Yesterday, I asked a few questions that I was hoping last night's RAW would address. This episode was both nostalgic and unpredictable, which makes me both eager and uneasy on what story lines Creative is trying to set up here.
Before the show kicked off, HHH was walking Rollins around and telling him that he was no longer the future, he was "The Man," and he was going to get what he asked for and get that statue. The statue will be unveiled later on at the closing of RAW.
Q: Will we get another promo from an angry Paul Heyman about the "Brooklyn Screwjob?"
Sure did. He was the pissed off advocate for the ripped off beast incarnate. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman kicked off RAW addressing the controversy from last night's match. They even threw the timekeeper under the bus for ringing the bell. Lesnar was ready to take on the Undertaker (of course, he's not booked) when Bo Dallas suddenly appeared. Dallas has had this weird trend of being killed by legends. First it was Sting on his last appearance on RAW after Wrestlemania, then it was The Rock at a house show, then HBK at Australia, and now Lesnar. Lesnar did 4 suplexes on Dallas. As they were going up the ramp, Heyman asked Brock to do 1 more to make it 5, which he did. They went up the ramp again and Heyman asked Lesnar to do an F5 for him, which he obliged. It made the crowd happy. Poor Bo Dallas. This guy was an NXT Champion!
The New Day vs Lucha Dragons - Winners: The New Day
The New Day showed off their singing ability at Summerslam, with tuning harmonicas to boot, as they sang a parody of "Empire State of Mind" acapella style. And just when we thought they couldn't top that, Xavier Woods comes out with a freaking trombone. Even the Prime Time Players who sat miserably at commentary couldn't contain their laughter. When it was evident that the Lucha Dragons was going to lose, Woods started playing "Taps" on the trombone. The New Day is unbelievably over right now and it looks like there are currently no tag teams that can rival them. Until... The Dudley Boys appeared.
This is a very, VERY big deal. Bubba Ray Dudley was a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble earlier this year and it was widely believed that he would be signed unto WWE as another part-timer. Sadly, nothing really happened after that and he went back to TNA to become a GM. He then left TNA after they made major changes to their contracts (where they're only paid by appearances). Not only did he return, he brought his brother Devon back with him! This was the first big surprise of the night - not even the dirt sheets saw this coming.
Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper - Winners: Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns (via DQ)
Next up was a Summerslam rematch with 2/3 Shield vs 2/2 Wyatt Family. Ambrose and Reigns won clean last night and the reception towards the end of the match was very mixed. First, Ambrose was getting beaten up by Wyatt and Harper for a good few minutes while Reigns was out. He was out long enough for the audience to start chanting "ROMAN'S SLEEPING!" When Reigns got the hot tag, the audience booed at him. Ambrose did Dirty Deeds to Wyatt to end the match but he didn't pin him. Instead, he tagged in Reigns to pin Wyatt and the audience booed at him again. That's what was happening here again in front of the same Brooklyn crowd, the audience was cheering for Ambrose and booing at Reigns. It looked like Reigns was getting ready to spear Wyatt until the lights went out, and a giant hulking man with black sheep mask appeared.
Q: Am I going to see Shirtless Ambrose 2 nights in a row?!
OMG I DID BUT AT WHAT COST?! This man was Sister Abigail's gift from the Wyatt Family: Braun Stowman. The audience may not know who he is but NXT followers do. He signed on over a year ago and has only performed in house shows. Basically, he skipped NXT and went straight to the main roster. Anyways, he hugged the hell out of Reigns and Ambrose - who ripped his shirt himself outside the ring - tried to avenge him but clearly it did nothing to this 6'8" behemoth. Ambrose was hugged to death and laid out in the middle of the ring as the Wyatt Family leered over him with their new member. At least it will finally put those stupid "Reigns or Ambrose joins the Wyatt Family" rumors to rest now. Now we're left to wonder who will come to Shield Boys' aid if they continue their war with the Wyatt Boys. I'm a bit sad that Erick Rowan will probably not return to the Wyatt Family after he recovers, or worse, he gets repackaged and gets a new gimmick.
Team Bella vs PCB - Winners: Team Bella (ugh)
MizTV had a segment with PCB before Team Bella arrived and wrecked things before starting off the Divas match. This was so, so disappointing to watch. The audience was treated yet to another match between all 6 Divas (Team B.A.D. took the night off) and they were not having it. The crowd was so bored that they did the dreaded "CM PUNK!" chant, the "WE ARE AWESOME!" chant, and the wave. Was this disrespectful? Totally, but you have to understand why the smarky Brooklyn crowd was unhappy.
On Saturday, they saw Bayley defeat Sasha Banks in a long but well paced match with emotion and storytelling. Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha, and Becky - the 4 Horsewomen of NXT - did their curtain call and stood together as a symbol of change for women's wrestling in WWE. On Monday, 2 of the Horsewomen are seen randomly fighting Team Bella with no clear direction or goal. We don't blame the women here, we blame Creative; Divas Revolution is not about giving them more air time. Paige looked furious and Charlotte looked absolutely devastated but it was obviously not because they lost to Team Bella, it was because the crowd was chanting "BORING!"
I was so upset with this match. King Barrett came out first, followed by Stardust. As Barrett was putting his crown away, Stardust attacks him from behind and does the Queen's Crossbow on him before Neville comes out. All of this happened in about a minute. Fine. I get that Stardust is upset that they lost to Neville and Stephen Amell at Summerslam but it upsets me more that Barrett is just quickly tossed aside, just as he was quickly tossed in for their feud. They had a cheesy fun promo last week and Barrett was given a cool new title; now that's all gone. Is Barrett a face now? It's back to Stardust vs Neville again?
Q: Will Jon Stewart explain why he suddenly sided with Seth Rollins?
The big headline from Summerslam was seeing Jon Stewart hit John Cena with a steel chair and allowing Rollins to win both titles. Stewart clarified that he was not siding with Rollins or The Authority. Turns out that he was trying to protect Ric Flair's 16-time title streak, which Cena was about to tie with had he won against Rollins. Ric Flair comes out and thanks Stewart for holding him in such high regard but, as he put it, "You ruined everything!" Cena comes out and he is seething mad. He's not mad about the lost; he's mad at the fact that Stewart didn't think this through and now the US title, which he said he used to issue Open Challenges to elevate challengers (Ambrose, Neville, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, etc.), is now in the hands of The Authority. Stewart meant well but his interference just gave The Authority another win.
John Cena did what he felt was right and did the AA on Stewart, who took the bump pretty well. Cena said he wanted to talk to Rollins afterwards but Stephanie and HHH didn't want him to ruin the Seth Rollins' event tonight, and they had him escorted out of the building. Cena came off incredibly heelish here.
Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Cesaro and Randy Orton vs Sheamus, Big Show, Kevin Owens, and Rusev - Winners: Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Cesaro and Randy Orton
This was the main event, another staggering 8-man tag team match. It was basically everyone that had a match at Summerslam. There was a lot of spots, a lot of hot tags, and a lot of "CESARO SECTION" signs. Of course, Lana and Summer Rae had to get one cat fight in to distract Rusev. All the while, Big Show yells out, "I'M A GIANT!" Anyways, the faces won but the ending segment felt weird. Rusev and Owens, who previously had disagreements the last time they paired up, actually teamed up as Rusev gave Owens momentum to do a corner senton on Big Show and walked off. The faces came back into the ring and ganged up on Big Show as Ziggler did a standing drop kick, and Ryback and Cesaro picked up Big Show to set up Orton to do a big RKO on him.
So the last couple of minutes was about The Authority rewarding Seth Rollins with a statue of himself. It was a ridiculous request made by Rollins last week that would happen if he won both titles. They actually showed the statue a bit earlier in the show (HHH and Stephanie saw it but Rollins was not present) and I remarked that the statue looked like a bronze painted body double holding the belts, like one of those living statue performers. We got a lengthy promo from HHH saying Rollins was all about Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect, which seemed to be teasing Cena coming back into the ring. Rollins had a lengthy speech about thanking the Authority and that he will be immortalized. He hyped up the crowd by doing HHH's "ARE... YOU... READAAAAAAAY?"
I have to admit that I am finally warming up to Rollins now. I embraced Rollins being a cocky chicken shit heel the second he came out in Summerslam in white and gold instead of his usual black and gold outfit. So it made me even more giddy to see his reaction when the curtain lifted to reveal Sting. STING of all people! It would later be announced by HHH that Sting would get a title shot and that he will be in a match with Rollins for Night of Champions. I'm very worried with how they're booking Rollins. Rollins had a feud against Lesnar, which quickly moved unto Rollins having a feud with Cena, and now he has feud with Sting. Sting should be going after HHH. Why is he going after Rollins and for the Heavyweight Championship title?
This was a 3 hour+ RAW, with only 4 matches, and it still came off more entertaining than the staggering 4 hour Summerslam PPV. It got the fans talking, that's what WWE was looking for. They have a month to build up Night of Champions. Maybe we'll finally see a new Divas champion. Maybe we'll see Sheamus cash in that night. If WWE can pull off surprises like last night, it would make the product really worth investing.
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