With most of our rivalries for BattleGround all but set, WWE used Raw last night to further storylines and give the Champ a chance to redeem himself. Let’s take a look at what went down.
The Authority Dismantles The Beast
After being embarrassed by the returning Brock Lesnar last week, WWE Champion Seth Rollins had plenty of questions to answer on this week’s Monday Night Raw. None were more pressing than how Rollins would survive the Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar at Battleground in a few weeks. To answer that questions, the Champ set out to reunite the Authority and get some support behind him.
But first things first, we start off Raw with Brock Lesnar and his advocate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman…”
It’s been too long Paul. The Mouth officially introduces the Beast and reminds everyone why Lesnar was banned to begin with. Heyman says that he negotiated Lesnar’s return, and the biggest issue was an apology. Despite the crowd wanting ‘Suplex City’ instead, Heyman says that Lesnar has to apologize or he doesn’t get his rematch with Rollins. So Lesnar smiles and paces a bit before heading outside and apologizing to the commentary team. First he shakes JBL’s hand.
Okay that wasn’t too bad. Can’t blame JBL for being tense but hey seems like Lesnar respects him enough not to mess with him. Oh God, he’s going to break Cole in half though isn’t he? Nope looks like a pretty normal handshake…
NOOGIE! Poor Cole can’t catch a break. Lesnar isn’t done with him yet though.
He sits Cole down and pats him on the head like a little kid before saying sorry. That was… uncomfortable.
Once Lesnar is back in the ring, Heyman apologizes for what his client is going to do to Rollins at Battleground. Heyman basically says Rollins has a one-way ticket to Suplex City and the driver will be the past and future defending World Heavyweight Champion… BA-ROOOOCK LES-NARRRRRRR.
After the promo, Dean Ambrose comes out to face Kane in a singles match. Not much different than anything we’ve seen before, but Rollins makes his way out during the match to distract Ambrose. Mission Accomplished.
Ambrose ignores Kane and takes out Rollins with a suicide dive. He tries to climb the turnbuckle after but Rollins distracts him and allows Kane to hit this horrible chokeslam off the top rope.
A for effort I guess, but somehow this is enough for Kane to pick up the 1-2-3 and the win, with an assist from Rollins.
Backstage we see Rollins talking about helping Kane win and saying they should get the band back together. Kane calls out Rollins for just trying to even the odds against Lesnar, and walks away as Rollins tries to get a handshake. Ouch.
Later, we see J&J Security hanging out backstage when Rollins walks in and tries to reunite the group. Jamie Noble kills that idea by talking about how badly Rollins treats them, but the Champ responds that they’re family and that he’s their WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but like Kane, J&J Security just walks away from Rollins.
More backstage stuff and we see the Authority talking about Kevin Owens because of course they are Kevin Owens is amazing. Rollins comes in and complains about everyone bailing on him and that he’s broken the Authority bond by being selfish. Stephanie McMahon asks Rollins to apologize and he basically ignores the whole thing. Triple H cuts him off and says Rollins needs to cut the crap. Trips knows the Champ is afraid of Brock Lesnar and if he’s smart he’ll go to the ring and say the three magic words “I am sorry” to get the Authority back behind him.
Rollins hesitates because of what Lesnar might do, and the Authority basically tells him to do what he’s gotta do.
Apparently the entire main storyline is going on backstage as now we see J&J Security and Kane talking to the Authority and complaining about Rollins. Steph tells them he is the future of the WWE and asks them to just hear the Champ out.
FINALLY we get in the ring as Rollins comes out and admits he was wrong. He calls Kane and his old security team out so he can apologize to them individually. Rollins says this has nothing to do with Brock Lesnar and everything to do with family as ‘Suplex City’ chants break out. He kisses up to J&J Security and asks them to rejoin his family and then takes it to another level sucking up to Kane. Rollins says Kane is like a fine wine and then begs them to accept his apology and rejoin him, but they just continue to stand around.
Rollins sticks out his hand and HEY BROCK LESNAR IS HERE TO KILL EVERYONE!
Lesnar circles around the ring as Rollins hides behind everyone else, and when the Beast jumps on the apron, Kane/J&J Security bail so Rollins is left all alone to deal.
After a few seconds of playing possum, Kane and the J’s try to attack Lesnar and are promptly manhandled by the Beast.
Lesnar hits the ring and IT’S TIME FOR SOME SUPLEX CITY! Lesnar gets a hold of Rollins and starts tossing him around like a doll.
1….
2….
3…. and man is Rollins selling these like an absolute champ.
Unfortunately, we only get three before Kane gets involved to make the save and…. OH NOPE THERE’S #4!
Lesnar tries to F5 Rollins but Kane takes his leg out and the Authority begins attacking Lesnar’s knee. They wrap his leg around the post and start working on it with a chair and now Kane, Mercury and Rollins are all beating down Lesnar.
Kane hits the Beast with a chokeslam and then Rollins heads up top to inflict some damage of his own.
Kane hits another chokeslam and then Rollins picks up Lesnar with some help from his friends and hits the challenger with a Pedigree!
We go off the air with Rollins standing tall with his title over a beaten down Lesnar.
Oh man, I cannot wait for Brock to kill everyone next week!
Other Results:
Wyatt Gets in Reigns Head Again – Roman Reigns and Sheamus hooked up for what was pretty much an awesome brawl all over the place. Seriously, this is exactly what you want in a match between two of your strongest, most physical wrestlers. Both guys had some pretty hard-hitting moves, including this monster clothesline by Reigns.
It has to be said, Reigns is turning into an incredible wrestler. He’s doing less talking (thank you Wrestling Gods) and just showing off his ridiculous combination of athleticism and strength every match.
This one comes to an end when Wyatt appears on the Titantron at a kid’s tea party seemingly talking to a child. Reigns flips and runs to the back and eventually we see that Wyatt is talking to an empty chair. Reigns is looking for Wyatt when he walks into a dark room with a ton of pictures of himself on a wall surrounding the words ‘ANYONE BUT YOU’ which is all kinds of creepy.
I love where this is going. Wyatt is back to his creepiest and Reigns finally has an interesting rivalry that doesn’t feel forced down our throats.
Cena Promises to Kick Owens… – Everyone’s favorite person to boo John Cena hits the ring and talks about how proud he is to be the United States champion and yada yada yada same weekly shtick. Cena then says that Kevin Owens is all about opportunity and he talks about being powerbombed into the side of the ring, and Owens breaking Machine Gun Kelly in half and closes by saying Owens is a good wrestler but a terrible human being which, okay John.
Cena says he has a choice, to either accept Owens’ challenge for the U.S. title or say no. He says Owens knows what the title means to him and how embarrassed he’ll be if he loses and then starts talking about all the bad stuff that will happen if he says no before finally accepting the challenge.
Out comes Owens to save us all.
The NXT Champ says he doesn’t care about Cena’s opinion or anyone else’s for that matter, not at all. He says he’s been insulted through all of his career, but this “out of shape slob dirtbag” not only beat Cena at Elimination Chamber, he left him down at Money in the Bank. Cena cares about the fans, all Owens cares about is winning titles, and he wants the U.S. title. Owens then speaks in French to get himself some heat (well-played) before asking Cena if he wants in or not.
Cena calls him a disrespectful scumbag (woo 4th grade insults!) before speaking French and Chinese (?) and then accepting the challenge in his native tongue. Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s going to happen at Battleground, Cena has a hint for you.
English, French, Chinese and Sign Language. Good work Cena.
Big People Everywhere – Ryback took on Mark Henry in a typical match that you would expect between the two. The Intercontinental champ picks up the win and after the match Big Show, who was on commentary just for the hell of it, bullies Henry and then walks to the back and interrupts a Ryback promo.
While Ryback is talking about how he’ll beat Big Show and the Miz, and how he had to struggle for the IC title (and get his parents back together apparently), Show says he’s going to expose Ryback for being a fraud and the two brawl everywhere. Yawn.
Ziggler, Lana, Rusev… and Summer Rae? – Dolph Ziggler beats Adam Rose in a pretty quick match because apparently the more couples involved the better. Lana and Ziggler make out after and Rusev loses his crap throwing his crutch before we see Summer Rae pick it up and hand it to him so apparently they’re a thing now. I hate this storyline.
King Barrett Finally Gets on Track – After spending weeks losing to people he shouldn’t be losing to (R-Truth anyone?) King Barrett picks up a win in a squash match against Zack Ryder.
It’s Prime Time Playa! – The Prime Time Players get a win over the Ascension in what was actually not a terrible tag match. Darren Young hits the Gut Check for the 1-2-3.
Neville Gets Another W – Quick and exciting match between Neville and Kofi Kingston sees Neville pick up the win with a Red Arrow after the Prime Time Players and New Day were all sent to the back for being annoying to the ref.
The Bellas Are Running Out of Feuds – With Paige missing Raw last night, WWE decided to have the Bellas go against Naomi and Tamina and yeah. The Bellas got the win, but Naomi had a pretty sweet bulldog to Brie during the match.
And Naomi knew how cool the move was.
Go ahead and celebrate girl.
H/T Hi It’s Me Kevin