WWE Raw (5/11/15)

 

We're six days away from Payback and the only matches set in stone are the Fatal Four Way with Seth Rollins defending the WWE Championship against Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton along with the I Quit Match featuring John Cena defending the WWE United States Championship against Vladimir Rusev. Bray Wyatt vs Ryback, Naomi vs Nikki Bella and New Day vs Kidd & Cesaro are on the table but not official. This week should make some more official matches. Erik Rowan returned to turn heel last week as well as the main roster debut of Sami Zayn....only for him to get hurt. What will happen this week? Let's find out.

WWE Raw

US Bank Arena

Cincinnati, Ohio

May 11, 2015

Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T and JBL

Ring Announcer: Eden Stiles

We begin the show with a limousine pulling up to the arena and out comes Triple H. Michael Cole says the atmosphere is about to change. Hunter comes to the ring alone for a powwow as Cole says Daniel Bryan is here to address his health and Intercontinental Championship status. Hunter grabs a mic and says "Daddy's home" to a shocking babyface pop. He says that's what he says to his kids when he gets home and they instantly behave better (which is absolute BULLSHIT if you actually have kids). Hunter says he needs to say that to Kane and Seth Rollins because they aren't doing what he tells them to do. Hunter says they're going to end this tonight and calls Seth and Kane to come on down.

Rollins comes out with Jamie Noble & Joey Mercury in tow. Rollins says welcome back and tries to suck up to him by saying he agrees with him. The crowd cuts him off with a "We want Ambrose" chant and Rollins says nevermind that. Rollins calls Kane a 7 foot cancer trying to poison it from the inside. Crowd chants "You sold out" and Rollins yells at them. Seth claims Kane is trying to sabotage him being champion and the crowd is unrelentless with the "We want Ambrose" chant until Seth acknowledges Dean. Rollins continues to whine about Kane with the crowd chanting "Ambrose" next. Rollins says Kane shouldn't be Director of Operations anymore, he's broken and can't be fixed. 

Rollins says Hunter should take the old dog out back and put him out of his misery and right on cue, here comes Kane in full coat & tie. Kane says with age comes wisdom and its telling him "to grab you by your turkey neck AND CHOKESLAM YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!" This gets a big pop and Hunter holds Kane back. Rollins and Kane yell at each other until Hunter says "Enough!" Hunter tells Kane he respects him but he needs to get on the same page & check his ego. Hunter says Rollins does make you want to punch him in the face but you don't, he's what's best for business. Hunter says if Rollins isn't the champion after Payback, Kane's services will no longer be needed. Kane says he respects Hunter but it might be worth it just to eviscerate Rollins. Rollins calls him insubordinate and Hunter tells him to shut up. Hunter asks Kane if they should part ways and Kane doesn't say anything. Hunter says he'll take that as a no and he's going to make all four main eventers wrestle tonight. Hunter says Kane goes one on one with Roman Reigns. Seth Rollins will be facing Randy Orton tonight. Jamie Noble out of nowhere and runs down HHH while saying Seth is the man around here. Hunter sarcasically asks that J & J Security are still here? Hunter gets down to Noble's level and says the little fellas will be wrestling right now...against Dean Ambrose. The crowd explodes as Noble and Mercury are upset. Kane, Rollins and Rollins walk up the ramp but here comes Ambrose, not wasting any time.

Match 1

Dean Ambrose vs Jamie Noble & Joey Mercury in a Handicap Match

Back from commercial break, the match has started with Mercury in with Ambrose. Ambrose slides out of the ring and drops Noble face first on the apron before sliding in. Ambrose goes to town on Mercury in the corner. Ambrose punches away on Mercury and hits a scoop slam. Mercury throws jabs nowhere close and Ambrose clotheslines him over the top to the floor. Noble gets in and begs off and Dean extends a hand. Dean kicks him in the stomach and goes for Dirty Deeds, Noble sliding out of the ring. Jamie runs for it but Dean chases him only to be headbutted in the stomach by Mercury lying in wait. Mercury rams Dean face first into the announce table. Dean double clotheslines them ass over tea kettle into the announce desk. Ambrose laughs as Booker T laughs with him. Ambrose goes up to the top but Mercury drags him down by the arm, hitting a big lariat. Mercury covers for a deuce and then the double team begins. Noble drops Ambrose with a clothesline as JBL says both of them are former good wrestlers. Cole says that was years ago. Noble applies a body scissors which allow Mercury to stomp him. Mercury hits a dropkick and covers for a 1. Mercury locks in a chinlock before Dean powers out of it. They butt heads and Noble reaches for the tag. Noble tags in but Ambrose pops up like popeye and rallies with right hands. Dean avalanches Noble in the corner and hits Flying Psycho through the ropes to the floor onto both men. Dean rolls Noble in as JBL asks can you see Ambrose as champion. Ambrose hits a second rope elbow on Mercury and covers...but Noble breaks it up. Ambrose hits a double clothesline and throws Noble into Mercury. Noble turns around into Dirty Deeds. Ambrose covers for 1..2....3 to win the match. Reminds me of the old jobber squash matches with the idea of making Dean look good in his hometown.

Time of match: 5:17

Winner: Ambrose by pinfall

We go to the replay of Ambrose winning with Cole saying Ambrose doesn't have to pin Rollins to be the champion, he can beat anyone. We get a graphic of Daniel Bryan addressing the fans tonight, this can't be good. Back from break we finally get a new match announced, Dolph Ziggler vs Sheamus again, no "kiss me arse" this time. On to the next match.

Match 2

Dolph Ziggler vs King Barrett

Sheamus sits in on commentary for this one. Dolph Ziggler looks like one of the McQuaid Brothers from 21 Jump Street and JBL says all hail King Barrett. Barrett grabs a mic before the match and says Adrian Neville is a peasant and he'll "Neville" defy gravity again after he hits him with one final bullhammer this Sunday. It hasn't been announced yet but I guess we're getting Neville/Barrett one more time. Barrett says he's going to take a page from Sheamus and make Ziggler his "royal arse kissah! Now ring the bloody bell referee" Bell's gone and immediately Ziggler nails Barrett with a superkick before Barrett even takes his robe off. Ziggler covers for 1...2....nooooo, that was close. Sheamus calls Ziggler a dirtbag and Dolph clubs away at the King. Even Barrett butt kisser JBL says Barrett did say to ring the bell. Ziggler drops an elbow and covers for a deuce then dropkicks the King to the floor. We got to commercial and when we get back, Barrett is in control with a chinlock. Sheamus says Michael Cole is welcome for no reason and says he owes Ziggler one. Ziggler hits the fameasser and covers for 1...2....no. Cole says Ziggler beat Sheamus at Extreme Rules as Ziggler wiggles out of Wasteland into a superkick. Barrett loads up the bullhammer but Dolph counters with a dropkick and rollup for 1..2...no. Ziggler takes a swipe at Sheamus who had hopped up on the ring apron, but turns around into THE BULLHAMMERRRRRR. Barrett covers for 1..2....3 to win the match. Ziggler had him on the run but Sheamus distracted Dolph long enough for Barrett to win it. 

Time of match: 5:52

Winner: Barrett by pinfall

Barrett takes off and Sheamus gets in for some heel heat. Sheamus kicks away at him and taunts the irate crowd. Sheamus slaps at him in the corner but Ziggler Thez presses him only for Sheamus to roll away and hit the Brogue Kick. Sheamus poses over Ziggler before he leaves. Barrett gets a much needed win and Sheamus gets some heat going into Sunday. We get graphics for Kane vs Roman Reigns and Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins in a non-title match later. Back from break we get a Tough Enough graphic nobody cares about. On to the next match.

Match 3

Erick Rowan (with Luke Harper) vs Fandango

This stems from Smackdown where Rowan come out after Harper had beaten Fandango and put the boots to Fandango, reuniting with Harper. Made sense to put these two back together since Rowan was utterly useless as a babyface and there were too many mid-card heels for Harper to shine. The tag team ranks were suffering with The Ascension being regulated to jobber status and nobody gave a rats ass about Los Matadores. Fandango comes out as JBL asks how long this goes, he thinks 90 seconds. Booker says 92 seconds. Fandango bum rushes Rowan at the bell as Cole says 2 minutes. Fandango hits a second rope forearm to the back and covers for 1..2...no. Rowan hits the spin kick and the full nelson slam just like that. He covers for 1..2...3 and its over after 36 seconds. The fact the announcers turned this into a game basically showed that Fandango was a jobber at this point. Shame, Johnny Curtis was far too talented but the stupid gimmick ruined him.

Time of match: 36 seconds

Winner: Rowan by pinfall

After the match Harper gets in for the two on one beat down. They even get a decent pop as Cole says this is dangerous for the WWE lockerroom. Good, the tag team division was New Day and not much else, they had to do something. We get a graphic for John Cena's Open Challenge coming up next. Last week it was Sami Zayn to have one of the best matches of the year. Who could it be this time? Back from commercial we get a highlight of last week's match before John Cena make his entrance. We get a graphic for this Sunday for the I Quit match between Cena and Vladimir Rusev for the US title. Cena gets a good babyface pop and acknowledges the cheers and boo's. Cena says whether you like him or not everyone can appreciate the US title. The crowd starts a USA chant right out of the 80's and Cena says he originally won the belt because he didn't like who was champion but now he's invigorated to represent what it really means. Cena says there will be guys that never come close to being World Champion but not the US title, the symbol of excellence. Gotta give credit to Cena for trying to make the secondary title look important. Cena says anyone and everyone has a right to come for the title, except for Rusev because he's going to beat him in an I Quit match. Cena says he never gives up and says Rusev is coming for him, he's been told to not do the Open Challenge. Cena says to hell with Rusev and bring out his challenger. Cena waits.....and out comes Adrian Neville.

Match 4

Adrian Neville vs John Cena for the WWE United States Championship

Neville gets absolutely no pop but he's here for Cena. JBL says he's gotta hand it to Cena for defending the strap six days out from the ppv. Bell's gone as Cole says these matches might catch up to him. Cena backs Neville into the corner and lets him go. Cena locks in an armbar as the crowd chants for Cena. Neville hits a northern lights suplex and locks in an arm-ringer but lets Cena go when John makes it to the rope. JBL says it could be Harper, Rowan or anyone that challenges for the title as Cena locks in a headlock. Neville powers out of it and hits a dropkick to send Cena to the floor for a breather. We go to commercial as Cena says "Not bad, kid." Back from commercial Cena hits two shoulderblocks but counters the back suplex with a german suplex of his own for 1...2..no.  Adrian baseball slides John down and hits a springboard corkscrew moonsault much to the crowd's delight. Neville rolls Cena in and covers for 1...2..no. The crowd chants NXT and Cole acknowledges it but Cena hits the back suplex. He calls for the 5 knuckle shuffle and hits it then goes for the FU. Neville wiggles out of it as Cena's charge in the corner eats boot. Neville goes up to the top and hits the 450 splash for 1...2...NOOOOOO. Booker "WOW!" Neville and Cena play "yay/boo" punchathon as JBL says "Big match John". Neville kicks Cena down but runs into a Michinoku Driver (!?). Cena covers for 1...2...no. Cena goes for the FU but Neville turns it into a crucifix for 1....2...nope. Neville leapfrogs into the corner, catches Cena with an elbow and goes for a bodypress. Cena rolls through it and turns it into an FU, but Neville rolls out of it, superkicking Cena in the face. The crowd begins to go nuts as Neville covers for 1...2...no. Adrian drags Cena into the corner but Cena catches him with the STFU. Booker "That was a mistake by Neville, he'll never do that again". Neville doesn't tap and somehow rolls through it, only to get rocked with a clothesline much to JBL's delight. Cole says Cena is frustrated as the crowd chants Let's Go Cena. Cena runs into an enziguiri but hits the FU anyway. He covers for 1...2....NOOOOOOO! Somehow Neville kicks out and the crowd is in a frenzy. Cena and Neville slowly get to their feet. Neville sides to the apron and Cena pulls him to the top rope for the Super FU. Neville wiggles out of it and rolls through for the sit-out powerbomb 1....2....noooooo. Neville rolls Cena over and goes for then Red Arrow. Neville hits it but before he can cover, here comes Rusev to ruin the match. People are PISSED! That was almost as good if not better than last week's match against Sami Zayn. Cena vs NXT every week is really getting good. Neville looked great and didn't lose to keep his momentum going.

Time of match: 14:42

Winner: Neville by DQ (Cena retains)

After the match, Rusev stomps Neville and superkicks him out of the ring. The crowd boos like crazy and Rusev stalks Cena. Rusev then superkicks Cena and locks in The Accolade. Cole says this might be the one move to get Cena to say I Quit. The crowd chants "We want Lana" and Rusev doesn't like that. Rusev grabs the US title belt and holds it up to taunt the irate crowd. Rusev promised he was coming for Cena tonight and he delivered on his promise. Cole botches saying Payback by saying "Paperback" hahaha and JBL makes the save by saying to watch the I Quit Match he had with Cena long ago. We get a graphic for Reigns vs Kane next as we go to break.

Back from commercial Kane comes out first and cuts Reigns off when he comes in through the crowd. Kane pounds away on Roman and sends him into the barrier. Kane continues to pound away then rams Roman back first into the ring post. Kane sends Reigns into the steel steps as Cole explains that Triple H called out Kane earlier and that fired him up. Reigns fights back and rams Kane into the barrier. They slug away at each other until Kane flings Roman back and forth between the barrier and the side of the ring. Kane heaves Reigns over the ring steps and hits a big boot on the floor. Kane tears apart the announce table but Roman stuns Kane with an uppercut. Reigns rams Kane into the side of the ring and whips him toward the steps. Reigns jumps over the steps then goes for the Superman punch only to get caught by Kane. Roman breaks free, hits the Superman punch and spears Kane over the announce table. Roman stands on the announce table and his music hits. Guess we're not getting a match. Point of this was Reigns is ready for Sunday.

We get a graphic of Daniel Bryan coming up later as we go to break. Back from commercial we get a graphic for the returning Tamina Snuka attacking the Bella twins from last week. On to the next match.

Match 5

Brie Bella (with Nikki Bella) vs Tamina Snuka (with Naomi)

The crowd is completely silent as both pairs enter showing how awful this has been booked. The Bellas turned face by proxy but fans aren't buying it and Tamina was never a crowd favorite. We get a PIP of Naomi cutting a promo saying the Bellas got a taste of their own medicine and now she's got "family" to back her up. What? The Snukas aren't related to the Usos. Typical Vince. Bell rings and Tamina backs Brie into the corner only to get pounded on by Bella. Tamina kicks Brie in the stomach but eats an elbow. Tamina does a backbreaker and an axehandle to the back. Tamina sends Brie into the corner back first and locks in a chinlock. Tamina drops some knees to the back then the stomach. She covers for a 1 count and chokes Brie on the second rope in front of Nikki. Brie hits a running roll up for a 1 count then runs into a clothesline. Tamina covers for 1...2..no. Brie rolls through a back suplex and hits first a clothesline, then a dropkick. Tamina barely sells it as Brie goes to the second rope for the missile dropkick. Brie covers for 1...2..no. Brie shouts BRIEEE MODEEE and hits a running knee. She goes for a second one but runs into a superkick. Tamina covers for 1...2...3 to win the match. That was sudden. Naomi jumps up and down in the entrance way as the heels retreat. Kind of a pointless match other than to show that Tamina means business.

Time of match: 3:34

Winner: Tamina by pinfall

We get a graphic for Orton vs Rollins later as Cole speculates this won't take place either after what happened with Kane and Reigns earlier. On to the next match.

Match 6

Curtis Axel vs Damien Sandow

We get a pre-match graphic of Axel and Sandow doing Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage imitations to the delight of no one. Instead of Damien Sandow its "Macho Mandow" and JBL is about to throw up "Somewhere Randy Savage is rolling in his grave, check that, spinning." He was cremated but the sentiment remains. JBL hates everything that's going on as the bell rings. Sandow does the finger point as Axel tears his shirt off. Axel sends Mandow into the ropes but misses the big boot. Sandow drops Axel with clotheslines and a scoop slam. Sandow goes for the top rope elbow but here comes The Ascension for absolutely no reason. JBL "I've never been so happy to see The Ascension." Viktor on a mic says "You think THIS is entertaining? These two delusional idiots are trying to be two old relics from the past to jumpstart their pathetic careers." Konnor "Dressing like a legend is different from being a legend." Konnor says the crowd isn't laughing with them, they're laughing at Sandow and Axel. Viktor says there's a new age in WWE (cue the What chants) and hit the ring. Sandow throws Konnor out of the ring and slams Viktor. He pulls Axel up and tells him to hit the leg drop. Axel drops the big leg and Sandow goes upstairs. Sandow goes for the big elbow but Konnor pulls Viktor out. They retreat as Sandow and Axel taunt them. JBL "I'm speechless. That was....something." Axel and Sandow do the hand shake to form the "Mega Powers" as JBL says god help us. Remember how the tag team division was hot garbage lately with the Ascension & Los Matadores regulated to jobber status and The Uso's out with injury? Harper & Rowan and Axel & Sandow just joined the ranks. Absolutely stupid segment but it does give Axel & Sandow something to do at least. 

Time of match: 2:00

Winner: No one (no contest)

We get a graphic for Daniel Bryan coming up next as we go to break. Back from break we get Tough Enough samples I'm not going to dignify with a response and Cole plugging the website for the sample videos. Oh wait....pretty sure "Hollywood" Mike Verna was the last one shown. HIM I know.

Here comes Daniel Bryan in street clothes and the IC title belt....this can't be good. Bryan hits the ring for a conference. The crowd chants "Daniel Bryan" as he's visibly shaken. He says the last couple of weeks he's been in and out of doctor's appointments and he doesn't do well with down time. He came here for the energy of the crowd and for years the crowd treated him better than anyone in the back. He says almost exactly a year ago Stephanie McMahon stripped him of the WWE Championship and he felt like he let the fans down. Bryan says the fans got him that far which sparks a Yes chant. Bryan has to admit that Stephanie was right to do it because the fans deserve a fighting champion. Bryan says that's why he's here tonight which sparks a "No" chant. The fans know where this is going. Bryan says he had an MRI last week and he says no one knows how long he'll be out. He says he might never wrestle again and knows what needs to be done. Bryan says the fans deserve WWE stars like Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose fighting for it. Had to mention Dean for the hometown crowd. Bryan says the IC belt belongs in the ring, not on a physical therapist's chair. He officially relinquishes the title as the crowd chants "Thank you Daniel". Daniel says they're wrong, he thanks the fans this time. He leaves the belt in the center of the ring as the entire crowd gets on their feet to say goodbye. Bryan fights back tears as someone can be heard in the crowd saying "We love you." Daniel leads one last Yes chant before he leaves. Well this sucks. He basically came back against all odds only to be shut down again, it would be a long time before he would be in the ring again.

Back from commercial the announcers are just as depressed as the crowd. Booker and JBL talk about how you never know when your time is up.....and here comes The New Day. Xavier Woods comes out and says Daniel Bryan is gone so its time for a New Day. Woods tries a "New...Day Rocks" chant but the crowd says "New...Day Sucks". Kofi Kingston says one of these days they'll get the chant right. Kofi says the New Day is all about second chances and giving them to people. Big E Langston says "except Pete Rose." Low hanging fruit but okay. Kofi gets to the point and says this Sunday it'll be a 2 out of 3 falls match for the tag team titles between them and Tyson Kidd & Cesaro. They try a New Day Rocks chant and here comes Kidd, Cesaro and Natalya.

Match 7

Cesaro (with Tyson Kidd & Natalya) vs Big E Langston (with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)

Singles action with the two hosses of the group. Bell's gone as the announcers speculate who the 2 out of 3 falls stip gives the advantage to. Langston gets in a headlock as JBL says Jack Tunney wouldn't put up with what Roger Goodel does in the NFL (ha!). Langston jumps into a scoop slam by Cesaro as JBL says the New England Patriots should be stripped of their Superbowl win. God Brady won in the end. Cesaro hits a top rope crossbody for 1..2...no. Cesaro stomps away at Big E as the crowd chants New Day sucks. Cesaro clotheslines Langston over the top to the floor as we go to commercial. Back from break Cesaro slugs away at Big E in the middle of the ring. Langston locks in an abdominal stretch until Cesaro fights out of it with a gut-wrench suplex. Cesaro walks into a belly to belly suplex but Big E misses the big splash. Cesaro runs into a rock bottom and E covers for 1...2...no. Big E drops Cesaro with a clothesline and covers for 1...2...no. Woods "HES ON FIREEEEEE" as the crowd claps for Cesaro. Cesaro ducks the line and hits a springboard uppercut much to Cole's delight. Cesario hits an overhead suplex and hits an uppercut in the corner. Cesaro nails a series of uppercuts and calls for the giant swing. Woods hops up on the apron for the distraction but Kidd takes him out. Kofi drops Kidd and Cesaro turns around in time to see Big E coming. Cesaro does a European roll up (!!??) for 1...2....3 to win the match. Haven't seen THAT in a while! Decent hoss fight with Cesaro stealing the show with his freak strength.

Time of match: 8:54

Winner: Cesaro by pinfall

After the match we get the pre-show match for this Sunday......Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow vs The Ascension. Good grief. On top of that, the month of May is free for WWE Network. A second ppv has been added for two weeks from Sunday....ELIMINATION CHAMBER. Ah lovely, we get 3 ppvs in the span of a month. Money In The Bank is scheduled for June 14th in Columbus, Ohio, EC on May 31st in Corpus Christi, Texas and Payback this Sunday. 

Back from break we get the Prime Time Players Titus O'Neill and Darren Young doing a New Age Outlaws impression. This was a sad sign of the times where WWE guys had to imitate old WWE guys because they couldn't get over on their own. O'Neill says you better beat somebody and Darren in a blonde wig says if you're not down with that, he's got 3 words for ya. Millions of dollars. Wonderful....next.

Here comes Bray Wyatt for a philosophical discussion. He gets in the ring and says he wishes he could reach out and fix everything. Bray says fear is all around us and engulfed the world like a wildfire. He says open a newspaper and turn on the TV to see fear being sold of a crumbling economy that will never stop. Bray says people aren't waking up yet and Ryback is an inspiration to them. The crowd barely chants "Feed me more" as Bray brings up Ryback's ankle injury and how he was told to retire. Bray says Ryback fought through the injury to rise again and Bray says "My hero." Bray says along the came the spider as Ryback has never seen anything like him before. Bray says Ryback must be asking why him (and so is everyone else) and Bray says Ryback's in his way. Bray says "Sometimes the bad guy just wins." Bray poses in the ring but here comes Ryback. Cole "and sometimes the good guy does." JBL "That we dont know yet." Ryback and Wyatt scrap with Ryback hitting the spinebuster. Ryback clotheslines Bray who heads for the hills. The crowd finally chants "feed me more" a little bit louder as Bray smiles in the entrance. Well now we got the answer, "fuck you that's why". Still, the match should be interesting as Ryback stands tall before the break.

Back from commercial its time for the main event.

Match 8

Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)

Non-title match so Rollins has nothing to lose here. Seth and Orton exchange holds with Orton getting the early headlock. The announcers bicker with each other as Rollins drops Orton with a shoulderblock. Orton responds with a back elbow smash and they slug it out in the ring. Orton throws Rollins head first into the ground and into the corner. Orton drops Rollins with a European uppercut and stomps away at him. Cole says Orton has the advantage in the match as a 12 time world champion. Orton misses the knee drop but hits the backbreaker. Cole brings up Rollin's dastardly deeds the past year as Orton is sent to the outside as we go to break. Back from commercial Rollins has the chinlock applied. JBL once again is terrified of Ambrose winning the title. Rollins sends Orton into the corner but is backdropped to the apron. Seth goes upstairs but Orton crotches him on the top rope. Orton laughs at Rollins and hits the superplex. Orton and Rollins play yay/boo punchathon until Rollins gets the final kick to the stomach. Orton floors Rollins with a clothesline and goes for the powerslam but Rollins catches himself on the rope. A charge in the corner by Orton eats boot but Rollins comes off the second rope into a powerslam. Orton hooks the leg for 1...2...no. Rollins snaps Orton off the top rope and hits an enziguiri on the apron. Rollins hits the springboard knee drop and covers for 1...2..no. Rollins rolls out of the backbreaker but walks into a t-bone Taz plex (!!??) by Orton. Rollins dumps him to the apron and dropkicks him onto the floor. Rollins hits the suicide dive outside and both guys slide back in. Rollins misses the stinger splash and Orton rolls him for 1..2...no. Rollins kicks Orton in the head and covers for another deuce. Rollins gets to his feet first and mocks Randy by imitating is viper curl. Orton goes to backdrop Rollins but Seth rolls out of it. Rollins runs but Orton catches him with the second rope DDT. Orton curls up and calls for the RKO. Randy goes for it but here comes Joey Mercury for the DQ. Who booked this show, Vince Russo? Good match but another ending ruined by DQ. 

Time of match: 15:19

Winner: Orton by DQ

After the match J & J Security put the loafers to Orton. They lift him up but he fights out of it. He throws Noble into the post and drops Mercury, but turns around into a Rollins clothesline. Rollins picks Mercury and Noble up and Kane makes his appearance. Kane grabs a chair and just looks at J & J Security. Mercury, Noble and Rollins put the boots to Orton but here comes Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns to even the odds. They clean house of Mercury and Noble as Orton gets to his feet. The 3 faces surround Rollins and he calls out to Kane. Again Kane doesn't move as Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds on Rollins. Kane still doesn't do anything as the crowd chants for an RKO. Ambrose picks up Rollins and Reigns hits a spear on Seth. Ambrose and Reigns ask what's up with Kane as Orton just looks at Rollins. The duo pick up Rollins and Orton hits the RKO. Randy turns around into a Roman Reigns spear and he celebrates. Reigns turns around into Dirty Deeds from Ambrose. Dean stands tall to end the show with Kane still doing nothing. Cole hypes up NXT and an encore showing of Sami Zayn vs NXT star Kevin Owens as we sign up.

Apart from the Cena/Neville match, this was a bad show. Too many DQ finishes and somewhat pointless matches. Still, we're 6 days out from the pay-per-view, makes no sense to blow your load now. Daniel Bryan retiring sucks but that means we'll be getting a new IC champion soon. Problem is they played hot potato with the belt before Bryan got it, hopefully we don't see that again. As for the US title match, there's not a chance in hell Rusev wins it but dammit they're going to try to make it look like he can. The tag team division has been absolute garbage since Wrestlemania so at least they're trying to fix it with putting Harper & Rowan back together and Axel & Sandow. The Divas situation is an absolute mess with the Bellas working face by proxy and the fans just aren't interested. Bringing back a hoss like Tamina makes Naomi look better but unfortunately there's no other competition....yet. Ryback and Wyatt would be a good hoss fight and both desperately need a big win. The whole Ziggler/Neville against Barrett/Sheamus thing has been going on since Wrestlemania so its time to end those. Finally, once again they're trying to make it look like Kane is turning face by saying he's fired if Rollins loses so you know Seth isn't going to. They're having Dean Ambrose stand tall lately so they're trying to make it look like he's got the best chance to walk out of there the winner. The next show after this is Wednesday's NXT, I'll see you there.

WWE Smackdown (5/7/15)

WWE Smackdown

Canadian Tire Centre

Ottawa, CA

May 7, 2015

Commentators: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton & Jerry "The King" Lawler

Ring Announcer: JoJo Offerman

We're just 10 days away from Payback and Monday's Raw gave us Dean Ambrose in the main event to set up a Fatal-Four-Way for the main event. Rusev vs John Cena "I Quit" is also featured in ten days but let's see if we get any more matches for the show. New Day vs Tyson Kidd & Cesaro could be on the table and Ryback vs Bray Wyatt as well, but nothing's concrete. Let's get started...with a dark match.

Dark Match

Charlotte Flair vs Natalya

Yes, the NXT Women's Champion Charlotte Flair was getting a trial run before making her way to the main roster. She faced Natalya in this special dark match. Natalya got the duke, but Flair was definitely on her way.

Winner: Natalya

We begin with a recap vignette of Dean Ambrose being added to the main event. Then we see Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton end with an Authority beat down until Dean Ambrose to make the save...only for Randy Orton to rKo Reigns. Ambrose hit Randy Orton with Dirty Deeds to leave him standing tall to end it. Tom and Byron welcome us to the show and hypes up the contract signing tonight between the four participants in the main event. Then we're sent to Jerry "The King" Lawler in the ring who recaps the King of The Ring last week and brings out King Barrett to address his subjects. Barrett comes out wearing the crown, holding the scepter and has the cape draped over one arm. Lawler says "From one king to another..." and Barrett cuts him off. Barrett says there's only one king in WWE and its not Lawler. Wade says Jerry just calls himself the King, Barrett earned it by beating three guys in 24 hours. Barrett refuses to be treated as an equal and demands Jerry say "All hail King Barrett". Lawler can't even get a response in before Barrett says there's no castles in the Memphis trailer parks or the phony king Elvis Pressley. Barrett says the only throne Lawler should be on is the toilet and demands him to say All Hail King Barrett. Lawler refuses and Barrett gets in his face to say "Bloody do it." Lawler says "no" and Barrett says the interview is over. Barrett goes to load up a bull hammer but Dolph Ziggler walks out. Dolph gets in the ring and says Barrett is acting like a Renaissance Fair reject. Referee Mike Chioda gets in the ring and Dolph says its a good thing Mike is here because he's going to drop Barrett. Guess we got an impromptu match.

Match 1

Dolph Ziggler vs King Barrett

Bell rings and they circle to start. Lawler says Barrett's only been king for a week as Wade drops Ziggler with a shoulderblock. Barrett "All hail the king" as he kicks away at Dolph in the corner. Barrett hits a floatover suplex for 1...2..no. Barrett drops a knee and covers for another deuce but gets dropkicked by Ziggler. Barrett bails to the outside as Ziggler shouts to get back in as we go to break. Back from commercial Ziggler punches away at Barrett but misses the splash in the corner. Barrett covers for two as Lawler asks if Saxton will grovel at Wade's feet. Byron says no as we go to Barrett hitting the big boot to Ziggler during commercial. Barrett's chinlock is fought out of it by Ziggler and he knees Ziggler in the head anyway. He covers for two as Lawler says 20 years ago he called the fans peons and told them to kiss his royal feet and it didn't work out, he ended up having to kiss his own foot. Ha! At least we finally get a reason why he just stopped being a heel by 1999. Barrett drops a knee to the back and locks in a surfboard. Lawler says he's going rub the locker-room the wrong way as Ziggler runs into Winds of Change. He covers for 1...2...no. Lawler says Barrett can go bowling with his boogers as Ziggler hits a fameasser out of nowhere. Ziggler covers but here's Sheamus out of nowhere to wreck everything. Lawler "Are you kidding me?" That was going well until the run in.

Time of match: 6:48

Winner: Ziggler by DQ

Post-match Sheamus and Barrett double team Ziggler. They tie Dolph in the ropes but here's Adrian Neville for the save. Neville dropkicks Sheamus, ducks the line and dropkicks Barrett to the outside. The faces stand tall in the ring as we go to break. Back from break.....we got another match!

Match 2

Dolph Ziggler & Adrian Neville vs King Barrett and Sheamus

During commercial, apparently we got an impromptu tag match. Barrett has Neville down and immediately makes the tag to Sheamus. Sheamus taunts Neville and kick him in the chest. Lawler says he's co-existed peacefully with all the previous kings of the ring except Bret Hart. Ha, Lawler is on fire tonight with logic. He did support Owen Hart, Mabel and HHH for sure. Neville kicks Sheamus in the ribs but can't make the tag. Sheamus knocks Dolph off the apron and hits the Irish Curse, covering for 1...2...no. Sheamus has a healing black eye because Dolph kicked him in the face in the KoTR match for real by accident the week before. Barrett tags in and hits a backbreaker of his own before covering 1...2...no. Neville kicks Barrett in the head but Wade hits a big boot. Sheamus tags in and locks in a chinlock before Neville crawls toward Ziggler. Neville walks into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and shouts "Are you not entertained??" Neville crawls to the apron and Sheamus goes for 10 beats of the Bodhran. Sheamus clubs him three times but Neville snaps him off the top rope. Back inside Sheamus misses a charge in the corner and Ziggler gets the hot tag. Barrett tags in too to get rocked by Ziggler. Ziggler hits the Stinger Splash in the corner and a dropkick. Dolph hits a DDT and covers for 1...2..no. Ziggler hits the superkick and covers for 1..2...no. Ziggler clotheslines Sheamus over the top and out and Neville hits a suicide dive on Sheamus but Barrett rolls up Ziggler with his feet on the ropes 1...2....no, Neville throws the feet off at the last second. Ziggler hits Zig Zag and covers for 1...2...3 to win the match. Lawler whoops it up as King Barrett begins his reign with two losses in one night. Barrett always took losses when he shouldn't.

Time of match: 6:02

Winners: Dolph and Neville by pinfall

We're getting a Six-Man-Tag later with the New Day facing Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and a mystery partner. Who could it be? Find out later. We cut to Renee Young with Dean Ambrose and asks about his chances. Ambrose says he's not a math guy or an Authority guy. He says he's the chaos theory of the Authority as he's the last guy they expected to be in, and he's walking out the last man standing. Ambrose has a feeling that nobody will be happy to see him. We go to commercial and back from break, we get a blurb that WWE is the Number 1 sports channel on Youtube. Poor UrinatingTree....on to the next match.

Match 3

Luke Harper vs Fandango

Harper hasn't done a damn thing since losing to Ambrose at Extreme Rules and he gets the glorified jobber Fandango here. Bell rings and Harper does his own parody of the Fandango dance before booting him in the head. Hahahaha! Harper chokes Fandango in the corner as Phillips said he once belonged to the Wyatt Family. Harper gets chopped in the chest and dropkicked by Fandango. Fandango hits a heel kick and hits a tornado DDT from the second rope. Fandango goes upstairs but Harper throws him off before hitting a superkick. Harper hits the big lariat and covers for 1..2...3 to win the match. If you want to re-establish Harper as something, that helps. Short and sweet squash.

Time of match: 2:08

Winner: Harper by pinfall

All of a sudden Erick Rowan's music hits. He hasn't been since since Wrestlemania really but he heads to the ring. Rowan and Harper fighting again? NO! Rowan puts the boots to Fandango and drops a knee. Rowan hits the pump handle slam and just leaves. What, he just hates Fandango? Even Harper looks confused inside the ring. That was stupid, should have just had them shake hands or leave together. 

We get a graphic for our ppv main event before we go to break. Back from break, Lana is in the ring who gets a babyface pop. Lana says not to cheer for her because it angers Rusev causing a chorus of boos. Speaking of which, here he comes to the ring. Rusev yells at Lana for no reason and tells her to leave. They're really hammering the Marc Mero/Sable storyline here. Lawler "She's the only thing to ever make Rusev bearable to watch." That one hits home big time....too close. Rusev cuts the same promo as always, promising to break John Cena and his victories are a fluke. Rusev says Cena showed mercy to Sami Zayn and mercy is a sign of weakness. Rusev will make Cena say I Quit....yeah yeah. Does anyone in the world think Rusev has half a chance to win that match?

The announcers at ringside plug the WWE Network shows before sending us back to Renee with Roman Reigns. Reigns has no emotions since he's been rivals with Randy Orton since day one. He hates everything about Seth Rollins but Dean Ambrose is like a brother to him. He trusts Dean (that's a mistake) and he's bringing the fight at Payback. The quicker he signs the contract, the quicker he gets to punch someone in the mouth for championship gold. Up next is our six man tag match as we go to break. On to the next match back from break and New Day comes out first. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro along with Natalya come out next. The mystery partner is....Ryback. Someone who can counter Big E for sure.

Match 4

The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E Langston) vs Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Ryback (with Natalya)

Now THAT'S a mystery partner and New Day isn't happy about it. Woods says "he can't take E" as the crowd chants feed me more. Ryback starts with Kofi as the crowd chants New...Day sucks. Kofi kicks Ryback in the side of the leg then in the ribs. Kofi locks in a hammerlock but Ryback reverses it. Ryback shoulderblocks Kofi down and catches Kingston in mid air. He tags in Kidd who hits a dropkick. He covers for 1 but Kofi gets a knee to the ribs. Woods tags in but runs into a drop-toe-hold. Woods doesn't see the bling tag to Cesaro and runs right into a clothesline. Cesaro gets Ryback's attention and executes a delayed suplex. Ryback then picks up Big E and Kidd gets Woods for a triple delayed suplex. The crowd loved that one. Cesaro throws Woods in his corner then tags in Tyson. They double stomp Woods in the corner to the rhythm of "New...day sucks" and Ryback does it as well. Woods sunset flips Kidd, but Tyson counters with a sharpshooter attempt. Woods bails to the outside and Kidd somersault planchas Xavier on the floor. Cesaro takes out Kofi and Ryback bowls over Big E as well. Kidd throws Woods back in the ring but Woods dropkicks him off the apron. Big E gets the tag and he rams Tyson into both the barricade, then the side of the ring, back to the barricade, back to the side of the ring. We cut to commercial and back from break, New Day has Tyson isolated in the corner. Woods hits a tornado DDT and covers for 1..2....no. Kidd is rammed into the corner and Langston tags in. Big E hits an overhead belly to belly suplex and claps at Kidd. E hits a second one and covers for 1..2....no. Xavier tags in and kicks Tyson in the ribs but misses a charge in the corner. Kofi knocks Cesaro off the apron but forgets about Ryback who gets the hot tag. Ryback cleans house and hits a spinebuster on Kofi. Ryback calls for the meat hook but Kofi distracts him. Ryback hits an overhead suplex on Kofi and tags in Cesaro. Cesario does the running uppercuts in the corner and a spinebuster. Cesarp throws Big E outside and Kidd takes Woods out with a kick. Cesaro tags Kidd who does the old Tower of Doom on Kofi. Kidd covers for 1..2....nooooo. Ryback drops Woods an clotheslines E over the top rope. Ryback tosses Woods over the top to the floor but the lights go out...uh oh. The lights go on as Ryback is clotheslined down on outside. Kofi rolls up Kidd inside for 1..2....3 to win the match. The Bray Wyatt distraction worked long enough for New Day to steal one. That was a great match, too bad the crappy ending ruined it.

Time of match: 12:11

Winners: New Day by pinfall

Renee Young is in Randy Orton and says Orton couldn't win at Extreme Rules and asks what his new strategy is. Orton says he's going to hit whoever closest to him is and will do anything to win. He's facing the entire Shield but he says that one of them ain't gonna make it to Payback. Who could he be referring to? Back from break, its on to our next match.

Match 5

Emma vs Naomi (with Tamina Snuka)

Naomi has a PiP interview with Naomi and everybody's "gonna know" about them. I see....Bell's gone and Naomi immediately attacks. She kicks away at Emma in the corner but Emma reverses it and throws Naomi into the center of the ring. Emma hits a dropkick and covers for 1..2...no. Emma gets kicked in the head and taken down by the hair by Naomi. Naomi hits a rude awakening and nips up before taunting the irate crowd. Naomi kicks Emma in the ribs and chokes her on the first rope. Naomi then chokes her on the top rope and throws her down. Naomi hits a dropkick and covers for 1...2...nope. Naomi throws Emma in the corner but misses a charge. Emma tries a sunset flip for 1...2...no. A schoolgirl gets 1...2..no. Another pinfall gets two but Naomi reverses it into a backslide for a deuce. Emma runs right into the Rear View and Naomi covers for 1..2....3 to win the match. Total squash by Naomi to establish her as top heel with Tamina by her side.

Time of match: 3:11

Winner: Naomi by pinfall

Post-match Naomi and Tamina beat down Emma and Tamina lays her out with a superkick. Emma is completely lost on the main roster without Santino Marella but fear not, help is on the way in NXT. If she can't do it, others can. We go to the announcers who hype up the upcoming season of Tough Enough....oh god, no. Next! Back from commercial Renee Young is with Seth Rollins with J & J Security in tow. Rollins says its HIS championship on the line and he makes the impossible, possible. He shocked the world at Wrestlemania but Renee counters that Kane takes credit for helping him win. Rollins says that sounds desperate and he's jealous of him. Rollins says Kane is trying to keep his job and jealous of him. Rollins has something Kane will never have, brains. He always has a plan for Payback and tonight. Seth says the future is now. On to the next match.

Match 6

Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) with El Torrito vs The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara)

Kind of a pointless match near the end of the show but at least we get to see Lucha Libre....yay? Kalisto and Fernando start and shake hands to begin. They chain wrestle to start then go to the chinlock 10 seconds into it. Kalisto hits a head scissors and a headlock takeover as Phillips says the Dragons were NXT tag champs. Sin Cara tags in with a hilo and a head scissors of his own. Sin Cara gets a headlock takeover as Lawler asks how New Day would handle these teams. Diego tags in and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker before covering for a deuce. Fernando tags in and they catch Cara mid air, but Diego is armdragged out of the ring. Cara does a headstand on the top turnbuckle but Fernando kicks him out of the ring. Torrito does a bronco buster outside as we go to break. Back from commercial the Matadores hit a double suplex on Cara. Fernando covers for 1...2..no. Cara hits a modified Angle Slam and Kalisto gets the hot tag. Kalisto hits a springboard sky twister press and hits the Listo Kick. He hits a head scissors for 1..2...no, Diego breaks it up. Kalisto hits a springboard Pele kick on Fernando but Sin Cara botches a suicide dive, hitting face first on the ground in front of Fernando outside. He caught his foot on the ropes that Kalisto was standing on. Diego sunset flips Kalisto for 1...2...no. Sin Cara gets a blind tag but misses the swanton bomb. He still hits a cradle for 1...2...3 to win the match. Kalisto moves like a young Rey Mysterio and is similar size as well. Good lucha libre match even if Cara botched that one spot.

Time of match: 9:13

Winners: Lucha Dragons by pinfall

Post-match the Dragons celebrate but Diego shoves down Torito. Oh no! Fernando calms him down though. We get one last graphic for the final segment before we go to commercial. Back from break, Kane is in the ring for the contract signing. He brings out Randy Orton first, then Roman Reigns, then Dean Ambrose who gets a bigger pop then both Orton & Reigns. Finally Rollins comes out last with J & J security holding his own mic. Rollins doesn't get in the ring, he just stands on the stage. Kane goes to emcee then Ambrose calls Rollins "Justin Bieber" and tells him to bring "Frodo" and "Bilbo" to come down there. Rollins says Ambrose humor was just as bad as Roman trying to form sentences. Rollins says he'll stay up there and let the other 3 sort their business out. Roman has a sentence, he's going to sign the contract and kick hiss ass. Roman signs as Orton says they all want that world championship around Seth's waist. Randy signs it and Dean says he's gonna drag Rollins down there himself. Rollins says Kane will sign for him and Kane says he COULD do that in theory but Kane remembers Seth calling him obsolete and irrelevant. Kane says he could sign as a proxy if he was injured but Kane insists to come sign himself since he's healthy. Seth says fine and heads to the ring steps as the crowd chants "Justin Bieber". Seth sends Joey Mercury in to get the contract so Seth can review it. Instead he calls Ambrose "low rent Roddy Piper" which apparently is what Roman called him. Seth says Roman signs autographs better than he wrestles which is what Ambrose used to say about him. Seth says its no secret Dean and Roman called him spoiled, entitled and never worked a day. Rollins "What's wrong with a little honesty." Seth gets in the ring with J & J as the crowd chants rKo. Seth signs it and hands it to "Mr. Obsolete" and Kane says he's the only reason Seth is champion. Dean rearranges the chairs and sets up the table in the corner. Dean says we all know this was how it was going to end anyway so he's got dibs on the table. He throws Mercury up the table since its a real one and not the easily breakable ones. A brawl envelops with J & J and Ambrose outside with Roman slugging it out with Kane. Randy kicks away at Rollins until clotheslining him over the top rope. Ambrose heaves chairs onto Jamie Noble and suicide dives Kane into the announce table. Roman superman punches Kane and Ambrose catches Rollins inside the ring. Rollins dropkicks Reigns into Ambrose and avoids the rKo. Ambrose and Reigns shove each other and Orton rKo's Ambrose. Reigns hits the Superman punch to Orton and Rollins comes off the top with a dropkick to Reigns. Rollins superkicks Reigns, grabs the belt and poses with it as we sign off.

Rollins standing tall in the end had to be done because he was getting beat up every show at this point by the other three. By dividing and conquering, his game plan is real clear. The rest of the show was a big bag of meh although the lucha match was good. Erik Rowan returned to turn heel but not join Luke Harper was bizarre although they may elaborate on that one. New Day being as obnoxious as they can be is working perfectly. We still got two big shows left before Payback so the card will be set for sure. The next show after this is the upcoming Raw. I'll see you there.

WWE King of The Ring 2015 (4/28/15)

Free of the constraints of network television, WWE decided to have the 2015 King of The Ring finals as a 1 hour WWE Network special. Rather than hold the semi-finals on Smackdown and the Finals on a PPV, we got the semi-finals and finals on this special. For those that didn't bother to read the Raw recap, Bad News Barrett defeated Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth defeated Stardust, Sheamus defeated Dean Ambrose and Adrian Neville defeated Luke Harper. Barrett takes on Truth and Sheamus fights Neville tonight. Let's get to it.

IWireless Center

Moline, Illinois

April 28, 2015

Commentators: Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry "The King" Lawler

Ring Announcer: Eden Stiles

We open the show with a graphic honoring the late Verne Gagne who had passed away the day before before the opening vignette. Jerry Lawler opens the show thanking the fans and giving us a montage of what's to come tonight and how we got here. Then we cut to Byron Saxton who interviews Sheamus about his semi-final match. He says he's going to be the two time (TWO TIME) king of the ring but has to get past the "English elf" Neville. He may defy gravity, but not while he's unconscious. He says it don't matter who's in the Finals against him because he's going to become king. Then he'll make every little fella including Dolph Ziggler in WWE kiss his arse. We cut to Renee Young who's with Adrian Neville and he talks about how he was one of NXT's greatest champions and now he's in the KOTR semi-finals. He said even he can't believe it and no one gave him a chance to win. He's going to defy the odds and gravity. He's going to show Sheamus what a "little fella" like him can do.

Match 1

Sheamus vs Adrian Neville in a King of The Ring Semifinal match

Size vs speed here as we kick things off with Sheamus and Adrian Neville. Sheamus makes fun of Neville's height and calls him an elf. Sheamus backs him in the corner and tells him to come on. Sheamus and Neville trade punches then Neville goes up and over. He goes for a boot, ducks the line, kicks Sheamus in the ribs and runs into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Neville looks legit hurt but Sheamus knees him in the ribs anyway. Sheamus hits another backbreaker and a running knee to the head. Sheamus "Are you not entertained????" Sheamus kicks Neville in the corner and locks in a bear hug. Cole names some Kings of the past and JBL says don't forget King Booker. Sheamus misses a clothesline and Neville hits two running forearms. Neville kicks at Sheamus but Sheamus sends him to the apron. Sheamus goes for 10 Beats of the Bodhran, but Neville blocks it. Sheamus shoves Adrian off the apron straight into the announce table. Neville takes the nine count outside but slides back in. Sheamus slugs away in the corner and throws him across the ring. Sheamus says he doesn't belong in his ring and goes for White Noise. Sheamus hits it but then Dolph Ziggler comes out with a microphone. Ziggler points to the titantron and a highlight of Ziggler beating Sheamus distracts him. He turns around and misses the Brogue Kick, getting kicked in the back of the head but Adrian. Neville goes up to the top rope and hits the Red Arrow. He covers for 1...2....3 to win the match. Kind of cheap to have Dolph distract Sheamus but Neville gets a big win regardless. Good match for what it was.

Time of match: 5:47

Winner: Neville by pinfall

After the match Dolph grabs a microphone and raises Neville's arm. Dolph then says he has unfinished business with Sheamus. He was supposed to kiss Dolph's ass at Extreme Rules and now he's come to collect. He charges the ring and drives Sheamus back with punches, but Sheamus bails. Only when the referees come out does he try to charge the ring. Don't tell me this is going to be a running gag of Dolph chasing Sheamus around to kiss his ass. Sheamus has a nasty cut over his eye and he's bleeding quite a bit. Apparently Dolph hit him with a live round. 

Then we cut to Renee Young who's with Wade Barrett. She says that Neville beating Sheamus is one of the biggest upsets in KOTR history and and asks Wade what his confidence level is. Wade gets offended and says Truth shouldn't have arachnophobia, he should have Bullhammerphobia. Wade says when he's finished with has-been (Truth) he's going to beat the "Neville-will-be.". Neville will be the "man that nobody remembers because Bad News Barrett will be King of the Ring. We go to Byron Saxton with R-Truth who says everyone knows he's afraid of spiders, but he has a plan. He's going to win King of The Ring, declare that spiders are banned from wrestling. Including the "nephew spiders" He'll build a castle, a drawbridge and a moat then he stops. He asks if there are water spiders and Byron looks at him funny. Byron asks about Barrett and Truth says Barrett won't be invited into the castle unless he can kill spiders. Truth says he's going to take care of the water spiders right now. Yeah Truth's pretty out there....anyway, on to the next match.

Match 2

R-Truth vs Wade "Bad News" Barrett in a King of The Ring Semifinal match

Winner faces Adrian Neville in the Finals so logic dictates Barrett will win. Bret Hart and Booker T apparently chimed in on Twitter and Lawler says "I remember when Bret was crowned king of the ring, I crowned him." Hahahaha! Bell rings and they circle to start and Truth gets a quick roll up to a deuce. Barrett punches Truth in the solar plexus and backs him to the ropes. Truth dances and elbows Barrett in the face. Truth hits the O'Connor roll for a deuce but Barrett hits a big boot, covering for another two. Barrett chokes Truth on the second rope then knees him in the head. Wade boots Truth out of the ring and rams his head against the apron. Barrett throws Truth inside and covers for 1..2...no. JBL talks about Roman Emperor Nero as Barrett locks in a chinlock. Barrett gets knees to the ribs but a charge in the corner eats boot.Truth rallies with clotheslines and a kick to the ribs. Truth hits a faceplant and covers for 1...2...no. Truth misses a scissors kick but Barrett runs into an axe kick. Truth covers for 1..2....no. Truth looks at the ref in disbelief as Lawler says Truth needs to fill his moat with bug spray. Truth ducks the line and hits a sky twister elbow. He covers for 1...2..no. Lawler and Cole asks if Barrett looked past R-Truth as Barrett shoves him down. Truth runs right into Winds of Change and covers for 1.....2....nooo. Wade rams Truth's head into the buckle and stomps a mud-hole in him. Barrett misses a charge and Truth hits Lie Detector. He covers for 1..2....no, Barrett got the foot on the rope. Truth can't believe it as JBL says Truth is our last hope to have an American king....ha, he's right. Barrett bails to the outside but Truth grabs him, only to get a thumb to the eye. Barrett turns his armpad around, rolls inside and buries Truth with a Bullhammer. Barrett covers for 1....2....3 to win the match. Its gonna be the two Brits, Neville and Barrett in the finals. Fitting for the two Brits to battle over who's king. Match was okay as JBL says we're one win away from having King Bad News.

Time of match: 4:38

Winner: Barrett by pinfall

Over to the announce table who Michael Cole solemly announces Verne Gagne passed away the day before. We go directly to a video tribute of Verne Gagne of his life. Fun fact, Gagne started the AWA in 1960 because he wanted to be the NWA Champion but the NWA turned him down. Gagne started his own promotion and made himself champion. Three years later, Verne's friend Vince McMahon Sr wanted Buddy Rogers to be the NWA Champion but he too got turned down. Vince, just like Verne, broke off Capitol Wrestling from the NWA and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which we know today as WWE. After the video package, Lawler says everyone who met Gagne has fond memories of him. Michael gives his condolences to the Gagne family.

Then we cut to Renee Young with Dolph Ziggler of all people. Renee asks why he helped Sheamus advance last night only to cause him to lose tonight. Dolph couldn't take it anymore because Sheamus bullied people who can't defend themselves. Dolph called Dean Ambrose to apologize about costing him the match. He promises to inflict more pain on Sheamus and its not about kissing his ass, its about kicking Sheamus'. 

Now we get tonight's WWE Network schedule then to a highlight of Adrian Neville defeating Barrett at Extreme Rules before sending it to Byron Saxton with Wade himself. Saxton says he's got good news, Barrett is up next in the Finals. But he's got bad news, he hasn't beaten Neville yet. Way to telegraph the ending Byron. Barrett says he hates fighting twice in one night but Neville is in trouble because he plowed through Truth. Barrett says he has all the momentum and from here Barrett will be king. On to the Finals.

Match 3

Adrian Neville vs Wade "Bad News" Barrett in a King of The Ring Finals match

This is the Finals and its definitely going to be interesting how they book this. Is the push going to the high flying Neville to cement his rising star status or is Barrett going to get the duke after being booked horribly as the Intercontinental Champion going into Wrestlemania? Bell's gone and immediately Barrett bails outside. JBL says he just wrestled minutes earlier as Lawler says Neville did as well. Barrett starts with right hands and boots to the ribs. Barrett whips Neville in the corner who ups and overs then sends Barrett flying with a headscissors. Neville hits a dropkick and kicks away at Barrett but Wade clotheslines him over the top rope to the floor. Barrett scoop slams Neville on the floor and sends him ribs first onto the apron. Barrett sends Neville back inside and covers for a 1 count. Cole brings up Barrett's loss to Neville at Extreme Rules and kicks Neville in the ribs again before covering for a deuce. Barrett hits a slingshot backbreaker on Neville and covers for a deuce. Barrett locks in an arm-bar and turns it into a surfboard. Neville kicks out of it but Barrett goes for another suplex but Neville rolls out of it and hits a series of kicks on Barrett. Neville clotheslines Barrett over the top to the floor then hits a top rope asai moonsault on Wade. Barrett rolls inside and Neville hits a missile dropkick back in the ring. Neville goes to town with kicks and a dropkick again. Neville hits a german suplex for 1...2.....noooo. Nevvile splashes Barrett in the corner but runs into Winds of Change. Wade covers for 1...2...noooo. Bad News goes for Wasteland but Neville rolls out of it. Barrett counters a kick with a successful Wasteland. He covers for 1....2...nope. JBL wants the Bullhammer and right on cue Barrett load sit up. Neville ducks under it and hits the O'Connor roll for 1.....2...noooo. Neville hit a standing enziguiri to drop Barrett and goes up top. Neville goes for Red Arrow and misses but lands on his feet. Neville turns around and runs right into the Bullhammer. Barrett covers for 1...2.....3 to win the match. JBL says "All hail King Bad News" and Wade gets some heat back by winning the King of The Ring. Good match and arguably better than their Extreme Rules match but this time Barrett gets the duke.

Time of match: 7:06

Winner: Barrett by pinfall

Now its time for the coronation. Jerry Lawler is at the entrance ramp where the throne, cape, crown and scepter are. Wade has the referee put the cape on but he puts the crown on his head himself. He picks up the scepter as Lawler says congratulations are in order for the new King of The Ring. Wade says he's got class and elegance to call himself king. He will be ruling his kingdom with an iron fist and a bullhammer....boom! Michael Cole signs off and says goodnight everyone as Barrett sits on the throne.

Well the show served its purpose to get Barrett over and still give a shout out to Neville for getting this far. As I said earlier, Barrett needed the rub after being a horribly booked IC champion and a stooge for Sheamus the last month. It was doubtful he was beating Daniel Bryan at Extreme Rules before Bryan was ruled out with a concussion so this was the next best thing. Just like with Sheamus five years earlier, they're going to call him King Barrett moving forward. The next show after this is the upcoming Smackdown, I'll see you there.

WWE Raw (4/27/15)

Extreme Rules has come and gone and we got a little bit of controversy, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, we have new WWE Tag Team Champions as Tyson Kidd and Cesaro were knocked off by New Day. Adrian Neville made his PPV debut by beating Wade "Bad News" Barrett and Nikki Bella is still the WWE Divas champion after beating Naomi. John Cena is still the US Champion after beating Rusev in the Russian Chain Match although Lana got Rusev another match at Payback coming up. Roman Reigns beat Big Show in a Last Man Standing match and Ryback laid out Bo Dallas. Dolph Ziggler defeated Sheamus in a Kiss Me Arse match but Sheamus made Ziggler kiss his anyway. Now for the controversy. Seth Rollins won the cage match with Randy Orton but both men used the RKO in the match that was supposed to be banned. Randy used it on Kane while Seth used it on Randy. They're gonna have to explain this one tonight. Also tonight is a very special night as we're bringing back the King of The Ring tournament. Let's get to the show:

Resch Center

Green Bay, Wisconsin

April 27, 2015

Commentators: Booker T, John Bradshaw Layfield & Michael Cole

Ring Announcer: Eden Stiles

We open with a montage for the King of The Ring featuring past winners and such. The birth of Austin 3:16, King Booker, King Sheamus and Bret Hart's amazing 1993 performance. Michael Cole welcomes us and we check out the brackets. Dolph Ziggler takes on Bad News Barrett, R-Truth faces Stardust, Dean Ambrose goes one on one with Sheamus and Adrian Neville opposes the demented Luke Harper. Then ring announcer Eden Stiles says WWE Champion Seth Rollins is on his way. Rollins comes in with Kane, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble in tow. Cole sends us to still images of last night's main event with Kane and J & J Security interfering. Cole brings up both Orton and Rollins using the RKO. Rollins takes the mic and says Randy Orton can't outsmart Seth Rollins. Rollins says he himself created and destroyed The Shield, cashed in at Wrestlemania and proved he was the fighting champion he is at Extreme Rules. The crowd chants "You suck" as Rollins says he beat Orton all by himself with Kane & Noble looking confused. Rollins says he used the S-ko out of the nowhere and yuks it up with Noble & Mercury. Rollins says even a general like him needs soldiers and he says thank Kane for being a good soldier. Seth calls him the Crypt Keeper and subtlety says Kane is washed up from the 90's. Kane cuts him off and says if it wasn't for him and the illegal use of the RKO, Orton would be champion and Seth would be out here crying like the entitled, spoiled brat he is. Kane says he'd rather be the WWE version of the Crypt Keeper than the WWE version of Justin Bieber.....hahahaha. Seth screams that Kane is jealous of him and Kane says Rollins is scared because without The Authority, Seth wouldn't be champion. Rollins says he's not scared of Kane and would wrestle circles around him when Randy Orton's music hits. Randy comes out and says he's not the kind of guy to come out and complain but since Kane admitted Rollins cheated, that's grounds for a rematch. Seth denies it and says he runs the show, not Randy. Randy says "Shut up Catwoman, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Kane." Kane says Randy has a point when Roman Reigns music hits. Roman makes his way to ringside as JBL asks "Now what does that hothead want?" Roman stands on the announce table as a symbol of his win last night. Seth cuts him off before he says anything "Oh get over yourself, what are you out here for?" Roman tells him to shut the hell up and says Rollins is missing his giant because of him. Reigns says he wants a title shot at Justin Bieber and the crowd chants to annoy Seth. Rollins mocks Reigns and says he and Orton both lost to him. Rollins refuses title shots to either of them but Kane cuts him off. Kane says Roman and Randy make compelling arguments and he's got an idea. He makes a tag match later that night with Kane and Rollins against Orton and Reigns and the WWE universe will decide who gets the next shot. Cole has no idea what that means as even Orton looks perplexed. Seth sticks a finger in Kane's face as we cut to the KOTR bracket to show Ziggler vs Barrett up next.

Match 1

Dolph Zigger vs Wade "Bad News" Barrett in a King of The Ring Quarterfinal Match

Ziggler says its tough to concentrate after what Sheamus did to him and is going to take it out on Barrett. Barrett guarantees he's going to be King Barrett when this is over. Dolph starts with right hands but Barrett counters with a right hand of his own. You don't want to get into a fistfight with Barrett. Barrett drops Ziggler with a shoulderblock and a cover gets two. Barrett drops an elbow as JBL says Dolph's new name is Chapstick. Booker says Dolph needs to fight back and right on cue Ziggler dropkicks Barrett outside. Back from commercial Barrett has Dolph in a chinlock as we see how Barrett got the upperhand with a kick to the face to knock Dolph off the apron. Back to live action Dolph sends Barrett into the ring post. Ziggler fights back with right hands and a big clothesline. Ziggler hits the Stinger Splash in the corner, ducks under a big boot and crucifixes Barrett for two. Ziggler counters Wasteland with a ddt and covers for 1....2....no. Barrett slingshots Ziggler into the ring post and hits Wasteland. Barrett covers for 1...2....noooooo. Barrett loads up the Bullhammer but Ziggler ducks it and hits a superkick. He covers for 1..2....noooo. All of a sudden Sheamus hits ringside with a mic and shows still images of Ziggler's face in his ass from the night before. Ziggler runs into a Bullhammer and Barrett covers for 1....2.....3 to win the match. It took a huge distraction from Sheamus but Barrett advances. Sheamus laughs as Barrett nods at him as a thank you. Before the distraction that was a damn good crash style match.

Time of match: 4:48

Winner: Barrett by pinfall

After the match, JBL announces the tag match is official between Orton/Reigns against Kane/Rollins. The number 1 contender will be revealed later. New Day harasses some guy backstage as apparently they're next.

Match 2

Big E Langston (with Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston) vs Tyson Kidd (With Natalya and Cesaro)

New Day gets in the ring and Xavier thanks the clappers out there. He wants a New Day ROCKS chants and naturally the crowd chants New Day Sucks. Good on Vince to notice the two teams swapped heat and swapped the roles. Kidd comes out to a minor pop and I honestly prefer Kidd as a babyface because his high spots and technical work is better as a face. Bell's gone and Kidd bumrushes Big E. E counters with a knee to the mid-section and throws Kidd over the top rope. Kidd catches himself and springboards but E catches him. Kidd ducks a line on the apron and kicks Langston in the head. Kidd hits a missile dropkick and stomps away at E in the corner before catering to the crowd. E regroups outside but Kidd kicks E right in the head. Kidd throws Big E inside but Big E counters with a lariat. E covers but Woods from outside holds the foot for 1...2....3 to win the match. Woods and Kofi run off with Big E with Cesaro chasing them away. Cole and Booker apparently missed Woods holding the ankle but JBL saw it. JBL is supposed to be the heel to boot which makes it even funnier. Short and sweet to put over the fact the New Day are the new top heel tag team. Beats the boring Ascension and Los Matadores for sure.

Time of match: 1:19

Winner: Big E Langston by pinfall

Back to Cole who shows still images of Cena's win over Rusev the night before. Its implied Lana distracted Rusev to allow Cena to win. Cole says Lana got an I Quit Match for Rusev against Cena in three weeks at Payback. Finally this feud is coming to an end although Cena has an Open Challenge later tonight. Let's get back to ring action.

Match 3

Ryback vs Bo Dallas

This match stems from the night before when Bo Dallas walked out and insulted the crowd in Chicago in the middle of the show and Ryback ran out to destroy him. Dallas walks out and cuts a promo giving Ryback a chance to back out while he still can. Dallas says all Ryback has to do is Bo-Lieve but Ryback bumrushes him at the bell. Ryback drops Dallas with an elbow and Bo retreats in the corner. Bo clotheslines Ryback from behind and chokes him with the apron before clubbing away on his back. Dallas covers for just one then kicks Ryback in the face. Again a cover gets 1 and Bo gets in a chinlock. Booker says Bo needs to put on weight as Ryback picks Bo off his back and slams him. A charge eats elbow but Bo jumps into a spinebuster by Ryback. Ryback calls forn the Meat Hook clothesline and lands it. Ryback hits the Shell Shock and covers for 1...2....3 to win the match. Total squash by Ryback but wait! Of all people, Bray Wyatt appears in the ring behind Ryback. Ryback turns around right into Sister Abigail. Apparently this is the next feud, Wyatt vs Ryback which is going to be very important for both men. Neither one of them came out of Wrestlemania looking good so someone is going to be devalued. Ironically Wyatt laid out the man who laid out his brother but just like Lanny Poffo and Randy Savage, they never acknowledged Bray was Bo's brother. Again, total squash but it served its purpose to set up Wyatt/Ryback.

Time of match: 2:06

Winner: Ryback by pinfall

Back from commercial John Cena's open challenge is hyped up. Cena comes out before the match and cuts a promo says he's on a high after beating Rusev. Cena says he respects Rusev because he never quits...until Payback. Cena says he'll never quit and if he loses, he won't ask for a rematch because he'll be a disgrace and won't deserve a rematch. He says if Rusev wins they'll never see Cena again but references the statue of Vince Lombardi outside and says the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender. Cena says he's working hard as he can to be US Champion and says Green Bay is the place to be. He says to whoever's in the back to come get some. Its Heath Slater.....great. Slater comes out with a microphone and says he's going to take advantage of a "crushed" John Cena (?) and become the champion of the WORLLDDDDDD. He says he's better looking than Aaron Rodgers but Rusev from behind attacks Slater and kicks him in the face. Booker says "thank god" but Cena isn't amused at Rusev's antics. Lana walks out to a babyface pop and Rusev grabs the mic from her hand, sending her to the back. Yeah they're going 1998 Marc Mero on this one, the writing is on the wall. Rusev goes on an anti-American rant saying everyone in the arena is a quitter and so will Cena. The Russian flag drops and Rusev's music plays. So much for Heath Slater...and at least it makes sense for Rusev to clean his clock. He wants Cena one on one, wouldn't make much sense for someone else to take the title off Cena first.

Back to Kane in the back when Rollins walks in with his stooges asking what's going on. Kane says fans on the WWE app can choose Seth's next opponent. Rollins asks if Kane's out of his mind and Kane says "maybe." Seth says he's going to tell Stephanie and Triple H and Kane is stupid. Kane says he figured Seth could handle just one opponent but since he's crying about it and insulting Kane's intelligence, there's only one thing to do. Kane says he's going to add another option, on the app they can vote for Orton, Reigns or Randy AND Roman Reigns in a triple threat match. Rollins freaks out and Kane laughs saying they have a match later, focus on that. Kane leaves and Rollins continues to piss and moan. Well, this is getting interesting. Onto the next match.

Match 4

R-Truth vs Stardust in a King of The Ring Quarterfinal Match

These two were in the ladder match at Wrestlemania and have done absolutely nothing since. Truth in the picture-in-picture says if he wins, he's going to get rid of all spiders. JBL says he's better off with snakes. Stardust makes his entrance and Cole says he's even more out there than Truth. Stardust says he's going to be the Intergalactic Czar. I think Cole may be right. Bell rings and Stardust gets rolled up almost immediately. Stardust lands a bulldog and covers for a deuce as the crowd chants "Cody". Stardust hisses at the fans and if you're wondering where his brother is, Goldust was out with a shoulder injury. Stardust locks in a chinlock but Truth powers out of it. Stardust backdrops Truth and covers for a 1 count. Stardust does the Cody punch and covers for a 1 count. Stardust stomps Truth and does another chinlock before stomping him again. A third chinlock is countered by Truth only for Stardust to throw him down. Stardust inexplicably does a cartwheel: Booker "What was that?" Cole "That's a cartwheel." Booker "I know that, but why?" Stardust shouts at Booker "I'M the king, Booker." Stardust sends Truth in the corner but a charge eats elbow. Truth rallies with clotheslines but misses the axe kick. Stardust rolls him up for a deuce then does a russian leg sweep. They trade near falls and Stardust goes for the Cody Cutter but jumps into the Lie Detector. Truth covers for 1...2....3...to win the match and advance to the semi-finals. Bad match but there was no way Stardust was winning since Barrett had won previously.

Time of match: 3:52

Winner: R-Truth by pinfall

Hype for the tag match is followed by the App announcement to vote for Orton vs Rollins, Rollins vs Reigns or a triple threat. On to the next match.

Match 5

Fandango vs Adam Rose (with the Rosebuds)

After Fandango turned face and kicked Rosa Mendes, Rose pretty much wanted her to go with him instead. They lock up to start before Rose gets a headlock in. Fandango gets dropped with a shoulderblock but he counters with a dropkick. Rose chokes Fandango on the second rope and hits him with forearms. Rose mocks the Fandango dance but Fandango chops him into the ropes. Fandango clotheslines Rose over the top to the floor. Fandango summersaults over the top rope and takes out the hot dog guy. Rosa Mendes reveals herself to be one of the Rosebuds and she dances to distracts Fandango. Rose sneaks up and hits the Party Foul before covering for 1...2....3 to win the match. Another short match and it looks like Rose has successfully convinced her to go with him. Rosa gets on the mic and says she can't believe she got dumped and she found someone to treat her like a sweet foul. Rosa makes out with Rose in the ring as Fandango walks away disgusted. Cole "Maybe we should get out of here guys." Hey, at least they're not naked. Another bad match but the purpose was served, Rosa is with Adam Rose now.

Time of match: 1:50

Winner: Rose by pinfall

Back to Cole who laughs with Booker and JBL before talking about the status of Daniel Bryan. Bryan suffered a concussion and isn't medically cleared to compete. We cut to Renee Young who's with Bryan's husband Brie Bella. Renee asks if Brie is concerned for his health and Brie says its a heartwrenching time for him. Brie says it kills her because he badly wants to be there but only time will tell. She's greatful for the WWE universe and Daniel feels the same. All of a sudden from out of nowhere Naomi kicks Brie down and says no one cares about her or Bryan. So they're gonna turn the Bellas face for no reason now? That solves the lack of babyface Divas problem by switching the Bellas. Although good luck explaining how they're going to side with Paige went she comes back. Speaking of the Bellas, Brie is up next.

Match 6

Brie Bella (with Nikki Bella) vs Naomi

Naomi comes out with a new theme and look that she showed off the night before at Extreme Rules. Too bad Bryan is out, Jimmy Uso and Naomi vs Bryan and Brie would be interesting. Bell's gone and Brie rushes her at the bell, punching her down. Brie spears Naomi and they cat fight into the corner. Brie ducks a line and Naomi gets a cheapshot forearm in. Naomi pushes Brie around then rams her head first into the buckle. Naomi delivers a backbreaker and covers for 1....2...nope. Naomi locks in a chinlock but Brie powers out of it. Naomi does a dropkick and covers for 1...2..nope. Naomi does another chinlock but Brie flips Naomi over and they both take each other down by the hair. Brie rallies with a clothesline, a dropkick and a knee to the ribs. Brie lands a running knee to the jaw and a second rope missile dropkick. She covers for 1...2....noooooo. Naomi catches Brie in a terrible small package for 1...2....3....to win the match. Sad part was Brie's shoulder was untouched and easily could have kicked out. Naomi celebrates up the ramp as we go to the replay of Naomi's clean win. Naomi gets revenge on Brie for kicking her in the head the night before although for some reason Brie's the babyface now? The writers don't have a clue what's going on although Naomi is still after Nikki's title.

Time of match: 3:40

Winner: Naomi by pinfall

More hype for the tag match tonight and the potential Payback match. Onto the next match.

Match 7

Sheamus vs Dean Ambrose in a King of The Ring Quarterfinal Match

JBL says "hide your wallet" as Ambrose makes his entrance. Ambrose says when he's king he'll remove tariffs on ale, ban pop-country music and have all disputes settled in street fights. JBL asks why he'd ban pop country. Sheamus says he's been king before and he'll be king again. They lock up and roll into the ropes before Ambrose trash talks him. Sheamus and Ambrose chain wrestle on the ground as Cole says the bully Sheamus can't bully Ambrose. Dean continues to Olympic style wrestle Sheamus but eats a shoulderblock. Cole says JBL made a career out of bullying which gets awkward silence from the others. Sheamus grabs the nose during an STF and kicks Sheamus kicks the back of the head. They exchange right hands and Sheamus lands a European uppercut. Sheamus gets rough in the corner but Ambrose chops his way out. Sheamus gets whipped in the corner and Ambrose tries the forearm/bulldog combo but Sheamus denies the bulldog. Ambrose knocks Sheamus through the ropes to the outside and Sheamus moves before Dean could suicide dive. We cut to commercial and when we come back, Sheamus has a chinlock that Dean powers out of. In the PIP Sheamus knocks Ambrose off the apron. Back inside Sheamus does a suplex slam and Ambrose looks insane on the ground. Sheamus "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?", he's not Russell Crowe. Ambrose drops Sheamus with a bi clothesline as the announce team goes over past kings of the ring with Booker putting himself over. Ambrose chops Sheamus put runs into a tilt-a-whirl slam. Sheamus gives the sign for the Brogue Kick but Ambrose side steps it and rolls up Sheamus for a deuce. Ambrose sends Sheamus into the ring post and he falls out of the ring. Ambrose hits the suicide dive to the outside then rolls Sheamus back inside. Ambrose comes off the top but Sheamus hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. He covers for 1.......2....nope. Ambrose counters white noise with a sunset flip for 1.......2...nope. Sheamus counters Dirty Deeds (done dirt cheap) with a Texas Cloverleaf. Ambrose makes it to the ropes and out to the apron. Sheamus then goes for ten beats of the bodhran. Ambrose hits the elbow from off the top and covers for 1...2....noooo. Sheamus rolls outside and Ambrose chases him to the announce table. They slug it out until Ambrose clotheslines him down. Ambrose sends Sheamus into the ring post but he counters with a Brogue Kick. Suddenly Dolph Ziggler hits ringside and unloads on Sheamus for the DQ. Ziggler chases Sheamus out of the arena and leaves with Ambrose still down outside. You can make the argument that Ambrose wouldn't have made it back inside and Sheamus would have won by countout. Ambrose inside the ring is mad.....look out Ziggler. Anyway that was a good, physical match and it served its purpose of Dean not taking the L with Sheamus still advancing.

Time of match: 12:41

Winner: Sheamus by DQ

We get more hype for the tag match and potential main event for Payback before we go to commercial. The WWE Rewind showcases Miz defeating Damien Sandow for the rights to the Miz brand after Summer Rae turned heel on Sandow. A huge swing and a miss by Vince to have Miz win in the end. Damien is in the ring and says his name is Damien Sandow and runs down his former gimmick. Then he says he was told to his face he wasn't entertaining enough and then goes through his parody gimmick phase. Then he gets to the point of the Mizdow gimmick that he lost respect of his peers but gained the respect of the WWE universe. Sandow thanks the fans and says without them he wouldn't be in WWE now. The crowd chants "Thank you Mizdow!" Sandow says where does he go from here but then is cut off by Curtis Axel of all people. Axel hypocritically says he despises people who imitate others. Axel then starts quoting Hulk Hogan and Sandow mocks him every time like an 8 year old. Axel gets mad and the crowd chants "Yes!". Axel says to get out of his ring and Sandow repeats what he says again. Axel attacks but Sandown blocks the punches and hits a big boot before hitting the Wind Up Elbow to chase Axel away. Somewhat of a pointless segment other than to cement Sandow's face turn and to make fun of Axel again. Cole then brings up something with a point, on Smackdown the New Day will face Tyson Kidd & Cesaro in a rematch.

We cut to Bray Wyatt who cuts a promo on Ryback. Wyatt says he learned how to play with fire but doubts that Ryback ever learned anything. Wyatt says he knows what Ryback is afraid of and to run. After hyping up the upcoming shows on the Network, we look at more god awful Tough Enough videos. Let's get to the next match.

Match 8

Adrian Neville vs Luke Harper in a King of The Ring Quarterfinal Match

The final KoTR of the match has Neville says he intends to defy gravity so he can become king. Harper says he will sit upon a throne of barbed wire and twisted steel, his reign of terror is coming to WWE, long live the king. That sounds painful. Bell rings as Cole says the semi-finals will be tomorrow night on the WWE Network. Neville plays cat and mouse with Harper but drops him with a head scissors. Neville kicks him outside but Harper blocks a baseball slide by throwing him onto the steps. Neville hits a hurracarana off the steps for a pop. Neville throws Harper inside but Luke blocks a springboard clothesline with a jawbreaker. Harper uppercuts Neville as we cut to commercial. Back from break Harper has Neville in a chinlock as Cole says the winner faces Sheamus tomorrow night. Neville heaves Harper outside but Luke gets back in. Harper goes for a big boot but Neville moves, causing Harper to fly over the top to the floor. Neville does a HUGE asai moonsault off the top rope that had JBL impressed. JBL says Owen Hart was a high flying king but not like this. Back inside Neville executes a standing shooting star press but runs right into a big boot and a full nelson suplex. The cover gets 1....2....nope. Harper goes for the powerbomb but Neville slips out of it and german suplexes Luke. Neville hits a standing enziguiri but runs right into a sitout powerbomb for 1....2....NOOOOO. The crowd "this is awesome" as Harper calls for another powerbomb. The crowd chants "NXT" as they slug it out in the center of the ring. Harper throws Neville in the corner and uppercuts him. Harper sets up Neville on the top rope but Adrian gets headbutted off. Neville counters with a kick to the head and slips into a powerbomb. Neville goes upstairs and hits Red Arrow. He covers for 1..2...3...to win the match. The crowd loved it as Neville is quickly becoming a fan favorite. That was easily the best match of the night and the semifinals are set. Wade Barrett takes on R-Truth with Adrian Neville takes on Sheamus tomorrow night. 

Time of match: 10:17

Winner: Neville by pinfall

Cole says voting is closing on the PPV main event as we cut right to the main of event of tonight's show. Getting right to the point. Reigns makes his entrance as Booker says Neville will win tomorrow night while JBL picks Barrett. Let's get to it.

Match 9

Roman Reigns and Randy Orton vs Kane and Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)

Tensions are mounting between Kane and Rollins while Reigns is free of Big Show and looks to get back in the title picture. Rollins and Kane shake hands on their way to the ring and JBL hilariously calls it bogus. The crowd chants "Justin Bieber" at Rollins as JBL says its uncalled for. Rollins starts with go-behinds on Reigns before putting in an arm-ringer. Reigns counters with one of his own and Rollins rolls out of the ring. Kane gives him lip service outside and Rollins gets back inside. Cole brings up Reigns' win the night before as Roman hits a tilt-a-whirl slam on Seth. Roman rams Seth's head into the buckle then tags in Orton who kicks Rollins in the ribs. Orton front suplexes Rollins off the top rope then stomps the chest of Seth. Randy uppercuts Seth then tags Reigns back in. Reigns pounds away on Seth but Rollins gets out of a scoop slam attempt then bails to the outside. Seth tags Kane in back inside as JBL hilariously says he'd put Heath Slater in the main event at Payback because he didn't get the chance to face Cena causing Cole to laugh. Booker "Why?" Orton tags in and stomps on Kane's toes like Moe Howard. Orton rams Kane's head into the buckle but Kane counters with a big boot. Cole says we got a commercial break to shut JBL up and JBL says he'll keep talking anyway. When we get back from break Rollins has Orton in a chinlock. Orton fights his way out of it but gets taken down by Rollins anyway. Seth covers for a deuce and drops Randy with a series of short arm clotheslines. Orton counters with a t-bone suplex as Kane gets the tag. Reigns gets the hot tag and he unloads on Kane with clotheslines and forearm blasts. Roman jumps off the second rope and clotheslines Kane before hitting Rollins with a samoan drop. Roman clotheslines Rollins over the top rope and sends Kane outside as well. Roman runs off the ropes but Joey Mercury grabs his foot. Reigns chases Mercury but runs into a Kane thrust to the throat. Kane sends Roman into the ring post twice before throwing him inside. Kane stomps on Reigns and sends him back first into the buckle. Rollins tags in and drops a knee on Roman's head. JBL says Roman has to be fatigued after his match last night and Booker adds the "London cab service".  Roman tries to fight back but Seth hits a standing enziguiri. Seth covers for a deuce before Kane tags back in. Seth throws Roman into a Kane side backbreaker and Kane covers for 1....2...nope.  Kane locks in a bearhug but Roman powers out of it. Roman kicks Kane in the head but Kane counters with a clothesline. Kane covers for 1...2....nope. Rollins tags in who works the back of Reigns with boots. Rollins taunts Roman that no one is getting a shot at him and tags Kane back in. Kane and Roman slug it out in the middle of the ring but Kane gets the upper hand with knees to the midsection. Reigns counters a suplex with one of his own and reaches for Orton. Rollins tags in and denies Roman just in time. Rollins misses a charge in the corner and rolls him up for 1...2...no. Roman actually lifts Rollins up and slams him and makes the hot tag to Orton. Randy clotheslines Rollins down but runs into an elbow. Seth tries a springboard crossbody but Orton powerslams him and covers for 1...2...nope, Kane breaks it up. Noble gets knocked off the apron and Kane goes for the chokeslam but Roman blocks the hand. Rollins dropkicks Kane by accident and runs into an uppercut. Roman calls for the Superman punch and nails....Mercury with it. Seth knees Roman through the ropes to the outside but Randy hits the second rope DDT on Seth. Rollins blocks the RKO with a roll up but Randy kicks out at two. Rollins superkicks Randy outside the ring as the other three guys are around the announce table. Rollins dives through the ropes but Roman and Randy move causing Seth to barely touch Kane. Kane sells it anyway and Seth rolls Orton inside. Kane goes berserk and heaves both Noble and Mercury over the announce table to clear out Booker and JBL. Seth tries to get Kane to stop and Kane uppercuts him out of instinct. Kane rolls Rollins inside who eats a Superman punch and an RKO. Orton covers for 1...2......3 to win the match. Cole says The Authority is imploding and Kane's lost it. Orton and Reigns get the victory as Cole goes to the replay. Good match and not as formulaic as others have been. It was supposed to show the dissention between Kane and Rollins and the babyfaces exploited it.

After the match, Orton splits to the entrance way while Reigns remains inside the ring. Kane grabs the mic and says here are the results of the poll. Naturally the triple threat wins with 78% of the vote. Reigns is happy while Rollins is irate. Roman hits a spear on Rollins for good measure. Cole says the Universe has spoken as Randy and Reigns eyeball each other. We got to the replay of Rollins getting upset then being speared. What a way to end the show.

Time of match: 18:18

Winners: Reigns and Orton by pinfall

Lot to unpack tonight. Tomorrow night's King of The Ring's semifinals are set with R-Truth vs Bad News Barrett and Adrian Neville vs Sheamus. Bray Wyatt and Ryback are going to duke it out with one of them destined to fade further into oblivion. New Day still has Kidd & Cesaro's number as the new top heel tag team, Naomi is still number 1 contender for the Divas title with the Bella Twins apparently turning face for absolutely no reason. Rosa Mendes is with Adam Rose now, Cena vs Rusev in an I Quit match will settle the feud once and for all and Kane STILL can't get along with Rollins. The problem is they're milking the Kane/Rollins dissension but already cashed in when Kane essentially caused Randy to lose at Extreme Rules. At least now they're putting Reigns back in the title picture, so the question is simply when will they pull the trigger on Roman. Ironically the next PPV after Payback is Money In The Bank so they may have yet another surprise cash in sooner rather than later. Either way the deck looks to be evening out with Kane teetering on a turn although The Authority is still in Rollins' corner. Going to be interesting to see what happens between now and Payback. For some reason the King of The Ring Semi-finals and Finals would be held the following night in Moline. I'll see you there.