This Week In WWE TV – June 24-30, 2013

This week: Weak link no more. Daniel Bryan finally gets his defining victory over Randy Orton in a main event Street Fight on Raw, to provide proof as if proof were needed that he’s really really good. Plus, a serious John Cena, a Heyman Punk history lesson, a not so thorough lesson in Irish culture and AJ and Kaitlyn cosplay, which sounds like something worth searching on Tumblr (I take no responsibility if you do and don’t like what you see).

RAW

– Bryan came out and said the people who called him the weak link were morons. He said his count out victory on Smackdown wasn’t good enough and would make him tap out tonight. Orton came out and told Bryan to shut up and fight, which he did, to start their match.

– Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan went to a double DQ in 1:15. They quickly fought outside and the referee couldn’t separate them so called for the bell. More referees had to come out to pull them apart. After the break Bryan went to Brad and Vickie and demanded another match with Orton later. He threatened to fight Brad if he didn’t get it, so Vickie agreed, which freaked out Brad until Vickie clarified it’d be with Orton. Vince then showed up and implied Bryan was an embarrassment due to his size and mental complexities, before telling them to figure out if he liked Bryan or not.

– Sheamus and Christian d. Team Rhodes Scholars (Sheamus pinned Cody) in 4:41. Rhodes Scholars cut off Christian after a distraction by Sandow. Sheamus then made a big comeback and after Sandow accidentally got in Cody’s way as he tried to get into the ring, Sheamus hit a Brogue Kick for the pin. This was a fun five (or so) minutes.

– Punk asked Vickie if Heyman or Lesnar had shown up yet. Vickie told Punk no and that he was in a match tonight, but Punk didn’t want to know.

– Kaitlyn d. Aksana in 1:22. Layla was in Kaitlyn’s corner. During the match AJ came out dressed as Kaitlyn, in an oversized padded costume. Kaitlyn won with a spear anyway. AJ and Big E made fun of Kaitlyn and ‘re-enacted’ the secret admirer reveal, while Layla held Kaitlyn back from going after them.

– Chris Jericho d. Alberto Del Rio by DQ in 11:17. Del Rio almost won by a count out after a kick sent Jericho off the top to the floor. After fighting back Jericho kicked out of a kneeling superkick and avoided the cross armbreaker. Del Rio got his knees up to block the Lionsault though and got the cross armbreaker. Jericho turned it into the Walls, but Ricardo hit Jericho with the bucket for the disqualification. Ziggler ran in to attack Del Rio and hit a Zig Zag, while Jericho gave Ricardo a Codebreaker. Ziggler than gave Jericho a Zig Zag as payback for Smackdown.

– HHH went to Brad and Vickie and convinced them not to cancel Bryan’s match with Orton despite what Vince said earlier.

– King, Brad and Vickie were in the ring for the WWE 2K14 cover reveal. They announced an alternate cover design contest. Vickie presented her own design, which had HHH, Vince and Stephanie on the front. Brad had his own design which featured Cena, Punk and himself front and centre. I’d buy it. Anyway, the real cover has The Rock on it. Again, I know which one I’d buy.

– Ryback d. Great Khali in 2:20. Khali actually dominated most of the match, before Ryback escaped the Punjabi Plunge and won with Shell Shocked.

– Cena came out. He talked about how being WWE Champion earned you the respect of your peers and how many people had done crazy things to try and win the title. He said what Mark Henry did disgraced his family and made a mockery of people like Edge, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, but he understood why he did it. Cena said Henry needed to be WWE Champion to have a legacy in WWE, but he had to go through him at Money In The Bank. I can’t remember the last time Cena made it through a whole promo without cracking a joke, but it’s always leagues better when he doesn’t.

– Tag Team Title #1 Contendership, Triple Threat: The Usos d. Tons Of Funk and Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal of 3MB in 2:05. Tons Of Funk had a charity auction winner make their entrance with them. Complete with tracksuit. Usos won when Jimmy hit a superkick and a samoan drop on Tensai, setting him up for a superfly splash by Jey. The Shield appeared in the crowd afterwards and held up their titles.

– Heyman came to the ring and called Punk out to talk things over. Punk went over his history with Heyman. Punk told Heyman to tell Brock he was coming for him, because he might be bigger or stronger but he wasn’t better than him. He questioned if Brock attacked him on Heyman’s orders or not and asked him to tell the truth for the first time in his life. Heyman swore on his children that he didn’t know Brock was at Raw last week. He said Punk picked a fight with Brock by saying Brock needed Heyman’s help. Heyman said there’d been professional jealousy between Punk and Brock and that’s why he’d never suggested they team together before. Heyman ended up saying he loved Punk and that he would never represent anybody against Punk because they were friends. Punk finally said he was sorry he doubted Heyman and they hugged.

– CM Punk d. Darren Young by DQ in 6:13. Young more than held his own and almost won with the double knee gutbuster. Punk finally got him in the Anaconda Vice for the immediate submission. Titus tried to attack afterwards and it turned into a two on one until Curtis Axel made the save for Punk.

– Stephanie spoke to Vickie and ‘volunteered’ to announce the WWE Title MITB participants. They were Punk, Bryan, Sheamus, Orton, Christian, Kane and RVD.

– Ryback demanded a rematch with Cena at MITB from Vickie claiming he’d be WWE Champion if not for a cheap ambulance roof. He’s got a point. Jericho interrupted and said he deserved to be in MITB. Brad tried to interrupt and thought better of it, before Vickie stepped in and made Jericho versus Ryback at MITB.

– Backstage Punk told Heyman he didn’t need his or Axel’s help. Heyman said he and Axel would face the Primetime Players next week, but Punk didn’t seem pleased.

– Henry came out to brag about fooling everybody last week. He claimed Tarantino, Spielberg and Tyler Perry had reached out to him after his performance. Henry said he wouldn’t apologise for using his friends and family. He promised he’d be coming home with the WWE Title after MITB.

– Another Wyatt Family video aired.

– Street Fight: Daniel Bryan d. Randy Orton by submission in 12:36. Street Fight won the Raw Active vote with 50% over Lumberjack and Falls Count Anywhere. Bryan tried a dive early and ran into a chair held up by Orton. Bryan also took a back body drop on the ramp. He avoided being suplexed through a table though and powerbombed Orton off the apron through the table instead. Bryan used a kendo stick but Orton sent him into another table with an exploder suplex. Orton countered the missile dropkick with a powerbomb for a near fall, before Bryan got the NO Lock. Orton used the kendo stick to fight out and hit the draping DDT. But Bryan countered the RKO and attacked with the kendo stick, then put the NO Lock on. Orton tried to use the kendo stick again, but Bryan blocked and used the stick for leverage to force Orton to tap out. After the match Bryan had a big celebration and Orton shook his hand.

MAIN EVENT

– Chris Jericho d. Cody Rhodes by submission in 10:08. Cody wrestling sadly meant no Cody on commentary like last week. Cody used a thumb to the eye to gain control and kept going after the eye through the match. He cut Jericho off repeatedly as he tried to fight back too and hit Cross Rhodes, but Jericho kicked out. Jericho then hit a desperation Codebreaker, but Cody got his foot on the rope. In the end though, Jericho won with the Walls.

– Colter and Cesaro came out. Zeb insulted the hometown’s sports mascot before moving on to people who didn’t speak English. The usual. He claimed Cesaro was more of a real American than 95% of people in the arena. Cesaro talked about doing things the right way and not asking for hand outs. He said he was the personification of the American dream.

– Christian d. Dean Ambrose by DQ in 3:27. This was a solid match while it lasted, before Rollins and Reigns ran in and attacked Christian. The Usos made the save though and helped run The Shield off, to set up a six man tag on Smackdown.

– The Primetime Players d. Tons Of Funk (Titus pinned Brodus) in 4:01. Jo Jo, from the Total Divas show, helped The Funkadactyls sing Tons Of Funk out. The PTP had some problems, but managed to get the win when Young used his comb on Brodus and held his foot for the pin by Titus.

NXT

– Big E Langston d. Aiden English in 0:44. Total squash, Big E won with the Big Ending and gave him two more for five counts after the match.

– Renee tried to interview Emma, who was distracted playing with a bubble making gun. She left the gun with Renee to have her match and warned her not to use it.

– NXT Womens Championship Tournament First Round: Emma d. Aksana by submission in 3:38. Aksana dominated but got caught in the DilEmma out of nowhere. After the match Emma did her dance with children from the crowd.

– Leo Kruger d. Dante Dash in 2:47. Kruger won with the GC3 after working the arm the whole match.

– Bo Dallas d. Mickey Keegan in 1:42. Kruger stayed at ringside during this match. Bo won with the belly to belly, before Kruger attacked Keegan and made it clear he wanted the NXT Title.

– NXT Tag Team Title #1 Contendership: Kassius Ohno and Corey Graves d. Scott Dawson and Garrett Dylan (Graves submitted Dylan) in 9:31. Dylan and Dawson isolated Graves. Ohno fought back but got caught with Southern Pride, forcing Graves to break the pin. Graves eventually ran wild and made Dylan tap with Lucky 13. The Wyatt Family immediately attacked. Neville made the save but was stopped by Dylan and Dawson. Regal then left commentary to try and make the save but got beaten down as well.

SMACKDOWN

– Dublin Street Fight: Sheamus d. Damien Sandow in 9:30. Before the match, Sandow informed the crowd “ya’ll” was not a word, it should be “you all”, as in “you all are a bunch of ignoramuses”. He said after he won it would be renamed the Sandow Street Fight. How do you know this was a Dublin Street Fight? Well, there were beer taps and beer kegs. And potatoes. And a kendo stick. But, get this, it was GREEN. Sandow hit Terminus after a drop toe hold into the legs of a chair, but Sheamus kicked out. Sheamus tried White Noise through two chairs and Sandow escaped. But a kendo stick shot knocked him back onto the seats and Sheamus gave him a Brogue Kick for the win.

– Bryan walked up to Kane in such a good mood he was whistling. Kane congratulated him and told him to leave. Bryan said if Kane needed his help, he’d be on commentary and gave Kane a hug.

– Miz hosted MizTV with Heyman as his guest. Heyman quickly brought out Axel and the subject quickly changed to Miz challenging Axel for the Intercontinental Title. Heyman stopped it from happening. Axel then gave Miz a cheap shot and laid him out with a modified neckbreaker.

– Natalya d. AJ in 1:05. Before the match, Kaitlyn came out dressed as AJ and accused her of sleeping around. AJ got mad at Kaitlyn skipping around the ring and Natalya rolled her up for the pin. Kaitlyn then speared AJ after the match.

– Backstage Vince spoke with Teddy about Money In The Bank. Teddy suggested the World Title Money In The Bank be about the future. He also claimed Booker never would have thought of doing it, so that story is still going apparently. He chose Barrett, Swagger, Cesaro, Fandango, Ambrose, Cody and Sandow as the participants and Vince approved, except for Teddy’s pronunciation of Fandango.

– Randy Orton d. Kane in 9:14. Bryan did commentary as promised. Bryan got on the announce table during the match to start a Yes chant, which was supposed to help Kane but had the opposite effect. After a good back and forth match, Bryan pushed Kane back into the ring, supposedly to stop him getting counted out, only for Orton to catch an unprepared Kane with an RKO. And Bryan seemed to be smiling as he left.

– Ryback d. Justin Gabriel in 1:50. Gabriel put up some resistance and did some damage to Ryback with leg kicks, before Ryback caught him with Shell Shocked out of the corner. Jericho came out after the match and mocked Ryback, suggesting he change his name to Cryback. He then attacked Ryback and tried to put him in the Walls but Ryback escaped. Again, another week of Jericho being more of a jerk than Sheamus.

– Christian and The Usos d. The Shield (Christian pinned Ambrose) in 4:31. After The Shield worked on Jey, Christian ran wild. The Usos took out Reigns, but Rollins wiped them out with a dive. As Ambrose went to do the same though, he ran into a spear from Christian for the pin. I really don’t mind that The Shield aren’t winning every single match at this stage of their run, but it is pretty surprising that they lost another six man so quickly.

– Alberto held Fiesta Del Rio to (belatedly) celebrate his World Title win. There was a piñata hanging from the ceiling with Ziggler’s face on it. Alberto insisted on speaking entirely in Spanish. You’ll forgive me for not translating. The crowd chanted USA before Alberto broke the Ziggler piñata. He compared it to what he did to Ziggler at Payback and what he would do at Money In The Bank. Del Rio dared Ziggler to come out. Ziggler avoided a shot with the stick and sent Ricardo outside, before slamming Ricardo off the top through the table. He then gave Alberto the Zig Zag and tried to hit him with a guitar. Alberto escaped, so Ricardo took the guitar shot instead and Ziggler held up the World Title, before playing with the mariachi band while balloons fell from the ceiling.