This is a weird spot for WWE as they’re building up to a house show before they start building up to Hell in a Cell. Unfortunately that means we’re going to be in for a lot of Big Show, though fortunately it means we’re in for a lot more of the New Day and there’s nothing wrong with that. Let’s get to it.

They got right to the point with the US Open Challenge. Cena said anyone could come get some and it’s Xavier Woods taking the challenge. Of course this led to some hilarious shenanigans from all three members of New Day which I can’t do justice by just typing them up here. Cena no sold most of this and looked more like a villain who was being all serious. That being said, I really like the idea of Cena treating the title like the most important thing in the world and not something worthy of joking about.

As you might expect, Cena gave Woods the best match of his career before New Day came in for the DQ. That brought out the Dudleyz for a six man, which New Day actually won when Cena was knocked to the floor. This was entertaining and a good way to kill some time. Just like last week, it’s a better idea to start a show with action rather than spending twenty minutes setting up the night’s action.

Here’s the big story of the first half of the night: Kane gets a performance evaluation despite being creepy. Thankfully this was mostly done off screen so we didn’t have to go through a bunch of lame and unfunny comedy. The closest thing was Kane giving Seth the head of his statue back in a good bit. Kane was eventually declared competent and Rollins whined a lot, eventually Pillmanizing Kane’s injured ankle.

Corporate Kane would be taken to an ambulance but Demon Kane came back out and destroyed Rollins. I’m not loving this idea but at least it’s something different. Also, they have to do Kane vs. Rollins at some point so why not do it on a show where they know the main event is going to carry everything else?

Big Show squashed Mark Henry to set up Saturday. Short and harmless. Well except to Henry.

One of the big segments of the night was Team PCB on MizTV. This is where I really started losing interest in the show. Paige came out and it turned into this big whining fest between the three of them plus Team Bella about who started the Divas Revolution. This felt like WWE was copying the Kardashians or some Real Housewives show with all the whining and cattiness.

Aside from trying to find a reason to care about who started this Revolution, this made every person involved in this story look like they were about 17 years old. It’s a bunch of whining and people sounding stupid as the title is forgotten again. I don’t want to see the division going in this direction, but unfortunately this is the kind of “entertainment” that dominates pop culture these days and it’s likely going to be more prominent in this division going forward.

Oh and Team PCB reformed for a match but Paige walked out, allowing Nikki to pin Charlotte for the title. Charlotte’s reign as champion is making Rollins look great by comparison.

The Wyatts squashed the Prime Time Players. This was fine.

King Barrett beat up Neville and Stardust. I’m glad he’s back but I don’t buy for a second that Barrett is going anywhere.

Bray Wyatt babbled a lot.

Randy Orton squashed Bo Dallas.

Ryback started a fight to break up Rusev vs. Kevin Owens in less than a minute. Dolph Ziggler ran out to superkick Ryback.

Let’s look at this set of segments for a bit. There was maybe ten minutes spent on these, but I’m not sure if I like that or not. The matches being short helps as there’s no reason to have something like Orton vs. Dallas go anywhere, but it’s kind of hard to care about matches that don’t get any time and everything goes flying by. It felt like they were trying to fill time and I can’t stand it when a show feels like it’s there for no reason. I can see both sides of this, but I’d really like something with more depth to it than what we got here.

Heyman came out to talk about Big Show vs. Brock so Big Show came out and scared him. No one with a brain who has seen five minutes of WWE believes Show has a chance here and it’s really annoying to have to sit through all these promos and matches building up what is going to be one sided.

The main event was a big brawl between Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns. This was barely a match and that’s exactly what it should have been. They fought into the crowd and the highlight was the aftermath with Bray picking up a PERSON and throwing him at Reigns. Reigns speared Wyatt through a table to end the show in a brawl clearly designed to set up a match inside the Cell. Nothing wrong with that. Again though, Bray threw a PERSON at Reigns. That’s awesome on a whole different level.

Raw was……yeah this week. It feels like they’re spending more time setting up the house show on Saturday than the pay per view, which made for some uneven moments tonight. There are parts of it that I liked but at the same time it still feels like they’re searching for their next idea instead of knowing where they want to go and that’s never a good thing. Things should change a lot next week with the MSG show out of the way, but they should have already started some more of the build towards the pay per view.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B015IN12I2

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

So here’s the thing: it’s pretty clear to me that there’s no point in doing one of these things for every Raw. Far more often than not on the TV shows I’ll have to stretch to come up with something to talk about and I can’t stand it when someone writes just to fill in space. I don’t want that to be the case here and I’m not going to do a Reviewing the Review for each week of Raw.

If there’s a major point or two that I don’t touch on in the weekly column I’ll do a separate post for it, but I’m not going to waste my own or far more importantly your time with stuff like “Rusev and Ziggler did this to build to their next match. It’s not great but I’ve seen worse,” seven times a week with one or two in depth topics. I’ll do one for every pay per view and major Raw’s (like this week’s) but it’s stupid to sit around typing and not saying anything if there’s nothing important.

As for Night of Champions, the show was built up very well given what they had to work with. Sting vs. Rollins was destined to be a mess instead a coherent match and that’s best for everyone involved. Other than that we have Cena vs. Rollins, which will be good but nothing we haven’t seen before. That being said, this looked good on paper and that’s more than you can say about most B shows.

The pre-show match was a six man tag where Stardust/Ascension beat Neville/Lucha Dragons in a totally standard match that did nothing for me. Neville and the Dragons did their dives and high spots but Neville tried one too many and got taken out by the Queen’s Crossbow. The match didn’t advance the story but they did a rematch the next night (another reason not to do these things every week: so many rematches without anything significantly changing).

Kevin Owens won the Intercontinental Title from Ryback by raking the eyes. This sets up a nice story going forward as Ryback knows he can beat Owens in a straight up fight but Kevin spends weeks ducking him. Well as many weeks as there are until we get to Hell in a Cell because WWE doesn’t get the idea that you can have another match in between title matches and not everything has to be linear. It’s cool to see Owens getting something after his feud with Cena ended and this is better than nothing. They’ll screw up his reign of course but you have to expect that in WWE.

Ziggler and Rusev had a long match that ended when Summer threw a shoe and hit Rusev by mistake, setting up the Zig Zag for the pin. These two had a good story going but then Lana’s wrist injury crippled whatever they had going. Now it’s just the two of them running around in circles having lame matches without Lana being around to make things more interesting. People complain about Lana being weaker without Rusev, but could it have anything to do with her being a side player to Ziggler’s repetitive antics. I’m sure the solution is to put her back with Rusev so it can start all over again right?

New Day retained the Tag Team Titles over the Dudleyz via DQ in a hilariously entertaining match. This was all about Xavier Woods at ringside being the most annoying pest he could doing whatever things came to his mind. This is how comedy acts are supposed to go. Notice how much more entertaining Woods has been because he mixes things up.

That’s what got on my nerves about people like Santino and Eric Young: they would do the exact same stuff over and over again and almost never added anything new. Woods is doing the trombone thing every week but he changes what he plays and shouts enough different stuff to keep it from getting boring. New Day is an absolute blast and I haven’t had this much fun with an act in a long time.

Charlotte finally won the Divas Title from Nikki Bella in a rather strange match. Charlotte tweaked her knee early on and didn’t get in any offense until the very end when she hit a spear and hoked the Figure Eight for the win. Now this can be looked in a few different ways. First of all, there’s the idea that Nikki had to keep the pressure on Charlotte but as soon as Charlotte got in a single shot she had Nikki beat. On the other hand, it might have been a way to keep Nikki from having to do any actual wrestling and to just let her do stuff to Charlotte’s leg.

On the third hand, maybe it was a legitimate injury and Nikki had to carry things. Either way, it was an entertaining match and Charlotte took the title after Nikki got the all important record. By all important I mean important to WWE alone but I’m sure they think the fans are thrilled. You know, all 800,000 of them that watch Total Divas, none of whom watch WWE already and all of whom I’m sure worship Nikki Bella. Either way, this might actually lead somewhere with the Divas Revolution, even though it died a month ago. Also of note: Ric Flair came out to celebrate and looked happier than he has in years. That’s nice to see.

The Shield boys’ mystery partner was Chris Jericho. This is the ham sandwich of choices: it’s fine, but nothing that is going to blow the roof off the place. The live crowd seemed to like it though and that’s always a big help. It’s pretty clear that this feud is likely going on for a long time until Ambrose and Reigns realize the only way to stop the Wyatts is to do the unthinkable and reunite the Shield. That’s fine for an idea and the response when it finally happens, even if it’s clear where they’re going, is going to be incredible.

The match itself was fine as Jericho, though older now, is at least still able to work a one off match like this. Strowman looked like a monster out there and that’s all he needed to be. Notice that Reigns and Ambrose got to stagger him and even knock him off his feet but not much more. Eventually Strowman is going to lose and most of his character will change, but they’re taking their time getting there to make it feel like a big deal.

John Cena got the US Title back from Rollins with a clean pin in easily the match of the night. These two work well together but like so many other things in WWE, the match has been run into the ground so badly that it’s almost impossible to get fired up for it again. They did the trading big shots formula by skipping the buildup part, which made for a much more entertaining match. I don’t need to see it again, which is why we saw it again the following night on Raw. I’m also not wild on the World Champion losing a clean fall, but that’s apparently par for the course these days.

Cena gave Rollins an AA on the floor before Sting came out to make things a bit more realistic. Yeah the deck was stacked against Rollins, but at the end of the day there’s almost no way you can have Sting beat Rollins when he’s nearly thirty years older and barely ever wrestles. Sting did everything he could here and pulled off an entertaining match which is all you can ask for. The story here was Sting’s neck/spine getting jacked up by the buckle bomb, which hopefully doesn’t end his career. Rollins retained with a rollup and that’s about as good as they were going to be able to do. Fun match and as good as they could do it.

Sheamus tried to cash in but was foiled by the returning Demon Kane, which we’ll get more into later. I knew they weren’t doing the real cash-in here because this was the annual cash-in tease that doesn’t go anywhere at this time of year because the briefcase has only been hanging over our heads for three months now.

Night of Champions was quite the entertaining show with almost nothing bad and a really fun match between Rollins and Cena. They’ve got some momentum heading into Hell in a Cell with Undertaker vs. Lesnar being a good choice to headline a B level show. Unfortunately no one is going to be watching because of Monday Night Football but at least the people who are sticking around are getting some good shows.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B015IN12I2

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Alas it’s a holiday show and that means they’re really not going to be putting in much effort. I get the idea behind it, but it gets really tiring watching them out there on a show that means nothing and clearly just filling in time before next week’s special episode where for some reason they try to fight off a Monday Night Football doubleheader instead of having a nothing show that night and then doing a major show after Night of Champions and starting the build from there. Then again, when has WWE ever done something that makes sense? Let’s get to it.

Rollins opened the show with his weekly address where he talks to the fans like they’ve never seen an episode of Raw before by recapping his entire title reign. I’m always of the mindset that each episode is someone’s first time watching, but recapping the fact that you beat Brock Lesnar really doesn’t mean anything when you’re fighting Sting and John Cena while Lesnar is nowhere in sight. It’s recapping for the sake of filling in time and for the sake of WWE thinking its fans are stupid which gets old fast.

This brought him to Sting and the statue, which needs to get destroyed already and be done with it. Sting had the statue with him in front of a dark background, which is certainly just a corner of the arena somewhere and not in front of something that will be a big surprise later on.

Sheamus came out as well to tease the Money in the Bank cash-in at Night of Champions because it’s the fall and therefore time to start teasing the cash-in like they do EVERY SINGLE YEAR BECAUSE THAT’S THE STORY THEY CAME UP WITH AND IT HAS TO BE THE SAME STUPID THING EVERY TIME SINCE WE JUST HAVE TO HAVE THAT STUPID BRIEFCASE FLOATING AROUND ALL THE FREAKING TIME! Just cash it in, let Sheamus lose or have a month long title reign and be done with it already so we can have a break before the whole thing starts over again in July.

After a break, Rollins came in to see Mama and Papa Helmsley, who have the whole thing covered because Seth can’t handle an old man without them. Of course no one ever says “hey, let’s go find the cameraman and ask him where he was. Like, there has to be a cable leading to his camera somewhere right?” That’s heresy in WWE though, because we need to praise HHH and Stephanie in their cameo while they’re not really in the arena because not even they watch Raw on Labor Day. Rollins gets two wrestle twice tonight because the Authority treats like like a child.

Paige and Sasha had their same decent match that ended with Naomi distracting Paige so Sasha could get a small package pin. I think this leads to a Paige heel turn, which could be interesting once we get done with the never ending team feuds.

Now we get to the part of the show that actually got on my nerves, which almost never happens: Ambrose and Reigns squashed the Ascension, who had been put together with Stardust in a group on Smackdown. However, since the people who put Raw together don’t seem to watch Smackdown, none of that mattered because Reigns and Ambrose needed opponents for a squash.

I have no problem with Ambrose and Reigns beating someone up, but if they’re trying to do something with Ascension, don’t put them out there to get squashed. You could put any two goofs out there and have them lose in three minutes. You have how many people who haven’t done anything important in months (Heath Slater, Curtis Axel, Damien Sandow, Adam Rose, Fandango etc) but why use any of them?

Instead you put out a team that needs to be rebuilt in the worst way after WWE screwed them up in the first place by having Booker and JBL treat them like idiots and then having the Outlaws and APA, two mostly retired teams, attack them for a nostalgia segment. I’ve said this many times before, but WWE has no idea how to use its roster. They focus on a handful of people and forget everyone else. Put up a big board of everyone on your roster and label it “PEOPLE WE CAN USE” or something, but stop wasting a team that could go somewhere for a spot that any two jobbers could use.

Oh and again, this is what NXT fans are always afraid of: why bother bringing people up if they’re going to be completely wasted for the sake of whatever stupid idea the main show has for them? What does that develop and how is it a good use of the system they have in place? It’s because the people who put together the main show can’t stop and pay attention for five seconds, because the match was less than three minutes long. Any two warm bodies could have done this job as well as Konor/Viktor, but that’s who we get and we’re just supposed to go with it on Smackdown when they’re featured again. Thank you WWE.

Ryback and Owens continue to stare at each other and their feud (is it even a feud yet? Don’t you have to do more than look at and insult each other to constitute a feud?) is still intriguing.

We get a long recap of Ziggler/Summer/Lana and it’s so cheesy that it’s getting awesome. Embrace the fact that it’s a soap opera and it’s a lot easier to bear.

Ryback beat Rollins in the first long match of the night. I still really like Ryback at the moment and it’s cool to see him get a big win, even if it was due to a Sting distraction. They’re building a good Intercontinental Champion with Ryback, and above all else there’s one key: he’s treating the title like it matters. Couple that with actually defending the thing and he’s one of the better champions in a long time.

Rollins (who I’m sick of from this show alone) runs into New Day, who he’s teaming with later. The Dudleyz come in, as do Edge and Christian for a cameo. This turns into the trombone vs. the kazoo, which are both totally awesome. This was great.

Summer Rae/Rusev/Ziggler did some stuff, with only Summer referring to Rusev as Ru Ru being noteworthy.

Orton, Sheamus, RKO, sixteen minutes. I need to get away from this match before I nod off.

The Wyatts beat up Orton for hanging out with Reigns/Ambrose earlier. I like this idea the more I think about it and they’re setting the stage for an outsider to be there to save the Shield boys.

The Dudleyz squashed Los Matadores so they could turn on El Torito. Didn’t they do this before and nothing came of it?

Big Show caused Miz vs. Cesaro to go to a double countout. I guess they’re just swapping Cesaro for Ryback in this feud? That’s their best idea?

The Bellas and PCB had your standard build to next week’s title match where Nikki tapped to the Figure Eight.

John Cena, with the Prime Time Players, beat New Day. This was nothing special and was really just there to fill in some time.

Sting threw the statue into a garbage truck to end the show. He did a little dance around it, which was actually cool because I’ve always loved how Sting moves. It’s different enough from everyone else to make it look cool.

This show wasn’t the worst they’ve ever done but there was a distinct lack of energy to the show all night. The only major thing was the destruction of the statue, which we’ve been waiting weeks for now. It was clear that they were trying to fill in time though, which has to happen every week but it’s a lot harder to sit through when they’re being so blatant with it. The “season premiere” next week should be better, but a bit of energy is all it would take.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

So in addition to Summerslam, there was NXT’s biggest show of all time as they had roughly the same crowd as Summerslam in the same building for Takeover: Brooklyn. As usual I was way more excited for this than for whatever WWE was putting on as NXT actually knows how to build a full card. Let’s get to it.

We opened with HHH introducing us to the show and showing off the huge crowd. It never ceases to amaze me how much cooler HHH is on his own than when he’s on Raw. This feels like the closer thing to a real version of the guy and he’s a lot more enjoyable like this. Also his speech was like two minutes long, not twenty. Do that more on Raw.

The opening was a surprise as Jushin Thunder Liger pinned Tyler Breeze. I’ve been waiting for Breeze to be pushed towards the top of the promotion but Liger getting the win is far from the worst thing in the world. Above all here: I have full confidence in NXT’s ability to build Breeze back up. In WWE, or almost any other promotion for that matter, he would be finished for all intents and purposes. The match was good and Liger is a charisma machine so the fans ate this up.

The Vaudevillains brought in Blue Pants to help deal with Alexa Bliss and finally won the Tag Team Titles. As usual, Blue Pants was the perfect choice (save for maybe Lita) and the place was going insane for this. Bliss has a spot as the insanely petty and stuck up girl who can also be an evil mastermind so once you get her away from a dead end act like Blake and Murphy (they’re fine but this is almost guaranteed to be the peaks of their careers), she could do some awesome stuff.

My biggest takeaway from this match was how hot the crowd was. The match was just good instead of great but the people were all over the near falls. It’s what happens when they’re given a reason to care about something instead of being beaten over the head by the company saying how awesome it is. The Vaudevillains have earned the fans’ respect and they were rewarded for it with a great reaction here. It’s such a simple formula but almost no one gets it.

Apollo Crews debuted and beat Tye Dillinger. There isn’t much to say here but Crews looks like a shorter Ahmed Johnson but with more athletic ability. As long as he doesn’t get caught in bed with his goat lover while doing cocaine off an underage prostitute corpse, he’s going to be fine.

We’re going to have the Dusty Classic Tag Team Tournament. No idea what that is but I fully trust NXT to pull off something http://onhealthy.net/product-category/antivirals/ cool with it.

In what we’ll call the pleasant surprise of the night, Samoa Joe beat Baron Corbin with the Koquina Clutch. Joe is a likely candidate for the next title shot and this was a very good performance to get him there. This was two power guys beating each other up for ten minutes and it was all entertaining stuff.

I’m going to keep this separate from the next match: Stephanie came out to introduce the next match. Stephanie is officially the annoying mom who doesn’t get that her kids don’t want her around all the time because she’s going to make it all about herself instead of letting the kids have fun. Unfortunately there’s no way around her so we’re stuck with her ego and obsession with being there for every cool moment.

Next up was Bayley challenging Sasha Banks for the Women’s Title. This was good. Go watch it. Seriously what else do you want from me here? I’ll give them this: that sequence of the Bank Statement and the hand stomp is as good of a back and forth as I’ve seen since Benoit vs. Angle in 2003. The post match scene with the Four Horsewomen posing one last time was perfect too.

The main event saw Finn Balor defending the NXT Title against Kevin Owens in a ladder match that shouldn’t have gone on last. It’s a really fun match and all, but there was no way these guys were going to match what we saw beforehand. I’ve heard a lot of people say it wasn’t very good, but I think those opinions might change with this match in a vacuum instead of right after the classic beforehand.

These two ran into the problem that so many have with ladder matches: what else can you do in them? There have been so many ladder matches over the years and it’s almost impossible to come up with something fresh. Still though, they did what they were supposed to do and the match was a success. It just shouldn’t have gone on last, though I understand the mentality behind it.

So yeah, Takeover rocked, because that’s all NXT knows how to do. It’s such a well build promotion with good to great wrestling, well done stories and an assembly line of fresh talent coming in to restock the shelves when these people are taking up to the main show and wasted because Kevin Dunn and company have to teach them how to be wrestlers because of some grudge with HHH or whatever. Awesome show, watch it again, it’s better than Summerslam.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

We’re past what is still called the second biggest show of the year (I’ve been swayed to the idea that the Raw after Wrestlemania has taken that spot) and things were……there. I’ve had the better part of a week to digest the show now and I’m still not sure how I feel about it, so maybe I can figure it out by writing a long winded recap. Let’s get to it.

There was no match on the preshow for reasons that aren’t clear. I’m sure this will in no way cause the show to feel rushed because there’s an extra match packed in.

Host Jon Stewart came out and said he was here to fight Brock Lesnar, with assistance from Mick Foley. The gag was that Foley thought it was to deal with his friend Rock instead of Brock so this isn’t happening. Stewart is all “ok” and that’s it. This was straight out of the Bundy vs. Gatorwolf days of Saturday Night’s Main Event to remind you that Stewart is in fact here.

Sheamus pinned Orton clean in a watchable opener. I say opener because I have issues calling anything these two do good or interesting. There are some people who simply do not have chemistry and Orton vs. Sheamus is one such pairing. I like both guys, but I don’t need to see them fighting, especially after Orton pinned Sheamus clean last month. It’s a classic case of “why are these two still fighting” and I’ve yet to hear either of them give a reason other than “we were fighting last month so we should fight again because clean endings mean nothing”. Not a good match but the lack of caring really hurt it.

So after that pretty lame opening, let’s crank things up a bit by taking eight guys and have them fly around the ring for ten minutes after New Day sang a version of Jay-Z’s New York (which might get WWE in trouble because copyright claims have reached the point where a parody song is somehow infringing on someone’s intellectual property because……well because America is obsessed with lawsuits that’s why.).

This is one of those matches where you can’t bother calling the action because it’s all about the frantic pace. Well that and Xavier Woods NOT SHUTTING UP, and that’s the entire point. Woods is supposed to be the most annoying guy in the world and fans getting fed up with him proves that he’s doing his job exactly right. Eventually New Day got the titles back and oh sweet goodness am I glad they did as the comedy is just excellent, much like their celebratory dance upon getting the titles back. This was a really fun match and probably should have opened the show.

Undertaker walked past Jon Stewart and Stephen Amell and had smoke following him. It’s not 1994 and Heaven help us if that’s what WWE thinks we should be doing again.

Rusev and Dolph Ziggler had a long TV match that ended in a double countout so we can have the mixed tag that they wanted to do instead. Ziggler and Lana have about as much chemistry as a history book, which makes the story odd as everyone else works pretty well together. If nothing else, Lana in the 80s jeans attire works very, very well so there’s something positive here. The match could have been on any given Raw though and that’s not good on Summerslam.

Next up was a very nice treat as Stephen Amell and Neville beat Stardust and King Barrett. This worked far better than I was expecting as you had Amell give one of the best performances of all time by a celebrity. It was clear that he wanted to be out there and was having a blast, while also showing off some awesome athleticism. You would think Amell would pin Stardust here but there are rumors that another match might take place, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. However, why bother having Stardust take a fall when Barrett can instead?

The Triple threat match for the Intercontinental Title was exactly what I was expecting: nothing great, a way for Ryback to look good, and short. This seemed like the match that was the most hurt by the lack of a match on the preshow as it didn’t even get six minutes. That being said, I’m really not sure how much more time would have helped here, as there was no reason for these guys to be fighting other than “I want your title!”

I’m assuming we’ll get Miz vs. Ryback for the title soon, because Ryback beating Miz in a non-title singles match in less than three minutes warrants a title match, since, as the Divas Champion would say the next night on Raw: “wins and losses don’t matter.” And WWE still has the nerve to wonder why no one watches their shows.

Jon Stewart and Paul Heyman traded lines. This was what you would expect.

The Shield guys beat the Wyatt Family in about what you would expect, minus the heel turn. This was done exactly as it should have been: as a fight instead of a match. These guys are capable of having a very hard hitting and energetic tag match so just let them do that instead of trying to make something into whatever it’s not supposed to be.

That being said, I never, in my entire life, need to see Roman Reigns and Luke Harper in the same ring again. Not even counting the tag matches, they had 40 minutes worth of singles matches in a month and almost all of them were the same. Factor in all the tags they’ve been in and my goodness. This may not have been the highest quality match, but it was a lot of fun.

Now we get to one of the major matches of the night. I’m not going to bore you with the details of the match (It’s John Cena vs. Seth Rollins for twenty minutes. You know the wrestling itself is going to be good) because this is all about the ending. For reasons that are much easier to comprehend than they seem on the surface, Jon Stewart came in and attacked Cena with a chair (after the required ref bump of course), costing Cena the match and the US Title.

I didn’t get this one at first but it became very clear the next night on Raw, which I’ll get to when I look at that show gain. That being said, gah. I knew something wacky was coming but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. I like the idea of Rollins holding the title though, as he had to vanquish Cena at some point to legitimize his reign. This was basically fighting to a draw until Stewart came out though, and that’s the best possible thing for Rollins at this point. Heck of a match too, as you had to expect.

So then we got to the nightly “THE BELLAS ARE AWESOME AND EMPOWER WOMEN” segment of the night, which makes whatever feminist there is in me cringe more every time they speak. PCB beat the other two teams in another match that means absolutely nothing. Unfortunately this meant that we had to sit through the Bellas being in control for about eight minutes and the match just died.

The Bellas are very good at generating heat, but like the old villains of WCW, that all goes away as soon as the bell rings because they’re just so boring between the ropes. The match was begging for Sasha Banks, the crowd favorite by a mile, to come in and clean house, so of course she was on offense for about thirty seconds.

This was another moment that made me realize that the Divas Revolution isn’t going anywhere. It’s another way to feature the Bellas, who started their big story (kind of) a year ago at Summerslam. This is of course ignoring the stuff that led up to Nikki turning heel, meaning they’ve been the top story for roughly fifteen months now. It’s another Bellas story and that’s all it was really ever destined to be. As usual, WWE is great at creating false hope, but the fact that their fans are suckered into it every single time should be much more telling.

The next to last match was Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro, which was almost a no win situation. Owens got the pin, which is a good thing as far as him regaining some momentum, but the fact that he beat Cesaro a night after a brutal ladder match really doesn’t make Cesaro look good. That being said, Cesaro has gone from red hot to just Cesaro again, because WWE is fine with treating him like a breakout star for a month and then using him to get someone else over time after time. You really have to expect it at this point and that’s sad.

Now we get to the main event, which is getting more talk than anything else, albeit only for the last thirty seconds. Instead of just talking about the ending, I’d like to talk a little bit about the match itself, which is being forgotten due to how messy the finish was. This match was what they wanted Wrestlemania XXX to be with the two guys just beating the tar out of each other. Well that and Undertaker’s head not being scrambled but I thought that was obvious.

I liked the match more than I was expecting to with the spot of Undertaker sitting up and laughing at Brock before they slugged it out on the mat being a major highlight. However, you could see that Undertaker was getting weaker and weaker out there and I really don’t need to see him trying to pull off one more miracle in one more match. Wrestlemania XXX was bad, Wrestlemania XXXI was passable, and this one was a borderline miracle. Just let it go, but you know we can’t do that because of how this match ended.

As I’m sure you know by now, Undertaker tapped out in the Kimura but the referee didn’t see it. Instead the timekeeper rang the bell, allowing Undertaker to hit Brock low (so much for selling the hold) and put on the Hell’s Gate to make Brock pass out. So yeah, this was a way to set up a third match, likely at Wrestlemania, because we need a trilogy because those are cool. It didn’t work in the HHH feud and I really don’t see it working here either, though this could be better. I’m beyond the point of caring about Undertaker though, as he already lost the Streak and now he’s tapped out. What’s his career worth now anyway?

So that’s Summerslam and my big takeaway from is is that people are talking about how the matches ended, now what the endings mean or lead to. The big stories have been the timekeeper and Jon Stewart, not Seth Rollins beating John Cena or what is likely going to be a featured match or maybe even the main event (Heaven help us). I liked the show well enough, but there’s just something about this show that makes me wonder what it accomplished. This felt like a big build to other shows, which isn’t what the second biggest show of the year should be about.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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I know it’s last minute but I needed to get this in before Takeover tonight or there’s really no point in doing it. We’re almost to Summerslam and it’s time for one last gasp to try to make Undertaker a heel against Brock as we’re in Brock’s hometown. Other than that we’re going to get the big go home promo from Cena which is destined to rock. Let’s get to it.

HHH and Stephanie opened things up with a commercial for Summerslam, which continues to show that these two are almost incapable of having a normal discussion of anything. Stephanie is WAY worse about it though as HHH seems like he could turn it off if he wanted, but Stephanie really does seem like this is the way she thinks. Couple that with the law stating that no one is ever allowed to get one over on her in any way shape or form and she can get really annoying in a hurry. She’s incredibly talented, but my goodness she can get annoying in a hurry.

Orton/Cesaro beat Owens/Sheamus in your standard Raw tag match. The ending seemed a bit botched as Owens was either too far away for the RKO or wasn’t ready to take it. The more I think about it, the more the former seems likely as the RKO isn’t exactly the hardest move in the world to take as you just have to fall on your face, which is about as standard of a move as there is. I’m sure Owens will get the blame for it anyway though as WWE is the kind of company where if you botch something, the best solution is to punish you for about a month instead of just forgetting about it and writing it off as a one off error.

The problem with the match was that it wasn’t very exciting. They basically chinlocked each other for about eight minutes and then did a few other things. Unfortunately there isn’t enough interest in either feud because we’ve seen them fight each other about a half dozen times in tag matches, because, as I spent a lot of time in the original review talking about, WWE currently has about four ways to build a feud with “tonight, it’s a must see tag match” being at the top of the list.

Undertaker says he’ll win on Sunday. Simple, to the point, and not eight minutes for the sake of talking for eight minutes because that’s how they do promos. Why can’t more people get this treatment? Like Orton for example. He can talk well enough, but he’s really, really not suited for the long winded promos like Cena and HHH. WWE really needs to understand that wrestling isn’t a one size fits all industry.

Rollins told the Authority he wants a statue if he wins on Sunday. Why do I have a feeling that’s the latest version of a trophy which must be destroyed?

Reigns beat Harper for the third time in the last month. This is in addition to the two tag matches they’ve been in against each other. Yeah the matches are entertaining, but there are other people you can use for these matches. Since July 20, and again omitting the tags, those two have spent a combined 40 minutes fighting each other on TV. Now I’m supposed to want to see them fight again in a featured match on pay per view, which is likely getting nearly 20 more minutes?

Think of it like this. I love Star Wars. It’s one of my favorite movies and I’ve seen it more times than I can count. That being said, if I watched it three times in a month, I’d probably start getting bored with it. Yeah Reigns vs. Harper is normally entertaining, but how many times can I watch Harper do his power stuff and then eat a spear for the pin? Mix that stuff up a little bit, especially when you have the roster you have on tap. Let them squash people and then cut promos instead. You get two matches and talking. I’m sure that could eat up the fifteen minutes instead of “dang these two AGAIN?”

Becky Lynch beat Tamina in a lame match. I’ll get into this more later (as I have way too often lately), but there’s no reason for the Divas to be fighting at the moment.

Speaking of overdone matches, Rusev made Mark Henry tap to the Accolade. Just stop with this. It wasn’t really that interesting at its peak, and it hasn’t been interesting whatsoever in the three times Henry has been squashed by Rusev in August alone. Like I said, when WWE gets an idea stuck in their head, that’s all you’re going to see for a long time.

Post match Ziggler returned to save Lana, giving us more of some of the worst chemistry in history. The pairing doesn’t work, so we’re stuck with it for the time being. Remember those WE WANT LANA chants from before? Notice that they’re gone when she’s with Ziggler? Well apparently WWE wants it that way, likely because Lana isn’t on Total Divas.

So I know I harp a lot on WWE repeating things. It seems there’s something to that as they reaired the same Undertaker vs. Lesnar video from last week. I get that you can’t record some huge, epic package every week, but you couldn’t grab a camera and get some fresh interviews with people talking about the match?

Ryback beat Miz in a preview for Sunday. I’m never a fan of having a challenger lose clean (or in any way really) to the champion before a title shot and I didn’t like it here. Have Miz walk out or something, but don’t have him get pinned in a short match.

Now we get to one of the biggest stories of the night with the contract signing (that would be the other big idea creative uses) between John Cena and Seth Rollins. I covered most of this in the column this week, but I didn’t mention Cena and Rollins both acknowledging that Rollins is basically HHH’s son in this whole story.

The sooner they get away from this, the much better Rollins will be for it. The idea that Rollins, who is the World Champion, is about half way to being a HHH tribute (note that I said halfway. This could be WAY worse, like with AJ Styles and Ric Flair in early 2010). Rollins is capable of being a huge star in the mold of a Jeff Hardy or Shawn Michaels but he has to stop and pay homage to HHH. Now I’d say it’s pretty clear that he’s going to go over HHH at some point, but they need to actually get to that point instead of having Rollins use the Pedigree, which is completely wrong for him. It’s fine for a payoff, but the road there is tough.

There was an eight man tag with the four teams in Sunday’s match. The good guys won.

Stardust and Barrett talked about their match on Sunday. I could go for these two as a regular team. It’s not like they have anything else going on.

Sasha Banks made Nikki Bella tap out in a non-title match. Not that this means anything of course and not that it’s likely to be mentioned again after Sunday of course. Since Sasha made Nikki tap, there was no mention of a title shot anytime soon. I’m so fed up with this non-story and I really do think it would have been better to hold off on the Revolution until after Summerslam. If nothing else it means Banks isn’t likely to be champion anymore (not that you would know she is because it might affect the Bella brand, which is TOTALLY a thing) and you can focus on chasing the Divas Title, which will finally be in season. Enough of this though, as I’m running out of things to complain about with the story.

Speaking of running out of things to say, Heyman is getting close to that point with the Undertaker vs. Lesnar rematch. This time he opted for singing hymns about Brock, which led to Undertaker coming out again and kicking Lesnar low. As usual, WWE only knows one or two ways to put together a story and if that means doing some of the most nonsensical things they can come up with to get to face Lesnar vs. heel Undertaker, so be it.

That’s the big summary of WWE’s issues: instead of booking to suit the talent, they plug the talent into formulas they may not fit into because that’s how they run the shows. Undertaker isn’t working as this heel they want him to be, so they’re likely going to keep pushing it until we get the third match in a trilogy at Wrestlemania, because WWE loves itself some trilogies, for Undertaker’s retirement match. The segment was good until the Undertaker completely went away from his character, but that’s how things work in WWE. At least the writers got what they wanted out of it and if we don’t like it, that’s on us I guess.

Overall this wasn’t a great show, but it set up Summerslam well and sold me on the main events. I’m not wild on how they’re going about Undertaker vs. Lesnar, but the match has the potential to be an awesome brawl. That is of course unless they have to protect Undertaker, which is more than understandable as Cena could barely survive that kind of a beating. I’m sold on the upper card, but that midcard stuff is going to need one heck of a coupon to get me on board.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Finally, make sure to check out the Wrestling Bundle, which wraps up Sunday August 23 at midnight EST. Here are the details:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2015/08/16/the-wrestling-bundle/

So here’s the thing: I really don’t think this show warrants a full on Reviewing the Review. It’s a stand alone show that is built around the drama of “Will Cena be at Summerslam or not.” Well now we know the answer to that question, I really don’t see the need to go through the entire show when nothing major happened and it was built around building to Summerslam, most of which is already set in stone. There were a few interesting things on the show which I’ll cover here, but this won’t be a step by step version of the show, as it would really be a big waste of your time.

Obviously the major story was Orton vs. Cesaro vs. Owens in a triple threat for a shot at the title later in the night, but I don’t think the ending was ever in any serious doubt. Orton winning makes the most sense as he only has a minor story going on right now and you can easily put him in a title match, have him lose, and suffer no harm. Both matches were good, but the Sheamus interference was obvious from the second Orton pinned Cesaro.

There was a long video on Lesnar vs. Undertaker. It went well enough, but there were better ways to set up the match than the 123^rd version of “yeah the Streak was amazing and I didn’t think anyone would ever break it but Brock did and it was amazing” from a bunch of midcarders.

Miz, Ryback and Daniel Bryan did some stuff. It’s as riveting as it sounds but I like Ryback more and more every week.

Neville beat King Barrett in a minute and twenty seconds before setting up the tag match with Stepen Amell at Summerslam. I like the idea of Amell in there as he’s in great shape and looks like an athlete, but the Barrett squash just killed me. Bring up someone from NXT for that spot if it’s going to be so short, but find SOMEONE else to take a quick beating like that. It doesn’t accomplish anything and I really don’t want to see Barrett at Summerslam now.

So yeah, Raw was good this week and most of the stuff didn’t need any further discussion. Summerslam is looking great and the final go home show should offer a bit more to talk about.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Finally, make sure to check out the Wrestling Bundle, which wraps up Sunday August 23 at midnight EST. Here are the details:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2015/08/16/the-wrestling-bundle/

We’re in Summerslam mode now and it’s very fun to see where things are going. You can see most of the card now and I’m actually liking the card that is being presented so far. Last week was about Cena vs. Rollins, so now it’s time to focus on the other main event, assuming Cena can actually go for the pay per view. It’s an Undertaker vs. Lesnar night though so let’s get to it.

The show opened the only way it could have, as we had a ten bell salute to Roddy Piper. He deserves every tribute he receives, including people wearing Piper shirts all night and throwing some Piper lines into some promos. I have no issue with any of this whatsoever and it made me smile all night long. I’ll miss Piper quite a bit as his talking is as great as anyone ever could have been and his promos should be homework for any wrestler today.

Seth Rollins, in a NEVER SHUTS UP shirt, opened the show and we got our first handful of roughly 1839 viewings of Cena’s nose being busted open last week. Rollins has the idea of a match vs. Cena at Summerslam with both titles on the line, but if Cena can’t show up, he can just forfeit the title instead.

I’m not a fan of title vs. title matches, but since Rollins has made it clear that he doesn’t care about the US Title, why not let him cost Cena the title so someone can get the win over Cena while also keeping Cena look strong going forward? The match will be fine, but I’d rather it just be a regular World Title match for the sake of the US Title going forward.

As for tonight, Rollins is issuing an open challenge of his own, but the opponent has to be under 6’0 and weigh under 200lbs. The idea was that it would be El Torito, but Neville came out for a good match instead. This was a better match than I was expecting with some awesome false finishes, including Neville hitting the Red Arrow but Rollins got the foot on the ropes. Rollins wound up winning with the Pedigree and it still doesn’t work for him. He’s a fast paced, high flying wrestler and then he stops to use that kind of a move for the sake of his daddy figure. This was a solid match and did you really expect anything else?

New Day and Ascension beat Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons. This is completely different than when the opposite happened on Smackdown, because this match actually matters and is likely going to lead to New Day getting the shot at Summerslam. They seem to be building to a multi-team match, which could be interesting if they did it right, which means it isn’t likely to be all that interesting.

Charlotte/Becky Lynch beat the Bellas when Nikki tapped out to the Figure Eight. As I’ve covered about a dozen times already, none of this is going to matter until we get to September when Nikki can actually lose the title. My guess is there’s a big tag match at Summerslam because we haven’t seen enough of them lately. As long as we don’t get the rumored Divas Tag Team Titles, as that would be one of the worst ideas WWE has had in a very long time, which is covering a lot of ground. They’re not needed and would just be another trophy for the Bellas, which is why we’re likely getting them so Nikki can be a Triple Crown Champion or whatever.

Paige and Naomi set up a match for later with Naomi calling out Ronda Rousey. I doubt it leads anywhere, but imagine the reaction if she actually shows up and just destroys one of them one night.

MizTV started with Miz saying none of this would be happening without Piper’s Pit. Simple, true, classy, and a moment that gave me a genuine smile. The guests were Owens and Cesaro, who argued about the merits of actually winning something vs. walking out all the time. Cesaro wanted to fight then and there but Owens bailed again. Cesaro is looking like a star, but both guys need the win at Summerslam. I’m not sure who is winning though and that’s the best feeling in wrestling.

Rusev squashed Mark Henry with superkicks instead of the Accolade, which is nice for a change.

Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Sheamus were ready for the main event. Sheamus kind of fit with this group, but it felt far more like the presentation than Sheamus itself.

King Barrett squashed Zack Ryder. It’s not much, but it’s better than Barrett losing all of his matches before winning the rematches. I’ll take small victories where I can get them.

Paul Heyman came out for his big speech about Undertaker. I think you can fill in the details yourself, but the highlights saw Heyman reading last rites to Undertaker and saying that this match is bigger than Wrestlemania. That’s a great line that makes you feel how big the match really is, and I bought the whole thing. I’m not wild on the match happening and I don’t really want to see either guy win (though Brock should) but the idea is solid.

Paige beat Naomi with the PTO in an average match. There isn’t much else to say here.

Arrow’s Stephen Amell will be here next week to face off with Stardust. This could be really cheesy, but Amell is in great shape and looks tough so it won’t be a disaster if they treat it well.

Ambrose and Reigns are all out of bubblegum. That gave me another smile.

Ambrose, Reigns and Orton beat Sheamus, Wyatt and Harper in every main event six man tag you’ve ever seen. I’m kind of digging these six man main events to close the show, but it doesn’t give me a ton of incentive to stick around until the end of the show if there’s nothing big to build towards. At least the matches have been at least ok.

Overall, this was another moving day episode as most of the card can be figured out or has already announced, so it’s time to make the fans want to see those matches. They’ve done a solid job of keeping the matches from being obvious, which is a really good sign going into the second biggest show of the year. Summerslam looks good on paper, but they’ve got two more Raw’s to mess it up.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Uh…..I really don’t have much of an intro here. We’re coming up on Summerslam and this is one of the Raw’s on the way there. Let’s get to it.

The big opening talking segment was, of course, the Authority and Seth Rollins. The idea of this one was to make Raw a night of first, including Big Show vs. Dean Ambrose. In the words of Jon Stewart, let me stop you right there. Much like a lot of these first time EVER matches, just because it’s never happened before doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. I mean, we could have Blake from NXT come up and fight Hornswoggle. IT’S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE so that makes it cool right? I don’t know of anyone who would go out of their way to see Big Show vs. Ambrose, nor do I see a lot of fans being happy with the outcome.

Other than that, we’re also getting, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER SO YOU KNOW IT’S AWESOME: Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton, Paige vs. Sasha Banks (well for the first time on Raw at least) and Alicia Fox/Nikki Bella vs. Becky Lynch/Charlotte. In other words we have “man Owens gets to lose again?”, “that could be good” and “well at least we have something to look at.” This is their big solution for the ratings being so far down?

Finally, Rollins ran his mouth for a long time until Cena came down and thought he should get a title shot against Rollins for the first time ever on Raw. HHH thought it was a great idea but made it a US Title shot instead, which pretty much sealed the winner, or at least who was walking out with the title, as soon as the words were out of his mouth. We’ll come back to the match later for a change, but the talking segment took too long to get to the point.

Big Show beat Dean Ambrose via countout, with the idea being that Ambrose kept fighting but couldn’t put Big Show down. I like the plan, but Big Show has lost to people like Miz recently. So Miz is tougher/smarter than Ambrose? I don’t know of anyone who would buy that but it’s what we’re supposed to believe now?

In theory they’re building up Big Show for someone, but they could have given anyone a rub with the same ending. Ambrose looks weaker than usual by comparison but we’re supposed to cheer him anyway because Dean is bulletproof, which WWE interprets as loss proof. Dean sidestepping a post match spear was supposed to make up for it or something but as is so typically the case, it doesn’t work like WWE thinks it does.

Neville beat Fandango and listened to Stardust rant about saving the WWE Universe from false hope. The more I see of this feud the more I like it, but I have a bad feeling they won’t get enough time at Summerslam. You know, the FOUR HOUR show.

Paige and Sasha traded some insults before Sasha made Paige tap clean. This was a solid, long match with some arm work for a story, but more important than anything else, the match felt important. I wanted to see where it was going instead of having two girls out there to waste everyone’s time. That’s a major step forward and a completely new way to look at the division.

Rusev gave Summer Rae a dog named Ziggler and a fish with no head. Lana came out, beat Summer up and shoved her face into the fish. I really don’t think this needs any further explanation.

The Lucha Dragons beat Los Matadores as the Prime Time Players were on commentary. This was little more than an excuse to have the New Day come out, though it seems to set up a multi-team title match at Summerslam. The idea is fine, but again it makes last week’s loss look like a waste of time.

Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper did a long in ring promo where they talked about Harper coming home. Since this was Wyatt though, it took him five minutes to get to the point, even though we knew the point in the first place. It was still effective though and you can feel the old Wyatt vibes coming back. Now, that being said, none of it matters if the Wyatts are treated like jobbers all over the place, especially Bray himself.

Becky Lynch/Charlotte beat Nikki Bella/Alicia Fox in a match taking place FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER when Lynch made Fox tap. As usual, there was nothing of note involving Nikki because she isn’t the longest reigning Divas Champion yet and therefore nothing can happen, at least not until there’s roughly a week before the record is broken.

Kevin Owens and Randy Orton had a pretty lame match until Sheamus came in for the DQ. Owens is pretty firmly in that transitional period between main eventer and midcard but you can see him trending down. Cesaro came in for a save but ate a powerbomb, likely setting up a tag match at some point in the near future. There’s nothing wrong with combining two feuds into one.

The big main event was a good fight between Cena and Rollins where Cena retained the US Title. They beat each other up and put on an entertaining match as you would expect, but of course the story here is John Cena’s nose, which pretty much erupted due to a knee to the face.

The big question now is whether Cena is going to be back for Summerslam. They never actually announced Cena vs. Rollins for the pay per view, but at least there’s an easy reason why Cena isn’t fighting. Everyone say the nose and it was hardly something you could hide. Keep Cena off TV until Summerslam if you can, but if you can’t……I’m really not sure what you do. Make Undertaker vs. Lesnar a triple threat with Rollins for the title I guess, because there aren’t a lot of other options, unless you throw Orton out there again. I mean, it’s not like you can give someone new a shot right?

This show was a copy of last week’s but with Cena and Rollins in Lesnar and Undertaker’s places. They’re both one idea shows with some midcard stuff thrown in, and that’s all these shows should have been. The main event and what should be the other main event assuming Cena can breathe by then are both set and you can build the rest of the card from here. It’s one of those shows where you knew what was going to happen from the opening bell but there’s nothing wrong with that. Good, effective show this week.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011T13PV4

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

This is going to be an interesting one as I was up late watching Battleground and had to leave to get on a plane about half an hour after the show ended. I saw the whole show, but I had a lot on my mind at the time. Now that I’ve had some time to think about the show, my opinions on if have shifted a bit. Let’s get to it.

Starting on the pre-show, King Barrett retained the Crown against R-Truth. Oh sweet goodness I hated this feud, I hated this match and I hated how Barrett was treated during the whole thing. Yeah Barrett won, but that’s like giving someone a sticker for not getting arrested this week: it’s exactly what he was supposed to do and not something he really should be praised for doing. I don’t know what WWE’s obsession is with treating Barrett like a joke but I’m hoping (yet again) that they’ll treat him seriously this time around.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus was interesting, which goes against the main thing holding it back: the match didn’t change anything. Orton won, but would it really have been different if Sheamus won? No one has anything to lose and Orton is just kind of floating with nothing to do. I don’t want to see these two fight again because it’s not that interesting. Both guys were fine in the ring and the match was a good choice for an opener with the hometown boy winning, but there was nothing important here.

However, there is something interesting about how the match was worked. They definitely picked up the pace in the second half, but it felt like a long TV match minus the commercial instead of a pay per view match. It’s very telling that they’re basically working pay per view style matches on TV today, which takes away from something like this. You can see that they rarely change from the same formula, and that’s something that makes pay per views feel a lot less special. Anyway, good match but nothing I’m ever going to think of again.

After a recap of Stephanie’s awesomeness, Stephanie made a triple threat between a member of each Divas trio later. I’ve ranted enough about Stephanie hijacking this story to stroke her own ego, but can we at least make it clear if she’s a face or a heel? She associates with the heel, but does face things when she’s on her own and we’re just supposed to accept it because this is the REAL Stephanie as opposed to the Authority Stephanie. Or do I have that backwards?

The Prime Time Players beat New Day to retain the Tag Team Titles in another Raw match. The only thing of note here was Xavier Woods being an obnoxious jerk during the match, making him more entertaining than he had ever been. The Players are fine as champions, but New Day has the potential to be one of those long running acts in the midcard that stays entertaining with or without ever doing much. That’s a good thing, and given that the oldest member is Kofi at 33, it’s not like they have to rush anything. Let these guys grow into something special instead of just breaking them up after a few months.

Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns beat each other up for a long time until Luke Harper reunited with Wyatt to give him the win. This was the old school HIT EACH OTHER REALLY HARD style and these two nailed it as you kind of knew they would. It seems like we’re heading for a showdown with the Wyatts vs. Ambrose/Reigns, which is probably the best idea all around. Wyatt has been floating for a bit so putting him back with the guy that helped make him the biggest he’s ever been is a good idea.

Sasha Banks, Charlotte had a good match with Brie Bella in there too. The idea here was to let the two newcomers show off but they have to make it a three way to play up the three way feud that Stephanie has graced us with. They did a good job of keeping Brie away from the action and that’s the right move here as Brie just can’t keep up with these two. However, the stuff she did was acceptable as they kept it in small doses. There’s nothing wrong with that as Brie isn’t great in the ring, but she’s certainly passable and that’s a much better result than some of the disasters the Divas have had before.

This was meant to be a big showcase and it didn’t get there, but it was certainly good, which is a step in the right direction. Once we can get past praising Stephanie for setting this up and giving them a fighting chance to get the title off Nikki, things could pick up. I dig the idea though and they worked the match the best way they could have, which gives me a lot of hope for the future.

Oh and screw Cole’s “TEAM BELLA IS MORTAL!” line when Brie tapped out. They’re the Bellas, not Moolah in the 80s. Then they’re faces on Raw because……well because they’re the Bellas.

Now we get to the big match of the night as John Cena defended the US Title against Kevin Owens in their rubber match. This is the most controversial match of the show and while I started absolutely hating it, the more I think about it, and after I heard Owens’ promo on Smackdown this week, the more I can live with it. Yes Owens tapped out, but as he said on Smackdown, it’s his nature to live to fight another day. It came off more as Owens saying it’s not worth it anymore so he’ll just fight Cena again later.

However, the tap out came after Owens survived every single thing Cena threw at him, including the super AA, which, as far as I can remember, no one has ever kicked out of before. I would have gone the other way with it: Owens survives the STF and then goes down to the super AA, putting him on a short list of Cena opponents.

At the end of the day though, Owens debuted about two months ago, went 1-2 against Cena in three classics, and is going to have an awesome match against Cesaro at Summerslam. That’s quite the debut, but as usual I think it’s a case of people (myself included) wanting someone to go straight to the top after they did the same in NXT. I loved what Owens did and while I would have loved to see him take the title, I understand why they went the way they did.

Big Show punched Miz out because Ryback has a staph infection. There wasn’t much else they could do here.

Finally we had Brock Lesnar challenging Seth Rollins for the World Title. Much like the opener, this was basically a Raw match with Brock beating him up for nine minutes and then Undertaker showing up to get his revenge on Brock for breaking the Streak a year and a half ago. Keeping the title on Rollins makes sense here, but I really didn’t like how they made him look like an afterthought. That’s the World Heavyweight Champion, not Santino. Treat both him and the title with the respect they deserve. On top of all that though, it looked like they were trying to make Undertaker heel, and if that’s the case they’re stupider than I thought.

Overall, Battleground exceeded some very low expectations and kept up the WWE’s streak of having good pay per views. There was nothing that blew me away, but the show as a whole was entertaining enough and the whole show was more than acceptable. Now we get to go to Summerslam though, where things can get really big for a change.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of NXT Reviews: The Full Sail Years Volume I at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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