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Join 411’s Live WWE Backstage Coverage

February 18, 2020 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Keith Lee WWE Backstage

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-Welcome to your weekly live coverage of WWE Backstage.  We are on the road to WrestleMania, but are also building towards SSD and Elimination Chamber along the way.  For this week this show was promoted to have Mark Henry and North American Champion, Keith Lee as guests.  Join me in about 10 minutes as we check out the latest edition of WWE Backstage.

-Show opening!

-Renee Young welcomes us and she is joined by her co-host Booker T, and we have Paige and an empty seat on the panel.  The empty seat is soon filled as Mark Henry gets a proper introduction complete with his theme music.  Renee is kind of sad they didn’t get the salmon jacket.  Nice!

-Weekly Wrap: On SmackDown Bayley beats Carmella, but Naomi interjects herself, Bray has a war of words with Hulk Hogan, and Otis gets his heart broken.  On RAW, Orton destroys Matt Hardy again, Becky and Shayna continue to threaten each other, and Owens gets saved by The Street Profits.  Booker is all about the Street Profits getting this chance and he wants to see them get a little dirt on them.  Henry agrees that they need to get tougher in the ring and still have fun outside it like they’ve been doing.  Paige was blown away by the hang time Montez got on his frog splash and it was rather impressive.  Mark and Booker both know the SP need to get the fans to feel what they are doing.  Henry says they are worried about the success of moves and need to worry about the success that comes with winning titles.

-They show Dolph ruining the Mandy/Otis date and Renee compares it to Lisa breaking Ralph’s heart on The Simpsons (which has been all over twitter since Friday).  Mark is broken up about it and says he feels for Otis as he gets emotional.  He feels for every big guy around the world that consider themselves big boned.  He calls Dolph a piece of trash.  Booker sees it differently as Otis had himself a moment and it’s up to him how he reacts.  Booker wanted Otis to fight for Mandy in that moment and start beating on Dolph in the restaurant.

-Renee brings up Mark’s run as Sexual Chocolate.  Mark remembers people complaining it was going to be horrible for his career, but he wanted to give it everything he had and now he is reminded about it by fans every day.  He knows the world is going to rally behind Otis and he wants Mandy to stand up for her man.  The question though is who is her man?

-Commercials!

-Bask in his glory as Keith Lee joins the crew.  He even does the “Keith Lee” chant that the fans would usually do with his theme.  Tremendous!  This man is just full of charisma and personality.  I expect him to be fantastic in this setting.  Renee wants to know about the moment at The Rumble with Brock Lesnar.  He calls the moment intense and that when in a ring with someone like that you can only feel the moment.  We are told that Keith’s father, step-mother, and brother (who is 13 and already 2 inches taller than Keith) were at the Rumble to watch.  Paige wants to talk about Survivor Series.  He calls that match intense as well, and Roman told him after the match that he wanted a 1 on 1 match with him.  They show video of CM Punk hyping up Keith Lee as the man to eliminate Brock and win The Royal Rumble from a few weeks back.  Keith is grinning ear to ear and says something like that is very hard to process.  He mentions he has never met CM Punk and Renee says that Punk is quite unhappy he isn’t here today.  Keith wishes he was here as well as it would have been nice to meet him.  He is touched by the respect that people he has admired have shown him.

-Booker T talks about how Keith Lee has changed the game with what big men can do in the ring.  He asks if Keith feels that he is a leader with the people in NXT.  He feels he is more a leader by example instead of telling people what to do.  He makes himself available for those that need an ear.  Mark asks Keith if he is ok being kept in the dark until the last minute about things and he mentions he has to be as he takes things as they come.  Renee brings up his background as he played football at Texas A&M.  Football was going well, but his heart was with pro-wrestling and he had to answer the call.  He started training with Killer Brooks and once he picked it up, he couldn’t put it down.  Paige asks who Keith would want to face on any of the various rosters: Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns.  He says his dream match was always Kurt Angle, but that can’t happen.  If he had to pick right now, his number one dream match would be Cesaro.  I never realized I wanted that match until just now as everyone on the panel is drooling over the prospects of it happening.  Man, can’t we send Cesaro down to NXT for a few months?

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania Moment: IC Title Ladder Match: Razor vs Shawn at Mania X.  Still awesome!

-That leads to Renee throwing to a video package on the 6 Man Ladder Match to crown the first NXT North American Champion at NXT New Orleans.  Adam Cole gets to talk about the match as we gets highlights.  I believe this is one of the few WWE (NXT) matches to get ***** from Meltzer (actually 2 matches from that card got the full boat from him).  Ricochet is also a talking head here as he mentions it was his NXT debut.  He had no fear heading into that match as he is an adrenaline junkie as it is.  Cole says there were a lot of nerves as they had pressure to deliver.  Ricochet ad Cole talk about feeling the energy from the crowd.  Cole says there was a point all 6 were on the ladder fighting with the title just outside their reach.  It eventually ends with Cole winning the Title and he talks about the pride and relief he felt.  He was relieved that he survived the match and says the stars aligned on that night for them to deliver.

-Shawn Merriman will be up next for promo school.  Commercials!

-We get video of Sheamus at Daytona 500 and Renee sends positive thoughts to Ryan Newman as he recovers from a terrifying crash.

-XFL Plug and I am intrigued by the turnout St Louis is going to get in their home opener.  Word was 35,000 would be showing up which is rather impressive and they were very smart to put a team in that city as they are still ticked off about losing the Rams.

-Shawn Merriman (former NFL star) is here and they show video from One Night Stand 2008 where he helped CM Punk in his match by blasting Chavo with a kendo stick.

-The judges for Shawn will be Renee, Paige, Mark Henry, and Keith Lee.  Shawn gets to cut a promo on Booker T.  Merriman shows some good intensity and throws in “I can dig it” which is a nice hidden touch.  He rhymes a few things like rookie with cookie and ends with telling Booker T if he keeps running his mouth it will be lights out.  All things considered that was decent as he came across believable and tough without going too long.

-Grades: Renee gave him a B+ and liked the catchphrase.  Keith Lee gave a B- as he liked the confidence, but tells Shawn not to step in a legends face as it may backfire.  Mark gives a C+ as he doesn’t think Shawn was owning his environment.  Paige gives a B, but mentions he paused a bit too long which showed he was thinking too much.

-Booker T gets his chance to cut his counter promo and he thought he was getting LT when they said it would be a Chargers legend.  He tells Shawn if he ever steps to him like that again it will be Lights Out.  Booker did a solid job as you would expect as he turned Merriman’s catchphrase back on him and got the judges to (his audience) chant along.

-Commercials!

-The Evolution of the Big Man.  We get a video package of various monsters in wrestling history and that sets us up for The Main Event.  Mark Henry and Keith Lee get to discuss the Evolution of The Big Man.  Mark mentions he has been praising Keith on every radio station and podcast.  He asks Keith how it feels to bring back The Big Guy Magic.  Keith calls it an enormous thing to have someone like Mark Henry speak his name.  It’s because of guys like Mark that gave him a platform to do what he’s been able to do.  Mark says he isn’t trying to blow up Keith when he says things like this.  He only speaks facts and says that the last big man with the athleticism of Keith was The Undertaker.  He asks Keith what he owes all that too.  He talks about watching the guys that came before him and he wanted to mix styles.  He talks about watching what Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin, and a young Brock Lesnar.  Mark sees Keith as a mix between Yokozuna and Bam Bam Bigelow.  He talks about Yoko being a dominant presence and then BBB doing cartwheels, backflips, and moonsaults.  He calls Keith the future of Big Guy Magic as it is becoming a lost art.  He is happy the WWE is letting Keith be himself.  Mark asks Keith if he feels he is arrogant about his abilities.  Keith says his demeanor is to be humble, but in the ring he has to show confidence.  He knows he isn’t the typical WWE Superstar based on look, but he wants to show everyone you can be what you think you can be.  His believe is to capture every goal you set for yourself and reach beyond the stars.

-Commercials!

-Plug for Wilder/Fury II on Saturday.

-A beautiful pitbull is on set as Paige feeds him cheese.  I quickly search and find that is Lobster and yes, he belongs to Paige.  I am a sucker for dogs!

-They show the GIF of Lee pouncing Adam Cole into the Shadow Realm.  They then have him pop up in various videos: Henry slamming Cena during his retirement announcement, Paige dancing with Charlotte, and during the Booker/Austin grocery store fight.  That ends this show!

-Thanks for following along!

article topics :

WWE Backstage, Robert Leighty Jr.