Posted on 8/30/125 by Bob Magee
We open with a shot of Lyon, France, which Michael Cole
calls “the food capital of the world”. Having been to Lyon
and having suffered some mild food poisoning from a
restaurant visit there, I don’t know about that one. But
then I guess Michael Cole, unlike me, did not frequent some
questionable Chinese restaurant earlier in the day.
Solo Sikoa with his crew and Sami Zayn are seen arriving at
the LDLC Arena. After a short interlude with Wade Barrett
and Michael Cole at ringside, there is a recap video of the
John Cena/Logan Paul in-ring confrontation from last week
and the (re-shot) angle where Logan punched out Cena at the
end of the show.
A black Mercedes arrives and Paul steps out of it. He enters
the arena as his music starts playing and he walks down to
ringside to a chorus of thunderous boos. He says that John
Cena said he was a parasite and it seems the people here
seem to think so to. He insulted the crowd for some cheap
heat, saying he’d stick to English because he was American.
He calls himself not a parasite but a disruptor. The crowd
chants, “Shut the f*ck up!”, which the Netflix censors
poorly try to silence. If they keep this up, I’ll check out
the German version of the stream.
He says he made TKO 6.6 billion in 6 seconds and put WWE on
Netflix and ESPN and that the W-W-E is becoming the W-W-Me.
HE says Cena is the one that still represents the old,
institutionalized version of WWE, then proceeds to insult
the crowd in French.
He says he has an athletic phenom and will push Cena to his
limits and calls Cena an imposter in French. He says
wrestling is changing and he is wrestling and if you don’t
go with the change, you will be left behind.
Cena’s theme then plays and he arrives to a giant pop, as
the crowd starts singing along with the lyrics of his theme
music. Not sure what is up with Netflix, but the quality of
the stream looks worse than the early days of ROH PPVs on my
end right now. Cena then got a full in-ring Introduktion by
the ring announcer, I guess in order to cut a promo on Paul.
He calls Paul stupid and says he can not do it on his own
and that they need the fans, who he says hold the keys to if
Paul can join the family and have matches over the span of
25 years. Cena says that Paul claims he wants to raise the
business to new levels, but does not put any effort into
trying to understand what it is that they actually do here.
Cena then calls himself the original disruptor and said he
has been knocking people out with brass knuckles 20 years
ago, but his said “Word Life”. Cena says Paul’s “influence”
is not what it used to be and that Paul was not on a top 25
influencer list that Cena saw yesterday. Cena says that when
Logan makes the front pages of the news now, it is for the
wrong reasons and that Paul uses WWE to save his own ass.
He says the fans don’t fear change, they see through Paul.
They chant “he’s an asshole”, as Cena speaks French (getting
cheered), followed by Paul speaking French (getting booed).
Cena says he will show Paul what respect “in our family”
means, as he leaves the ring. He says respect means that
people understand if you are mean to them that you were just
having a bad day, then apologized to some kid in the crowd
for having had a bad day in the past. The kid was too busy
looking at his phone than look at Cena who was right there,
which was hilarious.
Paul made fun of the segment, while Cena tells him he was 24
hours to whip himself into shape, otherwise he won’t be
ruining wrestling but wrestling will be ruining him.
*****
The Street Profits and B-Fab are interviewed backstage and
cut a promo on The Miz and Melo; Bo Dallas then walks up and
cuts some creepy promo on them, leaving them confused.
*****
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair
vs. The Secret Hervice never took place
Charlotte comes out, followed by Alexa Bliss, but gets
attacked from behind by Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre, who
take out her knee as we head to commercial.
Alexa Bliss vs. Chelsea Green
Back from commercial and Alexa and Green are in the ring
with Alexa in control, as this was turned into a singles
match. We see Charlotte got escorted to the back in a split
screen. Chelsea takes control and slams Alexa’s head into
the turnbuckles repeatedly. Bliss throws Chelsea out of the
ring, as Alexa hits a somersault from the apron. This gives
Chelsea another chance to attack from behind and attempt a
pin after some ground shots. Chelsea stays in control and
throws Alexa out of the ring once more, giving Alba Fyre
another chance to attack behind the referee’s back.
Chelsea bounces Alexa’s face off the announce table, but
Bliss turns things around and throws Green into the ringside
barrier. Both women make it back into the ring at the count
of 8. Bliss hits a few shoulder tackles and a shotgun
dropkick, followed by a snap takedown.
Chelsea escapes an attempt at Sister Abigail, but catches
another dropkick in a tree of woe position. Bliss goes up
top, but has to fend off Fyre first, allowing Green to get
her knees up at a twisting splash by bliss. They trade
reversals for a few seconds, before Bliss manages to roll up
Green for the pinfall victory.
Result: Bliss pins Green by rollup
Post-match, Alba Fyre attacks Bliss as she leaves the ring,
prompting Charlotte Flair to hobble out on one leg. Fyre
manages to overwhelm Flair and it ends with the tag team
champions left laying after an Unprettier by Chelsea on
Charlotte and the Gory Special by Alba on Alexa.
*****
Sami Zayn is being interviewed backstage before his match
with Solo Sikoa later tonight and says he feels confident
like when he main evented WrestleMania and won the
Intercontinental title. He speaks French to the crowd.
They show the social media post by Brandi Rhodes announcing
the birth of her and Cody Rhodes’ daughter, followed by a
clip from WWE Unreal.
Back from commercial, Aleister Black cuts a creepy promo on
Damian Priest. I guess he went to the trouble of setting up
a dark room full of candles somewhere in Lyon for this.
Damian Priest then is interviewed and said he will teach
Aleister a lesson and a lot about pain. He says he will be
smiling and will be enjoying all the pain he will bring to
Black.
*****
Michin vs. Kiana James (w/ Giulia)
James looks to attack with her purse, Michin ducks, rolls
her up and wins in less than five seconds.
Result: Michin pins James by rollup
Post-match, Giulia and James attack her and Giulia hits her
with a knee to the face, then throws her into the barricades
at ringside. Giulia then drives Michin’s face into the ring
steps.
*****
Drew McIntyre is seen walking backstage. He will address
Randy Orton after the break.
He comes out to the ring as a video recap of the attack by
Randy Orton from last week plays. He asks a production guy
if Randy is hiding behind a table and asks Michael Cole
about a medical update on Cody Rhodes (which he does not
have). McIntyre then calls out Orton, so that “the people
can sing his song”. The crowd obliges, as Orton saunters
out, signs a few autographs, and bakes a soufflé or two for
all I know. Just a few short hours later, he enters the ring
to finally address McIntyre.
McIntyre asks Orton to indulge him for two minutes and says
he will see things his way. Drew disses Cody Rhodes and
calls him a politician, liar and “nobody’s friend”. He says
he was sure that Cody was on the phone with Orton all the
time during his recovery from back injury, but that was not
friendship, it was Cody gathering intel. He reminded Orton
that Cody just knew how and where to attack Orton’s back at
the King of the Ring finals, while Orton hesitated to punt
him in the head, because Cody “was his friend”.
Orton says he did not drop McIntyre last week for Cody, but
because McIntyre was a prick. Drew then hit a Glasgow Kiss
and measured Orton up for the Claymore, but Orton ducked and
McIntyre missed. Orton hit a draping DDT and set up for an
RKO but a number of people ran out from the backstage area
to stop him. Orton dropped all of them, including Shane
Helms with RKOs and went to punt McIntyre in the head, but
he had recovered enough to roll out of the ring.
*****
Miz and Melo have a conversation backstage and talked about
having to be on the same page. Bo Dallas walks up and says
some more Bo Dallas things about there being perceptions and
perceptions not being reality and asked if they could handle
that. No idea what he was talking about.
Nick Aldis complains about Orton’s behavior and him
attacking security. Orton is nice enough to product place
some American flavored whisky in Aldis ‘ hand,w hich she
just happened to have on him. R-Truth pops up and asks if
Aldis was drinking that to which he replies that, after the
day he’s had, he would.
*****
WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Match: Street
Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford w/ B-Fab) vs. Melo
Don’t Miz (Carmelo Hayes & The Miz)
Ford and Miz started out and Miz quickly gor dropped on his
face due to some double-team action yb the Street Profits.
Melo is in, Miz assists with some outside interference and
Melo hits Nothing but Net on Dawkins, which gets him some
chants from the French crowd.
Miz is back in and hits some abysmal Yes kicks on Dawkins,
but quickly gets rolled up for a two-count. Miz and Melo
wear Dawkins down with double team moves and quick tags.
Melo blind tags in, which seems to confuse Miz, but he is OK
with it, as long as they are in control.
The audio briefly dropped out for no apparent reason, unless
the crowd chanted something in French that the censors felt
was not appropriierte.
Dawkins finally hot tags Ford, who immediately hits a cross
body on Miz, followed by a back suplex and standing
moonsault for a two-count. Miz hist a DDT and goes for for
the Skull Crushing Finale, but Melo blind-tags him again.
Ford hits a huge splash on Miz from the top, but Melo, who
is the legal man, immediately follows up with a splash on
Ford. Melo goes from a springboard move but he and Ford
crash in mid-air.
Miz wants the tag, but the Wyatt Sicks come out, which
distracts Miz, allowing Dawkins to throw him off the apron.
The Street Profits then hit the Revelation on Melo to become
the #1 contenders and face the Wyatt Sicks at Clash in
Paris. The Wyatt Sicks then get into the ring to face off
with their challengers.
Result: The Street Profits beat Melo Don’t Miz after hitting
Revelation on Hayes
*****
Tiffany Stratton is in the back and is being confronted by
Jade Cargill who tells her that Nick Aldis just confirmed
that she is the #1 contender for her championship. They
bicker back and forth and Cargill tells her she will beat
her.
Solo Sikoa is outside with the rest of the MFT and says it
takes just one Samoan Spike to the throat to beat Sami Zayn
tonight.
*****
WWE United States Championship: Solo Sikoa vs. Sami Zayn
Solo is in control early and wears down Sami with strikes.
Sami briefly fights back, but immediately gets taken down
again. Sami fights back from his back during some ground and
pound, but is quickly outmaneuvered again. Sikoa hits a
running hip attack as Talla Tonga is repeatedly shown at
ringside being tall.
Sami finally throws Solo out of the ring and hits his
somersault plancha. Tonga Loa and JC Matteo pull Sami out by
the legs as he is getting back into the ring and attack him
outside. Solo meanwhile hits a Spinning Solo in the ring for
a two-count.
Jimmy Uso runs out to even the odds, followed by Jacob Fatu,
who clean house on MFT and brawl out of the arena. Sami is
ready to hit the Helluva kick, but Solo rolls out of the way
and to the outside, where he promptly smashes Sami into the
announce table with a Spinning Solo, then follows up with a
second one shortly after.
Sami makes it back into the ring at about 9.75. They end up
on the top turnbuckle, battling for position when Sami hits
a sunset bomb for a two-count. Solo hits a Samoan Drop, then
climbs up top to hit a big splash for a two-count of his
own. Sami evades a Samoan spike and rolls up Solo for two,
then hits an Exploder into the corner. He wants to follow up
with the Helluva kick, but gets hit with a superkick
instead. He hits the Helluva kick into the other corner,
followed by a second on for the pin and the title victory.
Sami celebrated with the belt as fireworks went off in the
arena.
Result: Sami Zayn pins Solo Sikoa after two Helluva kicks to
win the WWE United States championship
Final Thoughts: The main event was fun, once MFT was driven
off. The Lyon crowd got what they came for, which was some
greatest hits by Cena, Orton and appearances by stars like
McIntyre, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Solo Sikoa and Sami
Zayn. Plus they go a “moment” with a big title win by a
French Canadian, so hardly anyone in attendance will have
reason to complain. As a television show from top to bottom,
it was a pretty average episode of SmackDown.