This Week In WWE TV – January 14-20, 2013

This week: Raw celebrates it’s 20th anniversary and Smackdown celebrates it’s 700th episode. Both low key celebrations, but New Year was only a few weeks ago and last time they had a special occasion Santa got run over. So you can understand keeping it small. The Rock made the effort though, as did Flair and Foley. Plus, Fiesta Del Rio, Dr Shelby, Adrian Neville and the greatness of Brad Maddox.

RAW 20th ANNIVERSARY

– The show started with a montage of past Raw openings. Vince opened the show in the ring, talking about 4 billion people having watched Raw over the years. Big Show interrupted wanting to discuss his loss to Alberto. He claimed Booker was jealous of him and wanted Del Rio stripped of the title. Alberto came out, wearing Mexican colours now just to get the point across a little more. He called Show a crybaby and challenged him to a rematch. Show declined saying he wasn’t prepared and he’d fight Del Rio when he wanted, like Royal Rumble. Alberto said he had a present for Big Show. They teased it was water, but it was confetti. Show got mad and tried to attack but Del Rio cleared the ring of him.

– Wade Barrett d. Randy Orton in 6:55. After a fairly even match, Orton made his big comeback, but Wade countered the RKO. And after sending Orton’s shoulder into the post, he hit the Bull Hammer for the victory.

– Backstage Booker and Teddy informed Eve that tonight, if she got disqualified or counted out Kaitlyn would win the title. Eve tried to ‘reason’ with Booker and he played along, before shutting her down. Eve responded by slapping Teddy.

– Bryan and Kane met with Dr Shelby. Bryan suggested they just tell him what he wanted to hear. They tried to play along with Dr Shelby. Bryan said his favourite thing about Kane was that he could set fire to things by lowering his arms somehow. Dr Shelby brought in Cody and Sandow for some ‘exposure therapy’. Sandow said it was more like systematic desensitisation and referenced Pavlov. He asked Cody and Sandow to insult Kane and Bryan. Instead they ran down Dr Shelby as a doctor. Sandow said Bryan and Kane would be better off getting advice from Dr Phil, so Dr Shelby flipped out and set Bryan and Kane on them.

– Kane d. Damien Sandow in 2:00. Kane won decisively with a chokeslam.

– Mick Foley was brought out as an inductee in the 2013 Hall Of Fame. The Shield soon interrupted Foley and surrounded him, but Ryback came out before he could be attacked. When Ryback was finally overwhelmed Orton ran out for the save, then Sheamus evened the odds. Ryback hit Ambrose with Shell Shocked before The Shield escaped. Josh got in the ring to interview Ryback, who said he couldn’t rest until he gave The Shield what they took from him.

– A montage of the most “outrageous gimmicks” played. Naked Mideon made the cut.

– WWE Diva’s Championship: Kaitlyn d. Eve Torres (c) in 5:28 to win the title. Crowd were into Kaitlyn since they were in her home town. Eve got Kaitlyn in a triangle choke but Kaitlyn made it to the ropes. Kaitlyn kicked out of the rolling neckbreaker too, before hitting the gutbuster. Eve rolled outside to avoid being pinned and tried to win by count out. Kaitlyn snuck back in though and surprised Eve with a spear for the pin. This all went perfectly.

– Josh interviewed Brodus about what Punk said about him last week. Brodus said Punk’s pipebomb was about to blow up in his face.

– CM Punk d. Brodus Clay by submission in 3:41. Brodus started hot. Punk soon got back in things though and survived a flurry from Brodus before winning with the Anaconda Vice. Afterwards Punk said people were entitled to the opinion of who was more entertaining between him and Rock, but the fact was he’d been WWE Champion for 421 days and Rock wouldn’t leave Royal Rumble as champion because he was the best in the world.

– After a montage of vehicle related Raw moments, Rock ran into Foley backstage. He congratulated Mick on getting into the Hall Of Fame. Vickie interrupted them and told them to shut up because she was trying to run things. Rock passed on the chance to insult her and told Foley to trust him. Foley pointed out that Rock gave him a Rock Bottom last year and Rock said nobody remembered that.

– Over The Top Rope Challenge: 3MB d. Sheamus in 3:14. Despite it being three on one 3MB made heavy going of winning. Sheamus managed to eliminate Jinder and Drew, but Slater ducked a Brogue Kick and Sheamus was pulled off the apron by Drew and Jinder. Sheamus gave Slater and Drew Brogue Kicks afterwards.

– Josh interviewed Cena. He did some comedy and vowed to beat Ziggler. You know, the usual.

– Miz hosted MizTV with Ric Flair as his guest. Flair talked about his retirement on Raw before getting current and saying he couldn’t wait for Ryback to bring down The Shield. Miz introduced a package of catchphrases from the past 20 years. Cesaro interrupted Miz and Flair’s fun saying he didn’t need a catchphrase. He ran down Flair and said just like America, he had nothing to show for his past greatness. Miz stood up for Flair. Cesaro said he’d be the bigger man and walk away, but Flair gave him some chops. Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale, then Flair had Miz put the figure four on.

– Daniel Bryan d. Cody Rhodes by submission in 1:16. Cody had a mirror to comb his moustache before the match. Bryan won with the NO Lock to give Team Hell No! a clean sweep.

– Striker interviewed Eve and Eve quit, saying she didn’t need WWE.

– AJ and Big E were backstage and AJ introduced clips of weddings from Raws past. Big E showed a clip of Bryan and AJ and AJ freaked out. Ziggler walked in and promised to beat Cena tonight in the best show stealing performance in Raw history.

– Steel Cage Match: John Cena d. Dolph Ziggler in 13:21. JR joined commentary for this match. Dolph tried to escape immediately and Cena prevented it. Zigger gained control before getting crotched on the rope. Both nearly escaped a few times, with Big E preventing Cena from hitting the floor at one point. Ziggler got a near fall with a superkick and almost got out the door, leading to a tug of war with Big E and Cena. Ziggler turned an STF into a sleeper. Cena tried to climb out the cage with Dolph on his back but collapsed, which broke the hold. Big E slammed the door on Cena’s head, which got a near fall. Dolph then tried to get out and Cena got over the top to kick the door into him, but Big E fended off Cena with a chair. Ziggler hit a Zig Zag for another near fall. He then gave Cena a DDT off the second rope for another two count. AJ went mad and tried to climb in the cage. The distraction let Big E come in with the briefcase. Ziggler accidentally hit Big E though and Cena won with the AA. Great match, shame about the result but oh well.

– The show ended with the Rock Concert. First he sung about Heyman being ugly. Then he called out Vickie and sung about her being ugly. The second one worked for the crowd and proved Rock’s at his best when he’s being an asshole and not all smiley and Hollywood. After that Rock called out Punk. Rock promised, with god as his witness, to beat Punk for the title at Royal Rumble. Punk ran down and a brawl broke out which referees ran out to break up. When that didn’t work Booker came out with agents to finally separate them.

MAIN EVENT

– Randy Orton versus Antonio Cesaro went to a contest when The Shield interfered in 17:41. Match started out evenly. Cesaro sent Orton into the steps to gain the upper hand. He used a double axe off the top rope as an insult to Miz. Orton fought back with a superplex, before things became even again towards the end. Both had opportunites to win before Orton set up the RKO. But The Shield appeared and surrounded Orton. Miz jumped in to back up Orton, but The Shield picked them both off. They gave Orton the triple powerbomb and left before Cesaro gave Miz the Neutraliser and posed with the flag over his body. The match itself was great until the non finish and hopefully a rematch on PPV one day could be even better.

– The Usos d. The Prime Time Players (Jey pinned Young) in 8:37. Since Miz was hurt, Brad Maddox hopped the rail and filled his spot. He was ridiculous, which I mean in the best way possible. He tried to send the show to commercial without being prompted and started talking about the weather, thinking they were in commercial. They weren’t. He then did the OTT welcome back from commercial which, again, they were never in. He sent tweets, waved to fans, used both “slobberknocker” and “wowzas” and was generally great. In the actual match, which was actually really good, Jey pinned D Young after a superfly splash.

NXT

– Adrian Neville d. Sakamoto in 3:26. Neville is of course PAC. He got to have a pretty impressive first showing and won with a corkscrew shooting star press. They obviously have some plans for him, rightly so.

– Trent Barreta d. Leo Kruger by reverse decision in 7:51. Ohno did commentary and there was obvious tension between he and Regal. Kruger targetted Trent’s injured ribs. Trent fought back and hit a somesault dive which caused Ohno to leave commentary. He gave Trent an elbow to the back of the head, allowing Kruger to win with the face first neckbreaker. Regal helped Trent backstage, as another came out and reversed the decision for Ohno’s interference.

– Big E came out. He said this would be the era of the five. Camacho interrupted and said they had unfinished business and now he wanted the NXT Title too.

– Big E Langston d. Camacho in 1:17. Camacho’s attack had no effect on Big E and he finished Camacho off quick with the Big Ending. After the match he gave Camacho another two Big Endings for five counts.

– Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel d. Antonio Cesaro and Damien Sandow (Kidd pinned Sandow) in 8:00. Before the match, Sandow made it clear he didn’t want the fans to cheer him and quoted the great Damien Sandow, saying he who seeked the admiration of idiots was himself an idiot. Gabriel was cut off for a while before Kidd ran wild. Cesaro broke up a Sharpshooter, but after a springboard moonsault by Gabriel and an elbow from Kidd, Sandow was pinned.

SUPERSTARS

– Kofi Kingston d. Michael McGillicutty in 8:28. Kofi hit an impressive no hands somersault dive early on. McGillicutty avoided Trouble In Paradise and got the advantage for a while. But Kofi fought back and managed to avoid the swinging neckbreaker, then hit Trouble In Paradise to beat his former NXT rookie.

– Zack Ryder d. JTG in 3:16. Despite JTG starting strong, Zack got the win with the Ruff Ryder second time of asking.

SMACKDOWN

– The show started with Del Rio having a fiesta to celebrate his World Title win last week. He invited everyone to celebrate that the “fat jackass” Big Show wasn’t champion. Ziggler and crew interrupted and said Del Rio had a target on his head. He introduced him to Big E. Del Rio dared him to cash in now but Big Show came out and stared down Alberto. Sheamus then came out to even the odds. Sheamus and Del Rio buried the hatchet and shook hands, before Booker prevented a fight breaking out and booked a tag team match. The heels then left the faces to their party.

– Antonio Cesaro d. Kofi Kingston in 3:02. They showed Miz watching backstage. Cesaro almost won holding the tights. Cesaro then caught Kofi springboarding off the ropes, blocked a hurricanrana and turned it into the Neutraliser. Great finish.

– Miz ran into Primo, Epico and Rosa as he left. They said Miz was nothing like Ric Flair, so Miz insulted them and challenged one of them to a match later.

– Great Khali d. Tensai in 1:25. Khali won easily with the big chop.

– Kane and Bryan spoke backstage. Then they argued backstage. Orton interrupted and asked if they planned on acting like second graders tonight or delivering pain. Kane said both. Bryan pointed out Orton’s anger issues suggested a group hug after they won.

– Randy Orton and Team Hell No! d. Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow (Orton pinned Sandow) in 4:22. Kane was cut off briefly, before Orton made his big comeback. Cody countered an RKO into Cross Rhodes but Kane broke up a pin by Sandow. And Orton recovered to win with the RKO. After the match Kane and Bryan group hugged a somewhat reluctant Orton.

– The Miz d. Primo by submission in 5:43. So, I guess to prove that Miz is like Ric Flair after all, Miz won here with the figure four after countering an attempt by Primo.

– Backstage Layla and Alicia congratulated Kaitlyn on her title win. Layla spent a little too long looking at the belt. Booker and Teddy congratulated her on making Eve quit as well.

– Kaitlyn d. Aksana in 3:30. JBL sympathised with Eve, saying he’d have quit too if he walked backstage and ran into Matt Striker. Aksana worked Kaitlyn over for most of the match but lost after a spear out of nowhere.

– A Shield video aired with them explaining why they interrupted Foley on Raw, bringing up the bad influence he had on the business. They threatened Ryback, Sheamus and Orton as well.

– Orton and Sheamus discussed this backstage. Sheamus apologised for not helping on Main Event, but Orton said he didn’t need his help. Orton said Sheamus had an answer for everything, except him at the Royal Rumble.

– Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio d. Big Show and Dolph Ziggler by count out in 11:34. Big E tried to throw Sheamus into the post but Sheamus blocked and the referee sent both him and then, when she went mad, AJ backstage. Show and Ziggler worked on Sheamus after Show pushed him off the top rope to the floor. He finally managed to tag Alberto who ran wild. Show broke up the cross armbreaker on Ziggler but Sheamus hit White Noise. Del Rio then threw a bucket of water over Big Show and Big Show stormed off causing the count out. Afterwards Sheamus and Alberto celebrated in Luger esque style with green red and white balloons.