Before SmackDown took place on Tuesday, WWE was at Naval Base San Diego for a visit and to tape this year’s Tribute to the Troops special. The show took place outdoors and featured Raw and SmackDown wrestlers, with it set to air on Thursday, December 14th as part of WWE Holiday Week on the USA Network.
The matches involving Raw wrestlers were taped first as the show’s roster was headed overseas for this weekend’s house shows in Abu Dhabi and New Delhi, so it isn’t known if this will air in order. Machine Gun Kelly performed at the event, and Sgt. Slaughter, Ricky Steamboat, and Mark Henry were guests at the show.
John “Bradshaw” Layfield, who originally came up with the idea for Tribute to the Troops, did commentary with Michael Cole and Byron Saxton.
– The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose) defeated Samoa Joe, Cesaro & Sheamus
– Absolution (Paige, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville) defeated Sasha Banks, Bayley & Mickie James
The faces usually go over at Tribute to the Troops, but Absolution ended up winning here.
– Charlotte Flair defeated Ruby Riott
Charlotte won clean with the Figure Eight.
– The Usos & The New Day defeated Shelton Benjamin, Chad Gable, Rusev & Aiden English
These four teams will be involved in the tag title match at Clash of Champions.
– AJ Styles, Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
With this airing after the SmackDown go-home show for Clash of Champions, the faces going over will be the last thing seen on television before the pay-per-view.
San Diego, California is officially set to host this year’s Tribute to the Troops.
WWE announced that the show will take place at Naval Base San Diego on December 5th, with a two-hour special airing on the USA Network on December 14th. With SmackDown and 205 Live also scheduled for the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego that day, it remains to be seen how the logistics of that will end up working out.
“It is a privilege to honor our servicemen and women for their commitment and sacrifice to our nation,” Vince McMahon said. “Tribute to the Troops is our most meaningful show of the year, and we are proud to continue the tradition at Naval Base San Diego.”
WWE will also be hosting a Be a Star rally, military outreach events, and visiting hospitals while in the city.
This year’s Tribute to the Troops will be WWE’s 15th edition of the event. The first seven shows were filmed at military bases overseas, with the last seven taking place stateside.
The announce team was Michael Cole, JBL, and Byron Saxton. Shane and Stephanie McMahon introduced the show, and Lilian Garcia came back to sing the national anthem.
– Roman Reigns came out to a mixed reaction. He said how proud he was to be the United States Champion and thanked the real heroes, the troops. Kevin Owens came out and wanted to know why Reigns didn’t thank him too. Owens said he’d take the US title back and rename it the Canadian Championship.
Reigns challenged him to a match and then Rusev came out. Rusev insulted the US and talked about how much better Bulgaria is. Rusev, Lana, and Reigns traded insults. Reigns and Owens went to the ring. Big Cass ran down for the save. Mick Foley came out to make the main event of Rusev & Owens against Cass & Reigns.
– Cesaro & Sheamus defeated The Shining Stars, Golden Truth, and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to determine The New Day’s opponents at Roadblock
Sheamus pinned one of the Shining Stars after a Brogue Kick.
– Miz and Maryse came out. Miz said how happy he was to be an inspiration to all the troops through his performances in the Marine movies and then plugged the next installment, coming out in January. He issued an open challenge and comedian Gabriel Iglesias came out. Iglesias insulted Miz and brought out Apollo Crews for a match.
– Apollo Crews defeated Intercontinental Champion The Miz w/ Maryse in a non-title match
Iglesias snuck behind Maryse to take a selfie, then he took another with Miz when he came over to yell at him. While Miz was distracted, Crews hit him and rolled him up for the pin. Miz grabbed the mic and announced this was not a title match while Crews was celebrating.
– Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper defeated Dolph Ziggler & American Alpha
Orton pinned Chad Gable after an RKO.
– Bayley was backstage with a service dog when Charlotte Flair and Dana Brooke came up and insulted her. Bayley said Charlotte knows all about hanging out with dogs, then Dana got in Bayley’s face to set up their match next.
– Bayley defeated Dana Brooke w/ Charlotte Flair
Bayley hit the Bayley-to-Belly for the win.
– WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann, Jack Gallagher & TJ Perkins defeated Drew Gulak, Tony Nese & Brian Kendrick
Swann pinned Gulak after a superkick.
– The New Day were backstage talking about how well Sheamus and Cesaro are working together now. They talked about the power they felt after breaking the record and how they could go down as the greatest team of all time.
AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson came over to say they were the greatest crew ever. Then the camera panned over to Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose who laughed at the notion that anyone else was the greatest faction of all time.
– United States Champion Roman Reigns & Big Cass defeated Rusev & WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens
Enzo and Cass came out first and dedicated the match to all the military members. They did their call and response for each branch of the armed forces.
Rusev and Owens beat up Reigns for a while. After Cass tagged in, Lana shoved Enzo down to the ground for a distraction. Reigns then tagged back in and beat Rusev with a spear.
The WWE announced that the 14th annual Tribute to the Troops show would be taped as part of the SmackDown tapings on December 13th at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
The show, which previously was taped overseas at military bases, in recent years had been taped in cities with large amounts of servicemen. This will be the first time it’s been taped in DC.
During the week, WWE stars will be meeting with members of all five branches of the military with Be a Star anti-bullying rallies and hospital visits. All servicemen and women in the area who apply will be able to get complimentary tickets to the tapings for both them and their family members.
Tickets to next year’s Royal Rumble at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX, also went on presale today. The code to buy tickets is “network” and the presale runs through Thursday at 11 p.m. ET.
Comedian Howie Mandel will be appearing at Tuesday’s WWE television tapings in Jacksonville, FL, as part of the Tribute to the Troops show.
Tonight’s show will be a combination taping of Smackdown (which airs Wednesday in Canada and Thursday in most of the rest of the world), and Tribute to the Troops which is scheduled to air on 12/23 in the U.S. on the USA Network.
Mandel, best known for hosting Deal Or No Deal and being a judge on America’s Got Talent, is the only celebrity thus far announced as appearing on the show. Military personnel and their families from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Naval Station Mayport, and Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base will be allowed in for free.
WWE started doing Tribute to the Troops in 2003 as the brainchild of John Layfield. At first, WWE performers would put on a show at an international military location, but in recent years, it was taped in conjunction with a regular television taping.
