WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins starts the show by running down all of his accomplishments starting with him making Cena bring back The Authority last fall. He eventually make his way to the fact that he broke Cena's nose on Raw. He continues to brag about it despite "you tapped out" chants filling the arena. Cesaro's music hits and out struts the Swiss Superman. He points out that Rollins DID tap out and the WWE Champ refutes that claim. We end up with the promoted main event on our hands to kick off the show as Cesaro says he's going to make Rollins tap right now.
1) Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro
This was a lot of fun while it lasted as you could probably expect. These two can virtually do no wrong with any opponent and putting them together is simply a recipe for a solid to awesome match up every time. Cesaro started out with MORE innovation by doing a series of dragon screw leg whips. That guy never stops implimenting new stuff in his repetoire! Kevin Owens comes down to the ring and hops on commentary. The match goes slightly under ten minutes before Owens jumps Cesaro just before he delivered the swing to Rollins. That calls for a DQ and at first, Rollins is pissed then he & Owens both start delivering the boots to Cesaro. Refs run down and get them both to leave. I read the spoilers so I knew what this was leading to although it hadn't been announced yet so I was more than fine with how it went down.
2) Lucha Dragons & Los Matadores vs. The New Day & The Ascension - 8 Man Tag Team Match
The Dragons & The Matadores had a really good match on Raw this Monday which put some excitement behind this contest due to the tag division being in a pretty great place right now. PTP is on commentary yet again. It's almost become a staple and I like it. It was awesome seeing New Day back in action here as well. Sin Cara gets isolated early on and then Kalisto gets the hot tag after a few minutes of him getting worked over. A crazy closing sequence follows that includes the bull hitting a 619 on the ring post onto Xavier Woods. Another nice showcase for the tag division. Surprisingly, The Lucha Dragons pick up the win for their team. I fully expected New Day to come out on top here, but I guess The Ascension were indeed there for a reason and that was to take the pin.
Match rating - **3/4
3) Jack Swagger vs. Rusev
From a surprising outcome to a shockingly good match. I was pretty disappointed with the series these two had last year as I felt like there was so much more potential to it. However, Swagger & Rusev would set out to right that wrong and produce a pretty fantastic match here. I think it was in part due to Rusev being so much better now than he was back then. He has more momentum now than I feel like he ever has as he's been delivering good match week after week and he carried that trend over into this contest where he not only produced a quality contest, but also made Jack Swagger relevant again. I just wish this would've happened on Raw so more people could've seen it because I feel like it would put Swagger back into a meaningful position on the roster because he looked better than he has in a long time here. They produced some unique counters and a number of false finishes in the form of nearfalls & submissions. I really enjoyed this one. Best match these two have had together.
Match rating - ***1/4
4) Stardust vs. R-Truth
This one has it's highs and lows. Of course, the match was pretty uneventful. I mainly mean the whole essence of it. Stardust, Truth, Neville & BNB have been tied together the past number of months competing in meaningless match after meaningless match (aside from the KOTR final) and it's just gotten old. At least Stardust & Neville are in somewhat of a program. Speaking of that, Stardust wins here and beats down Truth after. Neville makes the save and dives onto him for a nice pop.
Match rating - **
5) Cesaro & Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens & Seth Rollins
Backstage earlier in the night, both Cesaro & Kevin Owens were interviewed. Cesaro got the chance to pick a partner of his choosing and couldn't find anyone. The match is about to start and DEAN AMBROSE'S MUSIC HITS! Big pop! He charges the ring and the fight begins! This is hype! The four Indy schmuck's in the main event with an opportunity to steal the show again and guess what, they did! It wasn't the MOTY candidate it probably could've been however it was undoubtedly a satisfying main event. Ambrose & Rollins had a lengthy exchange which is always good. Cesaro got the lasting impression as Owens went for the powerbomb on Ambrose and Ambrose dove over him as Cesaro hit Owens from behind, pushed him into the ropes and rolled him up for the three! Cesaro keeps his momentum going afterwards by flinging himself to the apron, then to the announce able, THEN TO THE BARRICADE AND INTO THE CROWD! The WWE Universe is going wild as Cesaro & Ambrose celebrate on the announce table. If you like any of these guys, this is definitely worth checking out.
Match rating - ***1/2
Overall thoughts: There isn't really anything bad to say about this show. The only slight downfall was there being a lot of Raw replays and such included. However, as far as the live content goes, it was all pretty much quality material. Swagger & Rusev had a good match and the main event was extremely entertaining. The entire show was built around Cesaro & Kevin Owens' issues which was a cool change of pace and makes this worth taking a look at solely for their segments.
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