WWE Battleground Review

So it had been three week's since WWE's last Pay-Per-View offering Night of Champions had left some feeling a little disappointed, and heading into Battleground, I can't say that my hopes for the show were particularly high, I'm not sure why but the card just didn't catch my attention. So let's see how it actually went, shall we?

We kick off the show with the usual video package detailing the main feuds heading into the show and what to expect in the course of the three hours. As usual, this was very well produced with some nice graphics and the key moments in the feuds between Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan, The Shield and The Rhodes Family, and CM Punk and Ryback. I thought it strange that they chose not to show anything from Alberto Del Rio's feud with Rob Van Dam, with that showing just how far the World Heavyweight Championship has fallen in prestige over the past year or so.

World Heavyweight Championship Battleground Hardcore Match:

Rob Van Dam

with Ricardo Rodriguez

vs.

Alberto Del Rio

(17 Minutes, 22 Seconds)

This match was a lot of fun to watch from start to finish, and certainly the best match that Van Dam and Del Rio have had on television over the last two and a half months. In terms of actual wrestling there wasn't a whole deal, but that's not what this match called for. What we did get was a succession of spots that built as the match went on, with both men bringing all they had to the contest. With a steel chair, a ladder and steel bin to play with, Del Rio and Van Dam created a spectacle that drew me in almost straight away, from Van Dam's early moonsault off the barricade to Van Dam missing a Rolling Thunder onto a Ladder, there was a lot to like about this brawling contest. What the earlier part of the bout missed in terms of storytelling, the later stages pilled on, with Ricardo Rodriguez saving Van Dam from a Cross Armbreaker with a tiny bucket, before a well worked confrontation between Rodriguez and former best friend Del Rio, leading to Del Rio taking out Rodriguez by sending him into the barricade. The finish was also very well worked, after Van Dam had missed a Van Terminator, a series of attacks from Del Rio meant that Van Dam's arm ended up trapped in between a steel chair, allowing Del Rio to lock in the Cross Arm Breaker and pick up the submission victory and retain the World Heavyweight Championship. A very strong opening contest, and if we're to believe the dirtsheets Van Dam's last for a while for WWE.

Winner and Still World Heavyweight Champion: ALBERTO DEL RIO!

After the bout we headed to the backstage area, where The Real Americans had something to say. Zeb Colter did the majority of the talking, cutting a promo on Buffalo, New York, the location of Battleground, in his usual style, claiming there were too many Canadians in Buffalo. It was enjoyable, if not a little repetitive, with Colter winding things up by talking about The Real Americans opponents The Great Khali and Santino Marella, doing a good job of papering the cracks over what is clearly a filler match on the show.

Tag Team Match:

The Great Khali & Santino Marella

with Hornswoggle

vs.

The Real Americans

(Cesaro/Swagger)

with Zeb Colter

(7 Minutes, 11 Seconds)

Whilst this may have been mere filler, this comedy tag team match was an entertaining couple of minutes. With solid tag team psychology, alongside comedic spots involving Hornswoggle with his own version of The Cobra, as well as some decent team work from The Real Americans, this bout surpassed my expectations by quite some way. The cleverest move made in this one was to keep Great Khali out of the match until the very end, he might not be able to have lenghty technical classics, but when used as an impact player he can be fairly effective and I'm warming to his partnership with Marella, who I think is extremely underated for what he does in the ring. The finish saw Antonio Cesaro managed to execute the Cesaro Swing on Khali and in terms of visual displays of strength, this was the most impressive thing I've seen in WWE for quite some time, as Cesaro went straight for the pinfall victory after the swing. For what it was this contest was decent tag team bout, but will most likely be forgotten pretty quickly.

Winners: THE REAL AMERICANS!

They ran the Rise Above Cancer video featuring John Cena, CM Punk, The Bella Twins, Alicia Fox and Layla, before showing Cancer survivors in the arena. Say what you want about WWE, but the work they are doing for Susan G. Kommen is fantastic, and hopefully is raising a lot of money for the foundation and continuing to raise awareness.

Intercontinental Championship Match:

Curtis Axel ©

with Paul Heyman

vs.

R-Truth

(7 Minutes, 36 seconds)

I honestly couldn't make myself care about this match, and I tried pretty hard to. The action itself was decent, and it would be difficult to fault what was going on in the ring, but there was just no story to the action, and it was clearly hurriedly put together over the last week of television. R-Truth just seemed like such a random choice to face Axel, after months of irregular appearances on television, and losing most his bouts when he did appear, I had no emotional investment behind his character, so when Axel was beating him down for most of the match, I simply wasn't interested. The finish saw Axel dodge a Little Jimmy attempt from Truth by holding onto the ropes, before hitting a Hangman's Facebuster to pick up the pinfall victory and retain the Intercontinental Championship. Axel risks getting lost in the mix of Paul Heyman guys at the moment, with the focus clearly on Ryback, so it made sense to give him a clean victory here, I'd like to see Axel move into a feud of his own soon, with someone the audience is actually invested in, with recent attempt with The Miz and Truth falling flat.

Winner and still Intercontinental Champion: CURTIS AXEL!

They went on to do a quick recap of Dolph Ziggler's victory over World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank holder Damien Sandow from Battleground Kick Off, luckily the only showed the finish, which was the only real positive from that bout.

Diva's Championship Match:

Brie Bella

with Nikki Bella

vs.

AJ Lee ©

with Tamina Snuka

(6 Minutes, 37 Seconds)

I was pretty surprised with this bout, as for the most part it was an enjoyable contest, with some decent wrestling action, with Brie Bella needing to be commended for a spot that saw her collide with the ringpost and fall off the apron to the floor. I'm still not won over by Bella, especially as a face, and the decision to have Lee in control for most of the match was a wise one, as Bella's wrestling ability still isn't quite up to scratch, as a botched roll up attempt showed. The finish saw Brie get distracted by Tamina Snuka attacking Nikki at ringside, allowing Lee to get a roll up for a pinfall victory and to retain the Diva's Championship. It was certainly a wise decision to keep the title on the most popular woman the company has, but with it not looking like this feud is over just yet, I wouldn't be surprised if the butterfly is around the tiny waste of Brie Bella sooner rather than later.

Winner and still Diva's Champion: AJ LEE

Tag Team Champions The Shield

with United States Champion Dean Ambrose

vs.

Cody Rhodes & Goldust

with Dusty Rhodes

(13 Minutes, 54 Seconds)

After Michael Cole had introduced a superb video package on the feuds between the Rhodes Family and The McMahon's we headed backstage to Renee Young who interviewed Dusty Rhodes, Goldust & Cody Rhodes. All three men produced excellent promos, that did a fantastic job of getting me pumped up for the tag team contest to come. I don't know what's happened to Cody Rhodes, but this whole feud seems to have lit a fire underneath him, and an average promo guy has become a top notch promo guy in the space of about two months. If WWE don't run with this and continue to build Cody into the main event star he deserves to be then they are complete fool.

Out of everything that was booked for this show, this was the bout that I was most excited about heading into the event, it had been built up very well over the past few months, and it was easy to get emotionally invested in the Rhodes families story. Luckily, this one did not disappoint as Goldust, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns put on a quality tag team bout with a lot of twists and turns along the way. The build up to two separate hot tags was done very well, with The Shield working over their opponent effectively in their usual manner, Rhodes' moonsault for the first hot tag, especially stood out for me. I thought the finish was strong as well, getting everyone involved, with the feel good moment of Dusty Rhodes' fighting off Dean Ambrose with a belt, before Goldust saved his father from Roman Reigns, building into a nice false finish as Rollins attempted to steal a school boy roll up pin on Cody for a two count, before Rhodes managed to hit Cross Rhodes to pick up a pinfall victory and win his and Goldust's jobs back. Good storytelling, good wrestling, it's difficult to pick fault with this bout and it'll be great to see what WWE do with Goldust and Cody going forward. The moment when a number of WWE legends and wrestlers came out to congratulate the Rhodes family was just the icing on the cake here.

WINNERS: CODY RHODES & GOLDUST

They ran a promo for WWE's next Pay-Per-View, Hell in a Cell, which features the bizarre choice of R-Truth talking about the Hell in a Cell match, along side a number of clips from more recent Hell in a Cell matches.

It was then back over to Josh Matthews and his Battleground panel of The Miz, Titus O'Neil and Tensai, as they ran down what had happened so far. As with Battleground Kick Off it was another painful experience, as most of the panel seemed unaware of what had actually been happening on the show, with O'Neil even claiming Rob Van Dam had won the World Heavyweight Championship. These guys need to be clear what they are going to say, otherwise it just looks a complete mess.

Backstage Raw General Manager Brad Maddox looked tired as he spoke to Stephanie McMahon on over the phone. With Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero also turning up, it was revealed that McMahon and Triple H had left the building, and that Maddox was in control of the show. Maddox is doing a great job of playing the out of his depth underling, and it's difficult not to feel sorry for the guy, especially when the unlikeable Guerrero laughs in his face.

Kofi Kingston

vs.

Bray Wyatt

with The Wyatt Family

(8 Minutes, 27 Seconds)

This bout struggled to get crowd support early on, and I have to say that I found it difficult to buy into this one at the beginning, because not only did it seem like it was going to be a straight up squash match, it had been so poorly built up with a week of loose storyline that I really had no reason to care. However, the action was strong here, especially once Kingston got some momentum going and it began to look like he could be able to pull of an upset victory, with the crowd slowly warming to the action, with a springboard flip to the outside from Kingston onto the entire Wyatt Family being a highlight of the bout. I also thought the finish here was good, being worked at a decent pace with a number of reversals before Wyatt managed to hit Sister Abigail to pick up the pinfall victory. For such a poorly built up contest, Kingston and Wyatt did a great job in under nine minutes.

Winner: BRAY WYATT!

After the bout, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper continued the punishment on Kingston with a series of devastating moves, finished by a Discus Clothesline from Harper. Wyatt went on to cut a promo in his usual bizarre style, talking about purity and the concepts of right and wrong. I was half expecting Kane to make his return here, but it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit longer for the Big Red Monster to get his revenge.

Triple H's new DVD Thy Kingdom Come got a nice plug, as they played the advert for the DVD and Blu Ray set, which we'll hopefully have a review of very soon. It's available to preorder from www.wwedvd.co.uk, if you're interested in that one.

They replayed Antonio Cesaro's Giant Swing on The Great Khali from earlier on, I suspect that one is going to replayed a lot. PUSH CESARO DAMMIT! With Michael Cole thanks Fall Out Boy for the Battleground theme song, “The Mighty Fall”, which had been playing all night long.

Ryback

with Paul Heyman

vs.

CM Punk

(14 Minutes, 47 Seconds)

I'm kind of mixed on this bout, there were bits that worked really well, but it just wasn't particularly exciting. When in control Ryback looks really good, and Punk makes you believe that he is getting hurt, but it was when Punk was in control that this match fell apart for me. Ryback just looked so wooden and stiff that things didn't look to be effectining him, no matter what Punk tried to do, and I don't think that was the effect they were going for, this wasn't Ryback no selling, it was Ryback not being able to sell. The storyline elements of this were fun and made sense, like Heyman causing Punk to get distracted by getting on the microphone, allowing Ryback into the match. The finish felt incredibly old school, with Heyman about to deliver a Singapore Cane shot to Punk, only for referee Mike Chioda to spot what Heyman was doing, while Chioda admonished Heyman, Ryback tried to take advantage but Punk was too clever hitting Ryback with a low blow and picking up the pinfall victory. This was a victory that Punk needed after a few consecutive losses in big matches, whilst Ryback was kept looking strong by the finish, with the storyline looking to continue for a while longer yet.

Winner: CM PUNK!

Ah remember folks, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Back on the Battleground Panel, they wisely ignored The Miz and Titus O'Neil, with only Tensai allowed to speak this time, with some good words on Punk and Ryback match, before they headed into talking about the main event that was still to come between Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan for the vacant WWE Championship, with some inane babbling from Miz and O'Neil, before Tensai got his fake beard out again and tried to get the crowd going with a “YES!” chant that was slightly more successful than the first time he attempted it.

WWE Championship Match

Randy Orton

vs.

Daniel Bryan

(25 Minutes)

Hmmm, I'm going to go straight to the finish of this one, because no matter how good the rest of the match was (and it was very good), it feels pretty pointless when it was all just leading to this finish. Basically, after a blistering sequence between Orton and Bryan with a number of pinning variations, Bryan managed to lock in the Yes Lock and it looked like he might have the match won. With the crowd going crazy, the Big Show's music hit and out came the World Largest Athlete, pulling Mike Chioda out of the ring and nailing Bryan with the Knock Out Punch. With Brad Maddox sending down fired referee Scott Armstrong to make the count as Orton pinned Bryan, Show finally snapped pulling Armstrong out of the ring before the three count, and knocking him out, followed by a short confrontation with Orton, before Big Show knocked him out as well, to finish the Pay-Per-View. It was another what just happened moment, and one WWE couldn't really afford after the dodgy ending of Night of Champions. They managed to make the most popular guy in the company look like an afterthought, which is just crazy to me. Whilst, I'll admit it was good to see Big Show finally snap against the corporate chains he has been in over the last few months, this was not the place to do so and ended the Pay-Per-View on a sour note. I must stress that what Bryan and Orton did was very enjoyable and looked to be leading to quality main event, as an ending like that makes it hard to remember what had gone on before. It was clear that WWE was attempted to use the finish to gain more viewers for the next nights Raw, but you have to make sure that people who have paid for the show get a satisfying and complete ending first, before trying to do that.

Overall, Battleground wasn't the best pay-per-view WWE has produced this year, with a lot of rushed together filler bouts and a disappointing finish to the show. However, their was still some good stuff going on, most notably Cody Rhodes and Goldust's bout with The Shield's Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, and a few matches that surpassed my expectations. Hopefully, WWE will see a true return to form in three weeks time for Hell in a Cell.

Quick Results

World Heavyweight Championship Battleground Hardcore Match:

Alberto Del Rio © defeated Rob Van Dam by Submission

Tag Team Match

The Real Americans (Cesaro/Swagger) defeated The Great Khali & Santino Marella via Pinfall

Intercontinental Championship Match

Curtis Axel © defeated R-Truth via Pinfall

Diva's Championship Match

AJ Lee © defeated Brie Bella via Pinfall

Tag Team Match (Match of the Night)

Cody Rhodes & Goldust defeated Tag Team Champions The Shield via Pinfall

Bray Wyatt defeated Kofi Kingston via Pinfall

CM Punk defeated Ryback via Pinfall

WWE Championship Match

Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan ended in a No Contest

WWE Raw 9th September 2013 Review

I was a little unimpressed with Raw this week, whilst the co-main events were both strong television contests, there wasn't really a lot else. There were some really uninspiring match ups, which was reflected by the Canadian crowd quickly becoming restless during bout like Alberto Del Rio vs. R-Truth. The returns of Edge and Goldust helped lift the anticipation for the show, but it was sadly back to that dragging feeling that had seemed to disappear since the start of the Triple H regime. 

Daniel Bryan 

with 

Big Show

vs. 

United States Champion 

Dean Ambrose

 with The Shield  

The show kicked off with WWE Hall of Famer Edge's first WWE appearance in just under a year, with an edition of The Cutting Edge. According to Edge his guest was scheduled by Triple H to be Edge's Rated RKO partner WWE Champion Randy Orton, but instead he had chosen to have Daniel Bryan on the show. Bryan came out and cut a good little promo, going over what had happened in recent weeks, saying that he enjoyed the struggle and knew he could beat Randy Orton. Edge did some good work motivating Bryan, before they were interupted by Randy Orton. With Orton getting some cheap heat from mentioning Cananda and Edge insulting Orton for being spineless and Triple H for not being able to pick talent. This of course drew out Chief Operating Officer Triple H. The Game and The Rated R Superstar went on to have some nice back and forth, with the two throwing around insults, like Triple H telling Edge he couldn't draw money and Edge telling Triple H that at least he didn't have to marry into success. It was an extremely entertaining exchange, but the problem was Triple H vs. Edge is not coming up in six days time, Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan is, and both sort of took a backseat in this segment. After Triple H had booked Daniel Bryan in a match with Dean Ambrose, with The Shield in Ambrose's corner and Big Show in Bryan's, Triple H had The Shield bring out a battered Christian, with Edge running to check on his friend/brother. Again, I'm asking the same question, what is the whole point of this stuff with Edge? He can't wrestle and isn't going to involved in a match, he simply should have been there to put others over. 

Later in the night, Edge stormed into Triple H office and the two got face to face, with The Shield flanking the Chief Operating Officer. Triple H tore into Edge, telling him to leave the building. It was good television, it just wasn't good wrestling booking. Although with the news that Edge is going to on Smackdown this week, they do have somewhere else to go with it, so I'll reserve calling this a waste of time until Friday.  Hall of Famer Booker T turned up again on Raw, and it would seem he has become the WWE's guardian angel, as he decided to speak to Big Show in the lockeroom. I thought Booker T's promo telling Big Show to ignore his pride and be a professional was solid, with Show leaving without giving an answer to Booker leaving things open for the main event. I'm quite enjoying how WWE have been using Booker T at the moment, even if there is no particular reason for him to be hanging around the locker room after being fired as General Manager of Smackdown a few months ago. Stephanie McMahon also caught up with Big Show, telling him he couldn't touch The Shield in the main event, I guess this was to give us some more of Big Show fighting with his conscience.

Bryan vs. Ambrose was very strong television contest, even if WWE spent most of the match showing us Big Show clapping away at ringside. Bryan spent a lot of the early part of the match in control, working over Ambrose with blows and submission holds. It was a slow start to the match with both wrestler just getting warmed up, with the only blemish seeing Bryan struggle to lock on a surfboard. The two did well to recover with Bryan continuing to roll, and The Shield paying off for Ambrose at ringside causing the distraction allowed Ambrose to send Bryan off the apron into the barricade. Ambrose was allowed to look good on his own, countering a Daniel Bryan comeback by moving out of the way of running dropkick in the corner to send Bryan crashing to the mat. Ambrose looked great working Bryan, with Bryan really selling the seriousness of the situation and Big Show going mental at ringside for some reason. The match then upped a level, with a number of 
spots, including Bryan's back superplex on Ambrose, and then Bryan thwarting The Shield's attempted interference sending Roman Reigns into the steel steps and sending Seth Rollins into the table, only for Ambrose to take control again with a DDT on the outside. 

The finish saw Bryan look absolute out of the match, with Ambrose doing a tremendous job working the crowd and yelling at Bryan, only for Bryan to jump up and trap Ambrose in a Small Package to pick up the pinfall victory. I thought this was a strong finish, that played up to Bryan's struggling character well and suited the match that had gone before it. After the match, Randy Orton came down the ramp, only for Bryan to hit a Suicide Dive and take it to Orton. Bryan on top didn't last long however, with The Shield quickly jumping on Bryan. Big Show then appeared to forget Stephanie McMahon's order grabbing a steel chair and attempting to chase away The Shield, but after Triple H and Stephanie McMahon had entered the arena, Big Show quickly backed away. After Orton had hit Bryan with an RKO, Triple H ordered Show to punch Bryan in the face once again. There was some more of Show playing with his conscience which is getting old quickly, luckily Orton was on top form barking order to the World's Largest Athlete which helped this segment a whole lot. With Show taking his time, Daniel Bryan found his feet again and hit Orton with a Running Knee leaving Orton knocked out, as Big Show left the ring. Bryan finished the show by celebrating with the WWE Championship belt. I liked the idea of Bryan being on top to close the last Raw before Night of Champions, it gives the Bryan and Orton rivalry something different, as seeing Bryan get beaten up each week, whilst Bryan does a great job would have gotten old pretty soon. It also gives the viewer hope that Bryan can beat Orton at Night of Champions, which could garner a few extra buys for the pay-per-view. 

Goldust 

vs. 

WWE Champion 

Randy Orton 

(If Goldust wins, Cody Rhodes is rehired) 

I thought the story and hype to WWE bringing back Goldust was really well done by WWE. When it makes storyline sense to bring back Legends like Goldust I am all for it, and it certainly did here with Goldust coming back to attempt to get his brother Cody Rhodes his job back. It did feel a little jarring that Goldust was back in the gold paint, after Rhodes had used it as part of reasoning as why he hated the McMahon family on last week's Raw, but it was still good to see him back in his first Raw match since November 2010. The first time we saw Goldust on the show he was being interviewed by Renee Young, I thought Goldust's promo was really ropey, with some awkward pauses and a delivery that didn't really work for me. Goldust was interupted by Triple H, who put over the pressure of the situation for Goldust. Personally, I don't think this interview segment was needed at all, it lessened the impact of seeing Goldust enter later on and only repeated what we already knew.

Luckily, the match between Goldust and Orton did not disapoint. It was drama filled from the offset and built up really nicely from the beginning, with Goldust attacking Orton with a series of punches getting over the emotion of the situation well. Goldust really took it to Orton in opening section of the match, with the WWE Champion unable to take control, which the crowd absolutely loved, giving Goldust a rousing rendition of “You've Still Got It”. A thumb to the eye gave Orton control of the match, and decent amount of heat, and bar a short comeback for Goldust to head to commercial Orton dominate for the main body of the contest, with a number signature moves and mannerisms of Orton, including the back suplex onto the barricade and the dreaded Randy Orton headlock of doom, which allowed Goldust to build towards a comeback and the strongest section of the match. The match was certainly helped by the strong story heading in, with red hot Toronto crowd 100% behind Goldust, making a number of near falls for Goldust feel even more dramatic, including a school boy roll up after Orton had almost collided with the referee. The best false finish for me saw Orton going for the RKO and Goldust hitting Cross Rhodes in a repeat of last week's false finish with Orton against Cody Rhodes.

The finish saw Goldust arguing with the referee following the previously mentioned Cross Rhodes near fall, allowing Orton to attempt to roll up Goldust, getting a near fall, before Goldust got to his feet and ran straight into an RKO from Orton to give the WWE Champion to pinfall victory. A very enjoyable finish, that built upon the drama that had been layered into the match well. Of course, it was never in doubt that Randy Orton would be picking up the victory here, he is the WWE Champion and it would have been silly for him to lose to someone not even employed by the company, especially with Cody Rhodes still expected to be taking more time off, however the match did a good of making people think otherwise at certain points, as well as continuing a strong string of matches for Orton at the moment.


Later on in the show, Stephanie McMahon approached Goldust in the backstage area, and was in full on bitch mode. McMahon ripped into Goldust, calling him a loser and adding to his emotional distress by reminding him that he let his brother down by losing the match. There is no doubt that Stephanie is fantastic heel, and this proved it for me, a lot of fans legitimately don't like Stephanie and this promo will certainly help towards that. Goldust crying was maybe a bit too far, you can understand, sort of, understand why he might be, but at the same time there has been a lot of crying on WWE television recently, and it's not usually considered a trait of a face to go around crying their eyes out every five minutes. So when will we next see Goldust? I would be surprised if Goldust wasn't in the next Royal Rumble match in January, but due to Goldust's excellent in ring performance I wouldn't mind seeing him sooner as it feels like he still has something to offer the company on a semi-regular basis, at least. 

Kofi Kingston 

vs. 

Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel 

with Paul Heyman

In rematch from last week's Smackdown, Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel took on Kofi Kingston. I have no idea why this wasn't a title match, after Axel lost to Kingston clean on Smackdown. I was really disappointed in this one, after their Smackdown match was a good solid contest. The only moment in the match that was any good, was Kofi Kingston hitting SOS, the move that won him the match on Smackdown, but it was too close to the ropes so Axel grabbed the ropes to break the pinfall. The finish saw Axel beating Kingston down in the corner of the ring,  leading to the disqualification. The finish worked in getting over that if this happens at Night of Champions, CM Punk will be left alone with Paul Heyman, with Heyman selling it really well. For some bizarre reason, Kofi Kingston then hit Axel with Trouble in Paradise to close the segment. Unless WWE have anything planned for Kofi Kingston there was no need for Kingston to get one up on Axel here.

Backstage, Paul Heyman has slipped on some water. Yes, Heyman had slipped on water. With Heyman refusing to be seen by WWE doctors, instead saying his own doctor would see him. It was clear what had happened from the beginning, and it all felt a little bit like a shitty slapstick comedy. Heyman later came back out to the ring, with Curtis Axel and Heyman's Doctor, stating that he wouldn't be able to compete at Night of Champions, whilst also getting cheap heat for some comment about Canadian Healthcare. Heyman played his role really well here, trying to weasle his way out of the match once again. Bizarrely, he was interupted by Raw General Manager Brad Maddox, who headed down to the ring to thwart his plan. It just didn't suit the Maddox character to be the one stopping Heyman's plan, he is after all a heel and part of Triple H's new Corporation. There then followed a really awkward couple of minutes where the WWE doctor examined Paul Heyman, which probably didn't need to be shown on television. The WWE doctor went on to declare that Heyman would be able to compete at Night of Champions. 

With Heyman losing it with Maddox, CM Punk headed down to the ring to rescue the segment. Punk, weilding a Singapore cane again, caused Heyman to forget about his injured leg and run for the hills, with Axel quickly following him. Punk then took his frustrations out on Heyman's Doctor, hitting him with a number of extremely vicious singapore cane shots, that got over what CM Punk can do in the ring when given the chance and made him look like an arse kicking machine. I thought up until CM Punk coming out, this segment was really quite poor, with the exception of Heyman's short time on the mic, feeling extremely goofy in a storyline that has felt very real up until this point. Even with Punk coming out, I still think this is one of the weakest parts of the Punk-Heyman storyline which is a real shame, so close to the pay-per-view.


With Night of Champions just a six days away, I'm beginning to wonder if this storyline has enough legs to take it past this weekend, after already being so strong for the last three months. Whilst I would love to see Punk and Heyman continue their rivalry, it does risk becoming stale pretty soon, with not exactly a lot more space for the story to go. It's a bit like a sit com series, where you've really enjoyed the first three series, and you'd love to see the characters again, but doubt that the writers could come up with situations for those characters to be in, that would be as funny as the situations they have been in before. Part of me is telling me Punk isn't going to be able to get at Heyman at Night of Champions and his frustrations will continue to build, into the next pay-per-view, and the other part of me is saying Punk is going to beat the shit into Heyman and move onto something else, that's why I'm still interested in the Handicap match at Night of Champions. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on Raw, Rob Van Dam, accompanied by Ricardo Rodriguez was in action against Ryback. Prior to the match, World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio and Rob Van Dam's Night of Champions opponent came out and cut a promo on Rob Van Dam and Ricardo Rodriguez. It was a short promo, Del Rio didn't do a great job at all. Between calling his Night of Champions opponent washed up, because that's really going to make people want to watch their match at Night of Champions, and a horrible “ADR” chant, Del Rio never really got going in a way that is going to sell pay-per-views. It really wouldn't have taken much for Del Rio to put Van Dam over and then tell us why he will retain the World Heavyweight title, playing up that Rodriguez would be a weak link for Van Dam. 

The match between Ryback and Van Dam was short and really offered nothing of interest. Van Dam dominated Ryback for the majority of the three minutes, hitting a number of signature moves, before heading to the top rope to hit the Five Star Frog Splash. Ryback, however moved out of the way, with Van Dam diving to the outside for a nasty looking collision with the barricade. The finish saw Ryback send Van Dam groin first into the ringpost to give Van Dam the disqualification victory. The segment closed with Ryback delivered Shellshocked to Van Dam. I don't really see what this segment was supposed to achieve, Van Dam destroyed Ryback in the regular part of the match, but the got taken out by Ryback, so this match did absolutely nothing for nobody and with Ryback not booked for Night of Champions made even less sense.

The aforementioned Alberto Del Rio was also in action himself earlier in the night, taking on R-Truth, in a match the Toronto crowd couldn't care less about and to be honest neither could I. R-Truth's now feels completely out of place on Raw, his gimmick is incredibly stale and having not won on Raw since April, he doesn't really have any fan support. The in ring contest actually wasn't too bad, with a nice springboard dive to the outside from R-Truth being the highlight of the bout for me, but I wasn't really presented with a reason to care, either by the competitors in the ring or the commentary team. The finish saw Del Rio duck R-Truth's Corkscrew Scissors Kick, hitting a horrible looking Tilt-a-Whirl Slam, before locking in the Cross Armbreaker to get the submission victory. I thought the finish here was really weak, especially with Del Rio botching his slam, which would usually have been a shoulder breaker. 


I said after my Smackdown review that the Del Rio-Van Dam feud was beginning to gain momentum, and any momentum it had was killed here on Raw. Del Rio buried Van Dam in his promo, then Van Dam ended up getting a beating from Ryback, with Rodriguez doing absolutely nothing and Del Rio had a match no one gave two donkeys about with R-Truth. I couldn't tell you who is going to come out of Night of Champions with the World Heavyweight Champions, and to be quite honest I really couldn't care anymore. That belt is in dire need of an image, which Del Rio's reign is unfortunately not bringing to it, I'm still miffed as to why they dropped Del Rio's feud with Dolph Ziggler before it's conclusion. 

Bray Wyatt also in action this week, surprisingly against Dolph Ziggler. I say surpringly because Ziggler seemed a little too high up the card to be jobbing to Bray Wyatt, but it was obvious WWE wouldn't be having Wyatt lose so early on his career. The match was a decent outing for both men, with Ziggler fighting valiantly against Wyatt, before Luke Harper and Erick Rowan attempted to get involved, with Ziggler evading them similar to what he did with 3MB at a while back, before Wyatt took control, hitting Sister Abigail for the pinfall victory. I suspect WWE is planning big thing for Bray Wyatt at Hell in a Cell, so he needed a victory over a top face in WWE, but it didn't quite seem to fit Wyatt's character to have him be someone dishing out punishment on behalf of Triple H, as we've seen happen to Ziggler in the last couple of weeks. 

In an uninspiring contest The Miz took on World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank winner Damien Sandow. The match trundled along for a couple of minute, with both Sandow and Miz going through the motions again, with the crowd really not caring for what was happening in the ring, but especially for The Miz. Sandow really needs to sort himself out at the moment and stop going through the motions, if he wants me to care about the fact WWE have made him feel unimportant as Money in the Bank holder. Luckily, Fandango came out to interupt the match, with the crowd going Fandangoing crazy, allowing Sandow to sneak a roll up victory over The Miz. The crowd couldn't care less that The Miz had just lost, continuing to dance away oblivious. The only thing that could make this Miz vs. Fandango feud interesting, is if the roles were reversed. 

There was also Six Woman Tag Team action with Total Divas cast member Natalya, Brie Bella and Naomi teaming up to take on Aksana, Alicia Fox & Layla. The action until Natalya and Alicia Fox were tagged in was really quite poor, with some horrible wrestling from Layla and Aksana really not helping the divas division, especially when Layla seems incapable of executing a basic pin, AJ Lee's commentary was the only redeeming factor about that first few minutes. Natalya and Alicia Fox actually wrestled quite well, and I enjoyed this part of the match, with Natalya especially looking fantastic, as she pretty much single handedly took out the other team and picked up the submission victory with the Sharpshooter. I can only hope that Natalya and Diva's AJ Lee are given most of the Fatal Fourway match at Night of Champions, as they are the strongest in the ring by a good way, Naomi is getting there and keeps improving, but if they put the title on Brie Bella, I might have to cause someone physical harm. 

We also got the return of Santino Marella in his first televised match since late April, as he took on Antonio Cesaro of The Real American's. The bout was a lot of fun, with Cesaro dominating the early going, including a ridiculous Giant Swing that went on forever, the crowd going nuts and Cesaro looking like superman. A fun Marella comeback, with all his signature reversals, built up nicely to a Cobra attempt from Marella, with The Cobra being crazily over with the crowd for someone. The finish saw Cesaro back in control, but unable to keep Marella down, with Cesaro shouting some expletive at Marella that was cut by the Sky Sports censors, Marella countered with judo throw hooking the leg to pick the pinfall victory. It was basically the same ending they used later on for Bryan vs. Ambrose (without the judo stuff), and yeah, it does suck a little that Cesaro lost, but Marella probably doesn't get enough credit for his matches, which are almost always entertaining, so I have no real problem with him winning on his return, and the match was some good old harmless fun.


Once again there was some Los Matadores promos, the same ones we've seen for weeks and I cared even less than I did before. 

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Raw.

1. WWE closing the show with Daniel Bryan celebrating and not a crying Big Show is what's good for business.

2. Bringing Goldust back was a stroke of genius.

3. Apart from Bryan/Orton and Punk/Heyman&Axel, I'm not particularly excited for Night of Champions.

WWE Smackdown 6th September 2013 Review

Similar to last week's episode, this week's WWE Smackdown used the opening segment to book or at least set up, the majority of the matches on the show. I quite like this approach, as you know exactly what you are getting for the rest of the show, as well as giving a reason for the two or more competitors to be having a match, which can only ever be a good thing.

Rob Van Dam 

with Ricardo Rodriguez

 vs. 

WWE Champion 

Randy Orton 

Smackdown this week kicked off with what was termed a “Town Hall Meeting”, firstly, I'd like to say that they really should've been able to come up with a better name than that! Basically, what this entailed was Chief Operating Officer Triple H standing in the ring, flanked by Raw General Manager Brad Maddox and Smackdown General Manager Vickie Guerrero (who did nothing throughout the segment) asking wrestlers to step up and speak their minds. I thought Triple H played his role fantastically throughout this segment, his character is really developing nicely and he suits the role they've given him, really playing up to the internets perception of The Game. A number of different wrestlers eventually stepped up, first was Damien Sandow, voicing his agreement with Triple H firing Cody Rhodes, only to be instantly be put down by Triple H. I'll talk about the others that stepped up as their matches come along. The final person that stepped up was Rob Van Dam, with his usual relaxed promo style, discussing when Triple H signed him to WWE and how he expected things to be different. Whilst Van Dam isn't the great promo guy in the world, I liked the content here and thought it worked well on some forgotten WWE continuity. For his part in the segment, Triple H gave Rob Van Dam a match against WWE Champion Randy Orton!

Personally, I thought this match with Orton, was Van Dam's best match since returning to WWE. The match started strongly, with Van Dam looking energetic and taking control, until they repeated the excellent Rolling Thunder into a Snap Scoop Powerslam spot from their 6th August Smackdown contest and it just built from their. Orton spent most of the bout in control, but never in over long spells, with Van Dam getting bursts of offence for a near fall, like one off a Split Legged Moonsault, but Orton would quickly gained ground. The match used a number of spots that allowed the bout to grow naturally, with Van Dam missing his spinning kick off the apron with Orton draped over the barricade and Orton tripping Van Dam as he scaled to the top rope standing out for me. For a match that used a lot of spots, there was also a fair amount of chain wrestling, with Van Dam and Orton styles really matching up nicely with good section that saw Orton building for an RKO, only for Van Dam to hit Orton with a Roundhouse Kick and use his legs for a roll up for a near fall.

The finish saw World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, who Van Dam will face at Night of Champions on 15th September, and who was on commentary attack Van Dam's manager Ricardo Rodriguez by sending him into the ringpost in what looked like a really nasty bump for Rodriguez. With Van Dam cannonballing over the top rope onto Del Rio, with Orton taking advantage by hitting an apron hung DDT onto the arena floor on the Whole F'N Show. Orton went on to hit Van Dam with an RKO to pick up the pinfall victory and continue his winning streak. I quite liked the ending, usually I don't like champions or challengers for championships losing, but the way this was done really worked for me, helping to add a little fuel to the simmering Van Dam and Del Rio rivalry, as well as building the relationship between Van Dam and Rodriguez, whilst allowing Orton to look good at the same time and not really costing Van Dam anything after a competitive match against the WWE Champion.

Randy Orton continues to look very good as a heel at the moment, he could easily come across as Triple H's underling, but I don't think he does. Mainly due to the string of strong and exciting matches we've seen him placed in on Raw and Smackdown, against the likes of Van Dam, Christian and Cody Rhodes, which have allowed Orton to look really good, whilst also allowing his heel role to really developed. He comes across as someone who doens't need Triple H to stack the deck for him, but it's much easier when he does. With just one week to go until Night of Champions, the Van Dam and Del Rio feud is actually starting to build quite nicely, it probably isn't quite ready for a pay-per-view match, but with that's one of the downfalls of the WWE schedule. It will be interesting to see if WWE continues the story past Night of Champions, at first I didn't think it would have the legs to do so, but I'm beginning to change my mind.

Daniel Bryan 

vs. 

Tag Team Champion

Seth Rollins

 with The Shield

One of the matches that Triple H made in the opening segment, was Daniel Bryan versus a member of The Shield, with Bryan being able to choose which one he wanted to face. Bryan made his decision in a backstage interview with Renee Young. Bryan, who was at the “Town Hall Meeting”, said he was told by management not to be there, before saying that he knew The Shield wouldn't allow the contest to be one on one later, so there would be no point chosing an opponent, instead saying The Shield could chose who would fight him. It was a decent promo from Bryan, not exactly anything we haven't heard before, but set up what would become the main event of the show well and leaving his opponent open gave the viewer a reason to stay tuned for the closing segments of the show.

Later in the evening with Bryan standing across the ring from The Shield, it was teased that Bryan would be facing Tag Team Champion Roman Reigns, only for fellow Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins to attack Bryan from behind Reigns and reveal himself as the opponent. After two fantastic Bryan vs. Rollins matches on Raw on 10^th June and 26^th August (in a Gauntlet match) I had fairly high hopes for this bout, and unfortunately the match didn't quite live up to those expectations. This bout was much more ground in storytelling than it's predecessors with Bryan attempting to overcome The Shield at ringside, who were always close to Bryan. There were some nice spots like Rollins powerslam to Bryan over the top rope, but the match didn't really have enough time to tell the story it wanted, going just over five minutes.

The finish saw Bryan catch a diving Rollins in the Yes Lock, but with Reigns and United States Champion Dean Ambrose attempting to interfere Bryan turned his attention to them, taking out Ambrose with a dropkick and levelling Reigns with a Suicide Dive. With the playing field now even, Bryan hit a charging Rollins with an elbow, before hitting a Running Single Legged High Knee to pick up a pinfall victory. It was a nice energetic finish, with Bryan looking especially good on his way to picking up the victory. I don't want it to seem like this match was rubbish, far from it, all the in ring action was sound throughout and the match was extremely pacy, it just needed more time to let it breath and simply couldn't compete with the other match Bryan and Rollins have had against each other in WWE. Giving Bryan a convincing win however was a good decision, as having him beat down every week would have gotten old quickly, so he needed to remind us that he could actually win!

With Bryan celebrating up the ramp, it looked like Bryan would close the show. However, this was not to be the case, with Randy Orton catching Bryan by surprise, hitting him in the back of the head with the WWE Championship. I'm still undecided on this ending the show. I sort of like the idea of Orton continuing to get the upperhand on Bryan heading into Night of Champions, but at the same time I feel that leaving Bryan to celebrate would have been beneficial to the storytelling, as it would give Bryan momentum and hope heading into Night of Champions, which would allow the story to continue even longer. If Bryan continues to end up coming of worse for ware at the end of every show, and then loses at Night of Champions, there isn't anywhere else for the story to go. If Bryan begins to build momentum, and is then screwed out of the title again, then you have something to run with heading into the next pay-per-view.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

After 3MB's Heath Slater spoke up during the “Town Hall Meeting” about Big Show standing by why friends get beaten up, Triple H later granted Big Show a match, with all of 3MB. In a backstage segment, Triple H continued to play on Big Show's emotions, after putting him in the match with 3MB, telling him to ball up his fist and take out his frustrations on 3MB. I quite liked this backstage segment, it continued the story with Triple H and Big Show well, and Big Show continued to do a good job of the big angry giant trying to contain his emotions stuff that we've seen him do recently. Triple H's deadpan delivery didn't quite sit well for me, it was as if he was trying to play for the laughs, when this is where we need him to be at his most serious.

The match was as you would expect, similar to a handicap match 3MB had with Kane on 6^th August Smackdown, Big Show just threw Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal around the ring and ringside area for a couple of minutes, looking like a destructive machine. Big Show picked up the pinfall victory after a Double Chokeslam to McIntyre and Mahal, and a Knockout Punch to Slater. It won't be appearing on any Best of... DVD sets anytime soon, but the match was effective in reminding the audience that Big Show is a monster and showing all the pent up rage in that giant. The audience should have been thinking of what Big Show could do to Triple H, when he finally loses it with the Chief Operating Officer.

Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, accompanied by Paul Heyman, was in action against Kofi Kingston in a good match. The bout started with a lot of mat grappling, before building up nicely with some pacy offense from Kingston. With the hometown crowd really getting behind Axel, we saw Paul Heyman's client show a vicious streak that we haven't seen too often in his match, clubbing away on Kofi in a tree of woe position. The finish saw Axel setting up for the Hangman's Facebuster, only for Kingston to counter with S.O.S to pick up the surprise pinfall victory. I liked the finish, it seemed to come out of nowhere and I didn't expect Kingston to win at all. It looks like they're working on the idea that Axel will most likely lose to CM Punk at Night of Champions in attempt to build up anticipation for when Punk get's his hand on Heyman. Later on Renee Young tried to interview Paul Heyman, who was clearly worried about Night of Champions and ended up walking out of the building

After Ryback had said at the “Town Hall Meeting” that he didn't like being called a bully, he placed in a rematch from this week's Raw against Dolph Ziggler by Triple H. The bout was similar to the one they had on Raw this week, but with more offense from Ziggler seeing as he hadn't been attacked by United States Champion Dean Ambrose beforehand. Talking of Ambrose, he turned up on commentary, and one of my least favourite things about WWE, when the camera is too busy showing the commentary team than showing the action in the ring! With Ziggler looking to gain momentum, he was distracted by Ambrose on commentary chasing him around the announce desk before walking into a clothesline from Ryback, in an enjoyable spot, which led to the finish with Ryback hitting Shellshocked to pick up the pinfall victory. It was decent match between these two with the dynamic working well, hopefully this is leading to a United States Championship match between Ambrose and Ziggler, although Ziggler will have to pick up a win from somewhere to really justify it.

There was also women's action on Smackdown, starting with Diva's Champion AJ Lee approaching Layla, Aksana and Alicia Fox backstage, apparently completely forgetting when Layla and AJ Lee were skipping around ringside about a month back, as they all seemed reluctant to speak to AJ. The match saw The Funkadactly's Naomi taking on Brie Bella, and after some okay action came to a close with a horrible looking spot that saw both women tumble to the outside, Lee, Layla, Aksana and Fox made their presence known by attacking both women and causing a double disqualification. With the heels eventually come off better, AJ Lee celebrated with her Diva's title. Personally, I don't know why Layla, Aksana and Fox need to be involved, and having Aksana as part of the group only helps to dilute the power of Lee's promo on Raw a few weeks ago.

In tag team action, The Real American's Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro, accompanied by Zeb Colter, took on The Usos, in decent tag team action. It was pretty basic stuff, mainly due to the time constraints, with Swagger and Cesaro working quick tags and dominating Uso, building up to a hot tag. The finish saw The Usos rolling with some nice pacy high flying action, with an Uso hitting a Superkick on Cesaro, he headed to the top rope, and after some back and forth between the other Uso and Swagger on the outside, Swagger dodged an attack, sending Uso into the barricade, allowing Swagger to push Uso off of the top rope into an Uppercut from Cesaro to win the match for The Real Americans. A good finish, with The Real American's picking up a much needed victory, and keeping the tag team division competitive. It was a decent match, but these teams have had better on Raw before.

They also played the same vignette for Los Matadores, and I cared even less than I did before.

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Smackdown.

1. Randy Orton is his best in ring form in quite some time, with top notch matches against Cody Rhodes and Rob Van Dam this week.

2. Just because a match looks good on a paper, for example, Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins, doesn't mean WWE will give it enough time to be any good.

3. The stuff with Big Show and Triple H is beginning to cloud the story with Daniel Bryan.