WWE will be taping tonight’s edition of RAW this afternoon at the O2 Arena in London, England. SEScoops.com will have live spoiler results coverage of the entire taping starting at approximately 2:30pm EST.
Official for tonight’s show is a number one contender Divas battle royal, with the winner earning a shot at WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella at this month’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
Also confirmed for RAW this week is another “U.S. Open Challenge” from WWE United States Champion John Cena, and the possible revelation of who Bray Wyatt has been talking about in his recent promos.
WWE Superstars and Divas advertised to appear at RAW this week include Randy Orton, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Rusev, Kane, Ryback, Paige and The Bella Twins.
WWE is focusing on the following points for this week’s RAW:
– How will The Viper get even with Seth Rollins?
– Could John Cena lose the U.S. Title in the U.K.?
– Which Diva will get the ultimate chance against Nikki Bella?
– Will Sheamus be cut down to size?
– Has The Miz’s spotlight been stolen?
Make sure to join us here at SEScoops.com at approximately 2:30pm EST. for live spoiler results coverage of WWE RAW!
– WWE recently applied for a number of new trademarks. WWE has applied to trademark the term “Superfriends Crew,” possibly for a new stable. They also applied for “New Face of Fear” for Bray Wyatt, “Lone Wolf” for Baron Corbin, “The Vigilante” for Sting, “Anti-Diva” for Paige, “The Beast Within” for Brock Lesnar, and other terms such as Starrcade, Halloween Havoc and WWE Nation.
– UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey has signed with Dany Garcia, The Rock’s ex-wife and business partner, to be her new business manager. With a budding movie career (Fast 7, The Expendables 3) and a new book coming out next month, it will be interesting to see what’s next from UFC’s most dangerous female fighter.
It’s worth noting that Rousey and The Rock also share the same agent, Brad Slater.
– It’s believed that stipulations will be added to the Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton WWE title match and John Cena vs. Rusev U.S. title match at the upcoming Extreme Rules pay-per-view. Also expected for the PPV is Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler in singles action, and either Big Show vs. Roman Reigns or Big Show & Kane vs. Roman Reigns & Ryback. Already scheduled for Extreme Rules, in addition to the two aforementioned title matches, is an Intercontinental Championship bout between Daniel Bryan and Bad News Barrett.
– WWE talents who were booked to travel to Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday were Seth Rollins, John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, Ryback, Kane, Joey Mercury, Jamie Noble, Kalisto, Sin Cara, The Ascension, Luke Harper, Goldust, The Bella Twins, Paige, Eden, and Naomi.
– Below is a clip from Chris Jericho’s live podcast interview with John Cena on the WWE Network from Monday night. In the clip, Cena talks to Jericho about his days in Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Tonight’s episode of Raw was held in Austin, Texas, and featured the fallout from last week’s epic post-WrestleMania show. Fans saw a new number one contender crowned, John Cena issue another open challenge, and Sheamus solidify himself as a heel. Without further ado, here are the pros and cons from this week’s Raw.
Pros
The Authority opening segment is something we’ve all seen a million times before, but it actually worked out well this time around. Rollins gloated about his win at WrestleMania, while Big Show put over the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Randy Orton quickly interrupted the segment, declaring his RKO at WrestleMania to be the “most spectacular RKO of my career.” Damn straight, it was. This also set up the first meaningful main event on Raw in what feels like ages, as it was announced that Orton, Ryback, and Reigns would compete in a triple threat match to determine the number one contender at Extreme Rules. (Although wasn’t it already announced that Orton and Rollins would compete in the main event this past week?)
Seth Rollins was scheduled to face an unnamed opponent. As soon as Neville’s music hit, this was pretty much guaranteed to be match of the night. This was fought at a frantic pace for the most part, with both superstars gaining the upper hand at times. Neville utilized a number of aerial maneuvers during the match, including an awesome dive to the floor that saw him land on his feet. Rollins was equally impressive and showed why he’s the champ, as he worked over the NXT newcomer while hitting all of his signature moves. It was funny to hear JBL slip up and say Adrian Neville before quickly correctly himself. (Sorry JBL, they don’t do first names in the WWE anymore.) This had a few amazing sequences near the end including a rollup from Neville and Rollins countering into a powerbomb into the corner in a match that made both guys look good.
There was nobody in the company in more need of a face/heel change than Sheamus. He was as stale as a year-old loaf of bread as a face and cheesy af. His promo tonight was good and he was definitely over with the crowd. He was talking smack and listing off his measurements (he almost made it to his shoe size) before being interrupted by the World’s Strongest Man. The contest itself was pretty entertaining – with Henry tossing Sheamus around to the delight of his hometown crowd during the opening moments of the match. Sheamus countered the World’s Strongest Slam into a stiff Brogue Kick to end an entertaining segment.
The Prime Time Players were humorous during their Ascension parody promo.
This week’s main event was a triple threat match featuring Orton, Reigns, and Ryback. All three superstars were victorious earlier in the night and the winner of the main event would have a chance to challenge Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules. Orton was the star of the show early, hitting powerslams on both Ryback and Reigns. Ryback then took over for a little while and nailed Reigns with a Meat Hook before countering an RKO into a spinebuster. His momentum was brought to a screeching halt after taking a spear from Reigns, however. The Authority approached the ring and Reigns leapt over the top rope to take everyone out. Big Show would make him pay for his actions by hitting him with the knockout punch. The Authority then focused their efforts on taking out the Viper, and Ryback would get rid of J&J before taking an RKO from outta nowhere and losing the match. Orton wouldn’t have any time to celebrate though, as Rollins quickly delivered a Curb Stomp and stood over Orton to end the show. Even if the outcome was never really in doubt, it was nice to see a main event that had some kind of implications on the storyline, and it did something to further the feud between Orton and Rollins, so this has to be considered a positive.
Finally, say what you will about John Cena, but I think putting the United States Championship around his waist was a great idea. We got a quality match with Dean Ambrose last week, and this week was no different with Stardust rolling out to answer the open challenge. These two went together like beer and peanuts and put on an entertaining match. Cena dominated the match for the most part, but Stardust had his moments, such as when he countered an Alabama Slam into a sunset flip early in the contest. Cena showed his strength on multiple occasions by countering Cross Rhodes into a big power slam. In the end, Cena retained by hitting the springboard stunner he’s been using lately and following it up with an AA. Overall, it was a good match and it’s nice to seeing the title being defended on a weekly basis.
Longtime WWE Superstar Kane recently did an in-depth interview with The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast, talking about a lot of the big moments throughout his career. Below are some highlights.
On memorable thoughts reflecting on his participation at WrestleMania: “My most memorable WrestleMania ever was my first; At WrestleMania 14 in Boston against The Undertaker that was a huge high point in my career and an absolute highlight of my career. The next year I wrestled Triple H when DX was breaking up and that led to me and Xpac becoming partners and that was a really great time, after that was WrestleMania that was in Anaheim and I was teaming with Rikishi against X-Pac and his partner, which actually is terrible of me but I can’t remember who his partner was. Then the next year it was against Kurt Angle and after that another match with The Undertaker, there has been a lot of stuff.”
On his favorite WrestleMania match: “For me personally it was WrestleMania 14 against Undertaker. I believe that the story of Undertaker and Kane was some of the most epic storytelling WWE he’s ever done. It was something out of Greek Mythology and of course that was the culmination of that whole story and for that reason it made it very special. As for my favorite match as a fan, I would have to say that was Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25. If I were to tell anyone, that would be the match that I would point them to. In my opinion it is the greatest match in history and it is just incredible what those two guys did, two absolute icons of our industry and they put on a spectacular performance.”
On wrestling Undertaker at WrestleMania 20: “That one was special because Undertaker had just come back after a hiatus a it was the first time he had been seen and it was completely different than the first WrestleMania match. That was two supernatural figures duking it out essentially and leaving a path of waste wherever they went. Whereas WrestleMania 20 was a little more conventional and that you had just a bad guy versus a very popular good guy so in that respect the build was different and certainly my character was different so if you ask is it one of my favorites? I would take WrestleMania 14 over WrestleMania 20.”
On if he was always a wrestling fan growing up: “I grew up in rural Missouri about two hours north of St. Louis and if the wind was blowing right on a Saturday night I could catch All Star Wrestling out of Kansas City which was run by Bob Geigel and some of the stars there were Bulldog Bob Brower and Ray Candy. Harley Race was based there but Harley was often World Champion so he didn’t wrestle as much there. Once a month though we would go down to my grandmother’s house in St. Louis and at the time in question Wrestling at the Chase was one of the most popular promotions and shows in the country, so once a month I’d get to see all the stars that came through there like Harley Race, Ric Flair and the Von Erich’s. Actually, Baron Von Raschke stands out in my mind because he was such a great villain. Unfortunately, this was before cable TV so I fell off for a while and into high school because I was doing athletics of my own and all that sort of thing but I got back into it at the end of high school and in college. I remember it was at the height of Hulkamania in the late eighties and I still remember going downstairs into a lounge in my dorm room and they were watching Savage vs Steamboat from WrestleMania 3 and I thought it was really awesome. Of course Hogan was on top of the world he was one of biggest things in entertainment and you had the crossover going on with MTV so the WWF was extremely hot and I was always a fan after that. I’ll never forget their first live event I went to at the old Checker-Dome in St. Louis and when Hulk Hogan came out and 10,000 people just lost their minds and I thought to myself that would be really cool to do that and have that sort of impact on somebody. I always thought that it was great athletics and great drama combined into one and I am a fan of both of those.”
On how he broke into the wrestling business: “I was playing college football and I hurt my knee very badly my senior year and I didn’t want to get a real job. I am a fan of the wrestling stuff and because it was pretty hot at the time, I said I am going to go try that (wrestling). I was still trying to play football and at the time the now defunct “World League” was still around but my football future looked very dim and I got involved with a local (wrestling) group and probably didn’t learn great stuff but things that would hamper me down the road as far as the business actually works. But nevertheless, through networking that’s how I met Dutch Mantell (Zeb Coulture) at an Independent show in Southern Illinois and he helped me out. I ended up going to The Malenko Wrestling Academy which was run by Dean (Malenko) but Dean wasn’t spending much time there because he was in Japan but I had the great fortune of being with Larry Simon (The Great Malenko) and I actually got to live with him for about six months. That helped me out tremendously. Eventually, I would go back and forth to Japan for Fujiwara Gumi which was a shoot fighting organization and from there Dutch called for me one day and said that he’d like to bring me to Puerto Rico, so that was my first full-time job and that was in 1994. I spent about nine months working for Carlos Colon and then Dutch was able to get me in with Jim Cornette and Smoky Mountain Wrestling.”
On working with the Rock N’ Roll Express in Smoky Mountain Wrestling: “I learned so much from those guys, especially Ricky Morton. As far as being one of the greatest baby-faces of all time, Ricky Morton is and he really taught me a lot. All those guys who had been around so long like Tracy Smothers, Tony Anthony and Al Snow learning from them the inside the ring performance aspect of the business is not something you can learn by going to a wrestling school.”
On working for Jim Cornette: “Jim wasn’t spending a lot of time with us; he was up in the WWF with the Heavenly Bodies. So it was sort of hit or miss. Jim has a great mind for the business and I think his absence really hurt Smoky Mountain Wrestling because he just wasn’t there to do it every day. At that point he had other fish to fry, but nevertheless you are talking bout a guy that understands especially that particular area and that particular crowd, the “Southern” wrestling, Jim gets it and Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a great example. The motto was “how it ought to be and how you like it” and Jim certainly understood that. But it was a lot of fun working there and a lot of fun working for him.”
On taking his mask off: “Actually, it was my idea because I did feel it was at the point where the mask was restricting what I could do. People ask what the advantages are of wearing a mask and the first thing of course is the mystery people don’t know exactly what Kane is thinking. Taking it off, it also made me a much better performer and that really is what our business is all about. What do you do with the emotion of the audience? Do you want them to you empathize with what you’re doing if you’re the bad guy? You want them to hate you. If you are the good guy, you want them to have sympathy for you. It could be thought of as a form of communication in that respect and because I didn’t have my face, which is how we normally show emotion. I had to rely a lot more on body language and I think that really helped me because I had to concentrate on that and had to think of different ways to be able to betray that emotion without using my face. But then I’m thinking it became a hindrance because at a certain point the novelty is gone and at a certain point it’s time for us all to move along and I think that the most successful characters and most successful people in WWE have been able to reinvent themselves. We see that with Undertaker. He has always been able to reinvent himself and tweak his characters or sometimes change it entirely or Shawn Michaels. The Shawn Michaels that we see today or the one right before he retired is not the Shawn Michaels from 1995. Triple H is that way, John Cena is that way. It is just the nature of our business. Eventually, the novelty is going to wear off. The only people who are behind that decision probably were the only two people that counted and that was Vince and I. Everyone else is of the opinion if it isn’t broke don’t fix it but I think Vince had enough confidence in me as performer that he knew I could pull off and I knew that I could pull it off as well. Not to say there was some trepidation because it is true that if you have something successful you don’t want to mess with it. To me it wasn’t that huge deal because you know you could always put the mask back on, which we would eventually do. At the time it was a pretty big risk and what it did actually was gave me an entirely new career and an entirely new character. It allowed me to do things that I had not been able to be before. Which always makes my job a lot more fun.”
The following matches were taped on Monday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for tonight’s WrestleMania 31 “go-home” edition of WWE SmackDown.
– Cesaro vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Big E vs. Fernando in a four-way match
– AJ Lee promo
– Roman Reigns, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, and Mark Henry vs. Bray Wyatt, Big Show, Kane, and Seth Rollins in an eight-man tag match
During the WrestleMania 31 “go-home” edition of WWE RAW on Monday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, a big eight-man tag-team match was announced for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
In what will be the final major television show before Sunday’s WrestleMania 31 pay-per-view, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry will team up to take on Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Big Show and Kane in one of the main events of this week’s SmackDown.
Make sure to join us here at SEScoops.com on Tuesday evening for live WWE SmackDown spoiler results coverage.
– In light of recent allegations from Austin Matelson and other former WWE developmental wrestlers, Bill DeMott announced Friday that he is stepping down from his role as head trainer for NXT effective immediately. Osmund Cherry, who worked in WWE’s developmental system in 2012 and 2013 under the name Malik Omari, is pleased with the news.
@BillDeMott am happy you step down. You were nothing but a fat fucking piece of shit bully. #dontgethot
In former developmental wrestler Austin Matelson’s (Judas Devlin) March 2013 memo to WWE officials Canyon Ceman, Dorothy Brill and Jane Geddes accusing DeMott of misconduct, he noted that DeMott would routinely tell Cherry, who is of African descent, “to go back to Africa.”
– For WWE’s “Legends of WrestleMania” issue exclusively available on newsstands, Kane revealed his career highlight as his match against Undertaker at WrestleMania XIV in Boston, Massachusetts.
“The highlight of my career, still, is our match at WrestleMania XIV,” Kane states. “Despite everything that I’ve done since that night, despite winning multiple championships, that match is still the highlight. It truly was the culmination of everything we’d been through up to that point, and it was one of the best rivalries WWE has ever seen. To have it all come to a head in our first match at the Show of Shows was just awesome. And, even though Undertaker defeated me, it took him three Tombstones to do it, which had never happened before.”
– Dolph Ziggler is now officially added to the WWE Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 31. Other participants confirmed for the match include Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper, R-Truth and Dean Ambrose.
– WWE has officially announced Big Show and Kane as the newest entrants in this year’s Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31. With those two added, the following is the updated list of participants, which as noted, is expected to feature 20 competitors in total.
* The Miz
* Curtis Axel
* Ryback
* Fandango
* Adam Rose
* Zack Ryder
* Jack Swagger
* Titus O’Neil
* Darren Young
* Big Show
* Kane
– The following matches were taped on Tuesday night in Atlanta, Georgia for tonight’s edition of WWE SmackDown on the SyFy Network:
– Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz
– Naomi vs. Natalya
– Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan in a non-title match
– Curtis Axel vs. Fandango
– Goldust vs. Adam Rose
– Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan vs. Seth Rollins, Big Show, and Kane
– The following press release was sent out today regarding Jim Ross’ one-man show during WrestleMania weekend …
PinUp Productions is proud to present RINGSIDE: An Afternoon with Jim Ross Saturday March 28th at the Rockbar Theater at 360 Saratoga Avenue San Jose, CA 95129. Tickets are currently on sale on TicketWeb and at the Rockbar Theater Box Office.
There will be a pre-show meet and greet for VIP ticket holders. The meet & greet runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Doors open for General Admission ticket holders at 12 p.m. with the show beginning at 1 p.m.
Known to sports entertainment fans around the world as the Voice of Professional Wrestling, “Good Ol’ J.R.” has nearly done it all.
From sports entertainment executive to New York Times Bestselling Author, to enduring the struggle of Bell’s palsy and even playing the role of entrepreneur with his own barbeque sauce brand, Jim Ross has certainly worn many hats. But, come March 28th, he will puts on his most famous hat: a 200X Resistol when he takes the stage for a matinee performance to share his life story.
As one of the most influential sports executives of the past 40 years, J.R. has been welcomed into the homes of millions of viewers each and every week. His cool yet dry Southern charm became the soundtrack for wrestling’s most memorable clashes in the sport’s rich history. J.R.’s tales of the road and personal anecdotes featuring some of wrestling’s most legendary stars will have you howling with laughter.
After a successful performances around the world including the United Kingdom, Manhattan and most recently in Philadelphia, J.R. will bring his one-man show to San Jose for a special matinee performance: sharing his stories with wrestling fans in the intimate setting of the Rockbar Theater on March 28th, 2015.
The event will also feature a no holds barred question and answer session with J.R. where the fans become the stars!
Listen to the Ross Report with Jim Ross on PodcastOne to learn more about this event.
“Like” RINGSIDE with Jim Ross on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/JimRossLIVE
Follow Jim Ross on Twitter: @JRsBBQ
Visit Jim Ross online at: http://jrsbarbq.com
– While he did mention the name Rusev on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart did not reference his current angle with Seth Rollins.
– The dark match main event after Monday’s RAW saw Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and John Cena beat Big Show, Kane, Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins. The finish saw Reigns hit a spear on Big Show, with Cena following up with an Attitude Adjustment for the 1-2-3.
On Monday’s post-Fastlane edition of WWE RAW, a big Fastlane rematch was announced for this week’s edition of WWE SmackDown.
On SmackDown, which will be taped on Tuesday night, there will be a six-person tag-team match featuring Seth Rollins, Kane and Big Show taking on the trio of Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan.
After months on the sidelines, Randy Orton made his return at the WWE Fastlane pay-per-view on Sunday night, which took place at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.
During the opening match of the evening, which saw Seth Rollins, Kane and Big Show defeat Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan, the heels continued to beat up the babyfaces after their victory until Orton’s theme hit.
Orton made the save, RKO’ing several people and going for the kill on Rollins, who was ultimately saved by the Big Show.
As we have been reporting for several months, Orton and Rollins are expected to work a program heading into WrestleMania 31.
The Road to WrestleMania will become a lot clearer after Sunday’s pay-per-view. Fastlane is available for free to all new WWE Network customers, and even those who previously cancelled their account and re-subscribed, so there’s really no reason to miss out on the action. Here is how I expect the event to play out.
Goldust vs. Stardust
Man, they really should have saved this one for WrestleMania, but I guess there is only room on the card for one tag team breakup storyline, and it looks like that’s going to be Miz and Mizdow. Expect these guys to put on one hell of a match, as they have been lobbying for it for what seems like years. After a solid ten-minute contest with a number of near-falls, Stardust will pick up the win with Cross Rhodes.
Result: Stardust via pinfall
Rusev (United States Champion) vs. John Cena
These guys have done a pretty good of building up this match over the past few weeks, and it genuinely seems like Cena is interested in winning the United States Championship, which is always a plus. It’s almost guaranteed that this feud is going to continue into WrestleMania, so I expect Rusev to pick up the win, but certainly not clean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHA5g_T227k
Lana will become involved at some point, possibly distracting Cena long enough for Rusev to pounce and pick up the win via the deadliest finisher in all of wrestling (the distraction roll-up), or by using the title as a weapon to knock out Cena while the Ravishing Russian distracts the referee. This will set up a rematch at WrestleMania where Cena will most likely go over.
Result: Rusev via pinfall
Nikki Bella (Divas Champion) vs. Paige
Paige is the most popular diva in the entire company by far right now. They are going to want her to capture the title at WrestleMania. Nikki wins with help from her sister before dropping the title to Paige next month.
As the entire northeast freezes under a mountain of snow, the WWE decided to dip down to Orlando in an attempt to heat things up heading into Sunday’s Fastlane pay-per-view. The show featured eight matches, as well as appearances from Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. Without further ado, here are the pros and cons from this week’s episode of Raw.
Pros
Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler was pure gold. Before the match, the two engaged in a hilarious back and forth, with Rollins laying down some burnsauce by telling Ziggler: “I know you fancy yourself a comedian but the only thing funny about you is that joke you call a career.” It was also hilarious to hear Ziggler question whether J&J getting him the wrong chocolates ruined his Valentine’s Day. Something tells me his Valentine’s Day was ruined for other reasons… As for the match, it was fast paced, full of spots, and exactly what you’d expect from two of the best workers in the business. Other than the J&J interference and non-finish, this was pretty much perfect on every level. I suspect a match between these two will be added to Fastlane after Smackdown. Here’s to hoping they give these guys 15 minutes and let them tear the house down. Highlight of the night by far.
I enjoyed the Dusty Rhodes backstage segments. The match between the New Day and Gold and Stardust was also nice, as it served as a nice juxtaposition between the brawling opening contest between Ambrose and Harper. Following the match, Stardust attacked his brother and called Dusty a “polka-dotted freak of a father.” I’ll admit, they’ve dragged this out forever and I wasn’t too excited at first, but I’m now getting into it.
Roman Reigns was the man last night. He sounded like a completely different person during his backstage interview before his match with Kane. His calm, confident, and collected demeanor is a stark contrast from the nervous guy we saw out there a few weeks ago talking about beanstalks while stumbing over every other word. His match with Kane was actually decent too, with Reigns winning via countout after hitting a big Spear. Daniel Bryan was on commentary during the match, with he and Reigns playing off of one another very well. It was also humorous to hear Michael Cole state: “Daniel Bryan is trying to steal Roman Reigns’ thunder. Roman Reigns just beat Kane, guys!” That means about as much as beating the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2015.
For a comedy segment, the Paige bit was actually hilarious. The outfit was funny, it actually served some sort of purpose in furthering her feud with Nikki Bella, the fans seemed to be enjoying it, and the match with Summer Rae was good for the time they were given.
The Dean Ambrose “weekend update” promo, where the Lunatic Fringe was parked at a desk looking like a shady used car dealer, was also entertaining. His match with Luke Harper featuring some nice, brawling action and was a good opening contest. JBL’s “we’ve got an air psycho” line had me cracking up, and his plot to force Barrett to sign the contract for Sunday was perfect. Nobody in the midcard deserves the IC Title more than Ambrose, and it looks like he’s going to find a way to capture the gold on Sunday.
Bray Wyatt’s promos are starting to become a bit repetitive, but I still enjoyed his work this week. He once again attacked the Undertaker, stating: “You’re an empty shell, and any fear that I once of you has turned into nothing more than putrid, hateful pity.” I can’t wait to see this program.
As we all know, Raw is tonight. By show of hands, how many people are planning to bail before the end of the program? If this question were posed to last week’s viewing audience, over 250,000 hands would be in the air right now. That number represents the number of viewers who tuned in for the first hour but were long gone by hour three, and that’s not even counting the 600,000 viewers from the previous week who called in sick and didn’t show up at all.
Since Raw 1000, the program has been a three-hour fixture on Monday night, even though the company has done little with the additional hour in most cases. In all, the numbers show that it’s time to turn back the clock to Raw 999 and cut back to two hours.
Emma vs. Summer Rae in a dance-off? No thanks!
There are a number of reasons this makes sense. Most importantly, this roster is as thin as a two-dollar blanket right now. Take last week’s show, for instance. The company bookended the show with the nearly identical matches – neither of which was particularly memorable. By the end of the first hour, the crowd had already seen every participant in the main event compete in a match (aside from J&J, but they interfered in the Rollins/Ryback match). And please don’t get me started on how many times we’ve seen the Usos battle Miz and Mizdow over the past few months.
It would be a massive understatement to say that the shows have lacked direction in recent months too. I went back and watched a few episodes of Raw from 2012, right before Raw was permanently extended to three hours. Mind you, this was during the dreadful John Cena/Kane “embrace the hate” program, and even those shows featured more direction than the current product.
If the past is any indication, expect to see The Authority opening tonight’s episode of Raw.
By putting less stress on the writers and limiting exposure, they were able to establish a conflict (Kane attempting to terrorize Zack Ryder/John Cena), provide a climax near the middle of the show (Cena kissing Eve while Ryder hilariously looked on), and finally a resolution in the form of a catastrophe (Kane launching Ryder off of the stage).
They were able to build around this central storyline by sprinkling in five matches and a few entertaining segments that highlighted other members of the roster, ultimately creating a neat two hours of wrestling (or sports entertainment, whichever term you prefer). In recent weeks, the program has been an absolute mess, with the typical structure usually as follows:
The Authority starts the program by cutting the same boring 20-minute promo they cut every week and setting up a main event involving Kane and/or Big Show. Next is a match that they say will start after the break, usually trying to invoke some sense of suspense as to which superstars will be involved, but the roster is so thin that we know it will be Seth Rollins or an over-the-hill Authority goon competing against either Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Ryback or Roman Reigns – usually ending in a non-finish. We next get a sagging middle with “comedy” matches and backstage segments that rarely go anywhere. Paul Heyman is sent out somewhere near the middle to try to save the crowd. A few more filler matches typically come next, and finally a tag match to end the show, which also usually ends in a non-finish. Eat. Sleep. Lose A Quarter Million Viewers. Repeat.
Even with the help of Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar, Raw lost over a quarter of a million viewers by the end of last week’s program.
The overexposure is killing everyone involved in the process, including talent, announcers, and even the fans, hence the reason they aren’t sticking around for the full three hours. I get that the company is trying to appease shareholders, and increased ad revenue is one of the easiest ways to do so, but in the end, they are doing long-term damage in exchange for short-term ad revenue.
This is also not to say that a wrestling promotion can’t put on an entertaining three-hour program. It is simply stating that this wrestling promotion has proven they are incapable of doing so. There are a lot of problems with the current product, from hotshotting anything that is remotely popular to underutilizing some of the company’s best talent to even dragging out storylines fans are disinterested in. However, the biggest problem with Raw, and perhaps the company as a whole, can be summed up in one word: overexposure.
How would you feel about Raw going back to two hours? Do you think it would improve the product? Voice your opinion in the comments section.
Another recent example of miscommunication between WWE departments came during the January 29th airing of WWE SmackDown in Canada.
During the show, WWE was pushing the Daniel Bryan vs. Kane “Casket Match” as the end of the Bryan-Kane feud, advertising it as their final match against each other.
Meanwhile, commercials during the same show were advertising Bryan vs. Kane matches at upcoming non-televised live events, and even included localized promos from Kane to promote the matches.
– The dark match main event after last night’s live editio of WWE SmackDown saw John Cena and Dean Ambrose defeat Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt in tag-team action.
– The first of a three-part SmackDown Fallout for this week, which you can watch below, features Goldust telling Stardust to get his head on straight. Whether or not this is the beginning of a Goldust vs. Stardust feud, which has been rumored for quite some time, remains to be seen.
– In part two of this week’s SmackDown Fallout, which you can see below, Seth Rollins complains about Ryback, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan getting into his business again.
– Finally, in the third and final portion of this week’s SmackDown Fallout, Kane rises from the casket after being defeated by Daniel Bryan.
On Monday’s post-Royal Rumble edition of WWE RAW, a big match for this week’s SmackDown was announced, which airs live on the SyFy Network from Hartford on Thursday night.
In what will be the third straight television match between the two, the stakes are higher than ever before now as Daniel Bryan meets Kane in a casket match.
Make sure to visit us here at the website for full results of this Thursday’s live SmackDown broadcast.
Former TNA star Bully Ray, know once again known as Bubba Ray Dudley, made a surprise return to WWE in the 2015 Royal Rumble match.
Bubba Ray entered the match at number three and got a huge reaction from the Philadelphia crowd. He last wrestled for the company 2005 and finished a 9-year run with TNA at Bound for Glory back in October. He tweeted after the Rumble:
A HUGE THANK YOU to @WWE, the @WWEUniverse and the fans of Philly for the INCREDIBLE reception. It was great to be back!!
– The advertised dark match main event for next week’s WWE SmackDown television taping, which takes place in Boston, is John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Kane, Seth Rollins, Big Show and Bray Wyatt.
– WWE returns to Austin, Texas, which was the site of this past Tuesday night’s SmackDown taping, on April 6th for a live RAW show. The pre-sale code for tickets to the event is WWEAUSTIN.
– Philly.com is reporting that the city of Philadelphia is still interested in hosting a future WrestleMania event. Philadelphia was unable to make a bid for WrestleMania 31 or WrestleMania 32 due to scheduling conflicts with local venues, but claims they will be bidding on future events.
Sting made a surprise appearance at the end of Monday’s WWE RAW Reunion and once again stuck it to The Authority.
The 3-on-1 main event match featuring John Cena vs. Seth Rollins, Big Show and Kane. If Cena lost, he would be removed from the Royal Rumble title match this Sunday. If he won, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan get their jobs back.
When it looked like Cena on the verge of succumbing to the odds, Sting appeared on the big screen. He made his way to the stage and distracted Seth Rollins, allowing Cena to roll him up for the pin.
As a result, Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan get their jobs back.
Make sure to check back this Sunday for our WWE Royal Rumble Live Coverage play-by-play results.
On Monday’s WWE Royal Rumble “go-home” edition of RAW, which was also the RAW Reunion special, another stipulation was added to the Daniel Bryan vs. Kane match scheduled for this week’s SmackDown.
The Kane-Bryan match will now be a No Disqualification match, where if Bryan loses, he forfeits his opportunity to compete in this year’s 30-man over-the-top-rope Royal Rumble match.
– Part-time WWE performer The Rock wrote the following on his official Instagram page today regarding WWE moving SmackDown from Friday’s to Thursday’s.
“It’s official… #Smackdown has moved to THURSDAY NIGHTS. It’s also official that since the show was created in my honor I’ll be happy to “Lay the Smackdown” on anyone’s candy ass on any day that ends with “Y”. Enjoy the show.. #Smackdown #ThursdayNights #WhereRockJokesLike #BottleOfSmirnoffShovedUpYourPutin #AndChewbaccasHairyBeanBag #WillAlwaysBeWelcomed #PeoplesChamp”
– Speaking of SmackDown, which airs in its’ new Thursday time slot for the first time tonight on the SyFy Network, WWE posted the following video to hype Daniel Bryan’s return to the ring, as he battles Kane on tonight’s show.
coming out next month, it will be interesting to see what’s next from UFC’s most dangerous female fighter.