As expected, Cesaro & Sheamus will defend their titles against Titus O’Neil & Apollo. The Titus Worldwide team defeated the champions in a non-title match on Raw this past Monday and then challenged them in a post-show video, but WWE didn’t officially announce the match until today.
O’Neil & Apollo have beaten Cesaro & Sheamus in three non-title matches this year, but Cesaro & Sheamus retained against them on the January 29th episode of Raw.
The pre-show will also feature Raw’s tag team division, with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson set to face Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas. Gallows & Anderson had been feuding with The Revival in recent weeks.
With Axel & Dallas helping him out, The Miz eliminated Finn Balor in Monday’s gauntlet match.
The card for Sunday now has six confirmed matches. Here’s the lineup for the show:
Braun Strowman vs. John Cena vs. Elias vs. Roman Reigns vs. The Miz vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor in an Elimination Chamber match (winner challenges for Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship at WrestleMania)
Ronda Rousey signing her Raw contract
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, Mandy Rose, and Sonya Deville in an Elimination Chamber match
Asuka vs. Nia Jax (Jax gets added to the Raw Women’s title match at WrestleMania if she wins)
Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt
Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defending against Titus O’Neil & Apollo
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas (pre-show)
The Big Takeaway: Accompanied by Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews, Dana Brooke stole a win against Mickie James. In a strong performance, Akira Tozawa got his win back from Tony Nese in a rematch of their 205 Live bout from the previous week.
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Dana Brooke (w/ Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews) defeated Mickie James (4:37)
Brooke has been at the side of Titus Worldwide for the last few weeks here on Main Event, so it was interesting to see her take to the ring instead this week with both O’Neil and Crews at her side. James, who hasn’t appeared on Main Event since July, took the fall having last scored a singles win in October.
The match really wasn’t particularly good until the second half. Brooke dominated the first part of the bout with chinlocks and rest holds, but James eventually took over with a more impressive and interesting move set. James locked in a tarantula at one point and looked to be in line for a win when Brooke had to roll outside for a breather, only to be berated by O’Neil and Crews.
The finish saw Brooke block a roll-up attempt that allowed Brooke to flip over James and apply a weak-looking bridging pin to essentially steal the win. Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness played up the coup on commentary and had kept putting James over as a former six-time champion.
Titus Worldwide made off like bandits, even doing a lap of honor around the ring, while James was left to look on.
Akira Tozawa defeated Tony Nese (5:49)
On 205 Live the previous week, Nese picked up the win over Tozawa after some fierce back and forth, eventually finishing Tozawa with a running knee. The rematch on Main Event saw them face off on a show that Tozawa is yet to lose on.
Once again these two were excellent together. The whole match was a back and forth where you felt that either man could come out on top. They built to a point where both had dominated moments and equaled each other and both went for a big boot and both landed it. They looked glassy-eyed — but it was Tozawa who got up first.
Nese tried a roll-up and a pumphandle slam but Tozawa was quick enough to escape them. Eventually, Tozawa was able to strike Nese with a windmill kick to leave him prone by the corner. Tozawa hit the Drop Zone for the win in what was a really strong bout. It would be good to see these two get more time together on WWE television.
Titus O’Neil hyped up Neville vs. Akira Tozawa nicely, while future contenders were built up with both Jack Gallagher and Rich Swann gaining victories.
Show Recap —
Titus O’Neil started things off walking backstage in a red shirt and wacky hat. He yelled and told Akira Tozawa that he’s going to make tons of money after the pay-per-view. He then chatted with Ariya Daivari about his wardrobe and told Mustafa Ali that he was impressed by him before doing the “ha-ha!” bit. Okay then, this was weird.
Corey Graves and Vic Joseph ran down the show tonight. Jack Gallagher faces Tony Nese and Rich Swann takes on TJP. O’Neil came out to a decent crowd reaction while the fans did the millions of dollars dance.
O’Neil was mid-ring with a Titus Worldwide podium and photos of Neville and Tozawa. He said that Neville has been dominant, but he’s no match for the Powah of Tozawa. Neville called Titus Worldwide a mere facade and showed Apollo Crews being demolished by Braun Strowman on Raw.
Well, he raised a valid point, but the fans chanted “you’re not Strowman!” Neville said that O’Neil doesn’t care about his clients, only money, and he’ll invite him to do commentary while he destroys Lince Dorado.
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville defeated Lince Dorado in a non-title match
Neville locked on a headlock, but he got quickly cradled for two. Neville went for a German suplex, but Dorado flipped out. Dorado dove onto Neville, but got sent knees-first into the steps on the floor.
Neville methodically beat him up through two nine counts that he broke up to continue the beating. Neville hit a powerbomb before cranking on the Rings of Saturn to win it.
TJP wrapped his hands while Swann walked up in a smoking jacket. TJP said that Swann wanted the old TJP back, so he’ll bring back the old TJP that beat him in the Cruiserweight Classic.
We got a recap of Nese beating Gallagher two weeks ago to set up their match tonight.
Jack Gallagher defeated Tony Nese
Nese outwrestled Gallagher to start things off, but Gallagher spun him around a bunch with a Kiwi roll and got two. Nese lifted him into the ropes and hit knees to the spine for two. Nese ran him over with a flying crosschop for two.
Nese locked him in the tree of woe before doing the sit-up kicks. Nese locked on a sweet reverse torture rack, which looked a bit bizarre, but a few knees from Gallagher ended that. Gallagher went for a rolling armbar, but Nese locked the arms and got an easy Backlund lift before a Gallagher sunset flip got two.
A double jump moonsault resulted in Nese coming up lame and then trying to attack Gallagher, who hit the headbutt and the corner dropkick to win it. This was quite fun to watch.
Gallagher celebrated before Brian Kendrick interrupted with a history lesson of Great Britain in front of a green screen library. He talked about the British being cowardly and said that Gallagher will surrender to him. This got a big “USA” chant and then Gallagher got no reaction going to the back with his theme playing.
We got a recap of the Cedric Alexander vs. Alicia Fox rivalry. Noam Dar chatted with the trainer about his bad neck before Fox came in and complained about wanting him to go after Alexander — not the title. Dar knows he’s in hell and it’s great.
Bobby Roode vs. Roderick Strong for the title on NXT was hyped up before TJP came out for his match with Swann.
Rich Swann defeated TJP
Swann outwrestled TJP on the mat to start before TJP locked on a modified headscissors. Swann sent him outside and faked a dive before dabbing. Swann grabbed TJP’s feet for a variety of kicks in the corner, but Perkins backdropped him to the floor.
TJP bent Swann’s fingers back on the mat before landing an outside-in tope con hilo for two. TJP went for a submission with the Muta lock, but Swann made it to the ropes. Swann recovered and landed a rolling thunder splash for two, then hit a Michinoku driver for a near fall.
They exchanged dives before Swann hit a spin kick. TJP landed the chickenwing gutbuster and went for the kneebar, but Swann escaped. They each went for, and landed, a double high kick — resulting in Graves immediately comparing it to Fedor vs. Matt Mitrione. Swann and TJP traded cradles, before Swann got one that ended it.
Neville vs. Tozawa was hyped up and will be on the kickoff show at Great Balls of Fire — probably due to the tag titles now being defended in an Iron Man match.
Titus O’Neil played babyface by cheering on Akira Tozawa and believing in him, while Cedric Alexander’s never-ending issues with Noam Dar continued.
Austin Aries said that he’s out of action due to neck and leg problems that weren’t fully explained, and Jack Gallagher saved him from an attack by Tony Nese.
Show Recap —
Akira Tozawa taped up and Titus O’Neil said it’s time for cha-cha-cha-ching! O’Neil said he’s pulled some strings and got Tozawa in the main event tonight against TJP. O’Neil cut Tozawa off and said it will be raining yen.
Corey Graves introduced Vic Joseph as his new commentary partner and we were told that Austin Aries will talk to the fans tonight. Cedric Alexander came out with his rather slick rash guard and we got a recap of last night’s awful Facetime stuff with Alicia Fox.
Ariya Daivari entered and was basically playing his brother’s Lucha Underground character.
Cedric Alexander defeated Ariya Daivari
Alexander and Daivari started off with a striking stalemate. Alexander landed a big apron punch, but he got tripped up and ate the buckle. Daivari locked on a chinlock before turning it into a flying neckbreaker for two.
Alexander landed some nasty chops and uppercuts before eating a big knee that got two. Alexander hit the leg-catching spinning back elbow and a springboard Hart Attack for a near fall — with the ref’s hand briefly slapping down for three.
Noam Dar came down with Alicia Fox on the tron via Facetime. Alexander is one of WWE’s smarter babyfaces and chose to beat up Dar. He then finished Daivari with a Lumbar Check. Fox called him a loser and Alexander teased destroying the phone, but he instead just hung up the call. Thank goodness.
Austin Aries made his way to the ring and we got a recap of his losses to Neville. Aries said he’s glad to be back in New Orleans, but he works hard to be a champion and is disappointed. He said that when it counted most, he didn’t get the job done, but that’s okay, everyone’s been there. You just get up and keep going.
He mentioned that there are rumors that he’s stepping away. He said that due to his knee and neck, he isn’t medically cleared. Tony Nese came out in a ridiculous looking neon green pair of trunks and tattered vest. They went back and forth before Jack Gallagher came out to help Aries. He told some jokes before beating up Nese with his umbrella.
Rich Swann told TJP that he looked good against Neville, but he took too many shortcuts. He wants TJ Perkins to be back and take care of business since TJP doesn’t.
A Mustafa Ali video package showed him looking outstanding before a Drew Gulak video aired that buried dives. Ali will face Gulak next week and Nese will face Gallagher as well.
TJP was out first for the main event, followed by Tozawa.
Akira Tozawa defeated TJP
TJP went for a sunset flip, but he ate a buzzsaw kick for two. O’Neil was backstage actually watching a TV in a way that a human being could view it. TJP choked Tozawa and raked his face. He got two off of a back springboard forearm.
TJP grounded him with a modified standing Indian deathlock before working on the arm. Tozawa recovered enough to send TJP to the floor and hit a suicide dive headbutt variant. TJP landed the double chickenwing gutbuster for two before locking on the kneebar.
Tozawa got a cradle, then ate a jumping spin kick before spiking TJP with a Saito suplex. He landed the senton off the top to win the match. O’Neil sung that it’s raining yen before Neville gave him the evil eye and said he’s spouting drivel and setting Tozawa up to fail.
Neville said that Tozawa isn’t on the Neville level, and O’Neil said that the Titus Brand is about the future and Tozawa is the future of 205 Live.
This was a damn good babyface manager promo by O’Neil.
Thaddeus Bullard, who works as Titus O’Neil in WWE, had a lawsuit filed against him in Los Angeles County Superior Court stemming from a incident filming the WWE Network show “Swerved”.
Donald Anderson, who worked on the show as a cameraman, claimed the incident took place on May 18, 2015, and is suing for more than $1.2 million in damages.
According to his complaint, Bullard was zapped with an electric shock as part of the show. Anderson claimed that when that happened, Bullard kicked the camera out of his hands, causing serious inury to his hand, fingers, and wrist.
Anderson said that when it happened, he was told to leave the premises immediately for fear of further attacks.
As of now, the 40-year-old Bullard has not commented on the suit. A former University of Florida football player, he was signed by WWE in 2009. After spending time in FCW, he was part of NXT’s second season and was officially called up to the main roster in April 2012.
The Big Takeaway: Rhyno returned to this show with a win against Titus O’Neil, and the team of Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado entertained against Drew Gulak & Tony Nese in the main event.
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Rhyno (w/ Heath Slater) defeated Titus O’Neil (5:15)
This was Rhyno’s first appearance on this show since last November. This week he is over with the pre-Raw crowd. He and Slater burst out of the curtain ready to fire things up. Rhyno and O’Neil exchange power moves to begin with as O’Neil takes the early going.
As Slater cheers him on outside, Rhyno gets some hope, hitting a shoulder block and then tossing O’Neil over the top rope to the outside. O’Neil manages to reverse things there and gets a near fall after rolling Rhyno back in the ring and hitting a big boot.
O’Neil slows things down with his usual chops and strikes in the corner, but Rhyno gets the heat with shoulder blocks and a belly-to-belly suplex for two. O’Neil hits a knee strike, but he misses a charge and runs into a spinebuster for the win.
Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado defeated Drew Gulak & Tony Nese (6:57)
Gulak comes out with a megaphone and a hand-made sign that says “No Fly Zone” on it. Although it’s an improvement on his normal entrance, it doesn’t seem to either generate heat or a reaction of any sort from this crowd.
Nese and Dorado start things off together with Nese overpowering Dorado in the early going. Dorado then hits a sunset flip and a rana and tags in Metalik. They use a series of quick tags and double team Nese with dropkicks. Gulak manages to shove Dorado off the top rope as we head to a break.
Dorado is maintaining the advantage as we return, but quickly Gulak comes in and stomps all over Dorado. He and Nese work quick tags, cutting the ring in half and isolating Dorado in their corner. Dorado hits the desperation superkick and makes the tag.
Metalik then hits his patented ropewalk elbow drop and Dorado hits a handspring cutter. The heels get clotheslined to the outside and Dorado and Metalik nail them with top rope dives. The finish then sees Metalik come back inside to hit the Metalik Driver on Gulak for the win.
Titus O’ Neil scored a win over Curtis Axel, and the team of Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik came up short by losing to Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari.
Show Recap —
Titus O’Neil defeated Curtis Axel
Curtis Axel runs out fired up to face Titus O’Neil. Corey Graves talks about The sky being the limit for the Titus Brand. Axel circles O’Neil before getting tossed into the corner. O’Neil slaps his head before eating kicks and then a mudhole stomp in the corner. Axel lands a running shoulder block in the corner before kicking him down out of a corner charge for two.
Graves talks about how a good showing on Main Event might mean that you can eventually get title shots or move higher on the card — offering up two valid reasons for this show being around still despite its prime being long gone.
O’Neil slugs Axel down before tossing Axel’s shoulder into the buckle. O’Neil dominates for a bit, but Axel lands chops and kicks to regain a bit of an edge. A dropkick sends O’Neil down before a Perfect neck snap gets a nice pop. A running knee lift hits and gets two for Axel.
Axel goes up top, but gets taken down by O’Neil with the Clash of the Titus to win. The finish looked impressive, and he does the Sky High quite well.
A recap then aired of the past two Raw angles between Dean Ambrose and The Miz. The women’s fatal four-way from Raw aired as well.
Ariya Daivari & Tony Nese defeated Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado
Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado come down to face Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari — so this is 3/4 of the main event from last week’s show. With Daivari being switched in, I’ll guess that he eats the fall here.
Dorado starts off hot with a sunset flip off the shoulders of Daivari to get two. Nese comes in to face Metalik, who uses a variety of backflips to get a rana and uses that to get a springboard elbow off the ropes for two.
Nese hits a running trip near the ropes and gets pulled to the floor. Nese hits a leg drop for a near fall before Daivari tags in and clubs away. Nese comes back in to kick away at Metalik before his cover is broken up by Dorado. Metalik flips onto Nese’s shoulders to hit a big DDT.
Dorado and Daivari come in, with Dorado hitting a series of lariats before hitting a big overhand chop to the chest. A quebrada gets two for Dorado.
Nese tosses Metalik out before Dorado hits a superkick to Nese and a spinebuster from Daivari gets two. Dorado hits the handspring stunner — sending him outside, so the faces hit stereo Asai moonsaults. Dorado goes up, but gets tossed into the barricade by Daivari and eats a big lariat to win this. The heels have once again won on Main Event!
A recap of Braun Strowman’s destruction of Roman Reigns airs before the Strowman vs. Big Show match from Raw is shown in full.
Wrestling Observer Live returns with co-host Mike Sempervive still flying solo as the boss continues to search for Bigfoot somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
Sempervive gives his thoughts on Monday night’s edition of Raw, the ballad of Brock and Chris, Seth Rollins and the Buckle Bomb of Doom, Titus O’No, your calls and tweets, and much more!
Les and Vic return after a brief absence to explain why they’ve been gone and to get into the biggest stories of the week. Of course, that means starting with the retirement of Daniel Bryan, aka. Bryan Danielson (12:23), including memories and personal interactions with him from Les and Vic’s theory on why Bryan was someone who no matter what WWE did or didn’t do with him, the fans just wouldn’t let him fade away. That takes us to the importance of “shifting gears” (32:13); why changing things up from normal patterns is good.
Then, we’ll open up the mailbag (42:45) for Les to share his personal concussion history and how the business treated head injuries in his day, the suspension of Titus O’Neal (45:53) and what is appropriate conduct between wrestler and promoter, and who from today would Les have enjoyed getting into the ring with (69:05). Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
Getting back on the horse with the first of two shows in the next few days, the original alternate is back with topics that include, but aren’t limited to: Titus O’Neil’s suspension, Bryan Danielson warm and fuzzy water-colored memories of the way he (and the mid-00’s midwest indie scene) was, What Brauny the Strowman’s gimmick would have been if he had come around in the 70’s, NOAH’s Helen Keller Memorial Show on 1/31, some New Japan notes, and more. It’s the show that puts the second B in BxB Hulk; It’s the Adam and Mike BIG AUDIO NIGHTMARE; Proudly here at F4WOnline.com.
Titus O’Neil got some bittersweet news Wednesday as he learned that his absence from WWE has gone from 90 days to 60 days.
The 38-year-old O’Neil was originally suspended for 90 days following “unprofessional conduct” stemming from his grabbing Vince McMahon in what appeared to be a playful manner on Monday night. The grab happened just as the wrestlers were dispersing at the end of the Daniel Bryan retirement segment. The 70-year-old McMahon, unaware, reacted by shoving O’Neil.
Upon arriving in Portland, Oregon, Tuesday for the Smackdown tapings, O’Neil was told that he was being sent home for 90 days. Sources within WWE have said that at some point Wednesday, the duration was cut. However, the 60 day suspension would still mean he would miss WrestleMania in Dallas, TX.
O’Neil was just named “Celebrity Dad of the Year” in the Mega Dad Awards which was promoted on WWE TV frequently.
In a surprising move, WWE’s Titus O’Neil was immediately sent home upon arriving to last night’s Smackdown tapings in Portland, Oregon, suspended for “unprofessional conduct” according to PWInsider.com. WWE has confirmed that the suspension is 90 days.
For those who watched the Daniel Bryan retirement segment as it transitioned to the WWE Network, you saw the incident occuring just before the screen went to black as Bryan and his wife went backstage. O’Neil grabbed CEO Vince McMahon as he was heading backstage. The grabbing is not being reported as malicious. but rather “playful”. Nonetheless, McMahon didn’t appreciate the gesture, and over the years, we have learned what that means.
The 38-year-old O’Neil has been with WWE since 2009. After a two-year-stint in Florida Championship Wrestling, he was featured on the second season of NXT and had Zack Ryder as a mentor. It didn’t help as he was eliminated first, but returned for the show’s fifth season.
He moved up to the main roster in 2012, teaming with fellow NXT talent Darren Young to form the Prime Time Players. He and Young won the WWE tag team titles once — his only title in WWE.
