With less than a week to go until Sunday’s Hell in a Cell, WWE used a dose of nostalgia to get fans excited about their upcoming pay-per-view. And by a dose of nostalgia I mean they literally just threw old wrestlers, groups and rivalries into almost every segment in hopes of raising declining ratings. So did it work? Let’s take a look at what went down.
Reunited & It Feels So… Weird
With Kane ‘suspended’ for the night, the focus of the evening was on the feud between the Wyatt’s and Ambreigns. It’s announced early on that the Wyatts ‘got to’ Randy Orton, whatever that means, and that he will be missing Raw. We would later find out that Orton has a shoulder injury that will be out for some time.
Shawn Michaels hits the ring and literally eats some kids food from the crowd on his way down. No, seriously.
Michaels does what all legends are doing tonight and hypes the upcoming Undertaker-Brock Lesnar match before talking about how he was in the first ever Hell in a Cell with Taker. He then hypes up the Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt match before Seth Rollins comes out and interrupts him because how dare someone talk for five minutes without mentioning the WWE Champ.
Rollins hits the ring and has a stare down with the Heartbreak Kid as the crowd chants “ONE MORE MATCH!” which HELLO DREAM MATCH.
Shawn talks about how he went against everything he was taught for 20 years before Rollins cuts him off and yells at Michaels for not putting the Champ over. HBK then basically says that Rollins is trying to be the second coming of Shawn Michaels who became the greatest wrestler ever while everyone else was trying to imitate him.
Rollins counters that Michaels is just jealous he never had the Wrestlemania moment that the Champ had before saying he’s going to beat Kane this Sunday. He tries to leave and yells for his music, but HBK tells him wannabes don’t get their music when they call for it. Oh by the way Rollins is taking on Ryback, now play HBK’s music.
Rollins has exactly the kind of match you’d expect with Ryback, at one point even make the Big Guy cry I think.
Rollins targets Rybacks injured ribs and hits a Pedigree for the 1-2-3.
Later, Ric Flair makes his way out and the Legends tour continues. He woos the crowd and then Roman Reigns comes out to announce he’s Dean Ambrose’s partner for tonight against the Wyatts. Reigns rips the Wyatts for the 3 on 1 attacks and he says he has an idea before putting two chairs in the middle of the ring and inviting Bray Wyatt to meet him face to face.
Out comes the Wyatt Family…. with Erick Rowan instead of Luke Harper. Wait what?
The announce team basically ignores the fact that WWE replaced one bearded original with another and doesn’t bother to explain what the hell is going on. This is pretty confusing and also incredibly annoying because STORYLINES PEOPLE.
Reigns and Wyatt talk trash before Reigns clears the ring with Ambrose’s help. But really the only thing anyone got from that is WHERE THE HELL DID ERICK ROWAN COME FROM AND WHERE THE HELL IS LUKE HARPER?!
We see the Authority backstage talking with Rollins and HBK about earlier in the night and Trips hints at both men that one of them could partner with Ambreigns to even the odds. Rollins volunteers himself and it’s a Shield reunion tonight! Seriously, the nostalgia machine is in full effect.
Our main event of the night is the one-night only reunion of the Shield against the Wyatts plus Erick Rowan minus Luke Harper. And even that couldn’t ruin the electricity in this thing. We get a staredown in the center of the ring between Ambreigns and the Wyatts, but Rollins is hesitant and Bray Wyatt calls him out for it.
HEY NOBODY CALLS THE CHAMP OUT LIKE THAT.
So. Much. Awesome.
Seriously, this is just a reminder that the Shield was incredible and will be even more amazing when they eventually reunite in the future.
Of course Rollins being Rollins, he immediately uses the staredown to start yelling orders at Ambreigns. The match itself was pretty great because Wyatts and Shield and Rollins actually worked well with his partners… until a totally random leg injury causes him to miss a tag. This left Ambreigns to go 2 on 3 against the Wyatts, again, which caused Ambrose to snap and cause a DQ by using a Kendo stick on Strong Throwman.
Ambrose tries to hit a suicide dive but yeah, Strong Throwman is strong.
The Wyatts all begin beating down on Ambrose when SUDDENLY A FLYING ROMAN REIGNS APPEARS.
Reigns takes out all the Wyatts and then gets Bray and Rowan back into the ring. Rowan eats a spear and then of course obligatory MASSIVE SPEAR TO WYATT as Rowan either tries to save Wyatt or is concussed and gets in Reigns way for no reason.
Ambreigns stands tall as Raw goes off the air and we are officially on the road to Hell in a Cell (come on nobody watches SmackDown).
Other Results –
Lesnar & Taker Still Hate Each Other – We kick off Raw with the one and only Stone Cold Steve Austin who reminds us all what a real pop from the crowd sounds like.
Austin talks about starting his career in Dallas and his podcast after the show with Brock Lesnar before introducing the Dead Man.
Taker comes out and talks about his final battle with Lesnar this Sunday and warns him that Hell will look like Heaven compared to what is going to happen this Sunday. Of course, this brings out Lesnar.
Paul Heyman grabs the mic and says Lesnar is going to beat Taker on Sunday, and he vows that Lesnar will show the Dead Man what it’s like to live and die with a tainted legacy of being dominant over everyone except Brock Lesnar. Taker tells them both that when a man has everything taken from him he fights with nothing to lose, while at the same time getting into a fighting stance. Taker invites Lesnar into the ring right now.
Lesnar walks over and hops on the apron and stares the Dead Man down.
Heyman yells at Brock to get down and he eventually obliges his Advocates request. They leave the ring and Taker does his whole ‘Rest in Peace’ shtick to Lesnar and man Sunday is going to be fun.
New Day, Still The Best – What do you do when the best faction in the industry is simultaneously feuding with a tag title contender and the U.S. Champ? Throw them in a six man tag match of course! The New Day took on John Cena & the Dudley Boyz in a match that was pretty fun because New Day. It was announced beforehand that Cena wouldn’t be having a U.S. Open Challenge on Raw because he was going to have one at Hell in a Cell, which means WWE has a GREAT chance to give someone a career moment this Sunday.
Also before the match, New Day cut a hilarious promo calling all of Texas booty and taking shots at the Dallas Cowboys. The match itself wasn’t anything we haven’t already seen between these six, but there were plenty of reminders that New Days is amazing, including Big E dancing while simultaneously having Cena up for a suplex.
Our finish sees total chaos erupte and Xavier Woods sneaking in to roll up D-Von for the win. After the match the Dudleyz and Cena beat New Day down, ending in Woods eating an Attitude Adjustment and then continuing his weekly tradition of going through a table.
Kevin Owens Is A Beast – We get a pretty shockingly good match between Owens and hometown boy Mark Henry that was a full-on hossfest. The two exchanged trash talk and some pretty physical moves before Henry eats a Pop-Up Power Bomb that Owens makes look unbelievably natural.
I’m really praying WWE puts this guy in a good feud after he’s done with Ryback. If we can move on from Hell in a Cell with a Dean Ambrose-Kevin Owens feud for the IC title all will be right in the world.
The Forgotten Mid-Card Classic – What happens when there are a bunch of legends returning on Raw? You stick all of the mid-carders into one tag match! Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville teamed to take on King Barrett, Rusev and Sheamus in exactly the kind of match you’d expect. Before getting things started, Ziggler (formerly of the #PUSHZIGGLER movement) aligned himself with the Cesaro Section.
The match itself featured some high spots from all the wrestlers, with each guy getting his moment to shine. The move that stood out the most though was this awesome somersault by Neville off the top rope to the outside.
In the end, all hell breaks loose as is often the case in these matches and Dolph Ziggler eats a Brogue Kick on the apron before King Barrett picks up the pin.
Team Bella Gains Some Momentum – This is your weekly reminder that Sasha Banks is the Boss and everyone loves her.
Decent match between Sasha/Naomi & Nikki/Alicia Fox that sees Sasha eat a Bellahammer off the apron before a Rack Attack on Naomi gets Team Bella the win.
Charlotte Takes Care of Brie – So this match was a thing that was on Raw and ended with Charlotte winning with the Figure Eight. So yeah.
H/T – The Wrestling Giffer