ARN - TLC 2015 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The 2015 TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs event happened on December 13, 2015 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. 14,903 fans mostly-filled the arena that night for the seventh event under the TLC chronology.

Think about this for a second. There were only seven Bash at the Beach events - from 1994 to 2000. So by 2015, this was a pretty well established supercard event for the company. And it is still going today, with the 12th TLC event going down in 2020.

That’s a longer run than a lot of the pay-per-view shows we grew up with (King of the Ring, Superbrawl, etc..)

How has this gimmick event lasted this long?

The poster for the show tonight has a close up of Roman Reigns. At last month’s Survivor Series event, Roman won the WWE Title - only to lose it to Sheamus cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. Tonight’s main event is Sheamus and Roman in a TLC match.

We’ve also got Charlotte defending the DIVAS championship against Paige; Dean Ambrose challenging Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental championship; The Wyatt Family battling the ECW Originals; And more. It’s a pretty stacked card…but did it deliver? That’s what we’re about to explore.

WWE in 2015

Let’s talk about the company’s year in 2015 by the numbers.

MOST MAIN EVENTS DRAWING MORE THAN 10,000 FANS

18 - Seth Rollins

12 - John Cena, Roman Reigns

10 - Bray Wyatt

9 - Dean Ambrose

5 - Brock Lesnar

4 - La Sombra, Randy Orton, Myzteziz, Alberto El Patron, Kevin Owens

3 - Daniel Bryan, Ronda Rousey, Big Show, Rey Mysterio Jr.

Cena’s 10th year in the top ten overall moves him ahead of Gene Kiniski, The Sheik, Ray Stevens and HHH, who were all top ten in nine different years.

What does that say to you about the year? What stands out?

$2 MILLION OR MORE GATES:

$12,600,000 - 3/29 WWE WrestleMania Levi’s Stadium Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns*

$7,201,648 - 7/11 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes; Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald****

$6,760,000 - 11/14 Melbourne Etihad Stadium Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm*****

$5,189,167 - 5/23 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort; Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson..

So WWE is still the leader by far in live gates. Why do you think that is? Because some of those pay per views did over 1 million buys and then half of the live gate.

The record low ratings for Raw and Smackdown in the U.S. have become an almost weekly story. But unlike in previous periods where declining television ratings have corresponded with declining house show business (the last year of Mid South Wrestling, the end of Jim Crockett Promotions, the mid-90s for WWF & WCW, the end of WCW), house show business has had its ups and downs but for the most part is steady.

Now that can also be explained by, with the exception of the New York market where they run a lot of different arenas, they perform only a few times a year in major markets and can go years without shows in secondary markets. The concept of coming once or twice a year and having to draw is very different from places where they would run monthly, and even weekly, where people not watching television would mean they’d miss the angles and interviews designed to get them to buy tickets. It’s no longer matches and even stars, but just seeing a night of a touring entertainment company, whether it be a PPV (biggest draw), Raw (second biggest draw), or Smackdown or house shows (lower priority no matter who is booked).

If you see that house show business is doing well but TV ratings are poor, what does that translate to, as far as the product? How can you improve the ratings on TV in ways that aren’t related to house show business?

The WWE released to Sports Illustrated on 12/13 that Mauro Ranallo would be taking over as the lead announcer on Smackdown with the move to the USA Network.

Ranallo, who had been considered by many insiders, including myself, as the best pro wrestling announcer in the business this past year for his work on the taped New Japan World Pro Wrestling Returns show on AXS TV, is probably best known for his work with Showtime boxing, where he has called many of the biggest fights in recent years, including the biggest PPV event of all-time, the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao show in May.

Ranallo is pretty much an expert on boxing, pro wrestling and MMA, and as a teenager worked as both a heel manager and announcer for All-Star Wrestling out of Vancouver, as he grew up in the Vancouver suburbs. After that promotion closed up, he and Badnews Allen did the announcing for a remake of Stampede Wrestling in the 90s. His goal from the start was to get to WWE, and he took a roundabout way of getting there.

His first national exposure was as the voice of the Pride Fighting Championships during its heyday, and was then hired by Showtime when they got into MMA with Elite XC and later Strikeforce. He did well enough working on the Showtime MMA shows that he also began doing boxing. He’s been lead announcer for Glory kickboxing and Invicta.

A few weeks ago, we saw Mauro performing in one of his highest profile gigs yet - the Tyson/Roy Jones Jr. fight. Did you see the fight? :)

Also why didn’t Mauro work out in the WWE?

WWE has gotten Coca Cola as a sponsor, both for Tribute to the Troops and the Slammys, which is something they’ve been wanting for decades. Even though ratings are down and normal business is at no better levels than it’s been for the last few years, they have managed to build a perception the product is hot. Also, NBC Universal, because they now have such a financial stake in WWE with five hours in prime time on USA, had worked hard to change the advertising community’s perception and it clearly has worked to a degree.

Is a big name sponsor like this about the money - or about the doors it can open to other advertisers? Do you remember hearing anyone talk about this news?

Dwayne Johnson will be filming the “Baywatch” movie throughout March and April in Savannah, GA. Originally, there was a movie insurance issue in play that a movie he was going to be filming, which may have been this one, wasn’t able to get insurance on injuries if he had done a match at WrestleMania, which is the point his bout with HHH that was originally planned was pulled and the HHH vs. Rollins match was put in its place, which also fell through. At the time, there was still hope he would appear as he had in recent years, doing some sort of an interview segment on the show. Several weeks ago, we were told that it was highly unlikely, but not impossible, because he was going to be filming a movie and he was in the lead role, with Zac Efron. It would be very difficult to hold up the shooting, even for one day, for him to leave to do Mania. That was the last we heard. The situation is similar for Ronda Rousey, but her movie she’s doing at that time is in Indonesia

What do you remember about the company’s hopes to book The Rock in yet another Wrestlemania match (against Hunter) and those plans falling through?

Jim Dotson, the 260-pound bodybuilder who was the Head of Security for WWE from 1995 to 2001, passed away on 12/10 at the age of 49. Dotson had been suffering from a number of health issues in recent years including an incurable eye disease. Dotson played football at Middle Tennessee University and later won the Mr. Tennessee bodybuilding championship. He started working security at a Hank Williams Jr. concert in the Nashville area and ended up starting his own security company. He was a friend of Undertaker Mark Calaway’s dating back to the 80s when Calaway was starting his career working out of Nashville as the Master of Pain. They remained friends after Calaway became a major star in WWE. When WWE was looking for a head of security, Calaway recommended him and he quickly became the company’s head of security. At one point the plan was to turn him into a wrestler. They started by showing him more and more on camera in tight T-shirts. Eventually they started a feud where Steve Blackman and Calaway would have arguments that were supposed to lead to a feud. But it went nowhere. He didn’t want to wrestle, and then he started getting health problems and he eventually quit the company. The health problems led to him becoming legally blind. He was able to see, but only at close range, and the problems, and other health issues had gotten so bad that he was no longer able to train.

Did you ever work with Jim Dotson during your time in the WWE? How important is the job of security at WWE shows?

WWE TLC POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 119 (73.5%)

Thumbs down 20 (12.3%)

In the middle 23 (14.2%)

WWE put on a wild TLC show on 12/13 at the TD Gardens in Boston, built around Roman Reigns coming up short due to outside interference in his title match with Sheamus, but then destroying the entire League of Nations and HHH after the match.

The show featured a variety of stipulation matches and solid work up and down the show. The highlight was a stunt show ladder match featuring The New Day of Big E & Kofi Kingston retaining the tag titles against The Lucha Dragons and the Usos.

The show drew a sellout of 11,900 fans. It was noted that even though they legitimately did sell out, that there were a lot of empty seats in the building, so those were people who either purchased tickets and didn’t come, or the show sold out based on ticket brokers and at the end they were unable to unload the tickets. Most likely it was a situation where a WWE PPV coming to a major market will have ticket brokers and others buying and looking to sell at a profit when no more tickets are available. The empties indicate the demand wasn’t as high as expected even though they did sell out.

1. Sasha Banks beat Becky Lynch in 11:40. Banks, Naomi and Tamina came out and badly sang a version of the 12 Days of Christmas but using wrestling terminology. The idea was they would sing bad and get booed, and that’s what happened, but if Banks is going to be pushed as a serious wrestler, skits like that do her no good. I think the idea was to make her a geek so people would cheer for Lynch, and in Boston, where Banks is from, they knew left to their own devices, the crowd would cheer Banks. Lynch used an armbar, and then switched to the disarmer. Tamina distracted the referee and Naomi kicked Lynch. Banks then used the back stabber and bank statement for the pin. Banks got a nice pop for the win. **3/4

2. Big E & Kofi Kingston retained the tag titles in a three-way ladder match over Sin Cara & Kalisto and The Usos in 17:47. The New Day did a long promo before the match saying that they don’t have to hide behind masks or face paint because they are stars. This ended up being a match of crazy moves. It was an excellent match, but the negative was it felt like they were trying to do crazy stunts so the crowd would chant “Holy shit” and “This is awesome,” but they weren’t really trying to climb or look like they cared about winning a match. When the match started, Xavier Woods was on commentary. The Dragons both did a middle rope moonsault to the floor on The New Day. The Usos did a double dive into a ladder on the floor that the other guys were holding up so they took them all out. Woods was playing the trombone. E did a belly to belly on an Uso onto a ladder. Kalisto came off the top rope with ladder crashing on Kofi. Sin Cara flew over the top rope hitting both Usos with a senton onto a ladder. Kalisto climbed and Big E was on the mat underneath the ladder. He basically lifted the ladder like he was doing a bench press. Sin Cara monkey flipped Kalisto, who flipped in mid air and splashed onto a ladder on one of the Usos. Kingston set up a ladder bridge. Kalisto did a dragon rana off a ladder onto Kingston and flipped Kingston backwards head first into the ladder. Kalisto and Jimmy Uso were on the top of a ladder. Kalisto used the Salida de Sol off the top of the ladder and Uso crashed through another ladder as he fell. Sin Cara used a senton onto Jimmy on a table. The crowd loved this. Jimmy went for a tope but E slugged him. Jimmy came off the top rope with a splash onto a ladder on Big E. Kalisto was climbing and looking like he’d win. Woods grabbed his trombone and threw it at Kalisto who was climbing. Kingston knocked Kalisto off the ladder and climbed to the top to win. ****1/4

3. Rusev pinned Ryback in 7:55. Decent match. Ryback went for a press but couldn’t lock it out and then slashed Rusev for a near fall. Rusev and Lana went to walk out. Ryback grabbed Rusev by the hair top stop him. Rusev shoved Ryback into Lana, but Lana was barely touched. She took a bump, which distracted Ryback and Rusev side kicked him. Rusev threw him in the ring but Ryback kicked out. The finish saw Ryback block the accolade, Rusev escaped the shell shock, Rusev hit a high kick and used the Accolade. Ryback never tapped and just passed out. **3/4

4. Alberto Del Rio retained the U.S. title beating Jack Swagger in a chairs match in 11:11. This was hard because the match is built around chair shots, but once you’ve seen about three, it becomes redundant. That’s always the problem in a chairs match and this was no different. But they worked hard and made it a good match. Swagger threw him into the post and into chairs. Swagger kept slamming his head into a chair. He went for the Swagger bomb but Del Rio grabbed a chair and stuck it in Swagger’s ribs as he came down. Del Rio used a back stabber for a near fall. They did more chair shots. The announcers kept talking about Zeb Colter with the idea they wanted you to think he was going to help Swagger, but he never came out. Swagger went for the Swagger bomb again, but Del Rio got his foot up again, but this time Swagger grabbed the foot and used the patriot lock. Del Rio escaped right away and used a spinning backbreaker. Del Rio buried Swagger under a ton of chairs like Terry Funk. Swagger threw Del Rio shoulder first into the corner and schoolboyed him for a near fall. Swagger with chair shots to the back. Swagger used the Patriot lock with Del Rio’s leg in a chair. That should make no difference. Del Rio made the ropes. Swagger pulled him to the center, but Del Rio pulled himself outside the ring. Del Rio came off the top rope into a powerslam. Swagger then finally hit the Swagger bomb for a near fall. Del Rio came back and put Swagger in an armbar while in the ropes. Del Rio rammed Swagger’s leg into the post and followed with four hard chair shots to the back, which left marks. Del Rio then used his double foot stomp off the top and Swagger was driven into a bunch of chairs on the mat, with Del Rio getting the pin. ***¼

Do you like the concept of a “chairs” match?

5. Bray Wyatt & Braun Strowman & Erick Rowan & Luke Harper beat Tommy Dreamer & The Dudleys & Rhyno in an elimination tables match in 12:29 with Wyatt, Strowman & Harper left standing . There were loud ECW chants at the start. They had a big brawl to start with. Dreamer was throwing in weapons like garbage cans and kendo sticks. Dreamer had an ax handle. A funny spot was where Dreamer was supposed to pick up a garbage can and Strowman was supposed to punch it into his head. Strowman punched early before the can was in place. So then they had to set it up and do it again. That was comically bad. Strowman kicked through a table. That didn’t count as an elimination since nobody put him through the table. Another table broke with Devon on it that wasn’t supposed to so it didn’t count either. Rowan was the first one eliminated taking a 3-D through a table at 4:00. Rhyno hit the belly-to-belly on Harper and Wyatt. Harper then kicked Rhyno through a table and eliminated him at 6:32. The Dudleys did the Doomsday device on Harper. Bubba did a crossbody onto Strowman, who was supposed to catch him in a power spot, except he didn’t catch him. Fans were chanting “We Want Tables,” which made no sense since there were tables everywhere and they’d already seen nothing but table breaks thus far. Wyatt gave Devon a uranage through a table at 8:30 to eliminate him. Bubba & Dreamer knocked Strowman over the top rope with kendo stick shots. Dreamer used a cheese grater to Strowman’s crotch. Bubba buried Strowman under four tables. Harper did a tope sending Dreamer through a table at 10:41. This left Bubba with Wyatt, Harper and Strowman. Bubba started hitting everyone with kendo stick shots. He then pulled out lighter fluid and went to set the table on fire. The place went crazy for the spot. But Harper then superkicked Bubba and Strowman choke slammed him through the table for the win. **½

6. Dean Ambrose pinned Kevin Owens in 9:52 to win the IC title. Ambrose used a tope early, followed by a fall away slam into the barricade and a running senton on the floor. They teased Ambrose being counted out but he beat the count. Owens went for a senton but Ambrose got his knees up. Ambrose got out of the pop up power bomb and hit Dirty Deeds for the clean pin but Owens got two fingers on the ropes for the break. Owens used a superkick and went for another pop up power bomb, but Owens turned that into a huracanrana for the pin. The title change felt like a really big deal, even with the short match. Ambrose celebrated like he won the world title. They pushed how Ambrose & Reigns had told each other they were both winning and Ambrose held up his side of the bargain. ***½

7. Charlotte pinned Paige in 10:31 to retain the Divas title. Ric Flair was in Charlotte’s corner, and she worked the match just like a heel Flair. She played heel and the crowd got behind Paige. It was once again a very physical match. She did the Flair flop, and she did the begging spot. Fans were even chanting “We Want Paige.” Charlotte went for the figure four, but Paige kicked out. Charlotte chop blocked Paige like Ric Flair used to do. Team BAD, wearing wigs, was watching on TV. The wigs did nobody any favors. Paige came back doing the figure four in front of Flair. Charlotte reversed and Paige made the ropes. Charlotte used a boot to the face and a crossbody for a near fall. They traded near falls. Charlotte went for a spear, but ran into Paige’s knee. Paige hit the Rampage and had the match won but Ric Flair pulled Paige to the ropes. Charlotte undid the turnbuckle padding and pulled Paige’s head into the exposed metal for the pin. ***

Ric Flair and Charlotte were celebrating the win. Lynch confronted them and said she didn’t like the way Charlotte won. Charlotte asked her if she would rather her best friend won or if Paige won. Lynch looked confused and unhappy about everything.

8. Sheamus beat Roman Reigns in a TLC match to retain the WWE title in 23:59. Fast open. There were loud dueling chants for John Cena at first. Reigns backdropped Sheamus over the barricade. Reigns set up a ladder bridge. Reigns threw him over a table. While on the stage, Reigns threw him through a set up of chairs and tables and it was really cool how it collapsed. Sheamus backdropped Reigns though a table on the floor. Sheamus suplexed Reigns through a table which led to another ECW chant. Reigns came back and threw Sheamus into the steps. Sheamus hit Reigns with a chair to the back. Sheamus used white noise off the ring steps and through a table. Reigns got out of armbar with a one arm power bomb onto the ladder. Reigns went for a Superman punch and Sheamus instead used the Irish curse backbreaker on him. The crowd started chanting “NXT.” Reigns gave him a Samoan drop off the apron through a ladder that broke in half. When it broke, you could see the ladder was made up to look like it was made of aluminum but was really made of wood. Reigns went to climb the ladder and the crowd started booing with the idea he might win the title. That was amazing considering the reaction later. Sheamus had a torn labrum from a ladder bump not all that long ago. Reigns climbed as slow as possible and Sheamus recovered and pulled him down. Sheamus tried a power bomb but Reigns escaped and hit the Superman punch. Reigns was on top and about to grab the belt when Sheamus pulled the ladder. Reigns had a bad landing and could have had a bad leg injury out of it. Sheamus was climbing and Reigns hit the Superman punch to knock him off the ladder. Reigns had it won when Rusev & Del Rio hit the ring. Del Rio gave him a superkick and Rusev put him the accolade. But Reigns came back with a Superman punch on Rusev, another on Del Rio and then pulled Sheamus off the ladder. Sheamus then hit the Brogue kick which knocked Reigns out of the ring and Sheamus climbed up and got the belt for the pin. ****

After the match, Reigns went crazy. He speared Del Rio, Rusev and Sheamus at the same time. He then destroyed all of them with chair shots until HHH & Stephanie McMahon came out. Reigns hit Sheamus with another chair shot after HHH & Stephanie told him to stop and put the chair down. HHH jumped on the apron and told him to calm down. HHH then got in the ring and yelled at him. Reigns nailed HHH with a Superman punch. Reigns hit HHH with seven chair shots. One was funny because he’d hit him with six and HHH told Reigns to hit him again and you could hear him say it. Stephanie was screaming at him. Reigns threw HHH into a table and gave him a real beating. He gave him a power bomb onto the announcers table, which was supposed to break, but didn’t. The crowd was chanting “One more time,” so Reigns improvised and elbow dropped him through the table. This post-match was great for him. Fans were chanting “Thank you Roman.” Reigns acted like he was leaving but then sprinted down the aisle and nailed HHH with a spear on the floor. HHH ended up going out on a stretcher.

Meltzer said this about the match.

Reigns was booed somewhat in Boston, and the crowd was quiet for the first part of a solidly worked TLC match against Sheamus. But once Alberto Del Rio and Rusev came out to interfere, the crowd started getting behind Reigns. The interference cost him the match, but afterwards, he snapped, destroying Sheamus, Del Rio and Rusev. Then, even worse, he destroyed HHH, who came out to stop the carnage and check on Sheamus. The beating included one chair shot after another to his gut and his back, putting him through a table, and a running spear down the aisle which nailed him outside the ring. Stephanie McMahon watched on shrieking. HHH went out on a stretcher. Reigns was cheered like crazy by the end of all this, and Boston is never an easy city for him.

BEST MATCH POLL

Tag title ladder match 97

Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns 37

Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens 9

WORST MATCH POLL

Wyatt Family vs. Team Extreme 52

Rusev vs. Ryback 46

Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger 15

Charlotte vs. Paige 13

Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch 10

Did you like the show, overall?

The story coming out of TLC is that Roman Reigns has been screwed over again and again and to a large contingent of fans, he’s become a sympathetic figure after a rough year…

Let’s go back for a second and talk about the Rise of Roman:

Meltzer said...When Brock Lesnar beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans, LA, in the most shocking pinfall in modern WWE history, there were a couple of ideas behind it. The key...is that Vince McMahon believed Undertaker, who had been appearing sparingly and was physically in bad shape, was wrestling his last match. If he were ever to lose, this would be the last chance. The idea of Undertaker’s loss was not just for Lesnar, but in the long-run, for Roman Reigns. Reigns was being groomed by WWE to be the next face of the company after John Cena, from the time of his call-up…

With his size, looks, muscularity, family ties and athleticism as a former college football star, Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque both earmarked him as the next top guy. Lesnar beating Undertaker was to make Lesnar and Paul Heyman this unstoppable heel force, where he’d destroy crowd favorite Daniel Bryan (which turned into Cena when Bryan was injured) to win the title, and run through everyone, including Cena, until WrestleMania 31, when Reigns would beat him. The idea was that it would be the biggest coronation possible.

Reigns would beat the monster who ended the streak on the biggest stage. Of course, that didn’t happen. The crowd turned on Reigns because they wanted Daniel Bryan in the WrestleMania main event title match. The Royal Rumble in Philadelphia was a disaster for the process. Worse, word got out that Lesnar was considering leaving after WrestleMania. When Lesnar turned down a UFC offer for WWE, while he was already the top babyface in reality, that only made it stronger.

Would the company have been better served to have kayfabed Brock’s decision to stay until after his match with the struggling babyface?

Nobody came close to the amount of boos Reigns got at WrestleMania. Seeing that the coronation of Reigns as top babyface would be a disaster, the decision was changed several days before the show, with Reigns finding out very late in the game (Lesnar was told earlier in the week when he signed, Rollins was told about 30 minutes before he won) that Rollins would pin him when the main event turned into a three-way, and take the title.

Rollins had been scheduled to drop the title to Reigns at Survivor Series, but then Rollins needed knee surgery. Instead, Reigns beat Dean Ambrose in a tournament final for the vacant title, only to immediately lose to Sheamus, cashing things in the Money in the Bank title shot..

Sheamus was always going to lose to Reigns. No matter what the crowds’ reaction at television tapings and on PPVs was to Reigns (at house shows he was most nights universally cheered, although not necessarily at the level of the top face in the company or even on the show), the company never wavered on the decision that he was the next face. There really weren’t a lot of candidates as the 50/50 booking had marginalized everyone else.

Reigns winning on 12/14 was amazing for one factor. He was, when he won, cheered like crazy, and it was in front of a Raw audience at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the same arena where he was booed out of the building for winning the Royal Rumble in January.

How did the company manage to pull this off? It seemed like Roman’s rise was almost off the rails earlier in the year.

On paper, this seemed like the worst place to make the change.

In the end, the story was that for the last year, as Raw had gotten nearly unwatchable and ratings had fallen to record lows, even though the most other aspects of the business were neither at high nor low level, but steady levels, the idea was Vince McMahon had lost touch with his audience. The push of Reigns, who was being booed while being focused on as the star of the promotion, was one of the key exhibits.

But in the end, McMahon was able to manipulate the audience through two days of booking, from the TLC show in Boston to Raw in Philadelphia, and made it work.

Would you agree that it was the short term booking that made the crowd buy into the moment - or was it more?

Not only did fans cheer Reigns in Philadelphia, but loudly chanted, “You deserve it” as he was being carried by his cousins, the Usos, but the show-long scenario involving the return to Raw of Vince McMahon and a title vs. career match led to a 27 percent increase in viewership from the previous week. Raw averaged 3,867,000 viewers, including the first time since football season that the third hour wasn’t the least watched hour, as it did 3,825,000 viewers. It was the largest audience to watch Raw since 8/31, but the situation is different outside of football season. With next week being the Slammys, it will be interesting to see how well that gain of viewers sticks around, although there should be a residual effect of this week carrying over at least one week. The number was going to increase either way once football season ended.

Also impressive was in the key demos, there was a gain from hour one to hour three. Males 18-49 went from 1.69 to 1.92, a 14 percent increase. Women 18-49 dropped from hour one to hour three from 0.95 to 0.88, but both numbers are way up from usual. Overall among men and women, they did a 1.19 in 18-34 and 1.45 in 35-49 in the first hour, and a 1.36 in 18-34 and a 1.44 in 35-49 in the third hour. So the big increase was in the 18-34 age group while the 35-49 age group, which usually falls like everyone else as the show goes on, held steady.

Is that a testament to Roman, or to the storyline, or a combination?

The next night, in Philadelphia, in the opening segment, Stephanie McMahon talked about how HHH was injured coughing up blood and hospitalized.

It should be noted that he posted a photo of him, just fine, on social media the next day, that he apparently had taken in London where he flew over for the Takeover show. If a talent had a severe worked injury and did the same thing, there would be incredible heat on them, but there’s always going to be a double standard with superstars and with those in charge, and he’s both. They used to get mad at talent for not selling worked injuries with casts and such in public and he after a broken arm from Lesnar appeared just fine when Floyd Mayweather asked him to walk to the ring with him and be in the ring for his introduction before a boxing match. This came months after WWE wouldn’t allow C.M. Punk to walk Chael Sonnen to the ring and told him not to attend a UFC show in Chicago (he attended anyway) because they didn’t want one of their superstars on camera and not treated as a superstar as they were afraid UFC wouldn’t acknowledge him (which they almost surely would have done since UFC often acknowledged Punk on their shows) as opposed to HBO’s announcers, who it was a lock, wouldn’t, and didn’t mention HHH with Mayweather while talking about several other celebrities standing there with him in the same entourage.

Do you remember that happening? Should Triple H have been posting photos on social media while being hospitalized in a local medical facility? What would have happened if, say, Titus O’Neil did that?

Stephanie slapped Reigns seven times in the face, hard enough that the left side of his face was welted up pretty noticeably. It was part of a long story where he was humiliated during the show, but never backed down and then won at the end. When Vince McMahon came out, after telling Stephanie to go home to take care of her husband, he called out Reigns and wanted him to apologize. He wouldn’t. Reigns called Vince a 70-year-old man with grapefruits that are now dried up prunes. Vince wanted to fight him, but Sheamus came out and said he wanted to fight Reigns again and even brought up defending the title against him. Vince was against the idea, but after the Reigns insult, Vince gave him a shot at the title, but that if he lost, he would be fired, which seemed to guarantee something big happening.

WWE promoted Reigns as appearing on Sports Center the next day, right before the match started, pretty much gave it away.

Is this a mistake that gets brought up in a production meeting or do people even care? Seems like a total spoiler.

The match itself saw Reigns finally hit the Superman punch, but Vince, who was at ringside with a giant scowl on his face the entire match, pulled the referee out of the ring. Reigns was also bleeding by that point from head-butting Sheamus. Vince pulling the ref out changed the tone of the match, as the crowd at this point was totally behind Reigns.

While it is of course far better to have a huge babyface reaction for a babyface title win, the John Cena era also has shown that the key is still getting fans to buy tickets and merchandise, as well as watch, and the fans who boo the faces are the most adamant and probably spend the most on the product because they care the most. Historically, as this year’s Royal Rumble showed, at the same exact time of the outrage and cancel WWE Network hashtags on social media because Reigns won instead of Daniel Bryan, the network itself had a major growth period in the days after that match. But the idea they were able to get this reaction in Philadelphia had to be extremely gratifying, and the ratings increase showed that when they give people something they perceive as important, they can get the people back. It was impressive being able to do it so quickly, although the Vince McMahon character has done that many times in the past.

Do you remember if the mood backstage was something of accomplishment or joy after this?

QUESTIONS

Nick asks..Does Flair’s association w/ Charlotte hurt or help her in the long run?

Rory asks...Arn what was the point of putting the WWE Championship on Roman Reigns just to have him lose it and chase the belt again. Why put the belt on him in the first place?

Jimmy asked...Did the constant use of flair with Charlotte overshadow her somewhat?

Owen asked...Why wasn’t the machine behind the League of Nations

Ray asked..Were there any other ECW Originals considered for the match against the Wyatt Family?

Francis asked...Why did you think swagger was not used in the upper midcard during this era?

Jeremy asked...Who come up with The League of Nations stable? I actually really enjoyed it. Alot of great talent in it.

Instagram: A Wrestling Historian asked...Was there talk of Sheamus holding the WWE Champion longer?

Keith asked...what is your favorite go to match to watch and go to storyline

Michael asked...Which stable does Arn feel should have had a longer more successful run: Nexus, the Wyatt Family, or League of Nations?

Francis asked..When did you know that Charlotte was starting to be the main event star?