411’s WWE Backstage Report 12.3.19

-Welcome once again to your weekly dose of WWE Backstage.  It seems Seth Rollins is joining the show tonight and I am curious if they touch on what CM Punk had to say about him a few weeks ago.  And here, we go!

-Renee promises a killer show tonight and hypes Seth’s appearance.  They will also have breaking news about a returning star and touch on the Batista/Dana Brooke twitter romance.

-Show opening!

-Renee welcomes us and is joined by her co-host, Booker T and by regular show panelists, Christian and Paige.  Paige is crushed by the fact that Renee doesn’t like Friends (Paige is rocking a Friends shirt) and Renee says she is more of a Frazier gal.

-Week in recap: Alexa Bliss returns on SmackDown, Roman Reigns destroys Bobby Roode among others, and The Fiend rips out Daniel Bryan’s hair.  On RAW The Kabuki Warriors beat Charlotte, and the Rollins/KO feud continues.

-Back to our hosts and they start with the KO/Seth feud.  Booker says he doesn’t know where the feud is going, but he likes it.  He thinks we are seeing just an appetizer from Owens and soon we will get the main course.  He is a big fan of AOP and how they are getting back to business.  Renee is also a fan of AOP and Christian brings up again that nobody wants to be a passenger.  Christian brings up it will only help if they are attached to Rollins, but Booker and Renee mention they don’t know for sure if they are linked.  Paige says she has been a critic of Seth, but she likes where he is coming from now and how he has changed.

-Next up they cover The Firefly Fun House and The Fiend pulling out Bryan’s hair.  Christian mentions that Daniel is a rather hairy man and he isn’t sure where that hair was coming from and Paige says maybe they should ask Brie Bella.  They show a twitter photo of the new Fiend belt with Paige’s face on it.  Christian jokes that Ryder is probably the only one to drop $7000 on that belt.  Nice!  Renee says people are actually spending the money and Booker thinks everyone needs to take notes from what Bray is doing.  He talks about how Bray now sells the most merchandise and Christian calls him a generational talent.

-Commercials!  If I didn’t mention it before, I really love the crawler at the bottom of the show that provides all kinds of cool information about reigning champions, historic dates, and more.  Just a nice touch!

-We are back and Seth Rollins is out to join the show.  Seth has fun by stepping over the top rope, saying he has always wanted to do that.  Booker gives him compliments on his beard.  Renee wants to address the elephant in the room and yep, it’s CM Punk time.  Seth says that he isn’t shocked that Punk isn’t here and he isn’t wasting any more energy.  He thinks it may be time to move on to something else, but he does wish that Punk was here for a face to face meeting.  Booker says it is time to move on to the new and Renee says that she had to bring it up because the fans would want to know.

-Seth brings up that he was cheered and the guy that beat Brock at Mania and something has changed and it’s not him.  He is the same guy he has always been, and it is a small segment of the fans.  He says he isn’t getting booed everywhere, but he is passionate and will defend himself.  He isn’t Cena who posts emotional quotes or Roman who likes to lay back.  If someone is taking shots at him, he will push back.  Christian wants to know what it is with the fans and if it is just here in the US.  He says everyone pops for his entrance and once the kids sit down, there is a vocal minority that boo him, but with the dark matches after the show everyone is cheering him.  He says others have had the same reactions and brings up Roman, Cena, and even Bret Hart.

-Booker wants to talk about social media.  Seth says he runs a wrestling school and his kids have to use social media to promote themselves.  He says social medial is a double edged sword and Christian thinks everyone should re-read before hitting send.  Seth believes in no such thing as bad publicity with social media.

-Renee brings up the pressures of being at the top.  Seth says staying on top is much different than the climb.  It isn’t paranoia, but there is pressure as everyone is coming for your spot.  Booker goes back to the fans turning on him and mentions the crowd at Hell in a Cell turning on him.  He thinks the crowd hated what was happening and he was just the guy there that had to take the brunt of it.  He mentions he had a twitter beef with Will Ospreay (wasn’t expecting to hear that name).  Booker thinks the way Seth handled the end of that spat was classy and Seth says it was all in good fun.  He took a shot at him, so he took a shot back and Renee jokes that Will got some merchandise out of it.

-Christian goes back to Hell in a Cell and brings up the red light.  Seth said he had no clue as he thought it was just part of the entrance and calls it a mess to deal with it.  He is not a fan and thinks it does affect your performance.  He thinks he has gotten a little used to it as they had a few matches, but it was tough.

-Paige next and she wants to bring up his relationship with his fiancé, Becky Lynch.  He says knowing what he knows now, he wouldn’t have put their pairing out there on the air.  He says they both had hesitation about it, but thought it could be handled well.  He loved the match at Extreme Rules, but says it probably caused more problems that it should have and they will keep it private again.

-Commercials!

-Wrestling with Your Feelings with Rachel Bonnetta: Kevin Owens is on the couch this time.  Owens says that if Rachel had met Shane McMahon she would have loud outbursts well.  Rachel breaks patient-doctor confidentiality by ratting out what Shane had to say about KO.  Owens grabs a Ukulele and breaks it before leaving as Rachel wants him to play with a stuffed animal.  Still, not sure about this segment, but it seems they will be happening on a routine basis.

-Back to our hosts and they talk about KO.  They all put over his ability on the mic and that he has found his footing on RAW.  Booker thinks there is more to come and expects bigger things.  Paige mentions that you can put KO in any situation and he will shine.

-Hot Tag: Paige gets to talk about The Kabuki Warriors and she thinks they are better off without her.  She thinks they are shining in their new position and Renee puts over the handicap match with Charlotte.  Booker chimes in that they stole the show.

-Hot Tag: Booker gets to cover the return of Sheamus.  He gets to pick who he wants to see as the first feud for Sheamus.  If he was on RAW he thinks Drew McIntyre would be the best fit, but since he is on SmackDown he needs someone to crush to get back in the groove and thinks it would be Sami Zayn.

-Hot Tag: Rowan and whatever he is carrying to the ring in that animal carrier.  Christian gets to handle this one and will get to the cage in a second, but puts over Rowan’s size and how it is nice to see him step out from being someone’s heavy.  He says that Rowan is into some weird things and doesn’t know if it is a pile of Razor’s toothpicks, or a shrunk down Harper.  Paige wants it to be Baby Yoda and Booker thinks it’s a mini pig.

-The Satin Sheet returns next.  Commercials!

-TLC commercial and it’s 12 days away with 0 matches announced.

-The Satin Sheet with new porno music.  Dio Maddin has been absent from RAW since being attacked by Brock.  According to sources, Dio still wants to be a WWE Superstar and is back at the Performance Center to train.  Joe is in the position now and will be there until he is cleared to return.  Next up is the apparent return of John Morrison which was apparently going to happen, but Morrison posted nothing was signed.  Well, WWE will confirm now that Morrison has signed a deal, but the terms are undisclosed.  There is no word on the official return or what brand, but he is coming back.

-Renee is pumped and wants the slow-mo intro back.  Booker talks about how Morrison is a Season 3 Tough Enough Winner and is glad to have him back.  He says Morrison has had star potential since day one.  Christian says WWE is dog eat dog and sometimes you have to step away to get better and mentions he had to do the same thing.

-KO is apparently watching the show as they read a tweet from him that the he wants less Seth and more of him on the show.  Renee says he Owens is welcome to come on the show anytime he wants.

-Commercials! During the commercials the crawl at the bottom of the screen breaks in with BREAKING NEWS: JOHN MORRISON HAS SIGNED WITH WWE.  Again, just a small thing, but it does give the show a real sports feel.

-Back with a montage of various love stories in the history of the WWE.  That leads to the twitter romance between Batista and Dana Brooke.  This is fantastic as they have a guy and girl reading the twitter exchange between Batista and Dana while love music plays in the background.  The photos they use of the two of them only adds to it, and there is something awesome about hearing tweets out loud that makes you realize how silly some of them sound.  Batista mentioning he has squat racks and wanting to teach her jujitsu is great as is him saying she can him “daddy.”

-Renee doesn’t want to hear people using the word “daddy” in uncomfortable situations.  Seth is back and he wants to see this romance bloom in real life.  He thinks it will take some heat off of him.  Paige says she is more involved in that love affair than the Lana/Lashley one.  Seth says Edge and Lita had their live thing in the ring and it just saying what he thinks could happen with Dave and Dana.  They are just throwing it out there!  Booker is going to look at it from an analytical aspect and says both of them are about sets and reps.  He says they can go all night long and Renee loses it.  They all thought Booker said sex and I thought the same originally as well.

-That leads to the Lana/Lashley/Rusev soap opera and Renee wants to know how Paige would pay this story off.  Renee mentions that Rusev is getting over from this feud and Paige agrees with that.  She tells Lana to stop tweeting at her.  Seth thinks they need to put Lana in a shark cage for a match and Christian says Rusev should tweet Dana Brooke to tie everything together.  They all agree that this has worked out better for Rusev than the originally thought.

-Renee confirms that CM Punk will be back next week before heading to our last commercial break.

-Back with footage of the Milwaukee Bucks warming up before game by having a tag match in the tunnel.  They add commentary in time with what they are doing and it is pretty spot on.

-Lana is back on twitter and taking shots at Paige once again.  Paige wants her to come on the show and they will go to promo school.  Speaking of which, what happened to that tonight? Stephen Amell?

-Social Media SmackDown: Rollins gets to respond to a fan who said Rollins smelled like snail juice.  He wants to respond to all the keyboard warriors out there and says they can all bring it as he can take it.  He burns it down and can take it because he is the top guy.  Everyone is a critic, but not everyone can be a leader.  That was kind of generic and I expected more shots fire.

-We are out, but as Renee hypes Punk next week, Rollins does says it’s too bad that it’s next week.

-This show is finding a nice niche and formula and I am enjoying it.  They guys and girls are obviously more free to say what they want and everything comes off as easy to watch.  This isn’t Talking Smack, but it has been enjoyable the last few weeks and that’s all I want from the show.  The Rollins interview was good and he touched on the things we expected while also covering things I had no clue were coming.  I am also a fan of The Satin Sheet segment as it does give the show a real sports feel.  Some probably still don’t see the need for the show, but it’s an easy watch and everyone on it is having fun.

-Thanks for reading!