With less than a week to go before SummerSlam, WWE looked to deliver a bang before this Sunday’s show. From a couple of returning stars to the final confrontation between Undertaker and Brock Lesnar before their rematch this weekend, Raw delivered on multiple fronts. Let’s take a look at what went down last night.
Taker Sends Lesnar One Final Message
We kick things off with the Authority (sans Seth Rollins) in the center of the ring. And boy do Steph and Trips look happy to be back.
Steph puts over how incredible SummerSlam is going to be and they discuss the entire card, specifically the rematch between Lesnar and Taker. Make sure you tune in to SummerSlam this Sunday on the WWE Network for ONLY $9.99!
Backstage, we see Undertaker cutting a promo from the same place that Dude Love comes from apparently.
Taker says the Gates of Hell are open and waiting for Lesnar’s soul, and that the Beats Incarnate will never rest in peace. Cue the eye roll.
Our final segment of the night sees Paul Heyman hit the ring and talk about how amazing Brock Lesnar is before finally introducing the hometown boy. The crowd explodes at their returning hero before Heyman literally starts to sing about how great Lesnar is. Like actual, real singing.
Heyman sings that his eyes have seen the glory of the conqueror and a bunch of other hilariously amazing stuff that only Paul Heyman could sing about him conquering the Undertaker’s streak. (He ended Undertakers streak, and I know that strikes a chord! Now Undertaker will retire, and not of his own accord! Seriously, Heyman is amazing.)
He continues to sing when….
GONG!
GONG!
The Undertaker is int he center of the ring and he hits Lesnar with a low blow! The crowd is actually booing Taker at this point as he follows up the below the belt shot with a massive chokeslam to the Beast.
You know what happens next folks. Heyman looks on as if he might cry as Taker picks Lesnar up and delivers a massive Tombstone Piledriver.
Taker makes his way out of the ring and a super confused and in-pain Lesnar looks on as Taker is showered with boos.
Dead Man, are you worried about these boos?
Guess not.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out Sunday. Clearly there is a large section of the WWE Universe who looks at Brock Lesnar as a face and love what the Beast can do. There’s also a huge majority who know how much of a legend Taker is and how few matches he may have left.
Regardless of who the crowd backs, I’m crossing my fingers in hoping that both Lesnar and Taker put on a show. I guess we’ll find out this Sunday at SummerSlam…. LIVE ON THE WWE NETWORK FOR ONLY $9.99!
Other Results:
Cesaro Shines.. Again – As has become a tradition on Raw, WWE threw together two feuds to give us a tag match featuring Randy Orton and Cesaro taking on Sheamus and Kevin Owens. And in what has become a weekly tradition, the match became a Cesaro showcase. Let’s take a look at the highlights.
Love that move.
Then Cesaro decided to head up top, poor Sheamus.
And one more visit to the land of Uppercuts.
Absolutely vicious from Cesaro. The finish to this one saw Owens push Orton who immediately turned it into an RKO on Sheamus.
I legitimately may be more excited for Cesaro-Owens this weekend than any match this year. These two are about to put on a classic, and the crowd being totally behind Cesaro right now helps. #PUSHCESARO!
Orange You Glad Cena is Back?? – Oh hey John Cena made his return Monday Night after Seth Rollins smashed his face in a few weeks ago. Cena and Rollins hit the ring for a contract signing for their title for title match this Sunday. First out was Rollins talking about how great the Authority is and then starts bagging on Cena.
Rollins says Cena’s time on top is closing and that Cena isn’t a hero, he’s a villain who’s been holding the WWE Universe hostage for a decade. The crowd reacts for all of us by breaking out into a huge “YES!” chant as Rollins calls Cena a disease and himself the cure. The fact that this is all somewhat true makes this promo even more amazing.
Of course Cena comes out because how dare you insult the Golden Child and wouldn’t you know it, he’s in some new ring gear! Orange is this months color of the rainbow for Cena and he says that no one believes what Rollins is saying (wait, I do!). He calls Rollins an imitation of himself and then says Rollins has ruined Triple H’s legacy and yada yada yada the bright orange Champ is Here.
Cena says this Sunday he’s going to win the title for the 16th time and tie Ric Flair’s record (please Vince no). He says that Trips will lose to when Rollins does and then says the difference between Rollins and Triple H is that at least Trips was never Flair’s bitch.
So much for that whole anti-bullying Be a Star thing huh?
Cena signs the contract and leaves and none of us have any idea how this match is going to work out, which means expect a DQ or count-out and both guys to keep their titles. Whatever, as long as Cena doesn’t leave with both.
Reigns & Harper Give A Good Ole Hoss Fight – Pretty interesting match between Roman Reigns and Luke Harper that saw the two big men deliver some huge physical moves. Harper in particular really brought the physicality in this one.
And that wasn’t even the biggest kick of the night. Harper nailed Reigns with a superkick that would have made Shawn Michaels proud.
And then followed it up with a massive power bomb.
But that wasn’t enough to keep Reigns down. The big man eventually made his comeback and, well you know how this ends.
For whatever reason, it seems the Wyatts and the former Shield members bring the best out of each other, and suddenly I’m much more intrigued by their tag match this Sunday. Bray, how do you feel about this feud?
Divas Revolution Sputters – Yet again, we were given two Divas matches on Raw. The first saw Becky Lynch finally get some singles action on Raw (don’t.) in a solid match with Tamina that saw the rookie pick up the win.
And then, things took a turn. We got what on paper should have been an incredible match between Sasha Banks and Nikki Bella, you know the current NXT and WWE Divas Champs? The match was even given a semi ‘main event’ status as the last of the night, except it came before hometown hero Brock Lesnar closed out the show, and well the crowd wasn’t really into it.
The Divas themselves didn’t help the situation much either. There were a ton of rest holds and a few botched moves, although Sasha Banks aka bae did her usual show-stopping.
The finish was actually a bit of a surprise as Banks hit the Bank Statement and made WWE Divas Champ Bella tap out in the center of the ring.
Dolph Ziggler Back! – Well after weeks of Rusev/Lana/Summer Rae pushing a boring storyline that was missing Dolph Ziggler, the Show Off finally made his return to set up a match with Rusev at SummerSlam.
Needless to say, Lana was excited by this turn of events.
Unfortunately, the rest of us don’t feel that way about this feud. These two better put on a show Sunday to make up for the debacle that this build-up has been.
Meet the Cosmic King – Stardust and King Barrett cut a promo on the Christmas Arrows (Red & Green, see what I did there?) before Stardust gives Barrett a pair of really odd-looking shoulder pads and the two enjoy themselves way more than the rest of us.
I really hope this is a one-off and not the beginning of a Barrett/Stardust tag team. I just want to see Cody Rhodes again people.
Tag Team Chaos Continues – All four teams in this Sunday’s Tag Title match faced off as the Lucha Dragons and Primetime Players picked up the win over Los Matadores and the New Day. Seriously, that’s all you need to know other than Xavier Woods got into a fight with El Torito. Seriously.
Ryback and zzzzzzzz…. – The Intercontinental title has been underused and wasted for years now, but the feud between Ryback, the Miz and the Big Show might be the worst thing to ever happen to the strap. Seriously, I don’t care who wins this match or what happens in this feud. It’s a waste of our time, put the strap on a young, exciting star like Ambrose or Cesaro or Owens or hell even Roman Reigns and let all of those guys feud for it. This is a waste.
