BRM Books Raw 1,000 and beyond

[Big Red Machine]

MEANWHILE, DOWN ON NXT…

That angle back in September during the Champions’ Beat The Clock Challenge where Sasha fought Paige on Charlotte’s behalf and won when Charlotte KOed Paige with the NXT Women’s Title leads to a big main event tag match where Paige and Charlotte come back down to NXT so we can do Sasha & Charlotte vs. Paige & Becky. The babyfaces win when Becky makes Sasha tap, setting up for Takeover: London where Sasha beats Becky clean, but snubs her on a post-match handshake. Also on that show Balor retains clean over Crews, while Joe beats Rhyno and Bayley beats Alexa Bliss (both clean).
(Don’t worry, I actually have plans for NXT going into and out of Mania)

[Big Red Machine]

In addition to the usual post-PPV fallout, the hype for Raw includes both the calling up of a new Diva and Steph making a big announcement regarding the Royal Rumble. Also, World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler has uncharacteristically challenged Big Show to a non-title match in tonight’s main event.


Raw: (12/14/2015)- Philadelphia, PA

Raw opens with the Dudley Boyz coming out to cut a promo. They say that they were totally prepared to come out here and give a big retirement speech if they lost last night because Philadelphia is the city where they made their name and so it would be a fitting place to end their careers… but they beat The Colons last night, so instead of the place where they end their careers, Philadelphia, the place where they made their names, is also going to be the city where they revitalize their careers and start their journey to their tenth tag team championship in WWE… and they want to start that journey right now, so they make an open challenge to any two guys in the back to come out and face them right here, right now!
They challenge is answered by Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, who cut a promo saying that the Dudleys aren’t the only guys who made their names in Philly, and that a win over the legendary Dudleys Boyz would put them right back in title contention.
THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN-
Dudleys win clean in twenty-five minutes with the 3-D. They point of this match is basically to tear the house down, give the Dudleys a big win, and get Owens & Zayn over in their loss.

HEATH SLATER vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY-
The match only goes a few minutes before Zack Ryder runs out with a steel chair and attacks Slater for the DQ, shouting angrily about Heath stealing the US Title from him last night. He is restrained by security.

We get a backstage promo from Dolph Ziggler explaining why he challenged Big Show tonight. He says that his victor over Mark Henry last night at WrestleWar was so impressive that he is going to repeat the feat again, although this time with a man who is even bigger than Mark, but just as dumb and slow.

Steph comes out to make her big Royal Rumble announcement. She explains that this year, of the 30 spots, WWE has decided to reserve twelve spots for entrants who are veterans of the wrestling business looking to make their mark in the ring once again. She had originally planned on keeping all of these names secret, but because we are in Philly, she has decided to reveal that two of those names are Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno, and both of them will be in action later tonight. Another of those veteran spots will go to NXT Commissioner William Regal.
And speaking of NXT, now it’s time to meet the newest call-up from NXT… BECKY LYNCH! Becky comes out to a big pop, and Steph explains that Becky’s first opponent will be chosen via random draw, so we bring out the hopper with all of the names of the current active Divas in the machine… and wouldn’t you know it the name that Steph picks is the WWE Divas Champion, Paige! And that match is next!

BECKY LYNCH vs. PAIGE-
The announcers put this over as a very tough first challenge for Becky, but also note that Paige just wrestled a grueling thirty-minute Ironwoman match last night and is surely feeling the aftereffects of that match. Becky picks up the upset win in her first match on the main roster, pinning Paige in fifteen minutes after a Becksploder. The announcers are shocked that Becky beat the champion on her very first night.
After the match we get a reaction interview from Becky where she notes how happy she is to have won. After a commercial break Renee Young is standing by with Paige for a reaction interview from her, but before Paige can say anything, her opponent from last night’s Ironwoman match, Ashley Flair, comes up to her and offers a tense handshake. Ashley tells Paige that she can admit when she has been beaten and last night Paige was the better woman, “but mark my words: I will be the one to take that title from you.”

TOMMY DREAMER & RHYNO vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes)-
Tommy and Rhyno are looking to pay The Colons back for the disrespect they showed their pals the Dudleys. They manage to do so, defeating them in seven minutes when Rhyno pins Primo after a GORE!

Kalisto comes out and recaps the events of last night’s post-show for those people who don’t have time to watch every last little stupid thing on the WWE Network. Basically, Heyman offered to make him the next Paul Heyman Guy, and told Kalisto to take some time to think about it. Kalisto comes out here now and says that Paul Heyman has a fantastic track record… but at the same time, Paul is also a very shady guy and Kalisto doesn’t want any sort of asterisks near his victories. Heyman comes out and admits that he does have a bit of a shady past… but that’s all it is: the past. There were times when he was in a bad place and needed his guys to be successful, so he might have given a little bit of extra help to those who weren’t going to be as successful without it, but he knows it was wrong and that’s all behind him now. He points out that he doesn’t give Dolph Ziggler or Brock Lesnar this sort of help, and never did for Cesaro when Cesaro was a Paul Heyman Guy. He implores Kalisto to ask the Philadelphia crowd if they think he is trustworthy (which should make for an amusing reaction), and then tells Kalisto to take some more time to think about it.

BO DALLAS vs. RYBACK (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Ryback squashes Bo. After the match, Bray cuts a promo talking about how no one believed him, but he still proved himself to be a man of his word. He praises Ryback as the #1 contender to the WWE and says that Ryback will win the title, which will act as proof that Bray is speaking the truth when he says that when you follow Bray Wyatt, anything is possible.

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS (w/Dean Ambrose)-
Rollins wins clean in twenty minutes.

We get a video package announcing Cesaro’s injury.

EMMA vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina)-
Summer wins in six minutes via illegal leverage from the ropes on a schoolgirl.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Roman Reigns vs. Luke Harper (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Harper wins when Bray and Rowan interfere on his behalf. Ryback doesn’t help, but he doesn’t stop them from doing so, either.
Bray once again cuts a promo saying that the Wyatt Family is completely united and will never be divided. Those who left, such as Dean Ambrose, were never truly brothers of the Wyatt Family to begin with, and Bray will prove that Dean did not absorb any of the wisdom of Bray Wyatt when he defeats him tomorrow night on Main Event.

PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. MARK HENRY & BIG E. LANGSTON-
PTP win by count-out in seven minutes when Darren Young outraces Henry back to the ring before the referees counts ten.

Team Anger cut a promo calling out Tyson Kidd. They say his victory last night was a fluke, but everyone seems to be taking it as a refutation of their philosophy of channeling your anger, and that makes them very angry, so they want Tyson to come out here right now to face R-Truth in a match. Tyson comes out, followed by a referee, and Cole tells us the match has been made official.
TYSON KIDD vs. R-TRUTH (w/Kane & Jack Swagger)-
Tyson wins clean in ten minutes. Kane and Swagger attack him after the match but Rollins & Ambrose come out to make the save.

We get a backstage interview with Seth, Dean, and Tyson in which Dean tells Tyson to follow his instincts and reject Team Anger’s philosophy because it won’t bring him any success. If it brought people success then Team Anger would have beaten Seth and Dean for the tag titles but they didn’t. Dean also hypes up his match against Bray on Main Event.

The League of Nations come out to have their big championship celebration and brag not only about Barrett beating Cesaro for the WWE Title and Rusev beating Roman for the IC Title, but also Justin Gabriel’s victory over Neville. Lefort says that no one should be surprised that Gabriel beat Neville. The League of Nations are an elite fighting force and anyone in the League of Nations can beat Neville! Neville comes out and says that he is willing to take Lefort up on that offer, and tells Lefort to draw up the contract and have it ready by Smackdown: Adrian Neville vs. any member of the League of Nations of his choice.

BIG SHOW (w/Kofi Kingston) vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman)-
True to his word, Dolph once again defeats a massive WWE superstar, choking him out with the Sleeper Hold. Heyman, also true to his own word, does not once interfere. Total match time should be about eighteen minutes.



WWE.com announces that US Champion Heath Slater will be out of action for about a week due to injuries suffered at the hands of Zack Ryder on Raw.



Main Event: (12/15/2015)
KOFI KINGSTON (w/Big Show) vs. DAMIEN SANDOW (w/Brain Trust)-
Kofi wins clean in ten minutes with Trouble in Paradise.

ALICIA FOX vs. CAMERON-
Fox wins clean in five minutes with the Moonsault.

ASHLEY FLAIR vs. ROSA MENDES (w/The Colons)-
Ashley wins clean in four minutes with Bow to the Queen.

DEAN AMBROSE (w/Seth Rollins) vs. BRAY WYATT (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Bray wins in fifteen minutes when he takes advantage of a distraction by Rowan to catch Ambrose with the Monster Tamer.


NXT: (12/16/2015)
This week on NXT, Commissioner William Regal announces that by virtue of being the NXT Champion, Finn Balor will be an entrant in this year’s Royal Rumble. He also says that one of the twelve “veterans” spots in the Rumble was offered to him, but he has turned it down, instead preferring that one of his NXT competitors be given this amazing opportunity, so next week on NXT there will be a twenty-five man NXT Royal Rumble, with the winner receiving not only Regal’s spot in the real Royal Rumble, but also a shot at the NXT Title the week after the Rumble.
Throughout the night we get a lot of guys cutting promos telling us how much they’d love to be in the Royale Rumble.
We also get a video package highlighting Becky Lynch’s victory over Paige on Raw, and Becky picks up a big win over Dana Brooke. We also get a backstage promo from Sasha saying that Becky just got lucky that Paige was so banged up from the Ironwoman match the night before.

[Big Red Machine]

After his victory over Dean Ambrose on Main Event, Bray Wyatt has now defeated both halves of the WWE World Tag Team Champions in singles competition recently (he beat Rollins back on the 11/30 Raw), so he has been awarded a shot at the WWE World Tag Team Titles next week on Superstars and will be allowed to pick any partner of his choice.
WWE.com also reports that WWE Divas Champion Paige has requested some time off to heal up after her grueling Ironwoman match at WrestleWar.
Tonight on Smackdown we will see Roman Reigns take on Ryback in our main event as well as Luke Harper vs. Cody Rhodes, World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler vs. Erick Rowan, a Royal Rumble qualifier between Bubba Ray Dudley and Big Show, and the contract signing between Adrian Neville and the League of Nations for a match on next week’s Raw where Neville will face any member of the League of his choosing.


Smackdown: (12/17/2015)- Newark, NJ
Smackdown opens with Kalisto coming out and telling Paul Heyman that he accepts his offer to be a Paul Heyman Guy. Heyman comes out to be at ringside for Kalisto’s match tonight, which is…
KALISTO (w/Paul Heyman) vs. JEY USO (w/Jimmy Uso)-
Kalisto wins clean in seven minutes with Salida Del Sol.

Michael McGillicutty cuts a promo saying he is unhappy that Zack Ryder ruined his chance to earn a US Title shot by attacking US Champion Heath Slater for a DQ, so he wants a match with Ryder next week on Raw.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Bubba Ray Dudley (w/Devon Dudley) vs. Big Show (w/Kofi Kingston)-
Big Show wins clean in seven minutes via WMD.

Byron Saxton interviews Zack Ryder backstage. He asks him about his assault of Heath Slater with a steel chair on Raw which resulted in Heath having to miss tonight’s show due to injury. Ryder responds that Slater was the one who brought weapons in this feud when he hit Ryder with a chair at WrestleWar and stole the US Title from him so he is just repaying Heath in kind. Ryder says that he had vowed to the people of New York that he would return home as a champion, and now, with WWE’s return to New York just eleven days away, Heath has stolen his chance to keep his word to the people of his city. Zack says that he wants his rematch whenever Heath gets tough enough to return to action… but until then he needs someone else to take his rage out on, so he will gladly accept Michael McGillicutty’s challenge for Raw.

We go to a backstage interview with Rollins and Ambrose. Renee Young asks them to comment on their upcoming title defense against Bray Wyatt and a partner of his choosing. Before they can speak, Steph shows up and says that she is giving Bray this title shot because he has earned it, but she is counting on them to do what they have done so well and prove to everyone watching around the world that becoming a disciple of Bray Wyatt is not a path to success.

CODY RHODES vs. LUKE HARPER (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Cody wins clean in fifteen minutes.

We get a backstage promo from Mark Henry & Big E. Langston where Big E. jokes that it turns out that Dolph was right and Mark really was too old and slow to get back to the ring fast enough, and that’s why they lost on Raw. Mark does not take this joke well, and pointedly tells his protégé that they should be focusing on trying to win matches, not joking about having lost.

SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina Snuka) vs. NATALYA NEIDHART (w/Tyson Kidd)-
About four minutes in Team Anger comes out to menace Tyson, which distracts not only Tyson, but also the referee, which allows Tamina to run in and hit Nattie with a superkick, allowing Summer Rae to get the pin. Team Anger attack Tyson after the match but Rollins & Ambrose once again make the save. Steph comes out to announce that this week’s featured match on Superstars will be Team Anger vs. Dean, Seth, & Tyson.

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn cut a promo saying that they were honored to even be in the same ring as the Dudley Boyz, and even though they lost on Raw, they will now start to climb the tag team ranks once again to fulfill their dream of being WWE World Tag Team Champions together.

MARK HENRY & BIG E. LANGSTON vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes)-
Mark & Big E. win clean in five minutes when Big E. pins Primo after a Big Ending.

DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman & Kalisto) vs. ERICK ROWAN (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Dolph wins clean with the sleeper hold in eight minutes.
As Dolph walks to the back, Byron Saxton gets a reaction interview with him. Dolph brags about having beaten yet another “big, slow, idiot.”

Renee Young interviews Becky Lynch about her big win in her main roster debut when she pinned the WWE Divas Champion cleanly on Raw. Becky is very excited but Ashley Flair shows up to burst her bubble. She tells Becky that she got lucky that she was able to capitalize off of the damage that Ashley did to Paige in their Ironwoman Match the night before, which even Paige realizes, which is why she took this show off to recover. When Becky actually gets her title shot against Paige, she’ll be in for a very rude awakening.

Next we get the contract signing between Adrian Neville and Sylvester Lefort representing his League of Nations. Lefort is flanked by the League, but there are legions of security in the ring to prevent them from ganging up on the lone Neville. Lefort gladly signs the contract for Neville to face any member of the League of Nations of his choosing next week on Raw, repeating his boast that any member of the League can beat Neville, too, signs the contract, and then informs Lefort that he has already made his decision: the member of the League of Nations he will face next week on Raw will be… Sylvester Lefort himself!
Lefort screams and yells that this isn’t fair and Neville can’t do this, but Neville tells Lefort that he had his lawyer read it over beforehand and he absolutely can. He tells Lefort that he will see him in the ring on Monday.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. RYBACK (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Ryback wins clean in twelve minutes. The announcers speculate that this win, combined with Harper and Rowan’s losses earlier and Ryback’s victory over Bray himself at WrestleWar will lead to Bray choosing Ryback as his partner for his tag title match on next week’s Superstars.



Superstars (12/18/2015)
Tonight’s featured match is Team Anger vs. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, & Tyson Kidd. The interviews all focus on Team Anger’s philosophy of focusing on your anger and using it to motivate yourself, with Team Anger extolling it and Seth, Dean, Tyson, and Nattie saying it doesn’t work and only leads you down a path you will eventually regret when you lose control of yourself.

TEAM ANGER vs. SETH ROLLINS, DEAN AMBROSE, & TYSON KIDD (w/Natalya)-
Babyfaces win clean in thirty minutes when Rollins pins Swagger.




Raw: (12/21/2015)- Minneapolis, MN

KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE USOS-
Owens & Zayn win clean in fifteen minutes.

Renee Young interviews Nattie about her loss to Summer Rae on Smackdown via Tamina’s interference. Nattie tries to downplay it but Tyson puts the blame squarely on himself, saying that if he hadn’t been distracted by Team Anger he would have been able to prevent Tamina from interfering and that cost Nattie the match. Tyson says that now that he is done with Team Anger he is going to spend his time focusing on Nattie’s career, both to help Nattie and because this will help him avoid situations where he might get too angry and backslide back into utilizing Team Anger’s philosophy.

BECKY LYNCH vs. BRIE BELLA-
Becky wins clean with the Disarmer in seven minutes.

Neville cuts a backstage promo about how badly he wants to get his hands on Lefort tonight.

BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry) vs LUKE HARPER (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Big E. wins clean in ten minutes.

Bubba Ray Dudley cuts a promo about his big opportunity to face the World Heavyweight Champion tonight.

ZACK RYDER vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY-
Ryder wins clean in five minutes but is then attacked with a chair by Heath Slater. Security shows up to break it up. Steph comes out and books Ryder’s contractually obligated rematch for tomorrow night’s Super Smackdown Live and makes that match a No Disqualifications match.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. KALISTO (w/Paul Heyman)-
Kalisto wins clean in twelve minutes when he leapfrogs a spear attempt and Roman crashes into the turnbuckles, then Kalisto hits Salida Del Sol for the win.

CAMERON vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina)-
Summer wins in three minutes when she gets Cameron to chase her outside of the ring and then rolls back in just before the count of ten so that Cameron gets counted out.

PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. BIG SHOW & KOFI KINGSTON vs. BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi) vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Justin Gabriel & Alexander Rusev) (w/Lana)-
The announcers explain to us that Sylvester Lefort is not out here with the League of Nations because he is preparing for his match with Adrian Neville later tonight. PTP win clean in ten minutes, pinning Otunga.

JACK SWAGGER (w/Team Anger) vs. ERICK ROWAN (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Swagger makes Rowan tap clean to the Patriot Act in eight minutes.

Dolph Ziggler cuts a promo about his match with Bubba Ray Dudley tonight. He says that he will beat yet another “big, fat, slow old man,” and points out that his manager Paul Heyman knows the Dudleys better than anyone.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Cody Rhodes vs. Primo Colon (w/Epico Colon & Rosa Mendes)-
Cody wins clean in six minutes

Byron Saxton interviews Paige. He asks her about her loss to Becky last week, specifically asking if she thinks the fact that she had wrestled a grueling 30-minute Ironwoman match the night before contributed to her loss. Paige says that it doesn’t matter if she was at 100% or not. Becky beat her fair and square so Becky deserves a title shot.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. SYLVESTER LEFORT (w/the League of Nations)-
Lefort spends the first minute or so running away from Neville. Neville manages to cut him off and starts laying into him but the League of Nations quickly run in for the DQ and beat him up. Security comes out to stop them and Steph comes out to announce that tomorrow night on Super Smackdown Live we will see this same match again, but this time any member of the League of Nations who interferes will be suspended for two months, and in the case of Barrett and Rusev they will also be stripped of their titles.

Zack Ryder cuts the big go-home promo for his No DQ’s US Title match against Heath Slater tomorrow night, saying that this is his last chance to return to his hometown a champion like he promised he would.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: R-Truth (w/Team Anger) vs. Epico Colon (w/Primo Colon & Rosa Mendes)-
Truth wins clean in five minutes.

DEAN AMBROSE (w/Seth Rollins) vs. RYBACK (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Ryback wins clean in thirteen minutes. The announcers speculate that with Rowan and Harper having both lost once again tonight and Ryback now having pinned one of the tag champs Bray will surely choose him to be his partner when he challenges for the tag titles in this week’s featured match on Superstars.

Roman Reigns cuts a promo saying that after his recent string of losses, he thinks he needs to take some time off from active competition so that he can focus himself exclusively on regaining his IC Title from Rusev.

DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman) vs. BUBBA RAY DUDLEY (w/Devon Dudley)-
Dolph wins clean with the sleeper hold.

SETH ROLLINS (w/Dean Ambrose) vs. KANE (w/Team Anger) vs. MARK HENRY (w/Big E. Langston) vs. WADE BARRETT (w/the League of Nations)-
Wade wins clean in fifteen minutes when he KOs Mark Henry with the Barrett Barrage.




Tonight’s Super Smackdown Live is not a show you want to miss! Not only will Heath Slater defend the US Title in a No DQ’s match against Zack Ryder, and Sylvester Lefort face Adrian Neville without the aid of the League of Nations, but Kane will take on Devon Dudley in a Royal Rumble qualifier, sensational rookie Becky Lynch will take on Summer Rae, and Bray Wyatt has promised to reveal who his partner will be when he challenges Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Tag Team Titles this Friday on Superstars!
Later in the day WWE.com announces a HUGE bonus match of the Paul Heyman Guys of Ziggler & Kalisto taking on the League of Nations squad of Gabriel & Barrett, which means we will see the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion face off in the same match!



Super Smackdown Live: (12/22/2015)- Des Moines, IA
KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes)-
Owens & Zayn win clean in ten minutes.

Becky Lynch cuts a backstage promo saying that she wants to wait until Paige is back at 100% to get her title shot. Until then, she is happy to hold herself over by focusing on her match against Summer Rae tonight.

BO DALLAS vs. RYBACK (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Ryback squashes Bo in under a minute.

Paige cuts a promo saying that her doctor said she should be 100% by next week, so she will defend the title against Becky on the last Raw of 2015.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Kane (w/Team Anger) vs. Devon Dudley (w/ Bubba Ray Dudley)-
Kane wins clean in seven minutes with the chokeslam.

Rusev cuts a backstage promo in Bulgarian. Then Sylvester Lefort and Lana cut a promo about how Roman has run scared from Rusev, and everyone else should, too. No one is brave enough to challenge Rusev! Lefort sarcastically tells the rest of the roster “if you want an IC Title shot, just let me know.”


BECKY LYNCH vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina Snuka)-
Becky dominates the match for a few minutes until Tamina manages to slip Summer a steel chain which Summer punches Becky with while Tamina distracts the ref. Summer discards the evidence and then pins the unconscious Becky for the win. Michael Cole laments how terrible it is that Becky’s first loss in the WWE is the result of such cheating.

Rollins & Ambrose cut a backstage promo saying that they don’t care who Bray picks as his partner: they are still going to beat him on Superstars and retain their titles.

THE PAUL HEYMAN GUYS (Dolph Ziggler & Kalisto) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Wade Barrett & Justin Gabriel) (w/Sylvester Lefort, Alexander Rusev, & Lana)-
Heyman guys win clean in fifteen minutes when Kalisto pins Gabriel.

BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry) vs. A LARGER THAN AVERAGE JOBBER-
Big E. squashes the jobber.

THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) (w/Bray Wyatt & Ryback)-
PTP win clean in five minutes when Titus rolls up Rowan. The announcers are certain that this loss, combined with Ryback’s earlier victory will cement Ryback as Bray’s choice for a partner to challenge for the tag titles.
After the match Bray announces that when he challenges Rollins & Ambrose for the WWE World Tag Team Titles this week on Superstars his partner will be… Luke Harper. The announcers are stunned at his, as Harper has gone 0-3 in his past three matches while Ryback has gone 3-0, including a win over one half of the WWE World Tag Team Champions Dean Ambrose. The announcers speculate that this is Bray’s way of punishing Ryback for beating him in the #1 contendership match at WrestleWar. Ryback seems to think this, too, as he gets upset and says that he respects Bray’s wisdom, but he doesn’t understand this decision. Bray laughs for a moment before explaining that he chose Harper to be his partner instead of Ryback so that Ryback could put all of his focus on his WWE Title match, which, as per his suggestion to Steph earlier tonight, will take place next week on Raw. Ryback and the announcers all seem mollified by this explanation.

ANY MEMBER OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WHO INTERFERES WILL BE SUSPENDED FOR TWO MONTHS: Sylvester Lefort vs. Adrian Neville-
Lefort tries to run away but Neville catches him and starts to put a beating on him. Lefort begs off like the awesome heel he is but Neville shows no mercy. After a few minutes of this Neville sets up for the Red Arrow but Rosa Mendes comes out to distract the ref while Epico shoves Neville off the top rope. The Colons then hit Neville with their finisher on the floor and roll him into the ring so Lefort can pin him. Lefort is shocked at this, but won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE WWE UNITED STATES TITLE: Heath Slater(c) vs. Zack Ryder-

They have an ABSOLUTELY VICIOUS weapons match, bringing out everything they can find and even getting color. Ryder becomes the first person to kick out of the DevaSlater, and after more than twenty-five BRUTAL minutes of hardcore action, Zack Ryder gets the win to regain the US Title.


And then the exhausted Ryder gets jumped from behind by The Miz, who comes out of the crowd. Miz hits Ryder with the Skull-Crushing Finale, then pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, hands it to the referee, and starts yelling at the timekeeper to “ring the bell!” The timekeeper looks to the referee for guidance and the referee tells him to ring the bell and tells the ring announcer that Miz will now challenge Ryder for the US Title. Michael Cole figures out what is going on and lets the fans at home know that Miz is cashing in the contract for a rematch whenever Miz wants it as per the deal they made on Smackdown after Hell in a Cell (and the ring announcer lets the fans in the building know as well.
Miz plants his foot on Ryder’s chest for the douchebag pin but Ryder shockingly kicks out at two! Miz responds with several vicious boots to Ryder’s already bleeding head, then picks him up and hits him with another Skull-Crushing Finale- this time into a chair. Miz shouts at Ryder to “STAY DOWN THIS TIME!” and then rolls him over and pins him to win back the US Title.



Main Event: (12/22/2015)
CODY RHODES vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY-
Cody wins clean in nine minutes.

NATALYA NEIDHART (w/Tyson Kidd) vs. TAMINA SNUKA (w/Summer Rae)-
Summer tries to interfere multiple times but Tyson Kidd always points it out to the referee, who eventually ejects her from ringside. Nattie wins clean in ten minutes.

MARK HENRY & BIG E. LANGSTON vs. BIG SHOW & KOFI KINGSTON-
Mark & Big E. win clean in twenty minutes when Big E. manages to get Big Show up for the Big Ending. The announcers make a very big deal out of this.



WWE.com reports that Zack Ryder will be taking some time off to deal with injuries he sustained during his matches last night on Super Smackdown Live.



NXT: (12/23/2015)
BECKY LYNCH & BAYLEY vs. LIV MORGAN & PEYTON ROYCE-
Becky & Bayley win clean in four minutes when Bayley pins Liv with the Bayley-to-Belly. Devin Taylor tries to get a reaction interview from them and asks Becky about her WWE Divas Title shot this week on Raw. NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks shows up to rain on Becky’s parade and say she stands no chance against Paige and she will be sent right back down to NXT where she belongs. After Sasha walks off, Bayley tells Becky to ignore Sasha and says that she thinks Becky will beat Paige to win the title.

NXT RUMBLE FOR A SPOT IN THE REAL ROYAL RUMBLE AND AN NXT TITLE SHOT THE WEEK AFTER THE RUMBLE-
Tyler Breeze does the hiding under the ring gimmick but this time it actually works, as he is able to sneak up behind Joe and eliminate him after Joe had cleared the ring by eliminating the final six guys.




Superstars: (12/25/2015)
Tonight’s featured match is the tag title match with Rollins & Ambrose defending against the Wyatt Family of Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper. The interviews focus on whether or not Bray really helps his people. Rollins, Ambrose, Big Show, and others who have opposed Bray over the past two years say that he doesn’t, but Bray and his guys claim that he does. Bray says he will prove this by leading Harper, who has never held WWE gold before, to the WWE World Tag Team Titles. We close off with Sting making an appearance to condemn Bray as charlatan whose true colors already show through to those who don’t allow themselves to be blinded by the smoke he blows at them.

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose(c) vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper) (w/Erick Rowan & Ryback)-
Seth & Dean win clean in twenty-five minutes to retain the titles when Seth pins Harper.

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com reports that both Zack Ryder and Heath Slater will not be at tonight’s Raw due to the injuries they suffered in their BRUTAL No Disqualifications match for the US Title on Tuesday’s Super Smackodwn Live.


Raw: (12/28/2016)- Brooklyn, NY
The show opens with Steph out to run down all of tonight’s big matches, including the WWE Title match (Barrett vs. Ryback) and the Divas Title match (Paige vs. Becky), the Prime Time Players vs. Owens & Zayn, and Big E. Langston vs. Cody Rhodes, but first she wants to deal with Sylvester Lefort and the League of Nations for their actions on Smackdown. She says that they violated the stipulations of the Lefort vs. Neville match by having The Colons and Rosa Mendes interfere for Lefort and now she is going to have to suspend both Lefort and his new cronies for sixty days.
Lefort comes out and pleads with Steph to not do this, claiming that he didn’t know that the Colons were going to help him. The Colons and Rosa come out and confirm this. They say that they aren’t members of the League of Nations… but they want to be. Their series of losses over the past few weeks have made them realize that they need new leadership, so they figured that if they helped Lefort against Neville he would accept them as his clients.
Lefort gladly says that he will accept them into the League of Nations, but Steph is still adamant that they should be punished. Adrian Neville comes out (and Lefort runs away). Neville tells Steph that she should punish The Colons by making them each face him one-on-one. He says he still wants to get his hands on Lefort, but he has realized that he needs to first get rid of anyone who might help save Lefort. Steph agrees to this plan, and books Neville vs. Epico with everyone banned from ringside for right after this commercial break!

EPICO COLON vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE-
Neville dominates until Epico cuts him off with an eye-poke. We get a quick minute or two of heat before Neville makes his comeback and wins with the Red Arrow in seven minutes.

Paul Heyman and the Paul Heyman Guys cut a backstage promo putting themselves over. Heyman promises that they will dominate the tag team division the way Dolph Ziggler has dominated the singles division starting tomorrow night on Main Event when they defeat the champions in a non-title match to earn themselves a shot at the tag titles.

THE USOS vs. TEAM ANGER (w/Kane)-
Usos win clean in fifteen minutes, pinning Swagger after a double diving splash.

NATALYA NEIDHART (w/Tyson Kidd) vs. NAOMI (w/the Brain Trust)-
Tyson prevents Sandow from interfering so Nattie can win cleanly via Sharpshooter in ten minutes.

The Miz comes out and cuts a douchy promo basically stealing the big celebration that was planned for Zack Ryder’s triumphant return to New York as champion. The goal here is for Miz to be the biggest asshole possible and cut a big promo burying hometown hero Zack Ryder.

PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN-
PTP win clean in fifteen minutes. After the match PTP cut an angry promo saying they are tired of being overlooked and point out that they haven’t lost in over a month, so they want a tag title shot. Rollins & Ambrose come out and accept their challenge, saying that they’re not doing anything New Year’s Eve, so they would be glad to end 2015 by defending the titles against PTP this Thursday night on Smackdown.

CODY RHODES vs. BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry)-
Big E. wins clean in twenty minutes. The announcers put this over a big upset victory for Big E.

ALICIA FOX vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina Snuka)-
Summer wins in four minutes when she rolls Fox up and pulls the tights for illegal leverage.

Bo Dallas cuts a backstage promo saying that last week on Smackdown Sylvester Lefort said that anyone who wants an IC Title shot should let him know… well he is now officially putting Lefort and Rusev on notice. Heel announcer JBL all but laughs this challenge off.

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Becky Lynch-
Paige wins clean in twenty-five minutes to retain the title. She gives Becky a hand up and raises her hand after the match. The announcers put over what an impressive performance this was by Becky.

The Dudleys cut a promo acknowledging their recent singles losses, including in Royal Rumble qualifiers, but they’re okay with that because they are going to turn their focus 100% to what they do best: tag team wrestling. And they want to start their climb back to the top right here in New York City where they returned to WWE three months ago. So they are issuing an open challenge right now. That challenge is answered by…
KOFI KINGSTON & THE BIG SHOW vs. THE DUDLEY BOYS-
Dudleys win clean in twelve minutes, pinning Kofi after a 3-D.

WWE TITLE MATCH: Wade Barrett(c) (w/the League of Nations) vs. Ryback (w/the Wyatt Family)-
Primo is not out here with the League of Nations. The announcers say that he has been taken to a hospital to check for broken ribs after the beating Neville gave him earlier.
Stuff happens until we get a ref bump, which leads to a lot of brawling. Ryback manages to lay Wade out with the Shellshock and gets a visual pinfall. Then Bray pulls him off of Wade and hits him with the Monster Tamer. The Wyatts leave and Lefort, unable to believe his good fortune, wakes up the ref who counts the pinfall and Wade retains.



Main Event: (12/29/2015)
ASHLEY FLAIR vs. BRIE BELLA-
Ashley win clean in nine minutes.

BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry) vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY-
Big E. wins handily in five minutes.

We get a recap of Bray Wyatt turning on Ryback last night and costing him the title, along with a promo from Ryback from after last night’s show vowing to take Bray out.

SETH ROLLINS & DEAN AMBROSE vs. THE PAUL HEYMAN GUYS (Dolph Ziggler & Kalisto) (w/Paul Heyman)-
Dolph & Kalisto win clean in twenty-five minutes when Dolph pins Seth after a Zig-Zag.



NXT: (12/30/2016)
Tyler Breeze comes out to cut a promo about his victory in the NXT Rumble last week. He barely even gets started before Samoa Joe comes out and tries to kill him. Breeze escapes and runs out of the arena while Regal and security handle Joe.

We get a recap of Becky’s loss to Paige on Raw. Sasha comes out to make fun of Becky. Alexa Bliss comes out and attacks Becky from behind. Bayley comes out to make the save, so Regal books Bayley & Becky vs. Sasha & Alexa as the main event.

Um… stuff happens, probably involving guys like Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews, as well as tag division stuff with American Alpha getting a win over Enzo and Cass maybe?

ALEXA BLISS & SASHA BANKS vs. BECKY LYNCH & BAYLEY-
Bayley pins Sasha clean in twenty minutes with the Belly-to-Bayley.

[Big Red Machine]

Join WWE for Smackdown on New Year’s Eve to see who will enter 2016 as the WWE World Tag Team Champions, as Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose put their belts on the line in tonight’s main event against the Prime Time Players! Also on Smackdown, Heath Slater returns to WWE TV for the first time since losing the US Title to Zack Ryder (who then lost it to The Miz) last week on Super Smackdown Live, Ashley Flair and Paige will be in the ring together for the first time since their Ironwoman match on opposite sides of tag team action, and Ryback has vowed revenge on the Wyatt Family for costing him the WWE Title on Raw… and he will likely try to do that when Bray Wyatt comes before the WWE Universe to explain his actions!
Also, as a result of their non-title victory over the WWE World Tag Team Champions, Dolph Ziggler & Kalisto will receive a title shot in this week’s featured match on Superstars against the winner of the Rollins & Ambrose vs. PTP title match.



Smackdown: (12/31/2015)- Washington, D.C.
FATAL FOUR-WAY TAG TEAM MATCH: The Dudley Boys vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Brain Trust (w/Naomi) vs. Team Anger (Kane & Jack Swagger) (w/R-Truth)-
Dudleys win clean in eleven minutes, pinning Otunga.

We get a backstage segment with Steph and Neville where they reveal that they spent the day in negotiations with Sylvester Lefort and they have come to the following deal. Over the next few weeks Neville will receive a one-on-one match with each member of the League of Nations, leading up to a match with Lefort in two weeks on Smackdown. Every member of the League that Neville defeats on his way to his match with Lefort will be banned from ringside for Neville’s showdown with Lefort in two weeks. The first of those matches will take place tomorrow night as a second featured match on Superstars when Neville faces Primo Colon, so Superstars is now a special New Year’s Day Double Feature!

BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry) vs. KALISTO (w/Paul Heyman)-
Big E. wins clean when he reverses Salida del Sol into the Big Ending in fourteen minutes. The announcers note that Big E. is on a winning streak and that this has been Kalisto’s first loss since becoming a Paul Heyman Guy.

Renee Young interviews Becky Lynch backstage. She asks Becky if Becky feels any less confident after losing her Divas Title match on Raw. Becky starts to answer that she is disappointed, but no less confident in her ability to work at the level required to be on the main roster. Summer Rae and Tamina show up and Summer says that Becky should be sent back down to NXT because she wasn’t even the legitimate #1 contender when she got her title shot because Summer beat her last week on Super Smackdown Live. Becky retorts that the only reason she lost to Summer was because Summer hit her with a steel chain. Summer tries to deny this, which infuriates Becky, and seeing Becky getting angry, Summer runs to hide behind Tamina before slinking off.

BRIE BELLA & PAIGE vs. ASHLEY FLAIR & NATALYA NEIDHART (w/Tyson Kidd)-
Nattie & Ashley win clean in five minutes when Nattie lays Brie out with Nattie By Nature but Ashley quickly tags herself in and steals the pin. Ashley and Nattie have a nose-to-nose afterwards but things are quickly broken up by the referee getting between them.

Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose cut a promo vowing to start their 2016 the same way they are going to end their 2015: with a successful defense of their WWE World Tag Team Titles.

THE MIZ vs. JIMMY USO (w/Jey Uso)-
Miz wins clean with the Skull-Crushing Finale in seven minutes. After the match Heath Slater comes out and tells Miz that he doesn’t care who the US Champion is. He is entitled to a rematch and he is coming for his title.

The League of Nations are together backstage and they cut a promo vowing to prevent Adrian Neville from even being able to lay a single hand on Sylvester Lefort when they have their match in two weeks.

Steph announces that due to his recent streak of wins, Big E. has earned a World Heavyweight Title match, which will take place next week on the first Raw of 2016. She also announces that due to their altercation earlier tonight, she has booked Becky Lynch vs. Summer Rae for later tonight.

BECKY LYNCH vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina)-
They go for about five minutes with Becky dominating most of the action until manages to reverse something and take Becky down hard. Tamina tries to slip Summer the steel chain just like last week, but does it pretty much right in front of the referee, who intercept the chain when Tamina tries to slide it into the ring. The referee yells at Tamina and ejects her from ringside, then goes to put the chain down outside of the ring… and while he is doing this, Summer pulls a second steel chain out of her tights and punches Becky with it, knocking her out. Summer once again hides the evidence and when the referee turns around she makes the cover and gets the win.
After the match Summer cuts a promo saying that like Big E. she is now on a six-match winning streak, so if Big E. gets a title shot then she deserves one, too. Steph comes out and says that while WWE policy is that the referee’s decision is final and they don’t go back and void controversial victories, the fact still remains that many of Summer’s recent victories have involved some amount of rule-bending, and for that reason she doesn’t feel that Summer has earned a title shot… yet. What she will do is book Summer to face WWE Divas Champion Paige in a non-title match on Raw, and if Summer wins, she will get a title shot in one week when Smackdown makes its big move to the USA Network.

Paul Heyman & his Paul Heyman guys cut a backstage promo to hype up their tag title match tomorrow night on Superstars. Heyman assures us that Kalisto’s loss to Big E. tonight was just a temporary setback. Kalisto talks about wanting to win his first title in the WWE and Dolph says that it doesn’t matter whether they wind up facing Rollins & Ambrose or PTP, they will still win.

BO DALLAS vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY-
Before the match starts, Sylvester Lefort comes down to ringside and tells Bo to prove that he deserves the IC Title shot against Rusev, he wants so much. “I’m right here, Bo. Impress me.”
Lefort does commentary for this match, but that is mostly to talk up his angle with Neville. The finish comes in about four minutes when Lefort gets up from the announcers’ table and trips McGuillicutty up at a key moment, distracting McGillicutty and allowing the oblivious Bo to then hit his spear and win the match.

Bray Wyatt cuts a promo in the ring in which he explains that he turned on Ryback because Ryback’s ego got too big, and he was focused on his own good instead of the good of the family. Ryback charges out and takes the fight to the Wyatts but the numbers game catches up to him and he gets beaten down. Then the lights go out and STING shows up with his trusty baseball bat to make the save.

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose(c) vs. The Prime Time Players-
Rollins & Ambrose win clean in fifteen minutes.




WWE Superstars New Year’s Day Double Feature: (1/1/2016)
Our first featured match is the match between Primo and Neville to determine if Primo will be barred from ringside when Neville gets to get his hands on Lefort in two weeks on Smackdown. We use this as a chance to just recap the stips and for Neville to talk about how badly he wants to get his hands on Lefort.

IF NEVILLE WINS, PRIMO IS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE WHEN NEVILLE FACES LEFORT ON THE 1/14 SMACKDOWN: Adrian Neville vs. Primo Colon-
Neville wins clean in ten minutes

Our second featured match is the tag title match between Rollins & Ambrose and the Paul Heyman Guys. There really isn’t much to say about this one, so everyone just talks about how important the tag titles are.

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose(c) vs. The Paul Heyman Guys (Dolph Ziggler & Kalisto) (w/Paul Heyman)-
Rollins & Ambrose win clean in twenty-five minutes when Rollins pins Kalisto.

[Big Red Machine]

The first Raw of 2016 is going to be one heck of a doozy. In addition to the previously announced World Heavyweight Title match between Dolph Ziggler and Big E. Langston, WWE.com has just learned that Heath Slater will be getting his rematch for the WWE United States Title against The Miz.
After their brawl last week on Raw during the now-infamous Ryback vs. Barrett WWE Title match, the League of Nations and the Wyatt Family engaged in a wild ring-side brawl. Now, tonight, the three remaining members of the Wyatt Family will face off against a League of Nations trio consisting of Primo Colon, Intercontinental Champion Rusev, and WWE Champion Wade Barrett!
Speaking of WWE Champion Wade Barrett and the controversial ending to last Monday’s WWE Title match, WWE.com is proud to announce that Wade Barrett will once again defend the WWE Championship against Ryback when Smackdown makes its big move to the USA Network this Thursday!


Raw: (1/4/2016)- San Antonio, TX
KEVIN OWENS vs. CODY RHODES-
Cody wins clean in twenty-five minutes. Basically I’d just tell these guys to go out there and tear the house down to start the year off with a huge bang. During this match the announcers will note that Sami Zayn isn’t out here with Kevin Owens because he is stretching for his match against Bo Dallas, which is next.

SAMI ZAYN vs. BO DALLAS-
The announcers note that Owens isn’t out here with Sami because he is in the trainer’s room getting looked at after the grueling match he just had with Cody.
They wrestle for a few minutes before we get a double-down off of a big Sami Zayn dive to the outside. Then Sylvester Lefort shows up to distract the ref, and while he does so, Epico Colon comes out of the crowd and hits Sami in the back of the head with a foreign object, knocking him out. Epico leaves, and the referee begins to count the two competitors out. Bo recovers and makes it back into the ring in time, but Sami is still unconscious on the floor. Not realizing what has happened, Bo celebrates his victory, with Lefort rushing into the ring to give him a sarcastic congratulations and telling him that he is well on his way to earning a shot at Rusev’s Intercontinental Title.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Kofi Kingston (w/Big Show) vs. Jey Uso (w/Jimmy Uso)-
Kofi wins clean in twelve minutes.

Bo cuts a backstage promo in which he talks up his big victory over Sami Zayn and how much it would mean to him to earn an IC Title match. The announcers make sure we know that Bo doesn’t realize that he got outside help in the form of Epico Colon with a foreign object. They then give us an update on Sami, who has been taken to a hospital to get tested for a concussion and to get some stitches in the back of his head.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) vs. Heath Slater-
They go for about five minutes until Zack Ryder runs out of the crowd and attacks Miz for the DQ. Slater and Ryder also get into a fight but Ryder prevails, managing to lay out both opponents. He then cuts a promo saying that he doesn’t care about Slater anymore- all he wants is to get revenge on Miz for stealing his moment and his title from him.



Wade Barrett cuts a backstage promo saying that he didn’t need the Wyatt Family’s help to beat Ryback last week, and tonight he and the League of Nations are going to punish the Wyatts for sticking their noses where they didn’t belong and thus casting doubts on the legitimacy of the title reign of “the man who knocked out Brock Lesnar.”
Gabriel and Lefort also cut promos building up Gabriel’s match against Neville, which is next.


IF NEVILLE WINS, GABRIEL IS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE WHEN NEVILLE FACES LEFORT ON THE 1/14 SMACKDOWN: Adrian Neville vs. Justin Gabriel-
The announcers note that Neville wants to get his hands on Gabriel- the man who betrayed him- just as badly as he wants to get his hands on Lefort, who orchestrated the treachery, and thus his match is very personal. Neville wins clean in fifteen minutes.

Renee Young interviews Ashley Flair. She asks her about stealing Nattie’s pin in their tag match on Smackdown (and the resulting stare-down). Ashley says that she is trying to earn a Divas Title shot, which means that every win counts, so she’ll take them however she can get them.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. TEAM ANGER (Kane & Jack Swagger) (w/R-Truth)-
Bubba gets the rare chance to play babyface in peril. The Dudleys come back and pick up the win in thirteen minutes, pinning Swagger after a 3-D. After the match they cut a promo saying that age is just a number and they will prove that by making a big impact in 2016.


THE WYATT FAMILY (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, & Erick Rowan) vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Primo Colon, Wade Barrett, & Alexander Rusev) (w/Sylvester Lefort, Rosa Mendes, & Lana)-
They go for about three or four minutes until Ryback charges down to attack the Wyatts for the DQ. He seems to almost be holding his own against them until the League of Nations join in on the attack, realizing that this is an excellent chance to weaken the man who will challenge Wade Barrett for the WWE Title in three days on Smackdown’s debut on USA. Neville runs out to try to attack Lefort but he gets caught in the beat-down, too, until Sting shows up with his trusty baseball bat, helping to take out the Wyatts and causing the League of Nations to flee in terror.
Sting grabs a mic and cuts a promo saying that he will be Ryback’s equalizer in case the Wyatts try to interfere in his WWE Title match on Smackdown. Steph comes out and says that that won’t be necessary, because that match will now take place INSIDE A STEEL CAGE!

IF SUMMER WINS, SHE EARNS A DIVAS TITLE SHOT ON SMACKDOWN: Summer Rae (w/Tamina) vs. Paige-
The go for about five minutes, with Paige taking most of the match. The finish has Summer locked in the Stretch Muffler with their backs near the ropes, and while the referee is around front checking if Summer wants to give up, Tamina reaches in and pulls Paige backwards. This distracts Paige, who releases the hold and turns around to yell at Tamina, but while she is doing so, Summer rolls her up for the pin to earn a title shot against Paige on Smackdown.

We get a backstage promo from Paul Heyman and his Paul Heyman guys to hype up their matches tonight. Dolph says generic stuff about beating Big E. to retain the World Heavyweight Title. Heyman talks up Dolph’s match, then switches over Kalisto, who he says will have the chance to “redeem himself” for getting pinned on last week’s WWE World Tag Team Title match when he faces off against one half of the tag champs (and current Money In The Banks WWE Title Contract-Holder) Dean Ambrose. He explains that he won’t be at ringside for Kalisto because he will be working on strategy for Dolph’s much more important main event world title defense, but says that he has given Kalisto all of the advice and strategical notes he should need to defeat Ambrose tonight. Kalisto says that he won’t let Heyman down.

KALISTO vs. DEAN AMBROSE (w/Seth Rollins)-
Dean wins clean in a marathon twenty-eight minute match, with the goal of making Kalisto come out of this as strong as possible while still losing cleanly. The announcers put over the idea that Kalisto might have lost, but there is no way that Heyman cannot be proud of his performance.

MARK HENRY vs. DAMIEN SANDOW (w/the Brain Trust)-
This starts off with Brain Trust cutting a promo making fun of Texans for being stupid. Henry comes out to defend his home state’s honor and wins the match cleanly in seven minutes. The announcers point out that Big E.’s absence is due to him stretching for his World Heavyweight Title shot, which will take place after this commercial break, so stay tuned!

We go backstage to Steph, who is running down the card for Smackdown’s big move to the USA Network this Thursday night*. As she is finishing up, Kevin Owen shows up and says that he wants a match against Epico for what he did to Sami Zayn, but before that, he wants a match against Bo Dallas to shut him up because Owens is annoyed that Bo is bragging about his bullsh*t victory over Sami. Steph grants Owens his wishes and books him against Bo tomorrow night on Main Event but says that she can’t book him against Epico until next week because, as she was about to announce before he interrupted her, the final match she has booked for SD is Owens vs. Ryder in a Royal Rumble qualifyier.

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Dolph Ziggler(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Big E. Langston (w/Mark Henry)-
Big E. gets a visual pinfall after a ref bump, but it is Dolph who winds up as the victor in the record books in twenty-five minutes.


* Here is the full card for the show:
Steel Cage match for the WWE Title: Wade Barrett(c) vs. Ryback
WWE Divas Title match: Paige(c) vs. Summer Rae (w/Tamina)
The Dudley Boyz vs. Rollins & Ambrose vs. Big Show & Kofi vs. The Usos
Bo Dallas vs. David Otunga
Royal Rumble Qualifier: Kevin Owens vs. Zack Ryder
Royal Rumble Qualifier: Neville vs. Rusev (with the usual stips that if Rusev loses, he will be barred from ringside when Neville faces Lefort on the 1/14 Smackdown)

And, due to the visual pinfall in Raw’s main event, a Ziggler vs. Big E. World Heavyweight Championship rematch is signed for Smackdown, but this time with Paul Heyman banned from ringside!


Main Event: (1/5/2016)
MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY vs. SETH ROLLINS (w/Dean Ambrose)-
Seth wins clean in twelve minutes.

ZACK RYDER vs. A JOBBER-
Zack squashes the jobber, but is then confronted by Heath Slater, who is furious at him for getting him DQed in his US Title match last night on Raw. They brawl until Miz takes advantage of it to run out and attack them both, laying them both out with the very championship that they are chasing.

We do a bunch of hype for Thursday’s big Smackdown move to USA. We especially focus on the World Heavyweight Title match because we couldn’t announce it on Raw last night.

BO DALLAS vs. KEVIN OWENS-
Owens dominates until we get a ref bump when the ref accidentally gets taken out by an errant strike. Owens continues to beat up Bo and has him pretty much beaten. He goes to the top rope to hit his big senton but Lefort runs out and grabs Owen’s foot, crotching him on the ropes. Owens tumbles down into the ring, and when Bo gets up, he just assumes that Owens slipped and crotched himself. Bo hits the spear and then wakes the referee up and gets the pin on Owens. Total time should be about eight minutes.

BECKY LYNCH vs. NATALYA NEIDHART (w/Tyson Kidd)-
Nattie wins clean in twenty minutes but gives Becky the post-match handshake of respect. Nattie then cuts a promo on Ashley Flair saying that if Ashley wants a title shot then she should try earning wins, not stealing them.


NXT: (1/6/2016)
We learn that Tyler Breeze has asked for (and been granted) time of to train for his big upcoming matches- both the Royal Rumble and the NXT Title shot he will be getting the week after that. The announcers pretty much tell us that he is really just scared of Samoa Joe.
Speaking of Joe, he is very unhappy that he won’t be getting the chance to get his hands on Tyler Breeze for a while, but Regal comes out and tells him that he has a major announcement that he thinks will make Joe very happy: While everyone has been so focused on Smackdown’s big move to the USA Network tomorrow night, Regal hasn’t forgotten that in just five days Raw will be celebrating its 23rd anniversary, and for that show he has secured a spot for two of his top wrestlers to have a match, so he has selected Samoa Joe to face Finn Balor in a non-title match. This news temporarily quells Joe’s rage.

Finn Balor cuts a backstage promo talking about how much this opportunity to show his stuff up on the main roster means to him and how badly he wants it.

Several of NXT’s other top stars such as Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Rich Swann, and Bull Dempsey cut promos saying that they are unhappy that they didn’t get picked to be on the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show.

It is announced that as a result of pinning Sasha Banks last week, Bayley will receive a shot at the NXT Women’s Title at the Takeover show scheduled for February 17th. Sasha cuts a promo saying that Bayley has no chance in hell of beating her again.
Tag team stuff happens to build up to American Alpha vs. The Ascension at that same Takeover show.



WWE.com has lots of hype for tonight’s big episode of Smackdown but also reminds us that the epic-ness of this week doesn’t end with Smackdown’s debut on USA! This Friday will see yet another Superstars Double Feature! This week’s edition of the show will see Jack Swagger face Kalisto in a Royal Rumble qualifier, and then a Triple Threat match for the US Title with The Miz defending against both Heath Slater and Zack Ryder!


Smackdown (1/7/2016)- Laredo, TX
Smackdown’s new commentary team is Mauro Ranallo and Jerry Lawler.

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH WITH PAUL HEYMAN BANNED FROM RINGSIDE: Dolph Ziggler(c) (w/Kalisto) vs. Big E. Langston (w/Mark Henry)-
Ziggler wins clean to retain in nineteen minutes.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH IN WHICH IF NEVILLE WINS, RUSEV IS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE WHEN NEVILLE FACES LEFORT ON THE 1/14 SMACKDOWN: Adrian Neville vs. Alexander Rusev-
Rusev quickly gets himself intentionally DQed. Then the other members of the League of Nations come out to assault Neville in the hopes of beating him down to the point where he won’t be able to defeat Barrett on Raw and/or the point where he will be so injured that Lefort will be able to defeat him next week on Smackdown. Steph comes out and angrily kicks all of the members of the League of Nations aside from WWE Champion Wade Barrett out of the building.

Becky Lynch cuts a backstage promo saying that she thinks it’s disgraceful that Summer Rae has managed to earn a title shot by cheating, saying that she hopes Paige wins tonight. Naomi shows up and mocks her for being naïve, telling her that she had better get used to being on the main roster where you need to win at all costs, or else she will find herself losing every match like she lost her matches to Summer Rae.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. THE USOS vs. BIG SHOW & KOFI KINGSTON vs. SETH ROLLINS & DEAN AMBROSE-
The story of the match is that the Dudleys seem to have Rollins & Ambrose beaten numerous times but one of the other teams always manages to break it up. Eventually the Dudleys get the win by pinning Jey Uso with after a 3-D in about ten minutes.

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Summer Rae (w/Tamina)-
We go through what is essentially a medley of “Summer Rae’s greatest cheating hits,” using all of the cheap ways some has won her matches over the past few weeks as false finishes- feet on the ropes, pulling the tights, a distraction by Tamina, interference by Tamina (with Becky coming out to stop Tamina from interfering after she does it the first time), and even the shot with the steel chain, but Paige always kicks out, finally making her comeback and making Summer tap out to the Stretch Muffler in what should be about eleven minutes.

Heath Slater cuts a promo hyping up his US Title match tomorrow night on Superstars against Miz and Ryder, vowing to regain the title.

BO DALLAS vs. DAVID OTUNGA (w/the Brain Trust)-
Lawler is insistent that Bo has no chance now that the League of Nations won’t be able to help him. Bo shocks everyone by picking up the clean win in four minutes with the spear, leading Lawler to wonder if maybe Bo really can win on his own.

We get a quick video package showing the finish of the women’s tag match last week on Smackdown as well as Ashley’s comments from Raw and Nattie’s comments from Main Event. It is then announced that those two will face off at the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show on Monday with the winner earning a WWE Divas Title shot at the Royal Rumble.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Zack Ryder vs. Kevin Owens (w/Sami Zayn)-
They wrestle for about five minutes before Ryder does a big dive onto both Owens and Zayn on the outside and Sami goes down hard. Owens and the referee both rush over to check on him, and while this is happening, Miz sneaks down to ringside and clobbers Ryder in the back of the head with the US Title without either Owens or the referee realizing it. Owens eventually pulls Ryder back into the ring and hits the pop-up powerbomb for the pin.

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: Wade Barrett(c) vs. Ryback-
Wade wins clean in fifteen minutes with the Barrett Barrage. After the match the Wyatts show up, and using their combined might they rip the door off of its hinges. They Wyatts beat up Ryback as Barrett runs away. Sting teleports himself into the ring to make the save with his baseball bat.


Superstars: (1/8/2016)
The first match for tonight’s double feature is Jack Swagger vs. Kalisto. The video packages focus on the fact that Dolph Ziggler has Swagger’s number, so Dolph has taught all of the secrets to beating Swagger to Kalisto. They also focus on Kalisto having lost a few matches recently and Heyman being disappointed.
JACK SWAGGER (w/Team Anger) vs. KALISTO (w/Paul Heyman)-
Swagger wins clean, making Kalisto tap to the Patriot Act in seventeen minutes.

The second match is the US Title match between Miz, Ryder, and Slater. We focus on the various violent incidents that have occurred recently, particularly the feud between Miz and Ryder and he feud between Ryder and Slater. We also build up that Slater has a single-minded focus on winning the title.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) vs. Heath Slater vs. Zack Ryder-
The story of this match is that Ryder is focused on Miz while Miz is focused on getting away from Ryder while Slater opportunistically goes after whoever he can. The finish comes when Miz, who had been hiding under the ring, slips out in time to see Ryder nail Slater with the Rough Ryder, but then Miz slips in, tosses Ryder out of the ring and steals the pin (then grabs his title from the timekeeper and takes off through the crowd).

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com announces the card for tonight’s Raw 23rd Anniversary Show:
If Neville wins, Barrett is banned from ringside when Neville faces Lefort on the 1/14 Smackdown: Adrian Neville vs. Wade Barrett-
Divas Title #1 Contendership match: Ashley Flair vs. Natalya Neidhart
Becky Lynch & Paige vs. Summer Rae & Tamina
Sylvester Lefort has a “worthy mystery challenger” lined up to challenge Rusev for the IC Title.
Special NXT Featured Match: NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
Royal Rumble Qualifier: Mark Henry vs. Miz
Royal Rumble Qualifier: Erick Rowan vs. Ryback
Royal Rumble Qualifier: Heath Slater vs. Michael McGillicutty


WWE.com also announces this week’s other Royal Rumble qualifiers:
Ambrose vs. Titus on Main Event and Darren Young vs. Seth Rollins on Smackdown.

Kevin Owens vs. Epico Colon has also been booked for Main Event.


Raw 23rd Anniversary Show (1/11/2016)- New Orleans, LA
ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Michael McGillicutty vs. Heath Slater-
Slater wins clean in nine minutes with the DevaSlater.

We are shown footage from the pre-show of some incident between the Prime Time Players and Team Anger that has resulted in PTP being told to find a third guy to team with them against Team Anger tonight.

Backstage, Zack Ryder is cutting a promo on The Miz. He is interrupted by Kevin Owens, who apologizes for what happened in their Royal Rumble qualifier on Smackdown, noting that he watched the tape and saw what Miz did. Zack tells him that it’s not his fault. Miz is a scumbag and not worthy to be a champion, and Zack is going to do something about it tonight.

SUMMER RAE & TAMINA vs. BECKY LYNCH & PAIGE-
They go for about seven minutes. Becky seems to have the match won but Naomi sneaks down to the ring and interferes to cost her the match.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: The Miz vs. Mark Henry (w/Big E. Langston)-
They go for a few minutes with Mark dominating with his power. Miz then tries to employ the strategy that others have recently or luring Mark up the ramp and then outrunning him back to the ring in the hopes of getting him counted out. Mark takes the bait, and we make sure that we get Big E. in the background face-palming. This time, however, as Miz starts to run back to the ring, there is a disturbance by the timekeeper’s table. Zack Ryder has come out of the crowd and stolen Miz’s US Title belt. Ryder taunts Miz before taking off, and Miz continues right through the ring and out the other side and into the crowd to give chase to Ryder. Miz leaving the ring results in the referee’s count being restarted, and Mark manages to make it back in while Miz is counted out and never returns. Mark celebrates his victory while Big E. gives a bemused shrug.

NXT SHOWCASE MATCH: Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor-
Joe wins clean in eighteen minutes, choking out the NXT Champion.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. THE BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi)-
Dudleys win clean in eight minutes, pinning Otunga. After the match the Dudleys call out Rollins & Ambrose. They point out that they had them beaten quite a few times on Smackdown, so they want a shot at the WWE World Tag Team Titles, at Seth & Dean’s earliest convenience. Ambrose immediately suggests that they do it at the Royal Rumble. Seth reminds him that they have their Royal Rumble qualifiers this week so they might be in the Rumble and thus be unable to defend the tag belts, but Steph comes out and says that if Seth and Dean want to pass on their qualifiers she will give them to someone else. Ambrose talks about growing up as a huge fa of the Dudleys and as a huge fan of the Royal Rumble so he’d love to defend the belts against them there. Rollins seems reluctant but goes along with it.
Booker T announces that he is one of the twelve veterans who have been offered spots in the Royal Rumble, and he has accepted his.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Ryback vs. Erick Rowan (w/the Wyatt Family)-
The Wyatts show up with Sting’s bat and bloody coat, claiming to have taken him out backstage. Rowan picks up the win due to copious Wyatt interference. After the match the beat Ryback down while Bray cuts a promo saying that Ryback thought Sting would be his “equalizer,” but “NO ONE IS MY EQUAL! NO ONE CAN STAND BEFORE THE POWER OF BRAY WYATT!”
Zack Ryder comes out with Miz’s US Title and says that if Miz wants his elt back, he should come out here and take it back and prove that he is a worthy champion who isn’t afraid to fight someone without jumping them from behind. Miz comes out and they brawl. During the course of this brawl Miz gets a ladder and swings it at Ryder but Ryder yanks the ladder out of Miz’s hands and Miz runs away in fear, forgetting all about the title belt he came out to reclaim. Cole will paint this as another example of Miz’s cowardice that makes Ryder think he is an unworthy champion, while JBL will counter by saying that Ryder had a weapon and Miz didn’t. Cole will point out that it was Miz who introduced and attempted to use the weapon, but JBL will insist that whatever might have happened here, Miz is still the rightful champion and Ryder should return the belt.

The League of Nations comes out for Rusev’s IC Title defense. Lefort claims to have found a tough, worthy challenger for Rusev, and builds him up as a “master of the spear” to make people (okay, only the most gullible of viewers and announcers) think it could be the return of Roman Reigns. In reality, however, it’s Bo Dallas. Lefort continues his sarcastic intro while the League of Nations all laugh heartily in the background (aside from Rusev, who is stone-faced) and the announcers rail about this whole thing being a farce because all of Bo’s recent wins except for one were due to interference from the League.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Alexander Rusev(c) (w/the League of Nations) vs. Bo Dallas-
We let Bo get one good false finish in, but other than that, Rusev dominates the match and wins clean in three minutes. After the match the League continues their bragging until Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Michael McGillicutty- the three men who Lefort and his League screwed out of victories against Bo- come out to brawl with them. Unfortunately they are outnumbered, so the League quickly gets the advantage. The Neville joins the fray, but it is still four vs. five (plus Lefort when he decides to get some boots in on anyone who he is certain is down). Then Roman Reigns makes his return to make the big save, with Gabriel eating a spear and the rest of the League scampering off. As they do so, Roman grabs a mic and says that he wants his rematch for the IC Title in two weeks at the Royal Rumble!

Paul Heyman and his Paul Heyman Guys come out to the ring for a promo segment in which Heyman puts Dolph over, but then starts berating Kalisto for his recent string of losses. This ends in a scathing tirade saying that while some of the losses to top talent are understandable, last week on Superstars he lost to “Mr. Mediocrity himself: Jack Swagger.” And not only did he lose to Swagger, but he did so despite getting advice from Dolph Ziggler, who has beaten Swagger almost every single time they have wrestled!
Dolph soon joins in, making fun of Kalisto for losing to Swagger, as well as to other people Dolph has pinned recently like Rollins and Big E. Finally Kalisto snaps and tells Dolph that he might have lost to those guys, but he can sure as hell beat Dolph right here, right now! Dolph accepts the challenge, so we get…
KALISTO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER-
Heyman does commentary for the match and starts off neutral, but eventually starts to side with Ziggler as Dolph gets the advantage and we go into the heat. When Kalisto starts to make his comeback Heyman leaves the announcers’ table to go give advice to Dolph (but, as the announcers point out, not to Kalisto). Kalisto shocks Heyman, Ziggler, and everyone else by picking up the clean win over the World Heavyweight Champion this non-title match.

It is announced that Rollins and Ambrose have been replaced in their Royal Rumble qualifiers with Bo Dallas and Big E. Langston respectively.

WINNER GETS A WWE DIVAS TITLE SHOT AT THE ROYAL RUMBLE: Ashley Flair vs. Natalya Neidhart (w/Tyson Kidd)-
They both spend the match work the opponent’s legs to set up for their signature submission. Nattie wins clean in twenty-three minutes when she counters an attempted Figure Eight into a small package for the win. After the match, a shocked and angrily Ashley takes out Nattie’s already worked-over knee from behind. She goes to do more damage but security holds her back. Steph orders her removed from the building. Nattie can’t put any weight on her knee and needs to be helped to the back by Tyson and Steph.

Sting and Ryback cut a backstage promo saying that they will stand up against the power of Bray Wyatt, and say they will prove Bray’s claim wrong by challenging him to face Ryback in a Last Man Standing match at the Royal Rumble.

It is announced that Dolph will defend the World Heavyweight Title against Kalisto at the Royal Rumble.

We get some sort of segment with Steph and a bunch of legends in the ring, including Ricky Steamboat, Michael Hayes, and some others. The segment is quickly interrupted by The Miz, who demands that Steph order Ryder to return his stolen US Championship to him. Steph responds that while Miz is correct that Ryder has stolen the belt and he should hand it over, she is unhappy with the disrespect Miz has shown these legends. Steamboat and Hayes, both former US Champions, pipe up that Ryder has a point about Miz being unworthy to wear the title. Miz yells at them to keep their old asses out of it. Steph thinks for a moment and declares that Ryder will hand the belt over… to her. Although Miz will still technically be the champion, his behavior here tonight has proven him to be unworthy to wear the belt. If he wants his belt back he can reclaim it at the Royal Rumble… provided that he can climb a ladder and pull it down before Zack Ryder can!
(In case that wasn’t clear enough, the announcers will explain that Miz is still the champion of record but he won’t be allowed to wear the belt unless he is able to successfully defend it against Ryder in a Ladder Match at the Royal Rumble).

TEAM ANGER vs. DARREN YOUNG & THE APA (w/Titus O’Neil)-
PTP explain that they have paid the APA to team with Darren against Team Anger tonight, as Titus is nursing a small injury and wants to rest up for his Royal Rumble Qualifier tomorrow. The match goes about three minutes before Darren rolls Swagger up for the win. Truth attacks Darren after the match, which draws in Kane, Titus and the APA. PTP and the APA have a four-on-three advantage and it winds up being Kane who takes most of the beat-down… until THE UNDERTAKER shows up to make the save, bumping Darren, Titus, JBL, and Simmons around, and we end with the Brothers of Destruction doing their pose.

IF NEVILLE WINS, BARRETT IS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE WHEN NEVILLE FACES LEFORT ON THE 1/14 SMACKDOWN: Adrian Neville vs. Wade Barrett-
Neville wins clean in twenty-five minutes with the Red Arrow. The announcers go nuts because Neville has just pinned the WWE Champion.



Main Event (1/12/2016)
ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Titus O’Neil (w/Darren Young) vs. Big E. Langston (w/Mark Henry)-
Big E. wins clean in six minutes.

We get a bunch of recaps of what happened on the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show, mostly focusing on the new matches announced for the Royal Rumble. We also get a non-update on Nattie’s condition, which is essentially that nothing is certain yet, but her prospects of being ready for Royal Rumble don’t look good. We are told that we hope to have more information this Thursday on Smackdown.

EMMA vs. BRIE BELLA-
Emma wins clean in nine minutes.

KEVIN OWENS (w/Sami Zayn) vs. EPICO COLON (w/Primo Colon, Rosa Mendes, & Sylvester Lefort)-
They go for about three minutes with Owens having the advantage before Primo runs in for the DQ. Zayn runs I to help Owens and Steph comes out to order the match restarted as a tag team match.
KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes & Sylvester Lefort)-
Colons win in ten minutes after interference by Lefort.

SETH ROLLINS & DEAN AMBROSE vs. KOFI KINGSTON & BIG SHOW vs. ROMAN REIGNS & ZACK RYDER vs. THE USOS-
Roman & Ryder win clean in fifteen minutes when Roman pins Kofi after a spear.



NXT: (1/13/2016)
It is announced that as a result of being NXT Champion Finn Balor on Raw, Samoa Joe will get an NXT Title shot on the Feb. 17th Takeover show against the winner of the Balor vs. Breeze match in two weeks. Joe cuts a promo about his big win in his Raw debut, while Balor cuts a promo about how disappointed he was to lose that match.

We get a video of Tyler Breeze training for both the Royal Rumble and his upcoming NXT Title shot.

Sasha cuts a long, arrogant promo saying that she is good enough to be on the main roster and is thus MILES above all of the other women in NXT.

BULL DEMPSEY vs. MOJO RAWLEY-
Dempsey wins clean.

RICH SWANN vs. TYE DILLINGER-
Swann wins clean

BARON CORBIN vs. COLIN CASSADY (w/Enzo Amore)-
Corbin wins clean

APOLLO CREWS vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA-
Crews wins clean

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com reports that World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler will not be on tonight’s Smackdown because he is doing media appearances for WWE to hype up WM32.

Due to Sylvester Lefort’s interference in their match on Main Event, a rematch between the Colons and Owens & Zayn has been booked as this week’s featured match on Superstars.

After coming out of retirement as part of the APA to be hired help to the Prime Time Players, Raw color commentator John Bradshaw Layfield will lace up his boots for the second time this week when he goes one-on-one with “the Big Red Machine” Kane!
Tonight’s main event on Smackdown will Mark Henry team up with Big Show & Kofi Kingston to face the even more makeshift team of Ryback, Zack Ryder, & Kalisto.
Also on tonight’s Smackdown, Neville FINALLY gets his hands on Sylvester Lefort!


Smackdown: (1/14/2016)- Lafayette, LA
CODY RHODES vs. BIG E. LANGSTON (w/Mark Henry)-
Cody wins clean in fifteen minutes when he counters the Big Ending into the CrossRhodes. The announcers use Mark Henry’s presence at ringside as an excuse to plug the main event.

We get a video package of Rollins and Ambrose talking about how much they look up to the Dudleys and honored they are to be defending the tag titles against them at the Royale Rumble.

BRIE BELLA vs. BECKY LYNCH-
Brie wins in six minutes when Naomi comes out and distracts Becky, allowing Brie to hit the Bella Buster for the pin. Renee Young tries to get a reaction interview from Becky but Becky grabs the mic from her and shouts “Naomi! That’s twice now you’ve stuck your nose in my business. I don’t know why you’re doing it, but if you’d better knock it off if you doesn’t want me to break that nose!”


Paul Heyman cuts a backstage promo saying that he tried to undo the title match at Royal Rumble Steph had signed for Kalisto without his consent- because as Kalisto’s manager, he has his best interests at heart, and it would be bad for Kalisto’s career to be embarrassed by Dolph Ziggler on such a large stage, but Kalisto has apparently been telling Steph that he does, in fact, want the match. Due to this disrespect that Kalisto has shown him, Kalisto is now no longer a Paul Heyman Guy.

We go to Steph’s office where Steph informs us that the doctors have informed her that there is no way Nattie will be recovered in time for her Divas Title shot at the Royal Rumble. As a result, she is booking a #1 contendership battle royale for Raw which will feature all of the women on the roster… except for Ashley Flair. For her attack on Nattie, not only will Ashley miss this opportunity to earn a title shot, but she will also be suspended until after the Royal Rumble.
As Steph is wrapping up, Miz barges into her office and goes over to a display cage where his US Title is sitting. He starts to shout at Steph and demand that she give him his title but Steph stands her ground. Miz then tries to smash the display case. Steph calls for security, who quickly show up and drag Miz away while Steph shouts that Miz is now also suspended.


Bray Wyatt cuts a promo vowing to make Ryback and Sting pay for their arrogance by humiliating and defeating Ryback in their Last Man Standing match next Sunday at the Royal Rumble.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Bo Dallas vs. Darren Young (w/Titus O’Neil)-
Before the match Bo cuts a promo saying that he rewatched all of his recent wins and realized that they were all due to Sylvester Lefort’s interference. Bo says he is disappointed, but is now even more eager than ever to prove that he can win by himself.
Darren dominates for a minute or so but does not take BO seriously, resulting in him getting rolled up for the upset win.

Adrian Neville cuts a promo hyping up the fact that he will finally get his hands on Sylvester Lefort tonight, and no one from the League of Nations will be able to save him.

KANE vs. JBL-
The announcers explain to us that Kane’s Team Anger compatriots R-Truth and Jack Swagger are not at ringside because they are warming up for their match against the Dudleys, which is next. JBL wins when Ron Simmons comes out to distract Kane, allowing JBL to connect with the clothesline from hell and get the pin. Afterwards, JBL grabs a mic, saying that he doesn’t have to pay Ron Simmons for Ron to have his back.

We get a backstage promo from the entire League of Nations talking about how terrible it is that Lefort is being forced to face Neville tonight.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. TEAM ANGER (w/Kane)-
Dudleys win clean in eight minutes with the 3-D.

Paige cuts a promo saying that she doesn’t care who she defends her title against at the Royal Rumble. All she cares about is getting the chance to go out there and prove that she is the best female wrestler on the planet.

TYSON KIDD vs. JIMMY USO (w/Jey Uso)-
The announcers spend the whole match talking about how hard it must be for Tyson to have to be here wrestling while Nattie is at home recovering from the injuries she suffered due to Ashely Flair’s vicious assault last week. We get a totally clean match with Tyson wins in six minutes when Jimmy misses a top rope splash and Tyson locks in the Dungeon Lock for the submission victory.

We get a quick promo from Owens & Zayn hyping up their rematch with The Colons tomorrow on Superstars.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. DAVID OTUNGA (w/the Brain Trust)-
Roman wins clean with the spear in five minutes. Renee Young tries to get a reaction interview with Roman. All Roman says is “Rusev, at the Royal Rumble, I’m coming for my title.”

Before a commercial break, we get a good shot of Lefort leaving the League of Nations’ locker room, looking for all the world like a man about to be executed.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IS BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Sylvester Lefort vs. Adrian Neville-
Lefort tries to get himself DQed but Neville stops him. Neville beats the crap out of him and hits him with five straight Red Arrows before getting the pinfall. Lefort is helped to the back, with the announcers telling us that his ribs must be broken after taking that much punishment.

RYBACK, ZACK RYDER, & KALISTO vs. BIG SHOW, KOFI KINGSTON, & MARK HENRY (w/Big E. Langston)-
Before this match starts, the announcers tell us that the Roman vs. Rusev IC Title match for Royal Rumble has been made official. Ryback pins Henry with Shellshock in fifteen minutes for the clean win.


WWE.com reports that Lefort has suffered broken ribs and will not be at upcoming WWE events.


Superstars (1/15/2016):
Tonight’s featured match is Owens & Zayn vs. The Colons. The promos mainly focus on the effect Lefort has had on many of his clients’ matches, including the match these two teams had just three days ago on Main Event where he helped The Colons win via illegal interference.

KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes)-
Rosa gets ejected from ringside very early on. Owens & Zayn win clean in thirty minutes. We emphasize that unlike on Tuesday, Lefort was not out here to help the Colons and so this time they lost.

[Big Red Machine]

Raw (1/18/2016)- Columbus, OH:

DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman) vs. BIG SHOW (w/Kofi Kingston)-
Dolph wins clean with the sleeper in eighteen minutes. After the match Dolph and Heyman cut a promo basically saying that if Dolph was able to beat WWE’s largest athlete, then he will have no trouble defending the World Heavyweight Title against WWE’s smallest.

Neville cuts a promo telling us that he had been so focused on taking out Sylvester Lefort that he didn’t even realize that last week on Raw he pinned the WWE Champion! Rather than enter the Royal Rumble he is going to challenge Wade Barrett for the title at the Royal Rumble… and just like on Monday, Sylvester Lefort won’t be at ringside, and just like on Monday, he is going to win… but unlike on Monday he is going to leave the ring as the WWE Champion!

Renee Young interviews Tyson Kidd backstage. She asks Tyson about Nattie’s condition, and Tyson gives us an update, which is basically the same as on Smackdown: she won’t be back for a while.
Renee then remarks that she was surprised to hear that Tyson was booked in a Royal Rumble qualifier tonight, as he would usually be with Nattie at a time like this. Tyson tells us that Nattie is the one who asked Steph to book the match, saying that just because her career has been put on hold doesn’t mean that his should be, too. Renee then asks if thoughts of Nattie’s injury might throw him off his game tonight. Tyson replies by saying that he will do his best to keep them out of his head, lest he get angry and fall back into bad habits. He reminds us that he took a step back to help focus on Nattie’s career in part so that he could get his head back on straight, and this will be a good opportunity to see if he has cleared his head enough yet.

We get a big, fancy contract signing between Rollins & Ambrose and the Dudleys.

We get a backstage promo from the League of Nations swearing vengeance upon Adrian Neville for taking out Lefort.


ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Justin Gabriel vs. Tyson Kidd-
Tyson wins clean in ten minutes with the Dungeon Lock, showing no signs of slipping back into his old, angry ways. The announcers put him over for being so brave. They also note that, without Lefort here to guide him, Justin has lost.

Zack Ryder cuts the big go-home promo for his ladder match against Miz for the US Title, talking about how badly he wants to win the belt.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. BO DALLAS-
Neville wins clean in four minutes with the Red Arrow. After the match he is attacked by the entire League of Nations, but Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Michael McGillicutty come out to make the save.

BATTLE ROYALE FOR A SHOT AT THE WWE DIVAS TITLE AT ROYAL RUMBLE: Emma vs. Becky Lynch vs. Naomi vs. Brie Bella vs. Alicia Fox vs. Cameron vs. Summer Rae vs. Tamina Snuka vs. Rosa Mendes-
Stuff happens while the announcers use the over the top rope format to plug the Royal Rumble match. Becky eliminates Naomi but Naomi manages to sneak back into the ring and eliminates Becky from behind. Becky tries to get at Naomi but it restrained by the referees and ordered to the back while Naomi laughs.
Summer and Tamina work as a team and eliminate a bunch of people. The final four are Summer, Tamina, Emma, and Brie. Summer and Tamina divide and conquer, beating the crap out of first Brie and then Emma. While they are both trying to force Emma over the top rope, Brie comes up from behind and eliminates all of them at once to become the #1 contender. Paige comes out to have a stare-down with her.


Naomi cuts a backstage promo in which she says that her actions recently have just been her trying to show “little snowflake Becky” how things are on the main roster. “In your first match, you got lucky. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don’t. If you can’t handle that reality, then maybe you don’t belong on the main roster.

MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY & RYBACK vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (w/Erick Rowan)-
Wyatts win in ten minutes when Bray pins McGillicutty off of interference by Rowan. The Wyatts go to beat Ryback down after the match but Sting shows up with his bat to save him. Sting announces that he will ensure that the other Wyatts don’t interfere in the Last Man Standing match between Bray and Ryback at the Royal Rumble.

Heath Slater cuts a backstage promo saying he will won the Royal Rumble and running down various other superstars. Included in this is a criticism of Tyson Kidd for not being able to protect his wife.

BIG E. LANGSTON, MARK HENRY, THE USOS, & ROMAN REIGNS vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS, CODY RHODES, & BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi)-
Becky Lynch came out and chased Naomi away. Roman gets the pin on Darren Young after a spear in twenty minutes.

Kane shows up and tries to attack JBL. Ron Simmons shows up and together the APA beat Kane up. Simmons announces that he is getting his itch for competition back, so he will take Steph up on her offer to be one of the “veteran” entrants in the Royal Rumble.

KALISTO vs. KOFI KINGSTON (w/Big Show)-
The announcers push Kofi as being one of the few guys on the roster who is as complete an athlete as Dolph is. Kalisto wins clean in twenty minutes with Salida Del Sol. After the match, Kalisto cuts a promo saying that he never needed Paul Heyman to be a success, and he’s going to prove it this Sunday at the Royal Rumble when he beats Dolph Ziggler for the World Heavyweight Title!

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com hypes up that tonight’s Main Event will have a big announcement by Neville concerning his spot in the Royal Rumble. Also, there will be a Royal Rumble qualifier between David Otunga and Sami Zayn, and a big eight-man tag team main event pitting The Usos and WWE World Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose against Mark Henry & Big E. Langston and Rollins & Ambrose’s challengers on Sunday, the Dudley Boyz.

Main Event: (1/19/2016)

PAIGE vs. SUMMER RAE (w/Tamina)-
Paige wins clean by submission in ten minutes. Renee Young then comes out to interview her about new challenger for the Royal Rumble: Brie Bella. Paige says she will beat any challenger, no matter how little time she has to prepare.

Neville announces that now that he is challenging for the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble, he won’t need his Rumble spot. He says he hasn’t forgotten his roots in NXT, so he wants his spot to go to an NXT guy. He says he has talked with Steph and Regal, and is proud to announce that there will be another battle royale tomorrow night on NXT with the winner getting his spot in the Royal Rumble.

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Sami Zayn (w/Kevin Owens) vs. David Otunga (w/the Brain Trust)-
Becky Lynch once again comes out and chases Naomi away. Steen does the same to Sandow when Sadow tries to interfere. Zayn wins clean in nine minutes.

SETH ROLLINS, DEAN AMBROSE, & THE USOS vs. THE DUDLEY BOYS, MARK HENRY, & BIG E. LANGSTON-
The Dudleys pin Jey Uso with a 3-D in twenty minutes.

NXT: (1/20/2016)
We get another, even bigger, crazier battle royale. I’d put basically every male wrestler under developmental contract who is capable of throwing a decent punch and safely taking a bump over the top rope to the floor and put them in this match… and with that many guys, in order to fit them all, I think we’re going to have to tape this at the WWE Performance Center because we know that the Performance Center has a room with MULTIPLE RINGS! That’s right. It’s the return of WORLD WAR III. You know what? That’s not big enough! Give me FOUR RINGS! This is WORLD WAR IV!
FOUR-RING BATTLE ROYALE FOR ADRIAN NEVILLE’S VACATED SPOT IN THE ROYALE RUMBLE-
The reason we’re having so many bodies in here and in so many rings is so we can make sure that certain people get the focus they need. The way this will be set up is that each ring has its own big scary monster who will dominate things. Ring One will be Joe’s, Ring Two will have Corbin, Ring Three will Dempsey and Ring Four will have Cass. Also in Ring One will be Apollo Crews, and also in Ring Two will be Rich Swann. Nothing else really matters in terms of details. The monsters will dominate their rings, although Crews will also get to look good. When we are down to two people in each ring they will consolidate (with the idea being that if you get your ring down to two quick enough, you get to rest).
Ring Four is the first to be cleared, being cleared by Enzo and Cass. Next is Ring Three, which has Bull Dempsey and Angelo Dawkins remaining. While they are resting, Dawkins tries to convince Dempsey to form an alliance with him. The next ring to be cleared is Ring Two, which has Corbin and Swann left. Instead of resting, Corbin just beats Swann up until referees run in and yell at him to stop. Soon thereafter Ring One is cleared, with Joe and Crews remaining.
Everyone then piles into Ring One, and Enzo is quickly eliminated by teamwork from Dempsey and Dawkins, who are both then eliminated by Corbin. Joe eliminate Crews, then Cass and Corbin do the really big guy face-off spot and trade punches for a bit. Joe winds up eliminating Cass while Corbin puts more of a beatdown on Swann. Corbin and Joe brawl with Corbin getting the best of it. After knocking Joe down hard, Corbin spies Swann trying to pull himself up using the ropes so he charges over to eliminate Swann with a clothesline but Swann low-bridges him and eliminates him. Corbin throws a sh*t-fit at ringside and the locker room (led by Regal) restrains him.
Now it’s down to Swann and Joe, who battle for a while with Joe usually dominating, but Swann getting a lot of hope-spots in that all build to a tease of Swann low-bridging Joe for the win but Joe manages to hang on, fights his way back into the ring, and then eliminates Swann to earn a spot in the Royal Rumble.


WWE.com announces that Zack Ryder won’t be on tonight’s Smackdown because has requested and been granted time off to train for his big US Title Ladder Match with The Miz at Royal Rumble.

Smackdown (1/21/2016)- Dayton, OH:

ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFYING MATCH: Damien Sandow (w/the Brain Trust) vs. Jimmy Uso (w/Jey Uso)-
Sandow wins clean in ten minutes.

Brie Bella cuts a promo saying that she will win the Divas Title at Royal Rumble.

We get a video package of Zack Ryder’s training for his IC Title Ladder Match with Miz.

Byron Saxton interviews Tyson Kidd. After another quick update on Nattie’s condition (she is still several weeks away from returning) Byron asks Tyson if he has any response to Heath Slater’s comments on Raw that Tyson couldn’t protect his wife. Tyson starts to breath heavily but calms himself down and says that he “won’t dignify those comments with a response.”

We get a promo from The Miz where he talks about how humiliating it has been for him to be a champion but not be allowed to wear his championship belt, but this Sunday at Royal Rumble not only will he reclaim what should have never been taken away from him, but he will take all of his pain and suffering and humiliation out on Zack Ryder.

HEATH SLATER vs. BO DALLAS-
Slater wins clean in seven minutes, then cuts another promo insulting Tyson Kidd for “failing as a man” by not being able to protect his wife. Everyone waits for Tyson to show up but he never does. Mauro puts Tyson over sticking to his plan of non-anger.

Everyone else cuts go-home promos.

ADRIAN NEVILLE, ROMAN REIGNS, KEVIN OWENS, SAMI ZAYN, & MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (w/Lana)-
Before this match we get a quick recap of the angle on Raw that set it up. Babyfaces win clean in twenty minutes when Neville pins Gabriel.

Superstars: (1/22/2016)
Tonight’s featured match is the Dudley Boyz vs. Kofi & Big Show. The interviews are mostly about how legendary the Dudleys are and how they are the measuring stick, etc. etc.

KOFI KINGSTON & BIG SHOW vs. THE DUDLEY BOYZ-
Dudleys win clean in twenty minutes with the 3-D.

[Big Red Machine]

ROYAL RUMBLE RUNDOWN

WWE Royal 2016: (1/24/2016)- Orlando, FL

WWE TITLE MATCH: Wade Barrett(c) vs. Adrian Neville
Having taken out Sylvester Lefort, Neville now has a level playing field as he tries to defeat the man who benefited from Justin Gabriel's betrayal in the second round of the King of the Ring tournament!

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Dolph Ziggler(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kalisto
Kalisto's tenure as a Paul Heyman Guy proved to be short-lived when Heyman ended it after Kalisto earned a shot at Ziggler's World Heavyweight Title. Will Kalisto make Heyman regret this move by capturing the World Heavyweight Title from one of Heyman's other charges?

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH: Bray Wyatt vs. Ryback
The final showdown! Only one of these two men will be left standing. And if any members of the Wyatt Family try to tip the scales in Bray's favor, "The Icon" STING will be in the building with his trusty baseball bat to even things out for "The Big Guy."

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose(c) vs. The Dudley Boyz
The legendary Dudley Boyz try to win their nineteenth world tag team title from two men who grew up idolizing them.

LADDER MATCH FOR THE WWE UNITED STATES TITLE: The Miz(c) vs. Zack Ryder
A battle over a championship has turned into a war about personal pride.

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Alexander Rusev(c) (w/Lana) vs. Roman Reigns
After a month of hard training, Roman Reigns returns to try to reclaim the Intercontinental Title from the man who ended his fifteen month long reign.

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Brie Bella
Brie Bella seized the opportunity provided by Natalya Neidhart's injury to earn this title shot. Will she be able to fully capitalize?

2016 ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH:
Who will go on to main event Wrestlemania XXXII?
Featuring Kane, Mark Henry, Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Big E. Langston, Tyson Kidd, Erick Rowan, Luke Harper, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Heath Slater, Damien Sandow, R-Truth, Jack Swagger, Bo Dallas, NXT's Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, and Tyler Breeze, industry veterans, Tommy Dreamer, Booker T, Rhyno, Ron Simmons, and seven other veterans of the wrestling industry who will be kept secret until the moment they enter the Royal Rumble!

PRE-SHOW MATCH: Becky Lynch vs. Naomi (w/the Brain Trust)
Becky looks for revenge on the woman who has made it her business to stick her nose in Becky's business for the past few weeks.

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Royal Rumble 2016 (1/24/2016)- Orlando, FL

PRE-SHOW:
Rollins & Ambrose cut a backstage promo to hype up their tag title defense tonight. Ambrose pats his WWE Title Money in the Bank briefcase and hints that he is thinking about becoming a double-champion soon.
When they’re done cutting their promo Steph shows up. She tells Rollins that she knows that he is disappointed to not be in the Royal Rumble this year, so she is going to make the tag title match tonight’s main event.

BECKY LYNCH vs. NAOMI (w/the Brain Trust)-
Becky makes Naomi tap to the Disarmer for the clean in in ten minutes.

We get promos to hype up the big matches, ending with Sting and Ryback cutting one on Bra Wyatt.


MAIN SHOW:
Miz marches out and says that he is tired of waiting to reclaim the title that never should have been taken from him in the first place. He wants Zack Ryder to come out for their match right now! Ryder comes out and we get the…
LADDER MATCH FOR THE WWE UNITED STATES TITLE: The Miz(c) vs. Zack Ryder-
Miz wins clean in twenty minutes to retain the title.

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Alexander Rusev(c) (w/Lana) vs. Roman Reigns-
Rusev wins clean in thirteen minutes when Roman taps out to the Accolade clean in thirteen minutes.

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Brie Bella-
Paige wins clean in nine minutes with the Stretch Muffler.

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Dolph Ziggler(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kalisto-
Dolph wins clean with the Zig-Zag in twenty-three minutes.

WWE TITLE MATCH: Wade Barrett(c) vs. Adrian Neville-
Barrett wins clean with the Barrett Barrage in seventeen minutes.

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH: Bray Wyatt vs. Ryback-
The other Wyatts do try to interfere but Sting takes them out with his baseball bat. Bray wins in twenty minutes following the Monster Tamer into the wall on the stage.


ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH:
We start out with the ring announcer reminding us of the rules: A new participant will enter every two minutes. In order to be eliminated you must go over the TOP rope, and BOTH FEET must touch the floor. The last man standing is the winner. The announcers put over how big the Royal Rumble is, and speculate as to who the remaining seven unannounced “veterans” spots will go to.

The unlucky wrestler who drew #1 in the Royal Rumble is none other than WWE’s resident hopeful optimist Bo Dallas. On his way down to the ring Bo cuts a quick promo saying that instead of counting himself out from the beginning, he is going to look at this a major challenge that he will prove himself by overcoming. He says he’ll try to eliminate each opponent before the next one gets to the ring so that he won’t have to split his focus. He says that whoever #2 is will be the first step in his challenge, and he is ready, no matter who it is.
It turns out that #2 is the debuting AJ STYLES. The announcers gush over AJ, telling us that he is a HUGE free agent signing who has spent the past eighteen years winning championships all over the world, and now he has finally made his way to WWE. Bo charges at him but AJ hits him with some quick stuff, then nails him with the Styles Clash. AJ then dumps Bo’s lifeless carcass out of the ring. This quick elimination should give the fans enough time to chant and go nuts for AJ so that they’ll be ready to pop again when CHRIS JERICHO makes his return to WWE at #3. We get the big face-off between these two, then let them give us a quick pre-view of how totally awesome an AJ vs. Jericho singles match would be until it is time for the next man to come out.
The fourth entrant into the Royal Rumble is Big E. Langston. He does some power stuff on the other two for a bit but things are all evened up by the time R-Truth comes out at number five. They all face off for a bit and we tease some eliminations before Luke Harper enters at number six. The big man starts to take control. He bowls over AJ, Jericho, and Truth before engaging in a slug-fest with Big E. which he eventually comes out on top of. Truth tries to go after Harper again but Harper dominates him and eliminates him just as the countdown to the next entrant begins.
Number seven is Kofi Kingston, who enters the ring with a springboard dropkick that takes Harper off of his feet for the first time since he entered the match. Kofi then gets to do some athletic spots with AJ, then with Jericho before Harper is back up and attacking them all. Big E. comes faces off with Harper once more, but this time it’s Big E. who manages to out-slug Harper. Big E. tries to eliminate Harper but Harper manages to fight if off.
The next entrant is Sami Zayn, who comes down to the ring and starts to run wild. It eventually turns into a series of Helluva Kicks for first Big E., then Kofi, then AJ, then Jericho, but when Sami goes to give one to Harper he gets his boot up. Harper beats up on Zayn for a bit, but when he sees Big E. getting up he puts him right back down again with the Steamroller. Harper goes back to working over Zayn, but AJ, Jericho, and Kofi all start to gang up on Harper and almost manage to eliminate him.
The ninth entrant in the Royal Rumble is the returning JOHN CENA. The announcers explain to us that Cena has been given one of the veterans’ spots due to his many years on top of the WWE (I needed to think of a way to have him come back as a surprise that also explained why he didn’t have to wrestle a qualifying match like everyone else did). They remind us that the last time we saw Cena was when he lost to Dolph Ziggler in the semifinals of King of the Ring, after which he took an indefinite amount of time off to “reevaluate” things. But now Cena is back… and what better place to be back than the Royal Rumble?
Cena comes in and runs wild. Down goes Harper. Down goes Kofi. Down goes Jericho. Big E. eats an AA. Zayn charges at Cena but Cena grabs him and dumps him over the top rope and out to the floor.
Then AJ Styles steps up, and we get our big face-off between AJ and Cena. They trade a few blows back and forth, but soon AJ starts to dominate and before you know it AJ has Cena back up against the ropes and dumps him over the top… and Cena only barely manages to stop his second foot from hitting the floor (we’ll make sure to get a good camera shot of this so everyone understands how close this was). All of a sudden JBL starts to doubt Cena again, reminding us all that the reason Cena took time off after his loss to Ziggler in the KOTR semifinals was because he had been repeatedly failing to win big matches… and the Royal Rumble is one of the biggest matches of the year.
Cena manages to slip back in under the bottom rope, but his momentum is totally shot. The next entrant is Heath Slater, who goes right over to the downed Cena and immediately puts the boots to him before picking him up and trying to eliminate him. He manages to force Cena over the top rope but Cena just barely manages to fight Slater off from the apron before once again rolling back under the bottom rope to safety. More fighting and elimination teases ensue until it’s time for the next man to enter the match.
The eleventh entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble is RHYNO, who charged down to the ring and begins running wild. It’s GORE! GORE! GORE! all around as the Man-Beast dominates the match. Rhyno tries to eliminate everyone but they all manage to fight him off when he tries to get them over the top rope. Rhyno is still in control of things, however, and is still the only man standing when Jack Swagger enters the match. Rhyno goes to immediately GORE Swagger but Swagger sees it coming and picks Rhyno’s leg as he passes by and locks him in the Patriot Act. The announcers explain that Swagger is trying to make Rhyno a non-factor in this match by taking away his most potent weapon. Rhyno manages to quickly fight out of it and he and Swagger begin to brawl. More fighting and elimination teases ensue until Scotty 2 Hotty enters at number thirteen. More things happen, including Jericho eliminating Swagger, before Erick Rowan enters two minutes later. Rowan immediately joins forces with his fellow Wyatt Family member Luke Harper and they start to dominate the match. They obliterate Scotty with some sort of big double-team move, and at different times almost eliminate AJ, Jericho, Kofi, Cena, and Big E.
Number fifteen is Booker T, who immediately takes it to the Wyatts with his big kicks. Just as they are starting to overwhelm him he gets some help from everyone else but Scotty, who is still selling the Wyatts big double-team. They all manages to work together to separate the Wyatts and beat them down. Rhyno then begins to run wild with another series of Gores. Cena, AJ, Jericho, Slater, Big E., and Kofi all fall, but when Rhyno goes to Gore Booker T, Booker nails him with a scissors kick. Booker prepares to celebrate with a spinarooni when he is confronted by Scotty 2 Hotty, and after a brief stare-down, they both start dancing as the clock counts down to the next entrant.
That next entrant is Lance Storm, who runs in an immediately superkicks both men before yelling some comment about being serious. Lance drags Scotty over to the ropes, and after a brief struggle he manages to get him over the top and down to the floor for the elimination.
Lance gets to do some stuff with AJ and gets a tease of eliminating Cena before Damien Sandow comes in at seventeen. Lance and Sandow go at it but both are soon taken down by the resurgent Harper and Rowan. After eliminating Sandow they start in on Lance, but Lance is quickly reinforced by his old tag team partner Chris Jericho. They do their Thrillseekers stuff and manage to send Rowan stumbling over the top and down to the floor with a double dropkick. AJ Styles eliminates Booker T while Big E. Langston eliminates Luke Harper, then proceeds to almost eliminate Cena as well. Another round of Rhyno Gores floors pretty much everyone aside from Lance, who counters it with a superkick. Slater, who at also managed to avoid being Gored this time around, then sneaks up behind Lance and lays him out with the DevaSlater just as the count-down reaches zero and the buzzer heralds the coming of the next entrant.
Number eighteen is Tyson Kidd. The announcers assume that he will make a bee-line right for Slater after the provocative comments Slater made on WWE TV this week about Tyson not being able to protect his wife. Tyson gets into the ring and finds Slater to be the only man standing. They lock eyes… but then Tyson turns off and starts to work over Cena instead. Tyson almost eliminates Cena, but Cena fights back. Realizing that Tyson won’t be coming after him Slater instead turns his attention to trying to eliminate Lance Storm but Storm manages to avoid elimination as well. AJ and Jericho once again get center stage to square off in a fun athletic display that is unfortunately interrupted by Heath Slater attacking both of them from behind. Heath tries to eliminate AJ but AJ fights it off. Big E. tries to do the same to Jericho and gets closer to doing it than Heath was to eliminating AJ but is ultimately unsuccessful. Rhyno Gores Slater, then squares off with Kofi Kingston while the clock counts down for the next man to enter the match.
It’s Tommy Dreamer, who starts to run wild a bit, hitting people seemingly at random. The match devolves into a big schmoz for about forty-five seconds, and when all is said and done, Dreamer, Rhyno, Storm, and Jericho are the ones left standing in a four-way face-off. We get the expected “ECW!” chants from the crowd, and in the middle of that they all just start to brawl with each other.
Eventually the count-down hits zero and Tyler Breeze enters his first Royal Rumble. More stuff happens, including Big E. eliminating Dreamer, and we build up to a face-off between Tyler Breeze and his trainer Lance Storm. They do stuff, and in the end it is the student who eliminates the teacher.
The next man in is the man Breeze will challenge for the NXT Title this Wednesday, Finn Balor. Balor gets to run wild for a bit, culminating in him almost eliminating Cena. More stuff happens, including another face-off between Slater and Kidd where it seems like Kidd might go and attack Slater but he instead opts to go work over Kofi Kingston instead. We also get a spot where AJ almost eliminates Jericho, followed by one where Jericho almost eliminates AJ.
The twenty-second entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble is Big Show, and he and his tag team partner Kofi Kingston immediately start to work together and dominate the match. They almost dump Cena, then almost dump AJ, then almost dump Jericho. They beat everyone down for a while until the only other two left standing are Slater and Kidd. The announcers once again assume that Kidd will go after Slater, but instead Tyson shocks them by offering Slater an alliance. Slater snickers, but then shakes Tyson’s outstretched hand and they start to work together and against Big Show and Kofi. Unfortunately for them, Big Show and Kofi manage to quickly put them down.
As the countdown clock starts, Big Show and Kofi are working on forcing Big E. over the top rope on the side of the ring by the ramp. Fortunately for Big E., the next entrant is his mentor and tag team partner: Mark Henry. Unfortunately for Big E. Mark is just a bit too slow getting to the ring, as by the time Mark makes it to the bottom of the ramp Big E. can hold on no longer and is eliminated from the match despite his valiant struggle. Big E. yells at Mark before heading to the back.
Mark Henry and Big Show give us our obligatory big guy stare-down, but soon everyone else rushes in and tackles them. Things start to break away from the pig pile, and we see Tyson Kidd picking his spots, swooping in with calm, measured attacks. Rhyno sees Tyson standing in the back by the ropes and waiting to pick his spot so he charges at him for a Gore but Tyson quickly drops down and low-bridges the top rope, sending Rhyno tripping over his body and over the top rope down to the floor.
The next man in is Ron Simmons, who starts knocking everyone down with big shoulder tackles. Tyson Kidd manages to sucker Simmons in the exact same way he did to Rhyno and almost eliminates Simmons as well but he manages to hang on to the middle rope and pull himself up to the apron before his feet touch the floor.
Things continue, with Mark Henry almost managing to eliminate John Cena and AJ Styles successfully managing to eliminate Kofi Kingston. Then, at number twenty-five, the Big Red Machine KANE enters the match and it’s chokeslams all around as the announcers remind us that Kane needs just one elimination to break Shawn Michaels’ all-time record. The last man to be goozled is Ron Simmons, with whom Kane has been feuding since Simmons returned at the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show two weeks ago. Kane has Simmons by the throat and is about to hoist him up when he is attacked from behind by JBL, who has left his position at the announcers’ desk to run in and help his best friend. JBL hits Kane with several hard shots, then hits the ropes to go for the Clothesline From Hell but Kane catches him by the throat and delivers a thunderous chokeslam, then kicks JBL out under the bottom rope to the floor.
SIMMONS COMES UP BEHIND KANE AND DUMPS HIM OVER THE TOP ROPE!

BUT KANE MANAGES TO HANG ON THE ROPE! He pulls himself up to the apron, and when Simmons tries to knock him off with a punch, Kane goozles him and pulls him over the top rope and down to the floor to set a new record for all-time eliminations in the Royal Rumble at forty-one.
Kane steps over the top rope and back into the ring just in time for the count-down to the next entrant to begin.
It’s Samoa Joe.
Joe charges down to the ring and takes the fight to Kane, and in barely twenty seconds, Joe has eliminated the new all-time elimination king. Then Mark Henry steps up to Joe and Joe takes the fight to him, but he gets eliminated, too. Then Big Show meets the same fate! Joe then squares off with Finn Balor, whose NXT Title he is in line for a shot at, and after some back and forth Joe eliminates Balor as well.
As Balor is being dumped out of the ring, the clock finishes counting down to the entrance of Tajiri. Tajiri squares off with Joe but is quickly eliminated as well. Joe has now eliminated five men in just over two minutes. Recognizing what a serious threat Joe is, the remaining competitors all start to team up on him, but he does a big roar spot and things break down into separate little brawls.
Things continue for another thirty seconds or so, with Cena almost being eliminated yet again, this time by Jericho and AJ working together. We get another moment where Kidd and Slater lock eyes from across the ring, but this time Heath shouts something at Tyson which causes Tyson to fly into a rage and charge at Slater, who deftly sidesteps it and pulls down the top rope, eliminating Tyson Kidd with the same trick Tyson had pulled on Rhyno and Simmons earlier.
Tyson is furious and starts kicking things at ringside. He tries to slide back into the ring to get at Slater but the referees all run over to hold him back and order him to leave the ringside area immediately. While this is happening Samoa Joe eliminates is NXT rival Tyler Breeze… but Breeze realizes that the referees are all dealing with Tyson Kidd so he sneaks back into the ring, grabs Joe from behind and tosses him over the top rope and down to the floor right by the referees and Tyson. When Joe realizes who has eliminated him he, too, starts to get angry and head back towards the ring, but by now security has come pouring out from backstage and both Joe and Kidd are forced to the back by security so that the referees can do their jobs.
Entrant number twenty-eight is Kevin Owens, who immediately eliminates Heath Slater, then almost manages to eliminate John Cena. Cena fights back and manages to not only free himself from Owens, but eliminates Tyler Breeze as well.
More brawling commences, with more elimination teases. Cody Rhodes enters at number twenty-nine and joins in on the brawling. Cena runs wild for a moment but is cut off and almost eliminated by the combined might of Owens, Jericho, and Rhodes.
Michael Cole notes that, by his calculations, the final entrant in the Rumble will be one of the “veteran” spots, and wonder who it will be.
DONG!
It’s THE UNDERTAKER!
Taker runs wild with chokeslams and big punches all around until he is the only one still standing… at which point his is attacked from behind and knocked over the top rope to the floor by BRAY WYATT! Bray follows Taker out and nails him with the Monster Tamer into the Barricade, then walks off, laughing. The remaining wrestlers- AJ, Jericho, Cena, Owens, and Cody- recover in the ring while the arena plunges itself into darkness, and when the lights come back on, Taker has disappeared.
We get some more elimination teases, with everyone nearly eliminating Cena at one point or another over the next three minutes. Jericho eliminates his fellow Canadian Kevin Owens to narrow the field to four, and AJ Styles eliminates Cody Rhodes soon afterwards, meaning that this year’s Royal Rumble has come down to the debuting AJ Styles and the returning John Cena and Chris Jericho.

Hidden text.

After a brief period of every man for himself, AJ almost manages to eliminate Cena. Jericho decides to come over and help but Cena manages to flip them both over the top rope to the floor to win his second Royal Rumble.

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose(c) vs. The Dudley Boyz-
The Dudleys win clean in twenty minutes, pinning Ambrose with the 3-D to win their nineteenth world tag team championship.

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com reports that tonight’s Raw will feature a sit-down interview with Royal Rumble winner John Cena about his time off from WWE and his triumphant return at last night’s Royal Rumble as well as a huge singles match between Adrian Neville and Kalisto as they each try to rebound from losing world title matches last night. Raw will also feature the Raw debut of AJ Styles as he faces off against Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Kidd, Mark Henry & Big E. Langston vs. Big Show & Kofi Kingston, and a celebration for the new WWE World Tag Team Champions: The Dudley Boyz.
Speaking of the new tag team champions, WWE.com can also announce that the former champions, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose, will be getting their rematch as the featured match on this week’s episode of WWE Superstars.

Due to injuries suffered during their matches at the Royal Rumble, Ryback not will appear on tonight’s Raw.

Raw (1/25/2016)- Miami, FL
Raw opens with Steph coming out running down the pre-announced highlights for tonight’s show listed on WWE.com. She then announces that tonight we will also take the first steps towards determining the next challenger for Wade Barrett’s WWE Title. The main event on this Thursday’s Smackdown will be an elimination match featuring all of the men who won their matches at last night’s Royal Rumble, aside from WWE Champion Wade Barrett and Royal Rumble winner John Cena: Bray Wyatt, US Champion The Miz, IC Champion Alexander Rusev, and the WWE World Tag Team Champions Bubba Ray Dudley and Devon Dudley. In addition to these five men, three WWE Superstars who greatly impressed Steph in last night’s Royale Rumble will qualify for the match if they win their matches tonight. Those three men are Big E. Langston, the returning Chris Jericho, and WWE’s newest free agent signing The Phenomenal AJ Styles. Then, on tomorrow night’s Main Event, there will be a battle royale in which all other WWE Superstars will be eligible, and whoever wins will also be added to the match. The winner of Smackdown’s main event will then challenge Wade Barrett for the WWE Title on February 21st in Cleveland at Unforgiven.

Becky Lynch cuts a backstage promo saying that now that she has gotten the distraction that was Naomi out of the way she is going to put herself right back on the path to winning the Divas Title.

IF JERICHO WINS, HE QUALIFIES FOR THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP ELIMINATION MATCH ON SMACKDOWN: Chris Jericho vs. Tyson Kidd-
Before the match Tyson cuts a quick promo apologizing to WWE, the fans, and the referees for his “angry outburst” after having been eliminated from the Royal Rumble last night. Jericho wins clean in twenty minutes, making Tyson tap out to the Walls of Jericho.
Miz cuts a backstage promo alleging that Steph wanted him to lose his US Title to Zack Ryder in last night’s ladder match and now that Miz won she is trying to lure him into this match knowing fully well that he won’t be anywhere close to 100% so that someone else can take advantage of his weakened state to pin him so she can fast-track another challenger at him. He says he isn’t going to fall for it and claims that he is way too banged up from last night to possibly be able to compete in Thursday’s big elimination match.

TEAM ANGER vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Justin Gabriel & The Colons) (w/Rosa Mendes)-
The announcers remind everyone that Kane reclaimed the record for most cumulative eliminations in the Royal Rumble last night. They also remind us that Sylvester Lefort is still injured from his match with Neville on Smackdown ten days ago and that is why we don’t see him out here with the League of Nations. Team Anger pick up the clean win in ten minutes when Swagger makes Gabriel tap out.

We go backstage to Steph, who announces that she has officially acknowledged Miz pulling out of Thursday’s #1 contendership elimination match, but she steadfastly denies his claims that she has a vendetta against him.
Seth Rollins shows up in Steph’s office and asks her if he could possibly be given a qualifying match for the main event like Big E., Jericho, and AJ are getting. He reminds her that he really wanted to be in the Royal Rumble instead of defend the tag titles and gave up his Royal Rumble qualifier to do so. He also points out that Ambrose was the guy who actually got pinned at the Rumble. Steph agrees, but tells Rollins that if he loses his qualifier tonight, he will not be allowed to participate in tomorrow night’s battle royale for the final spot.

Zack Ryder (all taped up after last night’s ladder match) cuts a backstage promo saying that he is disappointed that he failed to regain the US Title last night, but he will use tomorrow’s battle royale for the final spot in Smackdown’s #1 contendership main event to launch himself right back into title contention.

PAIGE, EMMA, BECKY LYNCH, ALICIA FOX, & CAMERON vs. TAMINA, SUMMER RAE, BRIE BELLA, ROSA MENDES, & NAOMI (w/The Colons & Brain Trust)-
Stuff happens for a few minutes before Emma has Rosa pinned after hitting her finisher but Primo has the referee distracted. The babyfaces win clean in eight minutes when Becky makes Rosa tap. After the match Tamina lays out all five babyfaces and stands tall at the end of the segment.

We go backstage to Renee Young with Mark Henry and Big E. Langston. She first asks Big E. for his thoughts on this recent development that Rollins now also has the chance to qualify for the #1 contendership elimination main event on Smackdown that Big E. has the chance to qualify for later tonight in a tag match against Big Show and Kofi. Big E. says he is focusing on one thing at a time.
Renee then informs us that their match tonight has an interesting origin story, and asks Mark Henry to tell the audience about it. Mark explains that he knows that Big E. is disappointed that he couldn’t get down to the ring in time to prevent him from being eliminated at the Rumble so he got this match set up so Big E. could get some revenge on Big Show and Kofi.
Big E. is clearly a little annoyed. Mark asks him what is wrong and Big E. explains that he is unhappy that Mark was too slow to save him in the Rumble and now, with the #1 contendership stipulation added for him, this match has A LOT more riding on it than it did before and… “with all due respect, Mark: please don’t screw this up for me.” Mark vows to be there for Big E. whenever he needs him tonight.

Scottie 2 Hotty comes out to cut a promo but it quickly interrupted by the Prime Time Players, who start to insult him. He says that if they want a fight, he happens to have brought a tag team partner along. PTP say they’ll take on him and whatever old fat-ass friend of his he has brought with him, so we get…
THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. SCOTTIE 2 HOTTY & RIKISHI-
PTP win clean in six minutes, pinning Scotty. After the match PTP attack Rikishi but The Usos come out to make the save. PTP end up getting stinkfaces, and Scottie, Rikishi, and The Usos all dance together.

JBL is interviewing Royal Rumble winner John Cena in the ring. JBL first asks Cena about his time off and his return. Cena takes a deep breath, then begins speaking:
On June 16, 2013 at WWE Judgment Day, I lost the WWE Title when Daniel Bryan caught me with a roll-up. Two years, seven months, and nine days ago. That was the last time I held a championship in WWE. Eight days later we had a rematch which ended when Mark Henry ran in and attacked me. Since then I have lost eight title matches. I have lost seven matches where a victory would have earned me some sort of title shot, and won only three- with one disputed finish in there, too. In that time, my record on PPVs and WWE Network specials before last night was just seven wins and a TWENTY losses, along with one double-disqualification.
I know this might sound arrogant because the truth is that I’ve had an amazingly successful career and achieved much more than most people in this business ever come close to, but when you are a successful athlete and then you start to see your success decline, you inevitably start to ask yourself if you are still as good as you used to be. In that time we have seen many WWE Superstars rise up and establish themselves as main event Superstars: Antonio Cesaro, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose… and Dolph Ziggler and Wade Barrett. While I am proud of each and every one of those men for the things they have achieved, their success has only given rise to more doubts within myself. After suffering defeat after defeat after defeat in high-pressure situations I had to ask myself: am I still good enough?
So after yet another defeat in the semifinals- the semifinals- of the King of the Ring tournament, I asked Steph for some time off to go contemplate that question. And I sat there in my house, watching tapes of my losses and, to be honest with you, I couldn’t even figure out what I was doing wrong. There wasn’t some one mistake I was making that always led to me losing. I was just getting flat-out beaten most of the time.
JBL, you used to have a nickname for me: He used to call me “Big Match John” because I always managed to come through and pull out the victory in big matches. So I went back and I watched those big matches from years past against guys like Edge and Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels and Triple H… and I really didn’t see myself doing anything different. I always had that drive to win that powered me forward, but I have never felt like I had lost it… and yet here I was, not winning anymore, and I began to wonder if I had somehow lost that drive without even realizing it, and I began to contemplate retirement.
Then, about a month ago in the Cena household, it was laundry day, and I was folding my laundry while watching Raw, and I pulled out this very shirt that I’m wearing now. I’d worn it a million times before. The words on this shirt are a credo that I live by; ideas that I have believed in for my entire life. I wouldn’t wear the shirt or sell it to others with my name on it if I didn’t: “Hustle. Loyalty. Respect.”
And I looked up at the screen and I saw a lot of fans in the crowd wearing the shirt, too: “Hustle. Loyalty. Respect.”
I had gotten upset at myself for losing some matches and I had up and walked out of the company two months ago. They could have gone out and gotten new shirts for guys like Rollins, Ambrose, Cesaro, Kalisto, Ryback, Roman Reigns, Adrian Neville… but they chose to keep wearing that shirt.
“Hustle. Loyalty. Respect.”
That’s what they were showing by still wearing that shirt… and there I was, during Monday Night Raw, sitting on my ass in my house moping. Where was my hustle, loyalty, and respect? Where was the hustle, loyalty, and respect that I owed to those fans? That I owed to WWE? That I owed to everyone in UPW and Ohio Valley who helped train me?
And at that moment I knew that if that drive to win had ever left me, it wasn’t when I was losing matches… it was when I was sitting on my ass at home. It didn’t leave me; I was the one that left it.
Thirty seconds later, I was on the phone with Steph and she said “see you at the Royal Rumble,” and at that moment I promised myself that I would never let the fans or the WWE down again. I know that I’m not going to win every match. No one does. But there is no way in hell that I will ever allow myself to lose that drive- to ever not give everything I have whenever I am in this ring- ever again. Royal Rumble was the start. Next stop: WrestleMania.”

JBL asks Cena which title he will challenge for. Cena says he isn’t sure. JBL brings up the fact that many of Cena’s most recent high-profile losses were to Dolph Ziggler, including at last year’s WrestleMania as well as John’s final match before his hiatus, at King of the Ring. JBL says that if it was him he would want to take the match against Barrett because he might have an easier time winning, and it’ s going to be harder to get his mojo back against someone who has beaten him so often. Cena admits that he has been thinking a lot about his losses to Dolph, especially at last year’s WrestleMania. JBL asks Cena if he is “scared” of losing to Dolph again.
Before Cena can answer, Wade Barrett comes out and says that “no one is scared of Dolph Ziggler. The guy Cena should be scared of is me: the WWE Champion and the man who knocked out Brock Lesnar.” Cena says he isn’t afraid of anyone, and he and Wade get into a shoving match that is quickly broken up by security.

IF BIG E. WINS HE QUALIFIES FOR THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP ELIMINATION MATCH ON SMACKDOWN: Big E. Langston & Mark Henry vs. Kofi Kingston & Big Show-
Big E. is the babyface in peril but Mark Henry manages to break up every pin that Kofi and Big Show attempt. Big E. eventually makes the hot tag to Mark, who runs wild to start the comeback. Big E. picks up the win for his team, pinning Kofi at the fifteen minute mark after a Big Ending to qualify for Smackdown’s big #1 contendership elimination main event.

AJ Styles cuts a backstage promo saying that if the fans thought his performance last night was impressive, they’re going to be blown away by what they see him do tonight… and in the #1 contendership elimination main event on Smackdown… and at Unforgiven when he goes on to win the WWE Title.

Wade Barrett cuts a backstage promo saying that if John Cena dares to challenge him for the WWE Title at WrestleMania, he is going to knock Cena out with a Barrett Barrage because if he can knock out Brock Lesnar then he can sure as hell knock out John Cena.

SAMI ZAYN (w/Kevin Owens) vs. ALEXANDER RUSEV (w/Lana)-
They go for about four minutes with Rusev controlling most of the match, but then SIN CARA comes out from the crowd and attacks Rusev for the DQ. Rusev and Lana run off in retreat while Cara grabs a mic and tells Rusev that he is coming for him.

Heath Slater cuts a backstage promo calling Tyson Kidd a “loser” and a “disgrace” for apologizing for merely getting angry, noting that “you didn’t even hurt anyone. You certainly didn’t manage to hurt me, hahahah.”

We get a fiery backstage promo from Sin Cara explaining that he has returned to get revenge on Wade Barrett and Alexander Rusev for turning on him the night after Summer Slam and putting him out of action for five months (especially Rusev, who had been his tag team partner and whose submission hold did the real damage that put him on the shelf for so long).

Paul Heyman and Dolph Ziggler come out to the ring and brag about Dolph retaining his World Heavyweight Title against Kalisto last night. Dolph notes that he won his match last night so he, too, should be in the #1 contendership elimination match on Smackdown, which Dolph says that he will win, then defeat Barrett at Unforgiven and become the first man to be both the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion at the same time. Steph comes out and agrees to put Dolph in the match.

Bray Wyatt cuts a backstage promo saying that at Royal Rumble did what he said he was going to do: prove that no one can stand before him. He reminds us all about how he eliminated The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble, and says that if Undertaker could not stand before him and if one of his own former disciples, Ryback, could not stand before him, then what hope do his opponents in Smackdown’s #1 contendership main event possibly have?

IF AJ WINS HE QUALIFIES FOR THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP ELIMINATION MATCH ON SMACKDOWN: AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns-
AJ wins clean in fourteen minutes with the Styles Clash.

Renee Young gets a reaction interview with Roman Reigns, asking him about both his loss tonight and his failure to regain the IC Title last night at Royal Rumble. Roman says that he is going to do what he was always taught to do when you get knocked down: You pick yourself up again and go right back at ‘em.

The Dudleys have their celebration. Maybe Edge and Christian show up. The Dudleys cut promos. Everyone cheers.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. KALISTO-
Twenty minutes of craziness. Basically, I’d have them go out there and try to top a Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi match (at least in terms of flippiness and athleticism, not in terms of danger). Neville wins clean with the Red Arrow.
After the match Brain Trust come out and assault both guys. They then cut a promo saying that the Dudleys are a disgrace to the tag titles and to the entire WWE, and they want it to be known that they are going to do something about it. They want to get some tag team wins, so they are challenging Neville and Kalisto to a tag team match on Smackdown.

IF ROLLINS WINS HE QUALIFIES FOR THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP ELIMINATION MATCH ON SMACKDOWN: Seth Rollins (w/Dean Ambrose) vs. Cody Rhodes-
Seth wins clean in twenty minutes.

[Big Red Machine]

Main Event (1/26/2016):

ALEXANDER RUSEV (w/Lana) vs. SIN CARA-
Rusev wins in eight minutes due to interference by Justin Gabriel and The Colons.

We get an angry promo from Lana (w/Rusev) suggesting that Wade Barrett was derelict in his duty to his fellow member of the League of Nations by not helping him out earlier. She reminds us that Rusev is in the #1 contendership match on Smackdown and suggests that Wade should spend less time worrying about John Cena and more time worrying about who he will be defending the WWE Title against in less than four weeks at Unforgiven.

BATTLE ROYALE FOR THE FINAL SPOT IN THE #1 CONTENDESHIP ELIMINATION MATCH ON SMACKDOWN-
Big Show wins with a fairly dominant performance. Also of note is Heath Slater once again trying to taunt Tyson Kidd into getting angry enough to make a mistake and get eliminated. Like in the Royale Rumble, Tyson succeeds in keeping his temper the first few times but eventually succumbs to Slater’s comments about being unable to protect his wife and charges at Heath in a fit of rage, allowing Heath to sidestep him and low-bridge him to send him over the top rope.


NXT (1/27/2016):
We get a recap of last week’s World War IV Four Ring Battle Royale for the final Royal Rumble spot, plus the NXT-relevant events of the Royal Rumble. We then get a video package building up tonight’s main event, which is Finn Balor defending the NXT Title against Tyler Breeze.

We get a tag team opener with Enzo and Cass winning and cutting a promo saying they want a shot at American Alpha at the February 17th Takeover show.

We get a backstage interview with Rich Swann. He is asked if he thinks the beating Baron Corbin gave him while they were supposed to be waiting patiently for the other rings to clear cost him the win- and the Royal Rumble spot- last week. Swann says he doesn’t want to dwell on things like that. It’s in the past now and there is nothing he can do about it.

Baron Corbin squashes someone very quickly.


We get an interview with Joe about Tyler Breeze returning to the Royal Rumble to eliminate Joe even though Joe had already eliminated him, just like Breeze did to him in an NXT battle royale a few weeks prior to that where Breeze not only won the Royal Rumble spot but also the NXT Title shot that he is getting tonight. Joe is clearly angry and does not answer any questions.

Sasha Banks squashes a jobber and says she will beat Bayley just as easily at Takeover.

We find out that Baron Corbin has jumped Rich Swann backstage and beat him up.

American Alpha cut a promo accepting Enzo & Cass’ challenge.

NXT TITLE MATCH: Finn Balor(c) vs. Tyler Breeze-
They go for about fifteen minutes. Breeze seems to have things won but takes the time to mock Samoa Joe before hitting the Beauty Shot, which results in Joe coming out and choking him out to cause a DQ.



Smackdown (1/28/2016)- Tampa, FL
Smackdown opens with a video package hyping up our ten-way elimination match to determine the #1 contender to the WWE Title at Unforgiven.

Ryback comes out to cut a promo addressing his loss to Bray Wyatt in their Last Man Standing match on Sunday at the Royal Rumble. Ryback admits that Bray was the better man at Royal Rumble… but he now understands that there is no magic cure like Bray was offering that will ensure that he never loses again. He just needs work hard and be himself and be the best Big Guy he can be. He has asked for some time off to train and to heel from his bruises from the Last Man Standing match, but he’ll be back soon, and when he’s back The Big Guy will be at his absolute best!

The announcers segue from Ryback to another man who is trying to rebuild himself after a loss at the Royal Rumble: Roman Reigns. Roman will be in action against Tyson Kidd later tonight.

Wade Barrett cuts a promo dismissing the whole ten-man elimination #1 contendership match, saying that he’ll beat whoever is put in front of him at Unforgiven and that whoever his #1 contender is should take a page out of John Cena’s book and be scared to face him.

Kalisto cuts a promo to hype up his match teaming with Neville against Brain Trust tonight. Sin Cara stops by and tries to recruit Kalisto to reform the Lucha Dragons and help him against Justin Gabriel tonight but Kalisto is still angry at Cara for turning on him last year so he rebuffs his offer.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. TYSON KIDD-
Roman dominates most of the match and wins clean in seven minutes with the spear. Heath Slater comes out to do commentary and says that getting dominated like this is just more evidence that Tyson Kidd is a weakling who shouldn’t even be in the WWE.

Becky Lynch cuts a promo saying she is angry that Tamina attacked her after her big win on Raw.


John Cena comes out to cut a promo saying that he is sick and tired of Wade Barrett’s crap and he is going to shut Wade up as soon as possible. He doesn’t want to wait until WrestleMania. He wants to cash his Royal Rumble title shot in next week on Raw. Steph comes out and says that she doesn’t think that’s a good idea, saying it would hurt the integrity of the Royal Rumble for the winner to not use his title shot at WrestleMania. She points out that they tried that last year with Seth Rollins and it all went to hell, with Rollins being screwed out of his title shot. Steph says that instead of a title shot, she will book Cena vs. Wade for Raw as a non-title match because she would hate for Cena’s big match jinx to come right back and bite him again without him at least getting the spotlight of a WrestleMania main event. Cena is annoyed at Steph’s implication, but says that he will prove to Steph that his victory at the Royal Rumble was no fluke by beating Wade Barrett on Raw to earn a WWE Title shot, then win the title from Barrett and go on to unify the WWE Title and the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania!

THE BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi) vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE & KALISTO-
Brain Trust win clean in eight minutes, pinning Kalisto.

SIN CARA vs. JUSTIN GABRIEL (w/The Colons & Rosa Mendes)-
Gabriel wins in four minutes when the other heels distract the ref so he can punch Sin Cara with a steel chain.

THE USOS (w/Rikishi) vs. TWO JOBBERS-
The Usos win clean. After the match Miz comes out to make fun of the happy family’s dancing and challenge Rikishi to a dance-off. Rikishi wins. Miz gets angry and attacks him but is quickly disposed of by the Usos, then endures a stinkface.

PAIGE vs. TAMINA (w/Summer Rae)-
They brawl before the match can even get started so it becomes a no-contest. Tamina is the one standing tall at the end, though.

We get promos from all ten men in the elimination #1 contendership match to hype up that match.

TEN MAN ELIMINATION MATCH FOR A SHOT AT THE WWE TITLE AT UNFORGIVEN: AJ Styles vs. Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Devon Dudley vs. Chris Jericho vs. Big Show vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Alexander Rusev (w/Lana) vs. Big E. Langston (w/Mark Henry) vs. Seth Rollins (w/Dean Ambrose) vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Paul Heyman)-
The first elimination occurs fifteen minute in when Jericho hits Dolph Ziggler with a Lionsault and gets the pin, elimination the World Heavyweight Champion. The announcers put over what a big shock this is that the World Heavyweight Champion has been eliminated first.
The next two eliminations are Rollins eliminating first Bubba Ray and then Devon to build up to the tag title shot he and Ambrose are getting tomorrow night on Superstars. Next out is Rusev, who gets counted out after being nailed by a WMD from Big Show on the outside.
We soon get a ref bump, at which point Harper and Rowan come out to aid Bray. They are soon chased off by the combined might of the other guys in the match, and to make they stay gone, Mark Henry and Dean Ambrose brawl to the back with them.
A new referee comes out just in time to count Big Show getting pinned after being hit with a Big Ending from Big E. The announcers put over this incredible feat of strength on the part of young Big E. Unfortunately for Big E., he is soon eliminated by a Superman Splash from AJ Styles.
The next elimination involves AJ and Jericho in some sort of situation that leads to a double pin-fall, with the original ref waking up in time to count AJ’s shoulders while his replacement counts Jericho’s. Both men are ruled eliminated from the match-up.
The final two are Wyatt and Rollins are the final two, and Rollins manages to get the win with a curb stomp to earn a shot at the WWE Title at Unforgiven. Total time should be something like 45-55 minutes.



WWE Superstars (1/29/2016):
Tonight’s featured match is Rollins & Ambrose getting their contractually obligated championship rematch against the Dudley Boys. The promos center around the importance of the tag titles and how both teams are made up of such great friends.

WWE WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Dudley Boyz(c) vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose-
Dudleys win clean in thirty minutes, pinning Ambrose after a 3-D to retain the titles.

[Big Red Machine]

Tonight’s Raw is one you don’t want to miss! In addition to our blockbuster main event of WWE Champion Wade Barrett facing off against Royal Rumble winner John Cena, but WWE.com has now learned that, stemming from the events of Smackdown’s ten-way elimination #1 contendership match, Raw will also see The Wyatt Family take on Mark Henry, Dean Ambrose, & Big E. Langston. We will also hear from the other competitors in the ten-way elimination #1 contendershp match, including winner Seth Rollins.
Other matches announced for Raw include Kalisto vs. Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd vs. Big Show, a Fatal Four-Way pitting Kevin Owens against Roman Reigns against Titus O’Neil against Kane, Brain Trust vs. The Colons, and, in women’s action, Becky Lynch vs. Brie Bella.

WWE.com reports that due to lingering injuries suffered in her brawl with Tamina on Smackdown, WWE Divas Champion Paige will not be at Raw.



Raw (2/1/2016)- Birmingham, AL:

KOFI KINGSTON (w/Big Show) vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman)-
Dolph wins clean in fifteen minutes. After the match Renee Young tries to get a reaction interview with Dolph Ziggler, who brags about his victory. Renee then asks Dolph about getting pinned by Jericho in the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown, at which point Dolph angrily walks off. Heyman tells Renee “neither my client nor I have any comment on this matter” and walks off after Dolph.

BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi) vs. THE COLONS (w/Rosa Mendes)-
Brain Trust win clean in eight minutes.

Renee Young interviews AJ Styles about not winning the #1 contendership elimination match on Smackdown. AJ says that he didn’t like the double-pinfall call and he feels that he and AJ should have stayed in the match rather than both being eliminated because a double pinfall usually results in a restart, but he understands that the referee’s decision is final. There is plenty of WWE Universe out there for him to conquer, so he is waiting for his next challenge.

TYSON KIDD vs. BIG SHOW (w/Kofi Kingston)-
Tyson tries to play hit and run for a bit but Big Show starts to catch him before he can do the “run” part and starts to dominate the match. Tyson eventually makes quick comeback but when he tries to come at Big Show for a dropkick off the top rope he eats a WMD in the face. The ref rushes over and immediately sees that Tyson is knocked out and declares Big Show the winner. Should take about seven minutes.

Kalisto is backstage cutting a promo to hype up his match against Justin Gabriel. Sin Cara shows up and asks Kalisto to “let me have your back tonight, because we both know the League of Nations will not hesitate to interfere if they get the chance.” Kalisto turns him down again, still not trusting him after last year’s turn.

FATAL FOUR-WAY: Roman Reigns vs. Kane (w/Team Anger) vs. Titus O’Neil (w/Darren Young) vs. Kevin Owens (w/Sami Zayn)-
The match is a big wild eight minute long slugfest. The finish is that Roman spears Titus but then gets taken out by Kane and Kane steals the pin on Titus.

Renee Young interviews Chris Jericho about not winning the #1 contendership elimination match on Smackdown. Jericho says that, like AJ, he doesn’t like the double-pinfall call, but he’s not going to worry about it too much because before he was eliminated from that match, he pinned the World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler clean in the middle of the ring, so while Seth Rollins might have come out of Smackdown as the #1 contender to the WWE Title at Unforgiven, in his mind he came out of Smackdown as the #1 contender to the World Heavyweight Title at Unforgiven.


KALISTO vs. JUSTIN GABRIEL (w/Rosa Mendes & The Colons)-
Sin Cara shows up and attacks The Colons on the outside to preemptively stop them from interfering, but this commotion winds up distracting Kalisto, allowing Gabriel to roll him up for the quick win. Kalisto yells angrily at Sin Cara in Spanish after the match.

Bray Wyatt cuts a backstage promo saying that his failure to win the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown will not stop him from gaining what is rightfully his. He says that his vengeance will be felt tonight.


HEATH SLATER vs. BO DALLAS-
Before the match Heath grabs a mic and mocks Tyson Kidd for being judged “unable to defend himself” earlier tonight in his match against Big Show, just like Tyson “was unable to defend his wife” when Ashley Flair took her out on the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show. The announcers agree that this is a bad idea for Heath to be doing because it will inevitably lead to Tyson Kidd getting angry and coming after him. Heath wins clean with the DevaSlater in four minutes, and the announcers express their shock that Tyson Kidd didn’t come out here and try to get involved in the match.

Renee Young interviews Big Show about the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown. Show says he is disappointed that he didn’t win, but points out that he did knock out the US Champion with the WMD.

Wade Barrett cuts a backstage promo saying that he has a surprise waiting for John Cena in tonight’s main event.

Renee Young interviews Big E. Langston (w/Mark Henry) about the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown. Big E. says he is disappointed that he didn’t win, but that he is now more determined than ever to get his first taste of main roster gold. Mark also puts Big E. over. Big E. thanks Mark for having his back when the Wyatts interfered and says that as soon he heard that Steph was thinking of booking The Wyatt Family against Mark, Ambrose, and a third partner tonight, he ran right to her office and volunteered to be that third guy.



The Usos come out and show footage of their father Rikishi giving The Miz a stinkface on Smackdown. Miz comes out in an absolutely rage and shouts “YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? YOU THINK IT’S FUNNY TO COME OUT HERE AND EMBARRASS ME?!” Words and threats are exchanged as we head to commercial, and when we come back we’re watching…
THE MIZ vs. JEY USO (w/Jimmy Uso)-
Miz is very angry, which leads to him making mistakes. Jey takes advantage of one and rolls Miz up for the upset victory over the US Champion.
After the match Miz starts to throw a temper tantrum in the ring. Jimmy shakes his ass at Miz to mock him, so Miz attacks him on the outside. Jey tries to make the save but Miz kicks him in the nuts. He kicks Jey in the nuts, too, then rams Jimmy’s pelvis into the ringpost repeatedly. He then hits Jey with the Skull-Crushing Finale on the floor, then shoves Jey’s face into Jimmy’s ass and shouts “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR EMBARRASSING ME!”


Renee Young interviews The Dudley Boyz about the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown. They note that while they didn’t win that match, they did successfully retain the WWE World Tag Team Titles against Rollins & Ambrose on Superstars. They say they are ready to take on whoever WWE throws at them.

BECKY LYCNH vs. BRIE BELLA-
Becky wins clean with the Disarmer in eight minutes. After the match Becky cuts a promo on Tamina. Tamina comes out through the crowd, attacks Becky from behind, and beats her down.

Renee Young interviews Rusev (who speaks through Lana) about the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match. Renee asks Rusev about having been knocked out by Big Show. Rusev yells angrily in Bulgarian, and Lana translates it as saying that it wasn’t Big Show’s WMD but rather a combination of all of the punishment he took that caused Rusev to lose, and he only lost by count-out, anyway, so Big Show doesn’t deserve a US Title shot.

THE WYATT FAMILY vs. BIG E. LANGSTON, MARK HENRY, & DEAN AMBROSE (w/Seth Rollins)-
The Wyatts win clean in twenty minutes with Bray pins Dean. After a commercial break, we learn than Ambrose has been taken to the hospital to get x-rays done after injuries he suffered in this match.

MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Team Anger)-
Swagger wins clean in ten minutes.

Renee Young interviews Seth Rollins in the ring about his victory in the ten-way elimination #1 contendership match on Smackdown. He vows that, at Unforgiven, he will finally fulfill his life-long dream of becoming the WWE Champion. Wade Barrett comes out and tells him not to count his chickens before they hatch. They exchange some more words before security comes out to separate them.

CODY RHODES vs. ZACK RYDER-
Cody wins clean in ten minutes

John Cena cuts a promo saying that he won’t let anything or anyone says get in his head and costs him tonight’s match… and that includes any doubts that he might have about himself.

JOHN CENA vs. WADE BARRETT (w/Sylvester Lefort)-
Barrett’s big surprise for Cena is the return of Lefort. They go for almost twenty-five back-and-forth minutes before some big double-down spot on the outside. Barrett wins by count-out when he makes it back into the ring in time only because Lefort gave him an extra push, while Cena collapses just short of the ring. JBL pushes that Cena has gone right back to losing in big matches.

[Big Red Machine]

BREAKING NEWS!

WWE Superstar and current #1 contender to the WWE Title Seth Rollins was assaulted in the parking lot of the Legacy Arenaas he prepared to leave after last night's Raw and appears to have sustained serious injuries. Rollins has been taken to a local hospital to determine the extent of the damage. Who attacked him and why is currently unknown. WWE officials are launching a full investigation to get to the bottom of this matter.

We hope to have an update on Seth Rollins as well as The Usos available tomorrow by the time WWE Main Event goes on the air.

[Big Red Machine]

Main Event (2/2/2016):

AJ STYLES vs. SIN CARA-
AJ wins clean in eight minutes with the Styles Clash.

We get a recap of Miz’s assault on The Usos last night, then we get an injury update on them. Jey suffered a mild concussion so he will be out of action until he is cleared. Jimmy, unfortunately, suffered a fractured pelvis from The Miz repeatedly ramming his pelvis into the ringpost, and will be out for about six weeks.

TAMINA vs. A JOBBER-
Tamina squashes the jobber like a bug in thirty seconds. After the match Becky comes out of the crowd and jumps Tamina from behind to get revenge for last night. Security rushes in to pull them apart.

Miz comes out to cut a promo saying that anyone who embarrasses him will suffer the same fate The Usos did last night.

THE MIZ vs. KALISTO-
They go for a few minutes with Kalisto getting some shine but then quickly getting cut off. Miz beats Kalisto down for a while until Kalisto starts his comeback. We wind up with a big double down, and while the referee checks on Kalisto, Miz rolls to the outside and grabs a steel chain from underneath the ring. Miz wraps the chain around his fist but Sin Cara runs out and grabs Miz’s arm from behind to try to get the chain away from him. Unfortunately the referee turns around at that very moment and sees Cara grabbing Miz’s wrist and calls for the disqualification. Miz heads to the back with his win while Kalisto reads screams at Cara and Cara tries to explain himself to Kalisto.

We get an interview live via satellite from Seth Rollins’ hospital room. He gives us the bad news that he will be out an indefinite amount of time due to the injuries he sustained when he was jumped by some masked men in the parking lot last night after Raw, and he might not be ready to return in time for his WWE Title shot at Unforgiven.
Also there is Rollins’ best friend and WWE Title Contract Money in the Bank-holder Dean Ambrose, who vows to take revenge on whoever did this to Seth, and says that he already thinks he has a good idea of who did it.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ, CHRIS JERICHO, & SAMI ZAYN (w/Kevin Owens) vs. THE BRAIN TRUST & THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS (w/Naomi)-
Zayn is obviously the babyface in peril. He eventually makes his hot tag and things are going the babyfaces’ way for a while but it is the heels who eventually pick up the win when Titus pins Sami with Clash of the Titus in about the twenty minutes.

[Big Red Machine]

WWE.com announces that Rich Swann vs. Baron Corbin and Bull Dempsey vs. Apollo Crews have both been signed for Takeover. The article will note the stark contrast between these two matches, with Swann vs. Corbin being a real feud with guys who don’t like each other while Dempsey vs. Crews is just a match that has been signed because Regal thinks it will be good.


NXT (2/3/2016):
Two female jobbers come out for a match to open the show but are both destroyed by Sasha Banks before the match can start. Sasha grabs a mic and says she saw Becky Lynch backstage earlier so she DEMANDS a match against Becky Lynch in tonight’s main event so that she can remind everyone- especially Bayley that she is miles ahead of all of the other women in NXT. Becky is always happy to fight so she comes out and asks Sasha “why wait?” Sasha insists that she is the top female star in NXT and thus she should only wrestle in the main event. Regal comes out and says that he agrees that Sasha is the top female star in NXT and so it makes sense that she should wrestle in the main event… but as punishment for Sasha disrupting the show and attacking these poor NXT rookies who were just hoping to make their debut, he is going to demote Sasha and have her wrestle right here, right now.

BECKY LYNCH vs. SASHA BANKS-
Sasha wins clean in a very hard-fought, intense fifteen minutes (probably more of a brawl than anything else). After the match she cuts a promo asking everyone that if she just beat “Main Roster Becky” why they all think someone like Bayley has any hope of beating her in two weeks at Takeover.

We get footage from earlier in the day which show Bull Dempsey talking to the camera and saying that he knows that he’ll need to get in better shape to beat someone like Apollo Crews so he is going to start lifting some weights. He goes into the gym where Elias Sampson, Dana Brooke, and Mojo Rawley are all lifting weights together. Dempsey starts to lift some weights and the other three start to make fun of him and call him fat. It just so happens that Apollo Crews walks in at that very moment and challenges Sampson and Mojo to a tag match against him and Dempsey because bullying is not cool. The announcers then tell us that such a match has been signed for later tonight.

It is announced that, due to Joe's interference in last week's NXT Title match and the fact that Joe has earned a title shot by beating Balor clean on the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show, the title match at Takeover will now be a three-way with Balor defending against both Breeze and Joe.

American Alpha come out and cut a promo telling Enzo & Cass that while they’d love to defend the NXT Tag Team Titles against them at the Takeover show in two weeks, they can’t because they’re already booked to defend the titles against The Ascension. What they can do, however, is give Enzo & Cass a shot at the titles right now!
Regal comes out and applauds American Alpha for being fighting champions and makes the match official, clarifying that if American Alpha lose the titles tonight the match at Takeover will become a three-way.

NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: American Alpha(c) vs. Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore (w/Carmella)-
America Alpha win clean in fifteen minutes. After the match The Ascension come out and lay waste to all four guys.

Rich Swann and Baron Corbin both cut promos hyping up their Takeover match.

BULL DEMPSEY & APOLLO CREWS vs. MOJO RAWLEY & ELIAS SAMPSON (w/Dana Brooke)-
Bull is the babyface in peril. He manages to make the hot tag and Crews runs wild for a bit. Dempsey gets tagged back in and things break down a bit, leading to a spot where Dempsey goes for some sort of big-man running move but Mojo gets out of the way and Bull accidentally runs into Crews from behind. The heels then hit some sort of double team on Bull and pin him for the win. The heel commentator will claim that Dempsey hit Crews on purpose because he knows he can’t beat him unless he goes into Takeover with some kind of advantage.

[Big Red Machine]

On Thursday morning WWE.com has several pieces of news tonight’s Smackdown. First is that, after their altercation on Main Event, Tamina will face Becky Lynch. Also signed for Smackdown is AJ Styles vs. Cody Rhodes, Big E. & Mark Henry vs. the Brain Trust, Big Show, Kofi, & Kalisto vs. Rusev & the Colons, and a Fatal Four-Way main event pitting WWE Champion Wade Barrett against Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt against Adrian Neville.
In addition to that, it is also announced that the position of General Manager has been abolished and Stephanie McMahon, who has been serving as the General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown for the past few years, has now instead been made the Commissioner of WWE. For her first official act as Commissioner, Ms. McMahon-Helmsley has decreed that as a result of pinning World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler last week on Smackdown during the Ten-Way Elimination #1 Contendership Match, Chris Jericho has been named the #1 contender to the World Heavyweight Title at Unforgiven.


Much closer to the start of show-time WWE announces two addition features of tonight’s Smackdown. The first is a match pitting Michael McGillicutty & World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler against the team of Tyson Kidd and Dolph’s next challenger Chris Jericho. The second is that we will hear from John Cena for the first time after his big loss to WWE Champion Wade Barrett on Raw.


Smackdown (2/4/2016)- Memphis, TN
Smackdown opens with Dean Ambrose storming out to the ring. He accuses WWE Champion Wade Barrett and the League of Nations of being behind the parking lot attack on Seth Rollins after Raw because they wanted to take out Wade’s next challenger. Barrett comes out onto the ramp and denies this. Dean charges at Barrett but it’ a trap, as the other members of the League of Nations rush out from the back and they beat the sh*t out of Dean. Barrett tells Dean that he if he doesn’t drop this line of inquiry he’ll find himself right next to Seth in the hospital.

We cut to a quick graphic hyping up tonight’s four-way main event, then we go backstage to where Byron Saxton is standing by with an odd duo who will team up tonight: Michael McGillicutty and the World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler.
Paul Heyman cuts a promo saying that, while this team might seem odd to some, the common theme in tonight’s match is people who are looking to prove things. Michael McGillicutty is looking to prove that he has what it takes to be a Paul Heyman Guy, while Dolph is going to prove that Chris Jericho pinning him last week was a fluke and that Jericho is thus undeserving of the title shot he has been given, and that is why Heyman lobbied Steph to get this match booked. Dolph reiterates Heyman’s point and guarantees that he will win tonight, and McGillicutty promises not to let them down.

MARK HENRY & BIG E. LANGSTON vs. THE BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi)-
Brain Trust win in seven minutes via using the ropes for illegal leverage on a pin.

John Cena cuts a big promo saying that he won’t let his count-out loss to WWE Champion Wade Barrett on Raw undermine his confidence. He doesn’t yet know whether he will challenge for the WWE Title or the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania, but either way, he will train harder than ever, both physically and mentally.

KOFI KINGSTON, BIG SHOW, & KALISTO vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (The Colons & Alexander Rusev) (w/Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Sylvester Lefort, & Lana)-
Before the match we get a quick promo from Lefort explaining that Rosa Mendes isn’t out here because she screwed up booking their hotel rooms for tonight so he fired her (in reality silly BRM forgot that Rosa would have been eight months pregnant by this point).
The match goes for about ten minutes. Kalisto manages to hit Rusev with the Salida Del Sol and looks like he has him pinned but Gabriel and Barrett run in for the DQ. Sin Cara and Neville run out to even things up for the babyfaces and the LON retreat. After the match Big Show and Kofi thank Neville and Cara for saving them, but Kalisto totally snubs Cara, only shaking hands with Neville.

We go backstage to WWE Divas Champion Paige, who says she has recovered from her injuries from her brawl with Tamina and she still wants a piece of Tamina, but out of respect for the fights that Becky Lynch has given her recently, she won’t get involved when Becky gets her shot at revenge on Tamina tonight.

The Miz comes out to the ring to complain about getting attacked two-on-one by Sin Cara and Kalisto on Main Event, but says that if he needs to take out another tag team like he did to The Usos on Raw then he is fine with that. Kalisto comes out to drive the point home to Miz that he and Cara ARE NOT a team. Miz says “Oh yeah? Then why did I see you fighting side-by-side earlier tonight?”
Steph comes out and says that Cara and Kalisto might not be a team anymore, but they will need to be partners tomorrow night when they take on the team of WWE US Champion The Miz and WWE IC Champion Rusev in this week’s featured match on Superstars!
She also says that all of this talk about teams has given her an interesting idea: She is changing tonight’s main event from a Fatal Four-Way for a Four Corners tag team match, and that Roman, Barrett, Bray, and Neville must find their own partners.

BECKY LYNCH vs. TAMINA-
They brawl all over. The official result is a double count-out but they just keep fighting. Tamina eventually prevails.

We go backstage to Neville, who announces that he has accepted Kalisto’s offer to be his tag team partner in tonight’s main event. Kalisto floats the idea of making this more than a one-time thing, which Neville says he will definitely consider.

The Prime Time Players come out and cut a promo saying that their win on Main Event against the Dudley Boyz should earn them a tag title shot. The Dudleys come out, with Bubba pointing out that while they were in the match, it was Sami Zayn who got pinned, and while they have a lot of respect for Sami, he’s not one of the tag team champions. PTP accuse the Dudleys of ducking them. Steph comes out and says that Bubba has a good point, but she will book Dudleys vs. PTP for right now, and if PTP prove themselves by beating the Dudleys tonight, she will name them the #1 contenders for Unforgiven. As Steph is turning to leave, Dean Ambrose comes limping out and tells Steph that he wants to be Roman Reigns’ partner in tonight’s main event. Steph tells him that the doctors told her- and him- very clearly that Dean is in no condition to compete tonight after the beating he took from the League of Nations earlier.

IF PTP WIN THEY GET A TAG TITLE SHOT AT UNFORGIVEN: The Prime Time Players vs. The Dudley Boyz-
Dudleys win clean in eight minutes. After the match they cut a promo putting out a call for some truly worthy challengers to try to take their titles.

We go backstage to Roman Reigns, who introduces us to his partner in tonight’s main event: John Cena. Roman says he is honored to fight alongside such a legendary Superstar. Cena puts Roman over, and promises that “Big Match John” is back.

EMMA vs. BRIE BELLA-
Emma wins clean in five minutes. After the match she gets attacked by Tamina but Heath Slater charges out with a chair and chases Tamina off. Slater then grabs a mic and says that he is showing Tyson Kidd how to defend a woman because Tyson couldn’t defend his wife Nattie from Ashley Flair at the Raw 23rd Anniversary show.

We get a quick backstage promo from Lefort announcing that Justin Gabriel will team with Wade Barrett in tonight’s main event, and hyping up Rusev’s featured match on tomorrow night’s Superstars.

CHRIS JERICHO & TYSON KIDD vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY & DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman)-
Ziggler pins Tyson clean with the Zig-Zag in thirteen minutes.

We get a backstage promo from Bray Wyatt announcing that he has chosen Luke Harper to be his partner in tonight’s main event. He says that he & Harper will overcome the overwhelming odds of facing three other teams at once, and their victory will prove that “through the lessons of Bray Wyatt, all things are possible.”

AJ STYLES vs. CODY RHODES-
AJ wins clean in seventeen minutes with the Styles Clash.

Miz cuts a promo about his featured match on Superstars, saying that he and Rusev will easily beat Cara & Kalisto if Rusev simply does exactly what Miz tells him to.

FOUR CORNERS TAG TEAM MATCH: John Cena & Roman Reigns vs. Adrian Neville & Kalisto vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper) (w/Erick Rowan) vs. The League of Nations (Wade Barrett & Justin Gabriel) (w/Sylvester Lefort)-
Stuff happens for about twelve minutes until we get a ref bump, at which point Dean comes flying out and attacks the League of Nations. Rusev and The Colons come out to help their comrades and they all put Dean through the announcers’ table. Neville & Kalisto go over to fight them all, and Big Show, Kofi, & Sin Cara all run in to that fight, too, and they all brawl away, leaving us with just the Wyatts vs. Roman & Cena.
The ref recovers and we go into our finishing sequence, which sees Harper whip Roman off the ropes. Cena makes the blind tag as Roman goes by, but Roman doesn’t notice it. Instead he charges off the ropes, ducks Harper’s big clothesline, comes off the ropes on the other side and nails him with a spear… at which point he looks up to see John Cena running in, pulling Harper over, and trying to cover him. Roman grabs Cena and asks him what he is doing. Cena tries to explain that he made a tag, but Bray Wyatt runs in and hits Cena from behind, knocking him into Roman. Bray tosses Roman to the outside, then nails Cena with the Monster Tamer, drags Harper over to his corner, makes the tag, hits Cena with another Monster Tamer, and pins him for the win.



Thursday night after Smackdown, WWE.com posts some footage from after the show of Roman yelling at Cena for losing, shoving him down, then storming off.

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Superstars (2/5/2016):
Tonight’s featured match on Superstars will see the very unlikely team of The Miz and WWE Intercontinental Champion Alexander Rusev facing off against the erstwhile Lucha Dragons: Sin Cara and Kalisto. Our promos start on the babyface side, explaining Cara’s turn on Kalisto last spring because Kalisto was willing to fight alongside Dean Ambrose, the man who had injured Sin Cara under orders from Bray Wyatt, even though Kalisto saw no problem with it because Dean had left the Wyatts and was fighting against them at the time. Cara tells us that he is looking for forgiveness from his former partner, just like Kalisto was willing to forgive Dean last year. We also get a promo from Dean Ambrose on the importance of forgiveness, talking about the forgiveness that Seth Rollins showed him and how it helped him escape from Bray’s control. Dean also once again alleges that the League of Nations were behind Monday’s attack on Seth in the parking lot after Raw.
Kalisto then explains things from his point of view, which is that after turning on him, Sin Cara immediately went and joined up with Rusev & Lefort to form the League of Nations, and then got kicked out of that group and injured, and only wants Kalisto’s help now because he can’t get revenge on the LON on his own. He doesn’t trust that Cara won’t go right back to being angry at him once he has used him against the LON.
Steph then cuts a promo explaining why she made this match:
1. She thinks having the Lucha Dragons back together will strengthen the tag team division
2. Kalisto was about to pin Rusev last night before the DQ happened, so he deserves another chance to pin the IC champ and earn that title shot, or perhaps earn a different title shot by pinning US Champion The Miz.
3. She thinks there will be a very interesting dynamic forcing together two teams of guys who clearly don’t like each other.
We then go over to the heel side, explaining Miz’s involvement as the guy who keeps having to deal with Sin Cara’s interference whenever Cara attempts to help Kalisto, while Lefort and Lana (on behalf of Rusev) cut promos saying that The Miz represents everything they hate about America. Rusev then cuts a promo with subtitles about how he will squash both Sin Cara and Kalisto like the bugs that they are. Lefort is then asked about Dean Ambrose’s allegations that the League of Nations attacked Seth Rollins in the parking lot. He gets very angry and flatly denies this allegation. Then we go back to Miz, who cuts a promo saying that he doesn’t care if the League of Nations like how he lives his life, just like he doesn’t care if the fans like how he lives his life.

Between the promos and our featured match, we show the footage from WWE.com after last night’s main event with Roman yelling at Cena and shoving him down after blaming him for their loss, and we announce that the main event of Raw will be John Cena vs. Roman Reigns.
It is also announced that Becky Lynch will be out of action for a few days due to injuries suffered in her brawl with Tamina last night on Smackdown.

SIN CARA & KALISTO vs. THE MIZ & ALEXANDER RUSEV (w/Sylvester Lefort & Lana)-
Kalisto and Sin Cara don’t work very well together, but Miz and Rusev work together even worse, and they have an argument which allows Kalisto to roll Miz up for the pin in nineteen minutes.


On Monday WWE.com reports that over the weekend WWE Commissioner Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley received petitions from several WWE Superstars which have resulted in the following matches being booked:
- Due to her post-match attack on Smackdown, Emma has requested and has been granted a match against Tamina.
- Chris Jericho has requested and been granted a match against Cody Rhodes, for reasons he promises to make clear tonight on Raw.
- Bo Dallas has requested and has been granted a match against AJ Styles.
- Mark Henry & Big E. Langston have requested and been granted a match against the Brain Trust, who beat them on Smackdown by using the ropes for illegal leverage.
One other petition that was granted for tonight’s Raw was that of Sylvester Lefort, who wanted his client, the WWE Champion Wade Barrett, to be featured in an in-ring, sit-down interview live tonight on Raw.

One Superstar who many were expecting to petition for a match tonight against Heath Slater but did not was Tyson Kidd. Instead Kidd has been booked to team with Michael McGillicutty to face WWE World Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz.
Also signed for tonight’s Raw is a Fatal Four-Way pitting US Champion The Miz against Intercontinental Champion Alexander Rusev against Sin Cara against Kalisto. These four men could not get along in their assigned teams on Superstars, so now they will face off in a match where it is every man for himself.
Also signed for Raw is the League of Nations of Justin Gabriel & The Colons vs. Big Show, Kofi Kingston, & Adrian Neville. All of this in addition to our blockbuster main event of Roman Reigns vs. John Cena, and Commissioner Stephanie McMahon has promised a major surprise on tonight’s show!

Raw (2/8/2016)- Seattle, WA:

KALISTO vs. SIN CARA vs. THE MIZ vs. ALEXANDER RUSEV (w/Sylvester Lefort & Lana)-
Kalisto and Sin Cara wind up working together against the two larger heels. At one point they hit a big double-team move on Miz and Cara offers to let Kalisto pin Miz. Kalisto is first confused and then wary, sensing a trap, and this hesitation gives Rusev the time to recover enough to break up the pin when Kalisto finally goes for it. Eventually Rusev pins Cara at about the fifteen minute mark after some sort of suplex that will now be renamed the Bulgarian Suplex.

Paige comes out to the ring to cut a promo that is essentially a repeat of her promo from Smackdown where she says that, out of respect for Emma’s beef with Tamina, she won’t get involved in their match tonight, but unlike on Smackdown, she is tired of not fighting so Steph gave her permission to make an open challenge right now. That open challenge is answered by Alicia Fox, so we get…

PAIGE vs. ALICIA FOX-
Paige wins clean in seven minutes with the RamPaige.

Sylvester Lefort cuts a backstage promo explaining that he got Wade Barrett his special in-ring sit-down interview with Renee Young tonight because Wade feels disrespected that people are paying more attention to others than they are to him, even though he is the WWE Champion. He also hypes up the six-man tag that this coming up next, which is…

KOFI KINGSTON, BIG SHOW, & ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Justin Gabriel & The Colons) (w/Sylvester Lefort)-
Babyfaces win clean in ten action-packed minutes when Big Show pins a Colon with a WMD. After the match Big Show cuts a promo reminding us that this isn’t the first time he’s knocked a member of the LON out with a WMD. He also knocked Rusev out during the ten-way #1 contendership elimination match a week and a half ago, and he wants a shot at Rusev’s IC Title.

Byron Saxton interviews Tyson Kidd backstage (the announcers can point out that Lefort demanded that Renee do no interviews tonight other than Barrett’s so that all of her energy will be put into focusing on the WWE Champion’s interview). He tells Tyson that many WWE fans as well as people within the WWE are shocked that Tyson has avoided all confrontations with Heath Slater despite the inflammatory things Heath has been saying about him recently. Tyson explains that his experiences with Team Anger have taught him that getting angry isn’t worth the damage it can do to your personal life when you allow yourself to get angry so often. He says that he was put in a bad position on the Raw 23rd Anniversary Show, being given the choice of assaulting a woman or else allowing that woman to continue harming his wife, and not wanting to give into his anger, he chose to restrain himself. He says that both he and Nattie are happy with the decision that he made, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.

MARK HENRY & BIG E. LANGSTON vs. BRAIN TRUST (w/Naomi)-
Brain Trust win in eight minutes when they hit Big E. with their double-team finisher while Naomi distracts Mark, causing him to be a step or two too slow to make the save.

BO DALLAS vs. AJ STYLES-
Before the match, Bo cuts a promo explaining to us his logic for challenging AJ: He knows that if he wants to become world champion then he has to prove that he is worthy of a title shot by beating world championship-caliber wrestlers like AJ. He knows that he is the underdog in this match, but his eternal optimism makes him think he can win.
He doesn’t come close, losing to AJ in about four minutes via Styles Clash. AJ then cuts a promo of his own, saying that he wants better competition than Bo, saying that he’ll take on anyone on the roster, from a top up-and-coming like Sami Zayn to a grizzled veteran like Kane. Steph comes out and tells AJ that hears what he is saying… so tomorrow night on Main Event, he’ll face both of them in a triple threat match.

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY & TYSON KIDD-
Dudleys win clean in nine minutes, pinning Tyson after a 3-D. After the match the Dudleys cut a promo similar to AJ’s about wanting competition, so Steph tells them they will face Luke Harper & Erick Rowan of the Wyatt Family tomorrow night on Main Event.

Chris Jericho cuts a backstage promo explaining to everyone why he specifically asked to face Cody Rhodes tonight. He starts off by putting Dolph Ziggler over for defeating Tyson Kidd in their tag match on Raw, but says that it doesn’t prove that his win over Dolph was a fluke like Dolph claims. Now Jericho is going to go out there tonight and pin Cody Rhodes- a former World Heavyweight Champion- “and a ‘former World Heavyweight Champion’ is exactly what I’m going to make you at Unforgiven, Dolph!”

CHRIS JERICHO vs. CODY RHODES-
Jericho wins clean in twenty-five minutes, making Cody tap out to the Walls of Jericho. Ziggler comes out to do commentary. He emphasizes that Jericho couldn’t repeat his feat and pin him on SD in the tag match, therefore Jericho pinning him the first time should still be seen as a fluke. He also disparages Cody as not being anywhere near the same level of competition that he is (noting that he successfully defended his title against Cody already), so Jericho beating Cody proves nothing- although despite Dolph’s claims to the contrary, it is clear that the idea is getting to him.

Bray Wyatt cuts a promo hyping up Rowan & Harper teaming up against the Dudleys tomorrow night on Main Event.

EMMA vs. TAMINA-
They have a big brawl, which Emma manages to win by count-out by slipping back into the ring at the last moment. Despite being a moment too late, Tamina still follows Emma back into the ring and they keep brawling, with Tamina standing tall at the end.

We now go backstage to Steph’s office where Steph has some championship-related announcements. The first is that, while he didn’t defeat Rusev tonight, Kalisto did pin The Miz in last week’s featured match on Superstars, and thus he has earned a shot at The Miz’s US Title, which he will get this week on Smackdown.
The other announcement Steph makes is that WWE doctors have informed her that there is almost no chance that Seth Rollins will be cleared to wrestle by Unforgiven, and thus she will be forced to name a new #1 contender to the WWE Title.
As Steph is finishing up, Ziggler barges in and insists that Steph add him to the AJ vs. Kane vs. Zayn match on Main Event, stating that he intends to prove his superiority over Chris Jericho by doing what Jericho has been unable to do and cleanly defeat AJ Styles. Cody Rhodes then barges in, furious at Ziggler for burying him on commentary, and instead demands that Steph book Ziggler against him tomorrow night on Main Event. Steph instead tells Ziggler that she will put him in AJ’s match tomorrow if he agrees to face Cody on Smackdown. Ziggler agrees, and they have a tense stare-down before Ziggler leaves and we go to a commercial break.

When we return from our commercial it is time for Renee Young’s big in-ring sit-down interview with WWE Champion Wade Barrett. She starts off with a few softball questions about the importance of Sylvester Lefort being back in the League of Nations, then hits on the points Lefort clearly wanted in the interview, to let Wade vent about feeling disrespected despite being the WWE Champion because he feels that others like Cena, Jericho, and AJ are getting more attention than he is. He also says that he thinks that Steph’s big surprise has something to do with him having a new challenger and says that it is very disrespectful to him as WWE Champion to not tell him who it is.
Renee uses this opportunity to segue into asking about the attack by a group of masked men on Wade’s originally scheduled challenger, Seth Rollins, last week after Raw. Wade once again denies it and says that he doesn’t want to hear anyone else impugning his honor or that of the LON with these baseless accusations. All he is interested in is finding out who his new challenger at Unforgiven will be. Renee reminds Wade that it’s her job as a journalist to ask the tough questions, and presses on about the attack on Rollins, bringing up Wade’s defensiveness about it when Dean accused him of being behind it on Smackdown.
Wade tells Renee that “either there’s something wrong with your hearing or you’re having trouble getting it through your thick skull, so let me clarify this matter for you.” Then Wade snatches the mic away from Renee with one hand and grabs her by the hair with the other. He leans in down in Renee’s face and begins to shout at her. “I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT! I’M THE WWE CHAMPION, AND IF YOU DON’T START SHOWING ME THE PROPER RESPECT, I’M GOING TO START TREATING YOU THE WAY AN OBNOXIOUS LITTLE RAT DESERVES TO BE TREATED!”
By now of course the announcers are freaking out, worried that the WWE Champion is about to start beating a woman on live TV, and some security has started moving towards the ring… and then Dean Ambrose comes charging out from backstage, armed with his MITB briefcase. Wade hears the ruckus and turns around just in time to see the briefcase coming at him before it smashes into his face. Wade rolls to the outside but Dean follows him, landing some more shots as Wade starts to crawl towards the ramp.
The other members of the League of Nations show up and attack Dean, but he uses the briefcase to fend them all off, getting at least one good shot in on all of them, but they have bought time for Barrett to retreat up the ramp and run backstage. As the rest of the League follows him, Dean shouts to Wade, “I’ve got your challenger for Unforgiven RIGHT HERE, Wade!” as he points to the MITB briefcase.
We then cut to a commercial (to hopefully avoid the cameras catching any negative reaction from fans who thought Dean was going to cash in right now and were disappointed that the title match will be taking place somewhere else), and when we come back we get a quick recap from Cole while we watch footage from during the break of Dean comforting Renee in the ring. We then go to other footage from during the break, this time taped by a cameraman who followed the League of Nations backstage, in which Steph shouts at Wade to “PACK UP YOUR {BLEEP!} AND GO HOME! YOU’RE SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY!”

BRIE BELLA vs. A JOBBER-
Brie squashes the jobber, then challenges Paige to a match tomorrow night on Main Event.

We go to Byron Saxton, who is standing by with Heath Slater. Byron asks Slater for a reaction to Tyson Kidd’s earlier comments about why he hasn’t called him out. Slater says that it’s all a load of BS and Tyson is really just a coward.

KEVIN OWENS (w/Sami Zayn) vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Team Anger)-
Swagger wins clean in seventeen minutes.
Byron Saxton is standing by at Gorilla Position to get an interview with Team Anger. They put over their philosophy. Roman Reigns walks by because his match is next. They put him over for getting angry at Cena for losing their match on Smackdown and tell him to use that anger to motivate him tonight. He tells them to shut up and leave him alone because he doesn’t want any of what they’re selling.

After a commercial break we are quickly reminded that Steph promised us a big surprise tonight. Then it’s time for our main event…

JOHN CENA vs. ROMAN REIGNS-
They go for about twelve minutes, with Roman in control of most of it. Cena eventually starts to make his comeback when SHEAMUS hops the barricade and nails Cena with a Brogue Kick for the DQ. Reigns is angry at Sheamus for making him lose by DQ so they have a quick brawl that also ends with a Brogue Kick.
Sheamus grabs a mic and cuts a promo on Cena, referencing Cena’s promo from last week’s Raw, saying “You said you won’t let anything get in your head, John? Well how about this: if you go after the World Heavyweight Title, I’m going to keep putting my boot in your head because that title is MINE!” Sheamus then nails Cena with a second Brogue Kick as legions of security come out to tackle him, with a furious Steph yelling from the ramp that “this was not what we agreed to!”
(Hopefully this will come across as a big enough moment to make up for the f*ck finish in the main event, and the stacked Main Event card will be enticing enough to keep the fans around for that show so that they can be sent home happy.)


After Raw goes off the air we get a Facebook post from Steph (which WWE.com will have on the front page) explaining that Sheamus was supposed to be the surprise but he reneged on their deal and ruined things. She says we should tune in to Main Event tomorrow night for more details.

WWE.com posts video of the attack and says that Cena is being held out of action with a possible concussion.

Main Event (2/9/2016):
Main Event opens with Steph explaining to the crowd that her big surprise for last night was originally going to be an announcement that Sheamus’ suspension was over and that he would be named #1 contender to the World Heavyweight Title- as his rematch clause states that he should be- and would face the Jericho vs. Ziggler winner on the Road to WrestleMania, but he was supposed to be on his best behavior. Obviously he didn’t do that, and because he reneged on their deal, not only has she once again suspended him, but she is stripping him of his rematch.
She also announces that she has made the Paige vs. Brie Bella match for tonight official, and that match will take place right after this commercial break.

PAIGE vs. BRIE BELLA-
Paige wins clean in seven minutes with the Stretch Muffler (I figure it’s safer to do this on Main Event just in case the Seattle crowd reacts badly to Dragon’s wife losing).

THE DUDLEY BOYZ vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (w/Bray Wyatt)-
Dudleys overcome the size disadvantage to win cleanly in thirteen minutes, pinning Rowan after a 3-D.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. A JOBBER-
Neville squashes the jobber.

Michael McGillicutty cuts a promo blaming “that loser Tyson Kidd” for their loss last night and challenging him to a match.

AJ STYLES vs. SAMI ZAYN (w/Kevin Owens) vs. KANE (w/Team Anger) vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Paul Heyman)-
The story of this match is that Dolph is obsessed with trying to pin AJ to prove that he is better than Jericho. Instead what happens is that AJ pins Zayn clean with the Styles Clash in eighteen minutes.



NXT (2/10/2016):
The two poor jobbers who Sasha beat up last week finally get to have their match. Someone wins a short match cleanly.

We get a segment taped by a fan at a local gym. Dana Brooke, Elias Sampson, and Mojo Rawley were all hanging out together lifting weights. Then Enzo, Cass, & Carmella showed up so Dana, Elias, and Mojo all made fun of them for getting beaten up by The Ascension. A shouting match ensues, but the heels eventually back down because they’re heels. Due to this, a tag match (without the women) is signed for next week’s Takeover.

Apollo Crews is asked about Bull Dempsey running into him when they were partners last week, asking if he thinks it was an accident or if Bull was trying to get an advantage going into their match at Takeover. Crews says he doesn’t know. Dempsey shows up and apologizes to Crews, insisting that it was an accident.

Go-home show stuff happens for our three title matches. For the NXT Title it’s sit-down promos for all three guys (Balor, Joe, and Breeze). For the tag titles we have American Alpha cut an in-ring promo but then get jumped from behind and laid out by The Ascension. For the women’s title we have a contract signing that ends with Sasha laying Bayley out with the title belt and then standing on top of her to sign the contract, shouting about how she is “above” all of the other women in NXT.