Here are the results from last night’s NXT Takeover: Toronto which took place from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada.
Bobby Roode defeated Tye Dillinger; The Authors of Pain defeated TM-61 in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic; Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa defeated The Revival in a 2-out-of-3 falls match to become the new NXT Tag Team champions; Asuka defeated Mickie James to retain the NXT women’s title; Samoa Joe defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the NXT title.
Last night at the Big Time Wrestling event in Altoona, Pennsylvania, James Ellsworth announced that he signed a WWE deal. The now WWE Superstar got emotional while giving everyone the news in the middle of the ring and shed a tear as well.
“From the kid that’s been wanting to do this since he was five years old, you all made my dream come true. Thank you very much,” Ellsworth told the fans, who all chanted his name.
“Remember if you have a dream and you want it to come true, any man with two hands has a fighting chance,” Ellsworth added. He was then hoisted up on the shoulders by those in the ring as fans chanted “you deserve it.”
The Survivor Series tomorrow will be the first time that Ellsworth will be officially part of the roster. He has been working a per-appearance deal since resurfacing on Smackdown.
You can see a video of his announcement below.
https://twitter.com/NoWhereNoName1/status/799818369662853121
Live tonight from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada, WWE presents NXT Takeover: Toronto only on the WWE Network. The full card is as follows:
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Samoa Joe for the NXT title; Asuka vs Mickie James for the NXT Women’s title; The Revival vs Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa in a 2 out of 3 falls for the NXT Tag Team titles; The Authors of Pain vs TM-61 in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Paul Ellering suspended above the ring in a cage; Bobby Roode vs Tye Dillinger.
You can watch NXT Takeover: Toronto on the WWE Network for free if you are a first-time WWE Network subscriber. All you have to do to get your free month, and also watch Survivor Series and TLC, is to go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk and sign up!
Before the 900th episode of Smackdown, Paul Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, The Dudley Boyz, and Taz filmed an ECW special for the WWE Network.
Titled the Authentic Untold Story of ECW and hosted by Corey Graves, the show promises to “go beyond extreme” with “a unique look at ECW” as recounted by the men who lived it. Notably absent from the line up is former WWE executive and ECW commentator Joey Styles, who is not going through his best time professionally at the moment.
The show will be airing on Monday, November 21 immediately following the conclusion of Monday Night Raw.
A new original series, titled Story Time, will debut on the WWE Network tomorrow night immediately following the Survivor Series.
Story Time paints an animated picture of some of the most entertaining stories in WWE, as recounted by the Superstars and Legends who lived them. As history is retold with imagination and illustration, these tales that took place behind the scenes and beyond the ring are finally revealed and brought to life.
Tomorrow’s episode will take a trip down memory lane with stories from Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Ron Simmons, Ric Flair, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts as they recall life on the road.
Impact this week on POP drew 335,000 viewers, up from last week’s 319,000 number. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
This Sunday, WWE hosts its 30th Survivor Series – a fact that’d be much more celebrated if WWE weren’t scared of numbering!
Headlining with the return of Bill Goldberg, Survivor Series also has a bubbling storyline underneath in the form of the way-too-early brand feud, with a series of Raw vs. SmackDown Survivor Series-style matches.
Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg
Let’s be honest, aside from the Raw vs. SmackDown feud, this is the real main event. A chance at redemption for Brock and Bill, after their match at WrestleMania twelve and a half years ago that went down oh-so-well.
Of course, the real reason for this to exist is to plug the new WWE video game… and there’s only one result that can reasonably happen. Goldberg winning could be a horrendous call, given that he’s already stated that “Brock is last”… along with the reports that Goldberg picked up an injury during their face-off on the go-home episode of Raw. That being said, part-time Lesnar’s not exactly going to be thrust into any title scene in the immediate future, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if they gave Goldberg the win. Logically, this shouldn’t be a pick ‘em, so I’m going to go with the guy who’s staying around. Prediction: Brock Lesnar
Survivor Series Match: Team Raw (Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman) vs. Team SmackDown Live (AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt & Shane McMahon)
The “other” main event, sees two teams of five fighting for “brand supremacy” (or whatever buzzword they’re using) after barely four months of the brand split. Looking at the two teams, Raw’s clearly got more “moving parts”, as it were, with the Owens/Jericho/Rollins feud still having some legs in it, compared to the AJ/Ambrose feud, which has been iced in favour of that distracting storyline with James Ellsworth.
Unfortunately, whilst the brand extension was started on the promise that “it’ll be the wrestlers who are the priority, not the authority figures”, that has slipped somewhat in recent weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more interplay between the McMahons. I don’t expect any brand to take a “clean sweep” of the mens, womens and tag matches, but thanks to interference and in-fighting, I’ll expect the blue brand to sneak this. Prediction: SmackDown Live
Survivor Series Match: Team Raw (Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Nia Jax, Alicia Fox & Sasha Banks) vs. Team SmackDown (Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Carmella & Naomi)
For the men, read the women. This match has perhaps suffered with the face/heel divide being scrapped in the last few weeks (a babyface Bayley joining in a heel-style beatdown, anyone)? Unfortunately, unlike the men’s match, I don’t forsee anything major coming out of this, save for the standard post-show bickerings. There’s been talk of Nikki Bella going over to Raw and being a challenger for Charlotte, but I don’t see any triggers being pulled yet. I’ll pick Raw to win, with Charlotte taking the plaudits here. Prediction: Raw
Survivor Series Match: Team Raw (The New Day, Sheamus and Cesaro, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Enzo Amore and Big Cass & The Shining Stars (Primo and Epico)) vs. Team SmackDown (Heath Slater and Rhyno, The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley), American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable), The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) & Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango))
Unfortunately the biggest elimination match on the card is going to be the most pointless. With twenty men involved, I’m expecting them to throw in a rule along the lines of “if one man’s eliminated, that tag team is eliminated”; otherwise we’re going to have a LOT of pins coming from hiptosses and other moves that wouldn’t even get a one-count outside of this show.
There’s been next to no “our tag teams are better than yours”-style of arguing for this match, so I’m fully expecting this match to create two new title feuds for the December PPVs. Either way, this match is a real coin-toss, so I’m just going to go with SmackDown. For no particular reason. Prediction: SmackDown Live
WWE Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (c) vs. Sami Zayn
Well, a week ago we had an attempt at a Twitter war with then-champion Dolph Ziggler towards Sami Zayn. Whether that was an attempt at a swerve, or something that triggered a title change will remain to be seen. Nevertheless, we’ve now got Zayn vs. Miz in a match that’s perhaps not quite as eagerly anticipated as Ziggler/Zayn would have been. Given that I’ll be picking the Cruiserweights to move to SmackDown, it would make sense for the Intercontinental strap to move to Raw… but then you’d have two secondary titles on one brand, which’d lead to a pointless merger. Sorry Sami, but I can’t see that happening… Prediction: The Miz
WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Brian Kendrick (c) vs. Kalisto
There’s an added stipulation that the entire Cruiserweight division will move to SmackDown if Kalisto wins… which is an odd thing, given that none of the Cruiserweight wrestlers are signed to Raw. Kalisto seems to fit WWE’s dumbed-down definition of a cruiserweight – in that he’s small, has a mask and can fly – and with 205 Live debuting a week after this PPV, it wouldn’t shock me in the least if they pulled the switch and moved. Prediction: Kalisto
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ian Hamilton has been a wrestling fan since 1992, and when he’s not watching WWE, New Japan or his latest wrestling love, PROGRESS, he’s usually suffering through Sunderland AFC and the New York Jets. He’s got a couple of books out on Amazon – “Wrestling’s Sinking Ship” and “Gone Too Soon”, and can be reached via his website, BackBodyDrop.com, or on Twitter @theianhamilton
Former WCW champion Goldberg told NBC Sports that his body is feeling “horrible” just days before the Survivor Series and that he’s terrified about his match against Brock Lesnar.
Goldberg revealed that he tweaked his shoulder on Raw but that alone is not going to stop him from “kicking ass and taking names” this coming Sunday at the Survivor Series.
He said that he has trained three times a day for three days a week and two times a day during the other four days and has not had a day off since his return. “The problem is that you’re trying to accomplish 50 things at once and it’s just not physically possible to give yourself the proper time to recuperate after all of these workouts. You know, I felt the ill effects of that when I tripped in the ring during my second appearance,” Goldberg said, referring to the slip when he was in the ring with Rusev.
Goldberg added that he’s treating this match as his last because he’s only concerned about the Lesnar match.
Starting today at 10AM EST, WrestleMania 33 tickets will be on sale for the general public after two days of pre-sale.
Ticket prices ranging from $35 to $1,000 are available as well as a limited number of $2,000 seats which will also include the commemorative chair and VIP entrance. These prices do not include service charges and other associated fees.
Tickets are available for purchase through Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, and by phone on 1-800-745-3000.
Wrestling-Online.com is organizing a chartered bus to take fans to the Camping World Stadium on WrestleMania Sunday with a round trip fare of $40 per person. The bus will pick up from three locations along the popular International Drive in Orlando. You can book your seats now at http://w-o.it/wm33bus.
The Total Divas season premiere began right where the Total Bellas season finale left off. That show ended with the Bellas and all their friends getting ready for the biggest show of the year, WrestleMania 32. Not only was WrestleMania 32 the most well attended Wrestlemania in history, but it was also the scene of Brie Bella’s final wrestling match in the WWE, as well as, Lana’s first solo wrestling match ever. As if all of this wasn’t enough to keep the cast of Total Divas busy, there was also plenty of drama to keep Total Divas fans on the edge of their seats all season long.
While this WrestleMania should have been the most special and important one in Brie Bella’s career, the special occasion was marred by the fact that neither her husband, Daniel Bryan, nor her sister Nikki Bella were attending the event with her. While I understand why neither of these people would want to attend the event with Brie, I also think that both of them should have considered Brie’s feelings before deciding not to attend the event. To give Nikki her due, she did show up at WrestleMania later, but Daniel did not show up at all. Meanwhile, the rest of the Total Divas cast was dealing with their own issues during the week prior to WrestleMania.
Fans will see some new Divas who were not present last season. CJ Perkins, better known as Lana, made her WrestleMania debut. This was also her debut as a solo wrestler, as she’s usually partnered with her husband, WWE Superstar Rusev. It was great to see Lana come into her own as a female pro wrestler rather than just being her husband’s eye candy. Another new face this season on Total Divas is behind the scenes reporter Renée Young, who is also the girlfriend of WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose.
It didn’t take long for these new gals to become embroiled in the drama that has become synonymous with the show Total Divas over its many seasons.
While out to dinner with Maryse, wife of WWE Superstar The Miz, Paige, and Naomi, Renée Young soon found out why Maryse and the Bella Twins don’t socialize. It seems that when you make a promise to Maryse you’d better keep it.
Apparently, long long ago when both Bella twins and Maryse were first trying to make it in the WWE they made a promise one another that they would only accept contracts if all three of them were signed. Of course, we all know, that the Bella Twins were signed before Maryse, so, they must have gone back on their word.
Maryse has obviously never forgiven that slight on the part of Brie and Nikki Bella. I agree with Maryse that if one makes a promise one keep it however, that was no reason to try to turn the rest of the Bella Twins friends against them that was an extremely devious and somewhat diabolical move on Maryse’s part. Perhaps she is taking lessons in friendship from her husband who seems to be very unpopular in the locker room.
What happened next was a bad occurrence brought out of good intentions. Renée Young invited Maryse out to dinner with her and Brie Bella in an attempt to get the two warring superstars to make peace with one another. Nice thought Renée, but next time you might want to mind your own business as your good thoughts created an absolute mudslinging match between Brie and Maryse.
Some of the insults they were throwing back and forth between each other didn’t make much sense to me. I mean, I’m sure Maryse isn’t the only one who thinks she’s lucky to have an absolutely beautiful husband she loves. I don’t know if I would call The Miz beautiful but they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Either way, I’m sure Renée now knows not to invite both Brie and Maryse to her next dinner party. I felt bad for Brie though because WrestleMania weekend was full of fights for her.
Whenever Brie’s sister Nikki did decide to join her sister for the most important weekend in her career, I think she should’ve brought a better attitude with her. Brie was doing some understandable venting about the fact that the weekend of her retirement did not go as she is always pictured. There was no husband there cheer her on and no sister to share her last victory with. From any other sister, these complaints may have warranted some kind or encouraging words, but, not Nikki Bella.
Nikki had to twist all of Brie’s words around and accuse Brie of not being considerate enough of her neck injury. I think that Brie has been very sympathetic towards Nikki during her injury, after all, didn’t she move in to Nikki’s house in order to become a personal chauffeur on a little show called Total Bellas? While Nikki and Brie were having a fight, another Diva was was giving a fright.
This is another story in which good intentions lead to bad occurrences. Naomi decided that she didn’t need her highly paid hairstylists for the week of WrestleMania. All she needed her good friend Paige and a box of hair dye. Paige definitely shouldn’t quit her day job to become a hairstylist. Naomi’s hair came out looking as though it had been dyed with Kool-Aid, actually three different boxes of Kool-Aid because it was three different colors. This is why wrestlers should just leave the hairstyling up to the professionals. Naomi had to fly her hairstylist in to do emergency repair after Paige’s horrendous dye job.
However, the best news the night was not about hair or the amazing performances of female wrestlers. It wasn’t about the debuts or retirements or even one female wrestler in particular. Just before WrestleMania 32 Stephanie McMahon made an announcement that would affect all Divas past present and future. The female wrestlers would not be referred to as Divas at all, just Superstars. What a huge step for the sport and all members of the WWE Universe!
The Internet wrestling community’s latest darling, James Ellsworth, seems like he’s on the verge of signing a full-time deal with WWE as he has halted future independent bookings.
The 31-year-old wrestled his first WWE singles match in July during an episode of Monday Night Raw, getting squashed by Braun Strowman. Two months later, Ellsworth resurfaced on Smackdown as AJ Styles’ tag team partner but he was taken out by The Miz. Ellsworth’s popularity continued to grow and WWE kept him on Smackdown, even giving him a pinfall win over the WWE World Heavyweight champion AJ Styles in a non-title match. He will also be at the Survivor Series as the “mascot” for the Smackdown male team.
Prior to joining WWE, he wrestled as “Pretty” Jimmy Dream across different independent promotions.
WWE and SKY Deutschland today announced a new multi-year agreement to distribute WWE’s premier pay-per-view events starting this Monday with Survivor Series and televise WWE’s flagship programs Raw and Smackdown live on SKY Sports beginning April 2017.
“We are very happy about WWE coming back to Sky Deutschland,” said Dr. Malte Probst, Senior Vice President Programming Operations & Transactional Business, SKY Deutschland. “With this new long-term agreement with WWE, we can offer our customers many spectacular events, combining the best of sports with top entertainment. This mixture fits perfectly with Sky.”
Ed Wells, WWE Executive Vice President, International, said, “We are excited to once again partner with SKY to showcase WWE’s flagship programs Raw and SmackDown and our marquee pay-per-view events to our fans in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This agreement illustrates the power and global growth of WWE, while creating another destination for our fans to enjoy our unique blend of thrilling, family-oriented entertainment.”
With this agreement, SKY plc now distributes Raw and SmackDown in three of its biggest markets – Germany, Italy, and the UK.
WWE’s popularity in Germany continues to grow with viewing options that now include SKY Deutschland, ProSieben Maxx, and WWE Network. Two months ago, WWE announced a deal with 7Sports, the parent company of ProSiebenSat1, to televise Raw and SmackDown in German on the free-to-air channel ProSieben MAXX.
The season six premiere of Total Divas, with an episode titled Total Superstars, did a total of 724,000 viewers, down sharply from the season five premiere which did 1,115,000 viewers. It did however 100,000 more viewers than the last episode of season five back in April. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In what’s fast becoming a tradition, the night before a big-four PPV sees NXT act as the warm-up, with Toronto playing host to the latest Takeover special.
For whatever reason, this show has very little buzz going into it, amid claims of slow ticket sales, perhaps spurred on by a TV product that has been padded out by a tag team tournament that has been, at best, tepid.
NXT Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Samoa Joe
A straight-up rematch from Takeover: Brooklyn II, this match has had a weird build, in that Nakamura’s largely been kept off of TV due to a storyline injury. To me, this is perhaps the match where Nakamura should have won the title, but I can’t see them switching the title twice in as many Takeovers.
Of course, we don’t have any rumoured call-ups going, so the bigger question would have to be: what happens next to the loser? Nakamura doesn’t need the title, but I worry that him winning and losing the belt so quickly would cause some damage… whilst a second straight loss for Samoa Joe would also have a similar effect. This isn’t quite Ryback levels of getting booked into a corner, but it’ll make for interesting TV afterwards. Prediction: Shinsuke Nakamura
NXT Women’s Championship: Asuka (c) vs. Mickie James
With the brand split having ripped out pretty much the entire women’s division in NXT, this is what we’re left with. Since there’s no credible challengers in the current roster, NXT have had to reach out to the past and bring in former WWE Women’s champion Mickie James. On the one hand, it’s not like they’re bringing in someone who’s been out of the scene for many years. That being said, save for one video promo, this is likely to be the only time Mickie will be in NXT, so it there’s really only one result likely. Prediction: Asuka
NXT Tag Team Championship: The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) (c) vs. #DIY (Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano)
Okay, the first thing I’m thinking here is “heel turn”. The DIY team had their summer-long story during the Cruiserweight Classic where they teased splitting up… but in the end, Ciampa and Gargano remained partners. Indeed, these two teams were scheduled to wrestle in the Dusty Classic, but one got eliminated and the other forfeited due to injury, and so they end up not in the tournament… but in a higher-profile tag team title match. Fair enough!
Of course, these teams have had good matches before, with their Takeover: Brooklyn II match being a stand-out performance, in spite of Gargano’s knee injury. I don’t see this being any different, and after weeks of no teases of animosity… this could well be the time that the trigger is pulled. Prediction: The Revival
Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals: Authors of Pain (Rezar & Akam) vs. TM61 (Shane Thorne & Nick Miller)
This final has the extra stipulation of Paul Ellering being held in a shark cage above the ring… because reasons. We really shouldn’t compare this to the inaugural tournament, where Samoa Joe and Finn Balor beat Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the finals… but it’s oh so hard not to.
With a final between a team that some argue shouldn’t be on NXT TV yet, and an experienced duo that’s struggled to establish themselves since debuting in NXT, this could well be a really cold final. I’d imagine the winners would end up getting a tag title shot, and since the Authors of Pain are nowhere near that level, I’m going to go for an Aussie win, with a TM61/Revival match down the line. Prediction: TM61
Bobby Roode vs. Tye Dillinger
Stemming off of another match in the Dusty Classic, Roode and Dillinger were meant to be partners… except Roode abandoned Dillinger ahead of their first round match against the debuting SAnitY. This should be a fun encounter, given that both men are cult favourites with the NXT crowd… and Tye’s penchant for having good matches when he’s not been expected to. Remember how he outshone Andrade Almas’ debut back in June? I wonder what happened to him… Nevertheless, I’d guess that the longer term has more in it for the Glorious one than the Perfect Ten, so I’m going for a Roode victory. Prediction: Bobby Roode
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ian Hamilton has been a wrestling fan since 1992, and when he’s not watching WWE, New Japan or his latest wrestling love, PROGRESS, he’s usually suffering through Sunderland AFC and the New York Jets. He’s got a couple of books out on Amazon – “Wrestling’s Sinking Ship” and “Gone Too Soon”, and can be reached via his website, BackBodyDrop.com, or on Twitter @theianhamilton
Houston, Texas will play host to the Survivor Series next year as well as NXT Takeover, Raw, and Smackdown which will all take place at the Toyota Center.
Next year will be the 30th annual of the Survivor Series and tickets will go on sale Friday, December 9 at 11AM EST and available through houstontoyotacenter.com. In addition, Survivor Series travel packages, which will include tickets to Survivor Series weekend events, will go on sale Tuesday, December 6 at Noon EST at survivorseriestravel.com.
NXT TakeOver will be held on Saturday, November 18, followed by the Survivor Series on the 19th, Raw on the 20th, and Smackdown on the 21st.
Former WWE Universal champion Finn Balor will be appearing at the 2017 Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans. Balor’s appearance will take place on Sunday, January 8 and he will be greeting fans, pose for photo ops, sign autographs and participate in a Q&A panel.
Tickets for Balor’s portion of the Comic Con are priced at $189.99 each and are available at WizardWorld.com.
Another former champion and now Hollywood movie star Dave Bautista will be appearing the day before, on Saturday, January 7 and will do meet and greet, photos, autographs, and also hold an interactive Guardians of the Galaxy-themed Q&A panel.
ESPN is reporting that WWE will be rolling out a new business model around its four annual major events – Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series.
Beginning with WrestleMania 33 in April of next year, WWE will bring all their shows – NXT, Raw, and Smackdown – in the same city of the particular pay-per-view, with fans able to purchase a complete package of tickets for all the shows.
WWE already did this for SummerSlam in Brooklyn and will be doing the same for the Survivor Series in Toronto. Merging all the shows in the same city and the same arena (apart from WrestleMania) will also bring down the cost as the sets only have to be assembled once, rather than different arenas on different days.
The WrestleMania 33 week will have the Hall of Fame, NXT, Raw, and Smackdown all at the Amway Center. This will be the first time that Smackdown will be held in the same WrestleMania host city.
The 900th episode of Smackdown with appearances from The Undertaker and Edge drew 2,725,000 viewers, up 800,000 viewers following last week’s show which went head-to-head with the election results.
The number represents the best audience since the July 26 episode of the show and nearly matched this week’s Raw which did 2,877,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The always-perfect-looking Nikki Bella had a small accident last night during the segment with the Raw women’s Survivor Series team and went backstage with a chipped front tooth.
The former WWE Divas champion, along with the rest of her Survivor Series team, appeared on Talking Smack on the WWE Network immediately following the show and Nikki was trying to cover her mouth but was quickly outed that she’s missing nearly half her front tooth. She told the Raw Women’s champion Charlotte that she will be sending her the dentist’s bill.
This isn’t the first time that Nikki lost a tooth in the WWE ring as she also lost one back in 2014, something that was covered on an episode of Total Divas.
"@MsCharlotteWWE, I'll be sending you a bill…" – Nikki @BellaTwins on her chipped tooth. #TalkingSmack pic.twitter.com/FCC51c9JQs
— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) November 16, 2016
The Undertaker made his return last night on the 900th episode of Smackdown and according to him, he’s here to stay.
After interrupting The Cutting Edge segment with a warning to Team Smackdown, Taker said that WrestleMania will no longer define who he is and he’s back taking souls and digging holes, calling Smackdown his home. Taker warned the male Smackdown team that should they fail to win at the Survivor Series, they will have a reason to fear him and Raw’s Survivor Series team better “rest in peace.”
The general belief is that the Undertaker will be back on WWE television after the Survivor Series and will be wrestling occasionally leading up to next year’s WrestleMania. He will certainly not be appearing weekly but will be making enough appearances to build up feuds for the Smackdown-only pay-per-views.
As of this writing he has not been advertised for any Smackdown television tapings yet.
