In case you were living in a hyperbolic time chamber over the weekend, Seth Rollins completely blew out his right knee while attempting a sunset flip over the top rope. This puts him out of action for the next nine months, meaning a title defense at WWE Survivor Series 2015 quite unlikely. WWE stripped him of the championship and a tournament will be held to determine a new champion.
Who will step up to the plate and win it all? Or let’s just be real, who will Roman Reigns beat for the title?
Triple H comes out to start the show. The WWE title is on a pretty podium, looking all nice and shiny. Triple H goes over Seth’s injury and even though he’s the man, he has been stripped of the title. It creates an interesting scenario. He calls out Roman Reigns, who enters to a decent reaction. Triple H goes on a long spiel about how Roman Reigns was strongly considered to be The Authority’s hand-picked guy, but he lacked one thing that Seth Rollins had — do whatever it took to be at the top. And with Triple H, that meant doing everything he was told. Triple H gave Roman the offer again, mentioning earlier that it would be easier for Roman if this tournament being held was for the right to face him, that it was unfair for him to start all the way at the bottom again. Triple H put the title over his shoulder and asked him to consider his family when making this choice.
Roman said nothing was ever handed to him, and to take this offer and shove it. Triple H was perfectly fine with this, saying thanks for reminding me why I didn’t choose you, have fun being at the bottom again and brought out Big Show. My least favorite feud of the year, rekindled!
World Title Tournament, First Round: Big Show vs. Roman Reigns
Big Show used a lot of power spots because he’s a giant, in case the commentary hasn’t drilled this into your noggin. Big Show chokeslammed Reigns and was going for the punch, but Reigns countered with the Superman Punch and pinned him with a spear.
Moments from the careers of Undertaker and Kane aired including their debuts at Survivor Series 1990 and Badd Blood 1997, respectively.
Kevin Owens cut a pre-match promo saying that while British fans consider themselves the smartest, they’re actually the dumbest because they support a monarchy. Erm, okay? He promised that once he won the title, this truly would be the Kevin Owens show.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round
Kevin Owens vs. Titus O’Neil
Much of the match focused on Titus’ offense, he wasn’t terrible here, just there. Owens eventually countered him and gave him the Pop-Up Powerbomb for the win.
Paige interview. She compared Lynch to a rat and said she’ll take the B out tonight, then take out the C at Survivor Series. Oooh, you know what she mean by calling Charlotte a “C”. You know, crabapple. Right?
More Undertaker/Kane moments followed. They showed Undertaker winning the title in a shitty (literally) match against Sycho Sid at WrestleMania 13, then showed Kane cashing in his briefcase to pin Mysterio at Money in the Bank 2010. I forgot that a) Rey Mysterio was World Champion in 2010 and b) Kane won a Money in the Bank briefcase. They couldn’t show their first title wins, I guess because Undertaker beat Hogan to win his and Austin was a bloody mess when Kane won his.
Paige vs. Becky Lynch
The crowd popped for Paige’s entrance, but couldn’t be bothered to care once the match started. The two exchanged roll-up spots when Becky countered one of Paige’s and won the match.
Just to establish wins and losses don’t matter, Paige laid out Becky after the match and put her in the PTO on top of the announcer’s table. Charlotte came out to boos (and woos) and sent Paige reeling.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round
The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler
Miz focused much of the match on the bum leg of Ziggler. Miz appeared to be in firm control when Ziggler superkicked and pinned him.
Hey, more Undertaker and Kane footage! This time Undertaker came back from the dead at Survivor Series 2005 and laid out Randy Orton, while Kane and Daniel Bryan won the tag team titles, highlighted by Kane screaming “I AM THE TAG TEAM CHAMPION” at Daniel Bryan. I hated that dumb catchphrase.
They showed footage of Alberto Del Rio winning the US title. Keep in mind they’ve done absolutely nothing to explain John Cena’s absence.
Alberto Del Rio and Zeb Colter came out to cut a heel promo. They reiterated what MexAmerica was all about, then ran down England, saying Scotland didn’t want anything to do with them (didn’t they vote to stay in the UK?) and Germany tells them what to do. He won’t be surprised when one day Vladimir Putin is telling them what to do. They mention that del Rio will be competing on Smackdown in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament. They finish with a Viva MexAmerica! Is this going somewhere or are they just going to keep saying the same thing for the next two months?
Naomi vs. Natalya
The storyline here appears to hint towards Natalya breaking up Team BAD. On Twitter, Natalya was questioning who was the boss of Team BAD. Naomi didn’t fall for it. Natalya kept egging the crowd in doing “We Want Sasha” chants. Naomi accidently bumped into Tamina on the apron giving Natalya the roll-up win. How many finishes like this have we seen on Raw already? Who is agenting these finishes?
Sasha attacked Natalya after the match. She had a brief comeback with a Sharpshooter but Tamina laid her out and Sasha put her in the Bank Statement.
MORE Undertaker and Kane moments! The Undertaker and Edge wrestled in a Hell in a Cell match at SummerSlam 2008. Meanwhile, Kane and Lita married after Kane forced himself on Lita and got her pregnant or something. No, it doesn’t make any sense and yes, of course it was voted Wrestling Observer’s Worst Feud of 2004.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round
Cesaro vs. Sheamus
They showed footage of King Barrett, accompanying Sheamus, bad mouthing Wayne Rooney “during the commercial break”.
These two have pretty good chemistry regardless as this was a solid ***½ level match. Cesaro is just so good at everything, on a technical level there’s very few who can touch him on this roster. He did the Kazuchika Okada (NJPW) high dropkick spot as they brawled in the crowd. Sheamus made a comeback on the outside and started to mouth off to Rooney. Barrett told Sheamus that he’d handle this and started to mouth off at him as well. Rooney responded by effortlessly slapping Barrett. This distracted Sheamus, leading to Cesaro rolling him up in a lucha cradle for the win. Easily the best match on the show up to this point.
Tyler Breeze cut a promo before his match, saying that Ambrose’s ensemble is ugly. Summer Rae agreed. He then said after Survivor Series, he’d be the new face of WWE.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round
Tyler Breeze vs. Dean Ambrose
For what felt like the ten millionth time on this show, the finish was a phantom roll-up win. Again, Michael Cole says that he “stole this one”. Again, no. That is a perfectly legal move. It’s such a dumb line, please stop saying that. Great debut for Tyler Breeze too!
‘Taker/Kane moments, everyone! The Undertaker beat HHH at WrestleMania 29. Kane eliminated the most people at Royal Rumble 2001.
The New Day came out and Kofi mentioned that all members of the New Day were left out of the tournament. Kofi and crew mentioned laying out Cena and the Dudleys, then told the crowd to use their unicorn powers to send healing vibes to Seth Rollins. Xavier Woods than said European magic sucked, and Kofi said that Harry Potter sucked.
The New Day vs. The Usos and Neville
Neville had a great comeback and even did a corkscrew press to the floor before setting up for the Red Arrow. Kofi pushed him Neville the ropes, enabling Xavier to pin Neville, because you see, Neville had to lose in his home country. Why doesn’t anyone get over?
Bray Wyatt came out without his group. He says no torch has been passed, he used that torch to burn Kane and Undertaker into ashes. As their bodies rot, his grows stronger. The apocalypse is here, he says.
Suddenly, a Brothers of Destruction video aired. When it finished, the thunder and lightning went off. Wyatt was confused. Then the Undertaker’s music played to a massive reaction as he and Kane arrived. I guess they got back their souls from Lisa Simpson and ate them before coming to the ring. They were about to go after Wyatt when his men arrive. Kane and Undertaker take out Rowan and Harper easily but Strowman proves to be too much. Eventually, Undertaker and Kane take back control, sending Strowman over the table followed by a double chokeslam to Wyatt in the ring.
Final Thoughts: This was supposed to be a newsworthy show with the launch of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament but it ended up feeling like just another Raw.
Plug: This week’s Fire Pro Podcast is all about the news! We talk about Seth Rollins’ injury and how this relates to the WWE title at Survivor Series. My theory of Big Show as the top heel doesn’t seem to be the case, but my co-hosts Brad Ritcey and Dan Ford do have other theories. We also talk about the crazy Bellator matches coming up, including Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie fighting in 2016. Seriously. We cap it off with Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame fallout talk – we talk about who got in, who were surprised got in (and who didn’t) and so much more, only on the Fire Pro Podcast!
