411’s WWE Backstage Report 12.24.19: Maria Menounous, 2019 Year-End Awards Announced

-Welcome to the latest edition of WWE Backstage. There was no live coverage tonight due to it being Christmas Eve and as I am writing this, it has turned over to Christmas Day. So, I’ll be one of the first to wish any readers a Merry Christmas. Tonight it is award’s season as they will be handing out WWE Year End Awards which always make for good conversation. Let’s get to it!

-Renee hypes the show as Maria Menounous will be along to help with YEA and Paul Walter Hauser will be in Promo School.

-Opening Credits!

-Renee welcomes us and she is joined by Christian and Ember Moon. On the other side of the studio we have Booker T and Maria Menounous. She is a massive WWE fan and says she is always happiest when she is in the WWE world.

-Back to Renee as she brings up SmackDown moving to FOX this year and the birth of the WWE Backstage. They throw to a video package that covers the top moments from the year and as expected it’s pretty awesome because the WWE is great at things like this. Man, I miss Bryan’s Eco-Friendly WWE Title.

-Ember says that the moments that stand out for her are 1) doing the Eclipse off a ladder which she begged to do for the longest time 2) Becky Lynch being inserted in and winning The Royal Rumble. Christian also has two moments and they are Reigns coming back from his battle with Leukemia, and NXT dominating at Survivor Series.

-Our first award is Moment of the Year and the nominees: Lynch wins at Mania, Kofi wins at Mania, Evans/Nattie wrestling in Saudi, and Strowman/Lashley going through the Video Wall. And the winner is…..Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania. Kofi gives his thanks via a pretaped video.

-The panel talks about the moment and Christian loves the moment because it was organic and something the fans wanted. They got what they wanted and he says Kofi’s hard work paid off. Ember was there live and says it was a moment that showed things were going to change in the WWE.

-Over to Booker and Maria and Booker says he saw himself in that moment. He recalls his match with HHH and he didn’t cross that finish line like Kofi did. For Maria it reminded her of #GiveDivasAChance because the fans were so behind Kofi and rallied for him to get that spot and moment.

-We head to commercials with RUN DMC “Christmas in Hollis” playing. Awesome!

-Back from commercial break and we get a video package on the WWE Women’s Tag Division. That leads to the Award for Women’s Tag Team of The Year: The IIConics, Boss and Hug Connection, Bliss/Cross, and The Kabuki Warriors. This one should be The Kabuki Warriors you would think, and yes, The Kaburki Warriors are the winners. They celebrate with their trophies via tape delay. Christian and Ember put The Warriors over and Renee says even though she isn’t here, Paige deserves some of the credit as well.

-Booker and Maria get the honors of announcing The Men’s Tag Team of the Year. Your nominees are: The Revival, The New Day, Viking Raiders, The OC. The winners are The New Day and they get their previously recorded acceptance speech. They dedicate the award to Woods, who is still out with an injury.

-It seems next week Backstage is a special edition as they will countdown the Top 5 Matches of The Year. Again, I don’t think there will be live coverage, but I will be here to cover it as soon as I am able to watch it.

-Commercials!

-Back with Renee and the next award: Breakthrough Superstar of the Year. Your nominees: Ricochet, Street Profits, Viking Raiders, and Nikki Cross. The Street Profits get the nod in what has to be an upset and kind of a weird choice since they barely wrestle. They give a shout-out to Booker T and give props to WWE Backstage. They want the smoke! The show highlights of what the Profits did this year and include some of their matches in NXT, so if they are counting NXT then I guess a case can be made for them as Breakthrough Superstars.

-Over to Maria who is with Paul Walter Hauser, who is the star of Clint Eastwood’s movie, “Richard Jewell.” Much like Maria he is a massive WWE fan and is sporting a US Title. He does a Paul Bearer impression which gets props from everyone. He also does an impression of Vince from “Beyond the Mat” when he first met Droz and had him puke. The impression is pretty solid, so props to him. The Vince one is his favorite to do. He says he watched a ton of WWE and WCW when he was a kid. He says wrestling helps you dream big and he still has delusions of grandeur that he will get to have a WrestleMania moment. He will be heading to promo school later and Booker steps in to intimidate him.

-Commercials!

-Back with a flashback to Maria cutting Dusty’s “Hard Times” promo and it’s rather impressive. She says she was asked to host Hall of Fame so watched YouTube clips and memorized the Dusty promo and they had her cut it to Dusty. He loved it and she mentions she has a picture of the two of them together that sits in her kitchen.

-Paul Hauser is back and he is ready for promo school. Christian mentions that Paul actually did some of the writing for the Edge and Christian Show that Totally Reeks of Awesomeness. Paul says that he loved working on the show and Christian gives him the advice of “be yourself.” Ember tells him not to hold back and Paul says he is going full heel turn.

-Booker is out and Paul marks out to the music. He offers to shake Booker’s hand and then says, ‘”Oh, we’re not doing that. I guess this isn’t Ring of Honor.” I love this guy! He then proceeds to battle rap Booker T and name drops, Jack Tunney, Austin, Rock, Shane, Big Boss Man, Gorilla. He also gets in a shot at Booker being in Total Non-Stop Action. Wow! Then he drops the mic by saying “Hulk Hogan we’re coming for you….never mind.” That was fantastic and the best celebrity they ever had for this segment. Christian gives him a grade of A-, Ember with a B+ and Maria hands out an A.

-Booker gets his chance and says he didn’t know much about Paul, so he went to Christian who told him that Paul sucked and they fired him. He says Renee told him that Paul never saw a cheeseburger that he couldn’t blow up. He finishes that he hopes Paul got paid as that is the only way he can get laid. Paul says he has learned that the wrestling shows are PG, but this show is its’ own thing.

-Commercials!

-Bayley is the next guest on “Wrestling with Your Feelings with Rachel Bonnetta.” She is warned there is no hugging today and Rachel wants to know why she wants to hug so much. She thinks the hugging thing is an act and then gives Bayley an Inkblot Test. I’m still not a fan of this segment.

-Our next award is for Female Superstar of the Year and the nominees are Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Ronda Rousey, and Bayley. The Winner is pretty obvious and rightly goes to Becky Lynch. She thanks the fans and says she is the Superstar of the Year whether it be Male or Female. They debate if Becky can continue to build off the year she has had. Christian hypes the feud with Asuka and thinks it will be a great match.

-Booker and Maria get the last award of the night which is Male Superstar of the Year: The Fiend Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, and Kofi Kingston. I kind of want The Fiend to win just to see the acceptance speech and surprisingly, he is announced as the winner. Sweet! They inform Bray that he won the award and not The Fiend. He is overcome with joy as he thanks God, his family, Abby, Huskus, Mercy, and The Fire Flys. This is the greatest moment of his life. Booker calls Bray a Superstar like The Undertaker that will be around for many, many years.

-Commercials!

-Back for a final time with a video package of Great WWE Christmas Moments: Austin stunning Santa (classic), Braun as an elf, Orton throwing someone into a tree are some of the moments.

-To the stage as the panel brings out Santa Claus. He has presents and gives Ember William Shatner’s “Keys to Acting” book. Christian gets a v-neck shirt so he doesn’t have to wear turtlenecks anymore. Renee gets a wallet for all her WWE and FOX money and Booker gets some Santa’s Beard Oil.

-That wraps up this Christmas Edition of WWE Backstage and as has been the case it was another fun show. The Awards were a nice touch and everyone was great as always. The real star though was Paul Hauser, who killed it and showed how big of a wrestling fan he is. I am tempted to go to the theaters to see his movie just because of how great he was here. Thanks as always for reading.