Raw Report 1/12/15

My post birthday Raw opens with John Cena. Yay. He comes to the ring completely unfazed after he was supposedly shaken at the end of last week's episode. He seriously looks like he doesn't care one bit about what happened to Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback. He talks about how he hates the Authority and tries to get #AuthoritySucks to trend. He even hilariously threatens to win the title at the Royal Rumble and go home with it. Like that would change anything. Have you not paid attention to Brock Lesnar's title reign. The Authority interrupt because what's a Raw opening promo without them right? Triple H and Stephanie McMahon give Cena a chance to win back the jobs of Dolph, Rowan and Ryback if he can beat Seth Rollins in a Lumberjack Match to open the show. I still think that this whole angle would have worked better if it was Dolph trying to win the jobs back. He'd be super over. Instead, the crowd didn't even really want Cena to win here. As for the match itself, it was standard stuff between the two men and got just about 14 minutes. Thanks to interference from the lumberjacks, Seth was able to actually pin Cena for once. It was beautiful that nobody helped Cena because he's the worst teammate in WWE history.

Backstage, Stephanie McMahon decided to punish the Usos and Dean Ambrose. Maybe I missed something, but I don't remember the Usos defying the Authority. Their punishment is that Naomi must wrestle with an arm tied behind her back and Dean Ambrose's is that he must take a psych evaluation. Throughout the night, Ambrose made the stupid evaluation segments work because he's Dean Ambrose. Back to the ring, and I guess Adam Rose is with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro as he accompanies them to the ring with Natalya against the New Day. While this was decent, it was kept short and the crowd didn't care enough. Do you know why the crowd didn't care? Because there is no reason why these guys are feuding. Maybe put in some actual time for the division and give them more character depth and we'd care more. I still do love Kidd and Cesaro though.

The WWE decided to tease Macho Man going into the Hall of Fame. The best part about this was Superstar impersonations, with my favorites being Paige and Roman Reigns. However, Reigns would make me dislike him talking again shortly. We are told that Ric Flair, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan and HBK will be at Raw next week for the Raw Reunion, whatever that means. Big Show comes out and cuts a surprisingly good heel promo on Roman Reigns. But Reigns comes out and does the worst thing of the whole night. He cuts a "fairy tale" promo and it was cringeworthy. We all know that Roman is not good on the mic, but the WWE is making it 10 times worse with this kid stuff. Roman is at his best when he's a simple ass kicker. He should come out, say some short stuff and get straight to the point. That's the only way it works. Luke Harper arrives for a match with Roman. This was decent, but it should have ended via DQ. Harper has a potential future but he loses to Roman, while Show, who doesn't, has non-finishes with Roman. A+ booking guys.

Naomi met Alicia Fox, in a rematch from their Smackdown match, but with the one hand tied behind her back. Again, this was too short for the crowd to give sympathy and nobody cares about either girl, which is unfortunate since they aren't bad. Alicia Fox wins, but why would this get more time than their even leveled match on Smackdown? Moving on, Dean Ambrose plays word association in his psych evaluation, which was again funny. HHH = irritable bowel syndrome, Kane = toothpaste, Rollins = scumbag, Reigns = brother, Jim Duggan = Hooooo and Stephanie = Hooooo. Dean is gold. Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar come out now and I remember a time when I looked forward to a Heyman promo. Now he just says the same things over and over again. He brings up the Streak and conquering and shit like that. It was oddly placed on the show but at least was kept brief. Also, we've seen Lucha Underground and TNA commercials during the broadcast.

More impersonations from Superstars, with Miz easily having the best one this time. That takes us to Miz vs. Jey Uso, for what has to be the billionth time. Miz wins, so I guess the feud continues. We're just going in circles and through the motions. The crowd, which hasn't been great, comes alive for the appearance of Daniel Bryan. Man, I feel like he has to win the Royal Rumble. HE discusses winning the main event of WrestleMania earlier this year in that very city. He plans on winning the Royal Rumble and doing it all over again. Stephanie McMahon cut him off and promoted her fitness DVD before showing the footage of Kane attacking Bryan and "injurying" him earlier this year. This leads to Kane vs. Bryan in his return match this Thursday. I'm okay with that as a return match since Kane is someone Bryan has worked with a lot and will keep him safe, and it gives Bryan a win. Well, it should. As long as the feud doesn't go on past that, I'm good. Kane comes out, we get a brawl and Bryan hits him with a suicide dive. So much for easing up his in ring style huh? Good segment because Bryan vs. Stephanie is always great.

Backstage, Seth Rollins is bragging about his win with J&J Security, when Brock Lesnar comes up to him. He's not happy about Seth weaseling his way into the Title match at Royal Rumble. Paul Heyman steps in and plays peacemaker telling them they should work together to take out John Cena. After commercial, we get Paige vs. Brie Bella, with jobber entrance. Fuck that! I want more Paige. This was short and decent. Paige was accompanied to the ring by Tyson Kidd and Natalya and a Kidd distraction cost Paige the contest. She angrily left the ring and slapped Tyson Kidd, who responded with the best reaction ever. Bray Wyatt cuts a promo about winning the Royal Rumble. Yea sure Bray. Just like you beat John Cena. We move quickly into another Ascension squash. Again, I'm not a big Ascension fan but having JBL and Michael Cole burying them for no reason is stupid. Unless it leads to Ascension vs. a returning for one night only APA. Then I'd be okay with JBL. Not Michael Cole though.

Lana and Rusev come out to badmouth America and promote how Rusev is going to win the Royal Rumble. They are cut off by Dean Ambrose, who passed his evaluation and is in the Rumble. They have a non-title match and guess what? Rusev beats Ambrose. Terrible fucking move. Look, I get that they don't want Dean to end his streak and ending it randomly on a Raw would be pointless. But if there was ever a match end in a DQ or hell, even a countout win for Dean, this was it. Instead, it ends because Dean's knee was taken out and the referee chooses to stop the match. I'm not conspiracy theorist when it comes to the WWE, but it's like they want Dean to fail sometimes. Time for our Royal Rumble title match contract signing. These come along every time there's a big match and we don't know how to do another segment for it. Heyman talks first, saying the same stuff as always. Seth Rollins then absolutely steals the show because he's possibly the best thing going in the WWE. His promo about Brock's list of accomplishments being great but not like his list is fantastic. We get a brawl that includes some Brock German suplexes and ends with Seth hitting both Cen and Brock with Curb Stomps. Brock sells that shit like a champ especially when compared to Cena who jumps with it like an idiot.

In the end, this wasn't a terrible episode but it wasn't very good either. Seth Rollins was, and yes I sound like a broken record, the MVP of the show. He won the opening match and shined brightest in the closing segment. The Roman Reigns stuff was goofy and, while the Dean Ambrose segments were funny, wasn't the best use of his talents. Everything else was too short to have any really enjoyable build. 5/10.

Fave Five 1/5/15-1/11/15

1) Lashley: This was a big week with a lot of potential players on this list. Bray Wyatt doesn't cut it even though he won his feud, I guess, over Dean Ambrose. Drew Galloway, who retained his Evolve Title and Alberto El Patron, who won the WWL Title could have made the list too. However, they didn't. First on the list is the man who won the biggest title of anyone this week. Bobby Lashley was someone who did not impress me during his original WWE run, but throughout the scattered matches that I saw in 2014 from him, he has improved. He dropped the title at the end of last year to the vastly superior Bobby Roode, but would regain it on TNA's big debut on Destination America in the main event. It wasn't a clean victory by any means, but it was a still a big one. On their first show on a new Network, Lashley helps usher in a new era and TNA has made it seem that Lashley just might be their guy. I don't know if he'll hold the title for a long time, but for this week, Lashley is atop the mountain.

2) AJ Styles: The only guy to make this list in back to back weeks. After an impressive showing on the big stage at Wrestle Kingdom 9, AJ Styles picked up a huge win the following night. On the NJPW equivalent to the Raw after WrestleMania, he pinned the IWGP Champion Hiroshi Tanahasi in a tag match. If that wasn't enough, he then staked his claim for a rematch for the IWGP Title that he held last year. Pinning Tanahasi is a huge deal, especially when it seems to be setting up AJ to be the next contender for the title at NJPW's next big event. I, for one, am looking forward to this as a huge AJ Styles fan and seeing him headline big shows warms my heart.

3) Prince Puma: Surprising pick eh? Lucha Underground is relatively unknown, but I just found out that I get it and it's On Demand so I can go back and watch old episodes. I did catch the crowning of their first ever Champion, which was done in a Royal Rumble style match. The main difference was that elimination had to happen by pinfall. It spanned the entire episode and Prime Puma won to become the first champion. Also, for those unaware, Prince Puma is actually indy standout Ricochet. I haven't gotten to see enough of Ricochet on the indies, I was impressed by this. Lucha Underground and their style fits a guy like him perfectly and I believe he is a fantastic choice for their first champion. I expected John Morrison, or Johnny Mundo to win since he is a recognizable face but I was pleasantly surprised.

4) Austin Aries: Before Lashley won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of the Destination America premiere, Austin Aries was the star of the show. After a cool little video package showcasing the history of the very important X Division, Low Ki defended the title against Austin Aries. Aries was touted by commentary as the guy with the longest reign in X Division history and the most reigns. The match itself was slightly disappointing as it didn't get much time and could have been much better, but Aries picked up the win to gain his sixth X Division Title. While this was a solid accomplishment, I still feel that Austin Aries should be doing more with the company. His title win in 2012 was one of the few shining moments for TNA in the last few years and he should be a consistent player in the main event.

5) Bad News Barrett: Talk about an up and down week. The recently returned Bad News Barrett won the Intercontinental Championship for the fifth time on Raw. He seemed to lose to Dolph Ziggler until Kane turned it into a Two out of Three Falls match following Barrett attacking Ziggler. He would win the next two falls and win the title, seemingly moving back into the position he held before his untimely injury. Also, it was clear that he wasn't a face as his return suggested. Barrett would have for sure placed higher if he didn't turn around and lose a non-title bout to Sin Cara of all people in an incredibly questionable booking decision.

Smackdown Report 1/9/15

The final Friday Night Smackdown kicks off with Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins. Of course, he is with J&J Security. He brags about the firings of Ryback, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan. Seriously though, nobody in the crowd really even cares about Rowan. Seth says that he is not a bad guy and asks for a ten bell salute for the careers of those men. In a rude gesture, Roman Reigns interrupts. THAT WAS A SPECIAL MOMENT ROMAN! He gets in the ring and calls Seth a stuck up "suffering succotash." Yup. He also says that Rollins has "donkey dung" for brains, solidifying him as the new John Cena with the corny jokes. Roman attacks and Seth scurries, backed up by Kane. The Director of Operations announces that Roman has to find a partner and take on Seth and Big Show tonight.

Backstage, Miz tries to persuade Kane to change tonight's match. It's set to be a Triple Threat Tag Team Title match, pitting The Usos against Miz and Mizdow and the Dust Brothers. Kane nearly makes the change, but when Mizdow spills coffee on him, he keeps it the way it is. Adam Rose faces Big E next. Big E has the rest of the The New Day with him and Rose is accompanied by Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. The match is under three minuets, Big E wins and not much else happens. The Ascension come out for the next segment, and badmouth teams like the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain, before squashing jobbers.

After a clip airs from Raw, showing Alicia Fox attacking Naomi, they square off. Again, I question the time constraints these girls get. Girls on NXT usually get a good amount of time and Paige and Nikki Bella got 12 fucking minutes on Main Event. But, on Raw we had a two minute match and this is under 90 seconds. Seriously? It's a two hour show and you can't find more time for these two? Alicia wins with her feet on the ropes. Good thing we spend all of that time on Raw recaps, and, on cue, we get one highlighting Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt in their Ambulance Match. Bray cuts a promo announcing his entrance in the Royal Rumble.

It's time for the big WWE Tag Team Title match. These are the only three teams of note to hold the belts this year, because fuck the New Age Outlaws. I appreciate that at least this match was given a good amount of time. All three teams are good, with the Dust Brothers and Usos being the cream of the WWE crop. The match featured multiple near falls and I have to point out Stardust's cool face paint. The Usos would retain and continue their hot streak into 2015. It went about 14 minutes. Bad News Barrett appears, saying that he wants to give Dolph Ziggler a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship, but of course, Dolph is fired. Instead, he faces Sin Cara and, for some stupid reason, he loses cleanly. Not with a rollup. With Sin Cara's finisher. I'm okay with Barrett losing, but not to a guy who hasn't had TV time in months besides NXT.

Roman Reigns needed to find a mystery partner that was crazy enough to oppose the Authority. He found one in his former Shield brethren Dean Ambrose. The crowd goes nuts for the mini Shield reunion and we got ourselves an interesting main event to say the least. Commentary puts over that he shouldn't even be standing after the Ambulance match. I am ALL for the end of Bray/Dean and putting Dean back against the Authority. It makes so much more sense. The main event is solid and fun as Seth misses the Curb Stomp and gets Speared to end it. My only real issue is that Big Show should have gotten pinned because Seth has eaten too many pins lately and, couldn't Dean finally pin him? I guess they should save that if we ever revisit that feud.

Overall, a relatively fun episode of Smackdown. The Triple Threat Tag Title match was really good, as was the main event. Everything else was decent and nothing straight up sucked except for the booking decision to have Sin Cara go over BNB. 6/10. 

Impact Wrestling Report 1/7/14

In 2014, I became too focused on the WWE. I stopped watching TNA and some indy promotions. In 2015, I plan on righting that wrong, as I did with NJPW and now with TNA. Their Destination America debut opened with an intro of the wrestlers in hotels getting ready before appearing at the same time outside of the arena. Kenny King levels Bobby Roode and a huge brawl ensues that spills into the arena. It's a fast start that got the crowd in New York going and is pretty different than how you would see a WWE show start. It's strange though. Kurt Angle comes out and announces that every champion defends their titles tonight. MVP interrupts and gets in Kurt's face, calling him out. This leads Angle to announce that he's been activated as a wrestler and sets up a Street Fight with MVP right now. Their opening match is alright, but nothing special. It was kept rather short and Angle won. An alright way to start the show.

We get a backstage segmenta where MVP is pissed as Kenny King for not helping him. Mike Tenay announces that, while he's not on commentary, he's going to be hosting Impact Unlocked, which will be a second show for TNA, involving interviews and stats and such. EC3, with Brodus Clay, I mean Tyrus, behind him says that he's coming for Rockstar Spud. After a sitdown interview with James Storm, he and Abyss arrive to defend their titles. The Revolution is a STRANGE looking stable. Storm's theme is a cover of Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down." Their opponents are the Wolves, one of my favorite tag teams in recent memory. Before the match gets underway, the Hardy Boyz come towards the ring in street clothes. This was better than the opener, but still nothing to write home about. The Hardys get involved, leading to the Revolution retaining. If I was TNA, I would have made sure Jeff Hardy wrestled as he can still be a money man.

Jeremy Borash, who has gained a ton of weight over the years, is in the middle of the ring. He goes to introduce someone but is cut off by Ethan Carter III. I like EC3, but he totally steals Tyson Kidd's FACT gimmick. He does make me laugh by putting the microphone to fans chanting "You can't wrestle" and responding with "I disagree" or "I'm very good." Tyrus brings out Rockstar Spud and they are going to shave him, but Borash gets in the way. He slaps EC3, but the cameraman totally misses it and just sees Tyrus' crotch. Good move. Tyrus squashes Jeremy, leading EC3 to shaving JB's head. Of the few things I've seen in TNA over the past year, EC3 is probably my favorite. This was a solid segment to get him more heat.

Time for the TNA X-Division Championship match. Low-Ki, the Champion, has his old Senshi theme. I remember when the X-Division was THE thing that separated TNA from everyone else. It was a focal point of the show, but has really fallen in importance as of late. A highlight video is shown of the X Division, just further reminding me of what the title used to be. He is defending against Austin Aries, another guy who is on the list of things that TNA has botched. Aries is a five time X Division Champion and has the longest reign ever at 298 days. Aries won the TNA World Title in 2012 and should have stayed at the top of the company after that. Strangely enough, after doing a video package that highlighted Low-Ki and his impact, pun intended, on the X Division, he drops the title to Austin Aries. I'm not a fan of the decision simply because I want Austin Aries as a top guy in the company. Solid match though.

The TNA Knockouts Championship is defended in a Knockouts Battle Royal. Returning from the commercial, we see the Beautiful People, which is never a bad thing. LET THE PIGEONS LOOSE! Of course, we don't get that from Taz. Robbie E is brought back for his return from the Amazing Race. He blames his loss at the Amazing Race on Brooke Tessmacher, who he calls his ex-girlfriend. I expected Brooke to interrupt, but it's the Champion Taryn instead. I'd just to say that the BroMans/Beautiful People pairing is great. This your standard battle royal, with Rebel going out first. Unfortunately, Madison Rayne is out next, which upsets me. Angelina Love is out, leaving the final four as Taryn, Gail, Havok and Velvet. Robbie E's ex, Brooke, is out and she attacks Robbie. Velvet is eliminated and Brooke chases them to the back. As Havok tosses Gail, Taryn sneaks up and eliminates her. Havok gets back in and takes her out. The lights go out and OHMYFUCKINGGOD AWESOME KONG HAS RETURNED! She is face to face with Havok, and that's something I want to see. Referees break it up, so Kong chokeslams one. This was probably he best part of the night. Her theme is still hard as fuck.

71 days ago, Bobby Roode won his second TNA Championship by beating Lashley in their second match. This is the third encounter and they point out that Bobby's firth reign was lasted a record setting 256 days. During the match, we cut to a backstage shot of Kenny King, MVP and two guys in masks attacking security. Kurt Angle wanted a Match of the Year candidate, but these two didn't deliver. It wasn't bad, it just didn't click. MVP, Kenny King and the masked men appear on the ramp before taking out the referee. Kurt Angle comes out but gets taken out too. Samoa Joe and Low Ki are revealed to the men under the masks! From nowhere, Eric Young appears and takes out Roode with a steel chair. Commentary even brings up their Team Canada roots. A spear from Lashley wins him the title. Not sure why they did the title change again. Lashley even looked confused at this turn of events.

A cliffhanger ending, but not in the best way. It seems that TNA always has to have a random heel turn in their big shows. I get not explaining it, but this came from out of nowhere. I also will never get over how badly this company fucked up Samoa Joe. The show went by fast and didn't drag. It wasn't bad at all and had some cool moments. I'll check it out next week. 6.5/10

Main Event Report 1/6/15

Main Event opened with the match that was advertised on Raw, and the one that I was looking forward to the most. Paige, accompanied to the ring by Natalya, took on the Divas Champion Nikki Bella, of course accompanied by Brie. This was a non-title affair, much like Nattie vs. Nikki on Raw. The fans were treated to a great divas match that was far better than I expected. I will never understand how three hour episodes of Raw consistently feature 2 minute diva matches, but the hour shows, Main Event and NXT, give them time. This match went about twelve minutes and featured some great psychology. Nikki worked the arm continuously and Paige sold it well, even post match. Nattie knocked out Brie at ringside and this distraction allowed Paige to connect with a superkick and the RamPaige to win. Champions seem to lose non-title matches all the time these days, but this was still big for Paige, who was floating for a while and doing nothing. Hopefully, she wins back the title. Great start to the show.

Rusev and Lana make their way out to the ring. There is no match or anything like that here. It's just Lana talking up Russia and then announcing that Rusev is entering the Royal Rumble. They also put down Ryback, who was fired on Raw. Time for a filler match at Fandango took on R-Truth. First of all, it was obvious who the winner was going to be. R-Truth is going nowhere fast, but, neither is Fandango really. I mean, it was clear he'd win since he is higher up in the card than Truth, but still. Nothing match that bored me.

Throughout the show, we've been getting wwe.com exclusive promos (which, by the way aren't exclusive if you show them to us on TV), of Ryback, Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler after they were fired. Moving into our final contest, Titus O'Neil faced Jack Swagger. These are two of my favorite midcarders, and I love that both guys use a good power game. Titus cut a short promo before the match, spelling out his name and barking. It seems like his, non-Raw and Smackdown push is continuing. I expected Swagger to win until that promo. Titus did pick up another solid win, and I appreciate this. The match was solid and Titus is a good guy to have winning in the mid-card. He has improved vastly since his NXT Season 2 days. In the end, tonight's episode of Main Event featured a great Divas match, that will be Divas match of the year until the next NXT Special most likely. That is enough to give it a good score. The main event was solid, but the middle of the show dragged. 6.5/10.

Raw Report 1/6/15

Raw opened with the WWE roster standing in the middle of the ring. John Cena cuts a promo about how sad he is that he brought back the Authority. When they say the whole roster, they meant it as we get a Darren Young sighting. He even ended up trending on Twitter. The Authority of course, interrupt John Cena and say that the company was in chaos without them, bringing up terrible ideas like Ho Ho Hogan and the Anonymous Raw General Manager. They introduce and thank Seth Rollins for bringing them back, before rewarding him. At the Royal Rumble, it will now be Brock Lesnar defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a Triple Threat match. While I would prefer it if Brock wrestled younger guys without wasting time with Cena again, but this is fantastic. Instead of the same match that we've seen countless times, Seth Rollins, who has done nothing but deliver consistently, should add a different dimension to this and make it worth watching. Tonight is also going to be John Cena Appreciation Night, for bringing back the Authority, which draws boos from the fans.

Get ready for a trend as the members of Team Cena at Survivor Series were punished throughout the night. We start with Dolph Ziggler, the hero of that fateful night, having to defend his Intercontinental Championship against the man who never really lost it, Bad News Barrett. I'm totally okay with this, since Barrett did, indeed, never lose the title. Dolph wins with a crucifix pin rather quickly leading to Barrett attacking him. I figured, "Oh, short match is okay if it leads to a feud and a PPV match." Also, I guess Barrett isn't a face even after last week. After he destroys Dolph, Kane comes out to say this is Two out of Three Falls. You all see where this is going don't you? Wade quickly wins the second fall and then we go to commercial. Returning, the third fall is competitive, but Barrett wins after a distraction from Kane. So, Barrett is a five time Intercontinental Champion and I really hope this means Dolph is going to become a potential WWE Title challenger.

Renee Young and her new haircut, which still looks great, interviews Roman Reigns. Guess what? This promo was cheesy and terrible. He literally went out and called himself Superman before saying he's going to punch Big Show or something. We move to a Bray Wyatt promo where he talks about tonight's Ambulance match. It's the usual Bray stuff. In the ring, we continue with promos as the Ascension come out and say that they're better than Demolition and the Legion of Doom. Okay, so you want to find the absolute number one way NOT to get a tag team over? After the new team cuts a promo, have commentary absolutely bury them. I get that they aren't a legendary team, but Booker and JBL just bashed them completely. "They can't carry their jocks", or "do that to the Usos." Basically, when Ryback squashed no names all the time, it worked because commentary played up their dominance and didn't downplay what they did. The Ascension won against two jobbers, but this was all kinds of bad because of commentary.

Lana and Rusv cut a promo about Russian Christmas, which is soon. They also mention Vladimir Putin. Roman Reigns is set to face Big Show, which leads commentary to play this up like it's The Rock vs. Fucking Hulk Hogan. It's not that big a deal and it's going to be shitty. The match happens, Big Show basically beats up Roman throughout, he makes a valiant comeback and it ends in a goddamn DQ. Even if I'm not huge on the Roman push, it's easy to do. Big Show is useless, so have Roman beat him. Cleanly. These non-finishes are stupid and this is getting dragged out way more than it should. Roman spears him to take him out, ending this awful segment. Roman got a lukewarm reception from the crowd. Time to move into Divas action. Our Divas Champion, Nikki Bella is in the ring with her friend/enemy/former twin/sister Brie Bella. Natalya comes out for their match, with no Tyson Kidd, which is insanely disappointing. Instead, we get Paige! I accept this is a suitable replacement. Want to know why she's at ringside? There is no reason. I mean, on Total Divas last night, Paige played a trick on Natalya with some "pot" brownies, but at the end of the episode they were on bad terms. Cole tries to explain it by saying they made up, but still. Paige takes out Brie outside, allowing Natalya to win. She superkicks Nikki and checks on Natalya. In the end, Paige got a better reaction than any of the other girls and most guys tonight. Someone give this women the belt or something. She should have never lost it at Night of Champions. Much like the Bray Wyatt promo earlier, Dean Ambrose cuts one backstage about the Ambulance Match.

In a classy move, the WWE announcers mention ESPN's Stuart Scott's passing and send their condolences. In a frustrating move, we move to Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan with NO BUILD AGAIN. It was the same story on Smackdown when Bray Wyatt beat Erick Rowan, but at least they played into that when Bray tricked Rowan due to their past. Here, we get J&J Security as dual special referees. Erick Rowan gets zero reaction from the crowd, probably because he loses every single week. It was the same story here. At least it furthered the Team Cena has a bad night angle, but they should have used a different heel to accomplish this and keep the former Wyatt members separate. Anyway, it is announced that the Usos and Naomi face Miz, Mizdow and Alicia Fox tonight. A scene from earlier tonight is shown where Alicia brags about being on Total Divas now after Naomi was booted from the show. Alicia then attacks her. No real rhyme or reason. Alicia is like the Big Show of the Divas with the number of heel/face turns she makes. Girls comes to stop it and check on Naomi, and Emma looks might fine here.

A video package airs recapping the Bray Wyatt/Dean Ambrose feud. You know the one. Where two talented characters faced off, for no real reason, and had a hugely disappointing rivalry. The one where instead of having anything logical happen, they were just booked in specialty match after specialty match. The matches have been pretty good but this one was underwhelming. The Miracle on 34th Street Fight was much better. As with most Ambulance Matches, this was alright, and featured a lot of brawling. We get Dean hitting an elbow through a table for what has to be the 371st time in the feud. Seriously, it happened a ton of times. Bray wins, because Dean isn't allowed to win any big matches. I get that they want to keep Bray strong for a potential feud with the Undertaker, but Dean is pretty much in limbo right now. I'm not saying that he's done or he's moving to the mid-card, but he seems to just be there, like the WWE has no clue what to do with him. It's a sad state of affairs, because is still more over than Roman Reigns.

It is announced that on Smackdown, Seth Rollins will be a guest on MizTV. Our six person tag begins and I think it would have been hilarious, if for one night, Alicia Fox dressed like Miz and Mizdow. Michael Cole completely drops the ball with the earlier segment. Naomi said it was okay that she's off Total Divas because she can focus on her career. Cole now states that Naomi meant her music career. Why not her wrestling career? Put over the show as if it's wrestling at least sometimes please. Also, why wasn't Cameron the partner? She has an unfinished history with Naomi since their angle was just dropped. The heels win because of classic 50/50 WWE booking. Next, the announced Ryback/Seth Rollins match is changed to a handicap match. The Authority make it Seth and Kane vs. Ryback. This furthers the punishment on Team Cena, as Ryback clearly loses, though it took far too long.

A match is announced for tomorrow's Main Event, pitting Nikki Bella against Paige in a non-title match. I'll be watching. Adam Rose is out, still with the Exotic Express, for a match against Big E. In under two minutes, we get another disqualification finish. Two Rosebuds come in, in full body suits, to attack Big E. They hit a powerbomb/blockbuster combo and reveal themselves to be Tyson Kidd and Cesaro! I'm okay with the attack, since Kidd and Cesaro vs. New Day will be fun, but them celebrating with Adam Rose was random as fuck. Time for the John Cena Appreciation Night Ceremony. After thanking Cena and stuff, they called out Erick Rowan, Ryback and Dolph Ziggler, of Team Cena. Stephanie threatened to suspend them to turn them against Cena. It doesn't work, so she FIREEEES them. The crowd gives zero fucks because, who actually stays fired on WWE TV. The Authority didn't. John Cena has been fired like four times and is always back within a week or so. The show closes with confetti falling as Cena looks sad and the Authority dance.

It's hard to believe that this episode of Raw was produced by the same people who ran last week's. This sucked. Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler was decent, but overbooked and the Ambulance Match disappointed. Everything was pretty lackluster and dumb. The best thing about tonight was moving Seth Rollins into the Royal Rumble WWE World Heavyweight Title match. 3/10.

Fave Five 12/29/14-1/4/15

1) Shinsuke Nakamura: So, I watched my first full NJPW show this week and it delivered in spades. A lot of different performers shined bright on this night, but none shined brighter than the IWGP Intercontinental Champion himself, Shinsuke Nakamure. He defended the title, successfully, against Kota Ibushi in what is my match of the year. I understand that it is indeed only a few days into 2015, but you'll be hard pressed to find something that can top it at any point this year. It was hard hitting, featured a lot of near falls and went down to the wire. Nakamura retained but everything about him screams star. The in ring ability, his entrance, his charisma and everything in between.

2) Hiroshi Tanahashi: Despite going on after Shinsuke Nakamura and main eventing Wrestle Kingdom 9, Hiroshi Tanahashi couldn't outshine him. He did however have a great night. His main event match against Kazuchika Okada was fantastic. He impressed the hell out of me with some great spots like his diving frog splash into the crowd and retained his title in a huge match. He stood tall to close a very important show that proved how valuable he is. Like a lot of NJPW guys, I haven't seen as much of Tanahashi as I'd like, but he is quickly moving towards the top, along with Ibushi, Nakamura and Okada, of my must see list. They are making my decision to subscriber to NJPW World look like a brilliant move.

3) The Usos: Despite Wrestle Kingdom being the highlight of the week, I wanted to go a

different way for my number three choice. The final Raw of 2014 was one of the best episodes of the entire year and one of the key moments was the Usos pulling out an unexpected WWE Tag Team Title victory. They've easily been the best tag team in the WWE in 2014 and one of the best things about the program period. While Miz and Mizdow were fresh as Champions, their split seems inevitable and putting the belts back on the Usos is a safe move. They almost never have a bad match and I fully expect this to lead to them putting over the Ascension for the belts somewhere down the line. Adding to their weeks, the Usos also won a tag match against their rivals, Goldust and Stardust on Main Event, before coming out on the winning end in a six man tag on Smackdown. Expect more excellence from the Usos in 2015.

4) AJ Styles: I've expressed my love for Daniel Bryan among others, but since I first saw him in 2005, AJ Styles has been my favorite wrestler. He was one of the reasons why I stuck with TNA for so long and, I pretty much gave up on the company when watching him get mishandled became too much. Enter his emergence in NJPW and I began to read that AJ Styles was doing fantastic work down there. He won the IWGP Championship and joined the Bullet Club. While he did lose the belt to Hirohi Tanahashi, he stayed strong at Wrestle Kingdom 9. On the big stage, AJ dispatched of Tetsuya Naito with a top rope Styles Clash. I know it's not relevant to this week, but earlier today, AJ took out Tanahashi and challenged him to a rematch for the IWGP Championship. It's very clear that the move to IWGP has rejuvenated the career of AJ Styles and Wrestle Kingdom 9 was an indication of that.

5) Kota Ibushi: Honestly, there isn't much that I need to write here. In my write up for Shinsuke Nakamura, I expressed how impressed I was with Kota Ibushi during their IWGP Intercontinental Championship match. I had seen Kota in Ring of Honor back in 2008, but this was a different competitor. I do not exaggerate when I claim that it will be very tough to top their match in the next 360 or so days. Kota is legit.

Smackdown Report 1/2/15

Just like Raw and Main Event, Smackdown kicks off with an appearance by Edge and Christian, who are our hosts before the Authority take over again on Raw. Edge chose to support Cesaro on his shirt here, which, along with his Sami Zayn shirt from Monday, just makes me love Edge a little more. They apologize for what happened on Raw, but have an amazing show planned tonight. A limo arrives like this is WCW Nitro in 1996 as J&J Security arrive and then come to the ring to read an Authority issued official apology to Edge and Christian. They will be monitoring Edge and Christian's performance tonight, so E&C make J&J vs. Ryback tonight. They're just kidding and instead make Ryback vs. Big Show and Rusev vs. Roman Reigns. J&J are like school teachers, saying this will go on E&C's permanent records, but Edge points out, "I don't work here anymore." Decent opening segment.

The first match of the night pits Bray Wyatt against Erick Rowan. Here is where my issues with creative come into play again. For over a year, Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan were side by side as Bray was father of sorts. Just like when Rowan faced Luke Harper on Raw a few weeks back, there is no reason that this should be a throwaway match on TV. This could be a legit story with some actual build due to their past. The Wyatts should never have split but if they had to, couldn't they avoid each other or at least not face each other in matches? It kind of kills everything that they built over that year. Bray wins in about four minutes before grabbing a microphone. He claims that if he can do this to someone he once loved, imagine what he will do to Dean Ambrose this Monday in the Ambulance match. Despite the lack of build, they at least did a good job of having Bray and Erick play up their past. As much as I've enjoyed the matches between Bray and Dean, I hope their rivalry ends after Monday.

Backstage, Edge and Christian mess with J&J Security. They say they're going to do the five second poses backstage, leading J&J to say they're doing everything tonight. They perform the most serious five second pose ever. Time for the most random fucking six man tag, possibly in history. The new WWE Tag Team Champions, the Usos, teamed with R-Truth, who never wrestles anymore against The Dust Brothers and Adam Rose. So are R-Truth and Adam Rose feuding? Is R-Truth secretly the Bunny? I mean, I know that losing to Truth led to Rose destroying the Bunny, but still. This was your standard six man tag affair. Everyone got a chance to strut their stuff and the faces won in just under eight minutes. The rosebuds tried to attack after the match, but ate some superkicks for their troubles. Because we all love Raw recaps, we are shown video of Daniel Bryan's emotional announcement that he will return as part of the 2015 Royal Rumble match. Ryback's strange life story promo from Raw is also seen before we get our hour one main event. Ryback and Big Show faced off in a match that was better than I expected. After Ryback and Kane absolutely stunk up Cleveland at TLC, I had low hopes for another match between Ryback and an older big opponent, but they impressed. As Ryback set up for the Meat Hook Clothesline, the Russain Flag came down to distract him. Rusev and Lana appeared, allowing Big Show to hit the WMD and send Ryback outside. He is counted out but isn't fully knocked out. Commentary tries to play it up like this is unheard of, even though Sheamus kicked out of the WMD in 2012. Rusev enters the ring to attack, but Ryback fights him off.

One of my favorite things to seek weekly is the team of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. They are

great together, although it's weird to go right back to this after Cesaro's promo on Monday. Cesaro is pushing #DontConnectDeliver on social media which is cool. His shirt said PROFESSIONAL while Tyson Kidd's of course said FACT. They met Los Matadores once again, after having two very good matches with them on Main Event and Superstars recently. In a pre-recorded interview, they are happy that the Authority is back and they want the Tag Team Titles. Natalya tried to get a high five but Kidd and Cesaro ignore her. The match itself was once again fun, but too short to really gain any traction as a powerbomb/blockbuster combination earns Kidd and Cesaro the win in just over three minutes. As they celebrate, Natalya is once again ignored. Tyson Kidd is phenomenal in his new douchebag persona. He is nailing that one thousand percent.

Dean Ambrose is seen walking towards the arena because he has a match up next. When we return, it is Curtis Axel in the ring. I guess he needs one more Smackdown match before he meets Hideo Itami next week on NXT. Well, he doesn't get that match. Dean attacks before the bell and beats the shit out of Curtis on the outside for a while. The match never officially starts, but at least I got to her Axel's theme for a few seconds. He does grab a microphone after the beatdown and says that there is an ambulance in the arena. He will run over Bray Wyatt on Monday, so there's attempted vehicular homicide for Raw. The ambulance comes out and Ambrose promotes the upcoming match pretty well. The crowd is totally into what Dean is saying as they loved this promo of him explaining what he's going to do to Bray Wyatt.

In a pre-taped promo, the Ascension literally say, "first there was Hawk and Animal. Then Ax and Smash. Now, Konnor and Viktor." Well, there goes the "where do people get the LOD comparisons from" questions. Like, if it wasn't bad enough that they looked similar but to blatantly point it out is tough. After a Raw recap of the Authority being brought back, we get our Ascension squash. They literally face jobbers. Not a tag team that anyone has ever heard of. It has a legit old school feel to it. I will admit that I am happy they got to keep their theme song. One of the jobbers was former Ring of Honor wrestler Rhett TItus. i saw him live a few times. The Ascension win quickly.

Edge and Christian, in their final shenanigan of the night, draw on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's Muscle and Fitness magazine. Main event time as Roman Reigns faces United States Champion Rusev in a non-title match. I would prefer if Roman ended Rusev's streak and won the US Title at WrestleMania. It will give him more time to develop before he gets the monster push that we all know is coming. However, we all know that won't be the case. This was a pretty solid main event. Nothing special, but both guys worked hard. As expected in a Smackdown main event, and more so, a match featuring two guys that don't lose, this ended in a disqualification when Big Show gets involved. Show plans on putting Reigns through the announce table, but Reigns turns the tables. Literally. He turns the table over on Big Show like Show did to him previously.

For the first Smackdown of 2015, this was pretty basic. We got a disqualification finish to the main event and some solid tag team matches. Ryback/Big Show impressed me more than I expected and I enjoyed the stuff from both Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt. I do wish that the focal point of Smackdown would become the Intercontinental Championship. If John Cena won't appear, why not make Dolph THE top face of the show and have him kill it there weekly. Let it become the Ziggler show. Back to the topic at hand, tonight gets a 6/10.

Top 10 Wrestlers of the Year

10) Bray Wyatt: Near the start of 2014, I completely expected Bray Wyatt to blossom into the next big thing in the WWE. He started the year embroiled in a red hot feud with Daniel

Bryan that led to him being one of, if not, the only person to cleanly pin Bryan in a one on one match this year. He followed that by pinning Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber in a six man tag that was my choice for match of the year. Things took a turn for the worse on the Road to WrestleMania though. Bray moved into a feud with John Cena that did way more harm than good. He looked terrible in the feud, only winning the middle match and needing tons of help to do so. After that, he moved into a feud with Chris Jericho for no reason. Literally, no reason why this happened at all. At least he won that series of matches before disappearing for a bit. When he returned at Hell in a Cell, he targeted Dean Ambrose, leading to a damn good series of matches, but an overall disappointing feud. While he has been winning out in that, the year has been a huge disappointment after the way it began.

9) Randy Orton: The Viper began the year in good position. He had just unified the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships and then, in the first PPV of 2014, retained it successfully against John Cena at the Royal Rumble. He would also retain in the Elimination Chamber before losing the belt without getting pinned or made submit in the main event of WrestleMania. He never got his rematch though as he moved into the great Evolution/Shield rivalry. The biggest issue for him was that Seth Rollins turned on the Shield and instantly became the top heel in the company. That forced Randy to take a backseat. At Money in the Bank and Battelground, he failed to regain the title in multi-man matches before losing to Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. After a meaningless win over Chris Jericho at Night of Champions, he lost a number one contender's match to John Cena before turning face and being taken out. He has yet to return from that, putting his  year in the same category as Bray Wyatt. Something that started strong, but had the wheels fall off around WrestleMania.

8) Adrian Neville: Adrian Neville might have had the best winning percentage of anyone

in the WWE in 2014, and that includes Rusev. Mind you, Rusev and Roman Reigns just barely missed out on this list. Neville won the NXT Championship at the first NXT Special, NXT ArRival in the main event. From February until December, nobody could touch Neville. He turned back tons of challengers. Tyler Breeze, Tyson Kidd, Bo Dallas, Titus O'Neil,

Brodus Clay, Sami Zayn and others all fell to the "Man that Gravity Forgot." He had the most impressive championship reign of anybody all year and consistently put on good to great matches week in and week out. Adrian Neville will most likely move to the main roster in 2015 and I expect mid-card title run for him somewhere down the road. Regardless of how I see his future, 2014 was a great year for the former "PAC".

7) Dean Ambrose: Before the Shield split everyone expected Roman Reigns to be the star and Dean Ambrose to become a loose cannon heel. Instead, Seth Rollins got the heel turn, while Roman still had the rocket strapped to his back so it seemed that maybe Dean would be the forgotten one. He stayed face and ended up catching fire with the fans who absolutely love him. His loose cannon character works as a face. Success wise, his 2014 left some to be desired for sure. After winning at WrestleMania, the Shield was successful against Evolution in two huge matches before they split. This is where Dean's wins started to disintegrate. He lost at Money in the Bank and then in two high profile matches with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell. He moved into a rivalry with Bray Wyatt, where he has lost the three biggest matches there as well. So why is he so high on the list you ask? It's quite simple. Dean has caught on and become one of the company's top faces despite all of this. He loses and doesn't get the big Roman push, but is still more popular than Roman and a lot of guys. Something about Dean just screams big star and I expect more wins in 2015, but no WWE World Heavyweight Title runs just yet.

6) John Cena: I may not be a John Cena fan, but I respect the man's ability in the ring. 2014 proved to be another successful year for Cena, though I don't think it was really supposed to be. I fully believe that the original plan was for Daniel Bryan to carry the WWE World Heavyweight Championship into SummerSlam and get annihilated by Brock Lesnar. Instead, Bryan got hurt and the WWE scrambled for a main event, leading to Cena winning his 15th World Championship at Money in the Bank. His other highlights of the year featured him beating Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania and Payback as well as a win over Randy Orton inside Hell in a Cell. He had a successful title defense in a Fatal Four Way match at Battleground and, while he was eliminated at Survivor Series, his team won and he beat Seth Rollins at TLC. Overall, a winning year, as usual for John Cena and he could very well win that coveted 16th World Title in 2015.

5) Dolph Ziggler: If you would have asked me to make a top ten wrestlers of 2014 list back in July, Dolph Ziggler would not have even been considered. He was doing a lot of nothing at the start of year, even being thrown into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. He would also be absent from doing anything of note at Extreme Rules and

Payback. Things would change when Battleground rolled around though. as Dolph eliminated perennial favorite Sheamus in the battle royal to determine the new Intercontinental Champion after Wade Barrett had to vacate it. Everyone thought he won, but the Miz snuck in to get rid of him. After that, Dolph would win the Intercontinental Title from Miz in the opening match at SummerSlam. He would lose it at Night of Champions before regaining it within 24 hours. However, Dolph was just getting warmed up. After sweeping Cesaro in a 2 out of 3 Falls match at Hell in a Cell, Dolph joined Team Cena at Survivor Series. Down 3-1 after John Cena and Big Show got eliminated, Dolph staged a 2003 Shawn Michaels like comeback. He got rid of Luke Harper and Kane before some assistance from Sting allowed him to be the sole survivor that ended the Authority. He would win his third IC Title of the year from Harper in a great Ladder match that I saw live at TLC. From out of nowhere, Dolph Ziggler became the hottest thing in the WWE and is set for a big 2015.

4) Brock Lesnar: From a kayfabe standpoint nobody had a better year than Brock Lesnar. It started at the Royal Rumble, where Brock destroyed Big Show in mere minutes. Don't get me wrong, I disagree with the idea of wasting a Brock match on Show, but still. Brock moved on to WrestleMania, where he did the unthinkable. He beat the Undertaker at WrestleMania to conquer the 21 year streak. It is still surreal and is still the biggest win of the year. Brock was granted a WWE Title shot and proceeded to destroy John Cena to win the title at SummerSlam. 16 GERMAN SUPLEXES! In his only other match in 2014, he lost to John Cena via disqualification at Night of Champions. Brock is possibly leaving back to UFC in 2015, but his 2014 was a historic one for sure.

3) Daniel Bryan: He's like, the opposite of Dolph Ziggler. If I made this list in June, Daniel would have topped it. After a hot 2013, he opened 2014 embroiled in a feud with Bray Wyatt. Being as over as he was, he was able to lose cleanly to Bray and lose no momentum. Whether what happened next was because of CM Punk walking out or not is irrelevant. Bryan was thrust into the main event of WrestleMania. He did something impressive by beating Triple H to open the show and then winning the title against Randy Orton and Batista to close it out. Nobody else has opened and closed Mania with victories. However, this story did not have a happy ending. After marrying Brie Bella days later, things took a turn for the worse. Bryan's dad died and then, after a better than expected title defense against Kane, Bryan was injured and had to forfeit the title. He did just announce that he's returning at the Royal Rumble, so hopefully 2015 is better for my favorite wrestler than 2014 ended up being.

2) Seth Rollins: Seth Rollins is quite possibly, my favorite member of the Shield. Dean Ambrose has moved up, but I've liked Seth since his Tyler Black days. His year began in the same vein as Ambrose; losing to the Wyatts before winning at WrestleMania and sweeping Evolution. Once he struck Roman Reigns in the back with a steel chair, everything changed. Seth overtook Randy Orton as the company's top heel and has done way better in that role than I ever imagined. He picked up a huge win when he retrieved the Money in the Bank briefcase before besting Dean Ambrose on two Pay-Per-Views. While he lost a Tables Match at TLC to John Cena, he evened the score with a Steel Cage win the following night. Lately, he's been less successful, but 2014 was the year that Seth Rollins broke out and 2015 should be the year he wins his first WWE World Heavyweight Title. Believe that.

1) Sami Zayn: How could I put an NXT guy at number one? Well, have you seen him perform? Nobody was more consistent or enjoyable in 2014 than Sami Zayn. It started at NXT ArRival, when he lost in a phenomenal effort against Cesaro, who was in the midst of a big main roster push. At TakeOver, he lost another great match to Tyler Breeze before coming up just shy of winning the NXT Championship at TakeOver: Fatal 4 Way. Sami Zayn may have been struggling to win on the live specials, but was consistently winning on NXT television and putting on a great show each time out. His "Road to Redemption" storyline that led to his R Evolution title shot was well done as he picked up some important wins. Finally, he won the belt at R Evolution, closing out the best show of the year on top. That is, until Kevin Owens attacked him. This leads me, and everyone else, to believe that we're headed towards Owens/Zayn in 2015, which could mean an even more impressive 2015 for Sami than 2014. Simply put, nobody in pro wrestling was a better performer throughout the year and Sami delivered at every turn. On Raw, Main Event and NXT, Sami Zayn was the best.

NXT Report 1/1/15

I admit that I'm a big pressed for time, so instead of writing yet another NXT report, I'll just leave the link to one that I've already written. http://411mania.com/wrestling/411s-wwe-nxt-report-1-1-15/