Heres your news for December 7 2019
We're starting today's video by looking at this week's Smack Down, as
the show opened with an appearance by The Miz.
After Daniel Bryan was dragged under the ring and had his hair pulled
out last week by The Fiend on the A-Lister vowed to find out
what had happened to his former NXT rookie and longtime foe, but was
quickly interrupted by Wyatt himself, who appeared on the Firefly Fun House.
The Universal champion suggested that though Bryan agreed to a
rematch between the two, that the Yes man! may not even make it to
TLC, and instead focussed his wicked mind games on Miz, holding up a
picture of the A-Lister's wife Maryse and their children to goad the
SmackDown Superstar.
Of course, this led to Miz hunting the demonic Champion down, and
after calling his wife to lock their house, quickly said he was leaving the
arena to make sure they're safe.
In our first match of the night, Mandy Rose took on Alexa Bliss, and this
match saw the SmackDown debut of Referee Jessica Carr.
The first female ref in Smack Down history, Carr performed excellently in
the role thanks to her years in NXT, and the match saw Bliss get the win
after Twisted Bliss.
Backstage, Drake Maverick asked Dana Brooke about her upcoming
date with Batista, and even asked what the 6-foot-3, multi-millionaire,
former World Champion Marvel movie megastar has, that Maverick doesn't
We're not quite sure if Maverick was ready to hear the answer, but
before Brooke had the chance to respond, Elias appeared to deliver her
answer via song.
In a very no-PG line, the Living Truth suggested that the only action
Maverick gets is with Lotion and Tissues, and after Elias had a line about
Drake's wife Renee jumping into Elias' bed, that proved to be a step too far.
Coming back from commercial, Maverick was in the ring and called out
the singer-songwriter for a fight, and Elias was more than happy
to oblige, with Brooke by his side.
Giving Drake a spanking, and a punt up his boot, Elias finished the
humiliation off with his finisher, before allowing Brooke to get the pin,
in this unsanctioned contest.
Backstage, Miz was still getting ready to leave when he saw a strange
room and kicked his way in, only to be blindsided by Wyatt who mocked
him with another pic of the Mizannins.
Interestingly, this wasn't the Fiend who attacked Miz, but it was the
sweater-wearing Wyatt, who hit him with a Sister Abigail to finish him
off, and took the picture as his trophy.
Back from commercial and it was Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Elimination
match actions, as the Lucha House Party faced Heavy Machinery, The
Revival and Mustafa Ali and Shorty G.
A match with huge stakes on the line, all four teams battled for a chance
at the SmackDown Tag Team titles, and it was ultimately the team of
Dash and Dawson who emerged victorious.
With the Revival and the New Day scheduled for TLC, this is a match
fans have seen plenty of times in the past few months, so hopefully, the
four men involved can bring something new to the table.
On commentary, Michael Cole hyped up the return of CM Punk to WWE
Backstage next week, and we also saw another hype package for
Sheamus, after the former World Heavyweight Champion has been out of
action for almost a year.
Back in the ring, Lacey Evans was making her entrance, and it didn't take
long for the Sassy Southern Belle to defeat local competitor Hayley Jones.
What happened post-match though is what got folks talking, as Sasha
Banks appeared to run Evans down, but quickly got schooled by the former Marine.
After Evans feigned a punch, The Boss fell down in anticipation, to much
laughter from the crowd, though these smiles were gone when Bayley
ambushed the Southern Belle, leading to the 2-on-1 double team, and
the former Tag Champions standing tall.
On Commentary, Cole revealed that Miz Vs. Wyatt had been made
official for TLC, but didn't mention whether the Universal Title was on
the line, or if there was any special stipulation to the contest.
In addition to that, it was also announced that Roman Reigns will face
King Corbin in a TLC match, though it's more than a bit worrying when
your first matches announced for a Pay Per View, are made clear just 9
days before the show is supposed to happen.
Speaking of the Big Dog, it was now time for the main event, as Roman
Reigns took on Dolph Ziggler in the show's finale.
A finger to the eye quickly gave the Show Off the advantage, but after a
comeback by the Big Dog, King Corbin was carried on his throne, to watch the rest.
Combing back from commercial, and Reigns made quick work of Ziggler,
pinning him after a Spear to get the win.
Fans watching live will have noticed that there was plenty of time left in
the broadcast, and that was for good reason, as as soon as Reigns won,
the men who carried the King to the ring, ambushed the former
Universal Champion.
Overwhelmed by the eventual numbers game, Roman got beat down by
the combined six other men, and ven had his wrists handcuffed to the ring post.
Though this could have led to some vicious assault or interesting
booking, Ziggler and Corbin instead chose to douse the defenseless
Roman in Dog Food, and after the reset Big Dog mascot incident, this was
a rather bad ending to an interesting premise.
Despite this, Reigns did his best to sell the awkward attack, screaming
out in anger whilst covered in dog food, to bring this week's
SmackDown to a close.
On the whole, this week's Smack Down was fine enough, with special
mentions going to the Miz and Watt's segments that felt straight out of
a horror movie, as well as Jessica Carr who did exceptionally well under
the much bigger audience.
It was also nice to see the WWE FINALLY build towards next Sunday's
TLC Pay Per View, but with the awkward ending as well as fans getting
the New Day and Revival again, this week's SmackDown won't be saved
in anyone's DVR's anytime soon.
Whilst SmackDown may have been something of a mixed show, spare a
thought for AEW star Joey Janela, who almost got in trouble with
someone taking his idea.
As we all know, the world of professional wrestling is a creative place,
and when you've got a good nickname for yourself, you'll want to
protect it, especially when the biggest wrestling promotion in the world
tries to get their hands on it.
In recent weeks, the WWE has referred to Rusev as the Bad Boy, using
the moniker at both Starrcade and RAW, but what some fans may not
know is that Janela has been using the name for quite some time.
Now, Janela has filed a trademark for the name The Bad Boy, which
should keep Rusev and WWE away, and hopefully his application goes
through, as the AEW star has been the Bad Boy before Rusev Day was a thing.
In a tweet, the original Bad Boy apologised to the Bulgarian on Twitter,
saying you've gotta do what you've gotta do, and this is just the latest
piece of bad luck for the former United States Champion.
Lana and Rusev's marriage has been collapsing for months now, with
Lana filing for divorce and issuing a restraining order against her
husband, though she and her new man Lashley were arrested during
this week's RAW, after attacking a police officer who wasn't prepared to
put the cuffs on the sympathetic Bulgarian Brute.
Now, it seems that this toxic relationship will end once and for all, as
during a commercial break for last night's SmackDown, the company
promised that "the tumultuous marriage of Lana and Rusev will come to
an end on Monday night.”
It'll be interesting to see what exactly the company has planned for the
three Superstars invovled, as the finish line may be in sight on this
awkward angle.
Over to NXT next, and whilst this week's show lost to AEW Dynamite by
just 6000 viewers, the Superstars left all in the ring, with some being a
bit damaged because of this mentality.
In WWE Now's NXT injury, it was reported that Mia Yim is cleared for a
match against Dakota Kai next week, after there was concern that a
facial injury could be an issue, but medical attention refused.
Rhea Ripley is suffering from a strained vocal box after Shayna Baszler
slapped her and locked in the Krifuda Clutch on the Australian
Superstar, but Ripley's shot at the NXT Women's Championship is still
on for December 18th.
For the men's side of things, Damian Priest couldn't work his scheduled
match against Killian Dain, and was replaced by Pete Dunne, though the
former United Kingdom champion landed on the steep steps awkwardly
and hurt his knee.
The Bruiserweight is also suffering from rib pain and his condition is
being described as "day to day," meaning he may have to take an
extended leave of absence soon.
Of course, this list is often used as part of a storyline, so take everything
that is said with a grain of salt, but after the performance of the Gold
brand Superstars at NXT, Take Over War Games last week, and Survivor
Series, it's completely possible that these injuries are for real.
Even if Dunne has to step away from the ring, fans can still see his
classic matches on the WWE Network, which now has a free tier service
that was released with very little fanfare.
It seems WWE want to test the water of the free service, before
announcing it to a wider audience, and hopefully the company
addresses the issues that caused tons of fans to miss Starrcade.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that a tiered system has
been long talked about, and that in addition to the free service and the
standard 9.99 a month, there will also be a 14.99 a month elite tier.
This highest level of service will give fans access to content previously
unavailable on the Network, and that may even be companies not
under WWE's roof, but still have content that the promotion can use.
The report reads:
“The idea has been to do a three- tiered network, with a free tier, the
$9.99 tier and a $14.99 tier which should be launched early next year
and would feature content from Evolve, Progress, wXw and perhaps
other promotions for early next year. “
There have even been rumors of a cheaper, but not free version of the
Network, which would provide much of the same standard of service,
but would also include commercials to make up for the price, which
would be less than 9.99 a month.
We'll have to wait and see just how much content from other
companies the WWE decides to use, as they could certainly stream from
plenty of libraries, ranging from CZW to Puerto Rico's WWC.
A lot of fans might be really excited about Evolve, Progress, and wXw as
well, but for now, we'll just have to wait for this change, arguably the
biggest change to WWE content distribution since the Network was
launched nearly 6 years ago, to be announced.
And finally today we're heading back to Monday Night RAW, as the
WWE can sometimes make changes to an episode up until the show starts.
This week was seemingly no different, as this week's show underwent
some big changes, according to Loose Lips Backstage.
The Reddit user has nailed several stories in recent memory, most
recently revealing the Lana and Lashley arrest several hours before it
happened on Monday Night RAW, as well as having an impressive track
record for announcing stuff ahead of time before that.
Now, the account has said that there were no plans for Randy Orton to
be in the main event of RAW, stating:
“There were NO plans for Orton to officially be a part of this match.
Original script had same six men in match, just different finish. Original
was Orton interfering during the match and giving Styles an RKO which
led to Mysterio pinning Styles for the win. Then Orton would give RKOs
to Anderson and Gallows."
It seems the company is building towards something big at TLC, and
with the show scheduled for next Sunday, fans won't have long to wait
to see what happens.
But what do you think about this angle? Do you want to see Styles and
Orton face off at TLC, and if so, what kind of match should it be? Leave
your opinions in the comments below and as always, thanks for watching.