This week: Hey, remember that whole thing last week, about the end of five seasons of NXT? Yeah, forget that ever happened. Instead, NXT continues on, in much the same way Scrubs did, ie. missing nearly everything that everybody liked. Although Khali showing up might have saved that show. Plus, The People Powermobile, Big Show turn # twenty something?, live on air rewrites, Damien Sandow as the 21st century Genius and Ricardo Rodriguez > Mr. Kennedy.
RAW SUPERSHOW
– Cena came out after a recap of what happened at Over The Limit. He was beside himself at what happened and said Laurinaitis deserved everything he got. Cena didn’t understand why Big Show did what he did, because whoever the next GM was after Laurinaitis would have hired him back. Eve interrupted, to introduce Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis came out in a People Power mobility scooter. He talked about his laundry list of injuries, like a “possible” broken clavicle and a “possible” spinal injury. Sounds like he needs a more decisive doctor. Laurinaitis said nobody could lay a finger on him again. He then brought out Big Show, saying he rehired him last Saturday. Big Show, in a suit, got plenty of heat. He said nobody loved the business more than he did and everybody watched him crying the week before. And he got no sympathy. Show said he did what he had to do and now, he had an iron clad contract. He promised to knock Cena out at No Way Out and left. David Otunga then came out and said not only would Cena lose to his boss, he’d lose to him as well. Cena warned him not to get in the ring with him, but Otunga did, not before dedicating the match to Laurinaitis.
– John Cena d. David Otunga by submission in 1:58. Otunga tried to avoid any contact with Cena at first. Once the action got going though, Cena made quick work of Otunga, with an AA and STF. Cena kept the hold on, but Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, Darren Young and Titus O’Neil all attacked. Sheamus ran out for the save, bumping Laurinaitis on the way. Laurinaitis yelled at the four attackers claiming he didn’t give them permission to attack. He then set up Cena and Sheamus in a 2 on 3 lumberjack match.
– Ricardo was out for an introduction, but Santino interrupted him. Santino told Ricardo he had a ridiculous accent and eyebrows. They bickered back and forth until Santino spooked him with the Cobra. Ricardo tried to fight but got stuck trying to take off his jacket and Santino hit the Cobra. Santino then did Alberto’s ring introduction, announcing him as hailing from “some crazy place in Mexico”. Not impressed, Alberto saw Santino off.
– Randy Orton d. Alberto Del Rio by DQ in 4:07. Before this match, they retconned the line about Laurinaitis signing Big Show on Saturday, because Twitter blew up pointing out how this contradicted the rule that no-one could interfere. So the show is already interactive! Del Rio was able to ground Orton after an even start. But he took a spill through the ropes. Orton made his comeback, but as he set up for the RKO, Chris Jericho ran in and delivered a Codebreaker. Jericho ranted about being the best before delivering two more Codebreakers.
– Daniel Bryan came out. No YES entrance, because he was in a bad mood about the “injustice” at Over The Limit. He showed footage of Punk tapping out and it was Q&A time again. Did Punk tap out? YES. Should he be the champion? YES. If he faced Punk again would he make him tap out? YES. YES. YES. Punk came out and pointed out he pinned Bryan. He then showed footage as well, but it was footage of Bryan hitting Kane with a chair from Smackdown. Punk introduced Kane as Bryan’s opponent for tonight.
– Daniel Bryan d. Kane by DQ in 1:49. Punk stuck around for commentary. Bryan struggled with Kane, but was able to hit a dive in front of the announce table. Sure enough, Punk tried to hit Kane with a chair like Bryan did. Bryan stopped him, but Kane caught Bryan holding the chair which accomplished the same thing. Kane destroyed Bryan with the chair and hit two Chokeslams, as Punk sarcastically disapproved on commentary. He then “checked on” Bryan, putting him in the Anaconda Vice and forcing him to tap.
– Christian d. Jinder Mahal in 3:16. Jinder was able to give Christian a backdrop to the floor and worked him over briefly. Christian came back and managed to escape the camel clutch, hitting the Killswitch and following up with a frog splash.
– Beth Phoenix d. Kelly Kelly in 2:29. Layla was shown watching backstage. Kelly held her own but Beth won with the Glam Slam.
– 2 on 3 Handicap Lumberjack Match: John Cena and Sheamus versus Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and Lord Tensai went to a no contest. Tensai has definitely dropped the entrance gear. Which is good. The lumberjacks were all heels. Laurinaitis watched from the stage as Cena and Sheamus fared well early, until Tensai tagged in. Sheamus was sent outside and fought off the lumberjacks, but Jericho grabbed a foot to help Tensai jump the World Champion. The heels isolated him for a while as Big Show came out to watch, before Cena got the tag. Crowd were really into Cena by this point. The lumberjacks attacked Sheamus outside and then jumped Cena when he tried to help. But the babyfaces ran out to even things up and it turned into a melee. Cena left to go after Big Show, but got distracted with Laurinaitis and Big Show appeared from off screen with the KO punch.
NXT
– Jinder Mahal d. Derrick Bateman in 6:30. So, welcome to limbo. Plenty of “USA” chants here. Bateman looked good and had a few opportunities to win but Jinder ended up putting him in the 1980s camel clutch for the submission.
– Percy Watson d. Heath Slater in 6:25. Heath controlled things for a while. Percy came back to win with a modified flapjack though.
– Maxine d. Alicia Fox in 6:11. Things broke down into a cat fight early on. Maxine tried to ground Alicia and after a back and forth finish Maxine won with a dragon sleeper.
– Great Khali and Ezekial Jackson d. Johnny Curtis and Drew McIntyre (Khali pinned Curtis) in 7:13. Once again Zeke was the defacto victim of most of the punishment. Khali then ran through both opponents and pinned Curtis with the Punjabi Plunge. There’s something off about NXT ending with Khali and Zeke dancing. Then again there’s something off about the whole show now. At least the crowd were pretty lively this week. The new Florida shows can’t air soon enough though, because this throw out a bunch of random matches, extra hour of Superstars version of NXT does nobody any favours.
SUPERSTARS
– Antonio Cesaro d. Tyson Kidd in 6:38. Striker made a CHIKARA reference and a Very European reference. Cesaro roughed Kidd up, while Kidd tried to use his quickness to catch him out. Cesaro avoided a dive but Tyson faked him out and hit a blockbuster for two. He then countered the Sharpshooter, but grabbing Tyson by the ear. Cesaro nailed the pop up uppercut and won with the cradle pancake slam. This was good as you’d expect.
– R-Truth and Kofi Kingston d. JTG and Michael McGillicutty (Truth pinned JTG) in 10:19. The champions dealt with JTG early, before Truth was cut off. Kofi ran wild and hit a dive on both opponents. But Kofi was caught with a clothesline off the apron by McGillicutty after the break and their advantage was regained. Truth eventually got the tag back in and with the illegal men taken out, Truth hit the Little Jimmy for the pin.
– Zack Ryder d. Heath Slater in 9:35. Fans were behind Ryder. Zack took Heath out with a plancha but Slater soon took control. However Zack was able to recover. Slater countered the Ruff Ryder once and almost won with a powerslam off the top. But Zack was able to hit the Ruff Ryder on the second try after Slater lost his cool.
SMACKDOWN
– Eve, with theme music, came out to announce Laurinaitis wasn’t there, so she was in charge. She demanded an apology out of Sheamus, for bumping into Laurinaitis on Raw. Del Rio interrupted. He sweet talked Eve, wanting to be named number one contender to the World Title. Orton interrupted this, polling the fans on whether they wanted to see Del Rio or him. No prizes for guessing who they picked. Kane showed up and threw his name into the mix as well, saying this was episode 666 of Smackdown. Eve booked a triple threat between them to decide the number one contender.
– Christian d. Hunico in 3:04. Camacho’s distraction aided Hunico, who took Christian out with a dive. But Christian rallied and after taking out Camacho, countered Hunico’s modified samoan drop into the Killswitch, followed again by the frog splash. This was fun while it lasted. Cody showed up afterwards and said Christian had ruined all he’d done to restore pride in the Intercontinental Title over the past 8 months. He promised to win the belt back.
– Titus O’Neil and Darren Young d. The Usos (Titus pinned Jimmy) in 3:13. They showed a wacky segment from earlier in the day, where they mocked each other’s dances. Titus took out Jey and prevented Jimmy from hitting the superfly splash, allowing them to hit the demolition device moments later.
– A return video aired for Sin Cara.
– Two On One Handicap Match: Ryback d. Brian Edwards and Kevin Bendl in 1:29. Edwards was actually Ricky Reyes. Ryback’s eye was all messed up. They decided to show a close up of it, which I really could have done without. Ryback destroyed them both and hit his finisher on both guys at the same time
– Santino Marella d. Ricardo Rodriguez in 1:52. Ricardo did his own introduction. His theme music is pretty great too. Ricardo, in his tuxedo, tripped getting in the ring and things didn’t get much better for the poor guy, as Santino had to lead him through how to lock up. Ricardo tried a criss cross and tired himself out. Santino gave him an airplane spin and collapsed outside, so decided to hide under the ring. Which tricked Ricardo, setting up the Cobra. More Ricardo, please.
– Sheamus came to the ring, apparently for an apology. Sheamus insisted it was an accident and decided to insult Laurinaitis and everyone who kissed his arse instead of apologising. He said he wanted to force Orton at No Way Out, when Vickie showed up, telling Sheamus Eve had put him in a match right now.
– Sheamus d. Jack Swagger in 6:57. Swagger tried to clip Sheamus’s knee early but Sheamus evaded and got the better of things. Vickie’s distraction allowed Swagger to clip the leg on the second attempt though. He focused on the ankle. Sheamus fought back but missed the Brogue Kick and tweaked the ankle. Swagger went for the gutwrench powerbomb, but Sheamus escaped and nailed the Brogue Kick for the win. Good match.
– Damien Sandow d. Yoshi Tatsu in 0:45. Sandow insulted Yoshi again this week and said tonight, he’d teach him a lesson physically, for all of our common good. Sandow immediately ducked through the ropes to avoid physicality once the match started. Great. Once he went on the attack, Sandow finished Yoshi off super quick with the cross arm neckbreaker. He then celebrated with a cartwheel.
– Big Show came out and cut a promo, while sitting on a stool. He explained again that he loved what he did and said he felt betrayed by his friends and all the fans for not coming to his defense. Crowd told him he sold out. And chanted for Cena. Big Show said when you’re drowning, you don’t care where the lifeline comes from. He bragged about knocking Cena out with one punch and promised to do it again at No Way Out. He said the fans never cared about him and now, he didn’t care about them.
– Kane made his entrance for the triple threat match. But out of nowhere, he was attacked with a chair by Daniel Bryan. Bryan wore Kane out with repeated shots, as the crowd, eventually, chanted YES.
– #1 Contendership, Triple Threat: Alberto Del Rio d. Randy Orton and Kane in 7:22. Kane still competed, somewhat weakened from Bryan’s attack. But he still looked the best early on. Not sure why he took so many chair shots in retrospect. Kane was taken out with an enziguri to the top by Del Rio and Orton made his big comeback on both opponents. But Del Rio countered the RKO and Kane sent Orton into the steps. Kane then Chokeslammed Del Rio, but Bryan came back out with the chair as a distraction. Kane chased him off but was still distracted. Orton gave him the RKO, but Del Rio kicked Orton and stole the pin in the obligatory triple threat finish. Sheamus attacked Del Ro as he celebrated on the stage though and “congratulated” him.