I meant to do it last night but I fell asleep. Ho hum. Anyways, let’s get right into it shall we?
Sheamus def. Dolph Ziggler
This had a much better flow than their Extreme Rules let-down. I saw some great back and forth between the two, some nice near falls. I’m assuming the blood from Ziggler wasn’t from a blade job so that was an added bonus. I was on the record saying that this match can steal the show and while it didn’t accomplish that it was the perfect bout to get the crowd warmed up for the rest of the festivities for the night. I assume these two will be in the Elimination Chamber so I don’t think the door is officially closed on this feud, but this match was solid to the max. ***1/2
A New Datd (C) def. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro – WWE Tag Team Championship (2 out of 3 Falls)
Did I not mention how much I love these two teams? In case I didn’t, watch their Extreme Rules match. I will disregard the botch that occured at the end of the second fall, but irregardless, what a match. These two have incredible chemistry. I especially loved Xavier telling the referee the Freebird rules apply, and since A New Day have been utilizing that loophole, of course they raise a valid point. Now I wanted the third fall to have a bit more action in it and the finish came out of nowhere, but it was a perfect finish if your the New Day. I will yield back on making any comments on how the ref didn’t notice that it was Woods making the cover and not Kingston because they’re all, you know…Anyways, great match, and it will be interesting to see where the tag titles goes when inside the Elimination Chamber. ***3/4
Bray Wyatt def. Ryback
The only thing I wanted from this match was for it to be kept short, because I was expecting a snooze fest and that’s what I got. Props to Wyatt for throwing caution to the wind with that senton from the edge of the ring, but that seemed kind of dangerous cause he is a big man. The match had some few good spots towards the end but nothing that I would vastly recommend. I still don’t even know what the basis is for this feud yet WWE found the time to make a video package for it? Ryback is supposed to be a role model because he overcame a broken ankle and Wyatt does on long monologues about Lord knows what and we have a feud? Whatever. **
John Cena (C) def. Rusev – United States Championship (I Quit Match)
I wanted to quit this match after 10 minutes. It started out slow with basic moves and it seemed after every damn suplex Chioda asks if Cena or Rusev wants to quit. Yet the crowd thought all of that was awesome? That’s a joke. The match picked up some steam towards the end despite the tables refusing to sell to them (or to anyone that night) ,but I can’t believe they had to copy the Randy Orton pyro-technics spot from their Iron Man match at Bragging Rights 2009. There just wasn’t anything over the top brutal that would make me believe that they would say the magic words. Not to mention, um, the match was far too long. It’s one thing to drag a match out for the sake of trying to be more barbaric, but there was empty garbage minutes where literally nothing would happen. Oh, and that ending. HA! Rusev after the match told Lana to “Get out”. We’ve seen Rusev speak English before. I’m pretty damn sure Rusev can say those words if he wanted to. Yet Lana takes the mic and quits on his behalf, which I assume is the modern day version of throwing in the towel. That was so beyond whacky. For all the time that lagged on in this match, we deserved a much, much better finish. For all intents and purposes, and considering thea mount of time they got, this, in my opinion, was mediocore. **1/4
Neville def. (CO) King Barrett
My only assumption is that they gave Neville a countout victory to protect Barrett, but at this point in Barrett’s career and how he has been booked, what exactly is the point in protecting him? Especially on PPV? Considering Barrett still ate a Red Arrow after the match, I don’t understand why we couldn’t get a damn finish to the match. We got some good action in the limited time they had, with Neville carrying the match with his amazing acrobatic skills, but shame on me for thinking that this match had the potential to be a show-steal had it been given enough time. If there is one thing I do not like, it is matches on PPV that build up for future matches. We need to have a resolution to the match right then and there. You’d think WWE would make up for its blunder in the previous match. **
Tamina Snuka and Naomi def. The Bella Twins
This match was pointless, and it should have been for the Divas title. This was your typical RAW match but if anything, it showed how lousy a worker Tamina is. Just because he is related to a WWE legend doesn’t mean the apple won’t fall far from the tree. Naomi pinned the champion, so my assumption is we will see a match between the two for the belt. As for this match, nothing to see here. Moving on. 1/2*
Seth Rollins (C) def. Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton and Roman Reigns – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
WWE didn’t even remotely try to hide the fact that Kane and J +J would be interfering. Hell, they didn’t even wait until the end of the match. I thought all of the extracurricular activity was too much to begin with and that it completely ruined the flow of the match. Fortunately, we still received some great moments. The best of all being the Shield triple powerbomb that made me shed a tear. We had some nice near falls, great action overall, and I want to rate this match highly so badly. But Kane’s irrelevant ass had to get jammed into the main event once again and it prevented it from being better. Didn’t he say he was into politics? Why doesn’t he go and run with Rand Paul or something? I can get behind Rollins using the pedigree, but if he’s going to do it, he shouldn’t botch it badly like he did last night. The main event could have definitely used some more time as there was a good seven minutes left before the strike hit 11. Shave off 5-10 minutes from that Cena/Rusev match and we could have had one doozy of a finish for the amain event. Call it great, but not awesome. ****
Conclusion:
A four star main event, and two other high quality matches gets a thumbs up from me but this is a show where I’d say the action was good but I would not watch it over again. Senseless booking decisions, awful finishes and predictable interference prevented this show from being great, but I say the in-ring action ever so slightly outweighed the negative tonight. So now we have two weeks to build to Elimination Chamber. Good luck with that. Until next time.
