411’s WWE Backstage Report 2.25.20: The Bellas on Vince Calling Them for Hall of Fame, Panel Previews Super ShowDown

-Welcome once again to your weekly WWE Backstage Report. This week The Bellas will be along to discuss their Hall of Fame induction, and I assume their pregnancies as well. Let’s get to it!

-Show opening as I guess the normal Renee show tease is a thing of the past.

-Renee Young welcomes us and she is joined by her co-host, Booker T, and also on the panel this week: Christian and Mark Henry.

-Week in Review: Symphony of Destruction was fun chaos, The Bellas are Hall of Fame Bound, Naomi gets a title shot, and Goldberg spears The Fiend. On RAW Becky and Shayna brawl, Rollins continues his run, and Orton beats KO thanks to a shady ref.

-Christian likes that Owens is standing up for Edge and came out to challenge Orton as a fan. He mentions Orton on cruise control is better than 99% of the roster, but it is great to see him this motivated. He thinks this may be the best version of Orton he has ever seen. Booker is thrilled with what he is seeing from Randy and compares what he is doing to Shakespeare. Renee wants to talk about the crooked ref and Henry likes that KO was smart enough to realize he was being screwed. They joke about another Canadian being screwed in Canada and Christian says it wasn’t for a title so he doesn’t think it counts as a screw job.

-Back to SmackDown where Naomi gets a SD Women’s Title shot at Super Showdown. They put over how cool it is to have the women on the SSD card. Mark is happy to see Naomi back and thinks she deserves this spot. Booker says it is Black History Month and jokes that every title should be won by an African American. All joking aside he mentions that he has said in the past Naomi will be a great champion and this could be her time. Booker is all about the buzz and he doesn’t think there is any buzz around Bayley. Mark agrees and thinks they shouldn’t wait until Mania and should get the title on Naomi now. Christian likes seeing a slow burn.

-Commercials!

–Back with a recap of the Bellas being announced as Hall of Fame Bound on SmackDown. Renee throws to a video package that covers the career of The Bellas.

-Renee is joined by The Bellas and she immediately points out how cute their baby bumps are. Nikki jokes they are a party of five up here now. Brie talks about missing the call from Vince and they thought they were in trouble for something Nikki may have said in the press. They were blown away when Vince told them there were going into the Hall of Fame this year. Nikki brings up that Vince has a soft side and said such nice things during the call and Renee jokes they are going to get in trouble for mentioning Vince’s softer side.

-We get video from The Diva Search with 23 year old Bellas, and they talk about how they didn’t make the cut. They are amazed they have gotten to this spot and look back on all the things they’ve been able to do: match with Rousey for Nikki, winning Titles, and having a match with Steph for Brie. Renee asks about the difference with the locker room when they started. They realized they had to fight as a unit to get more time and better matches for the women’s division.

-They flashback to last week when Charlotte put over Nikki for how she had grown from where she started to the match with Rhonda. Nikki talks about working with these super athletic women and they had to compete with them. She wanted and needed to take her game to the next level to keep up. Renee brings up the match with Rhonda and how different the preparation was. Nikki says she had to be different because it was Rhonda and she learned quickly how strong she was and that she needed to train to fight a goliath. Brie puts over that the girls were more than just athletic and cared about the work in the ring and making the matches great instead of just worrying about themselves. The Bellas discuss what they have been doing as they have more wine coming out and of course babies are on the way.

-Commercials!

-Wrestling With Feelings with Rachel Bonnetta: The Street Profits are on the couch this week as it’s the return of my least favorite segment on the show. Rachel confiscates their red solo cups as there are no alcoholic beverages in her office. She thinks they need to come back once a week for the next year to work on their relationship. She doesn’t want the cup back unless they have enough to share.

-Pay It Off: Booker gets to pay off The RAW Tag Title Match for SSD. He doesn’t think the Profits will win the gold on Thursday and they need more time. Christian agrees and compares them to him and Edge as far as the backstage promos and he wants to see them step up to different levels. He enjoyed their singles matches on RAW and wants to see more. Mark disagrees and thinks the Profits should win as they are a legit tag team, while Rollins and Murphy were just thrown together recently.

-SmackDown Goldberg didn’t want to play mind games and just speared The Fiend. Mark would like to see Bill win the Title, but he doesn’t think it’s his time. He thinks The Fiend is the future and he needs to stay on top. Christian agrees and thinks The Fiend beating Goldberg will only add to his legacy. Booker brings up that The Fiend won the title in Saudi and there will be a moment yet to be determined this Thursday. Okay then!

-Ricochet beats Gallows on RAW as he gets ready for Lesnar. Booker says Ricochet will go down in flames at SSD and Mark agrees as there is nothing Ricochet is going to be able to do about it. Christian brings up that Brock has had some of this best matches against smaller guys and he thinks we can get that again, but Brock is going to roll.

-Commercials!

-Video package for Ric Flair to wish him a Happy Birthday. They show tweets from Flair as he will be at Staples tonight for Lakers/Pelicans. They have video of Flair introducing the Lakers and it’s pretty awesome.

-Renee wants PG stories from the panel about their favorite Ric Flair stories. Mark talks about the first time he met Ric was in a bar and he was in full Nature Boy mode. Ric had 50 people around that he was buying drinks for and then started dancing on top of the bar. Mark was mesmerized and said he wanted to be Ric Flair when he grew up. Renee jokes that’s when Sexual Chocolate was born. Brie had a dinner with Ric just before her retirement at Mania 32 and he told her being a parent is the ultimate match she will ever have. Nikki talks about dropping the title to Charlotte and Ric giving her advice. She remembers him crying and hugging her in the back after the match was finished. Renee talks about interviewing Ric in the ring for the first time and the crazy energy he brings and the crowd feeds off of him. They all wish Ric a Happy Birthday.

-Next we get video of HHH and Steph meeting Tyson Fury before his massive title fight against Wilder on Saturday. We get footage from the bout courtesy of FOX/ESPN Plus. We see a tweet from The Rock as he met up with Fury after the fight as well. Renee throws to Booker T and Christian and mentions Booker is 0-2 on making predictions on Wilder fights. Booker and Christian get to talk about booking Fury if he came back to the WWE. Booker wants to see him against Corbin because he is a big enough dude and has a boxing background. Christian jokes he should be paired against Booker for picking against him. He wants to see him team with Braun and then do a post match song with Elias.

-Commercials!

-Back with a vide package on Ron Simmons, The Rock, Booker T, Mark Henry and Kofi winning World Titles to celebrate Black History Month. That leads to tonight’s Main Event as Booker and Mary Henry get to talk about being African American wrestlers that made it. Mark says this isn’t about his journey and needs to mention Ernie Ladd. Booker says it was different for him as he wasn’t an Olympic athlete with a ground breaking deal. He was a kid from Houston that was told by Ox Baker that he had talent, but would have obstacles thrown in his way. They talk about meeting Tiger Conway and the lessons he taught them. Mark talks about being in The Nation and how he and D-Lo learned from Ron and The Godfather. Booker had his brother, Stevie Ray, watching his back and he kept telling him he was better than most of the guys in the locker room. Gary Michael Cappetta told Booker he was going to be World Champion one day. They discuss how WCW had 4-5 black wrestlers and there was about the same in the WWE. Now NXT and the main roster is full of African Americans and Booker says it is because of the work he, Mark, and others have done. Booker talks about how you only have 1/2 of a chance in this business and you have to shine like new money to get your foot in the door. Mark thanks FOX and the Backstage crew for giving them this moment. I quite enjoyed that and would love to hear them continue that discussion.

-The Bellas are changing diapers on dolls and it seems the guys are going to show how good they are at doing it when we come back from commercials.

-Plug for MLS opener as Nashville takes on Atlanta FC. This is the first season for Nashville and Jeff Jarrett will be there to help kick off the new era.

-Mark Henry vs Christian as they need to diaper, dress a baby and then chug a bottle. A Bella is coaching each guys and things are neck and neck early. They get to bottle chugging time and Mark cheats to win by ripping the top off and guzzling instead of using the nipple. I guess that counts and he is declared the winner. They present gift baskets to each Bella as share a group hug as we are out for another week.

-Another fun show as I continue to enjoy covering this show each week. Booker and Mark were great and I really enjoyed their discussion about African American wrestlers. The Bellas were good as expected as they are made for appearances like this and the baby game at the end was silly fun. Noting Earth shattering this week, but it was a fun show. Thanks for reading!