OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

OO RAW RECAP
Oh Yes, It's Ladies Night....
November 16, 2015

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

If there's one thing I've decided this weekend, it's that I'm not gonna do like every other TV/internet "personality" has done and pretend like we all have to share a big 10 minute hugfest here at the start of this thing to talk about my feelings about what happened in Paris.

I've spent the weekend feeling my feelings about Paris, and trust me: they aren't all that interesting or enlightening.

The short version is that I'll start out feeling numb and sorta bored ("Oh, another one of these. Must be Friday. Sucks for them, but it could have been worse."), then get mad at myself for being so callous, so then I turn around and overreact by getting incredibly angry at the insane, misguided assholes who clearly lack the most basic grasp on reality and could be bombed back to the stone age with no tangible loss to society, only get get annoyed at myself for being so indefensibly Dick Cheney-y and telling myself to calm down and be rational.

It's a hell of a frustrating feedback loop to be stuck in, so hopefully wrestling will provide a temporary distraction. Here's what happened on tonight's RAW:

A Moment of Silence: Lilian Garcia asks the fans to stand for a moment of silence and quiet reflection after what happened Friday in Paris. I spent the late afternoon in my more Cheney-y place, so I'll take this moment to find my Jaded Philosophical place. If nothing else, that should make for a less snarky/bitchy recap.

Opening Theme/Pyro/Etc., and we're live in Greenville, SC, where Cole & The Gang offer the most perfunctory of welcomes, because Undertaker and Kane are on their way to the ring. They are flanked by about a half dozen Druids.

NICE TRY, BRAY....

Taker and Kane saunter, slowly, giving us time to review a video recap package of last week's action, in which the Brothers of Destruction returned, and Bray Wyatt issued a challenge to them to face two members of his family at Survivor Series.

Taker and Kane each grab a mic, and long story short: they accept, and issue a re-challenge to Bray Wyatt to pick which two members of his family will face them. Because he's not giving them an opportunity.... he's giving them a death sentence. Bray Wyatt has a decision to make, but the Brothers of Destrcution have already decided the fate of whomever they face at Survivor Series. They will Rest. In. Peace.

The Wyatt Family come out on the stage, and Bray takes a seat in his new rocking chair. He says that the Undertaker had a nice run. Twenty-five years. But now, it's time for a new Army of Darkness, and he (Bray) will lead it. The Undertaker's "creatures of the night" now belong to Bray, as well.

Bray cackles, and the lights go out. When the lights come back on, the Druids have formed line, facing Taker and Kane. And they are all wearing sheep masks. Ooohhhhh, spooky.

The "druids" charge, and get their collective ass handed to them by Taker and Kane.... Harper/Rowan/Strowman seem miffed by this, and start heading to the ring. But Bray catches up and tells them to wait till Sunday. He wants Taker and Kane to spend six days pondering their imminent demise. Meantime, Taker and Kane just took out 6 dudes, so their message back is "Hey, we're not afraid of a numbers game."

The Wyatts retreat, while the announcers are distractingly silent for a series of graphics about the WWE Title Tourney... not one word is said, as brackets and match-ups flash on the screen, which WWE probably thinks is "gravitas," but they are wrong. It's just uncomfortably awkward.

[ads]

KEVIN OWENS vs. NEVILLE (Non-Title WWE Title Tournament Match)

It's a physical mismatch in terms of WWE canon, but these two had a hell of a feud back in NXT, so hopefully they let them revisit more of that, rather than make it a one-sided affair.

Neville gets the requisite flashy start, even setting up for the Red Arrow about 2 minutes in.... Owens rolls out of the ring, and Neville manages to change gears, and turns it into a moonsault from the top rope to the floor (onto an unsuspecting Owens).

Neville seems firmly in control as we break for....

[ads]

Back, and as tradition dictates, the bad guy is now firmly in control. A pic-in-pic replay reveals that Owens managed to pull off that trick by introducing Neville to various sights and sounds around ringside.

Mid-match heel beatdown is decidedly on. Neville, mostly utilizing kicks, gets hope spots here and there, but they don't lead to much of anything for quite a while. At one point, Owens gestures (Broadly) that he'll be perfectly happy to sit back, relax, and take a count-out win, but Neville just barely beats the count, lands all of one shot, and is right back on defense.

Neville eventually dodged a corner charge, countered that into a snap German, and started a for-real comeback that included a convincing near fall off a springboard twisting moonsault. Off that, Neville went back up top, calling for the Red Arrow, but Owens got to his feet... Neville flipped through, hit an enzuigiri, and then ripped off a wicked inverted 'rana for a near fall.

Neville back up top, clearly wanting that Red Arrow.... Owens rolls out of the way, backs into the corner, and when Neville regains his feet and charges, Owens plucks him out of mid-air and turns it into a Pop-Up Powerbomb.

Your Winner: Kevin Owens, via pinfall, in about 10 minutes. Good match, but then it ended just about 2 minutes after it started to get good.... so I can't help but feel like there's another gear that we didn't quite get to explore. Instead of doing the full 5-6 minute End Game, we only got about a third of that, and it makes a pretty big difference in terms of creating a vibe of genuine ambiguity. We never quite got over the hump of Owens' win seeming inevitable.

[ads]

Backstage: Kevin Owens and Triple H are talking, but while we have a CAMERA on them, somebody apparently forgot to turn on the MICROPHONE, so Cole & The Gang are left to wonder what they are talking about. Do I even have to point out how mind-bendingly stupid it is when WWE Cameras and Cameraman don't all follow the same Fourth Wall Rules? You all know that, already.... the fact that I'm not going to repeat it doesn't make it any less dipshitted, though.

Injury Update: we get some snap shots of Seth Rollin's surgery in Birmingham, AL, along with confirmation that the surgery went as well as you could hope for. It's still a serious knee injury, but in 6-8 months, Rollins should be able to come back as good as ever.

[ads]

R-TRUTH vs. TYLER BREEZE (w/ Summer Rae)

Breeze is in the middle of a Main Roster Introductory Push, and an on-going feud with Dolph Ziggler. R-Truth is increasingly occupying the roster space of Jobbers to the Stars like Tito Santana and Terry Taylor. You do the math.

Your Winner: Tyler Breeze, via pinfall, in about 4 minutes. Yeah, a bit more competitive than a standard squash, but thematically, that's all it was.

[ads]

DEAN AMBROSE vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (WWE Title Tourney)

Ziggler is not selling any knee injury to start, which torpedoes all the ideas I had in last Monday's recap regarding how you could get interesting/creative with this match. D'oh.

Old school feeling-out process to start: lock-ups, headlocks, etc.... it's pretty back and forth/tit for tat for a good 4-5 minutes. Pretty slow and methodical, to be honest. Things finally break decisively in Ambrose's favor when Ziggler whiffs on a Fameasser, and lands bad on his injured knee.

The tweaked knee clearly motivates Ambrose to get a bit more high-risk, but it also motivates Ziggler to up the pace, to end thematch sooner than later. As a result, we build up to a big spot where Ambrose goes up top, but Ziggler marshalls the last of his energy to jump up with him.... the two trade fists on the top rope, and eventually, both go tumbling to the floor.

Both men down, so we break for....

[ads]

Back, and we rejoin the action just in time to see Ambrose hit a suicide dive out of the ring and onto Ziggler. But back into the ring, Ziggler chopblocks Ambrose and hits the Fameasser on Take Two. Stinger Splash also hits, but Ambrose hits a quickie roll-up on the rebound. Ziggler kicks out and hits an Implant DDT for a near fall of his own.

Ziggler calls for the superkick, but Ambrose catches the foot, and turns it into a slingshot. Ziggler stumbles backward, and Ambrose sets up a Dirty Deeds.... Ziggler counters into a sleeper, but Ambrose shoves him off, and catches him with a rebound clothesline.. Both men down. Ref applies a double count.

Both men up by 7, and Ambrose goes up top. Ziggler joins him, and hits a facebuster off the top rope. Ambrose rolls out of the ring before Ziggler can follow up. And since Ziggler is on one leg, he's slow to exit the ring to collect Ambrose. When he finally does, Ambrose has time to recover, and hits a small package as soon as they are back in the ring.

Ziggler kicks out, and hits a flash superkick. Ambrose kicks out. Both men up, but SLOOOOWWWWWLY, and they start trading fists. Ambrose starts to win it, so Ziggler hits a big headbutt.... Ambrose falls backwards, and rebounds with a clothesline. One final bit of double reversey ends with Ambrose hitting the Dirty Deeds.

Your Winner: Dean Ambrose, via pinfall, in about 12 minutes. Twas good, but not great. Considering that I had this pegged for some neat little story elements, that's a bit of a letdown that they did nothing on that front.... played it totally straight: good guy vs. good guy, with no real tension. The slow start didn't help, either... if you start that slow, you should be building to something. But nope: it was pretty much a 50/50 match where Ambrose happened to get the last laugh.

After the Match: Ambrose got on the mic, and said that he really wants to win, because if he does, he's gonna change things. No more suits and ties, a lot less talking, a lot more action, Michael Cole will be replaced with a fish tank, and so forth. Sounds like fun.... but I'm sticking to my guns that the only way Ambrose wins is if it's a big "reveal" that involves him selling out to the Authority.

[ads]

THE USOS & RYBACK vs. THE NEW DAY (Six-Man Tag Match)

Before the match, the New Day do some mic work, talking about how everybody's talking about the 25th anniversary of the Undertaker, but nobody is talking about the one year anniversary of the most entertaining force in all of WWE: The New Day. That's totally unfair, but Big E tags it by saying they aren't complaining.... to this day, he lives according to a mantra he learned from his grandpappy:

If life hands you booty, make bootyaid!

New. Dayrocks? Nope: New Day still sucks, according to this crowd.

For the third time in a row, Eggsavier Woods insists on starting a match against the Usos. For the first time, it doesn't go completely terrible for Woods. Just MOSTLY terrible. He's not pinned or eliminated, but he does get his ass handed to him, building up to a huge plancha from Jey Uso.

But Big E goes over to check on Woods, and in so doing, he creates a slight distraction that allows Woods to hit a cheap shot. And just like that, we've got a time compressed Face in Peril. It's only 90 seconds into the match, and we get the Unicorn Stampede.

Speaking of unicorns, I just noticed that Kofi is wearing little Peter Pan booties, with fins on them. Heh. That's ridiculous. And spectacular.

Old school heel tag work for a bit, including an illegal double team that distracts the ref at a key moment, and Jey Uso is able to make a hot tag.... but the ref doesn't see it.

And when they reprise that same trick a second time, Ryback just loses it and stampedes into the ring.... and he stampedes over the referee, who has no choice but to call for the bell, as a result.

Your Winners: the New Day, via disqualification, in about 6 minutes. Kinda cheap finish to an underwhelming match, but I get the sense that this probably sets up a 5-on-5 Traditional Elimination Match, with a few additional moving pieces added in, which isn't an ignoble goal. Palatable, but not much more than that.

[ads]

Backstage: Triple H walks in on Cesaro prepping for his match against Roman Reigns. HHH pays all due respect to Cesaro, saying he's shown a bunch in his time so far in WWE, but he's not quite gotten over the hump. Maybe this tournament is Cesaro's chance to finally grab that brass ring.... Cesaro admits that he's planning on making the most of it, but HHH gets all heelish by daring Cesaro to "take it to the next level" and "do whatever it takes," and that how he can prove he's made a leap to the next level.

Cesaro nods and says he's gonna give his all in this tournament, but stops short of mirroring HHH's heelish demeanor.... so HHH just leaves him with a little encouraging pat on the back, as he says he'll be watching, and he wants to be impressed.

Prelude: apparently, that Cesaro/Reigns match is now, as Reigns is on his way to the ring. But he wants to talk, first. Reigns gets a mixed reaction as he stumbles through a speech about how he had his WWE Title shot, but then Rollins got injured, HHH made him an offer, and Reigns refused, because yadda yadda yadda he doesn't sell out.... instead, he wants to win it, and for there to be no doubt who is the deserving WWE Champion. ANd his mission to accomplish that continues RIGHT NOW against Cesaro.

Well, not RIGHT NOW, but rather, after these.....

[ads]

ROMAN REIGNS vs. CESARO (WWE Title Tourney)

Just like Ambrose/Ziggler, it's two babyfaces, and they start with feeling out and tests of strength. And again, it's also very stalemate-y. Reigns is clearly bigger, but Cesaro's pound-for-pound as strong as it gets.

It breaks in Cesaro's favor, and he goes up top.... Reigns catches him up there, but instead of jumping off, Cesaro cart-wheels ON THE TOP ROPE to escape, and then turns it into a leaping pinning combo, to boot. Nifty!

Cesaro then settles in for your more standard shows of strength for a bit, including a deadlift German. Twisting springboard uppercut hits for a near fall. Cesaro calls for the Giant Swing, but Reigns counters it and rolls out of the ring.

So Cesaro follows him, and hits another running uppercut. With Cesaro in control, and Reigns in a heap, we break for....

[ads]

Back, and Cesaro is working a hammerlock. Basically, the layout of the match makes Cesaro the narrative heel, but the fans are definitely 50/50. After a minute or so, the match spills outside again, and Cesaro decides to step back for a running uppercut.... but this time, Reigns gets a boot up to block it.

From here, Reigns starts what would normally be the big babyfae fire-up, but in execution, it's about a 50/50 fire-up. Reigns even no-sells an uppercut,a nd sets in with his Ten Clotheslines in the corner, to mixed reaction. Then, Reigns goes for the Drive-By, but Cesaro has an innovative counter, as he picks Reigns' ankle, and pulls him into the ring.

The Giant Swing hits. About 10 rotations, and straight into the Sharpshooter. Reigns fights it, and almost gets a rope break... but Cesaro rolls back to the middle of the ring and turns it into a Crippler Crossface. Reigns is in big trouble.... but with a last ditch effort, he powers out of it and hits a Samoan Drop.

But Reigns is in bad shape, and cannot follow-up. So Cesaro is to his feet first.... Cesaro charges Reigns, and Reigns back drops him over the top rope and to the floor. In a twist, Cesaro twists in mid-air, and lands with his arm hitting the apron. It's the same arm that he injured last week. Reigns uses that to rattle off a series of moves, including a powerbomb for a near fall

Reigns steps back and calls for the Superman Punch.... but Cesaro sees it coming, sidesteps, and hits an uppercut for a near fall. Cesaro sets Reigns up on the top rope, and then sends him tumbling to the aprong with an awesome standing dropkcik. Then, he goes for that deadlift apron superplex of his.... but Reigns is too heavy, and drops down, steps back, and hits the Superman Punch.

Reigns calls for the Spear, Cesaro with an uppercut, Cesaro goes for the Neutralizer, but Reigns powers out, shoves Cesaro back, catches him with the Superman Punch on the rebound, and then finishes with the Spear.

Your Winner: Roman Reigns, via pinfall, in 15 minutes. Good match Unlike Owens/Neville, they did enough work (5-6 minutes of End Game) so that he forgot that the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Good times. They even tagged it with a nice Handshake of Mutual Respect, which also added to the notion that Cesaro was a legit threat to Reigns (even though he really wasn't).

[ads]

THE DUDLEYS vs. THE ASCENSION

There is no Stardust at ringside. So unless that changes, we're all adults here, so let's not pretend this is something it' wasn't.

Your Winners: the Dudleys, via pinfall, in 3 minutes flat. Yep, that just happened.

Backstage: Renee Young catches up to Alberto del Rio and Zeb Colter. Zeb says that just like he and his client have united two peoples in Meximerica, his client is going to unite two titles on Sunday.

As if on cue, HHH shows up and says that since Cesaro has failed him, maybe Alberto del Rio wants to step up, and go from being A Champion to being The Man.... ADR seems to like the sound of that. But first, he still must defeat Kalisto.

[ads]

ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/ Zeb Colter) vs. KALISTO (Non-Title WWE Title Tourney Match)

The hot, spicy Mexico-on-Mexico action gives Lilian Garcia to show off her myriad tongue skills. Hey, I'm talking about all those rolling R's, you perverts! That, and nothing else! But I can't deny that she's making that little silver dress look mighty tasty, too.

A little variation on the usual formula, as Kalisto gets no real flurry to start. He's fighting from behind from the opening bell. He does hit a big move here for there, but he's always stopping an even bigger flurry by ADR, never really controlling the action.

Alberto dumps Kalisto out of the ring after about 2 minutes, so we break for some...

[ads]

Back, and del Rio's firmly in control. and Cole's clearly presenting Kalisto as "hanging in there longer than we expected," rather than presenting him as a possible winner. That odd modulation in tone almost makes me think Kalisto is gonna win, just because Cole is so distractingly downplaying the possibility.

But if that happens, it won't be for a bit, and ADR is still rolling. Del Rio finally gets a bit frustrated that Kalisto won't stay down...as a result, ADR stops going for the win, and starts trying to pull off Kalisto's mask. Whoops.

Kalisto manages to escape ADR's Tree of Woe Double Stomp to start a legit comeback, and hit his first real rally of the match. But that gets Alberto's attention, and he focusses. ADR counters Salida del Sol, and once again goes for the ToW Double Stomp. Kalisto fights out again, but after a grapple with both men on the top rope, ADR wins it, and hits the double stomp. Fin.

Your Winner: Alberto del Rio, via pinfall, in about 10 minutes. Odd placement, as this ends up being the least compelling of the four quarterfinals, but it gets the last match placement. Bleh.

[ads]

LET'S PUT INK TO PAPER

So here we go: an actual contract signing for a women's title match, and it even gets the Main Event Promo slot, just like the fellas usually get. That said, contract signing segments for the fellas tend to be pretty lame, so it's not like the women have a whole lot to live up to here.

It could also be that WWE wants to take advantage of women's fighting being the top story int he sports world over the past 48 hours... or it could be that WWE wants to find a scapegoat for why the third hour of RAW is increasingly the least watched one... or it could be something else entirely. I'm gonna be charitable, and see how it plays out, as the mere fact that they're getting the slot is not insignificant. Let's see how it goes...

Cole is MC'ing the segment, and is appropriately somber and serious as he introduces the challenger, Paige, and the champion, Charlotte. Paige takes a seat at the tble, but when Charlotte opts to stay standing, Paige joins her.

They start staring each other down, and Cole tries to calm things down by saying he was there in Orlando for their try-outs, and he saw them build a friendship over the years, but now, that seems to be out the window.

Paige cuts him off, and says there are no friends in this business, and she's sorry if Charlotte thought otherwise. Now, it's time for more business, and Paige intends to become a three time champion on Sunday. Paige signs the contract.

Charlotte takes the mic and says she feel sorry that Paige feels that way. Because when Charlotte got into the business, she looked up to Paige. Charlotte was just a sweet little Carolina Girl, and Paige was the British Badass... and over time, Charlotte actually believed Paige was just as good a person as she was a wrestler.

To drive that point home, Charlotte talks about the day her little brother, Reid, passed away, and how Charlotte was lost, and how Paige was there, to support here through a tough time. Awww. But Paige says there were no stakes back then, and it didn't cost her to pretend to be friends with Charlotte... it just set her up for later one, when she could use Charlotte for her own gains.

Charlotte stops weeping,a nd gets angry: "Well, if you've been using me, honey, you're doing a terrible job of it, because I'm a champion and you're not." Charlotte continues that she knows titles aren't forever, and she'll lose it eventually. But not this Sunday, and not to a horrible excuse of a person like Paige.

Paige just keeps rubbing it in, badmouthing Charlotte's old fossil of a dad and her worthless druggie of a brother until Charlotte just snaps. Charlotte jumps over the table to tackle Paige, and then the fight goes all over ringside. Refs manage to pull it apart a few times, but Charlotte keeps coming back at Paige.

The pull-apart finally "takes" on the third try, and Paige retreats, leaving Charlotte to finally pick up the contract and sign it as we fade to black....

And so ends the show... and my, that sure escalated quickly. I think I am gonna go with "WWE saw the Holm/Rousey fight getting so much press, and wanted to put their ladies in the spotlight, too." And unfortunately, that meant a jarring level of cognitive dissonance for most fans.

WWE knew they were taking a mid-card act, and shoving it into the spotlight, and knew they had to have some gimmick to gloss over the incongruity and make it seem a bit less inorganic. So voila: enter Reid Flair.

Who's Reid Flair? Charlotte's younger brother who once appeared on Nitro when he was 10 years old, then legitimately became a stand-out amateur wrestler, but never got a serious look from WWE developmental because he skipped the 20 years of hard work and went straight to having the proverbial "demons" and passing away of a heroin overdose two years ago, having accomplished little more than sporadic indie appearances and a Japan tour or two, despite endless potential to do more.

To me, this immediately divides the audience into two groups: casual fans who have no idea who Reid is and thus have no visceral reaction to Paige mentioning his death (they might not even believe he's a real person), and more knowledgeable fans who know that Reid wasn't exactly the most sympathetic figure.... in both cases, granted, it makes Paige look uber-bitchy for bringing it up, but in neither case does the blow "land" with fans, because it's impossible for them to reasonably react the same way Charlotte did.

For me, it's not so much a matter of "taste" (there's no way WWE would have done this if Charlotte wasn't comfortable with it), it's just a matter of miscalculation. Knowing they had to do SOMEthing to elevate the stature of this feud, WWE went the dead brother route... and while there may have been a small group of fans where this foudn emotional traction, there's just no way it landed with clueless casual fans or with smarter fans who are well aware of Reid's backstory. To that overwhelming majority, it just came off as another bit of cheesy, over-wrought soap opera melodrama that's hard to connect with.

Which is pretty much the exact opposite of what you should be getting if "emulating UFC" is your actual goal.

Still, this is a case when I can sort of think everything through, and I at least understand how WWE got to this point. A lot of time, I can't even fathom how something so awful made it onto TV, but this time, I sincerely believe they wanted to do a good thing by elevating the women's division... they were just off a couple degrees in deciding to Go Big Or Go Home with the Dead Brother Gambit.

In other words, it's just more evidence that they need to fully absorb and understand when it comes to the fact that you cannot force, in 10 minutes, what it's taken 18 months to evolve in NXT. But I'm happy that WWE actually showed the intent of wanting to get the women there, at all. If they really want it, it will come around soon enough. It's just that tonight's main event promo didn't accomplish a whole lot towards that end.

Rest of the show: welp, the Taker/Kane vs. Wyatts showdown was pretty uneventful... and the title tourney went down EXACTLY how 95% of the audience would have guessed, with absolutely zero effort added to introduce genuine drama or uncertainty into any of the four contests. So the overall vibe was one of this week being a big math problem, and while WWE can still end up getting the answer right (at Survivor Series), they just put WAY too much effort into "showing their work" (in excruciating detail) tonight.

Ultra-methodical step-by-step storytelling is not an worthless pursuit, but it does amount to my beloved Sustainable Episodic Television on oxycontin, which can be a little slow for most tastes.

I will go ahead and give full marks to Cesaro/Reigns, but it was really the only source of real joy or excitement on what was otherwise a methodical slog towards Survivor Series. I'm gonna go ahead and say that adds up to a final grade of C-plus.

See you again -- on Sunday night, around 11pm -- when we finally get to see WWE final answer to this complicated World Title Problem, instead of just watching them show each and every obvious intermediary stage in full detail. I have some degree of hope that it'll be something other than "Heroic Babyface Roman Reigns walks away with the title."

But I guess that still leaves some degree of dread that exactly that will happen. Let's all reconvene, right here in this very spot, in about 6 days to find out, shall we?!? Be well till then, OO Nation....

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Bonding Exercises

RAW RECAP: The New Guy Blows It

PPV RECAP: WWE Night of Champions 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: 18 Seconds? NO! NO! NO!

RAW RECAP: The Show Must Go On

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Boot Gets the Boot

RAW RECAP: Heyman Lands an Expansion Franchise

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Losing is the new Winning

RAW RECAP: Say My Name

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Deja Vu All Over Again

RAW RECAP: Dignity Before Gold?

PPV RECAP: SummerSlam 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Backfired!

RAW RECAP: Bigger IS Better

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Hitting with Two Strikes

RAW RECAP: Heel, or Tweener?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Destiny Do-Over

RAW RECAP: CM Punk is Not a Fan of Dwayne

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Returnening

RAW RECAP: Countdown to 1000

PPV RECAP: WWE Money in the Bank 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Friday Night ZackDown

RAW RECAP: Closure's a Bitch

SMACKDOWN RECAP: In-BRO-pendence Day

RAW RECAP: Crazy Gets What Crazy Wants

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Five Surprising MitB Deposits

RAW RECAP: Weeeellll, It's a Big MitB

SMACKDOWN RECAP: #striketwo

RAW RECAP: Johnny B. Gone

PPV RECAP: WWE No Way Out 2012

RAW RECAP: Crazy Go Nuts

SMACKDOWN RECAP: You're Welcome

RAW RECAP: Be a Star, My Ass

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Needs More Kane?

RAW RECAP: You Can't See Him

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Lady Power

RAW RECAP: Big Johnny Still in Charge

PPV RECAP: WWE Over the Limit 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: One Gullible Fella

RAW RECAP: Anvil, or Red Herring?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Everybody Hates Berto

RAW RECAP: Look Who's Back

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Care to go Best of Five?

RAW RECAP: An Ace Up His Sleeve

PPV RECAP: WWE Extreme Rules 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Sh-Sh-Sheamus and the nOObs

RAW RECAP: Edge, the Motivational Speaker?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: AJ is Angry, Jilted

RAW RECAP: Maybe Cena DOES Suck?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: No! No! No!

RAW RECAP: Brock's a Jerk

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Back with a Bang

RAW RECAP: Yes! Yes! Yes!

PPV RECAP: WWE WrestleMania 28

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
BROWSE THE OO ARCHIVES

Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.