The Non-Fan Review // Alberto Del Rio runs over Santa Claus (RAW 1022)

Two blokes who've had little time for professional wrestling...watch professional wrestling...then write about professional wrestling. That's pretty much the premise that we're building this series around. Our two non-fans will be given iconic moments from the history of wrestling and this month they'll be looking at that time Alberto Del Rio ran over Santa Claus on a Christmas Eve edition of Monday Night RAW in 2012, as well as ADR's subsequent Miracle on 34th Street Fight with John Cena. IT'S FREAKING CHRISTMAS! What will our intrepid graps newbies make of this one? 

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Nick is a 5'11" homo sapiens who never watched wrestling before in his life before embarking on the project.

Born at an early age, he is currently finishing off a PhD in linguistics and has never referred to himself in the third person. He doesn't intend to start now.


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Who doesn't love a good Christmas special?

They can absolutely make or break your Christmas experience for a whole year - whether it's chortling along with Del Boy or watching the Queen's Speech or trying to work out when Doctor Who started being so difficult to watch, there's nothing that brings us all together like yuletide-flavoured telly!

They understand this as well as we do in the faraway land of WWE, but surely nobody could have seen this coming: the 2012 WWE Christmas special begins with a Jingle Bells parody being "sung" (using the term as loosely as I possibly can) in an impossibly wholesome living room by scores of what I presume are WWE all-stars. Personally, I find that this item brings enormous joy to my heart.

It proves there are people with less musical talent than I have.

But that was just the starter in our holiday feast, the Brussell sprouts if you will - the show begins in proper as we cut to the wrestling arena. The commentator announces the "special guest referee" - it's only Father bloody Christmas!! (Or as Americans insist on calling him, the far less endearing Santa Claus. Sigh.) Why the man has yellow ribbons up the middle of his outfit and around his waist is unclear, maybe he's disguised as a birthday present. But he can't be more confused than the commentator, who can't remember his lyrics: "you better not shout, you better not... shout?" Maybe being utterly hopeless at anything to do with singing is a prerequisite for this company. As our favourite red-clad housebreaker hands out hats and dolls -- ahem, sorry, ACTION FIGURES -- to the children in the audience, the music suddenly goes weird and then a man in a tux appears smugly. Hmm.

But then it happens. The toy-distributing chap falls over an enormous white BWM that was right behind him, after which a Christmas tree immediately falls onto his face! Although why the man is holding the tree so close to his face is beyond me. Whatever the case, the man behind the wheel of the car exits the vehicle - he is wearing only a white scarf, golden boots (just like Batgirl) and a nappy, so clearly being caught injuring someone with his car is the SECOND most embarrassing thing to happen to him today. With that said, he looks understandably rattled. As the audience boos, smug tux man comes over and bursts into tears, before starting to play with the driver's scarf. He's a bit of an odd duck.

As the audience stars chanting "YOU KILLED SANTA", we get a replay to show what happened - a loudly honking BMW VERY SLOWLY entered the arena, although somehow the Lapland resident didn't realise it was there.. and stagily fell over it. Huh. So is the driver really completely at fault in this case? If anyone at InjuryLawyers4U can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it immensely.

The beardy-weirdy is taken away by medics on a stretcher, giving us a thumbs-up so we know it's all fine. I admire such determination in a man who breaks into my house once a year to eat my mince pies and leave Nintendo 3DS games in my stocking.

After what is presumably an advert break, we learn from the commentary that the driver of the vehicle is one Alberto Del Rio, who drove in honking like a madman because he "entered the arena as he usually does". This raises a lot more questions than it answers. The tux man who is traumatised by the whole affair is called Ricardo Rodriguez; he's clearly mid-panic attack. To be honest, at this stage I can happily believe that this was all just one big accident with nobody to blame.

Cut to outside the "Trainer's Room"; if only this meant the room where they keep all the Pokémon. A man with glasses steps outside the room to address the scores of people waiting outside. He says - with a COMPLETELY STRAIGHT FACE - “Guys, I’m not going to sugarcoat this: Santa’s down”.

Enter Alberto, whom everyone hates, especially an overacting man in a hat who marches over and starts mugging to the camera: "MESSAGE FROM THE NORTH POLE, WHADDYA DOING MAAAN? TODAY’S CHRISTMAS EVE AND YOU RAN OVER SANTA!” Alberto's excuse that everyone knows where he drives his car so technically it's not his fault goes down less well than he expects: the throng yells their disapproval, culminating in overacting hat man shouting "ST NICHOLAS IS A SAINT!" No flies on this chap, clearly.

Mr Glasses lets us know the last thing Father Christmas said before losing consciousness: “Alberto Del Rio is going to be in a fight tonight, a Miracle of 34th Streetl Fight vs. John Cena". A man with his priorities in order, clearly. From context, I gather that overacting hat man IS John Cena. What is John's reaction to this request? "FOR SANTAAAAAAAAA!" It's on, bitches.

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One hour and 45 minutes later - I counted - and they've put police tape around the BMW and the old chap's ECG monitor is playing Jingle Bells. The crowd reacts as if this is good news rather than a horrifying case of arrhythmia, so I'll follow suit and join the melee as it unfolds: 

From West Newbury, Massachusetts and weighing 251 pounds, John Cena bursts into the arena and looks thoroughly confused about it; he sprints to the ring starts pointing at random people. As one does.

One ad break later he has lost his t-shirt, now wearing only three-quarter shorts and fetching blue trainers. He mentions that he is running out of material to someone offscreen - maybe that's why his shirt had to go? In the meantime, Ricardo is still sobbing (seriously, THAT man needs medical attention more than anyone by this point, he's dehydrating at a rate of knots) and out slinks a very guilty-looking Alberto, still in the nappy and Flash Gordon boots. Alberto skulks to the ring, clearly knowing he's in the bad books.

DING-DING-DING! I'm impressed that they don't immediately start hitting each other and begin by trying to explain their points sensibly. Eighteen whole seconds without any physical contact go by until Alberto needlessly pushes John: "It was just an accident!" Well, that's opened the floodgates: Mr Cena shoves Mr del Rio into a corner, stands on his thighs and starts hitting his head. He then throws Alberto out of the ring, the commentator claiming that John is "fighting for Santa Claus and for Christmas". Well, that escalated quickly.

John follows his opponent out of the ring, only to be thrown into the metal stairs and receive a couple of kicks while he's down. As they roll back in, Alberto hugs John's leg - ONE, TWO... Nope, not out yet. Weirdly, Alberto asks for and gets a microphone from Ricardo - this the kind of thing I wish we'd see more often, running commentary from participants!

"It was just an accident!" pleads Alberto, before hitting a supine John.

"I was not trying to hurt Santa, okay!" he adds, then hits John with the mike as he tries to get up.

“A mí me gusta la navidad, John Cena," Alberto explains bizarrely as he attempts another whack with the mike... But John dramatically pulls it down, yells "SANTAAAAAAA" into it and then kicks the loquacious dangerous driver away. This could be a great PIF for safe driving with very little editing.

One of life's showmen, John allows the fans to pick whichever present he should open of the half dozen scattered around the ring. Opening the white paper around the box, he finds a black folding chair! Leaping back into the ring, he sets about his opponent with it, then grabs his leg: one, two... HANG ON! Ricardo just pulled the ref away before he could count to three! WHY would he even do that, I thought he liked Father Christmas?? John chases Ricardo around like Benny Hill, only for the latter to give him the slip and for Alberto to knock him down. Now it's time for Alberto to open a present - Ricardo (who, I'm increasingly realising, is just Alberto's bitch) brings a small red present containing... A custard pie. One comedy routine later, John ducks so Alberto gets Ricardo in the face with it. Well, now we know what a wrestling match choreographed by Sooty and Sweep looks like.

A few more blows exchanged and John drags Alberto up the aisle to the giant Christmas tree; unwrapping a green box, John discovers a mini-TV monitor with infectious childlike glee. Seriously, he's stroking it like a baby Triceratops. Straight into Alberto's mush it goes, the cad being on the verge of losing consciousness, then... Another advert break?

We come back and WHAT THE MERRY HECK HAS HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE AWAY? Now it's John rolling around on the floor in agony, while Ricardo offers his dungeon-master-- sorry, I mean his FRIEND Alberto a giant, white present. After a quick replay to show what we missed (not a lot to be honest), Alberto opens the present and looks up to heaven as if to say "WHAT IN THE NAME OF CAROLE ANN DUFFY IS THIS???"

Ricardo desperately tries to guess what it is there: "It's a bazooka! It's a tank! It's a bazooka, I swear!" Alberto reaches in and pulls out a teddy bear.

The crowd and commentators wet themselves laughing while John looks even more baffled than earlier. Alberto roars mightily and throws the toy into John, who simple says "Is this seriously happening?" He might well ask.

Alberto grabs Ricardo by the collar - he's clearly the sadist in their relationship - only for John to pull him off (AHEM!) and slam him into the nearby screen. Putting Ricardo out of the way by putting a wreath around him and a present on his head, John knocks Alberto to the ground, then nips back to looks at more presents. "USE THE TREE! USE THE TREE!" chant the fans; John obliges and whacks his foe with the metal-painted-green decorative arboreal, only to nip back and find a bowling ball! After a moment's calculation, he rolls the orange sphere into Alberto's orange spheres, causing him to double over in AGONY.

John's in a playful mood, he goes back to the other side of the ring and unwraps a fire extinguisher, to the delight of the commentators. As the two brawlers reenter the ring, John covers Alberto with carbon dioxide, which the commentator say is like snow. How they reached this conclusion is beyond me, but it seems to be doing the trick.

But zounds! Ricardo has leapt onto John's back like a koala in what the commentary calls a "sleeper hold"; the magnificent ham is starting to sink groggily...

But no. Jingle Bells plays. He's back.

Ricardo's face suggests he's on the verge of orgasm, he's so happy to see him - he lets go of John and dashes towards Father Christmas, arms outstretched for a hug... Only to be knocked unconscious from one swing of his big, red sack. (AHEM!!)

But he doesn't stop there, St Nicholas. No sir, he puts a stocking on his hand and does what the commentators call a "Santa Socko", which is a lot less rude than it sounds. This creates the opening for John to flip his foe, grab his leg, one two three - AND THAT'S IT!

So, there we have it - a TV special wherein the personification of Christmas was run over by a nearly naked beefcake, teddies were used as weapons and it all worked because it was played so straight.

Once a year is too infrequent for this level of madness.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10

Father Christmas, do not touch me...

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Andrew suspects he may be an alien from another planet, frequently finding human rituals baffling. Wrestling is one of the many things that continues to baffle him, but no doubt his findings will be subjected to rigorous study back on his home planet (wherever that is).


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It's Christmas at WWE, and we start with a singalong. Well, I call it that. Suffice to say that most wrestlers should stick to what they're good at. And then... Santa! He strolls in and throws random gifts to the crowd, while an instrumental "Jingle Bells" plays. There are a surprising number of children in the audience for this very occasion.

Then OH NO! A car drives in and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y runs Santa down! It even takes out the tree! Who is this careless hit and run hooligan, and why is he only in a scarf and his underwear? The crowd boos: "You killed Santa!" The driver's tuxedo-wearing companion (what the hell was going on in that car?) dry heaves into a handkerchief a few times.

I think Santa will pull through. The paramedics have got him, and he's still moving, though I see a neck brace. There's not even any blood. And yes - there's a thumbs up from Santa, and a strained and muffled "ho ho ho".

Oh lord. Now it's a crime scene. They've got police tape and everything.

The wrestlers gather backstage. There's a pep talk and a lot of bad acting. In essence, they decide that the show must go on. The driver - I gather this is Alberto Del Rio - states that this was just an accident, but the others aren't happy. "Saint Nicholas is a saint!" says John Cena. Thanks for that.

We then hear that Santa's last words before he lost consciousness was that there should be a street fight. This seems unlikely, but none of this has been at all likely so far, so what the hell. And it's going to be with Cena. He doesn't look keen at first, but he'll "do it for Santa!"

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We start with a Santa Claus Update. Apparently, he's taken a turn for the worse. But things can't be that bad - his heart monitor has started beeping "Jingle Bells".

Meanwhile, John Cena runs into the ring while Del Rio's friend (chauffer? I have no idea who this guy is) sobs on the sidelines. Del Rio himself seems fairly settled - he hasn't even changed, but then, he seems to wear trunks and kneepads as his usual wardrobe. The only addition in deference to the cold weather is that scarf.

The two men face off in the ring. Del Rio seems reluctant to fight, while Cena apparently blames him for ruining Christmas. Del Rio slaps back, and Cena goes nuts - pummelling the other guy into the ropes. He pins him into the corner, climbs the ropes and punches him repeatedly on the top of his head. The referee - no-one special today - breaks them up. One rule I've seen universally enforced in WWE seems to be "variety". You can't have two wrestlers get stuck doing the same thing for too long. I think this is a rule against boredom rather than anything fighting-related.

Cena slings Del Rio out of the ring. He follows after, ready to sling him about a bit more, but the second attempt backfires and Del Rio sends Cena flying into those metal steps. You'd think, after the number of times this has happened, they'd replace them with something softer.

Del Rio kicks Cena in the head a couple of times, then helps him back into the ring. An attempt to pin him down fails. A yell and a flying kick onto Cena's head seems more effective. "It was just an accident!" Del Rio yells into the microphone. Then he plants another kick on Cena, which rather undermines his innocence.

Now this is the scene of the "alleged crime", according to the commentators. Hmm. Perhaps justice in WWE is based on who wins their fights more than evidence. Del Rio is angry now. Cena is fighting back, apparently wrestling for... the microphone? Is this a battle of words? But Cena has just one word - "SANTAAA!" - before he kicks Del Rio in the tummy and sends him crashing down. The microphone is tossed aside.

John Cena steps out of the ring. He seems more interested in opening a present under one of the trees (one at each corner of the ring - how festive). A bit early, but it's not like Santa can complain. The size and shape of this box make me wonder - could it be...?

IT IS! IT'S A METAL FOLDING CHAIR!

Cena quickly puts it to use, jabbing Del Rio in the stomach and then whacking him on the back with it. He puts it to one side as he goes for a pin, but Del Rio isn't ready to quit just yet. Del Rio's tuxedoed weird friend argues with the referee - I'm not sure whether this is about using a chair or opening his presents early, but either way, Cena gets mad and comes charging out of the ring.

Weird Tuxedo Dude (WTD) runs for his life. He takes a shortcut through the ring itself, and as Cena follows he is intercepted by WTD's mate. Del Rio is not happy. Cena receives a hell of a kicking.

WTD returns with a present of his own, for Del Rio. It's... a pie? I'd prefer the chair myself. Cena avoids a face full of food, however, by ducking at the last moment. WTD gets a pie in the face instead. Well, that was pointless.

Battle rejoins, with Del Rio thrown face first into a post and then out of the ring. Cena decides to entertain the audience by taking Del Rio out for a walk and bashing his head on random things. Like his fist. He pauses to open another present. This one has a portable TV monitor in it with a convenient carry handle (ahh, 2012 technology). It clobbers Del Rio back into a pile of display boxes.

We pause for a commercial break. In this brief period, WTD returns to distract John Cena while Del Rio regains his wits. The latter sneaks up behind Cena and whacks him on the back of the head with something. We return in time for WTD to give Del Rio another present. The last one was a pie - despite his promises of a tank or a bazooka (I suspect even WWE would balk at using these in a match) Del Rio finds...

...a teddy bear?

Cena just stands there and watches. He doesn't react even when said teddy bear is hurled at his chest. With battle rejoined, Cena charges in with a punch and then hurls Del Rio into the display boxes again - via the wall. He then ensures WTD can't cause any more mischief with the restraining powers of a holly wreath around the chest and a large box on his head.

Back to Del Rio, who likes to kick. This time a low kick to the shin/calf area distracts Cena long enough for a punch to the head and another large box to follow. The punch to the groin was a low blow in every sense, however. The two men drag, punch and headbutt each other back to the ring, Cena gaining the upper hand and slamming Del Rio into the commentary desk.

Cena goes hunting for more presents, finding nothing of interest. The crowd offer their own suggestion - "USE THE TREE! USE THE TREE!" And that's just what he does - charging down Del Rio as he struggles to his feet with a fully decorated Christmas tree. Careful, Cena - you might get Tinsellitis.

Cena goes back for another present, this time finding a box he likes. Inside is... a bowling ball?? He lines up for a strike... right into Del Rio's, um, pin. The look of horror on Del Rio's face is matched by every adult male in the audience.

Cena's not done. There's a present left by the tree near the ring, and this one has what must be the final straw - a fire extinguisher. Del Rio struggles upright, crawling back into the ring. Cena follows. Del Rio begs for mercy - "it's Christmas! It's Christmas!" - but Cena is unmoved. He fires a continuous blast over his opponent. Del Rio bounces helplessly from floor to ropes, unable to see or do anything in the spray.

Then a small blur leaps in from nowhere - it's WTD! He leaps onto Cena's back, trying to grab him in some sort of headlock. Cena somehow falls to the ground under this unlikely attack.

And then we hear Jingle Bells. Suddenly, Santa is back! Perhaps we'll get some sanity restored to the proceedings... wait, what am I saying??

Cena and Del Rio are both prostrate, but WTD is thrilled at this turn of events. He runs out to greet the jolly old red suited weirdo - who clobbers him with his sack.

Santa then puts on a red glove, and shoves it into Del Rio's mouth. I have no idea what's going on any more, but Del Rio is roused in a hurry. Cena is up again behind him, grabs him, flips him over his head and slams him into the mat. Pinned, Del Rio is counted out very swiftly and the match is over.

Santa seems mystified by his own red glove. Cena seems happy, however, basking in the cheers of the crowd, then sharing a hug with Santa.


Verdict: Very, very silly. And Santa is surprisingly bloodthirsty.

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Next time // We mix up the format as Andrew watches Sasha Banks vs. Bayley from NXT Takeover: Brooklyn...

 whilst Nicholas views Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Stacy Kiebler & Torrie Wilson in a Bra and Panties Match from WWF Invasion! 

Article by Nicholas Peat and Andrew Williams

TV Review: WWE Smackdown Live #887 - Alberto Del Rio v John Cena 12

The last Smackdown Live before SummerSlam and we've got matches with John Cena, Randy Orton and World Champion Dean Ambrose, this was gonna be a great episode...right?

Yes siree, the main event of the evening was the TWELFTH collision between John Cena and Alberto Del Rio in everyone's favourite match-type the "forgone conclusion" match. ADR and Cena put on a decent contest, that had some nice near falls for ADR, especially off the same superkick that beat Cena back in October on ADR's return match, but the whole thing lacked any urgency, threat or most all importance. The hook of Cena facing the man that put him out of action in October, wasn't strong enough, and ADR's booking over the last few months meant it was very difficult to get invested in the action. This was not helped by the early portion of the match being more than a little sloppy, especially when it came to strikes, on behalf of both men. Cena would pick up the victory with an Attitude Adjustment, after surviving ADR's Cross Armbreaker. 

The significant moment would come after the match, with AJ Styles rising from the commentary table to launch an attack on Cena. Styles cut a fierce promo on Cena that added that extra bit of spice that their SummerSlam clash needed. The conclusion of the segment and indeed the show was an intriguing one, as Cena would overcome The Phenomenal One hitting him with two Attitude Adjustments, one of which was through the announce table. Cena looked dominant after comeback from a sustained beatdown from Styles and a lengthy match with ADR and again this added an extra layer of drama to the 21st August clash between the two. After having Cena look so strong at the end of Smackdown Live, I'm wondering if Styles has to win at the supercard.

Randy Orton's contest was opposite Heath Slater, with The One Man Band picking up his first victory over The Viper at the fourth time of asking. Okay, so that win was by disqualification after about a minute, because Orton got carried away beating the shit into Slater, but a win is a win, right? As we build to Orton's match with Brock Lesnar on Sunday, it was a unique case of "Everything you can do, I can do better" as Orton tried to out Lesnar Lesnar's destruction of Slater on this week's RAW. For me, The Legend Killer was much better when he was doing his own thing, brawling on the outside and aggressively throwing Slater in the ring posts, as opposed to when he was hitting German suplexes, which both looked a little odd. The "15 Years in the Making" hype video for Orton v Lesnar at SummerSlam aired once again as well

Dolph Ziggler's rivalry with Dean Ambrose over the World Championship continued to try to find it's groove with an appearance from the pair on the show-opening Miz TV. Like the majority of this feud, the first six or seven minutes kind of plodded along and lacked any real direction with The Miz randomly getting involved at various points to compare Ziggler to Ghostbusters re-boot and Ambrose still looking to find what his role with this whole thing is, talking about Ziggler starring shit films or something. Where things did finally seem to click was when Ambrose put a point on his promo with the line "You've never wanted it bad enough and you're never going to get it" as the reply from Ziggler was superb, drawing the crowd in and making the upcoming match feel can't miss as he talked about Ambrose having to dig deep and scrap for everything on Sunday night. The Show Off brought the passion that made him so entertaining to watch when he initially fought his way to the top and the exclamation point of a superkick to Ambrose, finishing off his storytelling, should hopefully lead in a brilliant match on 21st August.  

The World Champion was also in action on the episode, facing off with The Wyatt Family's Erick Rowan in a well-crafted TV bout. This contest was much better than I had expected it to be and I ended up getting quite into it, thanks to the psychology that the pair brought to it. After initially going straight for Dirty Deeds, Ambrose would use the bigger man's power against him, causing him to fall out of the ring and miss a big boot in the corner, it was simple but the two guys made it extremely watchable. The wacky line spot where Ambrose escaped a powerbomb from Rowan was perhaps the best use of Ambrose's pendulum clothesline I've seen. The finish could have been a bit slicker, but it gave The Lunatic Fringe his heat back after the superkick from Ziggler earlier in the night and allowed him to head into SummerSlam with some strong momentum. The angle that followed with Bray Wyatt appearing to walk out on Rowan was a thought-provoking development, that we'll most likely produce a strong upper mid-card bout from Smackdown Live's first solo PPV, Backlash on 11th September.

A twelve man tag team bout, with American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan), The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso) and The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) going over The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch), The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) and Breezango (Tyler Breeze & Fandango), was a fun showcase of Smackdown Live's tag division, that seemed to plant the seeds for a couple of future tag feuds. The interaction between The Usos and American Alpha has to be the most captivating of any of those, as those two teams could steal a show some day, especially if Jimmy & Jey were turned heel. The conflict came thick and fast with a couple of sequences that saw everyone get involved, en route to Gable getting the pin on Gotch after he and Jordan had nailed Grand Amplitude. 

Just like the tag team scene, Smackdown Live's Women's division seems to be having to squeeze an awful lot into a minimal amount of time. That might be a negative in some aspects, but it does mean that every woman on the roster is getting the chance to showcase themselves in some way or another and once things settle no one can argue that they haven't had the opportunity. This week's women's bout had a number of storylines to play with as Natalya teamed with Alexa Bliss in a losing effort to Becky Lynch and Carmella. The wrestling content was fine from the four, but the clash was all about the finish, as Eva Marie finally arrived in the building, got chased around the ring by Naomi, causing the distraction that would eventually lead to Lynch out-wrestling Natalya and gaining a submission victory with the Disarmer. There's six women fighting for time on the brand at the moment, I feel like the week's following SummerSlam and heading towards Backlash we'll get to see who deserves that time most.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.29/10

A slight victory for Smackdown Live this week over Monday Night RAW (2-2, if you're keeping track) although that's mainly down to not having much deadweight (maybe down to having an hour less time to fill) than having anything that was especially good. Just like the World title feud, the show is still attempting to find it's feet and to work out the best way to showcase it's wrestlers and build towards multiple PPVs. The match booking could do with a bit more excitement and tension, Alberto Del Rio coming out of nowhere to main event two week's in a row meant that those matches were difficult to buy into, especially against top guys like John Cena and Randy Orton, despite being mostly solid bouts. The Women's and Tag Team divisions continue to feature interesting characters, but lack direction, whilst the Intercontinental title feud was relegated to happening in the commercial break, which screams a lack of time management. 

Once again WWE's main programming continues to be watchable, but with very little to get excited about.

All content - James Marston

TV Review: WWE Smackdown Live #886 - Dolph Ziggler & Dean Ambrose v The Wyatt Family

With World Champion Dean Ambrose teaming with Dolph Ziggler against The Wyatt Family and Alberto Del Rio taking on Randy Orton providing two marquee matches for Tuesday night, would the penultimate Smackdown Live before SummerSlam be affected by the absence of AJ Styles and John Cena?

Opening and closing Smackdown Live this week, we had the on-going feud involving World Champion Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and Wyatt Family members, Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. The curtain up was arguably the strongest part of the show, starting with an intense promo from Wyatt covering Ziggler's victory over him on #885, as well as his desire to make Smackdown Live "his show". The Eater of World's looked like he believed everyone of his words and built the promo towards a crescendo, for Ambrose to interrupted him. The difference that are being show between The Lunatic Fringe and The Show-Off, like Ambrose being reluctant to fight Wyatt Family, whilst Ziggler rushed into the action, are what's keeping their feud interesting. The segment concluded with Wyatt standing tall after throwing Ambrose into a superkick from Ziggler, before finishing off the #1 Contender with Sister Abigail. Having Wyatt show intelligence to use the two World title rivals against each other in the scrap added an extra depth to their tag match that was later booked by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan. 

The tag match between the two was a simple tag bout, again used to showcase the relationship between Ziggler and Ambrose and the capabilities of Wyatt. Ambrose worked the lunatic in peril role, taking a prolonged beating from Wyatt and Rowan, but the best action of the contest actually came in a sequence between Ziggler and Big Red following the hot tag. The #1 Contender attempting to knock Rowan off his feet was a cool twist on two wrestling cliches and carried the contest towards it's finish well. Ziggler would pick up the pin on Rowan following a superkick, but the closing sequence was damaged by Ambrose slipping when hitting Wyatt with a suicide dive. A respectable main event, but nothing that's worth seeking out. Ambrose hitting Dirty Deeds on Ziggler following the bell felt a little tacked on, but I'll reserve judgement completely until next week's show and wait to see how the storyline plays out.

Randy Orton's disqualification victory over Alberto Del Rio was the strongest match this week, but like the main event, hardly pulled up any trees. It was weird seeing ADR placed in such a high profile match, after the first two week's of the re-formatted Smackdown Live, have seen him exit a Battle Royal early and then not even feature on last week's outing. He did, however, put in a strong enough performance for him to be considered for a more prominent role on the show going forward. He produced a spirited and technically sound approach to the match, targeting Orton's arm and bringing a concentration to the contest that has been too few and far between since his WWE return last October. It was the first time he'd got to work a TV match with Orton in over three years, so perhaps getting to face a formerly familiar opponent, as well as the jump up the card motivated him to bring a little more to his game here. 

The finish felt a little out of place, as ADR took a chair to Orton's arm (which he'd sold terrifically all match) after being thrown into the time keeper's area, causing the DQ. Perhaps it was to show how much of a beating that The Viper can take and still manage to spring up for an RKO, ahead of his 21st August match with Brock Lesnar. However, considering how ADR has been presented on programming over the last month and half, with only four singles matches since June, with only one victory and losing to Cesaro and Darren Young, it felt odd for WWE to protect him from the pinfall victory, against an Orton who has a major match coming up on the companies second biggest show of 2016. Perhaps it was to set up a bigger No DQ bout between the two on next week's episode, which I'd look forward too, especially with the prospect of a much cleaner finish than this. 

In the lower half of the card, Alexa Bliss would take advantage of Eva Marie's distraction to upset Becky Lynch in a brief but well-worked debut. Bliss didn't have much time to make an impression on the new audience in the ring, but got her character over nicely in short promo when accepting Lynch's open challenge. The main storyline however, was Marie initially being unable to compete for the second week running, because the straps on her top came untied, which got one of the biggest pops on the show, because yanno breasts. I'm feeling like Marie's various excuses to not compete are going to become my favourite part of Tuesday nights, as it's only going to make portions of the audience hate her even more. It also means that when Marie finally ties it up with someone in the ring that the match will be a much bigger contest than it would have been last week or this week. Lynch presents a nice juxtaposition to Marie and extenuated this well with her promo issuing the open challenge. 

Also in the Women's division, Carmella got revenge on Natalya with another short but solid debut clash. Rabobank Arena seemed to quickly warm to The Princess of Staten Island and began to get behind her, as she battled against her rival, who has taken on the role of a cocky veteran bully. I feel like Natalya's performance had a lot to do with keeping the crowd warm, as she was constantly posturing, mouthing off to the fans whilst locking in wear down holds and putting on purposefully lackadaisical pins. Whilst it gives Carmella some huge momentum straight off the bat, I was disappointed to see her pick up a four minutes submission victory with the Code of Silence, as I was hoping that the contest would go for another five minutes or so and such a conclusive finish seems to put to bed any momentum that the feud itself could have picked up after just two weeks.  

Rounding off the most notable action, Rhyno picked up his first (non-NXT) WWE singles win since a victory over Simon Dean on Sunday Night Heat in February 2005, to deny Heath Slater a Smackdown Live contract. The Bakersfield crowd was pretty mild for another short encounter, which lacked urgency and any of the entertaining antics that Slater brings to his mic work. It's an odd storyline to expect an audience to get behind, Slater is working as a comedy heel trying to earn a job, are the crowd supposed to be against him being hired by anyone and cheer for his opponent (a guy who has only just returned to WWE) to keep him out of the company? It was a strange decision to have Rhyno reveal that he'd already been given a contract in a backstage skit beforehand, as if both had been fighting for a contract then we might have had an interesting contest that the crowd could have got behind.

Best of the Rest 

• American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable) picked up a squash victory over California duo Mike Vega and Mikey O'Shea, before fending off The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch), The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) and The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor).
• A preview for AJ Styles v John Cena at SummerSlam on 21st August aired.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.29/10

Watchable is probably the word I'd use to describe this week's edition of Smackdown Live. The two top matches were both decent encounter, offering storyline development in the main event and solid action in the Orton v ADR match (which admittedly seemed to be just treading water for Orton before SummerSlam). In mid-card was entertaining again for the most part, expanding a couple of storylines (especially in the women's division) but not giving enough time or space for the action to develop into anything significant. Putting on match on Smackdown and the other on Main Event would have allowed for them both to be much more satisfying encounters. 

With just one more episode til SummerSlam, I'd be expecting next week's go-home edition to have a lot more to offer.

All content - James Marston

Blu-Ray Review: WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2015 (Reigns vs. Sheamus)

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2015 is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now in the UK. You can order here at WWEDVD.co.uk and all other reputable Home Video stockists. Broadcast live on PPV (and on the WWE Network) from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 13th December 2015. The show features Sheamus defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match in the main event. The Blu-Ray edition includes either other matches featuring the likes of The Wyatt Family, The Dudley Boyz, The New Day, The Lucha Dragons, Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno and The Usos in prominent bouts. Commentary is provided by John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Michael Cole, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Xavier Woods Byron Saxton, Booker T, Rich Brennan & Kevin Owens.

tlc: tables, ladders and charis 2015 blu-ray match listing

Match 1 – WWE Tag Team ChampionshipTriple Threat Team Ladder – The New Day: Big E & Kofi Kingston © with Xavier Woods vs. The Lucha Dragons: Kalisto & Sin Cara vs. The Usos: Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso

Match 2 – Singles – Rusev with “The Ravishing Russian” Lana vs. Ryback

Match 3 – WWE United States Championship Chairs – Alberto Del Rio © vs. “A Real American” Jack Swagger

Match 4 – Tag Team Tables Elimination – Rhyno, Tommy Dreamer & The Dudley Boyz: Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley vs. The Wyatt Family: Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan & Luke Harper

Match 5 – WWE Intercontinental Championship – Kevin Owens © vs. Dean Ambrose 

Match 6 – WWE Diva's Championship – Paige vs. Charlotte © with Ric Flair

Match 7 – WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tables, Ladders and Chairs – Roman Reigns vs. “The Celtic Warrior” Sheamus © 

Match 8 – Singles – Sasha Banks with Team B.A.D.: Naomi & Tamina vs. Becky Lynch (Taken from WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2016 Kick-Off)

Match 9 – WWE Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender's Men's Triple Threat – Tyler Breeze with Summer Rae vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose (Taken from WWE Thursday Night Smackdown #849)

main feature

TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2015 begins with a brilliant three-way ladder match with The New Day's Big E and Kofi Kingston putting the WWE Tag Team Championships on the line against The Lucha Dragons and The Usos. Whilst one particular moment will get replayed for years and years to come, the whole match is choc-full of world-class spots utilising the toys available to produce car crash of a bout, in the very best sense of the phrase. The only let-down for me is flat finish that doesn't come close to matching any of the action across the previous twenty minutes. 

Rusev and Ryback then put together a decent clash, working surprisingly well together in physical outing. Again the bout is hampering by an overly complicated and theatrical finish. A United States Championship defense for Alberto Del Rio against Jack Swagger produces a strong Chairs match in one of ADR's best matches since returning to the company in October. Lots of sweet looking chair shots and some wonderful selling from ADR makes for pleasant viewing, even if the duo fail to keep the entire crowd involved. 

An elimination tables match pitting The Wyatt Family (Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper) against The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von), Rhyno & Tommy Dreamer has a few well-timed table spots, but unfortunately ends up being a bit of a drag. Too much mis-communication and a plodding pace mean that it's not exactly a classic. A WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose somehow manages to blend into the background, despite the obvious talent and chemistry of the performers. Perhaps the lack of a gimmick and that it's a least five minutes too short have something to do with that. Charlotte's WWE Diva's Championship defense against Paige is painfully booked at times, but helped from being a complete mess by the talents of the two performers. The duo manage to salvage some good looking moves, and a handful of nice sequences to keep things just about bearable. 

The main event is, of course, the eponymous TLC match with Sheamus putting his WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line in a great match with Roman Reigns. The two men make good use of all the weapons, pulling off some brutal spots that drive the story of the clash. Despite this however, I'd recommend watching with the sound off as the crowd, for whatever reason, decide they don't want to see the match and set about trying to turn the attention to themselves. Just like the previous month's Survivor Series 2015, the show closes with a major angle that will drive the storylines of the first few PPV's of 2016 and beyond.

special features

Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch combine for a decent match taken from TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2016 Kick-Off, although obviously the pair have had better matches together elsewhere. The Blu-Ray exclusives begin with a segment featuring The New Day cutting a fun heel promo, taken from Monday Night RAW #1174, although there is a slight lack of direction once The Lucha Dragons and The Usos interrupt. Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and Tyler Breeze have a fluffy but watchable triple threat with a shot at the WWE Intercontinental Championship on the line from Thursday Night Smackdown #849 in the only Blu-Ray exclusive match. 

Monday Night RAW #1176 brings us a strange edition of Miz TV featuring Charlotte, Ric Flair and Paige in which The Miz becomes the shining light. From the same show we then have the infamous "tater tots" promo from Roman Reigns in a horrendous in-ring segment with Sheamus, that at best will make you cringe yourself inside out. It's particularly painful to watch Reigns struggling to recall words that clearly he doesn't feel comfortable saying. The disc rounds of with a fun twist on the cliched contract signing from Thursday Night Smackdown #851 with Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose confirming their match for TLC. 

finally...

blu-ray rating - 5.58/10

A couple of off-beat finishes aside, TLC 2015 is a bloody good wrestling show. Book-ended by two great ladder matches, the show manages to close out WWE's 2015 events very well indeed. The WWE Intercontinental Championship and WWE United States Championship matches are also worth checking out. However, the Blu-Ray edition loses part of it's rating for a lacklustre selection of Special Features, with the decision to include the Reigns and Sheamus "tater tots" promo being one that I will never understand. No one should have to see it more than once. 

TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1194 (Cesaro vs. Owens *WWE Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender's Match*)

On 11th April 2016, WWE aired the 1194th episode of Monday Night RAW live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, USA on the USA Network. 8 days removed from WrestleMania 32, Kevin Owens confronted Shane McMahon (who was in control of the show for the 2nd week running), and ended up facing off with Cesaro for a shot at The Miz's WWE Intercontinental Championship, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns teamed with former rival Bray Wyatt to face League of Nations member Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio and Sami Zayn attempted to insert himself into WWE World Heavyweight Championship match by taking on #1 Contender AJ Styles...but was it any good? Let's take a look, shall we?

monday night raw #1194 match card

Match 1 - WWE Intercontinental Championship #1 Contendership - Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro

Match 2 - WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contendership Tournament Quarter Final - The Lucha Dragons: WWE United States Champion Kalisto & Sin Cara vs. The Dudley Boyz: Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley

Match 3 - WWE Women's Championship - Natalya vs. Charlotte (C) w/Ric Flair

Match 4 - WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contendership Tournament Quarter Final - The Social Outcasts: Curtis Axel & Heath Slater with The Social Outcasts: Bo Dallas & Adam Rose vs. The Usos: Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso

Match 5 - Singles: If Sami Zayn wins he get's a WWE World Heavyweight Championship shot at Payback - AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn 

Match 6 - Singles - Adam Rose with Bo Dallas vs. Apollo Crews

Match 7 - Tag Team - Bray Wyatt & Roman Reigns vs. The League of Nations: "The Celtic Warrior" Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio w/ Rusev

In Memory of: Blackjack Mulligan

Commentary: John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Michael Cole & Byron Saxton

Sponsored by: Tapout and JC Penney

owens interrupts mcmahon, cesaro defeats owens to get a shot at the wwe intercontinental championship

This week's Monday Night RAW kicked off with Shane McMahon giving it the big ones, because for some reason (apparently "overwhelming social media support", which of course WWE has been known to listen closely to in the past) he was in charge of the show for the second week in a row. Los Angeles was pretty hot for him and his run down of what he had planned for the show gave a much clearer picture than last week's opening segment. The climax of the segment saw Kevin Owens interrupt "The Boy Wonder", with Owens bursting into a rant about how many thing weren't fair, including the fact that he was yet to have his rematch for the WWE Intercontinental Championship that he lost to Zack Ryder at WrestleMania 32, but is now in the hands of The Miz. Of course, McMahon decided to hand Owens another pretty unfair decision, by placing him in a match with Cesaro where the winner would receive a WWE Intercontinental title shot. 

A belting opening contest from Cesaro and Owens, as you'd expect from these two. The bout was driven by it's narrative as Owens targeted Cesaro's arm and shoulder, which was wrapped in kinesio tape with a number of different submission holds. The Swiss Superman was spot on with his selling for the most part, making sure he was using his other arm for his uppercuts. The other side of the story was Cesaro's multiple attempts to use the Cesaro Swing, the first of which produced a brilliant moment when Owens halted the attempt by kicking Cesaro in the injured shoulder, before the Swiss Superman just double stomped him in the chest. The King of Swing did manage to get the move down for a short while, but once again the arm gave out in another moment of quality storytelling. It was a shame that the finish came off as a little sloppy as Cesaro attempted to turn a Pop-Powerbomb into a rana and transition it into his Neutralizer finish. It was a little bit too much going on here and unfortunately one little slip made the rest of the sequence fall down like a deck of cards. However, we are left with Cesaro placed in title programme just two weeks after his return, whilst Owens is freed up for his feud with Sami Zayn to continue.

fast-forward...Some bloke called Dr. Phil turn up and had some random shit to say to Charlotte and Ric Flair for reasons that I will never truly understand...

dudley boyz defeat lucha dragons to advance to the semi finals of the wwe tag team championship number one contenders tournament, enzo and cass have more words for dudley boyz

A dominant performance from the Dudley Boyz here as they coasted through a fairly hapless looking Lucha Dragons. To protect Lucha Dragons a little bit and mainly current WWE United States Champion Kalisto, they did an angle during the ad-break where Kalisto got injured down by the announce table, therefore leaving Sin Cara to go it alone. There was actually some cool shit that came out of it, with a spirited and skillful comeback sequence from Cara, but with the bout going less than four minutes, there wasn't enough to fully get your teeth into. I'm all for highlighting the strength of the Dudley Boyz (who won with a 3D), but I feel like this tag tournament should be being used to highlight the strength of the tag team division as a whole rather than just a handful of teams. Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady were out to chat shit with Bubba Ray and D-Von and it seems clear that these teams might be on collision course in this tourney, with Enzo and Cass set to face The Ascension on Thursday Night Smackdown. Personal highlight, Enzo calling D-Von, Devon. 

the l.o.n. confront reigns, wyatt family attacks the l.o.n., shane makes the l.o.n. vs. reigns and wyatt for later in the show

It was the ghosts of storylines past for Roman Reigns this week, as all his late 2015 feud descended upon him in a weird mish-mosh of a segment. Firstly we were taking back to December when after Reigns had done his "I'm not a good guy" schtick out came Sheamus and his League of Nations buddies to talk about being from places other than America and such. They also mentioned chucking the "weak link" King Barrett last week, which the audience was supposed to buy as somehow making them strong and more of a threat. The most interesting things about the segment was, of course, the continued babyface turn of Bray Wyatt and his Wyatt Family who would make the save for Reigns and even coloborate with him to take out the L.O.N. The group is gaining more traction as babyfaces, but there is still a lot to be explored within the group dynamic, with Braun Strowman in particular stand out like Jim Duggan's thumb. Shane O'Mac was out to make himself a match, trying to push the whole odd couple partnership between Reigns and Wyatt, which let's face it, was the only real hook that the match had going for it.

charlotte defeats natalya to retain the wwe women's championship

More head scratching celebrity booking here. At the heart of it though was a solid television bout between Natalya and Charlotte, who both worked hard and created some quality submission based wrestling that was crisp and enjoyable to watch. Despite Natalya getting another title shot for literally no reason at all, the whole Hart vs. Flair stuff was played well and would have been a recognisable trope for many a casual or lapsed fan that may have been tuning in, that could have potentially pulled them in to the quality of the still-fledgling WWE Women's division. Whilst the pair never threatened to produce a break-away match, it was all done nicely and allowed Charlotte to continue to build her already impressive run as WWE Women's Champion and showcased the shiny new belt well. That lad Dr. Phil sitting at ringside and occasionally being interviewed by Byron Saxton was super weird though, especially when he initially condemned Charlotte's cheating and then went on to put over WWE's women's division as if it was the best thing since sliced bread no. 2. Who is Dr. Phil? 

fast-forward...Renee Young interviewed Sami Zayn, with AJ Styles interrupted the interview to give it the big ones a head of their headline bout later in the show...

the usos defeats social outcasts to advance to the semi-final of the wwe tag team championship number one contenders tournament, Gallows and Anderson return/debut and attack the usos

After The Usos won a fairly straight forward bout over Curtis Axel and Heath Slater of the Social Outcasts, it was finally time for NJPW's Luke (Doc) Gallows and Karl Anderson to show up on WWE programming. They got a big pop and went about dismantling the Usos, just because they bloody well could. The whole attack angle made Gallows and Anderson look like bad-ass motherfuckers who don't need no man. Or something like that. Having them get kicked out of the arena while Michael Cole jizzed over them "finally showing up" was a bit weird though. Basically Gallows and Anderson are here and they looked the real deal, with The Usos providing them with solid opposition that will help the WWE audience get themselves acclimatised to the former 3 time IWGP Tag Team Champions. 
 
fast-forward...The Miz had problems with M&Ms, water and Cesaro...

styles defeats zayn to deny zayn a shot at the wwe world heavyweight championship

  A savvy piece of booking here that managed do a number of things at the same time. The first point to address has to be that it provided us with a top drawer contest on television, that was crisp and clean, in front of a hyped crowd and actually meant something. Styles vs. Zayn was always going to be a winner wasn't it? Two of the best pro wrestlers on the planet right now, going at it provided some great back and forth action that had the crowd on the edge of it's collective seat. The added caveat that Sami Zayn had the opportunity to earn himself a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match if he were to win the match made it feel ten times as important as if the bout had just been thrown out on television and made each near fall and submission hold mean even more. Similar to the Owens vs. Cesaro bout earlier in the night, the finish perhaps struggled to live up to the action that had gone before, but credit has to go to Zayn for recovering from his minor slip well. 

The second point about the contest that I'd like to talk about is how it managed to add to AJ Styles legitimacy as the Number One contender to Roman Reigns' WWE World Heavyweight Championship. We'd seen Styles win the opportunity to face Reigns last week by pinning Chris Jericho, but it was a Fatal Four-Way match. It was a fun bout, but the contest doesn't exactly lead itself to creating strong babyface title contenders, with there always having to be an element of luck for the winner. So WWE used the storyline from last week, where Zayn missed the bout due to a backstage assault by Kevin Owens and used it to drive this week's show and solidify Styles as a top contender. Zayn will be more than fine, we've seen him lose a number of times across WWE programming and it only seems to make his appeal grow, thanks to the way that handles himself. Plus with the feud with Owens being allowed to bubble under this show, Zayn has a programme to slot straight into and keep entertaining the millions with straight away. 

fast-forward...After a recap of their match, AJ Styles put over Sami Zayn backstage, with Shane McMahon putting both guys over also...

highlight reel get cancelled, ambrose asylum takes it's slot

A straight-forward segment here, that actually worked a hell of a lot better than it probably should have and that's down to having two top quality talkers in the ring. Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel had been advertised as having it's biggest guest ever and anyone who'd been paying attention to Jericho's recent character shift knew exactly who it was going to be. Of course it was Jericho himself, talking to himself. It continued just long enough to get annoying and get a decent pop for an interruption from Dean Ambrose. What followed was a fun mix of the two's characters, with Ambrose's comedic timing putting an exclamation mark on the confrontation and produced a fun segment that advanced a fledgling rivalry well. 

crews defeats rose

Apollo Crews continued to impress as he smashed through Adam Rose to pick up his sixth TV victory in a row. Another squash for Crews after we've seen him walk over Alex Riley, Tyler Breeze and Curtis Axel in short contests over the last couple of weeks. The One Man Nation once again looked impressive with Rose doing a decent job of making his opponent look as strong as possible. I'm patiently waiting for Crews to be put in a strong storyline at the moment, but I've got a feeling WWE will continue with these quick victories for at least the next couple of weeks.

fast-forward...A vignette on Baron Corbin aired, focusing mainly on his Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal win at WrestleMania 32 and his match with Dolph Ziggler on Monday Night RAW #1193...

reigns and wyatt defeats the l.o.n.

The tag bout played out almost like a house show match in it's structure, mainly because there was no real consequence on the action, but the added level of intrigue based around Bray Wyatt's babyface turn made it more than watchable. Wyatt was the clear star of the bout for me, which is interesting considering that Roman Reigns is the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion and how much effort WWE has put into making him look like a star over the past twelve months. Once the contest had settled down, it was Reigns who was working the face in peril role with Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio roughing up the champ. It was a wise move by whoever helped to put the match together, as Reigns got a heated response from the Los Angeles crowd, which also certainly fed into a stronger face pop when Wyatt got back into the action. 

The relationship between Wyatt and Reigns was played well, with the little moments, like Wyatt initially teasing that he wouldn't accept Reigns' tag, really making the match for me. The dynamic between the two drove the match, and even though the League of Nations have never seemed like a viable threat to anyone but themselves, even their part in the narrative worked and helped to produce a more interesting match. Whilst the bout clearly established Wyatt and his family as babyfaces, I'm not sure what direction that WWE will take them following this match. Reigns will need to be pushed in AJ Styles' direction to push their match at Payback, but after seeing Wyatt defeat the L.O.N. with a partner that he isn't used to, I'm not sure that there's much interest in having the two groups continue to feud.

finally...

atpw scale rating - 5.85/10 

Another strong outing for WWE's flagship show here, with a number of stand-out matches. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens provided a strong opener with Shane McMahon kicking off the show getting the crowd hyped quickly, Roman Reigns teaming with Bray Wyatt offered plenty of intrigue even if there was a lack of urgency against the League of Nations, whilst AJ Styles and Sami Zayn arguably stole the show with a great TV bout. The undercard was highlighted by a fun interaction between Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose to continue their feud and the show remained interesting by having stipulations on every match but one. 

WWE has come out of WrestleMania swinging on Monday night's, with two good edition of RAW, we'll see if they can continue this next week with episode 1195.