Following a disappointing Money in the Bank pay-per-view, WWE brought us Monday Night Raw live from Hartford, CT. The show was packed with plenty of news from big returns to main event announcements to injury updates. Let’s get right to it.
The Champ is in the Authority’s Crosshairs
After winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (again) at the MITB PPV, John Cena was brought out by the Authority for a big announcement. The Authority seemed to be in a good mood, with Stephanie McMahon even dancing along to Cena’s theme music. Seriously.
After showing plenty of disappointment (right.) in Cena winning the title during MITB, the Authority was all smiles in welcoming the now 15-time Champ. Once Cena made his way to the ring, he was given the great news: John Cena will be gracing the cover of 2k Sports WWE 2K15!
For his part, while excited Cena was still a bit hesitant to accept all of the sudden praise being bestowed upon him by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. As it turned out, he did so with good reason.
Triple H let Cena know that his title reign could be easy or difficult, depending on how he dealt with the Authority. After letting Trips know he would not be in their back pocket like Randy Orton and Kane, Hunter decided to let Cena know just how that decision would affect his immediate future. Triple H went on to announce that at BattleGround next month, Cena would be defending his titles in a Fatal Four Way match against Kane, Randy Orton and Roman Reigns.
Needless to say, Cena was not exactly thrilled by the news. Hunter went on to let Cena know that in the night’s main event he would be teaming up with Reigns to take on Orton and Kane. What a way to kick off the show.
Returns, returns and more returns.
An interesting theme from last night’s Raw was that of returning superstars. Earlier in the day, Triple H tweeted out a hint that we would be seeing the return of a former WWE Champion in Hartford.
Coming off of #MITB, let's keep the momentum going. Tonight a #WWE Champion returns on #RAW…
— Triple H (@TripleH) June 30, 2014
Once it was time to see who the returning superstar was, fans were disappointed to see the return of none other than the Miz. The Awesome One took to the ring to let fans know that despite their lack of belief in him, he would not be leaving and would be back in the main event scene.
Miz continue to lecture the crowd before the lights suddenly went out, and a familiar entrance theme began to play throughout the arena.
“BREAK THE WALLS DOWN!”
Chris Jericho made his triumphant return, interrupting the Miz much to the relief of the crowd. After hitting Miz with a Code Breaker, Jericho finally began to address the crowd in his triumphant return. And then, a familiar scene unfolded as the lights cut out in the arena.
The Wyatt Family appeared to deliver a brutal beatdown to Jericho. A Chris Jericho-Bray Wyatt feud? Sign me all the way up.
Miz and Jericho weren’t the only stars to return on Monday night however. The Great Khali finally made his return (I know you’ve been waiting) and took out Damien Sandow in a match about as long as this sentence.
And lastly, perhaps the biggest return and surprise of the night. With WWE Divas Champ Paige out addressing the crowd, she was interrupted by none other than the returning AJ Lee. After some back and forth between the two, Paige accepted a rematch against Lee for the Divas title, only to be shocked by a quick roll-up that gave AJ back the Divas title she had lost three months ago. Lee got quiet the pop from the crowd upon her return while Paige was all but forgotten. Could a heel turn be coming for the young Diva?
Bad News for Barrett
It wasn’t all fun on Monday night however. After separating his shoulder during Smackdown last week, it was announced that Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett would be out for multiple months following surgery. This is terrible timing for Barrett, who sees yet another massive push derailed by an untimely injury. Here’s hoping the Brit can get back in the ring in no time.
As for the now-vacant Intercontinental title, a new champion will be crowned at BattleGround as there will be a battle royal to determine who takes home the strap. With names like Ambrose, Cesaro, Rollins and others likely to compete for the belt, this should be one fun match.
Jack Swagger: Defender of Freedom
After defeating Big E (again) at Money in the Bank, Rusev and Lana came out looking for a new challenge for the Super Athlete. What they didn’t expect was the appearance of the Real American Jack Swagger and his manager Zeb Colter.
For months, Swagger has been a heel looking to take out any and all mid-carders in the WWE. But as is often the case with a catchy go-to phares, Swagger and Colters “We The People!” caught on with the WWE crowd. When such things happen, it’s only right for the company to turn the heel into a hero and that is exactly what happened Monday night.
After Lana told Rusev to back out of the ring and away from the challenge, the Super Athlete decided to attack Swagger anyways and ate a few arm-drags for his troubles. Rusev retreated into the back and Swagger stood tall to end the segment. This is an interesting development for Swagger, who actually received a big pop and could possibly have found something interesting here with his character.
Reigns Stands Tall
Our main event featured all four participants in the BattleGround main event later this month as John Cena teamed with Roman Reigns to take on Randy Orton and Kane. Like most tag-team main events, it was a back and forth affair that saw all four participants given an opportunity to showcase their skills.
Reigns, as has been the case for weeks now, shined throughout the main event. As things broke down in the ring, Reigns and Orton brawled into the back, leaving Cena vulnerable to a beating from Kane. With Triple H watching from ringside, Kane attacked Cena with steel steps before planting the Champ in the middle of the ring with a Tombstone piledriver. The move appeared to knock Cena out cold.
As WWE medical personnel tended to Cena, Triple H made his way to the ring to see what had happened. In the middle of all of this, Trips signaled to the back for Seth Rollins to make his way out and cash in his Money in the Bank contract! Amid a huge pop and disbelief from the crowd, Rollins attempted to cash in while WWE officials tried to prevent the match from happening as Cena was incapacitated.
While Rollins waited on the officials, Dean Ambrose made his way out to give Rollins a beatdown yet again. Earlier in the night, Ambrose promised Rollins that every time he attempted to cash in Dean would be there to thwart the attempt.
!!DEAN AMBROSE CRAZY EYES ALERT!!
Just a few hours later Ambrose would fulfill his promise, costing Rollins the opportunity to steal the belts.
Once the cash-in attempt was stopped, a clearly frustrated Triple H decided to instead have more punishment inflicted on the prone Cena. Kane grabbed a steel chair and clearly had evil intentions on his mind as he made his way towards the injured Champ. But before the Demon was able to make things worse, Reigns burst back into the ring and delivered a massive spear and “OOOO-WAAAHHHHH!” scream to make the save.
With all the chaos inside and out of the ring, the only two men remaining standing were Reigns and Triple H. As new-school stood tall in the ring staring down the Authority’s head man standing on the outside, the COO began to make his retreat rather than confront the WWE’s newest star, and that’s how we went off the air.
It appears as though we are headed for an eventual Roman Reigns-Triple H clash at Summerslam or Night of Champions, and their segment to close the show should be a good way to kick things off. Reigns is being shown in a very favorable light, with Triple H himself scared to confront Reigns.
The moment was actually pretty cool to be a part of. It was as if the past and future of the company were staring each other down, kickstarting a feud that likely will eventually see the torch passed to Reigns.
That’s all for this weeks Raw Recap, as always #PUSHZIGGLER!