News Ticker

WEEKLY OVERVIEW – WWE (thru 8/28): Top stories of week, major show lineups, live event results, schedule of live events, noteworthy social media posts, more

By Zach Graham, PWTorch Contributor

August 31, 2019

Former champion reportedly returning to WWE
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

The following article is part of our Weekly Overview Series to help put in perspective major wrestling promotions with a weekly overview, looking at news and roster developments, results, future line-ups, social media activity, key interviews, plus a timely commentary at the end. We will be featuring similar features on other promotions each week and each will be updated weekly.

•Top Stories of the Week

  • WWE announced a new partnership with Endeavor Audio to launch a WWE Podcast Network which will feature “several Superstar-focused series.” SOURCE
  • Raw ratings remain steady this week with a 1.79 rating. Last week drew a 1.76 rating, so a slight improvement to end the month of August. Unfortunately Raw did lose 400,000 viewers between the first and third hours and ended the night in the 2, 3, and 4 spots for the 18-49 demographic behind the MTV Video Music Awards show.

•WWE Weekly Event Results

WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster (Panama City, Panama) 8/25/19

(1) Kevin Owens beat Sami Zayn
(2) Andrade defeated Matt Hardy
(3) Ember Moon beat Charlotte
(4) Kabuki Warriors defeated Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose
(5) Roman Reigns beat Samoa Joe in a Street Fight
(6) Shinsuke Nakamura (c) beat Ali to retain the Intercontinental Championship
(7) Randy Orton defeated Rey Mysterio
(8) Kofi Kingston (c) beat Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE Championship

SOURCE

If you attend a live event, please send results to pwtorch@pwtorch.com. Thanks!

•WWE TV Match Results

Monday Night Raw TV Results 8/26/19

(1) Ricochet beat Drew McInytre to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament
(2) Baron Corbin defeated The Miz to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament
(3) Bayley beat Nikki Cross
(4) Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode won the Tag Team Turmoil match to earn a Raw Tag Team Championship match at Clash of Champions
– The Viking Raiders defeated The B-Team
– The Viking Raiders and Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows were both disqualified
– Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler beat Lucha House Party
– Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler beat The Revival
– Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler defeated Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins to win
(5) Sasha Banks beat Natalya
(6) Cedric Alexander defeated Cesaro
(7) A.J. Styles beat Braun Strowman via Disqualification to retain the United States Championship after faking being hit with a chair by Braun

Smackdown Live TV Results 8/27/19

(1) Ali beat Buddy Murphy to advance in the King of the Ring Tournament
(2) Bayley beat Lacey Evans
(3) Randy Orton defeated Big E
(4) Chad Gable beat Shelton Benjamin

205 Live Results (Aired on WWE Network) 8/27/19

(1) Ariya Daivari beat Kalisto
(2) Humberto Carillo defeated Oney Lorcan

WWE Main Event (Aired on Hulu and WWE Network) 8/29/19

(1) Lacey Evans beat Dana Brooke
(2) Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil defeated Eric Young & Mojo Rawley

SOURCE

24/7 Championship Update

    • Over the Weekend – Check the Social Media Highlights Section for Video
      – R-Truth pinned Elias
      – Rob Stone (host of Fox College Football) pinned R-Truth
      – Elias beat Rob Stone
    • Smackdown
      – Drake Maverick pinned Elias to win the 24/7 Championship

WWE King of the Ring Bracket

    • Raw Bracket
      – Samoa Joe vs. Ricochet
      – Cedric Alexander vs. Baron Corbin
    • Smackdown Bracket
      – Elias vs. Ali
      – Andrade vs. Chad Gable

•Upcoming Lineups for Stadium/PPV Events

WWE Clash of Champions on September 15 in Charlotte, N.C.

  • Bayley (c) vs. Charlotte for the Smackdown Women’s Championship
  • Seth Rollins (c) vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship
  • Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship
  • Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode for the Raw Tag Team Championships

•Upcoming Events

Fri. 8/30/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Cross Insurance Center, Bangor, Maine
Sat. 8/31/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Cross Insurance Arena, Portland, Maine
Sun. 9/1/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Westchester County Center, White Plains, N.Y.
Mon. 9/2/19 WWE Raw, Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore, Md.
Tue. 9/3/19 WWE Smackdown, Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, Va.
Thu. 9/5/19 WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster, Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile
Fri. 9/6/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Harbour Station, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Fri. 9/6/19 WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster, Luna Park Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sat. 9/7/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Halifax Forum, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Sun. 9/8/19 WWE Live Event – Super Show, War Memorial Arena, Syracuse, N.Y.
Mon. 9/9/19 WWE Raw, Madison Square Garden, New York City, N.Y.
Tue. 9/10/19 WWE Smackdown, Madison Square Garden, New York City, N.Y.
Fri. 9/13/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Sat. 9/14/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Macon Centreplex Coliseum, Macon, Ga.
Sun. 9/15/19 WWE Clash of Champions, Spectrum Centre, Charlotte, N.C.
Mon. 9/16/19 WWE Raw, Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tenn.
Tue. 9/17/19 WWE Smackdown, State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Ga.
Fri. 9/20/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Stampede Corral, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Fri. 9/20/19 WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster, Araneta Coliseum, Manila, Philippines
Sat. 9/21/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Sat. 9/21/19 WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster, Mercedes Benz Arena, Shanghai, China
Sun. 9/22/19 WWE Live Event – Smackdown Roster, Neal S. Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii
Mon. 9/23/19 WWE Raw, Chase Center, San Francisco, Calif.
Tue. 9/24/19 WWE Smackdown, Chase Center, San Francisco, Calif.
Fri. 9/27/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas
Sat. 9/28/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Findlay Toyota Center, Prescott, Ariz.
Sun. 9/29/19 WWE Live Event – Raw Roster, Tucson Convention Center, Tucson, Ariz.
Mon. 9/30/19 WWE Raw, Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, Ariz.
Fri. 10/4/19 WWE Smackdown, Staples Center, Los Angeles, Calif.
Sat. 10/5/19 WWE Supershow, Pechanga Arena, San Diego, Calif.
Sun. 10/6/19 WWE Hell in a Cell, Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, Calif.
Mon. 10/7/19 WWE Raw, Rabobank Arena, Bakersfield, Calif.

•Latest TV Highlights

Monday Night Raw

  • Sasha Banks started Raw this week. She talked about where she had been for the last four months since WrestleMania. She said people said she threw a fit. “I did.” She said people said she was seen crying on the locker room floor after WrestleMania. “I did.” She said people said she took her ball and went home. “You’re damn right I did.” She explained herself by saying “I was relegated to a WrestleMania tag team match I cared absolutely nothing about, defending tag team titles that meant even less, while Becky Lynch got to headline WrestleMania against Ronda Rousey.” She said she took a couple of amazing vacations with her WrestleMania check, but Becky’s was a lot larger for main eventing. When she came back she had a plan and Natalya standing in the ring two weeks ago was the perfect moment. Natalya’s music would play and she would go right after Sasha and attacking her until referees pulled them apart. The two later had a match that Sasha would win with a submission on Natalya’s injured elbow. After the match Sasha got back into the ring and reapplied the Bank Statement as she smiled.
  • Seth and Braun were interviewed backstage and Seth talked about having to defend both championships at Clash of Champions. Braun stared longingly at the Universal Title. Braun challenged Seth to a match for the Universal Championship on that night and Seth accepted. Braun had a chance to win more gold tonight as he got his rematch with A.J. Styles for the United States Championship after the disqualification last week. Eventually Gallows and Anderson would appear again causing a distraction. Styles grabbed a chair and brought it into the ring while Braun’s back was turned. Braun would eventually get the chair, hit Gallows and Anderson with it a few times, and while the referee had his back turned Styles dropped to the mat acting as if he was hit. The ref turned around and saw Strowman with a chair, A.J. on the mat, and he heard the chair be used, so he disqualified Braun for using the chair on Styles.

Smackdown Live

  • Kofi Kingston opened Smackdown this week in front of the live crowd to talk about Randy Orton. Kingston said he was looking to prove he belonged in the top spot, but Orton made it personal by bringing Kofi’s family into it. Then it was made personal when he and The Revival took out Xavier Woods. Kofi said “when you mess with my family, I don’t play around.” Orton interrupted on the big screen by saying “Stupid” no less than ten times. He said he was sitting in his hotel room earlier trying to think of ways to show Kofi how stupid he is, when someone slipped a letter under his door. Orton pulled out the letter which asked him to please stop hurting Kofi and that Kofi is not stupid. It said Orton is so mean it makes Kofi cry at night and he knows that because Kofi isn’t just his hero, he’s his daddy. Orton then said he is staying in the same hotel as Kofi’s family so maybe he should pay them a visit. Kofi immediately walked towards the back and met Orton backstage and the two began brawling. Eventually Orton his Kofi with a DDT off a table. Later we found out that Big E was going to take on Orton. In a backstage segment Big E said Kofi will be ready for Clash of Champions, but Orton may not be after tonight. The match was competitive, but eventually The Revival came out causing a distraction which lead to the RKO for Orton to pick up the win. After the match all three heels hit Big E with the “Super RKO” which is essentially The Revival lifting him up for their Shatter Machine, but instead of knees to the face, Orton hits an RKO.
  • WWE teased Daniel Bryan and Rowan demanding Roman Reigns apologize to them after they revealed the “actual” attacker last week. At the end of Smackdown, Roman came to the ring and Bryan & Rowan appeared on the big screen demanding their apology. Roman asked the fans if he should apologize, they all emphatically chanted no. Roman threw to a video of the original attack on him that showed a man in a sweatshirt with a big beard that looked like Rowan. Bryan and Rowan watched back stage on a monitor as well and after it ended, Bryan lost his composure and smacked Rowan about a dozen times yelling about how much he hates liars. Bryan then grabbed a microphone and stormed to the ring declaring his innocence to Roman. As soon as Bryan climbed into the ring, he was hit with a Spear and Roman’s music played as Smackdown ended.

•WWE in the Media

– Braun Strowman was on the Notsam Wrestling podcast this week. They start by talking about how Braun got into wrestling. Braun said he always wanted to be a wrestler, but didn’t know how to get into it. He said a couple of competitors for the Strong Man competitions noticed him outside a club in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina who noticed how big he was. They asked him if they wanted to try out Strong Man, he said yes and after two weeks of training he won his first competition. After only two months he finished 15th in the National event followed shortly by finishing 17th in the World Championship. In 2012, he was at a competition in Los Angeles and Mark Henry was there recruiting and that’s how he found his way into WWE.

Braun talked about the struggles of training while in strong man in response to people who think he didn’t “pay his dues” to get to WWE. He talked about working 70+ hour weeks to afford it and having to drive incredible distances to train. He also said he was lucky in that the gym he worked out at didn’t charge him a membership fee. He also said he had a deal with a local butcher shop who would give him meat that was close to being discarded because it was going to go bad and that’s how he would eat. He also talked about having to create his own equipment to train.

Sam and Braun then started talking about Bray Wyatt’s new character. Braun acknowledges that Bray is one of his best friends in and out of WWE. He said Bray went so deep into this character that there was a period of time the two didn’t even speak to anyone. Braun said after the first episode of the Firefly Fun House he asked him what the hell he was doing, but as it’s gone on, he’s bought in on the character. Braun then calls Bray the best guy on the microphone in the company and says this gimmick is 100% Bray’s idea and his idea alone. Braun also called Wyatt a locker room leader and said that Bray and JoJo named him the godfather of their son. Strowman also says Bray is the one that showed him the ropes down to how to book a hotel room when he came to WWE.

Braun then says there have been times where he’s gotten frustrated and called Vince who told him that he’s one of Vince’s guys and today doesn’t matter as much as what Braun is doing in ten years. Braun tells the story of walking into a production meeting once upset about something. Two hours before Raw was going to begin, the show wasn’t even finished being written, and Vince kicked everyone out and talked to him one on one for 45 minutes. Sam asked Braun what time frame this all happened in and Strowman said that this was just after Royal Rumble of this year.

The interview starts around the 14 minute mark and can be streamed HERE.

– The OC was on Chasing Glory with Lillian Garcia this week. They talked about their friendship and how long they’ve known each other. Lillian then realizes she was announcing when Luke Anderson was Festus, which lead to them laughing at Anderson. He said he didn’t hate that gimmick at all because it got him straight into WWE when he was 23 years old, so how could he hate it? They also talked about Gallows being on WWE Tough Enough including when his pants fell off on day two and he had to do pushups in the sand without pants on. Gallows said when he was released he was 27 and improbably he said he felt very confident he would come back and after spending some time working the independents, he ended up in Japan with Anderson. He said he wasn’t ever nervous about making money because he was a former WWE wrestler, so he’d get bigger pay days based solely off of that.

Karl Anderson then told his story saying he started out playing baseball and after his second year he quit to move to Cincinnati to become a professional wrestler and worked the independent wrestling scene. He worked there for six years before moving to Los Angeles to try something new, which is where he was noticed by New Japan Pro Wrestling. He said he chose L.A. because a person working in the New Japan Dojo in L.A. saw him at a show in Nashville, Tennessee. He said he met Shinsuke Nakamura out there and one day he wanted to go eat, but Anderson was completely broke. After going to an ATM machine and Nakamura forcing him to show him how broke he was, Nakamura fed him for six months straight.

Lillian then asks why they changed the name from The Club to The OC and they all agree that The Club just didn’t click with the audience and as The Club they weren’t really seen as heels. By changing it to the OC they got to change the look, their colors, and just go in a different direction with their act even if it’s the same people.

They all agree the worst part of wrestling and traveling is being away from their kids. Anderson says, while the WWE schedule is rough at times, it’s nothing compared to his time in Japan. While working for New Japan he would spend three weeks or six weeks in Japan, so he’d miss huge chunks of his kids growing up, but now he’s there three out of seven days during the week so it’s much better, even if it’s not perfect. They talked about the time where A.J. was on television, but Anderson and Gallows weren’t. They openly admit they avoided Styles because they were so miserable they didn’t want to drag him down with them because they just wanted to complain and vent about their frustrations. Gallows said he was miserable every single day and he and Anderson openly talked about leaving and where they would go next after their contracts expired. Styles says he understood their frustration and he felt bad because he asked them to come to WWE with him, which gave him a sense of responsibility for them. Styles said once he lost the WWE Championship he immediately began to push for them to reunite, but it took a while before WWE acted on that. Anderson clarifies that their frustration wasn’t with a lack of championships, they just wanted the opportunity to perform and they went months without doing anything besides sit in catering.

A.J. Styles finishes the interview by saying “I can tell you that the contract I signed with the WWE is my last. This is it for me. This is where I’m going to end my career no matter what happens.”

The interview starts around the nine minute mark and you can listen to it HERE.

– Lio Rush co-hosted Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg this week as well. They discussed his journey to the WWE and discussed Raw from last week as well. Rosenberg asked Rush about his current situation with WWE and Rush responded by saying that there are times when performers are taken off the road because “it’s not their time” and right now it’s not his time. He said he and WWE are still on speaking terms, he still works for them, but right now he’s just not on the road. You can listen to the entire podcast HERE.

•Listen to the latest Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-Show – Smackdown Post-Show

PWTorch editor Wade Keller is joined by PWTorch columnist and PWTorch Dailycast host Greg Parks to review Smackdown with live callers, talk to an on-site correspondent from Baton Rouge, La. with details on what happened off air, and answer mailbag questions. They discuss the ridiculously bad finish to the Roman Reigns whodunit angle, Lacey Evans vs. Bayley, Big E vs. Randy Orton, Chad Gable vs. Shelton Benjamin, Ali vs. Buddy Murphy, the latest with Sami Zayn paired with Shinsuke Nakamura,…

-On Tune In Radio HERE
-On Apple Podcasts HERE
-Or search “Wade Keller” on your podcast app of choice

•WWE Social Media Highlights

Here is a video of the three title changes at the Fox Sports event this weekend:

Congrats to Seth and Becky as they announced their engagement late last week!

https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1164684584870563840

Also, congratulations to Cesaro as he has his two front teeth again!

Cesaro also teased an appearance at this Saturday’s NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff…

The Miz starred in a new commercial for the Cleveland Browns who are going to be selling their Victory Fridges. The Miz is a huge Browns fan who happened to get his hands on one of the original Victory Fridges last year.

•Closing Commentary

– I can’t stand when these buildings promote matches upcoming at the WWE PPV they’re going to be hosting. NO Spoilers! I understand they’re trying to sell tickets, but that doesn’t make me hate it less. Also, you don’t have to tweet it out, you could just advertise locally! I can promise you the world won’t be traveling to Sacramento for Hell in a Cell. Maybe some will, but not enough to tweet it out like that, in my opinion. It’s so ridiculous to tweet out the Universal Championship challenger this far ahead of time. I mean the PPV is in six and a half weeks! For those of you who haven’t seen it, the Golden 1 Center (host of Hell in a Cell) tweeted out Tuesday who will be challenging the winner of Braun Strowman vs. Seth Rollins. I guess I give them credit for announcing that he’ll face the winner of an upcoming match, but still! I don’t follow the venue, but the tweet blew up to the point I saw it no less than a dozen times. If you want to know who it is, you can look it up there. It’s hard to miss since it’s just a giant photo of the challenger’s face.

– Putting Drew McIntyre into the King of the Ring Tournament just to lose clean immediately is a mistake. I know this isn’t exactly a controversial opinion, but unless this is heading towards Drew on an all-out warpath to destroy everyone and everything, why would you do this? Like Wade Keller said on the WKPWP Post-Raw show, maybe they just don’t see Drew as a top guy, which is absolutely insane to me. I’m hoping they tell a story about him refocusing or something, even though that doesn’t make much sense. He’s just top level talent in my opinion and he should be at the top of the company with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement, but maybe I’m wrong?

– The segment that ended Smackdown was one of the most ridiculous and idiotic segments I’ve ever seen. What in the world? Is this really the best they can do? Who thought that was a good idea? If you want to hear a good rant about how bad this segment was, go listen to Wade Keller’s Post Smackdown podcast because it’s a classic rant including Wade calling for Fox to cancel their deal with WWE over how idiotic this segment was. Obviously that wasn’t sincere, but it was easily one of the stupidest segments I’ve seen and I agreed with Wade’s rant. There are just so many issues and Grand Canyon-sized gaps in logic with how this played out. First, the video was fuzzy, so how did Bryan know it was Rowan instead of the guy they presented to Roman last week that looked the same? Bryan’s reaction seemed to indicate he was just as surprised that it was Rowan as the rest of us should have been, so was he not in on it? Was Rowan the mastermind of this whole plan? There’s also the issue of it not being the forklift driver, the person who legitimately tried to crush Roman Reigns. The video showed a guy knocking over some crates to one side of the collapsed structure; who really cares about that? The whole thing was horrible and it cost me brain cells to watch it. The idea of someone wanting to score a pin fall over an attempted murder is silly enough, but this is next level stupid. I know this isn’t the end, but I wish it was because I don’t see a way they can bring it back to the level it started at now.

NOW CHECK OUT OTHER WEEKLY OVERVIEWS HERE.

OR JUMP TO LAST WEEK’S WWE OVERVIEW: WEEKLY OVERVIEW – WWE (thru 8/21): Top stories of week, major show lineups, live event results, schedule of live events, noteworthy social media posts, more

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

ALL CONTENT © TDH COMMUNICATIONS INC. 2024