Jericho gets in Heyman's face. Photo credit: WWE.com
WWE Champion John Cena made his Raw return and admitted that even though Ryback deserved a title rematch after the no contest end to their Last Man Standing match, he accused his rival of not thinking things through after challenging him to an Ambulance match at Payback next month. So to make sure there was a definitive end to their next championship clash, he announced that they would compete in a 3 Stages of Hell contest, starting with a Lumberjack match, then a Table match and finally the Ambulance match.
Ryback then marched out and welcomed the challenge, claiming that he'd already deliberately tried to take Cena out at Extreme Rules so he'd have no quarrels doing it again. After Ryback had left, Paul Heyman introduced his latest client Curtis Axel, and challenged the WWE Champion to a match on behalf of Axel. Cena stated that Curtis had guts, but that he should stay away from Heyman and accepted the match. I was personally hoping that they'd save Axel and Cena's first confrontation for a little later down the road, make it a bit more memorable.
Alberto Del Rio pinned Big E Langston in a fair encounter, and one of Big E's better match ups since joining the main roster. Both men gave decent enough displays, but there was nothing outstanding here. Del Rio managed to roll up Big E for the winning pinfall after he'd gone head first into a turnbuckle that AJ Lee had exposed earlier.
Backstage Kane tried (but failed) to calm down a frustrated Daniel Bryan, who was still paranoid about being called the "weak link" in their team. It took the kind words of Bret Hart (who unsurprisingly received a huge reaction from his hometown of Calgary) to put Bryan at ease, who explained that Kane saying the same thing to him failed because he was "just Kane."
Dean Ambrose (c) defeated Kofi Kingston to retain the United States Championship in an enjoyable back and fourth affair. Once again these two worked well together, with well executed sequences. Kofi was clearly being booed by the strong fans in attendance too, his persona really needs a shake up soon I reckon.
Afterwards Team Hell No then stormed down as The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reign) were about to attack Kofi, which instigated the Tag Team Title match.
The Shield (Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) (c) bested Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship in an awesome bout. Once again these two teams provided an exciting and thoroughly engaging contest, with the action crisp and fast. Bryan was especially on red hot form. These two teams have provided better tag team matches than we've had in years in WWE.
Fandango pinned Wade Barrett after Special Guest referee The Miz was pushed by Barrett, so he applied a Skull Crushing Final to the IC Champion and counted Fandango's winning pinfall. The bout itself was kept brief, but it was better than I'd anticipated to be fair to both men. Afterwards Miz then booted Fandango in the head for good measure.
Tons of Funk (Brodus Clay and Tesnai) and The Great Khali beat 3MB (Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal) in an average and forgettable six-man tag outing. McIntyre was the only stand out performer for me. Afterwards the victors then celebrated Natalya's birthday by singing Happy Birthday along with the fans.
Chris Jericho introduced Paul Heyman for his latest edition of the Highlight Reel, where he mentioned Curtis Axel and admitted that Heyman had a knack for discovering top talent in pro wrestling, including himself.
Y2J then went on to quiz his guest about the exit of CM Punk after WrestleMania XXIX, but Heyman had no answer for him. So Jericho then challenged Punk via Heyman to a match at Payback, which happened to be taking place from Punk's hometown of Chicago. So after aggravating Heyman, he accepted on behalf of his client. It was a strong segment, with solid mic work from both men.
Nikki and Brie Bella bested Natalya and Kaitlyn in a mediocre and occasionally sloppy tag bout. Natalya gave a decent enough showing to be fair to her, but unfortunately for her she was accidentally speared by Kaitlyn and then pinned by one of the Bellas (I forget). Maybe this is the start of Natalya turning on Kaitlyn.
We then witnessed a VT for the arrival of Bray Wyatt to the main roster. If you're not aware of the current NXT talent, you should go and check out his promos online. He's a cult-like leader, and a very interesting character and solid in the ring too. This is a very exciting prospect.
Sheamus and Randy Orton defeated Team Rhodes Scholars (Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes) in a passable tag affair. The wrestling was consistent throughout, but it just lacked that bit of excitement needed to really gain my interest.
I think a win for Rhodes Scholars would've been a smarter way to go too, those two had far more to gain from a victory than Orton and Sheamus here and this essentially kills off a potential feud between Sandow and the Irishman after the clean win. It almost seems Sandow and Rhodes are destined to float around the midcard position for the rest of their careers, although I hope I'm proven wrong.
Curtis Axel won via count out versus John Cena in a mixed bag of a main event. While Axel looked solid here, unfortunately Cena contributed his bare minimum and was visibly mouthing instructions at certain points, as he has a tendency to do. The count out occurred when Cena left the ring to inspect a suspicious ambulance that had parked up at the stage. Ryback then attacked Cena from behind, and was about to send him through the LED display (as he did at Extreme Rules) when the champ made a comeback, so Ryback decided to leave him for now.
The biggest cheer during the bout was actually to do with a fight that broke out in the crowd. Apparently a few fans who'd been drinking a fair bit and giving abuse to people were finally escorted out by security after swinging a punch at one of them. Some people, eh? I've also heard that they shouted stuff at a young kid wearing a Cena T-Shirt, I sincerely hope that isn't true. A lot of fans, young and old just want to come and enjoy the show and have fun, there's no excuse for that kind of behaviour.
Overall it was a decent show, with a few average segments but enjoyable enough on the whole. My highlights were Ambrose versus Kingston, Team Hell No versus The Shield, Jericho's Highlight Reel and the news that Bray Wyatt will be joining the main roster soon. Outside of those aforementioned match ups there were pretty average or drab outings.
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