Coming off the fairly uneventful WWE MSG special, what's next on the Road to Hell In A Cell?
TONIGHT: Seth Rollins & The Big Show vs. The Dudley Boys
Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman are out first. I guess WWE expects them to boosts numbers that are at an all time low. Heyman delivers his usual great promo and they replay footage from WM30 & SummerSlam. Heyman vows that Lesnar will essentially end The Undertaker at the Cell PPV. Big Show comes out when it looks like Heyman is finished and gets an awesome belly to belly suplex for his troubles. Lesnar follows that up with a F5 before leaving.
1) Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, & Randy Orton vs. The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, & Braun Strowman)
Reigns is in first with Harper and goes right after Bray Wyatt. Fantastic stuff to follow up their match & brawl last week. This happens throughout the match as Reigns is focused on nothing, but getting his hands on Wyatt. As said last week, I'm actually looking forward to their Cell match following their brawl last Monday night. The way they worked this match was just the icing on the cake. The action here was hot most of the way through and on top of the Wyatt/Reigns stuff, they also protected Strowman nicely. Reigns wins by hitting a spear on Harper while staring at Wyatt.
Match rating - ***
2) Sheamus vs. Neville
I was so excited for this. Sheamus cuts a promo running down Neville and gets a spinning kick to the gut. FIERY BABYFACE COMEBACK! This is starting off amazing then Bad News Barrett distracts Neville, Sheamus takes advantage and hits a Brogue Kick to win. Wonderful. (Sarcasm)
Match rating - ** (this gets two for the start alone)
Corporate Kane is out with a brace on his foot. He elects himself to be Rollins' partner later in the night. Rollins confronts him, things get heated, and Stephanie comes out. She makes Rollins vs Kane official for Hell In A Cell and gives Kane permission to be Seth's partner tonight. I've been enjoying the Kane stuff, but it's run it's course for me now.
3) Natalya vs. Paige
I'm kind of high on the Divas after the six woman tag on Smackdown. Then again, it didn't involve either of these two so, we'll see. The crowd wasn't as hot as it was for that match, but the in-ring work here was solid and they put on a decent match for what it was. Natalya yells "you will respect me!" and makes sure of it by making Paige tap out to the sharpshooter.
Match rating - **1/2
4) Kevin Owens vs. Sin Cara
Fun first time match up here. Owens dominates early and does a lot of trash talking including calling out Kalisto saying "You look like an idiot too!" Cara makes a short comeback with a moonsault and some stuff. Cara goes to the well once too many times though and Owens catching him with a mid-air superkick off a springboard. Pop up powerbomb and the IC Champ gets the win.
Match rating - **1/2
After the match, Owens goes to powerbomb Kalisto on the ring apron. Ryback is out to make the save. Owens scurries through the crowd as Ryback hypes up the crowd and taunts him.
John Cena & Roman Reigns recognized the Rise Above Cancer movement and WWE's partnership with Susan G Komen. Nice moment.
5) Seth Rollins & Kane vs. The Dudley Boys
Shenanigans ran rampant here as you probably expected. Corporate Kane gets injured again and is carried to the back despite Rollins trying to tie him to the ring post. Dudleys clean house on Rollins and go for a table. Rollins dropkicks it into them which calls for a DQ. Demon Kane runs down and The Dudleys 3D him as payback from his attack on them on Smackdown. This has early 2000's written all over it, wow. This whole show has been like a time capsule. Lesnar, Show, & Taker to start. Now The Dudleys & Kane. Anyway, Rollins brings the table into the ring and tries to put Kane through it, but gets chokeslammed through it himself instead.
Match rating - **1/4
Earlier today, The Bellas & Alicia Fox arrived in Boston at the same time as Sasha Banks, Naomi, & Tamina. This caused for confrontation and WE'RE GETTING A REMATCH FROM THEIR TRIOS CONTEST ON SMACKDOWN LAST WEEK! YES!
Team BAD is out first and Sasha Banks is in her hometown so she & her crew got a nice pop. She says she puts the BOSS in Boston before The Bellas & Foxy interrupt her. Nikki gets some cheap heat by sporting a Yankees hat. Nikki then calls them Team Ratchet and things are getting more personal now. They are going face to face and the ref tries to keep them apart, YEEEEEE!
6) The Bellas & Alicia Fox vs. Sasha Banks, Naomi, & Tamina
Naomi starts out first with Nikki then she tags in Sasha in which obviously gets a big reaction from the crowd. She hits a double knee drop on Brie and the rest of Team Bella pulls her out of the ring. This creates a stalemate before the commercial break. We come back to Naomi & Alicia Fox in the ring. Naomi gets isolated by Team Bella. They do a number of tag teases and Nikki even knocks Sasha off the apron at one point to create some tension. Sasha finally gets the hot tag and cleans house. They do a great final run of finishers/big moves. Superkick from Tamina, ass to the face from Naomi, spin kick from Fox, and ultimately the bank statement from Sasha Banks. Foxy is forced to tap due to the crossface. Nice win for Sasha heading into her match with Bayley at the NXT Special on Wednesday. This was a solid match, but I'd say the Smackdown edition was better. So definitely check that out if you enjoyed this. Still a nice showing for the women involved, though. These six are really the shining stars of the Revolution as far as I'm concerned.
Match rating - **3/4
LATER TONIGHT: Who will answer John Cena's US Title Open Challenge? It looks to be the main event so I'm expecting someone or something big. A good match is a guarantee.
Summer Rae introduces Rusev and she apparently has made a video for him. It's a tribute and it's pretty hilarious. They end up doing a marriage angle. Rusev says "Yes, but not yet" and tells Summer that she will get gold around her finger when he gets gold around his waist. What a guy.
7) John Cena (c) vs. Big E - United States Championship Match
There was a lot of hype for who would expect this which led many to expect a debut, including myself. However, New Day wasn't featured prominently on the show tonight so we should've thought about them being a prospect. Especially after what happened last week. Ziggler was originally accepting the challenge here, but New Day assaulted him and dragged him out to the ramp. They build up the introduction of Big E accepting it in a way only New Day can and this is underway. Big E dominates the first few minutes before we go to commercial and miss his spear to the floor spot as well as a sick belly to belly throw. Thankfully they replayed both moments, but it still sucks we didn't get see them in real time. Big E's domination continues with a splash on the ring apron and a variety of power moves. The finish comes surprisingly quick as Cena hits the five knuckle shuffle, gets Big E up for the AA, and New Day pulls him to the ropes to break it up. The ref throws out New Day and while he's handling that, Big E grabs the trombone. He tries to hit Cena with it only to get caught in an AA. Cena gets the 1-2-3 and retains the US Title. I thought this was a decent match, it feels like they are saving the "all out" US Title match between Cena & New Day for some other time, especially with what took place after the contest was over.
Ziggler comes out only to get beat down. The same thing happens with New Day's opponent's at Hell In A Cell, The Dudley Boys. Big E, Kofi, & Xavier stand tall to end Raw which was a pleasant surprise. I like the idea of Cena feuding with New Day because it's giving him three fresh opponents and an actual story behind them. New Day being extremely over with the audience is great as well. I'm interested to see what this leads to. I'm thinking Kofi accepts the challenge next week since he's the only one who hasn't. Then they possibly build towards a Big E/Cena rematch at Hell In A Cell. It's looking like a member of the New Day will be the lucky ace to take the title from Cena prior to his sabbatical and I can't think of a better choice. You need someone who is very popular and hot right now. When you look at the roster, I don't think there's a better choice than someone from this trio. None the less, only time will tell what this is all leading to.
No comments:
Post a Comment