Road to Royal Rumble 2017 - Part 2

Four matches set up in Part 1

WWF Title: Cage: AJ Styles v. Luke Harper

Bullet Club (Anderson/Gallows) v. Bray Wyatt/John Cena 

IC: Rusev (w/GHB and Lana) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman)

IC Number One Contender: Nick Nemeth v. Chris Jericho v. Roman Reigns-Uso

Five left, here are the two remaining title matches.

Tag Titles: Trash (Claudio/Neville) v. Kevin Steen/El Generico

Women’s Title: 2 of 3 Falls: Charlotte Flair v. Sasha Banks

WWF is a workrate centric promotion and this tag title match is why you buy PPVs. Former stablemates meeting for the WWF tag titles.  It’s largely a continuation of the Survivor Series program, Neville swerved the babyfaces, claiming an injury that took him out of that match but then appearing to determine the finish. Gargano and Ciampa continue to be involved as the GDI squad from Dark Ride, but now they pick sides – Gargano aligns with Trash, feeling as if he has been treated badly by the sport, hasn’t gotten his due, his bitterness seeps through – whereas Ciampa sticks with Steenerico; we see those 6 guys in multiple combinations in the build for the match.  The other element that gets a lot of time in the programming is Trash is the 99^th WWF Tag Team Champions, meaning, if Steen and Generico take the belts – they will be 100. 

Lots of historical looks at each of the 99 championship reigns, each title change airs on the WWF Network, the talking head shows debate who the greatest team from each decade is with the focus being on an all time top 10 which then gets rolled out in advance of the Rumble.  There is pretty heated debate among everyone about the composition of the list – and there’s anger from Trash that there’s even any talk about the 100^th tag team champions when they are the 99^th and not planning on losing them any time soon.

10-Tie Division One (Nick Nemeth/Jack Swagger) – the most recent tag team champions in the great amateur lineage of Steiners and Haas/Benjamin, D1 was the 87^th WWF Tag Team Champ, taking from Dead Men Walking at Summer Slam ’09 and losing to Young Money at Wrestlemania 26 the following year.

10. Tie Charlie Haas/Shelton Benjamin – two time champs (69^th and 71^st) who won their initial belts from two legends, Chris Benoit and Eddy Guerrero.    

9. Wild Samoans (Afa/Sika) – the best WWF Tag Champions from the pre-Mania era, Afa/Sika held the belt 3 times (21^st, 23^rd, 31^st) for a total of nearly a year and a half.  They first took the belts from Tito Santana and Ivan Putski in April of 1980 and their final reign ended in November of ’83 when they dropped the belts to Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson. 

8. Road Warriors (Hawk/Animal) – the Roadies squashed the Orient Express at Survivor Series ’90 to become the 44^th WWF Tag Team Champs and kept those belts for over a year, at the time, the second longest reign in WWF tag history (they lost to Money Inc at Rumble ’92).  They added a second reign later in the decade (56^th) taking the belts from Davey Boy and Owen at Summer Slam ’97 and losing to Rock and DLo at Survivor Series.  Rock and DLo, like Hunter and Shawn, and Young Money, are two time champs who controversially did not make the list.  Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka are 3 time champions who were left out. 

7. Dudley Boys (Bubba Ray/D-Von) – competed in some of the best remembered tag team matches in WWF history, held the tag belts twice, first taking from the Hardys at Survivor Series ’99 (62^nd) and then from Raven/Taz (66^th) at Wrestlemania 17 in 2001, combined, they held the belts for a year. 

6. Edge/Christian – another two time tag champion who competed in many of those same matches with the Dudleys, they were the 64^th tag champs, like the Dudleys, they also took the titles from the Hardys.  That was in 2000 – their second reign was 9 years later with a masked Christian joining Edge at Rumble 2009 (85^th)  

5. Brainbusters (Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard) – this half of the Heenan Family only held the WWF tag titles once (39^th) but it was for 9 memorable months in 1989 that provided some of the greatest tag team title matches ever against their greatest WWF Rival, the Rockers. 

4. Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) – another one time only belt holder, but they held the tag titles for over a year (46^th) keeping them for all of 1993, like the Brainbusters, bringing a high level of match quality. 

3. Hardy Boys  (Matt and Jeff)- the final third of the trio of late 90s/early 2000s tag teams that revolutionized the division, the Hardys are two time tag champs (61^st and 63^rd) who pushed the boundaries on extreme tag team wrestling.

2. Hart Foundation (Bret/Davey Boy/Anvil) – the 37^th WWF Tag Team Champions held the belts for a more than a year and a half, from Wrestlemania 2 all the way to Survivor Series ’87.  Bret and the Anvil would go on to win the titles without the Bulldog 7 years later, at Survivor Series ’94 – and Davey Boy grabbed Bret’s brother Owen and won them at Rumble ’97. 

1. The Shield (Tyler Black/Dean Ambrose/Langston) – The longest title reign for any champion in any division in the Wrestlemania era, the Shield took the belts at Mania 29 in 2013 and held them for nearly 2 and a half years, until Summer Slam 2015. 

Trash (99^th) takes on Kevin Steen and El Generico (100????) at Rumble 2017.

The women’s title is positioned as the blow off to the Sasha/Charlotte program and maybe the culmination of the 4-Ground breakup – the launch of the women’s title was really on the backs of 4-Ground (Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, Paige) with the aid of her dad, Charlotte swerved the group, took the title from Charlotte – then lost it and regained it from Sasha.  Now we’re doing a 2 of 3 falls title match between Banks and Flair – once and for all to see who is the better woman. 

Three matches to go:

Dean Ambrose v. Langston

Mike Mizanin v. Braun Strowman

Kalisto/Apollo Crews v. Rich Swann/Jack Gallagher

The breakup of the Shield storyline continues; Langston turned on Ambrose and Black to end the greatest tag team in WWF – further, it cost Black over a year of his career with the injuries suffered in the turn.  Ambrose didn’t seek revenge, pursuing his singles career instead, that caused a fissure between he and Black.  Black and Ambrose met in the quarterfinals of the Survivor Series – but Langston injured Black again and here we are.

Ambrose and Langston do a face to face on an episode of Heyman’s Hustle.  Ambrose, as mentioned in Part I, turned down an opportunity to compete for the IC in order to get this match – Heyman questions about it – Ambrose says he made that choice once and it cost him his brother – now, he’s coming at Langston with all he has.  Langston asks when does this end – is Jannetty still out chasing HBK?  Langston says Black’s the one who got in his face at Survivor Series – and Langston put him down again and will put him down again and again if Black can’t just let it die.  And if Ambrose can’t let it die, he can get a hospital room next to Tyler.

Chickenshit heel Miz became creepy heel The Cuck and is now babyface Mike Mizanin.  He’s up against it here – Strowman’s got a hard on for Miz, taunting him about being the Cuck, about letting his wife fuck other men – about how he fucked her and maybe will do it again.  Miz is brave and true, stands up to it, and now he’s got to face the wrecking ball. 

No real storyline for the opening tag – Kalisto and Crews tagged together in developmental and Regal’s putting them back together again. 

That’s the show – here’s your update on Dark Ride, Nakamura spends the entire build there, he just avoids the rest of the Bullet Club entirely. He successfully defends the Dark Ride title multiple times – against Roode, against Strong, against Tozawa, against Dorada ---- Nakamura says he’s fighting champion, defending Dark Ride Title against all comers.

The last comer is Samoa Joe – and Joe beats him to regain the title. 

The other thing on Dark Ride is the breakup of BFFs Aries and Ranallo.  A candid picture makes the social media rounds with Ranallo and the Bullet Club (including a couple of members not with the promotion) all making the finger guns.  Regal and Nigel both needle Ranallo about it, but Aries, whose career was ended by Bullet Club attack, is heated.  Ranallo says the picture was taken months and months ago, but Aries won't have it.  He ends their popular podcast - they continue to do the Dark Ride broadcasts, but Corey Graves returns to that booth essentially to serve as a buffer between the men as Aries refuses to talk to Ranallo.

Here’s your show.

WWF Title: Cage: AJ Styles v. Luke Harper

Tag Titles: Trash (Claudio/Neville) v. Kevin Steen/El Generico

IC: Rusev (w/GHB and Lana) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman)

IC Number One Contender: Nick Nemeth v. Chris Jericho v. Roman Reigns-Uso

Dean Ambrose v. Langston

Mike Mizanin v. Braun Strowman

Bullet Club (Anderson/Gallows) v. Bray Wyatt/John Cena 

Women’s Title: 2 of 3 Falls: Charlotte Flair v. Sasha Banks

Kalisto/Apollo Crews v. Rich Swann/Jack Gallagher

Add in the one year anniversary of the arrival of the Bullet Club – and their promise to have a special celebration – add in the appearance of the President and Vice President of the United States – Linda and Vince McMahon, and you’ve got a pretty darn good Royal Rumble 2017, only on PPV in January

Road to Royal Rumble 2017 - Part 1

Survivor Series was here.

It’s the 12 year anniversary of the Counterfactual; whether you’ve been with me for years or this is your first post, thanks for reading.  I’ve got hoped for Mania main events lined up through 2021, so if you feel like popping in during President Kirsten Gillibrand’s first term, feel free.

 

Rumble 2017 is next month from San Antonio.  

It’s a 9 match card. We'll cover 4 of them today. 

WWF Title: Cage: AJ Styles v. Luke Harper

Bullet Club (Anderson/Gallows) v. Bray Wyatt/John Cena 

The RAW after Survivor Series begins with WWF Commissioner Bryan Danielson headed to the ring with a giant trophy – to be presented to the winner of the Survivor Series AJ Styles.

Styles comes next – and he comes alone, a rarity that he’s seen without his Bullet Club stablemates, which Danielson notes.

AJ says he’s alone because he won the Survivor Series alone, he outlasted the entire roster, won a 64 man tournament.  He beat Kota Freaking Ibushi.  He didn’t need any help.  He’s the WWF Champion and won the Survivor Series and he wants his trophy. That trophy becomes part of the act, Anderson and Gallows already carry the Bullet Club flag wherever they go - and now they also tote around the Survivor Series trophy.  

Danielson said he’s right.  Well, almost.  Luke Harper had to wrestle one more match than AJ did, so that was some help.  And the Bullet Club attacked Luke Harper before the match, so that was a lot of help. If AJ didn’t have that help – maybe Luke Harper would be standing here with the trophy.

AJ says he’s the best wrestler in the world and he can beat Luke Harper by himself any day of the week.

Danielson makes the Rumble match – this time for the WWF Title, this time in a steel cage.

He also makes a main event for that night – Anderson/Gallows taking on Harper/Cena.  Cena and Harper were once both members of the Wyatt Family, they both turned face and went their separate ways – Cena attempted to aid Harper last night in that pre-match beatdown.

Harper/Cena go over, Harper gets the fall – AJ hits the ring immediately postmatch for the beatdown (Nakamura is not there and won’t be there during this program, we’ll talk about him later). 

It’s 3 on 2 and the Bullet Club has the advantage – when to the ring comes Bray Wyatt – who cleans house and he and his former mentees, Harper and Cena, stand together in the middle of the ring. 

It’s not an unmotivated turn, Bray and Harper blew of their feud almost a year ago, the RAW after the Rumble, and then were both killed dead by the Bullet Club who had invaded the night before.  That old hard feelings might have been put aside when given mutual hatred of common enemies is not unprecedented.  But to see the reconstituted Wyatt Family, now back together as babyfaces, should be a reasonably noteworthy moment. 

That moment continues throughout the build – as these 6 guys wrestle in multiple combinations.  Since Harper and AJ have already met, there’s nothing gained by keeping them from being physical, so they can take part in 6 man tags. 

The other element of this Bullet Club build is the Rumble is the one year anniversary of their taking over the WWF and they promise something special to commemorate it. 

Harper pins AJ in a 6 man in the go home Fight Night to get some momentum headed to the Rumble – it’s your main event, AJ Styles against Luke Harper in a Steel Cage for the World Wrestling Championship. 

IC: Rusev (w/GHB and Lana) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman)

IC Number One Contender: Nick Nemeth v. Chris Jericho v. Roman Reigns-Uso

The main story, not just in the WWF but in the entire country, is the election of Linda McMahon to be the 45^th President of the United States.  The inauguration is a few days before the Rumble – and both the President and Vice President, who asks that you just call him Vince, will be making their triumphant return to their company that night.

Linda’s chief protagonist on WWF TV has been GHB, right wing mouthpiece of longstanding; he ratchets up the vitriol following Trump’s general election defeat (which led to a lawsuit, and now rumors of a Justice Department investigation given his campaign’s numerous, pervasive, and deep connections with agents of the Russian government.  There’s even online speculation that at least one of the Trump sons may move to Russia permanently in an effort to escape prosecution).  GHB says the US had a chance to elect a true authoritarian and move further toward the plutocracy that men who pull the levers of power have long cultivated.  But failing that – it can happen in other ways.  GHB discusses the inroads Putin made in the American electoral system in this past election won’t be easily undone, that it’s just a matter of time before that work put in by Putin and the patriots connected with the Trump campaign bears fruit.  We will have our dream –a nation of millionaires, the billionaires who own those millionaires, and then there are all of you people, who will work for minimum wage and no benefits at Dollar General and be glad for every crumb that falls off the moustache of your master. 

“True freedom” Lana replies.

GHB then steps over the line. The President-elect has been limiting public appearances as she’s been under the weather, GHB says he hopes she doesn’t have the “Russian flu” a reference to Putin opponents who mysteriously turn up dead.  Rusev adds the kicker “if she dies, she dies”

That leads to the return of Skip McMahon – we’ve seen him in the background during Linda’s campaign, but he hasn’t been featured on the programming in years – he cuts a fiery promo and challenges Rusev to a fight.  We see a backstage meeting with Danielson and HHH-M (the two men appear not to know they are on camera, given the angle of the shot) Danielson says absolutely not – he will not sanction this, Skip McMahon is a middle aged man, putting him in the ring with anyone on his roster, much less a fighter like Rusev, is not sports – it’s a slaughter, it’s cockfighting, and he’d rather quit than see it.  HHH-M says that since Linda and Vince both divested themselves of their stock during the campaign, the majority shareholders are Stephanie and Skip – and if the owner of the company wants to get in the ring, there’s just nothing Danielson can do about it.  Danielson says the blood is on Hunter’s hands.

Rusev, of course, kills Skip, just brutalizes him, Skip is stretchered from the ring and, while he makes a full recovery, is unlikely to ever again step in a WWF ring. 

The next week Danielson calls Rusev and crew to the ring.  Danielson says there won’t be any recriminations for what happened the week before, Skip stepped into a ring with a real professional fighter and got what he got.  GHB says any McMahon they see – any McMahon – might meet the same fate. 

Danielson takes a deep breath.  Says that Rusev should probably focus on his challenger for the IC Title at the Rumble.

GHB says no one here has the guts to step into the ring with a real Russian man like Rusev.

Danielson says, “well, I found someone.  I called in a favor.”

Lesnar’s music hits – Heyman and Lesnar come to the ring – Lesnar and Rusev go nose to nose. Danielson, recall, gave Lesnar his match against Devitt at Summer Slam, and Heyman told Danielson he owed him one.  This is that one.  Heyman, ever the opportunist, will tell Danielson in an aside that now he owes him one (Heyman math).

We don’t see either primary for the remainder of the build, although GHB and Heyman have a couple of promo battles where they take shots at each other’s backgrounds and futures. 

The winner of that match goes to Mania as IC Champ where he will take on the winner of the number one contender’s match.

It starts with 6 men and they’re competing for 3 spots.

Jericho faces Kalisto

Nemeth faces Sheamus

Reigns faces Mike Mizanin

Mizanin’s spot was initially offered to Ambrose, he turned it down, we’ll cover that later.

Old Man Jericho’s been doing a last ride gimmick since just after Mania, he lost to Harper in the semis of the Survivor Series; once we get to January the documentary series that has been walking through Jericho’s entire career (there’s the Lizard King, there’s Jericho Dark, there’s the Champ…) gets to modern day, the last week shows how much preparation Jericho has to go through just to get out of bed.

But he survives against the quicker Kalisto to earn a spot at the Rumble.

Nemeth and Sheamus are longtime stablemates, making up the backbone of Underground since it moved from just being a developmental training ground to an alliance on the main roster.  Nemeth gets him to get a spot at the Rumble.

Reigns-Uso meets the Miz, who now is a pure white meat underdog babyface and uses his full name, he fights gamely but goes under.

It’s a three way dance – that means two falls, the last man standing will go to Wrestlemania 33. 

That’s a good stopping point.

Five matches to go, I’ll get them at mid month

2016 Survivor Series

The build is here.

Survivor Series 2016 – Toronto
(Dark – Nakamura d. Joe, Roode/Strong d. Revival/Gargano&Ciampa)

It’s the 30th Annual Survivor Series, it opens in a way unlike any previous – from the White House.

Outgoing US President Obama thanks the people of Canada for being great neighbors and partners over the past 8 years, says he’s leaving them in good hands.  The shot widens – sitting next to him is the President Elect, Linda McMahon.  Linda says regardless of to how many corners of the globe she’ll travel of the next four years, the WWF will always be home.  Days after the inauguration next January she and the Vice President, who asks that you just call him Vince, will be, in person, at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio.  She thanks the fans for their support and hopes they enjoy the show.

And then she coughs.

We then get a 30 year anniversary clip package.
-the first Survivor Series match from 1987, the Killer Bees defeating Power & Glory..
-the Anvil turning on Bret and Davey Boy at that first Survivor Series...
-the creation of the Heenan Family at the second Survivor Series: Hennig/Rude/Arn/Tully..
-Savage winning the WWF Title over Dynamite at that second show...
-Bobby turning on Rude, allowing DiBiase to win the IC in '89....
-Hennig winning the WWF Title in ’89 in Chicago, beating Savage..
-the Undertaker’s debut in ’90, squashing Jimmy Snuka..
-Hulk Hogan facing off against Dusty Rhodes in '90....
-Piper ending Bret’s nearly 2 year IC run in ’91 in Detroit...
-Flair winning his first WWF Title in '91, beating the Bulldog...
-Owen taking Shawn's IC title in '92...
-Bret successfully defending the WWF Title against Flair in ’92…
-Savage sticking the fork into Owen’s forehead in ’93…
-Razor and Waltman squaring off against Shawn and Diesel in '93...
-Waltman crashing through a table in a ladder match against Razor in '94...
-Shawn winning the Triple Crown in his hometown by beating Owen – and then getting jackknifed by his friend Diesel in ‘94...
-Razor and Diesel hitting the buckles with their tag belts after beating the Gunns in '95...
-Shane Douglas jumps from ECW to face Michaels for the IC in ’95…
 -Survivor Series 10 in ’96 from MSG (I was there, IRL) Cactus Jack takes Vader’s IC in a bloody, violent, brutal cage match
-a crazy end of show brawl in '96 with the Clique, the Harts, Austin and Pillman...
-Rock and DLo celebrating with the tag belts in '97...
-the Montreal Match in ’97, Owen defeating Bret in a four way that sent his brother out of the WWF…
-Austin hitting the Stunner on Regal in '98...
-Cactus taking the big bump in the first ever Hell in a Cell match in St Louis in ’98…
-Kurt Angle’s PPV debut, beating PAUL in ’99…
-the Dudleys winning the tag belts in '99...
-Eddy Guerrero beating Dean Malenko in Tampa in a classic in ’00…
-Benoit hitting 10 consecutive german supexles on Austin in the same show...
-DDP hitting the diamond cutter on Austin in '01...
-Taz taking the IC from Tajiri in Greensboro at Survivor Series 15 in ’01…
-RVD taking the IC from Shawn the following year in a ladder match at MSG…
-Brock killing HHH in '02, breaking him in half...
-Christian going over Jericho in '03...
-Eddy keeping the WWF Title in a 4 way against Brock/Benoit/Angle in ’03…
-Angle/Benjamin taking the tags from RVD/Rey in ’04…
-Benoit and Eddy doing a nearfall sequence in '04...
-Flair brawling with Steamboat at the top of the ramp in 2005...
-later Benoit beating Angle for the IC to win the Triple Crown…
-Sabu and RVD crashing through tables covered in light tubes in Philly in '06...
-10 years ago, Survivor  Series 20 from Philadelphia, CM Punk beating Ric Flair for the WWF Title and then throwing the WWF Title to the ground, proclaiming the promotion dead, RIP.  
-9 years ago from Miami, Rey Mysterio keeping the WWF Title over the Undertaker…
-Punk and Blood Dragon Jeff Hardy doing a forearm striking battle in '07...
-Randy Orton and Steve Regal brawling in a parking lot in '08...
-8 years ago from Boston, Chris Jericho winning the Triple Crown, beating Punk for the WWF Title with Steamboat as the guest referee…
-7 years ago from DC, Division One keeping the tag titles over Regal/Finley
-Punk and Christian both attacking Matt Hardy in '09...
-Rey beating Nemeth in '10...
-back in Miami again 6 years ago, Bryan Danielson beats Low Ki in a 5 star match….
-Sheamus sending Nitro into the ringpost in '11...
-Survivor Series 25 at MSG, Mick Foley leads GDI, with the Kings of Wrestling, Claudio and Hero to the ring to brawl with Underground…
-in '12, Claudio beats Cena in an  IC Tournament match...
-4 years ago in Indianapolis, Danielson beats Rey to keep the WWF Title…
-3 years ago, Ambrose keeping his IC title over Kingston...
-3 years ago in Boston, Danielson and Punk getting beaten down by Lesnar and Swagger, the Paul Heyman Guys…
-2 years ago, Natty winning the first ever women's title...
-2 years ago in St Louis, the Shield keeps the tag belts in a TLC win over the Usos…
-last year, Charlotte taking the women's title from Paige...
-last year in Atlanta, Claudio attacks Nemeth, aiding Steen’s keeping the WWF Title…

Your announcers are Ranallo, in his 5th PPV, Regal, in his 15th, and Nigel, working his second.  Nigel and Regal are still in opposition to each other, but it’s more playful now with only some sharp edges here and there.  They disagree but aren’t enemies – and they bond over jabbing Ranallo about how his best friend Aries isn’t there (Ranallo and Aries are the Dark Ride announce team and have become close while doing a podcast).

Let’s do it:

1. Survivor Series Quarterfinal Match: AJ Styles (w/Anderson and Gallows) d. Kalisto

-How they got here:  AJ d. Cena, Sombra, Ibushi.  

                                      Kalisto d. Primo, Crews, Tozawa

-The WWF Champ Styles comes to the ring first, behind him are Anderson and Gallows waving the Bullet Club flag, each in Bullet Club t-shirts, they mug for the camera, Anderson and Gallows shout out to the Young Bucks – it’s a full Bullet Club party here at Survivor Series 30.  Kalisto is super game, he and AJ have the best workrate match they can, but AJ gets him with the Styles Clash in the middle.  He’ll advance to the semi-finals to face the winner of Black/Ambrose.

2. Survivor Series Quarterfinal Match: Luke Harper d. Sheamus

-How they got here: Harper d. Eric Young, Ciampa, Bray. 

                                     Sheamus d. Killings, Kendrick, Miz

-It’s a sprint, the first match was longer than you’d expect from a tournament match, we really need the quality out of that one – this is more like the 10 minute match you’d expect given that one of these men might wrestle twice more tonight.  Just a hard hitting 10 minutes with Harper beating him clean.  Harper will meet the winner of the next match in the semi-finals.

3. Survivor Series Quarterfinal Match: Chris Jericho d. Roman Reigns Uso

-How they got here: Jericho d. Corbin, Strong, Nemeth

                                     Reigns d. Rhyno, Jimmy Uso, Gable

-This one lights up the Toronto crowd, Jericho’s been getting the “one more time around the track” old guy push all year, a documentary series highlighting his entire career has been on the Network, and his coming to Toronto, maybe for the last time, has been part of the build – he’s wearing  a #7 Maple Leafs jersey as he enters the ring.  As has been the case all year he’s completely outmatched physically by his younger opponent, but he uses veteran wiles to find a way to pull it out.  We’ll see Jericho v. Harper in the semi-finals later tonight.

4. Survivor Series Quarterfinal Match: Tyler Black draw Dean Ambrose

-How they got here: Black d. Woods, Dawson, Perkins

                                     Ambrose d. Dar, Kingston, Anderson

-it’s the first meeting between the longtime tag partners, but prior to the bell ringing the third member of the Shield, now part of the New Day, Langston, comes to the announce table. This drives Black to distraction – Langston turned on his partners, ending their historic title reign, and costing Black a year of his career.  Ambrose’s failure to avenge that has created a fissure between the two men who have been together since their time in Developmental, Black has been unable to get his hands on Langston since his return due to the big man’s injury.  But now here he is – Black jaws at him, Ambrose is offended that Black’s attention is taken away even a second, he feels disrespected that Black thinks he could give anything less than 100% and still compete. That gives the match some gas but at the point when Black is able to overcome Ambrose’s aggressiveness and get some level of control – he leaps out of the ring, gets in Langston’s face – Langston press slams him off the announce table – right onto the injured knee that took him out of action for a year.  Ambrose exits the ring – he starts shoving Langston, Black writhes in pain – both men counted out and eliminated from the tournament.  Styles will advance to the finals in a walkover.  

5. WWF Women’s Title: Charlotte Flair d. Natty Neidhart

-2 years ago the Women’s title was crowned for the initial time, Natty becoming the first Champion, Charlotte is the only 2 time champion and she keeps the belt here in the best match they can have, disappointing the Canadian crowd.  

6. Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman) d. Bill Goldberg

-Lesnar’s former tag partner returned after over a decade away from the ring, interrupting what perhaps was Brock’s retirement announcement – Brock dispatches him here in a short, explosive match modeled after their IRL Mania bout.  This, almost certainly, ends Goldberg’s wrestling career.  

7. Survivor Series Semi-Final Match: Luke Harper d. Chris Jericho

-The ride ends, at least for tonight, Jericho again is overwhelmed by a younger competitor, and again uses his experience to stay alive – but the wear and tear of trying to do it twice in one night is too much at his age, and he can’t overcome Harper.  Jericho stays in the ring postmatch to get the standing ovation from the fans.  He is emotional as he thanks them and exits.  Luke Harper has advanced to the Finals of the Survivor Series to meet the Champ, AJ Styles.

Hey, look who’s coming to the ring.  It’s the WWF Commissioner.  

Everyone’s always glad to see Danielson, his popularity rating is super high, that won’t change tonight, he says that we won’t have a second semi-final match given that Black and Ambrose were counted out – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be a match at all.  In the back are two tag teams ready to go.  Anderson and Gallows will meet American Alpha right now!

8. Bullet Club (Anderson/Gallows) d. American Alpha (Gable/Jordan)

-Bullet Club has been taking Alpha to the learning tree since Mania, including ending the WWF career of their manager Jack Swagger during the Survivor Series tournament.  This is their first meeting since that beating so Alpha comes out brawling, no real wrestling here – it’s a fistfight, the announce notes that demonstrates Alpha’s youth, as now they’re wrestling the Bullet Club’s match.  We hear the new enmity that Regal has for Bullet Club; he and Swagger were very close. Anderson and Gallows go over – there’s still more learning to do.    

9. Claudio Castagnoli/TJ Perkins d. Kevin Steen El Generico

-Probably this was the most anticipated match of the show, until Neville’s injury at the end of the build made it a non title and caused the replacement of Neville with Perkins.   Still, it’s probably the match of the night, Steen and Generico working as a babyface tag in Canada is tremendously over and they have Claudio to work against, even if Perkins is a step down from Neville.  They do a distraction finish, Perkins gets the referee’s attention, Neville (who – as it turns out – it’s hurt at all, he’s just a piece of trash lying heel) emerges from underneath the ring, hits a 450 on Steen, rolls back to the outside, Claudio gets the pinfall and the bad guys win.  

10. Survivor Series Finals:  AJ Styles d. Luke Harper

-So, some backstory.  The night after the Rumble was the Harper/Bray blowoff, really the blowoff to the entire Wyatt Family storyline, and after Harper went over the Bullet Club, who debuted the night prior, killed both of them dead.  They were out until this tournament, so the Harper/AJ final has storyline precedent that has largely been downplayed if not entirely ignored until now so as not to tip that this was how the tournament would play out.  Pre-match, as Harper begins to come to the ring, he’s assaulted by the Bullet Club, Anderson/Gallows and Nakamura, making his first appearance on the actual show tonight.  They put the boots to him – until interrupted by Cena, making the save for his former stablemate.  The tournament, recall, started with Cena losing to AJ – Styles treated him postmatch with disdain, as if Cena wasn’t worth the beating.  Cena takes that beating here, absorbing it until Danielson emerges and orders everyone to the back, Harper drags himself to the ring, and once AJ enters, they begin the match.  Harper’s not only wrestled a match more than has AJ tonight, but now he has this beating to overcome, he fights through all of it – but in the end, Styles is too much, he goes over, the Bullet Club emerges from the back, they hoist Styles upon their shoulders.  We’re told that he’ll be presented a trophy on RAW tomorrow from Danielson – there’s a Bullet Club celebration in the ring as the show ends.  

Back next month for the build for Royal Rumble 2017.  The main event is a rematch - Styles vs. Harper for the WWF Title.  And of course, the President and Vice President, Linda and Vince McMahon, will make an in person appearance just days after the inauguration.  It's gonna be a happening.  

Road to Survivor Series 2016 - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

In Part 1, we began the Survivor Series, a 64 man tournament to culminate in Toronto at the annual Survivor Series PPV.  Here's the card so far.  Okay, most of the build is for a tag defense from Trash against Steen/Generico,

AJ Styles v. Kalisto
Tyler Black v. Dean Ambrose
Chris Jericho v. Roman Reigns
Sheamus v. Luke Harper
Styles/Kalisto winner v. Black/Ambrose winner
Jericho/Reigns winner v. Sheamus/Harper winner
Finals

3 more matches.  

Steen/Generico v. Claudio/Perkins

Brock Lesnar v. Bill Goldberg

Women's Title: Charlotte Flair v. Natty Neidhart

Okay, most of the build is for a tag defense from Trash against Steen/Generico, there's a lot of Neville and Claudio explaining the reasons for the turn (Neville is just fury, Claudio is multilingual Euro prick) and placing the blame for busting up GDI on Steen (which is fair). The argument is less "Steen's an asshole" and more "Steen was a crappy leader because he always put his pet Generico first to the detriment of the squad" (which is less fair, but they're heels).  Steen calls them whiny bitches, says he's glad they aren't together anymore, and even glad Trash is the WWF Tag Champs - because they're the 99th tag champs - and that means Steen and Generico will be the 100th.  

Gargano and Ciampa start to mix in here, as the Dark Ride GDI team they're in the middle, they wind up wrestling against both teams and working as singles against all 4 guys, it allows us not to do any Trash v Steen/Generico tag matches in the build.  

Neville gets hurt like 3 weeks before Survivor Series, the tag titles will now not be defended, but Claudio says he'll find a partner to wrestle Steen/Generico anyway - that partner turns out to be Perkins, who was an end of the road babyface in the tournament (the sport has just ground him down, even into homelessness, but he just keeps going) and he wrestles Generico in the go home RAW, works as a subtle heel, Claudio interferes to get Perkins the win - and then they beat Generico down.  Perkins cuts a "this sport has ground me down, even into homelessness" heel promo and he and Claudio will wrestle together at Survivor Series in a non title match.  In the build to Summer Slam, Steen's being Canadian was emphasized, so that doesn't seem forced here as we ready for a match in Toronto.  

Brock lost to Devitt at Summer Slam, but then fractured his skull postmatch and that's enough for a victory lap. He makes a heavily promoted appearance on Heyman's Hustle where he's going to announce his plans for the future.  There's a couple of weeks of graphics "What's Next for Brock Lesnar?" Lots of speculation - Lesnar can't fight for the WWF Title, he's gotten revenge against Devitt, Danielson is long gone - are there any worlds left to conquer in professional wrestling?  

At RAW, in the front row is Bill Goldberg; we haven't seen Goldberg in a dozen years since he and Lesnar were tagging together.  He signs some autographs, poses for some pictures, but otherwise watches the show like everyone else.  Then we get to the Lesnar segment, they tease an announcement - but Lesnar then notices Goldberg and tells Heyman to wave him into the ring.  Goldberg shakes his head - but Lesnar is insistent.  Goldberg enters, Heyman puts him over to the portion of the crowd that doesn't know him, he was an NWA Tag Champ, he's one of the few men who Brock could stand for long enough to be in a tag team with him - so it's nice to see him here.  

Goldberg says if tonight was going to be Lesnar's last night in professional wrestling, he needed to be there, because he wants to spit on his grave.  Goldberg says he came to the WWF after the NWA died wanting to be WWF Champion - and here, Brock Lesnar, the Next Big Thing, wanted to tag up with him.  And Lesnar ruined his career.  He winds up on the wrong side of Mick Foley, which meant he was on the wrong side of The Rock, which meant the wrong side of this entire promotion, and soon enough he's out on his ass.  Goldberg says Lesnar ruined his life - and now he's back in Atlanta working a 9-5 and Lesnar's standing here the 2 time WWF Champion and screw that.

Heyman tells Goldberg to go home before he gets hurt.  

Goldberg gets into Heyman's face - says he should shut his fat, parasite face - Lesnar grabs him - but Goldberg shoves him down.  Lesnar rises, but Goldberg spears him.  Goldberg stands over the fallen Lesnar, stares into the camera "Hey, Brock - What's Next?  I'm next."

Goldberg works once in the build, a squash against someone small - spear, jackhammer. We don't see Lesnar again, but we do see Heyman, he cuts a "it doesn't matter what Brock's announcement was gonna be, what matters is that at Survivor Series, the wrestling career that will come to an end, again, is Goldberg's" promo.  

The women's title match is Flair vs. Neidhart in Canada - ideally all the people you'd want to be involved in video packages discussing the historical implications of a Flair meeting a Hart Foundation member in Canada for a title would be.  Charlotte's the champ, Natty's the former champ - Ric Flair's daughter vs. #11 in Canada for the strap at Survivor Series.  

Which leaves only the election.

Rusev, the IC Champ, is neither on the card nor was he in the tournament - but he, Lana, and Bradshaw are all over the build cutting promos for Trump - we are going to stop funding health care, slice all social programs and regulatory agencies deeply, cut taxes on millionaires and billionaires, and form an alliance with the authoritarian leader of Russia - the American people are finally going to get the Plutocracy they deserve.  

GHB is triumphant as we get closer to the election - his man is IC Champ, he doesn't have to travel to Canada, that socialist cesspool, for Survivor Series, and Trump, who once had 18 holes in one while playing golf, is about to be President of the United States.

Except, of course, he isn't.  Linda McMahon wins the election.  Linda McMahon is the 45th President of the United States, promising to usher in an unparalleled age of economic justice. Which makes sense, there was a populist anger as evident in the Sanders and Trump movements (and Brexit) Linda had laid groundwork for years as a champion of the working class, she lacked real world Clinton's baggage, and the baggage Linda has (wrestling association, lack of charisma) is mitigated by her never appearing in a demeaning or exploitative angle here, Trump's own less statesmanlike persona, and the secret weapon - Vince, who knows how to talk people into a building (or voting booth).  Add in the McMahon celebrity and proximity to celebrity, particularly among the type of men who might have otherwise supported Trump, and it makes sense that Linda takes the election.

You might recall that upon Trump's election a year ago I indicated that it would cause me to change the finish of this angle.  This ain't the finish.  

Linda and Vince, the first husband and wife to become President and VP, will be making their first appearance at a WWF event in San Antonio in January a week after the Presidential Inauguration.

Okay, that's it.  Here's the card.

Survivor Series Final

Kevin Steen/El Generico vs. Claudio Castagnoli/TJ Perkins (non title)

Survivor Series Semifinal 2

Survivor Series Semifinal 1

Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg

Women's Title: Charlotte Flair vs. Natty Neidhart

Quarterfinal: Sheamus vs. Luke Harper

Quarterfinal: Chris Jericho vs. Roman Reigns

Quarterfinal: Tyler Black vs. Dean Ambrose

Quarterfinal: WWF Champion AJ Styles vs. Kalisto (non title)

See you in a month. 

Road to Survivor Series 2016 - Part 1

SummerSlam is here.

Survivor Series comes to us in November from Toronto.

RAW the night after SummerSlam begins with the Bullet Club (minus Devitt) headed to the ring.  AJ has his belt, Anderson/Gallows show the wear of the previous night, and always a beat behind, Nakamura.

AJ says the Bullet Club is again victorious and never stronger.  He’s kept the WWF Title, Nakamura is now the Dark Ride Wrestling champion, Anderson and Gallows have ended the careers of the Dudley Boys.  These are glory days for the Bullet Club.

Danielson appears on the stage, says he’s confused, there used to be another guy with them – but last night Brock Lesnar fractured his skull.

AJ says of course, thoughts and prayers to Prince Devitt, a long time valued member of the Bullet Club, but the Bullet Club isn’t here to talk about the past.

That’s going to be the posture of AJ, he’s running the Bullet Club, Devitt doesn’t exist – Devitt suffered a torn labrum and the aforementioned fractured skull at SummerSlam and isn’t anticipated back anytime soon.

Before Danielson gets off the stage there’s back and forth with AJ where Styles says he’s taking the night off – and Danielson says he’s not, that in the main event, AJ will be kicking off the Survivor Series.

Confusion, obviously.

Danielson explains that the Survivor Series this year will be a 64 man tournament, a series of matches to culminate at Survivor Series to claim the ultimate survivor.  And it starts tonight when AJ Styles will take on….John Cena.

Cena makes a return after a long absence, he’s wearing his old school WWF T-shirt, he’s full high octane energy as he hits the ramp and points at Styles as the segment ends.

So – that’s the Survivor Series this year – 10 matches, 7 of which will be tournament matches.  The full tournament and the resultant Survivor Series matches will be set up here – next month we’ll cover the rest of the card and anything else going on in the build – including the election of the 45th President of the United States.

Here’s Round One, matches take place on all 3 WWF shows throughout the build.
1. AJ Styles d. John Cena
2. Sombra d. Cedric Alexander
3. Tommaso Ciampa d. Dash Wilder
4. Luke Harper d. Eric Young

-AJ beats Cena clean in the best match they can have, it appears for a moment that Cena is going to get the postmatch beatdown and flag burial, but Styles, demonstrating his command of the group, calls it off – saying “he’s not worth the flag” and sneering as they exit the ring.

-Sombra and the injured Kenta quietly were removed from Heyman’s client roster after the Rumble, Somba goes over Alexander on Dark Ride to earn a Round 2 match against the WWF Champ.

-Also on Dark Ride, a continuation of the Revival program against Gargano/Ciampa, Ciampa getting the fall on Dash.

-It’s the return of Harper, he and Bray were destroyed the night after the Rumble by the Bullet Club, he beats the debuting EY in a good Fight Night brawl.  Harper will match up with Ciampa in Round 2.

5. Chris Jericho d. Baron Corbin
6. Roderick Strong d. Mikey Nicholls
7. Scott Dawson d. PAUL
8. Tyler Black d. Xavier Woods

-Old man Jericho’s last ride continued at Summer Slam when he went over Crews, as mentioned in the build for SummerSlam the Network longform pieces documenting his career continue in this build, he goes over Corbin from developmental on RAW.

-Strong has been feuding with Roode on Dark Ride, that’s going to end in this build, we’ll discuss that when they are both out of the tournament.  He beats NOAH’s Nicholls on Dark Ride and will meet Jericho in Round 2.

-The other half of the Revival wins his opening match on Dark Ride, against PAUL, the big man is entirely enhancement at this point in his career.

-Black beat Kingston in his long awaited return at SummerSlam, he and Ambrose fissure worsened postmatch, Black continued his run of getting revenge on Langston’s friends in Langston’s injured absence, he whips Woods on Fight Night and will take on Dawson in Round 2.

9. Kalisto d. Primo Colon
10. Apollo Crews d. Ken Doane
11. Dean Ambrose d. Noam Dar
12. Kingston d. Zach Ryder

-Kalisto returns after getting buried in the Bullet Club flag in the SummerSlam build, going over Primo on RAW.

-Hey, look, it’s one time prodigy Kenny Doane – he doesn’t work here, this opens up the idea that Danielson is always interested in outside talent and outside talent is interested in working for Danielson, this tournament is open to any wrestler in the world, and Doane does a one shot here on Dark Ride, going under Crews.  That sets up the intriguing second round matchup between the former tag partners in developmental, Kalisto and Crews.

-Ambrose went over Nemeth at SummerSlam, and as mentioned, we saw a furthering of his split from Black. He works on Dark Ride here, beating young Dar from developmental.

-Kingston lost to Black at SummerSlam, he gets a win at Fight Night over Ryder.  He and Ambrose will hook up in Round 2.

13. Roman Reigns d. Rhyno
14. Jimmy Uso d. Jey Uso
15. Sheamus d. Truth Killings
16. Brian Kendrick d. Tyler Breeze

-The Usos lost the tag belts to Trash at SummerSlam, Reigns works as a single on RAW, going over the veteran Rhyno.

-Speaking of the Usos, they work Fight Night in their first ever 1:1 match, Jimmy goes over, postmatch they are attacked by the Revival, that’s going to lead to a Fight Night program between the two squads. Jimmy will meet Roman in Round 2.

-Sheamus continues to be haunted by his loss to the Cuck at Mania, and then subsequent loss to the returning Kendrick in the Cuck outfit prior to Summer Slam, he takes it out on Killings on Fight Night.

-Kendrick made his aforementioned surprise return, we get a segment with he and Danielson – they cover their long history together, Danielson said he hadn’t been able to find Kendrick for a couple of years, Kendrick says Maryse tracked him down, and as a favor, Kendrick wants Danielson to let the Cuck work the tournament.  Danielson hates it – but agrees.  Kendrick meets Sheamus in Round 2.

17. Braun Strowman d. Drew Gulak
18. The Cuck d. Jinder Mahal
19. Johnny Gargano d. Cass
20. Karl Anderson d. Jason  Jordan

-Strowman emerges from developmental to squash Gulak on RAW.

-Miz does the full Cuck gimmick for the first time since Mania, but when he gets to the point in the spiel where he’s about to offer a night with his wife to Mahal in exchange for the win, he changes the script and says he’s going to kick Jinder’s ass – they have a real match, the Cuck works as a babyface and goes over.  He’ll meet Strowman in Round 2.

-His partner advanced and so did Gargano, he beats Cass on Dark Ride.

-A couple of weeks after SummerSlam American Alpha won a tag match on RAW, they’ve gotten heavily pushed since coming up from developmental as the next big thing, future WWF tag champs.  After that RAW match, American Alpha goes back through the curtain and they are waylaid backstage by Anderson and Gallows.  That’s a heavy beatdown angle, ending up in a shower with both Jordan and Gable getting color.  It’s a callback to a Rockers/Brainbusters angle where Arn and Tully beat the hell out of Shawn and Marty in a shower, the blood running into the drain Psycho style.  That turned out to be a long “vets take the pretty boy kids to the learning tree” program and it’s going to happen again here.  Anderson and Gallows cut promos saying the future of the WWF tag division is the Bullet Club and they’re going to kill American Alpha in the crib.  Both of the partners are at ringside in this heated round one matchup – Anderson goes over and Alpha is left laying postmatch.  Anderson will take on Gargano in Round 2.

21. Kota Ibushi d.Shane Haste
22. Zach Sabre d. Tony Nese
23. Chad Gable d. Dustin Rhodes
24. Luke Gallows d. Jack Swagger

-Kota Ibushi and Zach Sabre get a couple of weeks of clip package buildup, two of the great wrestlers in the world are coming to WWF at the request of Danielson to participate in the Survivor Series tournament.  They both work the same RAW, Ibushi going over Shane Haste, Sabre going over Tony Nese.  Ibushi and Sabre will meet in a much anticipated round 2 matchup.

-A banged up Chad Gable goes over Dustin Rhodes, and we say goodbye to Jack Swagger, who has been managing Alpha and a huge part of the act.  Swagger comes out of retirement, asks Danielson for a match against Gallows as vengeance for the actions of the Bullet Club – but he goes under and then winds up victim to the full BC beatdown, Styles and Nakamura (in one of his only appearances in the build after the first night) appear to devastate Swagger and end his WWF run.  Gallows and Gable will meet in round 2.  The end of Swagger’s WWF is a thing, he’s a more significant figure here than real world Swagger – it’s particularly significant to Regal (this match was on Fight Night) given his long history with Swagger and Regal becomes anti Bullet Club in an overt manner going forward.

25. TJ Perkins d. Fandango
26. Tyler Bate d. Pete Dunne
27. Nick Nemeth d. Mark Henry
28. Bobby Roode d. Heath Slater

-TJP gets a storyline, years on the road have left him a battered version of the fresh faced kid who started on the independents on 19, he’s been discarded by the sport, it’s left him tremendously bitter, and Danielson brings him in for a last shot.  He heels on Fandango to get the win.  In Round 2 he’ll face Bate, as Danielson looks to tap the UK market.

-Henry, like PAUL, is enhancement now, and Nemeth gets the easy win.  Roode rolls over Slater and those two will meet in Round 2.

29. Akira Tozawa d. Jack Gallagher
30. Mascara Dorada d. Tajiri
31. Rich Swann d. Joe Hennig
32. Bray Wyatt d. Taylor Rotunda

-Debuts from international stars Tozawa and Dorada, who will immediately start feuding on Dark Ride, they’ll meet in Round 2 here.  It’s a one shot for former IC Champ Tajiri.

-Swann makes Round 2, he’ll take on Bray, who squashes Rotunda.

Round 2

1. AJ Styles d. Sombra
2. Kota Ibushi d. Zach Sabre

-Both matches on the same RAW, just workrate, they have the best matches they can have, later in the evening AJ and Ibushi are both brought back to the ring, they do a nose to nose, they will meet in the Sweet 16 with the winner advancing to the Survivor Series.

3. Luke Harper d. Tomaso Ciampa
4.Bray Wyatt d. Rich Swann

-Both matches on the same Fight Night, stablemates turned rivals Wyatt and Harper return to the ring before the night ends, they’ll hook up one last time in the Sweet 16, the winner advancing to Survivor Series.

5. Chris Jericho d. Roderick Strong
6. Nick Nemeth d.  Roode

-Both matches on the same Dark Ride, Nemeth and Jericho do the nose to nose, the winner of that match will go to Survivor Series.  Roode and Strong had been cutting promos on each other in advance of this night, saying that the other one would be getting eliminated – at the end of the night Roode came to the ring and challenged Strong to fight him, they got into a brawl that was stopped by Aries (Aries had to retire due to eye injuries suffered in a Bullet Club beatdown, he’s now the Dark Ride analyst).  Aries leaves the announce and gets in the ring – Aries yells at both guys, says they need to stop.  Aries points at Strong, says this is his tag partner, that they’re family – Aries points at Roode, says back in TNA, even though they didn’t ever get along, there was a time when they had to come together to stop a common enemy.  And they did.  And all around here are common enemies, one after another, including the group that took my eye.

Aries says it’s enough.  You think you can do this alone, you can’t.  I’m proof.  You think you can’t trust each other, you can.  Because you both know you can trust me.

Strong extends his hand.  Roode shakes it.

7. Tyler Black d. Scott Dawson
8.TJ Perkins d. Tyler Bate

-Back to RAW, Black goes over Dawson solidly and Perkins continues his run with a win over the Englishman Bate.  You can see the hunger (literally, the dude is hungry) in Perkins’ eyes as he and Black go nose to nose.

9. Kalisto d. Apollo Crews
10. Akira Tozawa d. Mascara Dorada

Back to Dark Ride, Kalisto beats his former tag partner and Tozawa gets the better of Dorada. A nifty matchup coming to get a Survivor Series slot between Tozawa and Kalisto.

11. Dean Ambrose d. Kingston
12. Karl Anderson d. Johnny Gargano

On Fight Night Ambrose torments Kingston a little bit, refusing a pinfall at one point to inflict some more damage, “is this good enough Tyler?  Are we friends again?”.  He’s going to take on Machine Gun Anderson of the Bullet Club, who beats Gargano.

13. Roman Reigns d. Jimmy Uso
14. Chad Gable d. Luke Gallows

Chaos at Dark Ride, Reigns beats Jimmy, but then both are attacked by the Revival, Jey comes to aid, but Reigns is pulled away by Gallows and Anderson, the announce speculating that in case Luke advances later in the evening they want to soften Reigns up – but then Alpha appears to aid Reigns in going after the Bullet Club, they hadn’t been seen since Swagger’s destruction – they’re full of fire as they hit the ramp to attack Anderson/Gallows, security is there quickly to break it up.  Both Jordan and Anderson barred from ringside as Gable gets some revenge by eliminating Gallows.  Reigns returns to the ring for the nose to nose.

15. Sheamus d. Brian Kendrick
16. The Cuck d. Braun Strowman

-On RAW, Sheamus has eagerly anticipated his rematch against Kendrick, more than that, it leaves him a match away from finally getting his hands on the Miz, which has driven him since Mania.

 Sheamus gets the win; The Cuck doesn’t even get two words out to read to Strowman, who grabs him by the throat and throws him into the buckles.  It’s the end of the Cuck gimmick, Strowman tears the latex suit from his body, just pummeling Miz, enough that Sheamus comes down to the ring and coaxes Strowman outside, Sheamus and Strowman brawl at ringside and Braun gets counted out.

 There won’t be a nose to nose, Miz has to be helped from the ring – but the sweet 16 is set and Sheamus will get the Miz.

One more round on TV.

1. AJ Styles d. Kota Ibushi
-a workrate match, Styles goes over – before Ibushi leaves Nakamura hits the ring, with Dark Ride belt – he holds it up in front of Ibushi’s face, the message is clear, Nakamura wants to defend the Dark Ride Championship against Ibushi.  We get that match, Nakamura goes over and that wraps Ibushi in WWF.

2. Kalisto d. Akira Tozawa
-more workrate, Kalisto will be heading to Survivor Series to face Styles in the Elite 8 matchup, Kalisto was buried under the Bullet Club flag in the Summer Slam build, causing him to miss that show, but he’s plucky and has battled his way back to get a match with the WWF Champ at Survivor Series.

3. Tyler Black d. TJ Perkins
-desperate Perkins gives every ounce he has, but goes under Black, the announce speculates if we’ll ever see Perkins again.

4. Dean Ambrose d. Karl Anderson
-We get the dream matchup in the Elite 8 at Survivor Series, the Shield explodes, Black vs. Ambrose.  In promos in advance of the match, both men  give some variation of “I don’t want this match, I didn’t want this fight, but it’s here, and I’m the better man”

5. Chris Jericho d. Nick Nemeth
-Old man Jericho is a decided underdog here against the athletic Nemeth, but he’s able to use the veteran wiles to pull it out and advance to Survivor Series. There’s an episode of Jericho’s career retrospective show put together with his great moments in Canada, Survivor Series is in Toronto and now we get a homecoming element to Jericho’s last ride.  It is uncut babyface stuff, grizzled Jericho coming home.

6. Roman Reigns d. Chad Gable
-If Jericho wants to win the Survivor Series he’ll have to drag that old body to 3 wins in one night, seemingly an insurmountable feat – and it will have to start with Reigns, who goes over Gable.

7. Sheamus d. The Miz
-Strowman tore off the Cuck costume, seemingly ending that gimmick, Miz appears for this one without Maryse, just wearing trunks, and not using any of his chickenshit mannerisms, he survives a bunch of nearfalls, the story here being that Sheamus just can’t put him away, but Miz just refuses to die – until finally he does, earning the respect of the fans and of Sheamus – who offers a postmatch handshake, which Miz accepts.  Miz walks up the ramp, to the cheers of the crowd, where he encounters Strowman, who hurls him off the ramp to the floor, breaking him in half.

8.Luke Harper d. Bray Wyatt
-They met at RAW the night after the Rumble, Harper went over in a wild brawl, seemingly ending their feud, and then both men were buried by the Bullet Club – Harper goes over again here in another brawl that extends all over the arena, it ends with a pinfall through a table, Harper beating Bray again and extinguishing their feud.  Harper and Sheamus will bang heads at Survivor Series.

Okay, so here’s what we have for the PPV

AJ Styles v. Kalisto
Tyler Black v. Dean Ambrose
Chris Jericho v. Roman Reigns
Sheamus v. Luke Harper
Styles/Kalisto winner v. Black/Ambrose winner
Jericho/Reigns winner v. Sheamus/Harper winner
Finals

7 matches down.  Next month, the 3 remaining matches – the WWF Tag Titles, the Women’s Title, and who is Brock wrestling?  Plus anything else we need to cover from this build – including the long anticipated results of the 2016 Presidential Election. Part 2 is here.

Summer Slam 2016

The build.

Summer Slam 29 comes to you from Brooklyn.  It is the 118^th PPV in WWF history. 

(Dark: Nakamura d. Joe, Revival d. Gargano/Ciampa)

Your announcers are Mauro (4^th) Regal (14^th) and Nigel (1^st)

-It’s the first PPV for this full team, the announcer story last year was Regal’s overly exuberant rooting for Underground, Nigel was hired to check that.  That needs to pay off here, there will be a moment where it looks like Regal will leave the announce desk as he did with Mania to go to ringside during an Underground match, but Nigel stands up and that causes him to back down and remain in his seat. That’s as hard as that note gets punched; going forward, Regal obviously still prefers Underground, but is largely a heel analyst; Nigel prefers GDI but is largely a babyface analyst.

 

1.       American Alpha (w/Swagger) d. Fandango Curtis/Zach Ryder

-This is designed to showcase Alpha; they’re positioned as next in the Steiners-Haas/Benjamin-D1 line of amateurs turned WWF tag champions. There’s a lot of hype and that’s not tampered at all here.  Regal puts them over, Nigel puts them over – they are the next big tag thing.

2.       Women’s Championship: Falls Count Anywhere: Charlotte Flair d. Sasha Banks

-Sasha took from Charlotte at Mania,  they had been members of 4-Ground with Becky and Paige, Charlotte blew that up, turning on the group at Survivor Series.  She wins clean here, getting a submission out in the crowd (figure four over a guardrail).  It’s probably the best women’s match (certainly the best brawl) in promotion history.  Charlotte stands on one of the seats, holding the title belt over her head.  Becky aids Sasha to the back. 

3.       Extreme Rules: Bullet Club (Anderson/Gallows) d. Dudleys

-This, perhaps, ends the careers of the Dudley Boys as a tag act; it’s a garbage match, light tubes, barbed wire, thumbtacks – the finish comes when both Dudleys go through thumbtack covered tables.  It’s destructive and determinative.  The Duds get buried in the Bullet Club flag. Anderson/Gallows are shown to be bad asses, not just the guys snickering behind Styles/Devitt; they’ve ended the careers of the Dudley Boys

4.       Chris Jericho d. Apollo Crews

-Jericho’s age is the story here, specifically the difference in ages and experience between the two men; Jericho is getting the Terry Funk in ECW treatment, he’s been wrestling a quarter century,  he’s got a knee brace, he’s got the dad bod – he’s up against someone in Crews who has every advantage except for experience – and the experience is what gets him in the end.  Jericho might be on his last ride, but it continues. 

5.       Dean Ambrose d. Nick Nemeth

6.       Tyler Black d. Kingston (w/Woods)

-The Shield matches are next.  To recap – they held the tag titles longer than anyone has held any belt in the Mania era, lost them when Langston turned over a year ago.  Ambrose didn’t pursue vengeance, he went after the IC instead and wound up in the Mania main event.  Black lost over a year of his career to injury at the hands of Langston, this is his return, Black is Back and all of that – he’s gotten the full “Triple H is returning from those quad tears” video package push and this will be the first time he’s stepped in a WWF ring in over a year.  Black had a chance at the IC match, but turned it down because he wants vengeance.  That’s caused a rift between Ambrose and Black, they haven’t spoken in months – the idea is you can see if from both perspectives.  Ambrose could have devoted himself to attacking the New Day, but he would have sacrificed personal gain.  Black would have expected otherwise, understandably so, given the brotherhood emphasis of the Shield. 

-Ambrose gets his win first, then stays at ringside, grabs a headset to join the announce team.  Maybe grabs a headset to join the Spanish announce team.  That’s a better spot, easily repeatable, teach Ambrose enough Spanish that he can say some catchphrases.  He’s here to watch the Black match.

-Black wanted Langston, but Langston’s injured, so he settled on Kingston, that’s his level of desire for revenge, his entrance is the first time he’s come out from the back since the formation of the Shield, and he’s got new gear – it’s a full giant babyface moment for Black, he gets in a dive to take out Woods and goes over Kingston strong.  Postmatch, Ambrose hits the ring, he’s clapping – it’s not so much that it’s obvious he’s just being a jackass, it should be calibrated so you could take it both ways, Ambrose is being supportive…Ambrose is pulling focus.  Regardless, Black isn’t happy to see him – once he realizes Ambrose is in the ring with him postmatch, Black stops his celebration and shakes his head in dismay.  They haven’t spoken in months and this is how Ambrose wants to reach out?  Ambrose extends his fist, in the manner of the Shield, but Black walks out of the ring. 

-Time for an interlude, WWF Commissioner Bryan Danielson is introduced by Howard, comes to the ring, says tune in tomorrow night on RAW, he has an announcement of the biggest format shakeup in Survivor Series history – and that shakeup will actually begin before the end of RAW tomorrow.  The second announcement is that, arriving, as we speak, to the arena, right off the campaign trail – the next President and Vice President of the United States – Senator Linda McMahon and Vincent Kennedy McMahon!  The big screen shows Linda and Vince arrive in one of the luxury suites, HHH-M, Steph, Skip are all there as well – Linda and Vince wave at what assumes is a supportive Brooklyn crowd.  “Sing-le Pay-er” clap, clap, clapclapclap. 

7. IC: Rusev (w/GHB and Lana) d. El Generico

-Rusev becomes the 68^th Intercontinental Champion.  Rusev’s introduction is accompanied by a band playing the Russian National Anthem.  Images of Trump and Putin are on the video wall, accompanied by the word FREEDOM over and over and over again.  Rusev has a new novelty robe with airbrushed displays of a shirtless (totally ripped) Trump and Putin stomping out Linda and Vince. 

Rusev goes over, it’s typical Rusev match, a little distraction by Lana for GHB to hit a clothesline – Generico fights from underneath in typical Generico fashion, but the power of Rusev proves too much to overcome and he goes down.  Rusev, Lana, GHB celebrate in the ring, staring at the luxury box with the McMahon family.  GHB takes the mic – “just like in November, a Russian and an American will stand together and win the prize” – Rusev holds his belt aloft as the McMahon family stares daggers at them.

8.Tags: Trash (Claudio/Neville) d. Usos (Jimmy/Jey w/Roman)

-Claudio and Neville become the 99^th WWF tag team champs.  It’s Claudio’s first appearance since Survivor Series, he’s now Euro douchebag, he speaks several languages, he wears a scarf, he’s delighted to tell you how stupid you are.  It’s Neville’s first ever appearance as Neville (Pac lost a mask match at the Rumble, destroying his old identity) he is now real world heel Neville, just constant fury.  Together, they’re Trash, the slur used for each of them by Steen when they were stablemates.  They go over clean here. 

9. No DQ: Prince Devitt (w/Anderson and Gallows) d. Brock Lesnar (w/Heyman)

  -So, generally, I try to avoid too much Bullet Club interference during matches, I like a beatdown pre-match, I like some interference outside the ring during a match, that’s standard Jividen booking, and when there’s actual in ring interference (like in the IC match earlier) it’s fairly early in the match.  This, however, needs Bullet Club interference to tell the story.  Anderson and Gallows get involved, they both wind up bumping for Lesnar, and then Nakamura appears, he hits his knee strike on Lesnar, and eventually that all proves too much and Devitt, in his WWF PPV debut, gets the victory. 

The Bullet Club celebrates, Anderson and Gallows get the flag – but first, Devitt, as promised, stands atop Brock as he did at the Rumble.  Brock hulks up, stands, snatches Devitt and F5s him.  The rest of the Club scatters and Brock busts Devitt open similar to his real world busting up of Randy Orton, just leaving him broken in the middle of the ring – Lesnar wipes Devitt’s blood with the Bullet Club flag and drapes it over Devitt’s body.

10. WWF Title: AJ Styles d. Kevin Steen

-Best match they can have, just workrate, the Bullet Club isn’t physically able to return to aid AJ, so he’s on his own, but we need a good one on one workrate based, just go out and have the very best match you can possibly have, match.  This is that and AJ goes over.  AJ celebrates, leaves with the belt, Steen remains in the ring – Generico makes his way down, the two friends, longtime partners, both leaving Summer Slam without belts.

And now – here comes Trash.  Their longtime GDI stablemates, Neville and Claudio, come to the ring in their new personas, perhaps both men psychologically broken from Steen’s torment but now they’re the ones who have belts. 

Neville and Claudio come to the ring – Generico and Steen rise, Claudio doing most of the talking, Claudio smugly pointing at the tag belts, “You were right, Kevin – we are Trash, and we’re covered in gold.”  Generico gets in between Steen and Claudio, tries to keep them from fighting – when his old friend Neville bashes him over the head with his title belt.  That kicks off the brawl that leads to Trash leaving Steen/Generico laid out in the ring as the show ends. 

That’s Summer Slam.   Back next month with part 1 of the build to Survivor Series.  Here’s your tease – if you’ve been around awhile, you may know what happened in the summer after Wrestlemania 19.  Bryan Danielson also remembers.  See you in a month.

Road to Summer Slam 2016 - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

6 matches left to announce, they get rolled out over multiple weeks and in the matter of the tag title match, we don’t find out entirely who is wrestling until we’re a couple of weeks out.  Here’s the order in which the matches are announced:

Women’s Title: Falls Count Anywhere: Sasha v. Charlotte
Nick Nemeth v. Dean Ambrose
Tyler Black v. Kingston
Chris Jericho v. Apollo Crews
American Alpha (w/Swagger) v. Fandango Curtis/Zach Ryder
Tag Titles: Usos (Jimmy and Jey w/Reigns) v. Trash (Claudio/Neville)

-Sasha took the Women’s belt from her former stablemate Charlotte at WM32, Danielson puts over that match as the best women’s match in the history of the promotion and says he wants to see a better one at Summer Slam with a Falls Count Anywhere stip.  Sasha’s the champ, completely confident in her role as the Boss - we see her a lot with Becky as the last two survivors of 4-Ground, Becky clearly slid into the role of sidekick.  Charlotte’s heated, frenzied, angry each time we see her about the need to get her belt back.

-Nemeth and Ambrose feuded both in singles and in tags for several years – but they momentarily teamed up to get the pinfall on Lesnar in the Elimination Chamber until Nemeth superkicked him and got the fall.  They’re sort of in very similar spots right now – they’ve got to do some jobs over the summer as the Bullet Club needs fed, they’re good opponents for AJ and Devitt – and so they face off at Summer Slam.

-It comes as a surprise to Ambrose, but his partner’s coming back.  Ambrose and Nemeth are in the ring with Danielson, he’s just announced that match at Summer Slam, then Danielson, sort of excitedly, tells Ambrose that he’s about to announce another match, and it’s one Ambrose has a keen interest in.  We then see the first of the Black is Back vignettes, there will be several, it’s the full “he got hurt, he had surgery, watch him train from his first steps until today” series.  Danielson assumed Ambrose knew about Black’s impending return – but it is evident he did not.

-Ambrose will do a couple of backstage interviews with Renee Young, from them we’ll find out that he and Black haven’t spoken in more than six months.  Look, Ambrose’s career didn’t stop because his partner got hurt.  He was IC Champ, on the road every night trying to keep that belt.  Black’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.

-We learn from the Black vignettes that Danielson originally offered him the IC shot against Generico, but he turned it down.  There’s time for titles – Black lost more than a year of his life, Black wants vengeance.  Black wants Langston (Langston got hurt, not really seriously, but enough to knock him out of Summer Slam, that’s why he’s wrestling Kingston.  If he can’t get Langston he’s going to get one of Langston’s partners).  If you have to choose between the IC Title and justice – you choose justice, Black says.

-And that should give us the storyline; at WM 31 the longest title run in Wrestlemania history ends when The Shield lost their titles.  Langston turned on his partners, injured Black, taking him out of action for over a year.  Ambrose chose not to pursue revenge – instead moving on to challenge for the IC title (which he had previously held) and won it (then lost it and here we are).  Ambrose moved on, he and Black are estranged, Black’s returning for the first time in over a year at Summer Slam. You can, ideally, see it from both perspectives - Ambrose had a chance to go for the IC title and decided not to fight all 3 guys in New Day. Black has lost over a year of his career and his willing to fight all 3 guys in New Day in order to get revenge and the hell with the IC title.

-Danielson calls Jericho to the ring, says the previous administration thought he was done, put him in a retirement match. Danielson says he doesn’t agree with that decision.  He thinks Jericho’s got one more ride – one more run.  It starts at Summer Slam, Apollo Crews is coming up from Developmental – he’s Underground’s new hot shot, and he’s going to give Jericho all he’s worth.

-This will start a new show on the Network, Jericho 25 to celebrate a quarter century of Chris Jericho’s career (it’s longer than that, but 25 is a good number).  It’s a look through Jericho’s entire career, clips, interviews, Jericho discussing his memorable matches – important is that Jericho will be seen here as a veteran, this is a “Terry Funk goes to ECW” vibe we’re looking for.  Looking at young Jericho will remind us that he ain’t the Lionheart anymore.  Candid video of what it takes to get him ready to wrestle now is part of the show, he should seem creaky. Current Jericho is a middle aged man with a ton of wrestling miles on him and that's the story being told.  This isn’t just for this build, this is going to last all the way through Wrestlemania.

Episodes: The Dungeon (Jericho and Storm are trained in the Hart Dungeon, they’re connected to the broader lineage of the Hart Foundation, they reunite somewhere in Canada to talk old times)
                  Mexico (Jericho’s run in CMLL is discussed, it’s presented that Jericho learned the lucha style, mixing it with that Hart style and a discussion of modern wrestling being a hybrid interplay of cultures and styles is had, Jericho goes to some type of lucha show, maybe he goes to Lucha Underground, that’s a deal that could be struck – but they’ll be some lucha promotion that we can do some business with)
                  Japan ( Jericho in WAR, Jericho in the J-Cup, wrestling against Benoit – Jericho in a stable with Gedo and Jado, who ideally give interviews as part of the relationship established with New Japan, we meet wild, cocky young Jericho and hear about his attitude causing him to get slapped around in Japan)
                  ECW (We own the footage going forward, so now there isn’t a limit to the clips, interviews here from Heyman, Foley, and ideally Taz and Shane Douglas discussing how Jericho learns to work in front of tough Northeastern crowds)
                 NWA 1 (clips and anecdotes from all the big matches and programs – challenging Benoit for the NWA Title and losing at both Fall Brawl ’96 and Superbrawl ’97, feeling like Benoit was a mentor, one step ahead of him in the Hart lineage – like Dynamite was ahead of Bret and then Bret was ahead of Owen – and then finally beating him for the NWA title at Slamboree ’98, when he knew he was a full member of the Hart Foundation and an elite wrestler on his own.  Be a good chance to use Bret here for some interviews, here's where we get the hockey jersey discussion and Jericho being given the #7, which would remain his nickname among other wrestlers regardless of his incarnation)
                 NWA 2 (the greatest feud of his career, against Eddy Guerrero, we see Superbrawl ’98, Starrcade ’98, a lot of talk about their chemistry, that they talked about being Flair and Steamboat, always looking to have the greatest match anyone ever saw, ideally Chavo does some interviews here, this isn’t just an NWA only episode – it also covers the 2 IC matches Jericho had against Eddy in 2000, at Mania 16 and Summer Slam and then the match at WM 1, this episode really focuses on workrate, Jericho discusses this point as the best he ever was in the ring, that he'd win the WWF Title years later, but when he was really at his peak was right here with Guerrero.)
                 WWF1 (Y2J – Jericho debuts at Survivor Series ’99 and wins the IC Title, Jericho keeping the belt over HHH at Rumble ’00, Jericho losing the IC to Regal at Survivor Series ’00. Hunter and Waltman can both appear, a lot of talk about Jericho switching promotions, the locker room acceptance of Jericho or lack thereof)
                WWF2 (JerichoDark – it’s the end of cocky, young Jericho – we see Jericho dating Stacy Keibler, Lance Storm and Justin Credible coming to the WWF (can we get all of them?) Storm choosing to partner with Jericho and the two of them winning the tag titles over the Dudleys and Edge and Christian at Rumble ’02, then keep those belts in a TLC match at Mania 18 in Toronto over Hardys and Bubba and Spike.  But things grow tense with Storm over Stacy – Jericho loses a shot at the WWF Title to Angle, then, seeming to have a death wish when Lance and Stacy are seemingly together, he is brutally beaten by Brock at Rumble ’02, leading to Jericho’s beating Lance at Mania 19 in a Loser Leaves Town.  Jericho is now JerichoDark, all angst and anguish, all pain and misery – we see beating Flair at Summer Slam ’03. It's a big turning point in Jericho's career)

We’ll stop there for now, that’s 8, that gets us past Summer Slam and all the way to the end of 2016, there are 3-4 more, run one a month all the way until Wrestlemania.

Two matches left, the tag matches.

American Alpha, with their manager Swagger, makes their PPV debut here; they’re coming up from developmental and are positioned as the heir to the amateur wrestling workrate spot in WWF – lot of talk about the lineage of Steiners-Haas/Benjamin-Division 1 and Alpha being the continuation of that.  They get a couple-three squash matches as tune up during the build, just to show some of their moveset.  They’ll go up against a more seasoned Underground team, Curtis/Ryder at Summer Slam.

The last match – the Usos finally, finally won the WWF Tag Titles at Mania, they are the 98th tag champions in WWF history, and that number starts to get dropped in the programming so we can begin to think about 100.  They do a 3 month long victory lap – have a couple of fairly low impact programs so they can feel themselves; their opponents are unclear for almost the entire build – there are two vignettes, one that opens with an empty arena and a graphic that says “Atlanta, November, 2015” and the other that begins with “Orlando, January 2016” – then each vignette speeds up, we see the ring being put up, the crowd starting to enter, faster and faster until they are moving too quickly to be perceived, the images whirring by until they thud to an abrupt close and the screen goes black and we hear a primal scream.  The end graphic is of another empty arena “Brooklyn, August, 2016”

Then there’s a third vignette that combines the two, just a couple of weeks before Summer Slam, it’s a split screen, and here when the images start whirring they stop sooner, becoming visible, on the left, we see Claudio Castagnoli after attacking Nick Nemeth, staring at his hands, walking up the ramp – while on the right we see Pac having just lost his mask to Kalisto, holding his face in his hands – the whirring images begin again, again thudding to black – but this time there’s another image – it’s Pac, or rather, who used to be Pac – his name is now Neville as we will learn, he is scowling, and there’s Claudio, wearing a scarf and sunglasses with a sneer on his face – it goes to black again, there’s the primal scream, and then the graphic giving the name of the team – Trash (which, of course, is what Steen used to call them.

It’s a new tag act, Neville, playing his real world heel Neville character, and Claudio, as multilingual smarter than you Claudio.  They don’t appear before Summer Slam.

That’s the show.  A couple of additional things.

You may have noticed The Cuck is not on the Summer Slam card.  The Cuck hasn’t appeared once on any WWF platform since Mania – Maryse takes to the ring to complain, cutting a promo on Danielson, saying he’s always had something against her husband and now it’s even more clear – The Cuck is undefeated, there are 10 matches at Summer Slam, and the Cuck is getting blackballed.
Danielson enters and agrees.

He says he’s never liked the Miz, that soft chicken shit style.  But that was okay – but the Cuck, a wrestler who doesn’t actually wrestle – it’s offensive and there’s no place for it in any company that Danielson is going to be in charge of.  Danielson says there’s no spot open for the Cuck.
Sheamus enters.

Now, also not on the Summer Slam card is Sheamus – he’s had a tough go since Mania, the crowds have been chanting “You got cucked” – enough that Sheamus has already cut a couple of promos saying he wants to fight the Cuck to redeem himself for Wrestlemania.  Sheamus has gotten worked up pretty good – he hits the ring, shakes his finger at Danielson, demands a match.  Danielson says what he did at Wrestlemania is disgraceful and he doesn’t care if he ever gets a rematch.  Regal then enters, hey, Regal’s at RAW, it’s a surprise.  Regal asks Danielson for a favor – says he did Heyman a favor, despite their history, and he’d like the same courtesy extended.

Danielson agrees.  One condition – he tells Maryse she’s barred from ringside.  We are not going to see anyone get Cucked on Monday Night RAW.

The next week on RAW, we get the match.  Sheamus vs. The Cuck.

Cuck is in a full body suit, his face is totally obscured – but he enters alone without Maryse, there’s no note, the Cuck doesn’t read anything – it looks as if, for the first time, the Cuck is actually going to have to wrestle. Sheamus is frothing at the mouth, he has been trying to get redemption since Mania, and now, in what is maybe the go home RAW, he gets his shot.

The match is 30 seconds long – Sheamus charges, eats a Cuck superkick – Cuck climbs up the buckles and hits Sliced Bread #2 for the pinfall victory.  The crowd is shocked- shocked – The Cuck removes his mask, to reveal the return of Brian Kendrick to the WWF.  Kendrick makes the sign of the clique and exits.

Well revisit that after Summer Slam.

Last thing is Dark Ride Wrestling.  Scott Stanford has been the play by play announcer, but now it’s Ranallo, doing triple duty on all 3 shows, and Corey Graves has been the analyst – but at the end of the Dark Ride after Mania it will be Austin Aries.

On Dark Ride after Mania Aries announces his retirement – in his first ever WWF match right after the Rumble he and Joe were attacked by the Bullet Club, his eye was injured – he has not returned since and, much like Danielson did the year before, he says he has not been able to get clearance.  He stays his heart is broken – he is a 2 time ROH Champion, a 2 time TNA Champion – his whole life has been pointed to this moment, and AJ Styles takes away his vision like the cowardly bitch that he is.

Aries says he’s moving to the broadcast booth and he’ll be here every Wednesday sitting next to Mauro Ranallo.  The idea behind Ranallo joining Dark Ride is to have their top guy working with Aries given how new he is to the broadcast booth.  They’ll grow closer over the course of the year, Aries is a regular on Ranallo’s shoot podcast.

Coming to Dark Ride are Bobby Roode (in the Glorious gimmick) and Roderick Strong.  They’re programmed against each other.  Revival feuds with Gargano/Ciampa.  Swann feuds with Alexander. Bayley feuds with Asuka. Joe feuds with Sombra, but will occasionally just decide to beat up some other dude for fun. Although Roode and Joe were partners in TNA, as the cornerstone of a revitalized Four Horsemen with Flair (and Doug Williams, or Sting, or James Storm, who already showed up in WWF for a reunion with Joe only to get his ass kicked) Roode and Joe never interact.

The big development is about halfway between Mania and Summer Slam, Danielson makes his first appearance on Dark Ride, he is supposed to have a big announcement.

Danielson says its amazing what's happened here on Dark Ride, this show used to be just he and Low Ki riding around in a bus.  Danielson said smart wrestling fans always knew that sometimes the best wrestling they'd see that week was on Wednesday nights, with the guys who weren't on the PPVs, and that's still the case today.

And those fans deserve a champion.

A couple of guys come to the ring carrying a box (what's in the box! what's in the box!) and they open it to unveil a title belt.  Danielson says we are going to crown the first ever Dark Ride World Champion.  And then he calls Joe to the ring.

Joe stalks Danielson, says if he's going to come to his ring with a title belt, he better be ready to put up his hands.  Joe and Danielson do a nose to nose - it's finally happened - Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson, as prophecy foretold --

Danielson says thats not why he's here - he's here to congratulate Joe, he created Dark Ride Wrestling a year ago, it's a phenomenon, and now it's time that he be named its first ever Champion.

Danielson hands Joe the belt.  Joe hands it back.

Joe says no one had to hand him the ROH title.  He won it on his own and held it longer than anyone. "Longer than Nigel, in his broadcast booth.  Longer than Aries, right there, in his broadcast booth.  Longer than you, Dragon, with your flannel shirt and your sneakers.  Standing in my ring thinking you can hand me a title belt.  I earn title belts. 10 years ago I snatched the TNA belt right off AJ Styles waist and held that belt longer than any man ever has.  2 and a half years.  And then I won it twice more. I didn't need your help then.  I didn't need your help when I came here and created Dark Ride Wrestling.  I don't need your help now."

Danielson shakes his head, "Jesus you're such an asshole.  Fine.  Do it your way."

Danielson announces that next week there will be a 20 man battle royal called Dark Ride Warfare, every 90 seconds a new entrant - eliminations are via pinfall or thrown over the top rope.  Winner is the Dark Ride Champion.

Later, we'll learn the parameters of the title - it's just for guys who haven't wrestled on PPV in at least a year, so, you can lose it in the ring or if you wrestle on a PPV, then you forfeit the belt and there's a new Dark Ride Warfare.

Here were the entrants in the match (not in the order they entered or were eliminated).

Joe
Roode
Strong
Gargano
Ciampa
Dash
Dawson
Alexander
Swann
Curt Hawkins, making his return
Corbin
Strowman
Dillinger
Breeze
Joe Hennig
Haste
Nicholls
PAUL
Sombra
Eric Young

Joe and Alexander were the final two entrants - Joe won, the other wrestlers returned to the ramp to applaud as he raised the belt over his head - and then the Bullet Club music hit - the seas parted as Shinsuke Nakamura emerged from the back - walked to the ring - and went nose to nose with Joe.

That builds to a match for the go home Dark Ride - Joe vs. Nakamura for the Dark Ride Championship.  Nakamura goes over and takes the title.

That's it.  Here's your show:

WWF Title: AJ Styles (w/Bullet Club) vs. Kevin Steen
Brock Lesnar vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bullet Club)

IC Title: El Generico vs. Rusev (w/GHB and Lana)

Tag Titles: Usos (Jimmy and Jey w/Reigns) v. Trash (Claudio/Neville)
Tyler Black v. Kingston
Nick Nemeth v. Dean Ambrose
Chris Jericho v. Apollo Crews
Weapons Match: Dudley Boys v. Anderson/Gallows
Women’s Title: Falls Count Anywhere: Sasha v. Charlotte
American Alpha (w/Swagger) v. Fandango Curtis/Zach Ryder

It's a good show, right?  Call your cable company.  See you in August.