Cheap Pops - Wrestling News & Views - September 28, 2015

Cheap Pops - September 28, 2015
by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

- Night of Champions Results
- Lucha Underground Season 2!!!!
- Review: WWE Network: Legends With JBL Episode 1 (Eric Bischoff)
- NXT Results

Night of Champions Results

-Stardust and The Ascension vs. Neville and The Lucha Dragons

Winners: The Ascension and Stardust

- WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Kevin Owens vs. Ryback

Winner and New WWE Intercontinental Champion: Kevin Owens (after Owens rakes Ryback's eyes)

- Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler

Winner: Ziggler...after Summer Rae tries to hit Ziggler with a shoe and hit Rusev instead.

- WWE Tag Team Title Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The New Day

Winner: Dudleyz by DQ after Xavier Woods got involved.  After match, New Day tried to put Dudleyz through a table...but instead, Dudleyz put Xavier Woods through the table.

- WWE Divas Title Match: Charlotte vs. Nikki Bella

Winner: Charlotte with Figure Eight

- The Wyatt Family vs. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho

Winner: Wyatts.  After match, there is some heat between Jericho and Ambrose.

-WWE United States Title Match: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins

Winner and new US Champion: John Cena

After match, Rollins tries to run away.  But Cena brings him back into ring and leaves him laid out in ring.  Next match starts almost immediately.

- WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: Sting vs. Seth Rollins

Winner: Seth Rollins manages to roll up Sting when Sting tries to lock on the Scorpion Deathlock.  After the match, Sheamus tries to cash in.  But Kane's music hits.  Demon Kane comes out and chokeslams Rollins.  Sheamus tries to get him to do it again, but Kane chokeslams Sheamus.  Then he hits the Tombstone on Rollins to end the show.

During the match, Sting seems to have really hurt his neck.  

Mike: I missed the first two matches, but I did enjoy most of this pay per view.  I did think it was a little odd to have so many “bad” finishes.  The only matches that ended totally clean were Charlotte defeating Nikki and the two Rollins’ matches.   

Chris: Basically every match ended in a pretty lackluster way.  Not a great show.

Mike: I thought Rollins was terrific tonight.  Both of his matches were great, and he even added a variety of power moves to his arsenal.  He may have seriously injured Sting, but Sting probably should not have been taking some of the sick bumps he took at Night of Champions.

Chris: I'm really surprised with some of the moves Sting did and took.  He was really going for it on the show, and I hope it doesn't cost him with a life long injury.  I won't get on WWE for the Sting finish, but did Rollins have to lose to the AA...AGAIN.  Gosh, why even discuss Cena matches.

Mike: Jericho as the surprise partner for Ambrose/Rollins was a bit of a let down.  I love Jericho and it definitely was a surprise.  But it still felt a little underwhelming.  They did seem to tease a bit of a grudge between Jericho and Ambrose at the end.  I hope they play that up some.  

Chris: Love Y2J, absolutely love him.  Generally speaking, at this point, I could care less when he shows up anymore.  He hasn't been involved in anything special in a long time.  This match shaped up as special on paper and ended up a dud.  Not bad, but so much less than it should have been.

Mike: The return of Kane was kind of done real well, and I thought it was great the way they teased Kane as a split personality on Raw the next night.  I also loved Paige’s promo turning on the Divas’ division.  I love the idea of the Divas’ Revolution, but it has been a little weak so far.  Hopefully this is the jolt it needed.

Chris: Kane's return was strong but him losing almost every match for the past year doesn't help his stock.  The dual personality could be fun, though.  Here's hoping!  And Paige going heel...yeah, here's hoping her feud with Charlotte elevates the Divas division.  It's time for some top tier women's wrestling on the main roster.

​

I will also say that I am VERY tired of fans overusing “pipe bomb.”  “Did you see Aj’s Pipe Bomb?”  “Did you see Paige’s Pipe Bomb?”  ENOUGH!  It’s like when the media refers to every scandal, no matter how big or small as “Whatever-gate.” Can’t we get a  little more creativity people??

Chris: You said it!  Our whole country speaks far too often in derivatives and canned crap.  It's so sad.  Nobody should try and replicate what Punk did with The Pipe Bomb.  That was a magical confluence of fact and fiction.  Everything now, it's overly written and managed by Vince.  I like Paige's heel turn, but that's all it was.  No pipe bomb!  Anyone that doesn't like it can run a newsflash and called it Pipe Bomb-gate.  They may as well name a tropical storm while they're at it, pump up fear about domestic terrorism, and tell us about the silent killer already in my home.  

Lucha Underground Season 2 FINALLY OFFICIALLY!

Mike: Really exciting news!  Last Monday, Lucha Underground officially announced they will be back for season 2 in 2016!

“Believers, are you ready? Lucha Underground season 2 is coming in 2016!”

I loved Season 1, and can’t wait to see season 2, especially if they are going to be bringing in Rey Mysterio.  Season 1 ended with the biggest heel in the company controlling just about all the titles. That should create a hell of a dynamic leading into the new season.  LUCHA!  LUCHA!

Chris: You know I'm there with you, bro!  Lucha Underground was consistently the best wrestling show on tv this past year.  Here's hoping the program gets more exposure and can pull in an even bigger fan base.  

As for improvements, I'd love to see them tape a little closer to airtime instead of months in advance. Some touring and better merchandise would be great as well.  I really want to see this become a more rich overall product.

That said, this is without a doubt the best wrestling news in quite some time!

Mike: As much as I enjoy watching wrestling, what I love most about the WWE Network is watching insiders talk about wrestling.   LEGENDS OF WRESTLING and TABLE FOR 3 are just about my two favorite things to watch on the Network.  The Stone Cold Podcasts are almost always entertaining. And I loved the roundtable they did to discuss Dusty Rhodes' best stories after he had passed away.  

So when I heard that JBL was going to be hosting a long form interview show on the Network, I was immediately interested.  I ended up watching the first episode when it aired (which is something I just about never get to to).  The show was almost an hour long and Eric Bischoff was the guest.

JBL is a solid interviewer.  I had seen Eric Bischoff talk about many of these stories before, but having the WWE’s vast library there to provide context really helped this show stand out.  Bischoff has always been a tricky guy to figure out.  He seems genuinely sincere to me about what he says, but you hear so many stories suggesting otherwise that it makes it tough to decide what’s true and what’s not.

This interview will actually be continued next week, delving a little more into specific things that happened during the Monday Night War.  I am really looking forward to seeing that.  

I don’t even have a story for this...I just want to post this picture because...dear god.

LIKE A BOSS!

Chris: She can be my boss any day of the week!

NXT RESULTS 9-24-15

• Eva Marie comes out to her usual heat.  The announcers talk about the controversy in her last match where she forgot to kick out (when the ref had to hold his count to give her a chance to react).  Video of her thanking the ref for doing what’s right and not caving into pressure from the NXT Universe.  Carmella is out next.  Cuts a quick promo before the match.  At one point, the ref refused to make a count on Eve Marie.  The ref said her foot was on the rope (replay later showed it actually was).  Carmella fights with ref, and Eva Marie throws her out of the ring.  Carmella is hurt so bad from the fall, she gets counted out.

• VIdeo Promo for Nia Jax.  Coming Soon.

• Recap of Regal’s announcement last week that Bayley and Sasha will Main Event NXT: Respect.  Real nice video package.

• Tyler Breeze def. Bull Dempsey by using the ropes for leverage to steal a pin.

• VIdeo of NXT’s tour in Texas.

• Regal is in the ring.  He welcomes NXT’s newest signing, Kana.  Regal realy hypes her up.  She comes out with her mask.  She will be Asuka in NXT...which we already knew from the promo videos.  She has a real cool theme song.  He asks he is she has anything to say to the NXT Universe.  She says that she’s happy to be here in NXT.  SHe seems real high energy and the crowd is responding to that.  She signs her contract. Dana Brooke and Emma come out.  They walk down to the ring.  “Asuka is going to kill you chants” break out.  Emma and Dana talk to her like she’s slow.  They introduce themselves as NXT’s Welcoming Committee.  They are in charge here.  They ran Charlotte and Becky Lynch out of NXT, and they can do the same to Asuka.  They tell her to get out of their ring.  She starts to do so.  She hesitates, and then walks back up the ramp towards the locker room.  Emma and Dana laugh.  Crowd is chanting for Asuka.  Asuka stops at the top of the ramp.  She gives a bit of a creepy smile as she heads backstage.

• News from Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament.

  • Baron Corbin and Rhyno def. Gargano and Ciampa on last week’s NXT.

  • In Austin, Dash and Dawson beat the Vaudevillians in a shocking upset.

  • The Semi-Finals will be at NXT Respect.

  • Next week, Finn Balor/Samoa Joe Vs Big Cass/Enzo Amore

  • Also next week, Hype Bros vs Gable/Jordan.  Both teams cut promos on the other.  I especially liked Gable/Jordan. These two guys have great chemistry together.

- Vaudevillians def Blake and Murphy with the Whirling Dervish to retain the NXT Tag Titles.

- Video with Cass and Enzo honoring DUsty Rhodes.  They show a lot of respect for their opponents for next week, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe.

- Finn and Samoa Joe have a video.  Finn says that Cass and Enzo are his friends, but Dusty was his mentor and he will win this for DUsty.  Samoa Joe says “we are the two toughest dogs on the block...and you can’t teach that.”

Mike: The commentary during the opening match was real painful. They are so desperate to try and put Eva Marie over that it just feels like real bad shilling. And how many times was Eva Marie going to yell “How you doing?”  It just all feels so overbooked.  Fans will not flock to someone just because the bookers believe they will.  Carmella constantly looks better in the ring.  The countout win was so odd...but I guess they figured it was better than watching Eva Marie botch Sliced Bread #2 again.

During the Dempsey/Breeze match, I thought the “Bull is gorgeous” chants were brilliant.  This was a real solid match. I always liked Tyler Breeze, and this gimmick change has been a great way to build interest in Bull.  At one point, I really thought we were going to get another count out finish, but thankfully Bull made it back into the ring.  I also thought that COrey Grave’s line about learning anatomy from Gorilla Monsoon was a fitting tribute.  This rivalry seems far from over.  It’s a great midcard feud and fits both men’s characters so well.

I have never seen Kama/Asuka before.  I would have liked to see what she can do.  I was a little disappointed when she left the ring without a confrontation. But I did love that eerie little smile she gave as she left.  She definitely seems like she is ready to throw down.  I thought her promo was real high energy, and I hope she gets to show her ring talent soon.  NXT needs some fresh blood!

This is what I wrote during the tag team title match.  “No Blue Pants tonight?  I’ve been following Leva Bates on Facebook.  She’s… NEVER MIND!  HERE SHE IS!  She runs down to the ring, chasing Alexa Bliss out of the ring and into the backstage area…  Back to my comments.   Bates seems to have an awesome indy career going on.  I love her cosplay gimmicks, and the Ex-Presidents is pretty badass.  I hope that I get the chance to see her live.”

The match itself was pretty good.  It started a little slow, and Blake/Murphy are fine, but they feel a little generic to me at times.  I always loved the Vaudevillians real unique move set.  You see something new everytime they wrestle, and I appreciate that effort.  AIden English has come a long way since NXT started as its own brand.  He was basically a jobber...than a Broadway singer.  And since he started teaming with Simon Gotch, they have both really found their niche.

The was a really good episode of NXT.  NXT had been flat for a few weeks, but it has been getting back on track.  It is a little odd that we haven’t seen much of NXT’s “big names” including NXT Champ Finn Balor  We don’t even know who he’s fighting at NXT Takeover: Respect.  Though it occurs to me, he will probably be involved in the Dusty Classic.  This will be the first NXT Takeover without a title match as far as I know. The tag teams and women’s division are getting pretty much all the focus.  It was kind of odd to end with two video promos instead of a match, but that didn’t really take away from my enjoyment of the episode.