The tributes would continue throughout the night, taking
the form of career highlight videos focusing on specific Warrior matches. The
bouts selected for inclusion were his Intercontinental title victory over the
Honky Tonk Man at SummerSlam ’88, his iconic clash with Hulk Hogan at
WrestleMania VI, his SummerSlam 1990 cage match opposite Rick Rude, and an
edited version of his final RAW promo. WWE did a good job making Warrior look a
star.
The show proper kicked off with Alberto Del Rio taking on
Rob Van Dam, one of four first round matches in a tournament to determine the
number one contender to Big E’s Intercontinental gold. The match was nothing
special. In fact it was pretty sloppy in places. The most notable thing about
it was that the announce team mentioned Van Dam’s hybrid style. For whatever
reason (quite possibly because I often try and tune them out) I’d never
registered that they say this in every
RVD match. It’s incredibly lazy, but that won’t stop them saying it next week. Van
Dam progressed to the second round after yanking ADR off the top rope and
hitting him with a Five Star frog splash.
After a recap reminding us of what went down with
Evolution, The Shield, and Daniel Bryan (who was on his honeymoon with Brie
Bella and wouldn’t make an appearance) the week before we were shown Triple H shaking
hands with Orton and Batista in an office. ‘The Game’ told his boys that he
didn’t think The Shield were going to let either of them near the WWE
championship and said it was an attitude that reminded him of Evolution (which
was probably meant as a compliment). Then he said he doesn’t think anyone can
stop them then immediately contradicted himself and said a united Evolution
could. Both Batista and Orton told Tripper that he was on his own. ‘The
Animal’, you see, just wants to be champ.
 |
| I suggested Goldust's robe on a TWP episode. Maybe they're listeners. |
The evening’s second match was Goldust and Cody Rhodes v
RybAxel. It was enjoyable, as most things involving Cody Rhodes are. Perhaps
surprisingly the heels won clean, Ryback pinning Cody off a Meathook
clothesline as Cody went for a Disaster kick. It meant we got to hear RybAxel’s
hunting horn heavy theme tune again, so I was all for that win.
In his latest hype video Bo Dallas told us today is a
gift, which is why it’s called the present. I can’t wait until he’s on TV with
this ridiculousness. There’s a lot of potential in character and I’m hopeful
WWE are going to do something worthwhile with him.
Out next was Paige. We were reminded of the circumstances
of her debut and title win but there was no victory promo from her. Nor was
there any appearance from former champ AJ Lee. I’d expected the latter in order
to set up a rematch at Extreme Rules. Presumably she was elsewhere and her
reaction to the loss of her title will come next week. The new champion faced
Alicia Fox in a non-title match. Fox dominated much of the match. Eventually
Paige turned the tables with a kick and applied her scorpion lock for the
submission victory.
Hour two opened with WWE tag team champions Jimmy and Jey
Uso (whose continued popularity surprised and pleases me) facing Randy Orton
and Batista. The story behind it was that the Usos had challenged the Evolution
boys after the beating they’d taken around ringside the week before. The Usos
started off with a barrage of punches and a pair of dives on to their foes but
the match quickly proceeded into a slow pace with Team Ortista keeping things
under control.
It didn’t last long. After a few minutes ‘The Viper’ left
the ring to give Jimmy a beating around ringside (again) and got attacked by
The Shield. Big Dave was left alone in the ring. Rollins and Ambrose sacrificed
themselves distracting him to allow Reigns the chance to get into the ring and
drop ‘The Animal’ with a Superman punch. That Ambrose and Rollins got taken out
is a small thing but a nice touch: it demonstrates that The Shield can and do
work together to accomplish their goals (here it was getting their hands on
Batista) and that each man works towards the greater good. It’s something we’ve
not really ever seen in WWE. For that reason alone it should be supported.
After a break Batsy and Orty were shown walking through a
backstage tech area. They came across Triple H and Stephanie, who were just
standing around instead of running the show. Trips said he’d told them so and
wandered off. The two were left to look sour together and glare after him.
Out at ringside Paul Heyman walked out to brag about
Brock Lesnar ending The Streak. He had photos cued up to remind us how
everything played out at ‘Mania and said that nobody had believed him when he
said The Streak would end. By his logic we should now believe everything he
says and announced that Cesaro was going to be the next major star in WWE. They
should play up Heyman being some sort of pro wrestling oracle. That’s a
character development that could really go places.
 |
| Check out the walk on Cesaro. |
‘The King of Swing’ came out to no music but was wearing
his lovely, shiny ring jacket. He was there to wrestle Mark Henry in an IC
tournament match. After plastering ‘The World’s Strongest Man’ with uppercuts
and avoiding a World’s Strongest Slam Cesaro won the match with a Neutralizer.
His win got a split reaction. I think that was as much because of the lack of a
Big Swing as anything else.
Another Triple H and Stephanie segment occurred
backstage. This one saw Brad Maddox dispatched to tell The Shield they had a
six man tag match in the main event. The identities of their opponents were not
disclosed. This was Maddox’s only contribution to the show. Sooner or later a
new role is going to be needed for him. The GM spot has become obsolete
(again).
Back in the arena Lana talked up Alexander Rusev in both
Russian and English. After posing and talking to himself in the ring ‘The Super
Athlete’ defeated Xavier Woods in a squash match with The Accolade (or the
Steiner Recliner for those of us who enjoy referencing Scott Steiner). After
the match R-Truth attacked Rusev. That didn’t end well for Truth. Worth noting
was that Lana was shown to call Rusev off of Truth for a moment. I’m sure that
was done to demonstrate that she’s the one in charge, not Rusev.
After some merciless Network plugging the third
tournament took place, this one pitting Sheamus against Jack Swagger. Those who
enjoy hoss fights were well served by this match. The match was a little slow
for my tastes, although I did appreciate the two men not going light on one another.
Sheamus won with a surprise Brogue kick after gritting his way through an ankle
lock. He did a good job of selling the effects of the hold after the match.
An Adam Rose promo followed that. It was the same one
that was on the week before. A new one would air later in the night, this one
showing Rose winning a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos and then telling his bunny
(a fully grown man in a bunny suit) not to be a lemon but a Rosebud. I love me
some Adam Rose. He’s a marvellous gimmick.
A break was followed by Damien Sandow telling everyone
that he was the most deserving man in WWE. Big Show waddled out but that didn’t
stop ‘The Intellectual Saviour’ talking: he shouted that he wouldn’t be
silenced and told people to sit back down and listen to what he had to say.
It’s material like that that sets the Sandow character apart and makes it work.
Sandow continued talking once Show arrived, claiming people should be begging
to touch him as he walks to the ring. He said he deserves “it”, failing to
specify what “it” is, because he’s earned “it”. He prodded Show in the chest
and got a WMD punch for his trouble.
Presumably the segment existed to set something up for
Sandow. I’ve no idea what it could be. He looked pretty pathetic here. Not only
did he crumple to Show (that was to be expected frankly) but he was instructed
to cut a promo that wasn’t really about anything. All we know is that Sandow
feels he’s earned respect. We don’t really know he suddenly feels the need to
address it on TV. Perceived lack of respect can’t be the reason: that’s
something he’s been putting up with for months.
Hour two kicked off with a Bray Wyatt speech. He talked
about The Man and said John Cena’s made a career out of lying to people. Cena
is, according to Wyatt, not a man but a beast. Wyatt promised all the kids that
he wouldn’t let Cena lie to them anymore and confided that he had Cena where he
wants him, up against the ropes, and all he needs to do is give him one final
push. My immediate thought was that Cena’s had enough pushing.
 |
| Bray Wyatt, 'Eater of Worlds'... and lights. |
Wyatt invited Cena to come to the ring. He did, natch. The
first thing he did was make a remark about pushes. So there we go: I sometimes
have the same train of thought as John Cena. Cena said the monster Wyatt talks
about doesn’t exist and then cracked jokes at the expense of the Family. This
led to one of WWE’s favourite tropes: obviously doctored photographs. We were
shown Abigail Wyatt on Myspace (Wyatt’s face on a woman’s shoulders), Mama
Wyatt (Luke Harper in a dress, found via Tinder) and a Wyatt baby (Erick Roan’s
head on a swaddled baby’s body). It wasn’t funny but Michael Cole dutifully
mugged along anyway.
Wyatt said Cena always falls back on his jokes, so then
Cena did his serious voice. He said Bray relies on Harper and Rowan and
challenged him to give them a rest and face him in a cage match at Extreme
Rules. Wyatt liked that and accepted the challenge. Then he sang. He has a
majestic voice.
Match seven was Emma and Santino v Layla and Faaaaaan…
daaaaaan… goooooo. Yeah, Summer Rae’s out and Layla’s in. The storyline reason
is that Fandango grew bored of Summer and wanted a new “dance partner” (to this
end we got an amusing video in which Fandango told Summer Rae “It’s not me, it’s
you”). The actual reason is that Summer Rae is expected to become more
significant now she’s made it to Total Divas so the decision’s been made to
split her off from the mid-card dancer. Layla’s replaced her because she had
nothing else to do, but it works out well because she has a dance background.
Summer did not. Everyone benefits from the change really.
As all of the recent mixed tag matches between this lot
have been this was nothing but basic filler. These matches are designed more to
drive forward stories than anything else. Layla won after pulling Emma off the
top rope. Yeah, that’s a finish now.
Backstage Stephanie gave Kane a telling off. Once he’d
had enough of Steph’s yammering Kane stood up and started doing his heavy
breathing routine, just as the camera angle changed to reveal that his old mask
(and wig) were sitting on a table inside a glass cabinet. If that being there
wasn’t weird enough (and it was) Kane reverently took hold of the mask and
promised Steph that he would destroy Daniel Bryan.
The final tournament match of the evening was Dolph
Ziggler v Bad News Barrett. Bad News was
surprisingly popular. I hadn’t expected that, attributing the cheers he got the
week before to the large number of British fans at the event. I suppose people
can sense how much Barrett enjoys playing the character and that makes them
appreciate him more. The match itself was the best of the night. ‘The Show Off’
survived Barrett’s old Wasteland finisher. In turn Barrett was able to kick out
of a top rope X Factor. Bad News next escaped from a Fameasser. Seconds later Ziggler slipped out of Barrett’s wild sidewalk
slam. Barrett’s first Bullhammer attempt was ducked, Ziggler sneaking in a
roll-up that should have gotten a better reaction as a potential finish than it
did. Barrett kicked out and connected with his second Bullhammer attempt for
the win.
After the match Bad News proclaimed himself the next
Intercontinental champion and did the Scotty Riggs overhand claps again. Now
seems a good time to discuss the title tourney. As enjoyable as Bad News has
been in his last two RAW appearances I don’t think he’s getting to the final.
He will face Sheamus in the second round while RVD faces Cesaro. The matches
seem designed to give Sheamus and Cesaro opponents that can have great matches
with them, and it’s them that I expect to go to the final. Van Dam is an
enhancer at this point while BNB can fall to a former world champion without
looking week, especially when he’s had two enjoyable wins leading up to it.
I could be wrong but it seems like ‘The Swiss Superman’
is the clear favourite to win the tournament. I can’t imagine anybody facing
Big E for the IC gold. Given the selection I don’t want to either. Big E showed
back at Elimination Chamber that he can have a good power match if he gets the
time to do so. And that was with Jack Swagger. He should be able to accomplish
far more with Cesaro.
Before the main event a Kane promo aired. ‘The Big Red
Machine’ was shown wearing his mask and walking through various fiery locales.
It was put together very quickly, considering the mask had only been put back
on less than an hour before. It’s like it’s all scripted or something…
The main event saw The Shield take on Alberto Del Rio,
Jack Swagger and Fandango… along with 3MB, Titus O’Neil, RybAxel, Alexander
Rusev, and Bad News Barrett. Instead of taking the obvious beatdown direction
the eleven men actually tagged in and out in a handicap match against Ambrose,
Rollins and Reigns. Rollins was isolated, with all the heels tagging in for
twenty second stints to hit him with some basic move or other. Reigns
eventually got bored and went round to his foes’ corner to spear Ryback. That
prompted a ringside brawl which featured dives from Ambrose and Rollins and
then spilled into the ring, where the heels got the advantage on ‘The Hounds’.
 |
| It's another Triple H faction reunion! |
Then Evolution’s music hit and Triple H, Batista and
Orton walked out and dismissed the mid-carders. They gave Rollins a kicking and
then hit Reigns with an RKO and a Batista bomb. Rollins got the same. Meanwhile
Ambrose was finished off with the Batista bomb-RKO combo that was debuted at
WrestleMania. Triple H encouraged Reigns to try and fight back to his feet then
had him pulled up so he could give him a Pedigree. Evolution then spent the
last minute of the show posing.
This was another good episode of RAW. There were no great
matches, but there were good ones in Bad News Barrett v Ziggler and RybAxel v
the Rhodes bros. The purpose of the show was not to give us a plethora of
excellent matches, it was to get things moving for Extreme Rules. Cena versus
Wyatt in a cage match is a good tone setter for the card. It looks as though a
six man tag match between Evolution and The Shield and a WWE championship
defence from Daniel Bryan against Kane will also be added. The title match
should be fun enough but D-Bry will need a more credible opponent for Payback.
The six man, on the other hand, should be a great addition to the card, and a
worthwhile “special show” (they’re not pay-per-views anymore, ‘member?) main
event.
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