This Week In WWE TV – September 17-23, 2012

This week: WWE gets current and fights fire with fire, with an incompetent referee angle of it’s own to challenge the NFL. Of course, the scab referee angle was perfected in 1999 and that’s indisputable. But, it’s worth a try I suppose. Plus, the inaugural (and hopefully not last) edition of The Kane And Daniel Bryan Show aka Smackdown, Edge return #347, MizTV, sparring with Kassius Ohno and JBL returning to Raw.

RAW

– Paul Heyman came out, claiming CM Punk successfully defended his title against Cena at Night Of Champions. He brought out referee Chad Patton. Heyman told him he made the right decision and Patton agreed. They showed camera phone footage of the german suplex, which seemed to show Cena’s shoulder were down. Cena interrupted, in his pink and black. The ropes were pink and white as well, as part of WWE’s partnership with Susan G. Komen For The Cure during breast cancer awareness month. Cena said he agreed the referee made the right call and his issue was with the match ending in a tie. He asked if retaining the title on a tie earned Punk any respect. Heyman said it did. Cena said respect was earned by beating someone definitively. He challenged Punk to a rematch tonight. Instead, Del Rio came out. Del Rio complained about Booker reinstating the Brogue Kick before his match with Sheamus. This brought out AJ who made Cena and Sheamus versus Punk and Del Rio tonight.

– They showed Jerry Lawler’s Tout from the hospital from the previous week, after his heart attack. JBL and Jim Ross came out to join Cole on commentary, who was understandably in great spirits giving the good news regarding Lawler.

– Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara d. Primo and Epico (Sin Cara pinned Epico) in 3:13. Rey and Sin Cara worked well together to start, before Sin Cara was isolated. Rey ran wild and hit a double 619. Rey then took out Primo, leaving Sin Cara to pick up the win with a swanton. But after the match, the Primetime Players ran out and attacked Rey and Cara. They said their number one contendership was taken from them, but from now on nobody was taking anything from them, they were doing the taking.

– Eve Torres d. Beth Phoenix in 1:40. Layla did commentary. If you guessed Beth lost to a rollup, then congratulations, you’ve been paying attention the past few years.

– Brodus Clay d. Heath Slater in 2:04. Cesaro was on commentary for this. Slater went for Brodus’s knee to get him down, briefly, before Cesaro attempted a distraction. Brodus kicked out of a ace crusher though and recovered to beat Slater with the big splash.

– The Miz presented his new talk show segment, MizTV. He said Roddy Piper, Chris Jericho and Edge were never as awesome as him. He bragged about his win at Night Of Champions before bringing out his guest, Booker T. Miz did the “ask a question and pull the microphone away at the last second” deal. He confronted Booker about reinstating the Brogue Kick and claimed he missed the spotlight. Booker snatched the microphone and said Miz needed a new guest for his show. Which brought out Ryback. Miz bailed, as Ryback tossed Miz’s set around.

– Punk spoke to Heyman backstage. Josh tried to get an interview with Punk. Punk said he wasn’t looking forward to teaming with Del Rio and claimed it was disrespect.

– Dolph Ziggler d. Santino Marella in 4:10. Ziggler disrespected the Cobra, before Santino made his comeback. Vickie grabbed the Cobra sleeve away from Santino, leaving him distracted and allowing Dolph to win after two consecutive Zig Zags.

– Wade Barrett d. Justin Gabriel in 4:11. The crowd actually chanted “We want Nexus” during this match. That’s a new one. Gabriel put up a decent effort, before Barrett put him out with the ripchord elbow.

– Truth, Kofi and Little Jimmy did a segment with Jared from Subway. Damien Sandow tried to pitch his own idea for a sandwich involving “Cornish game hen” and “zucchini reduction”. Jared wasn’t impressed. More fool him. Ryder showed up. The payoff to all this was Ryback saying Feed Me More and getting a sub.

– Sheamus spoke to Cena backstage, who seemed distracted. Cena said he needed to justify a rematch and said they needed to make a statement tonight. Sheamus offered to take him out for a pint after they won.

– Footage of Jerry Lawler returning to Memphis and meeting the doctor who helped save his life was shown.

– WWE Tag Team Championships: Kane and Daniel Bryan (c) d. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (Bryan submitted Truth) in 9:49 to retain the titles. Bryan wasn’t even trying to keep his temper in check here. The champions had troubles getting along but managed to cut off Truth. Kofi made a comeback and had Kane set up for Trouble In Paradise but Kane recovered. Bryan tagged himself in which lead to a shoving match and allowing Truth and Kofi to take control. Kane came in off the tag and things broke down, as Bryan hung Kane across the rope but saved the resulting pin. Kane then Chokeslammed Truth, before Bryan tagged himself in and stole the glory with the NO Lock. The champions argued and the crowd wanted them to hug it out. They did, but it didn’t do much good, as they each yelled “I’M the tag team champions” at each other.

– Randy Orton d. Tensai in 6:14. Tensai worked over Orton’s back. Orton made a comeback and went for the RKO. Tensai pushed him off and tried for a splash in the corner, but Orton moved and hit the RKO for the pin.

– Punk and Heyman met up with Del Rio and Otunga backstage. Otunga said Del Rio expected Punk to follow his lead. Heyman said Punk followed nobody’s lead. Punk and Del Rio insulted each other, through Otunga and Heyman. Punk and Del Rio then disingenuously said they were looking forward to teaming with each other.

– Damien Sandow d. Zack Ryder in 5:37. Sandow cut a promo before the match saying this was his favourite season, back to school season. He tried to prepare everyone, by giving out some new vocabulary. Ryder started hot before Sandow took control. Ryder came back and hit his boot, but Sandow recovered and beat Zack with the cross arm neckbreaker.

– Sheamus and John Cena d. CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio (Cena pinned Punk) in 10:27. Punk posed with the title, for a long time, before the match. As in, minutes. Punk tagged immediately rather than face Cena. All Cena and Sheamus early. Punk escaped the AA with a thumb to the eye and Cena was worked on, before tagging Sheamus. When Sheamus set up the Brogue Kick, Punk’s intervention lead to Sheamus being cut off. Sheamus eventually tagged Cena back in and Cena made the big comeback. Cena got the STF on Punk and Del Rio broke it up, but took a Brogue Kick. Punk then clotheslined Sheamus, but walked into the AA. Punk got his foot on the rope at two, but the referee didn’t see it and counted to three. Punk and Heyman berated referee Brad Maddox all the way backstage.

NXT

– Trent Barreta d. Johnny Curtis in 5:38. Trent’s return match after 6 months. Curtis hung Trent on the ropes as he went for the whisper in the wind. He then went after Trent’s arm injury. Trent fought back and got 2 with whisper in the wind. Curtis countered a tornado DDT with a suplex into the turnbuckles. But Trent avoided a legdrop and won with a KENTA style knee.

– Paige d. Alicia Foxx in 4:47. Paige went for some quick pins before scaring Alicia with a scream. At which point the match got physical. Paige got the win with a cradle DDT.

– Conor O’Brien d. Jimmy Uso in 3:51. After Jimmy started strong, Conor blocked a baseball slide and took control on the floor. Jimmy came back and went for the superfly splash. Cameron crotched Jimmy on the rope though and Conor scored the victory with a dropkick. The Ascension then attacked Jey as well for good measure.

– Briley tried to interview Bo Dallas, but McGillicutty interrupted. He said nobody cared about Bo and started to brag about his victory last week. Bo attacked and referees had to seperate them.

– Kassius Ohno d. Oliver Grey by submission in 1:00. This was billed as a “sparring session” for Kassius. He basically squashed his opponent and beat him with the trusty cravat. Ohno said it was easier than he anticipated and clearly his opponent wasn’t ready, so he was going to give him another shot.

– Kassius Ohno d. Oliver Grey, by submission, again, in 0:25. Hero hit a rolling elbow and won with the cravat again. I guess he’s not used to using the cravat only once a night. Richie Steamboat made the save and ran off Ohno.

– A video for Leo Kruger aired. All I know is it was a weird promo.

– Seth Rollins d. Rick Victor in 6:51. Victor toyed with Rollins for a while to start. He blocked an attempted dive with a forearm smash and maintained the upper hand. Rollins finally fought back after a slap fired him up. And Rollins finished Victor off with the Blackout.

SUPERSTARS

– Ted Dibiase d. JTG in 5:09. This was Ted’s return match, not counting the battle royal before Night Of Champions. Dibiase hit a dive early. JTG took control soon after and worked Dibiase’s ribs. Dibiase came back strongly though and won with Dreamstreet.

– Drew McIntyre d. Jinder Mahal in 5:13. Yes, really. Drew played the face role, whether by default or otherwise. We also got a few USA chants which is always good. Jinder targetted Drew’s injured wrist. But Drew hung in and hit the Future Shock DDT for the pin. Drew did alright and maybe a turn wouldn’t be the worst idea. Not like he’s got much to lose.

– David Otunga d. Tyson Kidd in 3:24. Kidd was able to outwrestle Otunga but couldn’t match his power. He built momentum late on, but ran right into a spinebuster slam.

– Primetime Players d. The Usos (Titus pinned Jey) in 7:50. After getting the better of the early exchanges, The Usos took out the PTP with dives. The PTP regrouped and cut off Jimmy. Jey ran wild, before Titus’s distraction allowed Young to crotch Jey on the top rope going for the splash. The PTP then finished off Jey with the Demolition Decapitation.

SMACKDOWN

– Edge opened the show. He said he’d been able to watch WWE as a fan again since retiring and in all that time, he’d never seen anything like Kane and Daniel Bryan. He couldn’t understand how they became tag team champions. This brought out Bryan. Bryan corrected Edge, saying “I’m the tag team champions”. He claimed he was at one with his emotions. Bryan started accusing Edge and told him to go back to retirement, because there was nothing anyone could do to make him snap. Edge took this as a challenge and started saying YES. Kane interrupted as Bryan went nuts. They argued, which in turn drove Edge nuts, until they recommended Dr Shelby to him. Edge told Kane he wasn’t Barney the dinosaur, he was the Big Red Machine and reminded him of their past feuds. Kane said he needed to rectify all that and they teased fighting, but Kane wanted a hug. Bryan got mad again, until they invited him into the hug. But before it could happen, Sandow interrupted and begged everyone’s indulgence. He called their attempts to hug it out an abomination. Edge didn’t want to hear it and dared Sandow to face one of them. Sandow said he was a thinking man and didn’t resort to physical measures. The crowd wanted to see it. And despite Sandow claiming their opinion was of no consequence, Kane versus Sandow ended up being made amidst the chaos. BEST SEGMENT EVER.

– Damien Sandow d. Kane in 3:07. Sandow stalled repeatedly when he was in trouble. Which was fairly often. Kane got distracted by Bryan yelling that he was the tag team champions. And as they fought over the belts, Sandow attacked and hit the cross arm neckbreaker for an upset win.

– Kane looked for Bryan backstage afterwards. He ran into Dr Shelby, who tried to calm him down. Kane threatened to tear Bryan’s beard off his goat face hair by hair. This lured Bryan out of his hiding place to dispute the fact he had a goat face. They exchanged schoolyard insults until Dr Shelby screamed at them to stop. Dr Shelby resolved things and Bryan handed back Kane’s belt. Dr Shelby ended up promising to talk to Booker T about booking Bryan in a match tonight.

– Alberto spoke to Booker backstage. He complained about the Brogue Kick being reinstated. Booker said if Del Rio didn’t want to get hurt, he should stay out of Sheamus’s business. He said Alberto needed to earn another shot at Sheamus and said he could do that tonight.

– Layla d. Natalya in 1:31. Eve did commentary. Layla countered the Sharpshooter and won with the Lay Out.

– Sheamus and Randy Orton d. Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler (Sheamus pinned Ziggler) in 8:19. Both Vickie and Ricardo offered distractions which allowed Ziggler and Del Rio to cut off Sheamus. Orton made the big comeback and set up the RKO, but got caught up with Ziggler and Del Rio hit a Backstabber. Orton was then worked over before tagging Sheamus. Ziggler avoided a Brogue Kick before things broke down. Orton RKOed Alberto before Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick on Ziggler as he tried to use the briefcase. This got pretty good by the end.

– Cody Rhodes d. Daniel Bryan in 2:12. A pretty even match. Bryan went for the NO Lock but Kane came out and set off his pyro, distracting Bryan long enough for Cody to hit Cross Rhodes.

– Bryan confronted a chuckling Kane backstage. Kane said they were even now. They argued some more, before noticing Cody and Sandow watching. They called Bryan and Kane joke champions and they challenged Cody and Sandow to a match tonight. Kane and Bryan argued which one of them they were scared of.

– Brodus Clay d. Heath Slater by DQ in 1:12. Much like on Raw, Brodus dominated. But Drew and Jinder attacked him from behind. Brodus was beat down three on one and put in the camel clutch. Hmm.

– Santino Marella d. Antonio Cesaro in 1:50. Santino went for the Cobra but Aksana distracted him/it. As Aksana tried to grab the Cobra she ended up knocked into the ring. Cesaro then hit the pop up uppercut but the referee was distracted with Aksana. And Santino took advantage with a roll up. Afterwards, Cesaro was so mad that he told Aksana they were finished. In five different languages.

– Kane and Daniel Bryan d. Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow by DQin 4:07. The Usos, The Primetime Players and Kidd and Gabriel were all around the ring watching this match. The idea here is Bryan and Kane are like a family, it’s one thing fighting with each other but when others do it they round on them. At least according to Cole. Miscommunication lead to Bryan being isolated. Kane ran through Sandow, who took a Chokeslam, but Cody then hit Kane with a chair.

– Bryan saved Kane from another chair shot, then teased one of his own, only to give Kane the chair to use instead. Kane and Bryan then proceeded to lay waste to Sandow, then everyone else, including the other three tag teams around the ring, with chairs. Progress! But then they started arguing again!