Welcome to the “we are clearly in the annual main roster filler time of December” edition of The Wrestling List. December is pretty notorious for being a filler type time with booking as they get into the holiday season. Not much tends to happen. And it didn’t tonight.
Birmingham opens up with Smackdown with Michael Cole and Corey Graves. I would love for a Mama Mia chant right in Corey Graves’ ear for his ridiculousness last week on Twitter. Team Mauro here. Roman Reigns opens up Smackdown. Here Michael Cole, let me finish that statement that you just said for you. “Corey I don’t want to hear any more garbage about……” I don’t want to hear any more garbage about Mauro, Corey Graves. That is what I said. LOL. Reigns talks about what he is thankful for this year saying last year at this time, all he had was family. This year he talked about how he is thankful for all he has this and how he is back in the ring doing what he loves doing. Amen brother! He puts over everyone on his Survivor Series team instead of one “dumb” one. He is talking Corbin and Corbin walks out. Corbin is talking about Roman eating dog food for Thanksgiving cause his wife probably burned the food and eating dog food like what these terrible fans do. Lame. This is lazy heat on this promo. LOL. Lazy. Boring. He brings out Roode with Ziggler saying Roode will face Reigns next in a match. Lots of distraction in this match as Ziggler and Corbin are at ringside throughout. I thought we had a finish when Roode jumped off the top rope right into a superman punch but Roode kicks out. Corbin sneaks the scepter into the ring to Roode. Corbin jumps up on the apron to distract the ref. Reigns ducks the scepter and superman punches Corbin. Then, he spears Roode for the win. Ziggler attacks Reigns after the match. Reigns fights off Ziggler and then Corbin. Roode nails Reigns with the scepter. Roode is about to do big damage when he is looking to nail Reigns with the scepter through a chair while mentioning Reigns family saying something like say hello to your family. Reigns avoids it and nails Roode out of the ring. Reigns then stops and realizes what Roode was looking to do to him. His anger fuels him spearing Roode through the barricade on the floor. He throws chairs over at Roode. Then, he picks up the steps and nails Ziggler with him sending Ziggler into the crowd. Reigns then turns over the announce table on to Roode and all the commentator stuff goes everywhere. I hope all of Corey Graves notes were destroyed. LOL. So, the story of that segment was that Reigns got pushed too far and snapped. Firefly Funhouse time. Bray says he had an absolute blast playing with Daniel Bryan and would love to play with him again. So, Bray puts the challenge out there for another match. Oh wow, a Sheamus promo. We see a silhouette of Sheamus talking about the current status of Smackdown he then steps into the light and we see his face. Good stuff. Ali is out next taking on Drew Gulak. Ali wins with the 450 splash. Hour two kicks off with Sasha and Bayley. They are wanting to talk Survivor Series with Sasha saying that she didn’t get to choose her team. If she had, they would have had it won. They say Smackdown lost cause the entire locker room let them down. They talk a ton of trash on the women’s locker room. One called by name is Lacey Evans who walks out. Lacey says that if they are going to stand out there and hide behind excuses, it is time for a classy lady to lead the locker room. This gets a Lacey Evans chant. Sasha steps up into Lacey’s face and Lacey nails her with the women’s right knocking Sasha flat. Bayley watches and doesn’t get involved as Lacey walks out. Daniel Bryan is interviewed asking about the challenge but we immediately cut back to the funhouse where it is Thanksgiving leftovers there. Whew, this one is brutal where it turns into a silly rap that screams Vince McMahon laughing all about it. I need to keep in mind that we are in the holidays where Vince goes into Vince humor booking of this will be funny and great. And, yeah, you know, it’s not. LOL. Meanwhile back to Bryan after that weirdness finished. He is in silence with no answer. Nikki Cross goes one on one with Sonja Deville. Nikki wins with a cradle for the pinfall. Rose and Deville both attack Nikki after the match. Alexa Bliss’s music hits and she’s back! Alexa runs in and helps Nikki and they take out Rose and Deville. Great to have Alexa back! Backstage with Miz talking to Bryan saying you survived the Fiend once but is it worth it to try him again? Miz says he is important to Smackdown and that they can’t afford to lose him. Neither can his family to which Bryan doesn’t appreciate. Miz walks off with a sorry but I’m just saying look. We cut backstage where Drake is hitting on Dana Brooke with mistletoe. LOL. Aren’t you married? It’s complicated. LOL. Welllllll, I just said yesterday where is Elias and here he walks in. Where has he been? On a journey. He performs a song about Drake being in trouble with his wife. Time for the New Day Open Challenge. Nakamura, Sami, and Cesaro interrupt the promo and the match is set for New Day vs. Nakamura and Cesaro. Sami gets kicked out for trying to use the pancake pan as a weapon but the ref catches him. New Day ends up prevailing by pinfall. Main event segment is Daniel Bryan walking to the ring to talk out the Bray Wyatt challenge. He still won’t lead those yes chants down the aisle. Just puts the hands up to the crowd. Bryan says he was changed at Survivor Series saying that the people made him realize who he should have been this whole time. Yes chants from Birmingham. He announces that maybe the fans have brought the yes movement back to life. Do I accept the challenge? YES chants. Bryan then starts the yes chants with them. I support this. Babyface yes movement Daniel Bryan is back. This is the better booking idea. Firefly Funhouse appears back on the screen. He says that it is fitting that Bryan changed because Bryan helped change that place saying you remember why, right? He promised a new face tonight and he said he is a man of his word. Lights go out and Bray comes up through the ring trying to drag Bryan underneath. Bryan keeps trying to fight him off. He hooks the claw and drags Bryan under the ring. He also reveals that he pulled some of his hair out. He continues to reveal hair. Yowie wowie, is he getting a haircut underneath the ring? LOL. And the show ends.
Raw opens up from Music City in Nashville tonight. Tease over the weekend was that Seth Rollins was going to make an apology. He is building that up on the way to the ring greeting fans on the way to the ring. He starts his apologies and calls out Kevin Owens. Owens isn’t buying it including a word that flew surprisingly through in the 7:00 hour with no one cutting it. AOP arrive and challenge Rollins and Owens in a tag match. Well, this screams set up. LOL. Rollins says he is in if Owens is in. Owens says there are three possibilities of how this can go and all three result in Owens getting beaten down by the three of them. Rollins walks out saying he tried and that Owens is on his own. So, we are just waiting for this to have Rollins and AOP to be put together here. Owens calls out AOP but AOP walks out. Owens issues a challenge for anyone. Out walks Lana who starts to talk and Owens starts cutting her saying no one cares. LOL. No kidding on that statement. Whew, this Lashley/Lana/Rusev thing just will not go away, will it? Why do we keep having to suffer with this angle? This is like a parent force feeding you something saying no, you’ll like it. Keep trying it. This is terrible. EVERY SINGLE WEEK. So, Lana and Owens continue to have words. Lashley is the challenger for Owens. Match goes on through two segments. Finish has AOP making their way back out and attacking Owens. Samoa Joe is back on commentary and again I will say how good he is. He makes it sound so simple. He has a future in commentary if he decides he wants it. We’re back from commercial and WE STILL have Lashley and Lana in the ring. Charly interviewing them. Rusev comes in through the crowd and attacks Lashley. Lana had “Nashville police” with her to protect the restraining order in case Rusev showed up. The two guys do nothing when Rusev attacks. Lashley questions why they did nothing. One of them says he is also a WWE fan and says they do things a little different in Tennessee. He arrests Rusev. Why? I have no idea. LOL. Lana then acts mildly concerned. LOL. She slaps the officer and she gets handcuffed. This made zero sense and just continues the story of just how TERRIBLE this angle is. I was going to use the word spiral but spiral means it was actually up at one point. This thing has been terrible out of the gate. I can’t even make up the details of how bad this is. Lana is put in the police car where she screams that she is suing. Can we sue whoever is writing this angle for the time that we can’t get back in watching this lousiness? Back to the ring as Drew McIntyre is next in action taking on Tozawa. A lot of this match is is look how big Drew can throw smaller Tozawa around. Finish has a nasty kick from Drew with Tozawa doing the 360 spin on the sell. Looked nasty. Drew gets the win. Drew calls out Randy Orton saying he has a problem with him. Orton arrives. Drew talks of the problems that he has with Orton. Orton halfway cares. LOL. The OC arrive. AJ wants a match with Orton. Drew says this seems like an Orton and OC problem so Drew sees his way out. The OC then surround Orton in the ring. Orton goes after them but The OC starts to get the advantage. Ricochet arrives and he gets beaten down too. Here comes Carrillo out next. OC beats him down too. Here comes Rey Mysterio. Hey, maybe four guys can take out The OC. LOL. The 4 on 3 advantage takes out the OC. Wow, a TLC promo and we are under 2 weeks away from that show. Wow, things are going to have to get booked fast to get us there with a lineup. Backstage we see Orton with Rey, Ricochet, and Carrillo where he tells them that he appreciates the assistance but that he didn’t need it. Next match has Tony Nese taking on Aleister Black. Aleister wins with the spin kick. More competitive than I thought it would be booked to be. Charley talks to Buddy Murphy asking if he regrets knocking on Aleister’s door next week. He says no and that Aleister is too much of a hot head. Promising to calm him down. Andrade with Zelina vs. Eric Young. Poor Eric Young and Sanity. Why did they even move them up to the main roster? I can probably count on two hands how many times they have been on TV since they got moved up. You know Triple H had better plans for them than this. The hopes spots for Young in this match gets his hometown of Nashville buzzing in the background. Andrade gets the win. After the match, R Truth runs out with the 24/7 title and he is being chased. He hides at the feet of Nascar’s Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip who are in the front row. Truth hides behind the barricade waiting for everyone to pass by. The group runs on through. He thanks Kyle and Michael and invites them over into the ringside area. Truth hugs Kyle and then goes to hug Michael who stops him. He unzips his jacket to reveal a referee’s shirt. Kyle then rolls up Truth and pins him to win the 24/7 title. Kyle and Michael run out celebrating. So, the 2019 Nascar Cup champion is now the 24/7 champion as well. No Way Jose is out next and who is his opponent? Rowan. Yeah, I figured this was a squash match for someone. Rowan with a squash match win. Hour three begins with Charlotte Flair taking on Kairi and Asuka in a one on two match. They attack Charlotte before the bell including with Kairi’s umbrella. Match does get underway after the ref gets them separated. This match goes for two segments with the story being that all three got pushed to their limits. Finish had Asuka making a tag to Kairi which Charlotte didn’t see. Charlotte hooks the figure eight on to Asuka but Kairi jumps off the top with the elbow drop to break it up and the pinball on Charlotte. Fun match but you know I can’t stand how Vince McMahon loves these matches of putting the tag team champions, whether it is women or men, against one person. The tag team should not have this much trouble beating one person. I would not have been surprised if Charlotte had won this thing cause Vince loves to have tag teams get beat up by one person. War Raiders win a squash match next. Main event time with Rey, Ricochet, and Carrillo against The OC. Ricochet attempts a rana out of the corner but Styles counters it and holds him nailing a Styles clash off the second rope for the pin. OC wins. Very solid match. As The OC celebrates, Orton sneaks in and nails Styles with a RKO as the show ends. Whew, talk about an episode with a ton of filler and nothing you really need to see. Welcome to main roster WWE in December.
Ratings are in for last week’s NXT and AEW. NXT wins for the second week in a row. Both shows did see a drop which isn’t surprising as it is the biggest travel day of the year. NXT did 810,000 viewers up against AEW’s 663,000 viewers. Again, AEW leads the 18-49 demo though with a 0.26 against a 0.24. However, that is the lowest rating ever for AEW so far. This was a travel day holiday sooooo let’s wait and see how those numbers rebound this week. NXT has to be happy with that number though. That is one of their better numbers and fifth highest since moving to USA is what I am seeing.
Next episode of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions will be Goldberg which will premiere on December 15th after the TLC event on the WWE Network. That will be an interesting one! Speaking of that, let’s go back to last week’s with The Undertaker. This interview with him and Austin was so good. Again if you haven’t seen it, go and watch it now. It is so hard to get used to hearing the Undertaker talk like a normal person cause we are so used to him not being out of character for interviews. The two trade stories of rising up in the business. Taker talks of the famous story of when he decided to leave WCW was when Ole Anderson, who was in charge of booking at the time, told him that people would never pay to see him. I don’t think they talked about the JR part of it but the story has always been that JR knew how talented that he was and told him to go to the WWF saying Vince will make a star out of him. JR was super frustrated at the time and still that WCW saw nothing in him. Talk about getting egg on your face Ole Anderson. Speaking of eggs, we get the story of Taker talking about his WWF debut not knowing what his character was going to be but seeing the Thanksgiving Survivor Series egg on TV. When seeing all of the outlandish gimmicks at the time, Taker was terrified that he was going to come out of the egg and be “egg man”. He had himself so worked up about it that he had his stomach all out of sorts. Taker tells the story of the Brock Lesnar loss at WrestleMania with Brock Lesnar where Taker says he was knocked out for the majority of the match. He said that he has zero memory of the match and that the earliest memory that he has of the match is preparing before the show. Taker says it wasn’t anybody’s fault and that when he watches the match, he can’t even figure out when it occurred. He went to the hospital and spent the night in the hospital with a concussion. He didn’t get to leave until he could answer questions on what his name was and where they were. He said he kept leaning over to Michelle McCool (his wife by the way if you didn’t know) and he did know her wanting her to tell him where he was. She said no way, you have to remember this on your own to make sure you are ok and he was getting mad at her cause she wouldn’t tell him the answers he needed. One thing I wish Austin would have asked him was how he felt about the streak ending. Austin apologizes to Taker about their match at SummerSlam 1998 where Austin took an inadvertent collision where it knocked Austin out. Austin said he was out of it the rest of the match and Hebner had to tell them where they even were when he was on the mat. Taker wouldn’t take the apology saying why are you apologizing, things happen out there. When talking about the longevity of his character, he credits the biker gimmick saying if he hadn’t done that, he would have been done a lot sooner. Doing that made his career go longer. It allowed him to evolve his character and evolve his in ring style away from being limited as the deadman’s style. Then, when he went back to the deadman gimmick, he was able to combine the styles in the ring. The show concludes with a great discussion of moments where they would try to get Taker to laugh and break character. Austin tells the story of an international tour where he got him and he knew he got him. LOL. Lots of stories over several years. Go watch it. It’s awesome!
That is it for tonight. Have a great week!
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