking worse here and it went on a good ten minutes longer than necessary. But hey, I’m sure TMZ will be talking about it.

We look back at Kurt Angle winning the battle royal last week.

Angle, dressed as Jimmy Buffett for some reason, is in the back with Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. He’s enjoyed his vacation and is ready for the World Cup. The two of them leave and No Way Jose comes up for some dancing. Baron Corbin comes in and says Angle can have a warmup match tonight….against AOP. Gee I wonder what’s going to happen.

World Cup of Wrestling Qualifying Match: Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose

They waste no time here with Ziggler suplexing him down and grabbing an early sleeper on the mat. Dean fights up and takes him to the floor for a whip into the barricade. Back in and Dean can’t get a Cloverleaf so he heads up top, only to get caught with a super X Factor for a big crash.

We come back from a break with Ziggler missing a suplex and getting catapulted into the post. Now the Cloverleaf works but Ziggler is able to make the ropes. Ambrose gets two off a chickenwing facebuster but here’s McIntyre to interfere, only to have Rollins follow him out for the save. Rollins helps Ambrose up but Dean shrugs him away (it’s not clear if Ambrose knew who it was), allowing Ziggler hit a superkick for the pin at 9:36.

Rating: C. This didn’t have the time to go anywhere and for once, they went with the right idea by not extending a match that didn’t need to be extended. They wrestled for a bit and then went to the finish to advance the storyline. You don’t need to do anything more than what’s going on here and that’s the right idea.

Post match Ambrose shoves Rollins away and leaves but Seth follows him up the ramp and gets in a shoving match. Reigns comes out to break it up so here’s Corbin to make Shield vs. McIntyre/Ziggler/Strowman later tonight. Third time in ten days.

Strowman, McIntyre and Ziggler are ready for the Shield. McIntyre wants Strowman to destroy Ambrose and Rollins but Braun doesn’t want to hear the lecture. If either of them screw up, they’ll get these hands.

Jinder Mahal vs. Finn Balor

OH MY GOODNESS ENOUGH ALREADY!!! You have TEN TEAMS in this tournament and there is no other combination you can have to do the weekly preview??? Sumir Singh is back from his injury. Mahal takes Balor down into a very early chinlock but Balor is right back with the Sling Blade and a running corner dropkick. The Coup de Grace finishes Mahal at 1:50. Well they made good time.

Post match here are Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush with the latter saying Balor knows he wishes he looked like Lashley.

Bobby Lashley vs. Tyler Breeze

Rush says hang on a second because Lashley needs to pose a bit more first. After a minute plus of showing off the muscles, Lashley takes Breeze into the corner but misses a right hand. Breeze gets shoved down but hits an enziguri to stagger the big man. Breeze’s middle rope crossbody is countered into the delayed vertical suplex. Rush starts up the chanting again and Lashley puts on a full nelson. Bored of that, it’s a powerslam to cut off Breeze’s comeback and it’s the twisting Dominator for the pin at 3:27.

Rating: D. Just a squash to establish the heel character here and the Rush heel act is starting to grow on me. It’s so easy to hate and as long as they don’t do anything stupid with it, they should be fine. Lashley has all the tools and if you can keep him away from a microphone, he’s that much better.

Here are Trish Stratus and Lita for a chat. Lita talks about having fun in Philadelphia but here are Alexa Bliss and Mickie James to interrupt. They take some shots at Trish and Lita, including Lita making fun of the lips and Mickie mocking Trish’s point. It’s been a long time since Trish and Lita have been in the ring but they can go through their closets and find the wrestling gear box. Mickie: “It’s WAY in the back.”

Trish and Lita make Allen Iverson “we talking bout practice” jokes (the original quote is over sixteen years old) and say maybe they should practice now. Mickie: “They’re serious. They took their jackets off.” No fighting ensues of course. Who in the world wrote the women’s promos tonight?

The Riott Squad makes fun of Bayley.

AOP vs. Kurt Angle

Angle is in the full El Conquistador body suit, including the mask. I’m sure that includes the boot inserts that make him taller than Angle usually is. Corbin comes out as Angle dances to start. A German suplex doesn’t work and the ankle lock can’t even go on. Rezar boots Angle down as Graves thinks something is off. The powerbomb/neckbreaker combination is good for the pin at 59 seconds.

Post match the mask is ripped off to reveal some no name. The real Angle runs out and Angle Slams Corbin on the stage.

The Riott Squad spray condiments on Natalya’s door.

Ruby Riott vs. Natalya

Hang on though as Natalya says she isn’t coming alone so here are Bayley and the returning Sasha Banks. Riott takes her down into a chinlock as Renee compares the Squad to the witches in Hocus Pocus. Graves: “Is that a Bette Middler movie? I think they’re a little more talented than Bette Middler.” Renee: “…WOW.” A cravate keeps Natalya in trouble and Ruby hits some shoulders in the corner. Riott talks some trash but gets tripped down into the Sharpshooter, drawing Logan in for the DQ at 2:58.

Post match the fight is on with Banks saving Natalya from a triple team. The Squad gets knocked to the floor so the new friends can stand tall.

Elias yells at a production guy for not having a green guitar pick.

Here’s Elias to talk about how everything here is built on a truth that even John Cena knows is true: WWE stands for WALK WITH ELIAS. Earlier today he was at lunch with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who said true pain is psychological. True pain is going out there and pretending that you care about this horrible city.

After insulting the Eagles’ mascot, he’s ready to play the song but Apollo Crews of all people interrupts. Apollo says he figured it was his turn to interrupt Elias since everyone else has. They trade some barbs and Elias says this is what happens when you interrupt him. Elias misses a right hand and Crews hits an enziguri, followed by a very delayed gorilla press to send Elias bailing.

Shield vs. Drew McIntyre/Dolph Ziggler/Braun Strowman

Shield does their entrance through the crowd after using the stage earlier. Strowman tells Ziggler to start the match and show him something so it’s Dolph vs. Rollins to get things going. Ziggler takes him down with a headlock, saying he could do this all day. Ambrose and Rollins have an accidental collision and the ensuing argument lets Strowman run everyone over. Reigns gets dropped as well and we take a break.

Back with McIntyre still in control of Reigns and Ziggler coming in for the chinlock. Reigns shrugs him off but it’s McIntyre coming in and taking a clothesline. Strowman cuts him off with a corner splash, only to have McIntyre tag himself in and stomp away. That’s not cool with Strowman, who tags himself in and yells at McIntyre a bit. A missed charge in the corner lets Reigns muscle him up for the Samoan drop (not as effective since we saw the same spot earlier in the night) but McIntyre and Ziggler knock Rollins and Ambrose to the floor.

The Claymore/Zig Zag combination gets two with Rollins and Ambrose making the save. The hot tag brings in Rollins, who clotheslines McIntyre and tags Ambrose in to start cleaning house. Strowman blocks the double suicide dives but Reigns comes off the apron with the Superman Punch. Back in and Dean rolls McIntyre up for two with Ziggler making the save. Dirty Deeds hits McIntyre but the referee takes forever to cover, allowing Ziggler to shove Rollins into the cover for the break.

That means another fight and Ambrose tries Dirty Deeds but Rollins shoves him away. Ziggler shoves them together and gets two off the Zig Zag on Ambrose. Reigns breaks up the Claymore/Zig Zag combination and Strowman goes shoulder first into the post. McIntyre Claymores Strowman by mistake (he seemed to miss but they moved the camera just in time to cover it) and a spear cuts McIntyre down. The TripleBomb finishes Ziggler at 14:34.

Rating: C+. This was nowhere near what they did last week and that’s probably because it’s the third time this match has taken place in about ten days. Ambrose and Rollins’ issues can take a backseat for another week, but it’s pretty clear that this isn’t over yet. That being said, the interesting thing here is Drew, who seems all but poised for the big turn after kicking Strowman in the face.

Post match Strowman powerslams Ziggler but eats a Claymore (and a great one at that), allowing McIntyre to leave to end the show. To quote JR: “Oh I like this. I like this a lot.”

Overall Rating: D. We went back to the old days here as this show felt like it lasted about nine hours. I don’t know if it was the HORRIBLE women’s segments (with bad writing and bad delivery) or the feeling that we had seen so many of these matches before but I don’t remember a show being this interminable in a very long time. It doesn’t help when you’re building to two shows and a lot of what’s going on at one of the shows has nothing to do with what happened here. There were some good parts here, but the pacing and overall feel of the show were disasters. And don’t let the Bellas or Rousey near a mic for a long time.

Results

Seth Rollins b. Drew McIntyre via countout

Ember Moon/Nia Jax b. Dana Brooke/Tamina – Eclipse to Brooke

Dolph Ziggler b. Dean Ambrose – Superkick

Finn Balor b. Jinder Mahal – Coup de Grace

Bobby Lashley b. Tyler Breeze – Twisting Dominator

AOP b. Kurt Angle – Powerbomb/Neckbreaker combination

Natalya b. Ruby Riott via DQ when Sarah Logan interfered

Shield b. Drew McIntyre/Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre – TripleBomb to Ziggler

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Main Event
Date: October 11, 2018
Location: Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Percy Watson, Vic Joseph

This week focused on the fast pace build towards Crown Jewel and Evolution and for once, Raw was a heck of a show with all kinds of things happening at once. Smackdown on the other hand was a rather dull night with almost nothing that felt important. That could make for a rather interesting combined show so let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley

The battle will never end. Rawley shoves him down to start but Ryder is right back up with some forearms to the face. That just earns him another grounding and right hands, followed by a shoulder for two. The chinlock wastes no time in going on but Ryder reverses a suplex into a neckbreaker. A jumping clothesline and the middle rope missile dropkick give Ryder two but a quick toss into the air gives Rawley the same. The Broski Boot doesn’t work so it’s the Rough Ryder for the pin at 5:02.

Rating: D+. Maybe it’s because I was there when the team split up in the first place but there’s something fun about watching these guys fight. There’s a bit of a chemistry there and they were able to have another perfectly watchable match here. Neither is going anywhere anytime soon, but maybe they can at least have some fun on this show for a change.

Video on HHH vs. Undertaker from Super Show-Down.

From Raw.

Here are HHH and the still bald Shawn Michaels to talk about spending 25 years climbing a mountain. On Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, they made it to the top. It turns out that they were lied to the whole time and we see a long package on Saturday’s long main event, complete with Undertaker and Kane turning on them. HHH talks about respect, like the kind you get from fighting back to back with someone for years. Or living up to your word when everyone else tells you not to.

Shawn says respect is a two way street. The flight from Melbourne to Chicago is a very long trip and they’ve had a long time to think. He thought about the respect that never was there in the first place but when they landed, HHH asked if he was ready. HHH knows Shawn is ready, but are Undertaker and Kane ready? They reveal the DX shirts because they want DX vs. the Brothers of Destruction at Crown Jewel. Not exactly shocking, but they could have done Shawn Michaels and HHH instead of DX, which tends to be less serious than this story would likely require.

From Raw again.

Ronda Rousey/Bella Twins vs. Riott Squad

Liv and Brie start things off and yes, they actually think this is a good idea in Chicago. Liv slaps her in the face but gets taken down, allowing Brie to miss a YES Kick. They get into a catfight and fight to the floor for a big staredown. Back in and it’s Rousey taking Morgan down by the arm. The entire Squad runs in fear as we take a break. We come back with Nikki fighting up and hitting (I think?) her spinning kick out of the corner. Brie comes in and gets caught with an STO on the floor to put her in trouble.

A shoulder to the ribs cuts Brie down again and an ugly hiptoss sets up a running knee to the face. Brie fights up from Ruby’s chinlock but Riott draws Rousey in so the Squad can keep Brie in trouble. A few forearms are enough to bring in Rousey and it’s time to hurt people. The spinning Samoan drop sets up the armbar with the Bellas running interference (including Logan laying down before Brie grabbed her) for the tap at 9:25.

Rating: D+. Just a shortened version of the Saturday match with the Squad being able to beat up the Bellas and having no chance against Rousey. I know we’re setting up Rousey vs. Nikki which probably has to start tonight for the sake of the calendar. Not a good match, but at least it’s going to get tot he point soon enough.

Post match the Bellas jump Rousey and laugh at her. Thankfully Rousey shrugs them off and throws them both down, only to get sent into the post on the floor. Some more whips send her into the steps and barricade for a bonus. I know why this had to happen, but is anyone buying the Bellas as a match for Rousey? Even both of them at once?

From Smackdown.

Women’s Title: Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Becky is defending and can lose the title via DQ. They’re in the ring for the Big Match Intros with neither getting an entrance so they’re starting fast. Becky works on a wristlock to start before raking Charlotte’s eyes across the top rope. A legdrop sets up the strut from Becky but she misses the spinning version, allowing Charlotte to roll her up for two. They clothesline each other but it’s too early for the Disarm-Her.

Instead Charlotte hits a dragon screw legwhip, only to be taken down into an armbar. Becky gets catapulted into the corner for a trip to the floor, which of course means a dive to take us to a break. Back with Charlotte being slammed off the top for two as Becky works on the arm some more. Charlotte chops away and grabs a belly to back suplex for a double knockdown.

Lynch gets crotched on top but manages to roll off into a cross armbreaker. That’s reversed into a sitout powerbomb and we take a second break. Back again with Becky trying to walk out but coming back in and throwing the belt down. That leads to an argument that doesn’t get us anywhere, so it’s an exchange of rollups, followed by a spear to put Becky on the floor.

Charlotte misses the moonsault though and the Bexploder gets nine. Becky follows her out and gets Bexploded as well, followed by Natural Selection back inside. Charlotte can’t cover though as Becky rolls outside, leading to another brawl for the double countout at 25:12. That might be a record for the longest one fall women’s match.

Rating: B. They beat each other up here and the ending should set up some kind of gimmick rematch at Evolution. You know, because the way to get any big feud to the next level is to have them fight multiple times in a month and a half. Either way, the draw is the right call here as neither is hurt and Charlotte can say she deserves another rematch.

Post match Charlotte spears Becky through the set. I feel that warrants a new version. Say with a giant fist.

Video on Rey Mysterio.

Crown Jewel rundown.

Heath Slater/Rhyno vs. Revival

Dawson and Slater fight over a wristlock to start with Slater showing off a nice bridge to escape. An armdrag into an armbar has Dawson in trouble and we take an abrupt break. Well cut but you get the idea. Back with Slater in trouble until a neckbreaker puts Wilder down. The hot tag brings in Rhyno to clean house and a TKO gets two on Dawson. Slater follows him in and walks into a DDT. Rhyno comes back in and it’s the Shatter Machine to give Wilder the pin at 7:55.

Rating: D+. Just a match really but it’s nice to have some fresh names around here. I know these four have been around before, but at least it’s been a few weeks since we last saw them. It’s still a shame that this is the best Revival can hope for anymore, especially when the Tag Team Titles are stuck in the main event scene again.

One more time from Raw.

Shield vs. Braun Strowman/Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre

It’s a big staredown before the bell until McIntyre runs Rollins over to start. Ambrose comes in for a double suplex and some clubbing forearm shots to Drew’s face. That’s enough of that so it’s off to Strowman vs. Reigns with Roman not being able to Samoan drop him. Reigns gets saved from a double suplex and a double clothesline puts McIntyre and Ziggler on the floor. Strowman thinks better of fighting all three of them at once and goes outside for some yelling instead.

Back from a break with Reigns in trouble until he punches Ziggler out of the air. Strowman comes in and misses a charge into the post, allowing Reigns to hit the Samoan drop. It’s off to Rolling to speed things up but he spends too much time tuning up the band, allowing Ziggler to avoid the Stomp. The Buckle Bomb gets two instead as everything breaks down. Ambrose and Rollins hit the double suicide dives but Strowman is ready for them. Reigns takes out everyone with the BIG dive and we take a second break.

Back again with Strowman cranking on Rollins’ neck and handing it back to McIntyre, who cuts off a hot tag and kicks Rollins in the face. Ziggler gets catapulted into the corner and McIntyre takes an enziguri, only to have Strowman knock Ambrose and Reigns to the floor. Strowman yells at Ziggler, who yells right back until Strowman grabs him by the throat. That brings Drew into Strowman’s face until Rollins knocks McIntyre into Strowman for two. Rollins brings Ambrose in to pick the pace way up, including a suicide dive.

A swinging neckbreaker gets two more on Drew but it’s too early for Dirty Deeds. Ambrose has to elbow Ziggler down, allowing McIntyre to spinebust him for two. Rollins comes back in and suplexes Ziggler to the floor, leaving Dean to slug it out with McIntyre. A double clothesline puts both of them down and Strowman posts Reigns. Dean’s dive onto Strowman is caught so he spins it into a DDT to put both of them down as well. There’s a spear to Strowman but Drew is waiting for Ambrose with the Claymore for the pin at 21:58.

Rating: B+. This was a lot better than their Australia match with a ton of action for the last five plus minutes and a finish that actually surprised me. I’m very, very pleased that McIntyre is getting this kind of attention and protection as he’s now pinned Ambrose and Rollins in back to back weeks. I’m really hoping he gets the rocket push when this team with Ziggler ends, because it’s going to rock.

Post match Ambrose walks off on his own, leaving Rollins and Reigns confused to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. The mostly good Raw stuff helps this a lot but there’s only so much that can be done with this show. For once it makes perfect sense to not have much from Smackdown as the show barely meant anything this week and all the big stuff was on Raw. I could go for getting done with Crown Jewel already though, or at least the pretty lame World Cup tournament, which is really hurting a lot of the shows. Not terrible this week, but stick with Raw.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 8, 2018
Location: Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

We’re done with Super Show-Down and that means we have less than a month to go before Crown Jewel. The big story coming out of Saturday seems to be an impending tag match between four people with more than two hundred years of age between them. Other than that, it’s time for Roman Reigns to remember that he’s Universal Champion. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Here are HHH and the still bald Shawn Michaels to talk about spending 25 years climbing a mountain. On Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, they made it to the top. It turns out that they were lied to the whole time and we see a long package on Saturday’s long main event, complete with Undertaker and Kane turning on them. HHH talks about respect, like the kind you get from fighting back to back with someone for years. Or living up to your word when everyone else tells you not to.

Shawn says respect is a two way street. The flight from Melbourne to Chicago is a very long trip and they’ve had a long time to think. He thought about the respect that never was there in the first place but when they landed, HHH asked if he was ready. HHH knows Shawn is ready, but are Undertaker and Kane ready? They reveal the DX shirts because they want DX vs. the Brothers of Destruction at Crown Jewel. Not exactly shocking, but they could have done Shawn Michaels and HHH instead of DX, which tends to be less serious than this story would likely require.

Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens

Lio Rush is at ringside and has his own mic to keep up the hype during the match. Lashley shoulders Owens down to start so they head outside with Owens punching him in the face. Rush isn’t sure why the fans are cheering for Owens, so he shows the fans how to cheer for Lashley, being booed out of the building for the second time in about two minutes. Owens hits a big flip dive tot he floor and the fans REALLY like that. A whip into the barricade takes us to a break.

Back with Lashley holding a chinlock and Rush hyping things up even more. Owens fights up and has had it with Rush, chasing him to the floor. Lashley sends Owens into the barricade and stomps away, much to Rush’s delight. Back in and Lashley cuts him off with a spinebuster but the delayed vertical suplex only gets two. You know, because it’s a suplex and he’s a former World Champion.

Owens breaks out of a full nelson and superkicks him into a Stunner for a close two as Rush talks about still being in the fight. The frog splash is broken up with a crotching as Owens’ knees are tied up in the ropes for some extra pain. A spinning Dominator finishes Owens at 13:00.

Rating: D+. I’m not sure if that was a double turn but it was certainly a single one. I have no idea who thought leaving Lashley out there as a face for six months was a good idea but at least they’ve gotten him to a character that could work very well. Oh and more importantly than anything else: it happened while he was winning a match! Why is that such a hard thing to understand?

Post match Rush tells Lashley to go back and do some more, so he wraps Owens’ knees around the post.

Cole talks about the WWE World Cup, an eight man tournament (four from Raw, four from Smackdown) and introduces a video on the first entrant: John Cena.

Finn Balor and Bayley aren’t worried about facing Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox again. Rush and Lashley come in to chant LASH-LEY some more, with Rush saying they’re the real too sweet combination.

Here’s Elias to say he’s the real legend around here. He doesn’t think much of John Cena and sings a song about him, throwing in a line about the Cubs losing in the playoffs for some serious booing. Cue Ronda Rousey of all people to cut him off though and it’s time for a match.

Ronda Rousey/Bella Twins vs. Riott Squad

Liv and Brie start things off and yes, they actually think this is a good idea in Chicago. Liv slaps her in the face but gets taken down, allowing Brie to miss a YES Kick. They get into a catfight and fight to the floor for a big staredown. Back in and it’s Rousey taking Morgan down by the arm. The entire Squad runs in fear as we take a break. We come back with Nikki fighting up and hitting (I think?) her spinning kick out of the corner. Brie comes in and gets caught with an STO on the floor to put her in trouble.

A shoulder to the ribs cuts Brie down again and an ugly hiptoss sets up a running knee to the face. Brie fights up from Ruby’s chinlock but Riott draws Rousey in so the Squad can keep Brie in trouble. A few forearms are enough to bring in Rousey and it’s time to hurt people. The spinning Samoan drop sets up the armbar with the Bellas running interference (including Logan laying down before Nikki grabbed her) for the tap at 9:25.

Rating: D+. Just a shortened version of the Saturday match with the Squad being able to beat up the Bellas and having no chance against Rousey. I know we’re setting up Rousey vs. Nikki which probably has to start tonight for the sake of the calendar. Not a good match, but at least it’s going to get tot he point soon enough.

Post match the Bellas jump Rousey and laugh at her. Thankfully Rousey shrugs them off and throws them both down, only to get sent into the post on the floor. Some more whips send her into the steps and barricade for a bonus. I know why this had to happen, but is anyone buying the Bellas as a match for Rousey? Even both of them at once?

Jinder Mahal/Alicia Fox vs. Finn Balor/Bayley

Mixed Match Challenge rematch with Jinder slamming Balor down for a chinlock less than fifteen seconds in. Balor fights up without much effort and brings Bayley in for a hurricanrana as we take a break. Back with Bayley fighting up from a chinlock but getting slammed back down again. Bayley finally sends her to the floor and makes the hot tag off to Balor for some house cleaning. An Eye of the Hurricane gets two with Fox making the save. The women fight to the floor and it’s an enziguri into the Coup de Grace to finish Mahal at 7:26.

Rating: D. These matches aren’t interesting, either on Raw or on Mixed Match Challenge. Balor and Bayley are bigger stars the Jinder and Fox no matter what they do and there’s no changing that. At least they kept it short enough here, but when that’s the best thing that you can say about a match, it’s a bad sign.

Dolph Ziggler gives Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman a pep talk before their rematch with Shield. McIntyre doesn’t want to hear advice from the guy who lost on Saturday but Strowman tells them to focus on helping him become Universal Champion. It’s best that way you see.

Heath Slater tells Baron Corbin that he wants in on the World Cup. Corbin declines, because Slater isn’t very good.

Battle Royal

The winner is automatically in the World Cup tournament. The wrestlers are a bunch of no names (though one has a Chile sash), plus a guy in a Los Conquistador mask. Corbin comes out to put himself in the battle royal because he wants to prove that he’s worthy for the honor. He introduces everyone, including a Russian, an Egyptian, a Mexican (El Hombre Sin Nombre), a Polish wrestler (who is rather short), a wrestler from Antarctica, a Swede, EL CONQUISTADOR (Cole: “Is it Edge or Christian? Matt or Jeff?”), a wrestler from Luxembourg and of course Corbin.

Everyone goes after Corbin to start but he fights them off and starts eliminating people, though El Conquistador is chilling on the floor. Corbin dumps everyone and poses but El Conquistador comes back in for some German suplexes. We get some jumping jacks and an Angle Slam for the elimination to give El Conquistador the win at 3:46.

Rating: D. This was all angle and when one of the jobbers is named Seabass (Why can’t they just call him Copeland?), you kind of know what you’re in for. Angle going on to Saudi Arabia is fine, though it’s getting a little annoying having those cards be more stacked than Wrestlemania.

And it’s Jose Luis Rivera. Or Kurt Angle. Either way he’s a heck of a Spanish dancer.

Post break Angle looks like he needs oxygen and says he’s still on vacation.

Ember Moon vs. Nia Jax

Ember starts fast with an enziguri but gets slammed down without too much effort. A sleeper doesn’t get Moon very far so she goes with a hurricanrana. Nia gets caught with a baseball slide to the floor and there’s the suicide dive, which doesn’t even put Nia down. A missed charge sends Nia into the LED board though and that’s a countout win for Ember at 2:58.

Here’s Trish Stratus to say last week’s Moment of Bliss was a Moment of BS. Instead, it’s time for a Moment of Stratusfaction but here are Alexa Bliss and Mickie James to cut her off. After a short joke, Alexa talks about how she idolized Trish growing up. After all these years now, she’s learned that Trish really sucked. If Bliss had been around back then, Trish wouldn’t have even been able to get in the same ring with her.

Trish says come get in the ring right now so Bliss and Mickie do just that with the latter saying not so fast. Mickie brings up beating her in Chicago at Wrestlemania but Trish says they’ll both find out what a Hall of Fame beating feels like. If that’s the case, maybe we should just make it a tag match. Trish likes the idea, but thinks it’s an EXTREMELY difficult decision to pick a partner. Or it could just be Lita, who is here as well. The brawl is on but Mickie gets away before the moonsault.

The Shield given an old school hold the camera promo, talking about how this is a brotherhood and the results are the same either in Melbourne or Chicago.

Ascension vs. Bobby Roode/Chad Gable

Before the match, Konnor promises to take them both to the wasteland. Gable sends Konnor to the floor to start but Viktor is right back up with a running elbow to the face for two. The stomping in the corner begins and it’s off to a chinlock as the fans chant for CM PUNK. In this match, as in the sixth week of this feud, chant on people. Gable rolls over for a tag to Roode so house can be cleaned. There’s the Blockbuster to Konnor but Gable tags himself in for the Rolling Chaos Theory and the pin at 4:19.

Rating: D. So after SIX WEEKS of this stuff, we’re right where we could have been after….I don’t now, two? Roode is just now having issues with Gable? I can’t blame the fans for booing this for a second as it’s ridiculous to have this one lame story go on for so long. Just turn Roode heel already. They’ve done it several times almost at the drop of a hat tonight, so why is Roode so difficult?

Before Roode can yell at Gable, here’s the AOP to take all four of them apart.

We look back at the opening segment.

DX video, focusing on their comedy stuff. If you’re trying to make this serious, why show this stuff? The people who already know DX know who they are and how dominant they can be, so why go this route?

Here’s Paul Heyman to say he’s here to see a fight. He finds it interesting that Reigns and Strowman beat each other up on Saturday and now they’re here after a twenty hour flight for the fans’ entertainment all over again. While they’re doing that seven days a week and twice on Sundays, Brock Lesnar is in his own bed in his own house before waking up to a home cooked meal.

He’ll then run a mile to the Death Clutch Gym, which he designed to make it easier to become a two sport World Champion. Lesnar is on his own while Reigns has to keep an eye on Ambrose and Rollins. For Lesnar, it’s about me and now we and he’ll win at Crown Jewel. Shield’s entrance cuts Heyman off and panic ensues.

Shield vs. Braun Strowman/Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre

It’s a big staredown before the bell until McIntyre runs Rollins over to start. Ambrose comes in for a double suplex and some clubbing forearm shots to Drew’s face. That’s enough of that so it’s off to Strowman vs. Reigns with Roman not being able to Samoan drop him. Reigns gets saved from a double suplex and a double clothesline puts McIntyre and Ziggler on the floor. Strowman thinks better of fighting all three of them at once and goes outside for some yelling instead.

Back from a break with Reigns in trouble until he punches Ziggler out of the air. Strowman comes in and misses a charge into the post, allowing Reigns to hit the Samoan drop. It’s off to Rolling to speed things up but he spends too much time tuning up the band, allowing Ziggler to avoid the Stomp. The Buckle Bomb gets two instead as everything breaks down. Ambrose and Rollins hit the double suicide dives but Strowman is ready for them. Reigns takes out everyone with the BIG dive and we take a second break.

Back again with Strowman cranking on Rollins’ neck and handing it back to McIntyre, who cuts off a hot tag and kicks Rollins in the face. Ziggler gets catapulted into the corner and McIntyre takes an enziguri, only to have Strowman knock Ambrose and Reigns to the floor. Strowman yells at Ziggler, who yells right back until Strowman grabs him by the throat. That brings Drew into Strowman’s face until Rollins knocks McIntyre into Strowman for two. Rollins brings Ambrose in to pick the pace way up, including a suicide dive.

A swinging neckbreaker gets two more on Drew but it’s too early for Dirty Deeds. Ambrose has to elbow Ziggler down, allowing McIntyre to spinebust him for two. Rollins comes back in and suplexes Ziggler to the floor, leaving Dean to slug it out with McIntyre. A double clothesline puts both of them down and Strowman posts Reigns. Dean’s dive onto Strowman is caught so he spins it into a DDT to put both of them down as well. There’s a spear to Strowman but Drew is waiting for Ambrose with the Claymore for the pin at 21:58.

Rating: B+. This was a lot better than their Australia match with a ton of action for the last five plus minutes and a finish that actually surprised me. I’m very, very pleased that McIntyre is getting this kind of attention and protection as he’s now pinned Ambrose and Rollins in back to back weeks. I’m really hoping he gets the rocket push when this team with Ziggler ends, because it’s going to rock.

Post match Ambrose walks off on his own, leaving Rollins and Reigns confused to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. There wasn’t a lot of good wrestling tonight by MY GOODNESS there was a lot of storyline stuff packed in there. I know it’s not the best show in the world but this wasn’t boring once (ok maybe once in the Ascension match), making the show a lot easier to watch. They set up a bunch of stuff for both shows (far easier this time since the shows both have their own roster) and certainly kept things moving. Good show, though some better wrestling would have helped a lot.

Results

Bobby Lashley b. Kevin Owens – Spinning Dominator

Ronda Rousey/Bella Twins b. Riott Squad – Armbar to Riott

Bayley/Finn Balor b. Alicia Fox/Jinder Mahal – Coup de Grace to Mahal

El Conquistador won a battle royal last eliminating Baron Corbin

Ember Moon b. Nia Jax via countout

Bobby Roode/Chad Gable b. Ascension – Rolling Chaos Theory to Konnor

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre/Braun Strowman b. Shield – Claymore to Ambrose

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Smackdown Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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