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WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 1: An Emotional Main Event, New Champs, Family Drama, and the ‘Hollywood’ Theme Comes Alive

By Michael Fairman

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Photo: WWE

Saturday’s first night of WrestleMania 39 or shall we say “WrestleMania Goes Hollywood”, was just that!  It featured: a magnificent stage and entrance ramp, storylines that could topple many of the major storylines currently on any of your favorite soap operas, and in-ring performances that showed that the WWE Superstars have the power to transcend and connect to a live crowd, like no other. You could look no further than to the ecstatic fans, the booing fans, and those who shed tears of joy or sorrow when matches came to its conclusion.

Photo: WWE

Since we’re in the City of Angels, the stars came out to perform, interfere, or make a key save in one of the marquis match-ups including: Snoop Dog, Lil Uzi Vert, Pat McAfee, San Francisco 49ers player George Kiddle, plus the incredible athleticism of viral superstar, Logan Paul, and Grammy award-winner, and quite the wrestler himself, Bad Bunny! More on these guys later.

Let’s take a look at the highlights of some of the top matches on the card:

Photo: WWE

In the main event, the WWE took a solid year to build this story, and play out all of its twists and turns, betrayals, reunifications, and familial drama all leading in part to this. Would Jimmy and Jey Uso retain the Universal Tag Team Championship which they have held for a record 622-days, or would they lose to best friends duo, Sami Zayn (who going into Wrestlemania weekend had all the heat in the world on him) and Kevin Owens?

Photo: WWE

This was the match that had the potential to move you to tears in its conclusion, and the WWE did not disappoint. After battling back and forth with high-flying moves, and selling their spots while keeping the deep animosity between both teams alive, it finally came to its end when Zayn tagged in and nailed his former ‘Bloodline’ brother, Jey Uso with three Helluva Kicks and scored the pin fall.

Not only were the fans overcome, but you could see both Owens and Zayn with tears in their eyes.  They finally achieved this kind of success, after all their years of hard work in the industry – even starting their wrestling careers in Los Angeles with the PWG promotion made this extra special and let’s not forget they main-evented WrestleMania and won the belts.

Photo: WWE

In one of the best matches of the night, Rhea Ripley challenged 14-time champ Charlotte Flair for the WWE Women’s Smackdown Championship – and it was clear that even though Rhea is the ‘heel’, she had most of the crowd in her pocket rooting her on to defeat Flair. This was also the first match in WrestleMania history to feature all women in key positions: wrestlers (Flair and Ripley), referee (Jessika Carr) and ring announcer (Samantha Irvin).

While the match went back and forth for quite awhile and both women had frustration mounting, eventually Ripley hit the Riptide from the second rope to finally put Charlotte to bed and walk away as the new women’s champ!

You had to give this to Ripley, her momentum has been building for three years and now she becomes the first women in the WWE division to hold all the championships at one time or another. In what looked like some very real and honest emotion, you could see Charlotte in tears later in the match, and at ringside on the floor after the match, sitting by and watching Ripley enjoy her WrestleMania moment.

Photo: WWE

In some show-stopping entrances and then in-ring prowess, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins and Logan Paul turned WrestleMania 39 out! Paul entered by zip-lining halfway down the ramp where he was met by his PRIME drink mascot (and now everyone knew that mascot would somehow figure into helping Paul in the match, but who was in the costume?) This was followed by a Los Angeles orchestra conductor delivering Rollins theme-music big time, before Seth came to the stage, draped in an oversized red robe with pryo going off to the left and to the right of him.

Photo: WWE

Once in the ring, all hell broke lose as Paul and Rollins put on high-flying performances.  As the match wore on, it turned out that KSI, Paul’s friend and business partner, ended up being the PRIME suspect, err shall we say mascot. He pulled Paul out of the ring to save him from a finishing maneuver from Rollins.

Photo: WWE

Then in an attempt at another viral moment attempt (as only he could), Paul set Rollins up on the announce table to fly off the top rope and turnbuckle post and land on Seth. However, The crafty Rollins threw KSI on the table instead; leaving Paul in mid-air splashing on his friend instead. Major BACKFIRE! In the end, Rollins delivered a Superkick followed by one of his noted stomps and pulled out the victory.

Photo: WWE

Everyone was on the edge of their seats to see how newly inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame, Rey Mysterio Jr., would face-off with his son, Dominik Mysterio in what has now turned out to be another epic soap opera family battle within the company.  In a very clever video opening, Dominik is seen being put into a ‘correction’ facility van and being driven to SoFi Stadium. Once in front of the live crowd, he reveals he is wearing a luchador mask just like his father.  After the mask comes off, the ‘correction’ officers unlock his handcuffs as he heads to the ring.

Photo: WWE

Not to be outdone, Rey is driven in by Snoop Dogg in a low-rider car, and odes to his late best friend, Eddie Guerrero.  Meanwhile, Bad Bunny was revealed to be chatting with the Spanish commentators.

Photo: WWE

When the match got underway: Rey beat his son with the belt from his ring tights for a few lashes, Dominik threw a drink in his sister’s face at ringside, then got slapped by his mother!  Disguised as ring help, it was revealed that Dominik’s Judgement Day partners, Finn Balor and Damian Priest were at ringside and waisted no time interfering in the match before they were taken out by the appearance of Legado del Fantasma.

Photo: WWE

As the match came to its conclusion, Dominik distracted the referee by taking the turnbuckle cover off and attempted to grab a chain Damian Priest left under his jacket in the ring. However, Bad Bunny ran over and grabbed the chain from Dominik!  That move allowed Rey to deliver the 619 followed by a Frog Splash to come out victorious.  It also sets up Bunny to appear at WWE’s first PPV ever in Puerto Rico ‘Backlash” which happens in May. Stay tuned.

In the opener of night one, 16-time champ, John Cena challenged current U.S. champ, Austin Theory.  For the last several years, Theory has been hailed as the new Cena, and on this night, it would be the ultimate passing of the torch for Theory defeated Cena in what was not much of a match.

Photo: WWE

The contest opened with a nice touch giving a nod to Cena’s incredible work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where he has granted more wishes than anyone to children with critical illnesses. In fact, several of the kids appeared with John before he made his way to the stage.

Photo: WWE

If you watched WrestleMania 39 night one on Peacock or were in attendance, what bouts or spots do you think delivered big time? Comment below and make sure to tune-in to Peacock tonight for night two starting at 8PMEST/5PM PST.

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THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: Katie Kicks Bill to the Curb … for Now

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Bill and Katie

The future isn’t looking so bright for longtime loves Katie Logan (Heather Tom) and Bill Spencer (Don Diamont), when on the Wednesday, November 11 episode Katie wants Bill to leave and give her some space, and to stay away from her!

Katie explains she wanted none of this, but now her insecurity and fear of Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Bill has made it impossible. Bill pleads his case, “I was just trying to help” by speaking with Brooke. Katie tells him, well he didn’t, far from it, it’s all backfired in his face.

Bill insists to Katie that everything he did was for her and her sisters. Katie isn’t buying it. In her mind, Bill has always wanted to stick it to the Forresters. So what changed? She then asks him point blank, if he is still attracted to Brooke? Bill says “no,” but Katie said she wishes she could believe him. He tries to explain that him getting together with Brooke was to broker peace between the Logan sisters.

Katie

Courtesy/CBS

THE TRUST IS BROKEN

Katie speaks to how she is building her own company, making something of herself, and Bill says to her, “You don’t have to lose the people that you love to prove that you can win.”

Next, Katie is convinced Bill was flirting with Brooke because he texted Brooke a Stallion emoji (she has a point, no?). That reminded Katie of the worst time in her life when he was having an affair with her sister!

She points out how Brooke destroyed her life and took Will away from her and he was sent to boarding school, so why shouldn’t she strike back? Bill tries to point out again, that Katie is going to lose her sisters. But, a defiant Katie fires back, “If they can’t accept me for who I am … so be it!”

Next, Bill says he doesn’t buy it and becomes very emotional calling his wife, “my Katie”.  However, now in a puddle of tears, Katie says those words can’t fix everything. Seeing he is not getting anywhere, Bill walks towards the door and says, “I will hate being apart from you, but I’ll do it for you.”

He vows to never stop fighting for them. Katie’s says, “Goodbye, Bill.”  The music swells, Bill exits, and Katie crawls into a ball on the couch in a dramatic overhead shot to end the episode.

Photo: JPI

WEDDING BELLS?

In the same episode, it should be noted that Taylor (Rebecca Budig) asked Deacon (Sean Kanan) to re-propose to her, and this time she accepted.

It looks like Taylor or Deacon are headed down the aisle at some point, but not so fast, because Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) was flirting with Deacon, and she won’t take this news lying down.

Check out the emotional scenes featuring Heather Tom and Don Diamont below.

Now weigh-in: were you touched by the moments when Bill left his house to give Katie the space she says she needed over her feelings of betrayal by her husband and her sister, Brooke? How does this all end? Will Katie end up destroying everything in the process on her way to the top? Will she have a mental or physical crisis in days to come? Let us know your thoughts via the comment section.

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Dancing with the Stars

DANCING WITH THE STARS: A Shocking Elimination on Grammy Night Leaves Ballroom Silenced

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In what could only be the stunner of this season of Dancing with the Stars, the Tuesday night, November 1o episode saw one of the heavy favorites Jenna Dewan and pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy eliminated right before next week’s all-important semi-finals for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.

Week 9 was Grammy night, where the contestants performed routines related to the Grammy Awards with songs that have either won or been nominated for the music industry’s highest prize.

After each couple performed their usual routine, they had to dance a second time vs, another couple doing the same dance style. Only Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson earned immunity from having to participate in it.

Dancing with the Stars

Photo: ABC

THE RESULTS

When all was said and done during the results portion of the show; the following couples were deemed safe and will dance another day: Shum Jr. and Johnson, Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas, and Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold.

That left former Y&R actress Tatyana Ali (ex-Roxanne) and Jan Ravnik and Dewan and Chmerkovskiy in the bottom two. It was then revealed that Jenna and Val would be going home. The ballroom fell silent and Dewan said her “thank you’s “in the most gracious way about her dance journey.

Dewan is a dancer, having worked professionally with the likes of Janet Jackson (who also popped up in a special message to her former back-up dancer in the episode) while currently being an actress, and appearing as a series regular on The Rookie. Chmerkovskiy has been controversial figure all season especially after being suspended one week after comments made towards judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

BREAKING THEIR SILENCE

This begs the question: did America want the couple gone, because they had an unfair advantage with Dewan’s dance prowess, or did the show want the couple booted off too?

Later, Jenna and Val broke their silence on the elimination to Extra. Chmerkovskiy shared “It’s’ definitely a sad result. I thought we had a great season.” Dewan admitted, “I know this was a particularly tough week for a lot of the online noise … but I know that we went out there and had the best time of our life.”

Val is married to pro dancer, Jenna Johnson, who remained in the top slot on the leaderboard during the competition with Harry Shum Jr. However, she also had a bad week breaking her nose in rehearsal!

Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET and next day on Hulu.

So were you happy, or sad to see Jenna and Val voted off of Dancing with the Stars? Of the remaining couples who do you hope make it from the semi-finals to the finals and hoists the Mirrorball Trophy? Weigh-in via the comment section.

 

 

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‘The Bold and the Beautiful’s’ Heather Tom Delivers the ‘Power Performance of the Week’

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Heather Tom

Six-time Daytime Emmy winner, Heather Tom, while not taking the gold at the recent Daytime Emmys for Lead Actress, which would have been a record-breaking victory for an actress; should be prepared that in 2027, she has to be near to a lock take that award home!

In the last few months Michael Fairman TV has named her weekly performances as Power Performance of the Week, and for the week of November 2-6, she has done it again!

How did she earn the honors? Well, quite simply, this version of Katie Logan that is being written and portrayed beautifully, has given the character infused live, a backbone, a woman so tired of being put-upon and wronged, that she is firing back in such major ways that her own family doesn’t recognize her behavior.

Katherine Kelly Lang

Photo: JPI

KATIE AND BROOKE HAVE A SEISMIC SHOWDOWN

Longtime viewers of The Bold and the Beautiful can make a very compelling case that the behavior is justified. Then, on the November 4 episode, Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) and Katie have another major confrontation. Katie is irate that Brooke phoned Bill Spencer (Don Diamont) in an effort to help Bill get through to her to back off the way she is destroying Forrester Creations, in what appears to be Katie’s poaching of the design team, and her ramped up vendetta against Brooke.

However, let’s not forget, Brooke and their sister, Donna (Jennifer Gareis) disowned Katie from the family just a few months ago too! Now in this showdown, Katie rips into Brooke after Brooke attempts to reason with her. Brooke even pulls out the “Stormy” card, reminding viewers that Katie has Storm’s heart. She snipes, “Do you really think he’d be proud of you right now?”

In that moment, Katie chokes up and is struck by that statement, but defends her actions and says Storm would be proud of her. Brooke goes in on if Storm would approve of the way she has gone about building her Logan fashion house design team, which to many seem like cutthroat tactics, Brooke even tells her “Bill is worried.”

Katie snaps after that comment and begins to show her disgust and emotional wounds from how Brooke slept with Bill years ago, especially when she goes in on the the text message Brooke sent to Bill and the use of a stallion emoji. Brooke claims it meant nothing, but Katie shuts her down and shuts her up! Reminding her sister, how she destroyed everything.

Heather Tom

Photo: JPI

KATIE NEVER FORGOT HOW BROOKE SLEPT WITH BILL

Brooke reminds Katie that she had postpartum depression at the time, and she “pushed” her and Bill together. Katie begins to cry, “How could you not know something was profoundly wrong?”

Katie says while she was suffering, Brooke was off in Aspen having sex with Bill. She says of her sister, “You take what you want, and it doesn’t matter who gets hurt and whose life gets destroyed.” She then snipes what was her sister’s excuse the second time?

Then, in the masterful moment in the performance, as sister Donna walks into the showdown, Katie warns Brooke to not EVER talk to her again about morality, or ever accuse her of stealing anything from her, when “You are the master!”

BROOKE’S PAST WILL ALWAYS BE THROWN IN HER FACE

Next, Katie throws down the line Stephanie Forrester called Brooke all the years of their feud, “You are just a slut from the valley.” She punctuated it to both her sister, “We all know she’d sell her soul for a little male attention.'”

Katie tells Brooke she will never apologize to Bill, adding, “And I will never forgive you for this. I am so done with you, and if you’re going to stand next to her (aimed at Donna), then I am done with you too.” As the scene came to its conclusion, Katie told Brooke and Katie to, “stay away from me, stay away from my family, and stay away from Bill.”

Throughout all the scenes, Heather Tom displayed why she is one of the fiercest actresses in daytime drama. This storyline has afforded Tom the opportunity to show all of Katie’s inner rage built over years as she finally lets it out on those who wronged her. For anyone who has been made to feel the weaker sibling in a family, Tom is showing the cause and effect of what can happen to someone after years of feeling put down.

For all the reasons stated above, Michael Fairman TV names Heather Tom our selection for Power Performance of the Week. You can check out part of Heather’s emotional turn in the video clip below.

Now let us know, do you agree with our pick of Heather Tom for the Power Performance of the Week? What do  you think about how Katie is being written in this storyline? Do you think Heather has secured the Lead Actress Emmy in 2027? Weigh-in via the comment section.

 

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