By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
We are looking for reports on all WWE, AEW, NXT, Impact Wrestling, MLW, GCW, and other notable live events. If you attend a show, you are encouraged to send a report or even basic results to dotnetjason@gmail.com
WWE Live Event
December 26, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Arena
Report by Dot Net reader Eric Parsons
A decent-ish show, with a lot of empty seats. The roads in Columbus are still fairly icy, so that may have hindered some. Also, I have not been watching WWE in some time, saw they were coming to town, my son and I said “eh…why not?” I may not know the right names of moves.
First, no Seth Rollins as advertised. In fact, the steel cage match ended up being a triple threat, but I’ll get into that in a minute.
Editor’s Note: Rollins posted the following explanation via social media.
Massive apologies my friend. We tried everything to make it in time, but with flight delays and cancellations on top of our bus breaking down, it was impossible.
— Seth “Freakin’” Rollins (@WWERollins) December 27, 2022
1. Dexter Lumis beat The Miz. Miz jerked the curtain to a babyface pop. He plays the crowd well. He engaged the arena by starting the O-H-I-O cheer, said that he’s confident Ohio State will beat Georgia and then “we all hope and pray” that they play Michigan again so that “Michigan can beat the crap out of them again.” Instant heat, of course, which he dove into. The promo was probably close to 4-5 minutes. Miz paid homage to “Ravishing” Rick Rude by saying “you fat, ugly, Columbus, Ohio sweathogs” before threatening to leave because the crowd keeps booing him. Lumis’ music dropped and then he stalked to the ring. Miz said, “Hey, it’s too bad, they don’t want to see me wrestle.” The ref started the match, Miz tried to cheap shot, but Lumis turned around. Miz dominated most of the match. Lumis kicked out of the Skull Crushing Finale. Lumis went over via submission (Silence).
Quickly, I gotta say…I remember Miz’s early career (first saw him in a dark match at Armageddon in 2007)…and boy has he gotten better overall. I have to say…he is really good at what he does, especially on the mic.
2. Omos (w/MVP) beat Mustafa Ali. Ali’s music dropped to a lot of cheers, he’s in the ring when it showed that Omos is on the way in. MVP cut a promo saying that Columbus’ airport sucks (not necessarily untrue), the city sucks, we have no talent, that he’d rather be in Miami. He mocked fans in the front row saying that “you paid to be here, I get paid to be here.” MVP offered Ali the chance to leave, Ali said, “Nah, this guy is the ugliest guy I’ve ever seen.” Omos dominated nearly the entire match, which consisted of no less than four spots with the referee distracted and MVP hitting Ali with his staff. Ali eventually took MVP out and got some offense, but Omos did him in with a chokeslam.
To be honest, this match was quite boring and the arena was largely silent.
Prior to the event starting, it was announced that an early match’s victor would be added to the steel cage main event to make it a Triple Threat for the U.S. Championship. That match was…
3. Johnny Gargano beat Baron Corbin to earn a spot in the U.S. Championship match. Gargano was cheered loudly, as he is from Cleveland and they were really pushing that angle. First of all, for a guy his size, Corbin can move. The match itself was fairly even, but with more “toss this guy out of the ring” moves, just like the previous. At one point, Corbin knocked the referee in the corner, kicked Gargano in the nuts, covered him for the three count, and was declared the winner. However, a second official came out and they overruled it, restarted the match, and it looked like Corbin was still going to win. Corbin hit the Deep Six, which Gargano kicked out of. Corbin was going to hit the End of Days, which was reversed into the Gargano Escape. Gargano went over via submission and is added to the main event.
4. “The Street Profits” Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins beat “Alpha Academy” Chad Gable and Otis. I had never seen either of these teams before tonight…boos rained down when we heard “shoosh please!” Gable cut a promo on the way to the ring. It’s easy to get cheap heat in Columbus when all you have to do is bash Ohio State…which Gable did. He said that they were the worst educational institution in the world, and then said he had a list of 45 reasons that Columbus, Ohio, was terrible, but said “wait…did I say 45? That’s the number of points Michigan dropped on you!” The Street Profits played to the crowd with the O-H hand signals, then each team tried going to the second rope to get reactions from the crowd. The Street Profits had some early offense, but the majority of the match was Ford getting smacked around by Alpha Academy. Eventually, he made the hot tag. Dawkins secured the pin by rolling up Gable.
5. Bianca Belair defeated Bayley to retain Raw Women’s Championship. Bayley entered first to massive boos. She tore up a fan’s sign that said “Bayley is my role model” on the way to the ring. Belair was the obvious favorite. Bayley had the majority of the offense in the match, but Belair secured the win with the Kiss of Death. At one point, Bayley ran out of the ring, demanded the microphone, went to the front row and said, “This guy said I’ll never be champion! But he’s wearing a Cheetos sweatshirt!” and then went back to the ring. It was…odd.
6. Austin Theory defeated Johnny Gargano and Damien Priest in a Triple Threat steel cage to retain the U.S. Championship. Gargano entered the ring first to a massive pop. Priest was second mostly to silence, followed by Theory to massive indifference. The match started with Theory knocking Gargano down and then Theory and Priest double-teaming Gargano for several minutes. The crowd was having none of it, constantly chanting “We want Rollins!” Eventually a free-for-all happened, and several spots where all three were down. At one point, Theory and Gargano kept trading superkicks. Gargano was attempted to escape by the door, when Theory grabbed it from behind and slammed it into his head. Toward the end, Gargano had climbed all the way to the top, with Theory and Priest getting there, too. Gargano first smashed Theory’s head on the top and pushed him off, fought Priest a bit before doing the same, and had straddled the cage. All the while, Theory was slllloooooowwwwwwllllly crawling toward the open door. Eventually, he managed to roll out and touch the floor as Gargano finally let go and dropped. Theory retained via escape.
Afterward, Theory declared himself to be the greatest U.S. Champion ever, and asked Gargano to come back so they could do the no-look high five one more time…Gargano dropped him and then held up the unconscious Theory’s hand to high-five him. Gargano was cutting a promo about it being his dream to be the U.S. Champion as we were walking out.
A small and somewhat disinterested crowd. They announced that Smackdown will be at Schottenstein Arena on 4/21, presale WWEPRE.
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