Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be at the Academy Awards this weekend as he has been chosen to present one of the awards although he stopped short of revealing which one it will be.
“Truly an honor to step on the Oscar stage again this Sunday. Thank you @TheAcademy,” Johnson posted on Twitter along with a photo of the first time he presented an award at the Oscars.
In 2008, Johnson was chosen to present the Best Visual Effects award during the ceremony.
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will honor the best films of 2014 and will take place February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 8:30PM EST.
The soon-to-be ex-host of the Daily Show, Jon Stewart, recorded a video message to Seth Rollins who this past Monday on Raw said that he could easily replace him as host on the popular Comedy Central show and actually make the show watchable again.
Stewart, who is a big wrestling fan himself, called Rollins a turncoat for abandoning the Shield and mentioned some mistakes Rollins has made during his career, including being unable to choose what color his hair should be, but dissing him on Raw was the biggest mistake he ever made.
“You just stepped in a world of hurt my friend, a world of friend that not even your buddies at J&J Security aren’t going to be able to save you from,” Stewart said. He said he’s coming after Rollins with “160 pounds of dynamite,” at which point, Stewart pauses and says, “Well not actually dynamite, my bone density is not what it used to be.” The video was posted on WWE’s social media accounts as well on The Daily Show Facebook page.
Meanwhile, Seth Rollins hit back at Stewart again after appearing on TMZ Hollywood Sports and made fun of Stewart, calling him ancient and said probably his writers wrote the promo for him.
“If he thinks he can hang with the best, Mr. Money In The Bank will be waiting for him,” Rollins said. The video can be seen below.
WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois against Phil Brooks and Scott Colton – better known as CM Punk and Colt Cabana – for their comments they made about him during the infamous interview Punk had on Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast.
The lawsuit alleges that both former WWE Superstars made false statements about him which were defamatory as well as insinuated that he has lack of integrity and lack of competence as a doctor. Amann states that Punk attacked his reputation when he said that he misdiagnosed the lump in his back as just fatty deposit and ignored requests by Punk himself to remove it. During the podcast, Punk said that the fatty deposit ended up being a life-threatening MSRA which was later treated by a different doctor. Amann is saying that Punk never asked him to treat it nor did he ever show him any lump. Punk also went into a fierce attack on the doctor saying that he prescribed him the antibiotic Zithromax Z-Pack left, right, and center, something which Amann is also disputing.
The case against Colton is because during the same podcast, Colton called Dr. Amann “lazy” among other things and said words which Amann said they both know they are false.
Amann is suing for compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $2 million. The Chicago-Sun Times featured a short story about the lawsuit and noted that Punk and Cabana could not be reached for comment.
TNA’s British wrestler Grado, who was a cast member of the latest British Boot Camp, is getting TNA some major publicity as the fight is on to get Madonna to let TNA use the “Like A Prayer” song as his theme song for tomorrow’s Impact episode.
Grado used the song during the Impact tapings in Glasgow a few weeks back but TNA does not have the right to use the song on broadcast television. In a video posted by Grado himself, he said that negotiations between TNA and the network have been ongoing to see if they can use the song but they have now got a response from Madonna’s reps that have denied their request to use the song.
So Grado took it to Twitter and managed to get the #SayYesMadonna hashtag trending worldwide with a lot of media outlets picking it up, including CNN’s Time.com website and other British-based media websites.
You can see the video Grado did including an entrance he did for Insane Championship Wrestling in the UK using Madonna’s song as his theme and the crowd participation to highlight why it’s important for him to use this song below.
The episode of NXT where Rhyno made his NXT debut aired last night on the WWE Network and WWE uploaded the whole segment on YouTube.
Rhyno, who hasn’t wrestled for the WWE since June 2005, came out to a massive pop and “holy shit” chants from the rabid NXT crowd at Full Sail University and then started a “Gore, gore, gore” chant. Rhyno did not take long to give the fans what they want and finished his opponent, Elias Samson, in a minute with the gore.
Two of his closest friends, and former WWE Superstars themselves Edge and Christian, also welcomed him back on Twitter.
“Christian…” Edge wrote, to which Christian replied, “…Get the Rhyno!! #WWENXT.”
Cassandra Frazier, who is the widow of the late former WWE Superstar Mabel/Viscera/Big Daddy V, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment in Shelby County Circuit Court in Memphis, Tennessee.
The lawsuit states that her husband, Nelson Frazier Jr, passed away due to the effects of punishment he endured while wrestling, mentioning brain trauma and several concussions from hundreds of matches inside a WWE ring.
Frazier claims that her husband had short-term memory loss, migraines, depression, difficulty performing simple tasks, disfiguring scar tissue, and more.
The lawsuit alleges that Vince McMahon and WWE have failed to protect its wrestlers from harms created by performing in the ring and that they have ignored and disregarded risks of harm to its wrestlers. In the lawsuit there’s also photos and information about former WWE Superstars who passed away due to heart attacks, suicide, etc, and also lists tons of matches that Nelson Frazier participated in.
The lawsuit accuses WWE of nine counts – negligence, negligence misrepresentation, intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraud by omission / failure to warn, vicarious liability, wrongful death, punitive damages, and loss of consortium suffered by the plaintiff.
Nelson Frazer Jr passed away on February 18, 2014, after suffering a heart attack. He wrestled for the WWE starting in 1993 and then back in 1999 and 2004 up until 2008.
Monday Night Raw this week drew a total of 3,997,000 viewers, up 339,000 from last week’s show.
Hour one did 4,138,000 viewers, followed by 4,026,000 viewers in the second, and then down even more to 3,828,000 viewers in the third and final hour. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
In an interesting twist and change to their contract, Sky in the United Kingdom will be offering the WWE Fastlane pay-per-view “free” on Sky Sports 1 to all Sky Sports subscribers instead of Sky Box Office.
With the new deal that kicked in last month, all twelve WWE pay-per-views were supposed to air on the Sky Box Office platform and for a price of £19.95, a £5 increase for each show. With the old deal, Sky showed four out of those twelve shows on Sky Sports and not on pay-per-view.
WWE now shows all their pay-per-views on the WWE Network in the United Kingdom which sells for £9.99 a month, half the price of what Sky charges on their Sky Box Office platform.
The departure of Samoa Joe from TNA Wrestling led to several of his peers write about him on their Twitter feed today.
Leading the compliments was Kurt Angle, a man who had some epic feuds with Joe himself when he arrived in TNA.
“To @SamoaJoe – 1 of the very best I’ve ever had the privilege to wrestle. Many Blessings to you and your future. I will remember the feuds,” Angle wrote.
WWE’s Paul Heyman also had his say – somewhat – by retweeting Joe’s original tweet and adding, “Hmmm” in the front, a tweet which will certainly start some speculations.
Velvet Sky said she was shocked to hear the departure of Joe from the company as he’s a TNA original and one of the major players. “@IMPACTWRESTLING ain’t what it used to be,” she wrote.
Magnus added that he was “pretty devastated” that Joe won’t be there next time he goes to work but assured fans that Joe will “be more than fine” as he is all pro.
Also, WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin said that WWE “should pick him up” when asked by a fan about his opinion about Joe leaving TNA.
TNA has already moved Joe’s profile from the active to the Alumni roster section on their ImpactWrestling.com website.
In their latest 10-K filings with the Securities Exchange Commission, there were some very interesting numbers revealed about the WWE Network.
Ever since the Network was launched on February 24, 2014, WWE had approximately 1,490,000 gross subscribers by the year end but a whopping 674,000 decided not to keep the service. In total, WWE generated $69.5 million in Network revenues throughout the year.
As far as money spent by WWE on the Network, the company incurred $14 million in additional programming and production costs while advertising and promotion expense increased to $16 million to support the Network launch and subscriber acquisition efforts.
An additional $13 million in customer service costs associated with the Network were also spent during the last calendar year.
Episode 16 of season 3 of Total Divas which was titled ‘All Hail Brie Mode,’ did the lowest rating of the second half of the season, with 914,000 viewers tuning in. That is down 166,000 viewers from the previous week.
The show faced some stiff competition from the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live during its time slot like anything else on television on Sunday night. (Ratings credit: PWInsider.com)
TNA has lost one of its longest serving employees as Samoa Joe announced yesterday that he is no longer working for the company in a short tweet.
“I have decided to part ways with @ImpactWrestling. My very best to them moving forward, and my eternal thanks to the fans,” Joe wrote. He did not elaborate further as to why he’s leaving.
Joe worked for TNA for ten years, making his debut in June 2005 at the Slammiversary pay-per-view. He was in several high profile feuds during his time there, including ones with Kurt Angle, Main Event Mafia, Bobby Lashley, and others. During his time there he won the TNA World title once, the TV title once, the X-Division title five times, and the Tag Team titles twice.
Joe was in the recent Lethal Lockdown match which aired on February 6 on Destination America teaming up with MVP, Low Ki, and Kenny King against Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, Gunner, and Austin Aries. Prior to leaving, Joe was part of the Beat Down Clan but now the group will be missing one member.
Samoa Joe also served as a mentor on the recently finished second season of TNA’s British Boot Camp along with Al Snow and Gail Kim.
WWE Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett. a Brit who is a big football (soccer, for Americans) fan saw his home town team Preston North End crash out of the English FA Cup this past Monday and used Twitter to get at Manchester United’s captain Wayne Rooney for his role in ending Preston’s chances of advancing.
“How about that @WayneRooney dive vs @PNEFC? He won’t need to dive when I catch up with him.. #BullHammer #BNB,” Barrett wrote after Rooney was accused of diving in the penalty box to get a penalty which he eventually scored.
The Manchester United and England captain replied to the tweet two hours later saying, “@WadeBarrett ill get stone cold Steve Austin out of retirement for you. Haha.”
Barrett loved the idea and shot back, “@WayneRooney you and @steveaustinBSR Vs me and @Kevin__Davies at Wrestlemania in 6 weeks. Get it booked @VinceMcMahon.” Davies is a player for Preston who also was part of Monday’s match. Davies replied to all of them saying, “Let’s get it on,” and even Steve Austin got in on the lighthearted Twitter war, with his own dig at Wayne Rooney.
“Embrace the baldness. And that’s the bottom line…” Austin wrote. Rooney was going bald but then underwent a hair transplant procedure a couple of years ago. “@steveaustinBSR that’s the bottom line. Cause stone cold said so,” Rooney replied.
The Twitter exchange was picked up by most British tabloid newspapers.
WWE stocks had another good day today on Wall Street, adding 4.49%, or 75 cents, to its value, ending the day at $17.34 a piece after opening at $16.65. Stocks reached a high of $17.47 and a low of $16.59.
With today’s 4% addition, WWE stocks increased 26% since last Thursday when the company released its Q4 2014 and year end results.
TNA’s Eddie Edwards is facing a few months on the sidelines after he suffered an apparent broken heel during one of TNA’s One Night Only pay-per-view tapings on Sunday afternoon.
Edwards flew back home yesterday missing the last set of PPV tapings and will be getting his injury checked and date set for his surgery. Edwards was wrestling his tag team partner Davey Richards when the accident happened, reportedly after doing a flip off the top rope and landing badly on his feet.
Edwards and Richards have been wrestling for TNA since January 2014.
In his latest blog, Jim Ross said according to sources it’s looking more likely that Brock Lesnar stays with WWE past WrestleMania 31.
According to these sources, the apparent change of heart is due long term health affects of fighting, specifically concussion oriented issues.
Lesnar’s WWE deal is set to expire after WrestleMania 31 and the general feeling has been that Lesnar was going back to the UFC for round two of his mixed martial arts career. Lesnar was a box office mega star for the UFC and made the company millions and millions of dollars in pay-per-view revenue.
Ever since coming to WWE a couple of years ago, Lesnar has made millions himself, having one of the most lucrative WWE deals ever which includes very limited TV appearances during the year, no non-televised live events, no media, and the ability to showcase sponsors on his ring gear.
According to eye witness reports, Bray Wyatt vomited during his dark match with John Cena after Raw went off the air last night.
Other reports don’t mention Wyatt getting sick however the one thing in common is that Wyatt botched a spot with Cena when he he lost his grip and both were reportedly hurt, with Cena even getting cut in the face. The referee then wore his gloves to check on both and medical staff attended to Wyatt after Cena pinned him following an Attitude Adjustment to send the crowd happy.
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon is on the cover of the March edition of Muscle & Fitness magazine and we got to be honest, he pretty much owns that cover.
McMahon is pictured flexing with a chain around his neck showing his impressive physique. The headline reads, “Vince McMahon: The WWE Chief Is Better Than Ever At 69.”
This is the second time that McMahon has graced the cover of the fitness magazine with the first time being in April 2006. You can check out the impressive new cover below.
Monday Night Raw TV Report for February 16th, 2015 – “Anything You Can Do…”
Introduction Segment: Welcoming
The regular Raw video plays and the pyro explodes in the Amway Arena of Orlando, Florida.
Segment #2: Arena Promo
John Cena’s music kicks off Raw, and he comes out to pump up the fans. He then recaps, via video, the brawl with Rusev from last week’s Raw. Cena is out tonight to stand up to the United States Champion. He quickly gets to the point, declaring “this Sunday at Fastlane, I am going to beat Rusev!”
Cena says he loves all the reactions, good or bad, from the fans, and all the fun he has in this business. However, you can’t be “fun” around Rusev. John talks about Rusev’s perspective, how he has lost his stride over the years; but Cena retorts that is not true. He makes it known that he will be the first to beat Rusev and win the U.S. Title.
Lana and Rusev now walk out to the stage. Lana is tired of Cena’s usual speech, and it all doesn’t matter because Rusev will “crush” Cena. The U.S. Champ agrees, telling Cena he will “crush your spirit.”
Commercials.
Segment #3: Video Promo
Dean Ambrose parodies Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” sketch, with a take on Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett’s avoidance of facing him at Fastlane for the I.C. Title. Ambrose predicts that will be resolved as by the end of the night, Barrett will be defending his Title at Fastlane.
Match #1: Single – Luke Harper VS. Dean Ambrose
They grapple to begin and Harper shoves Dean down. Ambrose waistlocks Luke and clamps on a standing side headlock, Harper pushes Dean to the canvas with a shoulder-block but Dean comes back. Harper regains control until Ambrose plants him with a corner-running-bulldog. He puts Harper to the floor then follows up with a suicide dive, but Luke catches him and boots him in the face.
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Harper is still dominating, wearing Ambrose down until Dean appears to bite Harper! He battles back and spins him around with a Tornado-DDT! Dean continues to fight with fists, then soars off the top turnbuckle with an elbow-clothesline! 1 – 2 – Harper kicks out! He turns Dean around with a sideslam, but Ambrose kicks out at two! Ambrose nails a stiff clothesline, then drives him into the mat with the “Dirty Deeds” DDT for the victory!
Winner via Pinfall: Dean Ambrose
Later tonight, Dusty Rhodes will hope to get things sorted out between his sons, Stardust and Goldust. As well, Triple H will respond to Sting’s acceptance of the face-to-face at Fastlane.
Commercials.
Segment #4: Office Promo
Triple H is talking with Kane when Big Show walks in. Both giants get into an argument over last week’s Smackdown and The Royal Rumble. The C.O.O. interjects and tells them both to figure out their issues and realize the important objective is to take out Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan.
Segment #5: Video Promo
Bray Wyatt is shown in a dark, smoky room. “What happened to you was such a tragedy. What happened to you still stirs a rage deep down inside of me. It makes me want to do the most horrible thing. And now the shock and fear that I once had of you has turned into nothing more than putrid, hateful, pity. It’s coming.”
Segment #6: Locker Room Promo
Stardust/Cody Rhodes and Goldust are in their locker room when their father walks in. Dusty Rhodes declares that he wants to make things right for the Rhodes Family.
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Match #2: Tag-Team – The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (with New Day tag-team partner Big E.) VS. Gold and Stardust
Stardust and Xavier begin, with Woods controlling. Stardust tags in Goldust out of a wristlock, who comes in and takes over Woods. Stardust is back in, but quickly switches with his brother. Woods takes over, jackknife-pinning Goldust for two, then taking him down to the canvas again. Kofi gets his time now, and flies all over Goldust. He rockets off the top turnbuckle with a crossbody but Stardust breaks up the cover. Kingston comes back in and goes for the Trouble-In-Paradise spin-kick. Stardust moves and Kofi nails Goldust. Xavier punches with Starudst on the outside as Kofi registers the 1 – 2 – 3!
Winners via Pinfall: The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (with New Day tag-team partner Big E.)
Post-match, Stardust and Goldust embrace, then Stardust yanks him back and drives his brother down with CrossRhodes!
Segment #7: Locker Room Promo
Byron Saxton interviews Roman Reigns on his time since The Royal Rumble. Roman questions Bryan’s integrity for not just accepting the loss in the Royal Rumble and basically weaseling his way into a potential title match at WrestleMania.
Daniel Bryan makes his entrance, but not for a match, as next is Reigns taking on Kane.
Commercials.
Segment #8: Video Promo
Dusty Rhodes confronts Cody on what he did to his brother. Cody only answers in Stardust-mode, proclaiming that Cody Rhodes is dead, just like his father.
Match #3: Single – Roman Reigns VS. Kane
(Note: Daniel Bryan is on commentary.) Reigns slugs and kicks away on Kane in the corner. He seems to be in firm control until Daniel gets the crowd going in a “yes” chant, which averts Reigns’ attention. Kane capitalizes, hitting Roman for a bit then a DDT. He begins to wear Roman down with a grounding chinlock. Reigns counters with a backdrop but is given an uppercut as he dived from the turnbuckle.
Kane hits a low-running-front-dropkick, but Reigns soon fires back. He leaps off the turnbuckle with a clothesline but is booted again to the outside. Kane rips off the cover to the announce table and attempts to chokeslam Reigns through it. Roman hops out of it and spears “The Big Red Machine,” then rolls back into the ring and gets the W!
Winner via Count-Out: Roman Reigns
Post-match, Bryan continues to get the bigger crowd reaction and pull the rug from under Reigns.
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Segment #9: Backstage Promo
Rene Young interviews Daniel Bryan, who puts over Roman as an “awesome athlete.” However, Bryan says that Reigns needs to be “mentally tough,” and get over the “yes” calls.
Segment #10: Video Promo
Bray Wyatt appears on screen again. “His hands may have created this world, but mine will destroy it. (Holding a mallet.) Limbo is no place for a soul like yours. I’m waiting for you.”
Segment #11: Locker Room Promo
Byron is awaiting an interview with Paige, but The Bellas walk out instead. They have Paige’s ring attire in their hands, and insist that she will be wrestling next, naked.
Paige runs out, in only a towel, and asks Cameron for her clothes. Cameron denies, then Paige sees The Rosebuds. She grabs one of them and hurries into the locker room.
Commercials.
Match #4: Single – Summer Rae VS. Paige
Paige finally makes her entrance, in a fairy costume. She is just as furious though, all over Summer to start out. Summer reverses an Irish Whip into an almost roll-up, then nails a spin-kick. She then ties Paige’s arms up in a behind-the-back scissor lock. Summer leg-drops Paige once, but misses a round two. Paige gives her three short-arm clotheslines and a stiff kick, then lockers Rae in the Paige Tap-Out, forcing her to give-up.
Winner via Submission: Paige
Post-match, Paige informs The Bellas that she doesn’t “need an outfit to look good,” but insinuates that the Divas Championship will be the perfect thing to wear instead.
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Match #5: Single – “Mr. Money In The Bank” Seth Rollins (with J & J Security [Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury] ) VS. “The Show-Off” Dolph Ziggler
Prior to this contest, Rollins cuts a promo continuing to state that he is the future of the WWE, which is appropriate because of it being President’s Day in the United States. Seth talks about wanting to cash in the Money In The Bank contract soon, and begins to rip on Dolph Ziggler. “The Show-Off” interrupts, to a huge ovation. He takes a few shots at the entire Authority, then puts himself over as someone who does “what it means to be ‘the best,’” as well as taking out The Authority at Survivor Series. Ziggler immediately punches away at Rollins, who quickly escapes to the outside.
Commercials.
Rollins is now in control, grappling Dolph with a grounding rear chinlock. J & J try to get involved on the outside, but the referee catches them and orders them to the back. In the ring, Ziggler small-packages Seth for two. Rollins misses a run and eats the post shoulder-first. Dolph gets fired up, splashing and elbow-dropping Rollins. He hits a bunch of signature moves, but Rollins does not stay down.
“Mr. Money In The Bank” returns the favor with a Pele-Kick for a near-fall! Rollins ground-and-pounds on Dolph, then climbs the turnbuckle. Ziggler meets him up there, but is shoved off quickly. Rollins follows with a jump, but Dolph moves. He goes for the Fameasseer, but it is countered. Dolph counters another move, and hits the Zig-Zag. He covers, but J & J run in again and break up the pin.
Winner via Disqualification: “The Show-Off” Dolph Ziggler
Post-match, Ziggler is beaten down by Rollins, Mercury, and Noble until Erik Rowan and Ryback run out to make the save.
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Segment #12: Arena Promo
Video recalls everything that has happened with Sting since he has arrived, as Triple H makes his entrance. “The Game” talks about the notions that he is “afraid of Sting.” Triple H vehemently denies it, instead promoting that Sting will be going against “The Game,” “The Cerebral Assassin…” Before he goes any further, a man who knows both him and Sting extremely well walks out. “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair returns and struts down the aisle!
He is here to give HHH advice on facing Sting, which “The Game” respectfully doesn’t want any of. HHH does put Sting over as “The Franchise” and “The Icon” of WCW, and respects him for staying right until the bitter end of that company. However, if Sting had chosen to come to WWE a lot earlier, Triple H says he would’ve “run him out.” He states the reason of doing this because “Sting’s legacy was built on Ric Flair’s reputation.” Ric tells Triple H that he’s “not acting like ‘The Cerebral Assassin.’” HHH thinks that Sting is coming to take all away that Triple H has built, but Flair suggests that those are the mind-games Sting plays and they’re working. He says that HHH doesn’t have the right mindset anymore for competition because he’s not wrestling every night, and that instead, he is running the WWE. “Don’t let me see you sitting on your ass again, okay, like you were last Monday. Fair enough?” Triple H shoves his mentor to the mat, then yells at him that “if someone stands between me and this company, I am kicking their ass. At Fastlane, I promise you, whether he goes on his own, or whether I beat it out of him, Sting will never show his face here again,” Triple H concludes and storms off.
Commercials.
Match #6: Tag-Team – Darren Young and ??? VS. The Ascension (Conor and Viktor)
The Ascension just decimate Young and his partner, until Titus O’Neil runs out and makes the save. He helps out his former partner, Darren, run off Viktor and Conor.
Winner: No Contest due to No Official Start
Segment #13: Backstage Promo
The Miz is trying to convince Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett to teach Damien Mizdow a lesson. If Barrett helps out, then Miz will do something about the pending contract for Fastlane that Dean Ambrose has.
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Match #7: Single – Damien Mizdow (with The Miz) VS. Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett (Non-Title)
Every time Damien would gain an advantage, Miz would ring a bell on the outside, and order him to fix something. This led to Mizdow falling to Barrett after a Bullhammer-Elbow shot!
Winner via Pinfall: Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett
Post-match, Dean Ambrose charges in and ties up Barrett against the post. He forces Bad News to sign the contract, and they will be wrestling this Sunday at Fastlane for the Intercontinental Championship.
Segment #14: Arena Promo
For a third time, Bray Wyatt is on screen. “What shakes the heart of a man who can never truly die? I believe I found the answer. The answer lives in me. The answer is the creature that lives behind my eyes. The answer is ‘Bray Wyatt.’ there’s nowhere left to go. The angle with the burnt wings cometh. Find me, FIND ME! Or I’ll find you.” He finishes hammering a nail into an object.
Commercials.
Match #8: Six-Person Tag-Team – Cesaro, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya VS. Tag-Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) and Naomi (Non-Title)
Naomi and Natalya reverse pin combos, until Naomi gets the better with a sunset-flip!
Winners via Pinfall: Tag-Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) and Naomi
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Match #9: Single – The Big Show VS. Daniel Bryan
(Note: Roman is just sitting at ringside.) This match starts out evenly until Show takes dominance for a while. Bryan eventually counters and wears down Show with a sleeper. During this, Roman decides to sign autographs for the fans. This makes Bryan angry, so he starts to kick away until Big catches him.
Commercials.
Show is back in control, dominating for a bit. Bryan manages a suicide dive to the outside, but Show counters. He tries to run Bryan into the post, but Daniel slips out and shoves him into the post. Show turns a throw around and hurls Daniel into Reigns, then Spears Reigns as Bryan was getting in Roman’s face. In the ring, Bryan manages to trap show in the Yes Lock Crossface, but Show crawls to the ropes for the break. Reigns suddenly interrupts and Superman Punches Show, causing another DQ.
Winner via Disqualification: The Big Show
Post-match, Bryan and Roman face-off. This ensues into a big melee and brawl around the arena that takes numerous referees and agents to split apart. Bryan even wails Reigns with a chair! To close the show, Daniel is on top of the announce table and a bloody-lower-face Roman is by the ring.
End Of Raw.
Reporter’s Rumblings – By Moe Tapp
This was a jam-packed Raw, which was both good and bad. Onto the analysis, then my predictions for Fastlane.
Excellence: promos from Lana/Rusev/Cena, Paige, Ziggler and Rollins, Triple H/Flair, Stardust, Bray Wyatt, and Roman Reigns. Matches between Harper/Ambrose, Paige/Summer, Dolph/Seth, Six-Person Tag, and Show/Bryan.
Loved the two big brawls, especially to open and close Raw. Both made their respective matches feel big-time and display the passion that the wrestlers have.
Great surprise for Ric Flair’s appearance and awesome interaction between the two. I wonder if Flair will be involved in Fastlane too?
I’m intrigued for the possible return of the Primetime Players and think they are playing out The Miz/Damien story beautifully.
Bogus: too many promos; I think they easily could’ve cut a couple of them out/combined a few, such as Dean Ambrose’s SNL parody – have that just before his match, leaving out The Miz/Barrett’s backstage talk and Rollins/Ziggler’s interaction. (As good as they are, they didn’t say anything new, so it was a dud for me.)
I’m hoping Natalya to turn heel at Fastlane and finally be alongside her husband. This would be a much-needed fresh start for her and make her interesting again (other than her excellent wrestling skills).
I’m not thrilled for another dissention between Show and Kane, and Show probably doing the face-turn again. Both need to pick a side and stay on it for longer than 6 months. (At least Kane has done that, but Show keeps flip-flopping, which is really annoying!)
Fastlane predictions: Paige wins the Divas Championship back to setup her VS. A.J. Lee at WrestleMania; Rusev/Cena ends in no-decision, also setting up another WrestleMania match; Kidd/Cesaro win Tag-Titles after Natalya goes with Tyson; Barrett keeps his I.C. Title, somehow; Reigns to defeat Bryan (I’m really hoping this happens, as Reigns got gipped due to Philadelphia)
This was a pretty great Raw for the “go-home” show; here’s hoping next week’s will be just as great as then it is straight to ‘Mania! Until next week, as always, Be Excellent Wrestling-Online Readers and Wrestling Fans!
PWInsider.com is reporting that another WWE Hall of Famer, Ric Flair, will be on Raw tonight.
Flair, who is under contract to the company, hasn’t been used much by WWE over the last year even though he underwent medicals to resume life on the road full time.
Flair is expected to play a part in the current Triple H vs Sting storyline on the show tonight and considering the long history the Nature Boy has with Sting and Triple H, he is the perfect man to be added to the mix.
Sting will be at the Fast Lane pay-per-view this coming Sunday for a face off with Triple H which is looking like it will lead to a match between the two at WrestleMania 31.
