Why WWE Don’t Want You To Know What Happens On House Shows

Australian Cinephile

Simon Miller on the secrets of WWE house shows!    - - For more awesome WWE, AEW and other wrestling content, check out: http://whatculture.com/wwe  Listen to our free podcasts →https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/whatculture-wrestling/id1064413714?mt=2   Follow us!  Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/whatculturewwe  Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/whatculturewwe  Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/whatculturewrestling/

Transcript

00:00The world is alive again, like Frankenstein and Frankenstein Monster.

00:04Don't get that one wrong, it would drive people crazy.

00:06But this also means that the WWE touring machine is back on track.

00:10And recently, they even came over here to the UK to do some house shows.

00:15Now, I never miss house shows, because if you've never been,

00:18all the wrestlers do stuff they'd never do on TV.

00:21And it makes you feel all warm, fuzzy in your tum-tum.

00:23Thankfully, the age of camera phones hasn't killed this off.

00:26But that's mostly because WWE's edict has always been,

00:29well, if it doesn't happen on Raw, it doesn't happen on SmackDown,

00:31we're never going to acknowledge it.

00:33But saying that, they still don't really want some things from these shows to get out there.

00:39Why?

00:40Broken hand, here's why.

00:47Now, I will caveat this, that no, WWE does not care if any of this stuff got mentioned.

00:52They just don't want to put it on their main roster television,

00:55because it would cause some problems.

00:57Actually, no, that's not true at all.

00:58Even if it was accidentally talked about, the next week, they would just pretend no one's sending it in.

01:03The first crazy thing that did come out of it, though, is the fact that Ronda Rousey was taking on Charlotte Flair

01:08in a champion contender match, whatever the hell we're calling it these days.

01:13The whole point was, the title is on the line.

01:16Now, we do this in order to get everybody excited, like,

01:19oh, we're going to the O2 Arena, and we get to see a championship match.

01:23And if you're a kid, you believe that it may happen.

01:26But if you're a nerd adult like me, you're like, ooh, well, it's not going to, because it's just a house show.

01:30But given that when I did go, WrestleMania Backlash was literally the following weekend,

01:34you knew what they were doing here.

01:36But again, the younger generation has no clue.

01:39So after Ronda Rousey had hit the Piper's pit onto Flair, the referee went one, the referee went two,

01:45the referee went three, and a bunch of children lost their minds.

01:49I'm not going to pretend either.

01:51I lost my mind too.

01:52I can't help it.

01:53When I'm there, I just go, yes.

01:54Much like Mania, though, this was a massive screwjob,

01:57and it turned out that Charlotte's Flair foot had accidentally gone under the rope or on the rope,

02:01one of the two.

02:02The referee restarted the thing, and when Ronda was going, how dare you do this?

02:05The decision should be final, Charlotte flew in, she hit the natural selection,

02:09she stole the pin, and that was that.

02:11Now, as always, this did leave kids everywhere scratching their heads,

02:14and I was like, man, poor people, they have no idea what their future holds.

02:19But the main reason for doing this is that Charlotte and Ronda could start to hone their skills

02:24before they did get to their premium main event contest.

02:27This, of course, allowed Rousey to become the SmackDown Women's Champion on that night,

02:32but it's so fascinating to watch how the machine works.

02:35This is where you get some practice, and we'll shove some minimal story in there for good measure.

02:39And, of course, you don't want anyone to know that Ronda Rousey lost again

02:42because she is a super-duper star,

02:45but what actually shocked me more is when we got to our main event of the night,

02:49which was indeed Drew McIntyre versus Roman Reigns.

02:52Now, they weren't doing this on the European tour on every single night.

02:56I think they only did it in London and maybe in Paris,

02:59so I was like, huh, well, I wonder what they're going to do.

03:01I mean, we are yet to see them square off 1-1 in 2002, so it did have some novelty to it.

03:06And while Roman Reigns was meant to be the heel here, of course he got crazy cheers,

03:10but so did Drew because he was the hometown hero.

03:13However, when it comes to the latter, it don't matter that he came back to where he was born.

03:19He got absolutely murked.

03:20I mean, the match went way longer than I was expecting to.

03:23I think it almost hit 30 minutes.

03:25And for a good chunk of time, this was just our tribal chief decimating the Scottish warrior.

03:31I mean, he had the odd flurry and the big comeback,

03:33but for a good 20 minutes, it was just Roman going,

03:36push, push, and some kid was like, stop, stop.

03:39He's already dead.

03:40And look, there was no way that McIntyre was ever going to win

03:43because the WWE Unified Championship up, down, left, right was on the line.

03:48But even then, at no point did I even think he had a chance.

03:51And this absolutely tied into the finish too,

03:53because finally when Drew was on the front foot,

03:56he went for the Claymore.

03:58He got speared for the second time.

04:00That was it.

04:00One, two, three.

04:02There wasn't even an Uso-related flub finish.

04:04It was still a joy, especially because our tribal chief was playing conductor with the crowd

04:08in order to make them go louder and then go quieter.

04:11But imagine we did something like this at SummerSlam.

04:14You got a half-hour matchup that was Roman Reigns trying to kill Drew McIntyre.

04:19I mean, you wouldn't go on Reddit the next day because they'd be going crazy.

04:22What stood out the most, though, is that it was smart wrestlers being smart.

04:26Because as we know, if you are a sports entertainer, to use their word,

04:30you are going around the world sacrificing your body constantly.

04:33So if you do turn up to an event and know the result doesn't matter

04:37because it's not going to be broadcast on TV,

04:39you don't throw yourself around the squared circle.

04:42You keep things slow and you keep things calm.

04:45I mean, I think the most extreme move I saw here was a big slam.

04:47I mean, work smart, not hard is the best advice always given to wrestlers.

04:51I'm not saying this wasn't a decent match because it was.

04:53And if you had no clue, you'd just be like,

04:55oh man, I'm having a great time.

04:57But when you do, because you're a massive geek like you and I,

05:00it kind of feels like you're part of the inner circle.

05:02This also means in many ways, if you do witness it,

05:04you have just seen a very unique match.

05:06Because again, there ain't no way they would ever do this on a premium live event.

05:11Most people would give it a thumbs down.

05:13Not me, but I'm a positive piece.

05:15The highlight of it all, though, did come down to Bobby Lashley.

05:18Because I'm sure you saw the footage that was doing the rounds on social media.

05:22The night before, when he actually was fighting Drew McIntyre,

05:25he went to hit the ropes.

05:27The flipping ring broke.

05:29And Bobby Lashley went tumbling out to the floor.

05:31And the first time I saw it, I thought, oh my gosh, he's dead.

05:34Now, because he's built like an aeroplane, he was okay.

05:36But this was some scary, scary stuff.

05:38As soon as he was out to fight Sheamus 24 hours later, however,

05:42do you know how he started this match?

05:44He went to one set of ropes, he checked it.

05:46He went to the other, he went to the third, he went to the fourth.

05:48He went over the whole ring to make sure it wasn't going to implode.

05:53He got a massive cheer from the fans.

05:55He had the biggest smile on his face.

05:57And I thought this was absolutely brilliant.

05:59Of course, it was a minor thing, but I tell you, not only did it make my night,

06:03but these are the small, tiny details we probably could do on Raw and SmackDown,

06:07because it takes a story and it connects it together.

06:11It was also appreciated by everybody in the arena,

06:14as was the fact that Butch was allowed to wrestle like Pete Dunne.

06:18Yep.

06:18We haven't seen much of that on Friday nights because he has been given his character

06:21and you've got to do what your boss asks.

06:23But after he had done the whole, oh my gosh, I'm missing, and he had come through the crowd,

06:27he got in that ring to face Sami Zayn and Ricochet.

06:31And I tell you, if you are familiar with the Bruiser Waits, NXT or indie work,

06:36you would have been over the moon.

06:37I can't pretend that I don't like this persona because I get a weird kick out of it.

06:41But if we can add all of this stuff into what he's doing right now,

06:45there is no reason Butch couldn't go on to do far greater things than many people currently imagine he will.

06:50I get he's not the biggest guy in the world, but this doesn't matter.

06:53It's another good reason you should go and see live wrestling.

06:55Was he, like, discernibly different size from a Ricochet or a Sami Zayn?

07:00No.

07:00And he more than held his own.

07:02This may have been the best match of the night.

07:04So this is a real joy because Vince McMahon isn't going to fly over to London in order to watch this,

07:09which means the wrestlers get a bunch of more freedom.

07:12Of course, they still have agents saying,

07:13oh, maybe we should do this or maybe we should do that.

07:16But if you do want to go out there and do something completely out of left field,

07:21well, the worst you're going to get is a bit of a ticket off.

07:23I don't want to be that guy too,

07:24but I do think sometimes WWE can stick too rigidly to their playbook

07:28because when you give these creative individuals the freedom to do a little bit more,

07:32they always come up with creative stuff.

07:34And of course, certain tropes still existed here.

07:36But if you took this triple threat match,

07:38and I don't know, did it at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view,

07:41I bet it wouldn't resemble this one.

07:43And I would also bet that maybe, just maybe,

07:46I would prefer the one I saw live with my eyes.

07:48This is why, once again, I strongly do always advise somebody to check out our house show

07:51if you've never done it before.

07:52I mean, look at that clip that again was doing the rounds on social media

07:55when it came to Randy Orton.

07:57Now, fair enough, this was on a dark match, I believe on Raw.

08:00Maybe it was SmackDown.

08:00It doesn't really make a difference.

08:02The cameras were off.

08:03And when somebody was about to do a big dive,

08:06Randy was like 10 feet down the aisleway,

08:09and a fan said,

08:10Orton, what are you doing?

08:11He just looked up and said,

08:12well, I don't want to get landed on,

08:14because Randy Orton is the greatest wrestler ever.

08:16I mean, he has officially ended...

08:17The person that was on a dark match,

08:19and he just looked up.

08:20I mean, he's been on a dark match,

08:21but it was a crazy year.

08:23And it was happening.

08:23He's been on a dark match,

08:24and he's been doing the best in the dark match.

08:26And I mean, the results of a different heart,

08:27and I don't like that.

08:28He hasn't been on a long time.

08:29It was a long time.

08:29It's going to be on.

08:30I mean, he'll be on a long time.

08:31So, you know that he's doing it.

08:33When you're on a hot match,

08:35I mean, I'm going to be on a hot match.

08:36And I'm going to be on and I'm going to be on a cold match.

08:38I guess that's why I'm going to get this one.

08:41And I'm going to be on a hard match.

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