This Week In WWE TV – January 21-27, 2013

This week: The final shows before Royal Rumble see The Rock meet The Shield, Cena asking you how your Sunday was and more ten counts than the Royal Rumble match itself. Plus, Beat The Clock Challenge, Hugs Across America and the NXT Tag Team Title Tournament begins.

RAW

– Vickie came out, arm in arm with Paul Heyman. Amidst all the heat they both complained about The Rock insulting them last week. Vickie announced Rock was banned from the building tonight. They cut backstage, where Rock was being held up by police. Rock said nothing would stop him getting in the building and insulted Heyman and Vickie some more. Vickie then stole Rock’s catchphrase and asked if we smelt what The Vick was cooking. Vickie and Heyman were great together.

– Beat The Clock Challenge: Randy Orton d. Antonio Cesaro, setting the time at 11:36. The winner of Beat The Clock got to chose their number for the Royal Rumble. This went through a commercial break, which was a bad sign for anyone setting a good time. Orton hit an RKO out of nowhere for the pin.

– A good Shield video aired, basically recapping their actions.

– Big Show d. Zack Ryder in 0:52. Brad Maddox hopped the rail and tried to add some commentary, after his amazing stint on Main Event. Sadly, the match only went 52 seconds before Show KOed Zack so we didn’t get much of Brad. Big Show gave Zack a ten count after the match before storming off.

– Brad interrupted Heyman backstage. Heyman had a change of heart, saying he admired Brad’s ambition and promised to make him famous.

– Ryback d. Heath Slater in 1:20. Ryback ran through all of 3MB and won with Shell Shocked. After the match, he said he’d win the Rumble.

– Rock tried to convince the cops who looked like wrestlers to let him in the building. He reminded them they served the people, not Vickie. One of the cops was so amazed by Rock’s electricity that he remembered he had a ticket for the show and handed it to him. Vickie showed up and gave Rock chance to apologise. Needless to say, Rock didn’t.

– Punk came out. He talked about how much the WWE Championship meant to him. Punk said Rock was there to entertain, but he was here to hurt people and be the champion. He said Rock was as proud to be the people’s champion as Punk was to be a real champion, all because he couldn’t be WWE Champion. He told Rock to enjoy the cheers and the signs, because all that mattered to him was the WWE Championship and the people couldn’t give Rock that.

– Beat The Clock Challenge: Dolph Ziggler d. The Miz, beating the time in 10:56. Miz went for the win straight away. He went after Ziggler’s knee before Big E took him out on the outside. As they got close to Orton’s time both got more eager to win. Miz got a little too eager and ended up applying one of the worst figure four leglocks ever as a result. AJ distracted the referee allowing Big E to pull Dolph to the ropes. And a distraction from Big E lead to Ziggler winning with the Zig Zag.

– Dr Shelby held an Anger Management Graduation Ceremony in the ring for Kane and Bryan. He complimented them on how far they’d come, sort of. Dr Shelby made them choose who should be valedictorian. They both chose each other to avoid making a speech about their feelings and started arguing. Dr Shelby suggested a group hug. Not just Kane and Bryan, but everyone. Cole and Lawler hugged. Justin Roberts and the ringside doctor hugged. People in the crowd hugged. And Bryan, Kane and Dr Shelby hugged. It was beautiful.

– Kaitlyn d. Alicia Fox in 2:07. Tamina was shown watching backstage. Kaitlyn won with the spear.

– Heyman told Punk he had a message for Rock and showed Punk to his own sky box to watch. Heyman said people thought it was a foregone conclusion that Rock would win, but he was January’s flavour of the month. Rock interrupted Heyman and showed that he had a ticket, which apparently included theme music privileges and stage entrance access. The cop really should have used that ticket. Rock addressed Punk and said this would be his last Raw as champion. He promised to win at Royal Rumble. The lights then went out and The Shield attacked The Rock, giving him the triple powerbomb. With Rock down and coughing up blood, Punk said the great one wasn’t great enough to beat the best in the world.

– Beat The Clock Challenge: Sheamus and Wade Barrett didn’t beat the clock. Neither could put the other away in time thanks to Big E, AJ and Ziggler coming out to distract Sheamus as he set up the Brogue Kick. Sheamus hit the kick with 4 seconds left but couldn’t pin Wade in time. When they got backstage though, Vickie told Ziggler he had to choose between number 1 or number 2.

– Vince bumped into Punk and Heyman backstage and told Punk that if The Shield interfered at the Royal Rumble, Punk would be stripped of the title.

– Alberto Del Rio d. Tensai in 1:31. Alberto got the win with a second rope moonsault. He got the crowd to count to ten in Spanish afterwards, because Mexico.

– They announced Bob Backlund going into the Hall Of Fame.

– Cena came out to talk about the Royal Rumble. Actually, that’s not what happened at all. He goofed around for a while with some members of the crowd talking about what they did on Sunday. It was bizarre. Eventually Cena got back round to the Rumble and said he’d win. Sheamus interrupted and took the words out of my mouth by calling it bizarre. The Prime Time Players interrupted him, followed by Orton, Miz, Team Hell No, Cesaro and 3MB, all trying to say they’d win the Rumble and all getting interrupted. The locker room then began to empty and everybody brawled in the ring as a preview for the Rumble. A strange segment.

MAIN EVENT

– Ryback d. Antonio Cesaro by count out in 7:23. Striker interviewed Ryback before the match and he said tonight was preparation for the Rumble. Cesaro then cut a promo on the way to the ring saying Ryback represented what was wrong with America, self entitlement. Cesaro had his problems throughout, but did manage to ground Ryback briefly. Cesaro looked like he was going to take a count out at one point, but Miz threw him back inside. When Ryback hit the clothesline though, Cesaro did manage to escape and take the loss.

– Striker interviewed Big Show. Show said he didn’t need to justify his actions to weak people and nothing would stop him regaining his title at Royal Rumble.

– Team Rhodes Scholars d. The Usos (Sandow pinned Jey) in 12:06. Sandow and Cody called Usos stepping stones to their match against Team Hell No at the Royal Rumble. After a very rough start and some mocking of Cody’s moustache, they eventually managed to isolate Jey. Jimmy made a comeback and set Sandow up for the superfly splash from Jey. But Cody took out Jimmy and Sandow crotched Jey to steal a win.

NXT

– The show began with Shawn Michaels in the ring, announcing the tournament for the new NXT Tag Team Championships and saying it’d be a springboard to a great career for whoever won them.

– NXT Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round: The Wyatt Family d. Percy Watson and Yoshi Tatsu (Harper pinned Percy) in 4:53. Bray watched from his rocking chair in the aisle. Rowan and Harper were too much for Yoshi and Harper caught Percy with a lariat to advance.

– Dusty spoke to Riley and Bateman backstage, telling them they’d be facing Ohno and Kruger next week. Graves interrupted, complaining he wasn’t in the tournament. Riley challenged him to do something about it. Dusty said nobody in the locker room wanted to be Corey’s partner and put him against Jake Carter later.

– Sasha Banks d. Alicia Fox in 3:22. Sasha turned a slam into a roll up for the upset win.

– A Paige video aired, before Renee Young interviewed Aksana. Aksana didn’t understand why Paige was all the rage in 2012, but this year she was “in” and Paige was “out”. Another video then aired with Conor O’Brien saying he was the true Ascension.

– Corey Graves d. Jake Carter by submission in 3:10. Graves clipped Carter’s knee, setting up the 13th Step. After the match he said he was declaring anarchy on NXT for being excluded from the tournament and said Riley would be first.

– NXT Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round: Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey d. Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre of 3MB (Neville pinned Drew) in 6:26. 3MB struggled early and Neville hit a somersault dive on Drew. They cut off Grey briefly before Neville ran wild and pinned Drew with the corkscrew shooting star.

– Big E Langston d. Axl Keegan in 0:55. Big E won decisively with the Big Ending. As he went to give Keegan enough for the five count though, Conor O’Brien appeared on the screen and said it’d only take a 3 count for him to take his title and he’d be back in 2 weeks. Big E then got his five count fix with two more Big Endings.

SUPERSTARS

– Great Khali d. Epico in 2:27. Of course Khali dominated and pinned Epico with Punjabi Plunge. Primo wasn’t happy about this and challenged Khali to face him as well. Which lead to-

– Great Khali d. Primo in 2:56. -very similiar results. Primo actually got Khali down briefly, so he fared a little better before getting the big Khali chop. But not much.

– Kofi Kingston d. JTG in 4:16. JTG got the upper hand for a while, but Kofi made a comeback and finished JTG off comfortably with Trouble In Paradise.

SMACKDOWN

– Kane and Bryan came out and insisted they had not gone soft because they’d learned to control their anger. Kane said he’d win the Royal Rumble after they beat Rhodes Scholars. Bryan took issue with this, saying Kane had been in thirteen Royal Rumbles and never won. They argued until Big Show interrupted, wanting to talk about his match with Alberto. He warned them not to chose him to challenge at Wrestlemania. Rhodes Scholars came out and warned Hell No not to underestimate them. They proposed an alliance to Big Show, but Alberto evened the odds. Booker then showed up to put them all in a tag match because that’s what the Smackdown GM does virtually every week. Show tried to attack Del Rio but he avoided it.

– Sheamus d. Wade Barrett in 7:51. Rematch from Raw. Sheamus teased a Brogue Kick early but Wade escaped. They had a typically physical match, which Sheamus won after White Noise and a Brogue Kick.

– Natalya d. Rosa Mendes by submission in 2:45. Primo, Epico, Hornswoggle and Khali all did commentary. What a cast. Rosa escaped the Sharpshooter but got distracted by Hornswoggle mocking her dancing and Natalya rolled her up into the Sharpshooter.

– Punk came out with Heyman. He said he was scared, not of Rock, but of his own potential. The only thing that could stop him was The Shield, if they independently interfered in his match and Vince stole his championship. So Punk called out The Shield, not before he grabbed a chair. Punk distanced himself from their attacks and told them to stay out of his way. Punk said him losing the title because of them would be the greatest injustice in WWE history. The Shield left without incident. Punk got back to Rock and called Rock inferior, saying he was the greatest of all time. Rock interrupted and called Punk a liar, but said he didn’t care. Rock promised Punk would crack at Royal Rumble and that he’d become WWE Champion.

– Randy Orton d. Drew McIntyre by DQ in 1:05. Jinder quickly ran in to try and rescue Drew, causing the disqualification and causing him to get RKOed. Both Slater and McIntyre then got RKOs as well.

– The Miz d. Darren Young by submission in 1:54. Cesaro did commentary. Young escaped the Skull Crushing Finale, but couldn’t escape the figure four, which was much better than on Raw.

– Elimination Match: Alberto Del Rio and Team Hell No! d. Big Show and Team Rhodes Scholars in 10:12.

Kane pinned Sandow, Kane was counted out, Bryan was counted out, Big Show was counted out, Alberto pinned Cody.

Kane eliminated Sandow quickly after a Chokeslam. He then ran into a KO punch on the floor though and got counted out, with Show counting to ten right in front of Del Rio in a last man standing preview. Bryan tried to take the fight to Big Show and paid for it with a KO punch, which sent him outside for another ten count. Left one on two Alberto was hit with a Chokeslam, but beat the count back inside. Alberto then crotched Big Show on the top rope and Show couldn’t beat a ten count. That left Alberto and Cody, which Alberto won with the enziguri in the corner. This was an interesting way to build up last man standing with all the count outs.

– Big Show speared Alberto after the match. Show then hit the KO punch outside, before tipping the announce table on top of Alberto as payback for the end of their first match and symbolically counting to ten. He then mockingly counted to ten in Spanish as well, as Alberto had promised to do on Raw.