I want to get this out of the way. Monday Night RAW's main event match with Ambrose and Rollins ended in a double pin, which means the Champ retains. Rollins didn't win and Ambrose didn't lose. The TV ending showed Stephanie declaring Rollins as the winner, while the Network ending had Shane and Daniel debating the ending, asking the ref to view the finish, and declaring Ambrose as the winner. As a result of the finish, Ambrose and Rollins are having a title rematch for tonight on Smack Down.
I think I'm going to stop doing Monday Night RAW recaps. It's not because of the possibility of Ambrose going to Smack Down (fingers crossed!) but it's due to the fact there is way way WAY more WWE content to keep track of. Seriously, look at the schedule this week.
Monday: RAW
Tuesday: Smack Down Live!
Wednesday: NXT and CWC
Sunday: Battleground PPV
Yeah, that is a lot of WWE stuff. So, I'm not going to do recaps. I'll probably just do the PPV recaps instead. Probably, I don't know. I'm just a little worried on what's going to happen tonight again. It's looking obvious that Rollins is the #1 pick for RAW and Ambrose is the #2 Smack Down.
Will Ambrose actually lose the title this time before Battleground? Will Rollins and Ambrose be champs before Battleground? Will Reigns pin either one to become the new champ for the brand at Battleground?!
I take wrestling way too seriously, according to Vince -_-
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HE LOOKS GOOD IN BLUE!
Also, Ambrose won clean over Rollins for the Smack Down main event. Rollins was doing his Falcon Arrow combo which Ambrose got out of and quickly hit him with Dirty Deeds. Now I really hope he retains on Battleground this Sunday.
Last week's Monday Night RAW was considered a throwaway episode. Even though it got one of its lowest TV ratings, it was still the most watched show on cable, even though there wasn't much progression with the storylines. This would be somewhat considered a go-home show for Smack Down (as far as tapings go) because next week it goes live. The results can be found here.
This was a surprisingly solid episode of RAW (except for the main event and final segment in the third hour). There was a lot of wrestling matches that actually featured a lot of the talent, a few in-promos and segments, and best of all, there was progress with the brand extension. Long story short, Stephanie will be the commissioner for RAW and Shane will be the commissioner for Smack Down (sadly relieving Shane from co-running RAW). Both have to choose their respective General Managers next week or else Vince will choose for them.
RAW kicked off with immediately with the Battle Royal, where strangely most of the contenders were made of tag teams like The Golden Truth, The Vaudevillains, The Usos, The Ascension, etc. The final 3 ended up being Darren Young, Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin. Crews clotheslined Corbin and both ended up going over the the top rope, leaving Young as the accidental winner of the Battle Royal. Young's win was such a wonderful surprise that he got a crowd chant, plus it was a treat to see Bob Backlund lift him up like he was nothing!
One interesting segment was The New Day's anticipated visit to the Wyatt Family compound. It was heavily inspired by Broken Matt and Brother Nero's "Final Deletion" match, drawing more on the idea of having an all out battle outside the ring and arena. It was a serious and thrilling displa, to see the New Day drop their positive act to take on Wyatt, Rowan, and Strowman, who legit looked threatening and monstrous without his tank top. Obviously, the Wyatt Family overwhelmed the New Day but that was beside the point. Bray Wyatt is finally believable as a cult leader and the "Wyatt Family" is not just Rowan, Strowman, and Harper (who was not included). They are truly a threat and it will be interesting to see how this visit affects the bond of The New Day.
The best match of the night goes to Cesaro and Kevin Owens, where Owens refused to even come into the ring unless Sami Zayn (who was on commentary) is kicked out. Stephanie listed to Owens' request and orders the referees to escort Zayn out. Their match was spectacular and there was also storytelling in the moves they were using. Owens was working on Cesaro's neck for nearly the whole match, so instead of using his signature Pop-Up Powerbomb to take Cesaro out, he uses a rarely used move to win the match. As Owens was angrily ranting in Byron Saxton's headphone about being the best, out comes Zayn from out of nowhere to jump him. He throws Owens into the ring and signals Cesaro to do his swing, which he happily obliges. Knowing that Owens and Zayn will be separated, they're really making the most of this feud.
The best segment of the night goes to Seth Rollins: Investigative Reporter, who debuted his new talk show, The Rollins Report, with an exclusive sit-down interview with Roman Reigns. I feared that Rollins was going to do the same bit where he interviews a picture of Reigns on the Titantron with Rollins mouth superimposed and speaking with his voice. Instead, it was Rollins in a suit asking questions with Reigns' answers taken out of context from his various sit-down interviews with Michael Cole. It was fantastic and funny. It was a new take on Rollins' campaign to remove Reigns and have a one-on-one match with Ambrose, which prompted the champ himself to show up and praise Rollins for having fun for once. He immediately calls Ambrose and his title reign a joke, and goes on to reiterate that he's the best member of The Shield. This is admittedly one of Rollins' best promos since his return and he's far away from being the chickenshit heel he once was last year. His rant sparked something in Ambrose, leading to what would be hands down the best promo of the night and the best promo of his career.
This was not goofy Ambrose. No, this was Dean "Fighting Champion" Ambrose and he gave 2 distinctly different promos. The first is addressing that he does like to have fun because he's the top man, and no matter who comes and leaves, who gets suspended, who "chases fantasies in some other sport," at the end of the day, he's the guy still standing there. If you want to see how easily Ambrose can command the audience, listen to how he got the arena to stop chanting as soon as he switched gears and focused on Rollins, leading to his second promo where he gets dark about how far he's come and how far he'll go to keep the title. Rollins is visibly shaken, even taking a few steps back as he went on. Ambrose basically accepted Rollins' challenge to have a one-on-one match and it will take place next week in the go-home show.
A lot of matches were set for Battleground and it's already looking quite promising. The one thing I'm worried about is what they're doing with Ambrose again. They're giving him his first title defense on RAW against Rollins, and they're already hinting that he may or may not be champion heading into Battleground. Here's the thing; if Ambrose retains, then he's most likely staying on RAW. They can't draft him to Smack Down if he's carrying what's basically RAW's title. So if he's going to Smack Down, Ambrose has to drop the title. I'm a little sad by this possible scenario, because of the fact that he cut an incredible promo and then he's going to lose, which has been a consistent pattern with Ambrose (MITB being the exception). The positive note is that Ambrose got to be a champ and fittingly, he's the last sole WWE champion before they introduce a second title belt. The last few champion have been a heel and most recently, in the sad case for Reigns, a tweener, as a reaction to the fans not accepting him as a champion, even though he's been putting on decent matches. The fact that they plan to cut short the first true babyface's championship reign is troubling.
Monday Night RAW kicked off with the most unique opening segment I've ever seen in a long time. Rather than the usual shot of the venue with the pyro going off, it started with Dean Ambrose walking towards the ring, where all 5 of the MITB entrants are perched upon 6 tall ladders, surrounding the MITB briefcase. They all had a funny banter on who was going to win, with Jericho reminding everybody who created this match before it devolved with everyone getting down from the ladders and beating each other up. This lead to a surprise appearance by the infamous former Smack Down general manager, Teddy Long. He tossed out interesting ideas for tag team matches before Stephanie McMahon interrupted him to get all entrants in 3 singles matches (Jericho vs Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio vs Sami Zayn, and Ambrose vs Kevin Owens). The results can be found here.
The other best segment of the night was the banter between AJ Styles, and John Cena. It was not just a typical heel talking down a face. There was a sense of truth in their promo, such as Cena calling Styles a dud for coming to WWE despite being heralded as the "hero of sports entertainment" and Styles flat out saying to Cena that "guys like you bury guys like me." Cena has somehow enlisted the help of The New Day to help him out, which makes sense considering Gallows and Anderson started feuding with them. Speaking of tag teams, thanks to a wonderful idea by Teddy Long, Stephanie added another match for MITB. There will a Fatal 4 Way for the title with The New Day, The Club, Enzo and Cass, and The Vaudevillains.
The absolute worst segment of the night goes to, no surprise, the women's division. Charlotte uncharacteristically issued an apology to the WWE Universe on how she treated her father but still maintained why she had to do it. She mentions that she took in Dana Brooke to be her protege, which saddens me that they had to go this route with her since Emma is still injured. Natalya and Becky came out to try to sway Dana from siding with Charlotte and of course, it doesn't work. There was dead silence for this segment and it pretty much showed that this whole Charlotte and Natalya feud is quickly getting stale. In a 3 hour show, there was no room for any women's wrestling. Not even for freaking Sasha Banks.
Neither Reigns or Rollins made an appearance tonight, which meant the world title was taking a break this week in favor of the MITB feud and Cena vs Styles. They ran 2 lengthy video packages that revisted their history together as The Shield as well as the beginning of their feud from their perspective. Rollins' video package incorporated some segments from his WWE: 24 documentary, which actually made Rollins come off a little different now than his chickenshit heel persona before his injury. No longer backed by The Authority, Rollins wants to prove that he can beat Reigns and he's been waiting 2 years to do it. Reigns video package, on the other hand, conveniently skipped his first 2 title reigns and his reliance on Ambrose and The Usos, despite him saying that he now stands alone. They even showed his WM 32 moment where he holds up the title to a thunderous applause that was clearly edited in. This was a great to build up their feud (and prevent Reigns from getting booed for cutting another promo) than that silly silent treatment they did last week.
To be honest, despite how this episode got mixed reactions by AV Club, I personally enjoyed it. Well, most of it anyways. I do want to note that Ambrose is being heavily featured again. He had a quick backstage segment with Owens, where he noted that Ambrose seems to be going off at the deep end more than usual. In addition to making another appearance on Sports Center with Coach, he has a scheduled match with Jericho on Smack Down. And the previous cancelled Ambrose Asylum (the talk show, not the cage match) returns for the go-home show with 2 very special guests. Once again, Ambrose is being positioned as the favorite to win MITB and they're making it obvious. It's funny that everyone wants to see this happen and knowing WWE, they'll go in a completely different direction and delay pulling the trigger on Ambrose. If he doesn't win, I'm fine with Owens, Zayn or Cesaro walking away with the briefcase.
This was definitely a throwaway episode of RAW. This was the same night as The Slammy's, WWE's self-proclaimed "most prestigious award show", where the winners are voted by mostly casual fans. Inbetween announcing the categories, nominees and winners, there are usually wrestling matches to fill in the gaps. Last night didn't do much to progress any major storylines except for Reigns getting the upperhand on Stephanie, more development with Ziggler and Owens (which was the only great wrestling match), and the main event cage match with Ambrose coming off pretty strong.
Let's start off with the bad. First was the horrible opening segment with Stephanie and Roman Reigns, which resulted in a very childish shouting match, mostly from Stephanie, as she tells Reigns to get out of her ring. Then he turns her back to her and walks away, all while smiling at the audience, making her yell at Reigns to come back. She threatens Reigns - the same guy who took out HHH and Vince McMahon - by punishing his family, putting The Usos against The New Day and Ambrose against Sheamus in a cage match.
Next was the fact that a majority of the Slammy winners were not present to accept the award. It was the presenters that had to accept it on their behalf, such as Paul Heyman for Undertaker and Brock Lesnar (who was a no-show for his homestate), Bo Dallas for Sting, and Miz for The Rock and Ronda Rousey. The votes are legit but it was still incredibly disappointing to not see any of the winners appear to at least acknowledge the award.
There were a few wrestling matches scattered throughout the event. The crowd was noticeably bored with how uneven the show was progressing. Ziggler and Owens was the first great match of the night, mostly because of how lengthy and brutal it was. This re-established how much a threat Owens is and how great Ziggler can be when he has direction. This is leading up to a newly announced Triple Threat IC Title match with Owens, Ziggler, and Ambrose for the Live Smackdown for Tuesday.
Amidst this 3-hour buttnumb-a-thon were a few bright spots, such as a very bitter Kevin Owens ranting about losing to Neville for Breakout Star of The Year, The New Day threatening to spoil the ending to Star Wars: The Force Awakens for losing to The Usos for Tag Team Of The Year (yeah, seriously), and the return of Seth Rollins for accepting the award for Superstar of The Year. I'm not going to lie; Rollins has completely won me over. He suffered a devastating injury but still managed to make a live appearance, whereas a perfectly healthy John Cena didn't bother to show up (he is advertised to return next Monday). Although The Slammys is not to be taken seriously, seeing Rollins being genuinely thankful for the award made it a big deal for him. He vowed that he will reclaim his title next year.
The main event cage match started off with Sheamus Brogue Kicking Ambrose as he was entering the ring, with Barrett, Del Rio, and Rusev roughing him up a bit before throwing him back into the cage to start the match. Within a few minutes, the crowd was loudly chanting "SHEAMUS IS BORING." Things turned around quickly when Ambrose climbed up to the top of the cage and was cornered by Rusev and Del Rio. Rather than walk around the structure, Ambrose did an elbow drop from the top of the cage and unto Sheamus, which got a huge pop from the crowd. Reigns eventually showed up to help take out the rest of the League of Nations outside the ring and throw a chair to Ambrose.
BEST SPOT OF THE NIGHT
Ambrose used the chair to take out Sheamus and proceeded to climb out the of the cage. Sheamus caught up with him at the top, and they both duke it out, even as they both climbed down on the other side of the cage. Then there's the stupid rule where the winner is the one who gets out of it, which led to Ambrose falling halfway off the cage and unto the floor, making him the winner. As soon as Sheamus touched down, Reigns speared him and happily helped up Ambrose. This was the second great match of the night but it was criminally short for a main event.
Overall, this was another bad episode of RAW made worse by The Slammys. Next week is the last RAW of the year which will hopefully start to shake things up for Royal Rumble next month.
Before I forget, Ambrose was shirtless again (thanks to Sheamus) and he suffered a nasty gash on his head afterwards. It didn't appear to be as serious as Reigns' head wound from last week. And yet WWE had to censor the video of Ambrose getting his head cleaned and stapled. This would seem like a standard video of a superstar getting treated but not with Ambrose. Here, he does a rendition of Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" as he gets six staples to his head. This guy was in CZW, this is like nothing to him.
It's already known that Reigns and Ambrose would make it to the finals this Sunday. Ambrose made it clear that if it came down to just the 2 of them, even though they're brothers, it's on. To which Reigns replied, "We'll always be brothers. BELEE DAT!" Their budding friendship, where Reigns was Ambrose's cheerleader for the PPV's he headlined and vice versa for the last several months, is begging to come to an end. Basically, no one expects their match to end on friendly terms. Someone's turning heel.
And here's WWE dilemma: They need a new champion, a new top babyface, and a new top heel since John Cena and Rollins, respectively, are out. All of this pressure falls on the current top babyfaces, Reigns and Ambrose. They just can't decide who should play which role.
Reigns needs the heel turn, badly. It's the natural progression for his character who keeps overcoming the odds (ugh) and never gets close to winning the title. Joining The Authority works for him, especially since the fans are now turning against him again. He can be like The Rock and work on his character to be a full-fledged badass before becoming a a true babyface. WWE sees this as a problem (at least for them) because they don't want Reigns to be a heel and lose his fans. The older fans can't buy Reigns as a babyface when he's dressed in black tactical gear and scowls all the time. He's built and booked as a powerhouse, not as an underdog.
Speaking of underdog, the one who truly looks the part is Ambrose. He doesn't have the look of a champion but he has the tenacity and the drive to be one. He just needs to win the championship title as a babyface to vindicate his DQ win against Rollins. This is what everyone wants to see. However, if Ambrose turns heel, he would still get over with the fans (damn that charisma of his). WWE sees this as their best solution and to keep Reigns as the top babyface. The problem is that it'll completely ruin Ambrose's character as this guy who went insane after Rollins betrayed The Shield and him remaining loyal to his only brother, Reigns.
There are so many scenarios for the finals, such as Reigns winning against Ambrose and joining the Authority, or Ambrose revealing that he secretly accept HHH's offer. There's even a possibility that Owens might advance and face off against Reigns. Oh, and Sheamus might cash in his Money In The bank at some point.
The dirtsheets were hit with new rumors that the brass changed their mind about Reigns and are pushing Ambrose to be the new champ instead. Of course, WWE could've intentionally leaked this to get people interested in the PPV, just to see Reigns walking away with the title. He has a freaking video that recaps what happened in the last 7 months! One thing is certain: Reigns will be the new WWE Heavyweight Champion. All hail the Roman Empire, I guess.
Tonight's episode of Monday Night RAW is going to be very different, for both a bad and good reason. Bad because Seth Rollins' major leg injury forced him to immediately vacate the World Heavyweight Championship title. And good because the fans are going to see some major changes and something refreshingly different for the next few weeks leading to Wrestlemania. RAW is filming in the UK, so there are going to be major spoilers leaking before the show airs in its regular 8 PM PST slot on USA Network. (Note: I'm totally spoiling myself and reading the live ongoing coverage from /r/SC, WrestlingInc, ProWrestlingNet, and PWInsider. I'm still going to watch it live, regardless of the results.)
Here are the match and First-Round Tournament results:
Roman Reigns defeated Big Show. Roman Reigns advances! OF COURSE HE DOES.
Kevin Owens defeated Titus O' Neil. Kevin Owens advances!
Becky Lynch defeated Paige
Dolph Ziggler defeated The Miz. Dolph Ziggler advances! With a minor knee injury? Shit.
Natalya defeated Naomi
Cesaro defeated Sheamus. Cesaro advances!
Dean Ambrose defeated Tyler Breeze. Dean Ambrose advances! With a shoulder injury? SHIT.
The New Day defeated The Usos and Neville
The Second-Round matches will begin next week at the go-home show of RAW:
Roman Reigns vs Cesaro
Kevin Owens vs Barrett or Neville (First-Round Tournament continuation on Smack Down!)
Dolph Ziggler vs Dean Ambrose
Kalisto or Ryback vs Alberto Del Rio or Stardust (First-Round Tournament continuation on Smack Down!)
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RAW opened up with HHH presenting the World Heavyweight Championship title resting on a table as he praised Seth Rollins. While HHH went at length about how great Rollins was, Reigns shows up and enters the ring. From there, HHH's promo takes a different turn; he tells Reigns that as #1 contender, he can skip the tournament and have the title given to him if he joins The Authority. He even went as far to say that Reigns was strongly considered to be their pick before Rollins. Reigns, being the goody two-shoes he is, turns down the offer and HHH bellows, "Welcome to the back of the line!" This segment firmly established that being The Authority's champion will set you and your family for life. Either Reigns will have second thoughts and accept the offer later on or someone else (another heel) would take up on that offer.
The rest of RAW covered 5 of the 8 First-Round Tournament matches, with the last 3 continuing on Thursday Night Smack Down! As evident with the first match with Reigns and Big Show, the bracket had odd choices and pair-ups, such as Ryback vs Kalisto, Titus O' Neil vs Kevin Owens, and Tyler Breeze vs Dean Ambrose. While it was predictable who would win, it didn't take away from the quality of the matches. Well, at least for the important ones. Cesaro was victorious and incredible as usual against Sheamus (and there was a ton of "CESARO SECTION" signs :D). Owens executed a perfectly brutal looking Pop-up Powerbomb against O' Neil and got great heat from mocking England's blind worship with the Queen. And Breeze, making his in-ring Raw debut, took advantage of Ambrose's tweaked shoulder and worked on it until he was defeated by the small package.
The main event was saved for Bray Wyatt eulogizing about taking away Taker and Kane's powers. AND THEN THEY SHOWED UP. TOGETHER. This was an unexpected surprise and a big fucking treat for the Manchester crowd. Sadly, the Wyatt family came off ridiculously weak and overwhelmed by the two. It also reminded people that practically nothing happens after you get abducted by the Wyatt Family. Another inconsistency is that The Brothers of Destruction also got their powers back, so either they got it back from Wyatt, or there are now 3 supernatural beings with the same powers. Overall, it was another week with a great and enjoyable RAW and this week is decidedly more crucial with possible changes in the storylines leading to the go-home show and Survivor Series. Another interesting note about the above bracket is that Reigns and Ambrose are positioned directly opposite of each other. There have been heavy, HEAVY talks about turning one of them (specifically Reigns) heel to follow the storyline of Deadly Game, the PPV that centered around the vacated WWF Championship and saw The Rock turning heel against Mick Foley and aligning himself with Vince McMahon. WWE is being forced to get creative in the absence of Cena, Orton, and Rollins. This is a good direction, ratings be damned.
RAW showcased another reason not to turn Ambrose heel just yet. He's so ridiculously silly and charismatic. Also...
Went home to play a bit of Blizzard's new game, Overwatch. It's like Team Fotress 2 with Pixar's art direction!
Played Left4Dead2 with Dan and Corinne. We had some weird error with the game where Vince and Corrine had black screens on their end. Dan, Vince, and I ended up playing Diablo III instead.
In WWE news, Rollins' removal affected the European tour this week. There was the Rollins Tour in England and the Reigns Tour in Scotland. Ambrose and Owens were pulled from the Reigns tour and flown practically overnight for the Rollins Tour.
Saturday (11/7):
Went to Seafood City to do some grocery shopping. Vince made Ginisang Munggo.
Ate at Jason's Deli and walked over to Office Depot (which was closing). We got nothing.
Went to Fashion Show Mall. There wasn't anything for us to buy. Vince was more preoccupied with going to California again for a week for an evaluation.
Got the most horrible news regarding my immediate family, specifically my auntie and uncle (from my mom's side). It sucks that it's gotten to that point, and everyone is guilty of being selfish. The bottom line is that their youngest daughter is going to have to deal with this and she feels she's the cause of it, and no kid should ever feel like that.
Went to Ann's Salon to get a haircut. Originally, I wanted to get a blonde streak on my right side. In light of what happened with Rollins, I decided to just do the blonde streak on my left. Obviously, it's mirrored so it's not exactly like Rollins hairstyle.
Went to Costco to do some more last minute shopping for Vince's trip. Vince got a call from is parents. Let's just say they went from being worried about him to degrading him in a span of a few minutes.
Went to Yogurtland afterwards to get dessert for dinner :P
Watched Walking Dead and ROH
Looking forward to Monday Night RAW. WWE is hitting the reset button, which means they have to make new storylines and put more superstars in the spotlight due to Rollins' injury.
This is a sad, sad day for Seth Rollins fan, myself recently included. Rollins reportedly sustained a leg injury at a house show in Dublin Wednesday night. It looked like Rollins' knee buckled when he tried to do a sunset flip. He finished his match against Kane but he had to be helped up to walk the ramp. The severity of the leg injury was revealed today and made official by WWE:
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins has torn his right ACL, MCL and medial meniscus, and will not be able to defend the title against Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. A tournament to determine a new champion will instead take place at the event.
As first reported on Twitter by ESPN, Rollins suffered the injury last night at a WWE Live Event in Dublin, Ireland, and is expected to miss six to nine months of action.
It fucking sucks that this had to happen to Rollins. Despite how inconsistent his character has been since his heel turn, and how crappy they book him, he still puts on the best god damn matches every single time. His injury came at the worst time, with Reigns finally targeting Rollins for taking away his opportunity at Wrestlemania this year. The ending of this past RAW had the former SHIELD members as the survivors of both teams, which was heavily hinting at a possible SHIELD Triple Threat match for Wrestlemania 32 next year. Those plans are now scrapped and the title was immediately vacated as of today.
Rollins' injury also means that The Authority lost their corporate champ. Currently, there are no heels that are associated with The Authority to fill his spot. Kevin Owens is the current IC Champ and he's reportedly going to start feuding with Ambrose for the next few months. The New Day are the current Tag Team Champs and they are getting ready to feud against the returning Usos. Sheamus is the MITB holder and he's currently teamed up with King Barrett. The Wyatt Family have their own program going on with Taker and Kane. Basically, there is a big hole to fill in the overarching narrative between the midcard underdogs and the Authority.
What is WWE planning? They've already announced a tournament at Survivor Series to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion. Reigns is the #1 contender and it looks like they'll be working out on who the contenders will be and how they'll be decided. Wonder what they'll do though. Will someone turn heel to be a champ? Will that heel join The Authority? Will they bring in another part-timer to win the title, like Del Rio did for the US Title? Are we going to see another NXT call up to the main roster? Now more than ever, the road to Survivor Series and Wrestlemania is changing.
For the second week in a row, RAW put out another mostly enjoyable episode. In the spirit of the 29th Anniversary of Survivor Series, the main event was a "traditional Survivor Series five-on-five elimination tag team match", headed by team captains Rollins and Reigns.
Here are the match results:
Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler
Cesaro defeated The Miz by submission
The Lucha Dragons defeated Sheamus and King Barrett
Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Colter) defeated R-Truth
Paige defeated Becky Lynch, Brie Bella, and Sasha Banks
Team Reigns (Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Ryback, and Dean Ambrose) defeated Team Rollins (Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods)
The Wyatt Family addressed the WWE Universe and basically said that they now have the souls of Undertaker and Demon Kane. Which meant Bray now had the power of Taker's cheesy purple lightning and Kane's turnbuckle pyros. While Vince cringed and face palmed at this segment, I was eating this shit up. I loved it, I seriously loved it. It's like a subtle passing of the torch to making the Wyatt Family a monstrous heel faction. I'm interested in seeing where they go with this.
It's almost as if WWE took note on how the #1 Contender's Matches did so well last week that they decided to repeat it for the Divas Championship. The best part is that the Divas segment featured all of them solo, with no respective team members being at ring side. Which meant we got to hear Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks' awesome entrance theme. It was a great match for all of the women, with Brie Bella being somewhat out of place. In the end, Paige came out victorious after she took out Becky. It was somewhat of a disappointment to see Becky and not Brie take the pin, and also for Sasha to be left out of the title picture again. This sets up the 2nd title match for Survivor Series.
The main event saw Team Rollins with his champion members, The New Day and Kevin Owens, eagerly waiting in the ring for Team Reigns' reveal. The big surprise was seeing the return of the Usos (both of them!) coming to Cousin Roman's aid. The third member was Ryback (which Owens was not happy to see). As if they have saved the best for last, the final member was revealed to be Dean Ambrose. It didn't matter how predictable the final choice was; Ambrose got a great big pop from the audience, with Reigns coming in second.
The match ran on for for more than half an hour and the eliminations happened in the following order:
Xavier Woods was pinned by Jey Uso
Kofi Kingston was pinned by Jimmy Uso
Jey Uso was pinned by Big E
Jimmy Uso was pinned by Kevin Owens
Big E was pinned by Ryback
Ryback was pinned by Seth Rollins
Kevin Owens was pinned by Dean Ambrose
Seth Rollins was disqualified
Survivors: Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose
The main event event was great, especially when it came down to Reigns, Ambrose, Owens, and Rollins. Owens was noticeably mocking and badgering Ambrose and Rollins kept yelling, "WHY CAN'T YOU DIE DEAN?!" As usual, Ambrose takes the most punishment in the ring while Reigns rests outside for the hot tag. In the end, Reigns and Ambrose became the winners via DQ when Rollins used a chair to attack them. Yeah, that looked pretty familiar. Instead of making Rollins look strong in the end, Reigns no sells and pulls a Superman punch on Rollins, causing him to retreat out of the ring as he clutched his title.
Aside from that LOLREIGNSWIN ending, RAW wasted no time in setting up Survivor Series. They're doing a much better job with this than last month's Hell In A Cell. Of course, it probably might not translate well in ratings. I hope WWE can overlook that and focus on telling their stories and creating their stars for their established fanbase.
A few weeks ago, it was speculated that Ambrose would be getting a push to be the new top babyface while Cena was out. This was somewhat great news, considering the Reigns vs Wyatt program finally ended, which meant Ambrose would stop being Reigns' cheerleader. I say somewhat because it seems like Ambrose once again doesn't have anyone else to feud with. It was going to be with Randy Orton until he got sidelined with a major shoulder injury, and upcoming booking on the live events pointed to Kevin Owens for the IC Title. It looks like that's all changed when Reigns got consistently great reactions from the crowd following his victory at HIAC this week. Reigns is now Rollins' #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship.
And while everyone is hyped to see Rollins go against his former tag team and Shield brethren, something else seems to be developing as well. Ambrose was noticeably left out on RAW, save for a backstage segment with Reigns' before the main event. Those last few seconds where the camera lingered on Ambrose looking indifferent after Reigns' left did not go unnoticed, as evident in a slew of recent wrestling articles (all speculations of course):
Simple foreshadowing or blatant "we know what you want, so we won't give it to you" but is Dean cryptically telling Roman, first it was Seth, then Bray, who next is going ruin your chances? Oh I know me! If this is the case who do you see put into the filler spot to challenge Seth until the ultimate Shield three way payoff? Do you see a Dean turn as to where this angle is headed?
I talked about this a lot in the Elite section of PWInsider.com this week. They certainly left the camera sitting on Dean Ambrose long enough to make you wonder what was going through his head, although that doesn't mean he's 100% turning. The fact they teased it though, means they are trying to get the audience to wonder what could be going on...and that's a good thing.
WWE seems complacent with Ambrose — it knows he’ll be there to step into the main event when it needs him, and that stifles him in the meantime. But the next four months will be key for Ambrose. There are rumors WWE is planning a Shield three-way match at WrestleMania, in which case Ambrose will be in a position to excel. There are also rumors his buddy-cop routine with Reigns is leading toward an Ambrose heel turn, in which case we can cross him off the Cena replacement list for the time being.
There’s mounting speculation that Dean Ambrose is about to stab Roman Reigns in the back. The two have been pushed as extra friendly for months now, which is the traditional set-up for a betrayal angle.
Furthermore, there’s seemingly nothing else for Ambrose to do on the babyface side. He didn’t feature at Hell In A Cell. He badly needs the turn to actually give him some exposure on WWE’s product.
On both the HIAC and Raw show, he offered his support to Roman. The tease for viewers is, at Survivor Series when Reigns fights Rollins for the title, is Ambrose going to shockingly cost his friend?
Personally, I'm not looking forward to this. I would love to see him be a heel again, maybe see shades of Shield Ambrose, FCW Ambrose, or Jon Moxley. Then again, even when Ambrose is directionless and unused, there are still nice little moments that make him a great babyface. In one interview, he called himself "the loveable bad guy," and it really suits him. It all depends on how creative sets this up for it to happen as it leads to the slow build to the much anticipated (and not yet booked) Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania 32. His heel turn, should it happen, HAS to make sense.
Side note: Looks like Tonight's special Halloween edition of Smack Down is going to feature Ambrose for the main event! Even though the results were already posted, I'm still going to watch it. There was a funny end note from the F4W author who reviewed this episode:
A pretty normal Smackdown show that also had pumpkins.
The main event was good but they should probably find something more productive for Dean Ambrose.
The go-home show of RAW was chocked full of legends and superstars. This was WWE at its most desperate, bringing in the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin doing an intro for Undertaker and getting interrupted by Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman as the opening segment. Unfortunately, the rest of the show couldn't sustain that energy and the rest of the 3 hours was full of 6-man tag team matches and average matches. The main event was originally set to have Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper and Braun Strowman in a career suicide handicap match because Orton was suddenly MIA. Kayfabe reason is the Wyatt Family injuring Orton (again). Real story is Orton injuring his shoulder (again). Here is a breakdown of the matches, as summed up from /r/SC:
The New Day def. John Cena, Dudley Boyz
Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox def. Sasha and Naomi
Seth Rollins def. Ryback
Rusev, King Barret, & Sheamus def. Ziggler, Cesaro, & Neville
Charlotte w/ Becky Lynch def. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella
Kevin Owens def. Mark Henry
Wyatt Family def. "Not the SHIELD" by DQ
There was one thing I had a major gripe with, and that was the blatant endorsement for ROMAN REIGNS in his match against Bray Wyatt at HIAC. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair were brought in just to put Reigns over with the crowd and barely acknowledged Wyatt This was a stark contrast from last year's HIAC, where Mick Foley appeared to say hello to an old friend (referring to the caged cell that was looming over the ring) and he put over BOTH Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Anyways, Reigns had a segment where he wanted to have a sit-down with Wyatt in the ring. He cut a promo that was less scripted was against a somewhat fearful-looking Wyatt. Here's where continuity went out of the window; Wyatt didn't even get to talk about this "prophecy" that he mentioned on Smack Down. He just showed up with Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman in their white sheep and black sheep masks, respectively. That's right, the original Wyatt Family member, Erick Rowan returned with no acknowledgement from the announcers except from the fans. Reigns proceeded to attack Wyatt with his chair and was seemingly surrounded until Ambrose ran into the ring. The main event was now Ambrose and Reigns vs. the Wyatt Family. Like Orton, Harper was also mysteriously MIA.
The Authority and Rollins are shown backstage, commenting on how Reigns is being dumb to jeopardize himself and Ambrose before HIAC. In comes Michaels with a simple solution; if Ambrose and Reigns need a partner, they can send their boy in. HHH and Stephanie were against it, saying Rollins just won a match against Ryback (his second clean win in weeks!) and that they both hate Rollins. Michaels insisted they do it anyways and to stop protecting him. Of course, this riles up Rollins, who said he'll join the 5 world-class athletes and be their partner, which garnered a MASSIVE pop outside. Nevermind that it didn't make any fucking sense for Rollins to join Ambrose and Reigns; for the second time this year since Payback, we were seeing a mini-Shield "reunion."
It was so hilarious to see Rollins and Reigns expressively riling up the crowd as they cheered for Ambrose in the ring. At one point in the match, Strowman took out Reigns, leaving Rollins to be the only one in the corner to make the hot tag from Ambrose. Rollins kept jumping up and down to get tagged in but just as Ambrose was making his way to the corner, Rollins feigns a knee injury, jumps down, and walks back up the ramp. Deja Vu. The match ended in a DQ when Ambrose resorts to using a kendo stick to take out Strowman as he did his death hug on Reigns. Post-match, Reigns came out strong as he took out all 3 of the Wyatt to rescue Ambrose (who, again, takes the most punishment in these matches) and spears Wyatt and Rowan.
Despite RAW being insanely stacked and getting a mini Shield "reunion", the go home show just didn't really do much to hype HIAC, which now fully consists of NoC rematches. Interestingly, 2 major changes were made to the card after last night. First, John Cena's US Open Challenge will be taking place there, which marks Cena's last appearance and hopefully him dropping the title to someone until his return in late December. Second, the kickoff match with Ambrose and Orton vs Harper and Strowman was pulled due to Orton's injury and Harper still being out for personal reasons and replaced with **inhales** Rusev, Sheamus, and Barrett vs Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville in a 6-man tag team match. Which means Ambrose is back to not having a match for HIAC (again!)
After the horrible season finale from last week, which I didn't bother with making my usual post, Monday Night RAW returned with a SEASON PREMIERE, kicked off by The Authority in best-for-business mode. They made a historic announcement for tonight; for the first time ever, Sting was going to have a match against... Big Show! They started things off with a tag team title match with The New Day vs Prime Time Players. Seriously, what a way to kickstart the show with The New Day getting HHH and Stephanie to dance alongside with them... before going to a commercial break. Godammit.
The New Day vs Primetime Players - Winners: The New Day The New Day have been so ridiculously entertaining ever since their heel turn that the rest of the tag team division literally pales in comparison. The fans are now cheering for them as they use both "New Day Rocks" and "New Day Sucks" chants. The PTP put on a good match but it seemed obvious that New Day would retain their title just so they could have a match against the Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions.
Paige vs Sasha Banks - Winner: Sasha Banks This was actually a very brutal match to watch between 2 former NXT Women's Champs. They weren't just wrestling for the sake of being in a match; it felt like they had a grudge with each other and it really showed. At one point, I thought Sasha might've gotten injured and thankfully she wasn't, she does a good job of selling it. The one thing that irks me is that Charlotte is being made as the face of the Divas Revolution when Sasha Banks was responsible for the best NXT Women's Championship matches with Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Bayley in the specials. Yeah, Charlotte is the daughter of Ric Flair. Sasha has been a wrestler much longer than she has, and she didn't use Snoop Dogg to help get her name out there.
MizTV segment with The Wyatt Family Miz kicked off the season premiere for his show as he called out the Wyatt Family to be his guests. Wyatt was somewhat kind enough to warn Miz about doing this segment with them. Miz assured him that he was not Ambrose and Reigns' mysterious partner for this Sunday's Hell in A Cell. That's right, he said Hell In A Cell. The segment was cut short when the Ambrose and Reigns appeared and entered through the crowd (SHIELD FEELS). Ambrose immediately took out Miz (I loved how Ambrose randomly did this instead of simply scaring Miz off) while Reigns talked down Wyatt. Reigns confirms that they have found a third partner but they won't reveal it til Sunday. This is probably the most talked about aspect of this feud since Strowman's debut. Who did Ambrose and Reigns choose and how did they convince him to join them in their war? Last week, the Wyatt Family targeted Orton for simply being seen talking to them, and on Smack Down, they went after Jimmy Uso (who was delightful in a backstage segment). I'm glad they're holding off on revealing it this week, although Ambrose might've accidentally spilled the beans to Jojo and said Savio Vega. I skipped the Cena vs Sheamus match. Guess who won? LOLCENAWINS
Kevin Owens and Ryback Promo Oh Ryback. He's one of the wrestlers that I can like or dislike, depending on how he presents himself. Last week, in a backstage segment with Renee Young, he did a bad promo where he was clearly reading off of cue cards. This week, he did a bad Elvis impersonation (ironic considering he's from Vegas). Kevin Owens came out holding the book that Ryback has constantly attributed to his newfound positive attitude and said he was pathetic for relying on the book. I'm not really happy with the buildup for this feud, especially since they separated Owens and Cesaro, and I'm not convinced that Ryback and Owens have beef with each other. Still, seeing Owens going for another title looks and being a condescending jerk about it is the only good thing coming out of their match for Sunday.
Stardust and The Cosmic Wasteland briefly brawled with Neville and the Lucha Dragons. Then it was revealed that they were going to be the kickoff match before Night of Champions. Godammit.
Charlotte vs Nikki Bella - Winner: Charlotte (via DQ) Charlotte put on an amazing match against Nikki until Alicia Fox interfered. Charlotte went and pinned Nikki and was declared a Divas champion. Even her father came down the ramp to congratulate her, until the camera cut away to what was happening outside the ring. Charlotte pinned Brie, not Nikki. GODAMMIT NOT THIS TWIN MAGIC SHIT AGAIN. And then Stephanie had the fucking balls to come out and said that she had to uphold the integrity of the Divas division and confirm that Charlotte only won via disqualification and the title can't change hands due to that. Charlotte has a rematch for Night of Champions and Stephanie affirmed that if Nikki loses in any way, even via disqualification, Charlotte will be the Divas champ. So Nikki got to beat AJ Lee's record and retained her title. The crowd was very pissed with this outcome but it was clearly an incentive to watch this Sunday.
Rusev vs Cesaro - Winner: Cesaro This felt like a throwaway, at least storyline wise, but these two put on an impressive match. It was nice to see CESARO SECTION signs though, and Cesaro was happy to see it too. The match ended quickly when Dolph Ziggler showed up and tried to give Summer Rae a small gift box, which she kept refusing. This distracted Rusev long enough for Cesaro to pin him and win... then Ziggler comes in and superkicks Rusev in the head. Seriously, who's the heel or face in this feud? Also, worth noting was Summer Rae secretly holding the gift box behind her as she walked Rusev back up the ramp. I don't know where they're going with this storyline and I want this to end already.
Big Show and Seth Rollins vs Sting and John Cena - Winners: LOLCENASTINGWINS The main event match was Sting vs Big Show, which turned into tag team match when Seth Rollins interfered and ganged up on Sting, and then John Cena ran out to help Sting. I skipped watching the match because I knew how this was going to play out. At almost every go home show, Rollins is made to look stupid, bad, or weak before his PPV match. And that is exactly what happened as John Cena and Sting won the match. Of course, they need the crowd to go home happy. Overall, despite a few great matches for the go-home show, I'm still not really excited for Night of Champions. I'm not even excited for either of Rollins' matches; I wouldn't care if he won or lost because it'll never be a clean for him. There will be shenanigans, someone interfering, or worse, fucking Sheamus cashing in. Actually, I take that back; Rollins matches are actually depending on the outcome of ROH's Jay Lethal matches with Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reily, respectively, at the All Star Extravaganza VII PPV this Friday. Yes, he is also doing both matches with both titles on the line, a mere 2 days before Night of Champions. It's an unfortunate coincidence and WWE is rumored to have different plans for the finish to make sure they don't appear to be copying their ending.
It's the go home show as well as the homecoming of Minnesota's own Beast, Brock Lesnar. What should've been an exciting show was simply nothing more than a hype machine. Literally. All of the matches were just teases on what to expect this Sunday, so basically everyone that has a match this Sunday is fighting or confronting their respective opponents tonight. There are now 10 matches confirmed for the 4-hour Summerslam. Oh boy.
HHH and Steph opened up RAW! and they were in "Best for Business" mode, as they talked about Summerslam being so big that it had to be 4 hours. And you can get it all on the WWE Network for - wait for it - $9.99. What made it irritating was that they were blasting the official theme song for Summerslam, which was Demi Lovato's single "Cool For The Summer" as they were talking. Another big big news they wanted to talk about was that former Daily Show host, Jon Stewart, will be hosting Summerslam. The road to Summerslam kicked off with Randy Orton and Cesaro vs Kevin Owens and Sheamus.
The most exciting part of any matches involving Cesaro is seeing him smile at the "CESARO SECTION" signs (again, also organized on r/SC). This tag team match was... okay. All 4 of these guys have a singles match this Sunday so this team up didn't really add anything to it. There were also a few botches at the end. Cesaro almost fell over the ropes until Kevin grabbed his foot to save him, which they played off as Owens interrupting him. And then Orton was about to do his RKO on Owens but due to some miscommunication, Orton was actually following through with his RKO as Owens was pushing him off, resulting in Orton appearing to slip down. Cesaro tried to cover Owens by grabbing his leg and pulling him off the ring, leading Orton to do the RKO on Sheamus and take the pin.
Next up was Roman Reigns vs Luke Harper. Dean Ambrose showed up and went to do commentary alongside JBL, Michael Cole, and Byron Saxton. Bray Wyatt waited on ringside. It has been a LONG time since Ambrose was on commentary and he was doing a great job hyping up everyone, even Harper and Wyatt. He even grabbed Saxton's chair and gave it to Wyatt! To be honest, this match was like a fucking replay from Smackdown. Harper is so diverse and brutal with his moves while Reigns does the same power moves over and over. Everyone gripes on Ambrose's rebound clothesline but no one bitches on Reigns constantly using a clotheslines and Superman punches. Reigns won clean at the end with a weak spear on Harper. Meanwhile, everyone is talking about how they're looking forward to seeing Ambrose or Reigns turn heel on Sunday.
Becky Lynch defeated Tamina, getting another singles win under her belt. I don't have anything more to say about this match except that it seemed pretty obvious that Tamina would take the pin. And we get another reminder that Nikki Bella's reign will go on for another month until she beats AJ Lee's reign. Jesus christ.
Next up is Rusev vs Patriotic Mark Henry again but this time, eh actually defeated him with The Accolade. Lana called back Hot Summer back into the ring and challenged her. She slapped Hot Summer and then challenged Rusev to come into the ring. As Rusev edged closer to Lana, Ziggler's theme song played. Lana did a superkick to Hot Summer and Ziggler did a DDT and superkick to Rusev. Ziggler's return made him and Rusev the (hopefully) final match added to Summerslam.
Seth Rollins and The Authority arranged to have a contract signing with him and John Cena, making their title vs title match official for Summerslam. Cocky Rollins even asked if they would make a statue of him (like the ones they made of Andre The Giant, Bruno Sammartino, and Ultimate Warrior) when he wins both titles this Sunday. HHH and Stephanie agreed that it would be done IF he wins. Rollins did a long opening monologue about Cena being the disease and that he was the cure. Cena came out and basically emasculated him, saying that even though the crowd was cheering "Let's go Cena! Cena sucks!" they were not chanting for Rollins. The real champ was here. And he even called out that Rollins was becoming HHH's legacy, as HHH calmly looks on. When Cena's fired up and not being silly, damn, he can be on point with his promos. The most surprising part? Cena signed the contract and walked away unscathed.
Ryback defeated Miz while Big Show was on commentary. Big Show was promoting his movie "Vendetta" that he filmed with Dean Cain and he had JBL holding the DVD. Makes me a little worried on how Ambrose will handle promoting his movie next month. Nothing really exciting here. I'll be fine if Miz wins or Ryback retains.
I want to point out how awesome this message from Stardust and King Barrett was. What you have to understand is how long this has been building up and how it's making all the players involved, notably King Barrett and Neville, look good. Cody Stardust has been pushing for this storyline for the last few months and it's becoming more than just a tribute to his father, Dusty Rhodes. We're seeing something new and exciting happening here, and with a celebrity element (Stephen Amell) that doesn't feel tacked on. Barrett and Neville, who've been floundering around with no direction, are back to feuding with each other, not as a heel and face, but as a villain and a hero! Amell is introducing his fans and "Arrow" fans to his love for wrestling. And the best part is how much FUN this storyline is shaping up to be. I honestly don't care if the heroes or villains wins, the payoff is finally seeing this match happen at Summerslam.
Then there was an 8 man tag team match with Prime Time Players and Lucha Dragons vs New Day and Los Matadores. The New Day was great, as usual, but otherwise it was another uninteresting match. A few months ago, that tag team division was starting to shape up after the Usos were out of the picture. There was Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan as "The Reapers" until Rowan got injured, The Ascension was getting some TV time, and Macho Mandow and Axelmania had... something. Ok, moving on.
The last match of the night was Sasha Banks vs Nikki Bella. One would think how awesome it was to see that the main even match was ending with Divas. Sasha was hard-hitting and taunting Nikki the whole time (even mocking her doing jumping jacks and push ups!) Unfortunately, the match went downhill when Nikki missed kicking Sasha as she jumped off the ropes (and Sasha still had to sell it), and the audience started chanting "WE WANT LESNAR!" While it was really infuriating to hear them chant that through their match, it was understandable why they would. Paul Heyman and Lesnar appeared in the last 15 minutes of a 3 hour show, whereas Undertaker appeared earlier in the first hour. This was another setback for the Divas Revolution.
Lesnar got a heroes welcome with confetti and streamers raining over him as the crowd chanted "SUPLEX CITY." Seriously, is Lesnar suppose to be the face or heel in this feud? Heyman was on fire once again as he hyped up Lesnar and mentioned his accomplishments, including from his hometown university. He even sang a glorious song, "GLORY, GLORY, BROCK LESNAR!" Undertaker's bell gong and blackout happened but Taker was nowhere to be seen, leading Heyman to do more of his promo, including pointing out that Taker doing a low blow is a desperate move (and for kayfabe reason, something only heels do, not faces). When it rang again, Taker appeared. And he did the low blow again. He tombstoned Lesnar and was greeted with a deafening boos from the fans. Anywhere else, Taker would've gotten cheers for doing this.
So, all in all, aside from a few good parts, this whole RAW was just a tease for Sunday. There's still Smack Down! this Tuesday Thursday with this ridiculously huge main event happening. Maybe there's a bit more breathing room for one last Stardust or Cosmic King vs Neville match, or Ziggler vs Rusev? Not to mention there's also NXT Takeover Brooklyn happening the night before Summerslam, so this week is all WWE. This is gonna be an exhausting weekend for wrestling fans.
