Following the unfortunate knee injury suffered by WWE Champion Seth Rollins during a house show last weekend, Monday Night Raw presented an opportunity for WWE to hit a home run with a title tournament. With a chance to really make an impact and crown a new Champ, fans were eager to see what WWE’s bracket would look like. And then… it was unveiled.
Titus? Stardust? Kalisto?!
Sigh.
Needless to say it wasn’t the bracket fans hoped for. Let’s take a look at what went down and how WWE tried to make this thing interesting.
Can’t Stop The Reigns Train
Unquestionably, the man heavily favored to win the WWE title tournament is Roman Reigns. WWE’s next Chosen One seems to be on track for a head-to-head collision with Dean Ambrose in the Finals en route to his official coronation. Yay.
Triple H made his way out to announce that Rollins had been injured and despite still being the man, he’s no longer the Champion. Trips then introduces Roman Reigns and says it’s unfair that Reigns won’t be getting his title match even the he won the #1 contender match. Triple H says they will automatically insert Reigns into the title match at Survivor Series and even says that the Authority strongly considered Reigns before eventually picking Rollins as their guy.
Trips reminds us about ‘Mania and says Rollins will do anything to win and be champ, while Reigns has been trying to get back in the title chase with nothing to show for it. Trips then offers Reigns a chance to be the man for the Authority. Reigns gives us the usual sell-out line and then Trips doubles down by putting the title on Reigns shoulder and saying he could set his family up for life by siding with the Authority.
One more time Roman, do you want to be the man?
Reigns basically says nope, shove it. Trips responds by thanking Roman for reminding him why the Authority chose Rollins and oh by the way Reigns match is now and against Big Show.
You’ve seen this match 46 times, Reigns wins with a Spear to advance to the tournament quarterfinals. The end.
Later, Kevin Owens comes out and rips England a new one and says he’s going to win the WWE title and add it to his Intercontinental title which would be the greatest thing ever so it’s not happening.
He then had a match with Titus O’Neill which really pisses me off because I like Titus but seriously WWE couldn’t fill this thing with guys who actually have a shot at winning the title? We had to bring in guys from tag teams to fill spots? Ugh.
Owens wins with a Pop-Up Power Bomb on the much bigger Titus and then reminds us all why he’s so amazing by celebrating his win and stealing JBL’s hat.
Owens advances to take on the winner of Neville & Wade Barrett’s match next week.
Our next bout is between Dolph Ziggler and the Miz, just in case this tournament wasn’t depressing enough. Miz does what he does and tries to win this thing by working Ziggler’s leg, but the Show-Off picks up the win by hitting a superkick out of nowhere to advance.
Shawn Michaels would be proud. Or depressed, like really depressed.
Next up is Sheamus taking on Cesaro in a European slugfest. King Barrett was ringside beefing with Wayne Rooney because WWE. The match itself was the awesome physical hoss match you would expect. Cesaro especially just did what he does best and put on an in-ring clinic.
Our finish sees Cesaro roll Sheamus up for the win after the Celtic Warrior became distracted by Rooney slapping Barrett in the face ringside. Seriously, the 5’9 Rooney got the best of the 6’7 Barrett because WWE.
Cesaro advances to his funeral against Roman Reigns next week.
Next we have Tyler Breeze taking on the people’s tournament favorite, Dean Ambrose.
Pretty fun back and forth match between the two that let Breeze show what he can do in the ring. Our finish sees Ambrose win with a roll-up after looking like he may have hurt his shoulder with a dropkick from the top. Either way, Ambrose advances to take on Ziggler.
Side note: We’re clearly headed for an Ambrose-Reigns final here, so WWE better turn Ambrose and put the strap on him as the Authority’s new guy, or turn Reigns. There’s no winning with a gentleman’s duel here. And unless WWE is planning a major surprise return, THERE ARE NO BETTER OPTIONS FOR THE FANS.
Don’t make this any worse than it already is WWE.
The Wyatt’s Destruction Cometh
Bray Wyatt makes his way out and talks about the inevitability of change. Wyatt says that tonight, he wants to celebrate the spirits of Kane and the Undertaker before talking about their history in the WWE. Wyatt tells everyone to bow their heads and pay respect to the Brothers of Destruction before calling the crowd fools for chanting for Taker. He says he ate the souls of Kane & the Undertaker and now grows stronger from it.
The apocalypse is here folks.
Wyatt tells everyone to follow the buzzards and then another video package plays about Kane and Taker. We end with a ‘Rest in Peace’ and then lightning striking the ring when…
DONG!
Undertaker’s music hits and HOLY CRAP IT’S THE BROTHERS OF DESTRUCTION!
Needless to say, the crowd absolutely loses it as the Dead Man and the Demon make their way out. They climb into the ring and the rest of the Wyatt’s get on the apron to defend their leader.
Harper and Rowan attack first and LOL COME ON THIS IS THE UNDERTAKER AND KANE.
It’s gonna take much more than that to take these guys….
Oh I forgot about Strong Throwman. BUT EVEN HIS MASSIVE CLOTHESLINE IS NOT ENOUGH TO HOLD DOWN THE BROTHERS OF DESTRUCTION.
Kane and Taker proceed to destroy Throwman and toss him over the announce table.
Bye Braun.
All that’s left now is for the Brothers to get their hand on Wyatt. For his part, Bray is doing his usual Wyatt stuff and freaking the hell out inside of the ring. No worries, about 30 seconds later things end like this.
The Brothers have made their point and head out, but you know they can’t leave without hitting us with that signature exit right?
Man I love those old fossils.
Other Results –
New Day + Neville + Usos = Awesome – The New Day came out and complained about being left out of the WWE Title Tournament which they are 10000% correct about because FREAKING KALISTO IS IN THE TOURNAMENT. Xavier Woods then dedicates this match to their fallen captain Seth Rollins and got us all looking like this.
Also, Uso’s back! Seriously, this match was pretty great with the New Day dominating before a hot tag let Neville take out the world and then hit the standard ‘jump off the turnbuckle and take everyone ringside out’ 360 moonsault combo thingy that always looks awesome.
Our finish sees Neville go for a Red Arrow only for Big E to push him off the turnbuckle and Xavier to get the win.
A WIN FOR SETH!
Paige Shows Her Mean Streak – Paige continued her awesome heel work by ripping Renee Young during a promo and then having an awesome match with the highly-underrated Becky Lynch. Our finish sees Becky reverse Paige’s attempt at a roll-up with tights and winning with herown roll-up and tight pulling. After, a pissed off Paige goes insane and locks Lynch into the Scorpion Crosslock on the announce table.
Ouch.
Sasha Banks Rules – Natalya and Naomi had a match, and all anyone could do was focus on Sasha Banks ringside. Banks topped things off by attacking Nattie and locking her in the Bank Statement. Seriously, it’s time to push the Boss.