After John Cena pretty much made it clear on Tough Enough, WWE has announced on its web site that the Seth Rollins vs. John Cena match at SummerSlam on 8/23 is official.
The angle for the match likely leading to title vs. title will be done on Monday’s Raw in Minneapolis.
Taped tonight in Portland:
Seth Rollins came out for an inteview saying he’s the best pro wrestler, and is on a level with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth. He brought up John Cena on Tough Enough and said he wants Cena to come to Raw and accept his challenge. Neville came otu and he asked for a title shot. Cesaro then came out to ask for a shot but Kevin Owens attacked him while Rollins beat down Neville to set up the main event.
Charlotte b Naomi by submission with the figure eight.
They did a package building up the Stephen Amell and Stardust angle.
Ryback did an interview. They showed clips from Raw. He talked about his match at SummerSlam. Bo Dallas came out and Dallas wanted to be added to the match. Ryback laid him out.
Luke Harper & Bray Wyatt did an interview.
Roman Reigns b Luke Harper via DQ when Wyatt interfered.
Prime Time Players b New Day.
Seth Rolins & Kevin Owens b Cesaro & Neville when Rollins pinned Cesaro holdnig the trunks.
Brad Maddox worked a dark match using the name Joshua Kingsley earlier in the show.
By Kenneth Nida wrestlingobserver.com
Last week’s Tough Enough saw the judges’ second of three saves used by Paige on Gigi. This meant Chelsea, who came second to Sara Lee in the voting, and the last competitor left who has any wrestling experience, was eliminated from the show. This week John Cena will make an appearance on the live portion of the show, and the competitors will have to put together a match as their challenge.
We start with each of the judges giving the contestants a word of advice on what they want to see. We go back to last week after the elimination. Chris Jericho is in the kitchen with pizzas. He prods at Amanda about her survival through the voting. We get the dreaded “What is your favorite match?” question. Gigi says Trish Stratus vs. Lita, ZZ says HHH vs. Brock Lesnar in a cage match, Sara Lee says Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker. Jericho reinforces that storytelling is vital to pro wrestling.
The contestants drink through the night with Jericho, and some have trouble waking up in the morning. Jericho joins the contestants to run drills. The first contest is for the contestants to tell a story in the ring. They get an hour to come up with how they are going to choose their stories. The coaches meet with each of them to offer advice. The NXT Superstars are the audience for the matches. The first match is Josh vs. ZZ who are telling the classic big man vs. small man story. The NXT Superstars get one loud “Truffle Shuffle” chant in at the beginning of the match. Josh wins, and they put together a pretty good match. The second match is Sara Lee vs. Amanda. Sara Lee wins, with Amanda getting high praise from the trainers. Booker gets really upset with Sara Lee smiling during the match, cutting a promo on her. The third match is Tanner vs. Gigi. Tanner wins, but their story gets muddled. Josh wins the challenge, with Sara Lee being the worst.
Tanner and Josh talk about the challenge while playing pool. Amanda, Sara Lee, and Gigi read mean tweets and laugh at them. John Cena is introduced. He offers a bit of advice, praising them for being brave for putting it all on the line. Cena asks Daniel Bryan if he looks like he should compete at Summerslam and Bryan offers a hearty “Yes!” The judges grill the contestants, with Miz saying Tanner is too robotic, Paige asking ZZ and Sara Lee if they feel safe in the bottom 3 because of their fans, and Daniel Bryan pointing out that Gigi was booed in her match with Tanner because of her attitude. For the bottom 3 Miz chooses Tanner, Paige chooses Sara Lee, and Daniel Bryan chooses Gigi. Each contestant gets 30 seconds to plead their case. Jericho asks the contestants who they think should go home, with ZZ and Josh saying Tanner, and Amanda saying Sara Lee. Daniel Bryan declines to use his save.
Sara Lee gets 43% of the vote, Tanner gets 35% of the vote, and Gigi gets 22% of the vote, eliminating her from the competition.
Two female and three male contestants remain. It will be interesting to see what they do next week when it comes to eliminations. They can’t nominate any of the women because we’d have a female winner early. Instead it would make sense if the bottom 3 are automatically ZZ, Josh, and Tanner. They are, seemingly, all well-liked by the fans, though we’ve only seen Josh in the bottom 3 one time. The week we saw him in the bottom, they showed him talking to his daughter, which I could see them doing again next week to build a bit of sympathy.
Last night’s Raw did 3.84 million viewers, up four percent from last week. It was the most viewers since June 15, which was the show immediately after the death of Dusty Rhodes.
It was the second highest rated show for the night, behind Major Crimes on TNT.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.79 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.95 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.78 million viewers
Photo: WWE.com
by Jeff Hamlin, WrestlingObserver.com
The Big Takeaway: This was an excellent show featured Randy Orton-Seth Rollins in a main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Sheamus pulled Orton out of the ring to cost him the championship. Sheamus then teased cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase, but Orton came back in to deliver an RKO. Stephen Amell will compete at SummerSlam in a tag team match. The gimmick is its the Green Arrow (I thought Amell portrayed the Arrow, but just go along with it) and the Red Arrow (Neville) vs. Stardust and King Barrett.
Show Recap:
Seth Rollins starts the show. Again, they played the highlight of Rollins breaking John Cena’s nose. Rollins said he hasn’t heard from Cena regarding the challenge for a title-vs.-title match. Rollins says Cena wasn’t Straight Outta Compton, he’s Straight Outta Action. Rollins said he heard rumors that Cena was going to be at Tough Enough tomorrow night, then heard from someone at ringside that Cena was going to appear via satellite. Turned out, it was a picture of Cena with his nose broken with a mouth superimposed doing a fake Cena voice, just like the old Conan O’Brien routine.
The fake Cena voice’s best joke was “Hustle, Loyalty and Respect” has now become “Surgery, Recovery and Rehab.” The mouth also added he looked like he got a fake nose job from Picasso. He told his fans to never give up, unless Seth Rollins breaks your face.
Cesaro came out with more Cesaro Section signs all over the place. Cesaro challenged Rollins to a match tonight. Rollins said there was no open challenge tonight. Kevin Owens walked out and said Cesaro has done nothing to earn a title shot and said some idiot had written out Cesaro Section signs and handed them to sheep who will hold up any sign.
Owens mentioned he was the only man among the three who has beaten Cena and if anyone deserves a title match tonight, it’s him. Rollins started to turn him down when Randy Orton came out. Orton wanted a title shot, poking fun at Owens weight in the process.
Rollins said Tom Brady has a better chance of getting a free meal in Seattle than any of them getting a title shot tonight. He said he doesn’t care what the Authority thinks, he thinks everyone should get the hell out of his ring.
HHH came out. Apparently, the roulette ball landed on “babyface” this week on the Authority Wheel of Kayfabe. HHH was mad over Rollins said he didn’t care about the Authority and ordered Cesaro vs. Owens vs. Orton in a three-way with the winner getting a shot at Rollins tonight for the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
Daniel Bryan will appear on MizTV tonight.
After one week, the Submission Sorority name for Paige, Charlotte and Sasha Banks is already done. They’re now Team PCB and did commentary for the opening match. Marshawn Lynch thought these women were boring and repetitive in their answers to Michael Cole.
Team Bella defeated Team Bad (8:57)
Brie Bella pinned Tamina after a leg cradle . Even though she was on the heel team, crowd chanted big for Sasha Banks.
It broke down into a nine-way fight posmatch where Naomi threw the best women’s dropkick since Manami Toyota on Alicia Fox. They teased Charlotte and Banks showdown and members of Team PCB and Team BAD had a staredown.
Stephen Amell was shown at ringside for the upcoming angle with Stardust.
The New Day defeated Los Matadores (3:58)
Big E. Langston pinned Fernando after the Midnight Hour. El Torito tried to give Xavier Woods a huracanrana outside the ring, but Woods blocked it like he was going to power bomb. But Diego dropkicked Woods from behind, and El Torito completed the move. Some fans arte treating New Day as faces now. There should be a mic dedicated solely to Woods because he’s the most colorful talker in the company (outside of Paul Heyman) with no script.
They showed a picture of Titus O’Neal hanging with Marshawn Lynch at Seattle Seahawks headquarters today. Darren Young also had a photo taken with Russell Wilson.
New Day did a postmatch promo with Renee Young, who informed them they would get a title shot at the Prime Time Players at SummerSlam. Young also said it would be a four-way match with Los Matadores and Lucha Dragons. In other words, the consequences for Los Matadores losing tonight was getting a tag team title shot at SummerSlam. I love it when Raw wins and losses hold such high stakes. Renee started clapping with New Day, which was a total babyface act.
HHH and Rollins argued over why the title should be defended tonight. HHH said Rollins opened the door last week with the open challenge against Neville and if Rollins wanted to be the man, he has to be the man every single night. Rollins agreed.
Randy Orton pinned Cesaro in a three-way that also included Kevin Owens to earn a WWE World Heavyweight Title shot at Rollins (18:10)
A sensational match where the crowd got the hottest down the stretch when Owens and Cesaro traded big moves. As Owens tried to give Cesaro a Pop-Up Power Bomb, Orton climbed back in the ring and gave Owens an RKO, and gave an RKO to Cesaro as well. Orton pinned Cesaro. Highlights included Cesaro holding Orton in a crossface. Orton had to struggle out of the ring to break in since there is No-DQ in a three-way. Owens followed with a somersault tope onto both men. Later, Orton gave both Cesaro and Orton draping DDTs at the same time.
Dean Ambrose did a backstage promo about how he didn’t have many friends growing up, though it would have been nice to have one since you always need one to bail you out when you’re in a Mexican border town. Roman Reigns interrupted him and basically said he was first real friend that Ambrose ever had. Reigns said he and Ambrose were brothers while Bray Wyatt was just using Luke Harper. Reigns’ catchphrase is “Believe that.”
They did a piece on the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar. They had various Hall of Famers like Steve Austin, HHH and John Cena put over the streak. Seeing the highlights of Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzales, King Kong Bundy and a totally past him prime on goes knows what Jimmy Snuka brought ot mind how the Undertaker had to face some crappy opponents in the 90s. Austin, Ambrose, HHH and others put over how stunning it was that Lesnar ended the streak. Heyman said Lesnar will put an end to the Undertaker. It was a very good, UFC-style hype piece.
They mentioned for next week’s go-home show, the Undertaker and Lesnar will be in the building.
Luke Harper defeated Dean Ambrose (10:35)
Harper got the pin afterr a discus clothesline on Ambrose. It spilled into a four-way when Wyatt got involved. Wyatt tried to clothesline Ambrose, who ducked and Reigns hit Wyatt with a Superman Punch. Harper kicked Reigns in the head, but Ambrose hit a tope on Harper. Wyatt then crotched Ambrose after he climbed to the top rope, leading to the finish. Apparently, Wyatt lost his rocking chair so Harper threw Byron Saxton out of his chair for Wyatt to sit in. It got funny when the fans later started chanting “Sit down Byron.” There must be an added bonus in JBL’s paycheck for every week he mentions DX as among the most dominant factions of all time.
MizTV started with The MIz pointed out Ammell out Ammell. Miz threw in a jab about how once Stardust is done polishing the floor with Amell, he can call Miz for acting lessons. Amell had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Dryan came out to the expected big reaction. Crowd kept chanting “Daniel Bryan” so long Miz had to stop them.
Miz tried to talk to Bryan about how he mad Bryan’s career. Bryan mentioned Miz’s upcoming film “Santa’s Little Helper,” which Miz can take credit for. But Bryan’s accomplishments are because of everything he’s ever done for himself, not the Miz.
Miz turned the subject to Bryan’s injury since he’s been on the shelf. Bryan sent a nod to Mick Foley and mentioned his best selling book and being on Tough Enough. Miz turned the attention to himself again and focused on Ryback, saying Ryback should forfeit the Intercontiental title because of his staph infection and cancel the three-way match at SummerSlam. The Big Show came out to run down Miz. Crowd chanted “Please retire” at Big Show, who got mad. Ryback came out for his return. Miz and Bryan bolted so Ryback and Show could have a staredown. Then Bryan threw Miz in the ring between both of them.
Show bullied Show and Ryback into the corner. Show give Miz a Beal Throw, but Ryback clotheslined Show out of the ring. Then Ryback gave Miz a Meathook clothesline which left Miz with only one show on. Bryan raised Ryback’s arm and gave him the I-C belt back while the two chanted “Yes!” Weird to see the most over star on the show as the setup guy for a midcard program.
A package profile on Charlotte featured her talking about her father’s dedication to the business and learning from him. She vowed to main event WrestleMania one day and compared herself to Ronda Rousey.
This led to an announcement of a three-team elimination match at SummerSlam with Team Bad vs. Team PCB vs. Team Bella.
Mark Henry and Rusev went to a no contest (1:06)
Lana was at ringside. Summer Rae jumped on the apron for some reason, leading to Lana pulling her down. Rae threw Lana into the ring, where she was kneeling looking up to Rusev. It led to Rae running for the DQ. Meanwhile, Rusev took out Mark Henry by throwing him into the steps. Rae decked Lana from behind. Rusev ordered Rae to crush her. Rae then put Lana into the Accolade until Lana was unconscious. As Rusev and Rae posed, the Bulgarian flag came down which now has Rusev’s face on it. Now that is cool.
Neville defeated King Barrett (1:17)
Neville got the pin on King Barrett after the Red Arrow.
Right away, Stardust ran in the ring to put the boots to Neville. Then Stardust got out of the ring and got in Amell’s face and shoved him. Amell hopped the railing and speared Stardust before security pulled him off. Announcers sold it like Amell had stepped over the line by jumping the rail and going into the ring after Stardust, which was fine. Except we’ve seen dozens of examples of it over the years from numerous celebrities.
HHH scolded Amell and Neville for jumping in the ring. Ammell said he wanted Stardust and Barrett at SummerSlam. Amell looked like Andre the Giant standing next to Neville. HHH started to talk down to him about being a TV star in a wrestling ring. Amell said he didn’t care and ordered HHH to draw up the legal papers for him to face Stardust at SummerSlam. I was startled to see somebody talk back to HHH. Good thing Amell isn’t a wrestler. He’d be looking at 6 months worth of jobs to Zack Ryder if he was. HHH told Amell he had no idea what he was getting himself into but agreed. Amell was very good here, but Neville isn’t a talker.
JBL was back with his trusty cards about how people will pay more money if they buy SummerSlam on PPV. By the way, Rousey says hello and 900,000 buys.
JoJo interviewed Sheamus, who called Orton “boring” (irony) and called Rollins a “skunk haired weasel.” He held up the Money in the Bank breifcase and said he would be the new World Heavyweight Champion and said the time to cash it in may be tonight.
Randy Orton defeated Seth Rollins (C) by DQ, so Rollins retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. (13:32)
Another very good match with the crowd really behind Orton. Rollins used Orton’s own draping DDT on him, then made mannerisms like he was going to do the RKO. Instead, Rollins tried a Pedigree, but (after some early communication issues between the two), Orton backdropped Rollins over the top rope. Rollins landed on the apron and went right to the top rope and jumped off, but Orton caught him with an RKO. Orton covered Rollins, but Sheamus ran down to pull Orton out of the ring. Sheamus threw Orton into the steps and dumped him over the barricade.
Sheamus saw Rollins till down, hit a Brogue Kick and was about to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase. Orton was supposed to run up behind Sheamus before he cashed it and give him an RKO. But Orton was way late in doing so and the referee and Sheamus had to play tug of war forever before Orton finally showed up. Crowd really was into the final segment.
SUMMARY:
This was one of the rare weeks where a crowd wasn’t burned out after three hours. The Amell angle helped. So did having three very good matches on the show. Plus, it was a good show for the TV viewer because we got the good matches plus a terrific Lesnar-Undertaker buildup package. A very good show.
The 8/22 NXT show headlined by Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens, set for the Barclays Center in Brookly, is now officially sold out with more than 13,000 total in attendance.
The WWE will have, perhaps for the first time ever in North America, sold out a major NBA arena on three successive nights, with NXT, SummerSlam and Raw that week all with no tickets left.
The first two hours of the show will be aired live on the WWE Network as a major Takeover show. The third hour will be a television taping for the show after Takeover.
By Jeff Zanatta
Before the show started, there was a film crew in the arena filming scenes for the new WWE film “6:42”. Dolph Ziggler filmed a few scenes where he was walking through the crowd to his seat. There were a few fans in the crowd trying to get pictures with him, but for the most part they stayed clear as it was obvious they were filming. The camera was facing opposite the ring, so I doubt Ziggler will be attending a wrestling show at any point in the movie.
Show started with the same Piper tribute package we saw on Raw, and a 10 bell salute. Crowd loved Piper.
1. New Day defeated Lucha Dragons, Ascension, Heath Slater and Brad Maddox, Curtis Axel and Damian Sandow in battle royal to determine who faces the Prime Time Players for the titles later in the show. Kofi and Woods worked the match for the New Day. Biggest reaction came from Big E on the outside getting the crowd worked up.
2. Stardust defeated Zach Ryder with the crossroads. After the match Stardust grabbed a planted #AmellGetsRaw sign and ripped it up in the ring. No Amell appearance tonight though.
3. Miz defeated Jimmy Uso with a roll up when he got his feet on the ropes. Pre-match Miz went on about how Vancouver should thank him for providing so many jobs to the city, because of all the WWE studios movies he’s filmed there. Post match he made fun of the Big Show, who came out to a massive pop, and gave Miz the choke slam. Show helped Jimmy to the back and played to the crowd, so i suppose he’s a face again, at least on the house shows.
4. Prime Time Players defeated New Day to retain the tag titles when Titus hit clash of the Titus on Woods. Big E and Woods were in the ring for New Day. This was given quite a bit of time, crowd loved to boo the New Day and were into basically everything Titus did.
Intermission
5. Paige, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch defeated Team Bad when Paige tapped Naomi with the PTO. Crowd was really into Paige, much more so than the recent NXT call ups. Notable that the face trio came out to Charlotte’s music though.
Rusev and Summer Rae were then introduced, and Rusev got the mic to run down Vancouver, Lana, and then Ziggler. Lana came out and brawled with Summer, and then Ziggler came out, to no music, and fought with Rusev. Segment ended with Ziggler hitting the zig zag on Rusev, and he and Lana celebrated with the crowd. Crowd was hot for the whole segment, especially when Lana came out.
6. Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt with the spear in a street fight. Loudest pop of the night was for Reigns’ entrance. Long main event that the crowd loved, including a few “this is awesome” chants. Wyatt put Reigns through a table with that standing rock bottom slam he does, Reigns later power bombed Wyatt through a table. Reigns countered the sister Abigail to hit the spear. Crowd was 80% behind Reigns, but there were a few audible boos. Crowd was into Wyatt as well, everyone had their phones out for his entrance.
Overall a fun show with a fairly hot crowd for the majority of the time. Typical house show crowd that cheered all the faces and boo’d most of the heels, although Wyatt got a lot of cheers as well.
We’ve been told that Stephan Amell of Arrow fame who will be on Raw tomorrow night, is backstage at today’s WWE house show in Vancouver.
–Thanks to Michael Curson
– Former WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, who grew up in the Seattle area, is backstage at Raw. He’ll do a Miz TV segment, likely promoting his book.
– The Bellas & Alicia Fox vs. Team BAD of Sasha Banks & Naomi & Tamina Snuka has also been announced for the show.
– WWE Intercontinental Champion Ryback is in Everett, WA today which means he could be returning to RAW after being out several weeks with a nasty staph infection.
– Dolph Ziggler worked the WWE Vancouver, Canada, house show Sunday and did an angle with Rusev.