Jon Stewart & Mick Foley Promo
This was just bizarre. This seriously felt like a dark segment to "warm up" the crowd before the cameras were turned on- only they were in fact turned on. I'm not saying it was bad, but it just felt really weird- and it all led to a pay-off later on in the night that they surely could have just done anyway without this segment.
Sheamus v Randy Orton
I actually didn't mind this. This match was never going to be a spot-fest, which is exactly why they were in the opening match. All of it was perfectly fine, from a Wrestling standpoint it was all quite good and Sheamus got the win which presumably (hopefully) means the end of their feud. It also set the rest of the night up perfectly because Sheamus had won, so he was in good enough shape to cash-in which I'm sure quite a lot of people were thinking was going to happen in Cena/Rollins.
New Day v Los Matadores v Primetime Players v Lucha Dragons- Tag Titles
Before I get onto the match, New Day singing was firstly surprisingly not bad- and just great in every conceivable way. The best bit was, they started off doing the usual Cheap Heat stuff, started singing to mock Jay-Z AND THEY GOT CHEERED! I just love these guys so, so much. If we can't get New Day Socks I at least want the New Day version of Empire State of Mind.
For a large portion of the night this was match of the night without a doubt. Depending on how the shenanigans finishes went down with you in the two "main" matches this might still be your match of the night. This was all just great, Xavier Woods is probably my favourite on-screen character at the moment- and that isn't even me joking. He's just so great in his role as the shit-talker/heckler and the thing is, with this being a 4 Team match- at one point Xavier was in fact working harder than the majority of the guys in the match. Luckily he'd had his Bacon, Eggs and Toast for Breakfast. Thankfully for the guys involved when the match broke down into all of the different "big" spots with all 4 Teams it was equally great, and New Day actually won the Belts back! I was astonished, but over the moon at the same time and we got the best celebrating for a Title win in history.
This is seriously the happiest I've been since I started doing these Predictions to have been wrong and to have my accumulator blown.
Dolph Ziggler v Rusev
For a large part of the night this was the worst match of the night. That's not in any way at the fault of Dolph or Rusev, the finish was awful- just awful. I can only assume they did this finish to get even more mileage out of the feud, which is fine on paper- but then you remember Rusev won't be doing weird comedy with a Fish and a Puppy between now and Night of Champions with Dolph back. We're just going to get more negative chemistry between Dolph and Lana- who by the way REALLY needs to learn to not telegraph spots, she looked around at least 3 times to see when Summer was going to attack her in the finishing sequence.
Neville & Stephen Amell v Stardust & Cosmic King Barrett
Firstly, even though Amell is presumably gone I definitely want a run out of Stardust and Barrett as a team now after last night. I'm not going to say this was an anti-climax, because it really wasn't and in-terms of Celebrity Appearances in Wrestling Amell is very high on the list of the best ones. I just wanted it to be more "out there". It started with Amell's Entrance, I thought we'd get shenanigans and a load of different stuff- instead Amell just walked out with some pretty generic entrance music looking like a jobber. The match was actually quite fun, and in terms of Celebrity spots the Amell dive to the outside was one of the better ones. My all time favourite will be when Cena nearly killed Mr. Chow, but this was up there. Overall this was just a really fun match and something that surprised me in a good way was Neville getting the Pin, I was convinced it would be Amell pinning Stardust.
Ryback v Miz v Big Show- IC Title
The only problem I've got with this match is the finish. I liked it, but because Big Show KO'd Miz and Ryback got the Pin that way it means we're getting Ryback v Big Show at Night of Champions. This directs me back to the finish I thought could happen- and it nearly did with Ryback Shellshocking Big Show and Miz stealing the win. Just in terms of the match following this I would have preferred it. But overall this match was quite fun, Miz played his role to absolute perfection, Ryback's actually becoming quite a fun to watch worker now- Big Show is, well Big Show but in general it was fine. It was nowhere near the worst thing on the card, let's put it that way.
Jon Stewart & Paul Heyman Backstage Promo
The whole pay-off of the Mick Foley angle was to get Stewart & Heyman on screen together, and I won't say it was worth it- but it comes close.
Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose v The Wyatts
I knew it. I fucking knew it. They had made Ambrose's turn so bloody obvious to swerve us and to have this match have a clean finish. The problem with that is, I've got absolutely no idea where any of these four go now. There's a very small chance Reigns & Ambrose start a feud with New Day, which would be great. But that's all it is, a very small chance. Given the Cena finish the US & WWE Titles aren't going to be anywhere near them, they've blown off the Wyatts angle and as already said it's going to be Ryback/Big Show for the IC Title. So for their swerve for the sake of a swerve all 4 guys are without a direction now. The actual match was quite fun, and that's all that can really be said about it.
Seth Rollins v John Cena- WWE/US Title Match
I absolutely loved this. The finish was a take it or leave it type thing, and I took it. I said all the way back in March when Stewart first showed up I'd like to see him as a Manager, and without knowing for definite I think we're going to get Stewart aligned with Rollins- at least for the Cena rematch presumably at Night of Champions. Everything before that finish though was as golden as the trim on Rollins' gear. Cena was pretty much working as the Heel last night and I absolutely loved it, the Figure Four spot was just amazing- and it was where I thought Triple H was going to hit the ring given the tease on Monday. This match was just amazing, without a doubt this was Match of the Night and Cena's most likely got another entry in for Match of the Year. I just loved this, this match alone was worth 9.99.
Also, I'm also expecting Stewart to say he did it protect Flair's record given he went on about The Streak ending earlier, which looking back was pretty good foreshadowing- so whoever thought that out deserves a pat on the back.
Team PCB v Team Bella v Team BAD
If Cena/Rollins was a Match of the Year contender this was the opposite of Cena/Rollins. This isn't me making something up to suit my argument, I genuinely forgot who won/got pinned for the second fall. I woke up convinced it was Paige pinning Fox. This match was 100% forgettable, the only thing that provoked a reaction out of me one way or the other was Team PCB's insistence on getting a fucking slow to fast clap going, by the fifth time they'd tried to do it and failed I'd just lost hope. This match was just structured all wrong, perfectly exampled when everyone was doing their dives onto the outside spots and The Bellas doing a Suicide Dive AFTER Sasha and Naomi had done Plancha's. It's almost like they made a conscious effort to completely kill the crowd for this match, well they definitely succeeded- that seeming mentality summed up perfectly with Becky using a new finish which meant absolutely nobody popped for it.
To top it all off, they had absolutely no storyline progression. There are no new directions/storylines coming off the back of this match. Brie pinned Tamina and Becky pinned Brie. Nikki wasn't involved in either, all of this coming after Sasha made Nikki tap on RAW! I can almost guarantee it's going to be a Triple Threat at Night of Champions, so why they'd do both angles for it on RAW rather than one on PPV and giving them a whole month to build it is completely beyond me. I want the Divas to succeed, but the "Divas Revolution" is dying a death at the minute. They had the perfect opportunity on a big stage to start at least 1 angle and start to get people invested in the characters of the Divas, but instead the picked the finish(es) that were guaranteed to have no impact on anything.
Kevin Owens v Cesaro
As far as "death spot" matches go, this was on the very high end of them quality wise. Without knowing for definite I'd guess these two got roughly 15 Minutes and they definitely used them to the absolute best of their ability. This match wasn't a Million Star match that these two could no doubt do, similar to the Opener- they wrestled to the match they needed to Wrestle and it was the death spot match. Also, huge praise for Kevin Owens and he'll no doubt be wrestling tonight and most likely on Smackdown in some weird Tag Match so all of the praise for this weekend should go to him.
Undertaker v Brock Lesnar
I'm not going to defend the finish, it came off horrendously bad- but I know exactly what they were trying to sell us. Kevin Dunn had a BAD night, he just kept missing stuff, I don't know whether nobody told him what they were going to do and he was flying blind- but it was just a bad night for him. Between missing Taker tapping, and to a lesser degree things like missing Amell's kip-up it was just a bad night for him.
Firstly, Taker didn't "lose"- he wasn't tapping because of the absolute agony he was in. He tapped deliberately and as hidden from the ref as possible to get Brock to break the hold. It goes back to my RAW Review when I was explaining the dynamic because everyone was bitching about Taker being a heel. He's playing the "veteran" who knows how to win. Here's my exact quote from the RAW Review when I explained it best.
"Taker is not a Heel, Jesus himself would have been booed if they were opposite Brock in Minnesota last night. Taker is simply playing the "veteran", the wise old-man who knows how to win a fight."
Like I say though, I'm not defending the finish- but the finish COULD have been absolutely great had they shot it right. Apart from the finish this was just an absolutely quality match, it was just great. They told their story perfectly and take away the Bell Spot the Hells Gate with Brock flipping Taker off with blood all down his face before passing out was just great. So in short, great match with a finish that could have worked- but sadly didn't.
Also, I saw the thing about Taker passing out just before going through the curtain. While I won't say for definite I'd say there's about a 95% chance it was a work given how well publicised him legitimately passing out at Mania was and Heyman will bring up how Brock's nearly killed Taker in both of their matches. I may well be wrong, but that's just how I think it is.
Overall I did like the show, I won't say I loved it- but we had 1 Match of the Year contender without a doubt and New Day won! What could be better!
Thanks for reading as always, this is of course Day Two- so I hope you'll come back for Day Three and the RAW Review tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to RAW tonight, there's definitely a lot of potential angles- and of course there's the "big angle" rumour that's been making the rounds in the last few days. So as said I hope you come back for the RAW Review tomorrow and also tag along on Twitter tonight, if you haven't already feel free to go back and read the Takeover Review. Thanks again for reading. Let's all remember- when New Day win, we all win.
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