After a month-long post-Wrestlemania lull from WWE, last night’s Raw came at us like a firestorm. With two match of the year candidates, a Payback main event change and an awesome debut, Raw finally gave us a reason to tune in. Let’s take a look at what went down.
It’s a Shield Reunion! Sort Of…
We kick off the show with Randy Orton coming out and talking about how he’s going to win the WWE World Heavyweight Title at Payback and that neither Seth Rollins nor Roman Reigns can stop him. This of course brings out Reigns, who says he’s going to win and if Orton gets in his way he’ll get knocked out. The two banter back and forth with Orton saying he has 12 titles and Reigns has nothing, and the Big Dog reminding the Viper about his Summerslam win last year.
With the conversation getting stale, it’s the perfect time for New Day to interrupt! Wait New Day? Ugh.
Each New Day member does their corny shtick before Big E takes shots at Orton and Reigns for coming up short all the time, and they announce that Kane has booked a handicap match of Orton and Reigns against the New Day for right now. The match itself was actually pretty good, with New Day doing a lot of damage to Reigns before Orton finally gets tagged in.
Orton takes control and goes for a hangmans DDT on Kofi Kingston. Xavier Woods runs in and eats an RKO for his troubles, and Reigns tries to hit Kingston with a spear but, yeah not so much.
Not sure what was worse, Kofi’s 360 out of the way or Reigns trying to look shocked that he hit Orton instead. Big E pulls Reigns out of the ring and Kingston gets the cover for a New Day win. Kane comes out and says that Orton and Reigns had a good match, but they aren’t done for the night because they’ll face off in the main event. Sure why not?
Backstage we see Rollins tearing Kane down and the Big Red Machine announces that Rollins will have a match with Dean Ambrose tonight. He dares Rollins to say one more word so he can add a stipulation to the match, but the Champ just huffs and puffs and storms off. On his way to the ring, Rollins is stopped by Renee Young and says that Kane is a moron. I think that’s more than one word, uh oh.
Kane comes out before the match kicks off and announces that if Ambrose wins, he’ll be added to the Payback title match, making it a Fatal Fourway!
This match was your typical Ambrose-Rollins bout, meaning it was an absolute gem and match of the year candidate. These two have such incredible chemistry and it really showed in what is probably the best match we’ve seen on Raw since the last time Ambrose and Rollins went at it. For his part, Ambrose has really grown into an absolute lunatic in the ring. His mannerisms are hilarious, take this example of him apologizing to the ref for a dirty move.
Or this hilarious and ridiculous wind-up then hit him with the other hand routine.
Seriously, Ambrose is awesome.
As the match broke down, we got a ton of near-falls. Ambrose hits a suicide dive on Rollins and rolls him back into the ring, but as he’s getting in the Champ hits a springboard kick to Ambrose’ head and tells the lunatic to stay down. Ambrose tries to fight through it so he eats a superkick from Rollins for the near-fall.
Ambrose eventually takes control and hits a corner splash then his awesome bouncing-off-the-ropes-and-then-killing-you clothesline, and sets up for Dirty Deeds. Out come Mercury and Noble (who were banned from ringside) but Ambrose throws Mercury over the rope and into Noble. Rollins tries to use the distraction to roll Ambrose up but…
Ambrose reverses and steals the win! And we officially have our first title match with all three former members of the Shield. Incredible.
It’s main event time and out comes the Authority to announce they will be guest commentator, ringside enforcer and timekeeper for the Orton-Reigns match. I’m sure this will end with a clean win for someone.
Orton and Reigns have their typical back and forth match with some nice spots before things begin to break down. Reigns goes for a Superman Punch but Orton is basically just like, nah.
The Viper hits a hangman’s DDT and picks Reigns up, but the Big Dog hits a Superman Punch and then goes to the ropes, only to have Kane pull him to the outside and attack. The Authority all attack Orton, but Reigns dives on everyone to break things up. Rollins grabs him and throws Reigns into the ringpost and the numbers are beginning to wear him and Orton down. No worries, Dean Ambrose to the rescue!
Ambrose comes in like a ball of fire for the save and the challengers all clear the ring. All three men corner Rollins, who eats a spear from Reigns. Reigns then walks right into an RKO from Orton because of course he does.
So of course, Ambrose says screw it and hits Orton with a Dirty Deeds!
We end Raw with Ambrose standing tall and fans everywhere finally talking about a great Monday night show. Great work all-around from WWE, setting up a very intriguing main event at Payback.
Ole! Ole Ole Ole!
Yet again, John Cena welcomed all challengers in his U.S. Title Open Challenge, but not before cutting a promo on how he never quits and yada yada yada beat Rusev at Payback. The crowd was great during this segment, booing Cena and starting the Ole! chant in honor of NXT standout Sami Zayn, who is a hometown boy. Too bad Zayn can’t answer this challenge…
Anyways Cena says he’s ready and out comes… BRET HART! Huge pop for the Canadian icon in Canada and Cena looks incredulous. There’s no way Hart is answering this challenge is there? Hart says he’s just out there to introduce the challenger, a great wrestler who… oh hey Heath Slater thanks for cutting us off. Slater comes down to the ring saying everyone keeps beating him up before he gets his shot but not this week, so Hart pops him with a mic and introduces Cena’s opponent… SAMI ZAYN!!!!
Wait, no, how?! WWE sometimes you can be absolutely amazing!
The crowd explodes as the hometown boy makes his official Raw debut with a title match against John freaking Cena. How’s that for a sign of confidence?
The energy for this match is incredible as both men go back and forth before Cena hits Zayn with a side suplex and the Likeable One (we need to work on this nickname people) rolls to the ropes and WWE doctors check on his left (and previously injured) shoulder. Zayn eventually gets Cena to roll out of the ring and looks like he’s going for a splash but Cena moves. No worries, just a chance for Sami to be Sami.
The match continues and Cena takes control, calling for a Five Knuckle Shuffle that Zayn counters into a roll-up for a near-fall. Cena goes for an Attitude Adjustment but Zayn blocks and hits a crossbody so Cena again rolls out of the ring. This time, Zayn hits a beautiful diving senton over the tope rope and rolls Cena in the ring before locking in an awesome Koji Clutch (special props to Michael Cole for actually knowing what this move was called).
Ahh gotta love those Cena over-sells when he’s locked into a submission.
Cena breaks the hold and again is outside trying to regroup, but Sami does what Sami always does, BLOW YOUR MIND WITH AWESOMENESS.
Seriously, if you’ve never seen that move from Zayn before, you’re welcome. If you have seen it on NXT, then you’ve gotta be excited at how much more incredible it looks on Raw.
Zayn rolls Cena back into the ring but the Champ grabs him and hits an AA out of nowhere for the 1..2.. ZAYN KICKED OUT! WHAT A FREAKING DEBUT!!!
Cena immediately jumps and argues with the ref, so Sami grabs him and hits an awesome Blue Thunder Bomb (which he somehow made look incredible easy even on someone as big as Cena) for the near-fall! He picks Cena up but the Champ hits a Springboard Stunner and then an AA for the 1-2-3 and the win.
After the match, Cena has no choice but to show Zayn respect for competing at such a high level in his debut, all while having a legit shoulder injury. Just an awesome, awesome way for WWE to officially introduce everyone to Zayn, and absolutely great to see for those who were worried about how he’d come across on the main roster. Great work here WWE.
Other Results:
Sheamus & Bad News Barrett Run Through the Little Guys – Good match that pitted Sheamus and Barrett against Dolph Ziggler and Neville. The underdogs put on a great performance, with Ziggler brawling outright with Sheamus and Neville continuing to impress. Neville had a chance to hit a Red Arrow, but Sheamus interfered and gave BNB enough time to recover and…
Night night Neville.
Lana Fandangos and Rusev Ruins It All – Lana was interviewed backstage and she’s cut off by Fandango who says he’ll show her how euphoric dancing for the WWE Universe is. He takes a beating from Rusev in their match but rolls outside and encourages Lana to do the Fandango. Lucky for us, she obliges his request.
Rusev gets super-athlete mad and banishes Lana to the back (face turn coming in t-minus 2 weeks) before locking Fandango in the Accolade and winning the match. Damn it Rusev.
Bray Wyatt Warns Ryback – The Big Guy was in the ring with Renee Young to discuss Wyatt’s attacks on him, but Bray cut him off on the Titantron and told Ryback that he should run because he’s scared, and that fear causes everyone to think they have something to lose. So this rivalry is happening.
Naomi and Tamina Take Out the Bellas – The Bellas come out for a match but Naomi and a returning Tamina attack them from behind and take them apart. Naomi says the Bellas reign is over because this is what family is about. (Naomi is married to Jey Uso, who is Tamina’s cousin. Keep up people!)
Brass Ring Club defeats the Ascension – Basically a squash match here to help get Kidd and Cesaro over as a face tag team before they go back to feuding with the New Day. Remember when the Ascension dominated NXT and was going to revive the WWE tag team division? Me neither.
Stardust defeats R-Truth – Totally pointless match that had Stardust win when R-Truth freaked out about a bag of plastic spiders. No seriously.
