This Week In WWE TV – April 22-28, 2013

This week: WWE rolls into London, proud home of football, fish and chips and Fandangoing, where The Undertaker made a double rare appearance, on both Raw and Smackdown, to take on The Shield. Plus, NXT’s Clash Of The Champions (and in one case former champion), the bare bones of the Diva division (not an aesthetic comment) and Ryback the petulant monster.

RAW

– The show started with Heyman in the ring. He announced HHH wasn’t there to give his answer to Brock’s challenge and called him a gutless coward. Except, HHH was there. Heyman tried to laugh off his insult, but HHH accepted the challenge and gave Heyman a Pedigree.

– R-Truth d. Antonio Cesaro in 2:18. Truth is rapping his entrance again apparently. He won pretty easily with a Little Jimmy.

– The Shield arrived, via helicopter.

– Damien Sandow d. Brodus Clay in 3:26. The fans started Fandangoing for the first time during this match. It seemed like the chants were less at the expense of the show than two weeks ago, because the crowd still reacted to the match too. And Sandow. Particularly the one guy dressed as him. Cody’s distraction aided Sandow to a cheap win with a rollup holding the tights.

– AJ found Dolph admiring his title. He suggested AJ would look good with a title too. They got rid of Big E to have some personal time, but Brad and Vickie interrupted them. Vickie told Ziggler if he lost to Jericho tonight, Jericho would be in the title match at Extreme Rules.

– A Shield promo aired. They said Undertaker had been serving justice for 20 years, but they were the judge, jury and executioner now and The Undertaker would taste justice.

– Dolph Ziggler d. Chris Jericho in 13:51. After an even start Ziggler took control, with Big E getting in some cheap shots. Jericho fought back, but Big E punched him from the outside as he tried a Lionsault. The wave started during the match, for whatever reason. Jericho joined in, but Ziggler blocked a second Lionsault and almost won with a fameasser. In the end Jericho hit a Codebreaker, but Ziggler got a foot on the rope. He took out Big E and put on a Liontamer but Fandango’s music hit. Jericho was distracted and Ziggler capitalised with a Zig Zag.

– Josh interviewed Foley, who mentioned Ryback and said it wasn’t human nature to blame yourself.

– Tensai d. Cody Rhodes in 4:33. This had a delayed butterfly suplex and a Tensai monkey flip, so it was above average. Tensai gained a bit of revenge for earlier, winning with the big senton after Brodus had taken out Sandow.

– Backstage, Bryan tried to go over strategy with Kane and Undertaker, but Undertaker wasn’t there. He had diagrams and everything. Kane tried to warn Bryan not to hug Undertaker. The Shield appeared and laid them both out.

– Josh interviewed Ryback. He explained why he didn’t help Cena last week and invited Foley to discuss things further later on.

– Big E Langston d. Zack Ryder in 1:46. Big E had new music. Disappointing. Big E destroyed Zack, which was not disappointing, before winning with the Big Ending.

– The Shield d. The Undertaker, Kane and Daniel Bryan (Ambrose pinned Bryan) in 16:04. They teased Bryan and Kane wouldn’t be able to compete, but they ran out to save Undertaker from an early attack. The Shield struggled early before they finally isolated Kane. Then, after Bryan fought back on Rollins, they isolated him too. Undertaker made a big comeback but got speared by Reigns for two. Finish saw Kane chokeslam Ambrose and Bryan went for the headbutt, but got crotched by Reigns. Bryan recovered but missed the headbutt and Ambrose got the pin.

– Cena warned Foley not to go out in the ring with Ryback, but Foley said he wasn’t going to back down. Cena gave him a chair to take with him.

– Fandango d. William Regal in 1:42. Fandango had Summer Rae with him as his dancer this week. Lots of Fandangoing. Big reaction for Regal too obviously. Regal had some brief success, before Fandango hit the flatliner for the win. After the match Jericho jumped Fandango and threw him off the stage, then danced with Summer Rae.

– AJ won a 5 Diva Battle Royal, last eliminating Layla, to become the #1 Contender to the Diva’s Title.

Participants: AJ, Aksana, Naomi, Tamina Snuka, Layla

They claimed The Bellas weren’t allowed to enter this because they cheated last week. I guess five is the minimum number before a battle royal stops being called a battle royal. AJ got supposedly KOed with a superkick early on by Tamina. When Layla struggled to eliminate her, AJ surprised her with a kick to win.

– Foley came out, with chair and called out Ryback. I’m not entirely sure what the point of what they said was, but Ryback ended up throwing the chair away, before Cena ran out and got Foley out of the ring. The Shield’s music hit as Cena and Ryback stared each other down. Cena teased leaving Ryback three on one, but came back and ran The Shield off with the chair. Then he gave Ryback an AA.

MAIN EVENT

– JBL was in the ring to start and invited Mark Henry out. JBL psyched Henry up and said he wanted to see him in action tonight. After deciding a singles match wasn’t enough and after JBL gushed over Big Show’s performance in his handicap matches last week, Henry felt offended and said he’d beat three people. JBL went one better and said four. Henry accepted, in a gauntlet match.

– Gauntlet Match: Mark Henry d. Jimmy Uso in 0:59, Jey Uso in 2:26 and Santino Marella in 4:01, Great Khali d. Mark Henry by count out in 5:10. Henry made quick work of The Usos with World’s Strongest Slams, although Jey at least put up a little fight. Santino actually hit the Cobra and almost won, but was destroyed apart from that and got the WSS too. When Khali proved too tough to beat though and got his foot on the ropes after a WSS, Henry got fed up and decided to walk out.

– Striker brought out Colter to discuss Extreme Rules. Swagger came out at the end to say We The People a lot.

NXT CLASH OF THE CHAMPIONS

– WWE United States Championship: Antonio Cesaro (c) d. Adrian Neville in 8:02 to retain the title. They had to own up to this being taped since Cesaro isn’t the champion anymore. At least they still aired this. Neville hit a top rope asai moonsault at one point. He got close near falls with a hurricanrana and a swinging DDT, before Cesaro crotched Neville on the top rope and hit the Neutraliser to retain, at the time at least.

– WWE Divas Championship: Kaitlyn (c) d. AJ in 5:05 to retain the title. The match started with a handshake and then a slap. AJ lost her cool toward the end before losing to a spear.

– NXT Championship: Big E Langston (c) d. Brad Maddox in 1:18 to retain the title. Brad did his own intro, claiming he was 295 pounds. He fared about as well as you’d expect. Big E gave Brad two more Big Endings for five counts afterwards.

– Tony Dawson interviewed Bo. He said Wade was underestimating him, but NXT was his home.

– WWE Intercontinental Championship: Wade Barrett (c) d. Bo Dallas in 8:42 to retain the title. If NXT is Bo’s home he might want to consider moving. There were No More Bo chants early on and the crowd were fully behind Barrett throughout, as he won catching Bo jumping off the ropes with the Bull Hammer.

SMACKDOWN

– No Disqualification Match: Jack Swagger d. Alberto Del Rio in 11:14. Like last week the story was Alberto’s leg and Swagger’s arm being targetted. A kendo stick, a ladder, a chair were all brought into play. Colter passed a kendo stick to Swagger to help him escape the cross armbreaker. Swagger then beat Alberto down, before winning with the gutwrench powerbomb. Abrupt finish, but a good match.

– Layla d. Aksana in 3:04. Layla won with a new pinning combination.

– The Shield were backstage and they bragged over their victory on Raw. Ambrose vowed to do what nobody could do at Wrestlemania, beat The Undertaker tonight one on one.

– Fandango d. Justin Gabriel in 3:03. Fandango had his troubles here, but kicked Gabriel out of mid air and got the pin with the flying legdrop. Then everyone Fandangoed.

– Big Show d. Sheamus in 10:51. After their typical physical match, Sheamus set up the Brogue Kick but Show ducked outside. Henry then came out and distracted Sheamus while he was on the top rope, allowing Big Show to hit a KO punch.

– Wade Barrett d. William Regal in 0:55. Before the match, Barrett insulted Regal for being old. Wade missed a Bull Hammer and Regal tried the Knee Trembler. But Wade moved and hit the Bull Hammer second time around. Disappointingly short.

– Mark Henry d. Randy Orton by DQ in 4:20. Henry tried the World’s Strongest Slam in the first few seconds but Orton escaped. Henry escaped an RKO, but Sheamus ran out and hit a Brogue Kick, followed by an RKO from Orton, who didn’t seem to mind the fact he lost too much.

– The Undertaker d. Dean Ambrose in 4:42. Rollins and Reigns were an immediate distraction. Ambrose gained control by himself though. Undertaker hit a chokeslam and that’s when Rollins and Reigns interfered. Ambrose hit a low blow and almost won with a DDT. But he then got caught in Hell’s Gate out of nowhere for the sudden submission. After the match, The Shield attacked. Undertaker fought them off one by one briefly, but was speared through the barrier by Reigns. They used a chair, before putting him through the announce table with the triple powerbomb.