This Week In WWE TV – July 15-21, 2013

This week: The Brad Maddox Era of Raw officially begins, in a week where breaking up isn’t hard to do. Dolph and AJ, Punk and Heyman, Cody and Sandow, none of those were more painful than the Team Brickie split. Literally painful, in Brad’s case. Plus, Cena is given free reign to pick his opponent for Summerslam and votes Yes, RVD returns to WWE TV, Sheamus does a good deed (no, really) and Ric Flair’s daughter debuts on NXT.

RAW

– Raw started with a drum roll, for the arrival of the new General Manager Brad Maddox. He made Del Rio against Ziggler tonight before being interrupted by Cena. Cena was back in jokey mood. Maddox gave Cena chance to pick his opponent at Summerslam. Cena made some jokey suggestions before Orton interrupted with his briefcase. He said Cena might not even be champion by Summerslam and told Cena when he cashed in, he wouldn’t see it coming. Fandango then came out, to a big reaction and much Fandangoing. He told Orton he’d be cashing in against him, because he was the only person people wanted to see face Cena at Summerslam. Orton attacked, leading to Maddox making a match.

– Randy Orton d. Fandango in 9:31. Some of the crowd tried to recreate the “chant random people’s names” thing from the post Wrestlemania Raw. Fair to say, they didn’t quite recapture the ‘magic’. There was a semi competent wave at least. It clearly wasn’t in protest of the match though since people were still reacting to what was happening and went nuts for Orton at the finish. What was happening was a pretty competitive match with Fandango getting plenty of offence, before Orton won with an RKO.

– Backstage AJ tried to speak with Ziggler. Ziggler rejected a hug and said it was time for him to move on and that they were done.

– Henry came out. He put over Cena for beating him at Money In The Bank despite taking him to the limit. The crowd tried a “you tapped out” chant and Henry shut them down because he’s great. He said he wanted Cena to pick him at Summerslam. Instead The Shield showed up and surrounded him. Henry tried to fight them off but The Shield eventually overwhelmed him after a spear from Reigns and they gave him the triple powerbomb.

– Brad was on the phone backstage with his mom. Jericho came in and Maddox put him in a match with RVD, which Jericho agreed was a great idea.

– Alberto Del Rio d. Dolph Ziggler in 10:11. Crowd were into Ziggler. They had their usual really good match. Ziggler took a crazy face first fall from the ring to the floor off a back drop at one point. Both got a number of near falls before Ziggler hit a middle rope fameasser and the bell rang. AJ was the one who did so, distracting Ziggler and allowing Del Rio to win with a kneeling superkick from behind. Afterwards AJ kept slapping Ziggler before Big E wiped him out and hit a Big Ending. AJ then kissed a barely conscious Ziggler.

– Truth was supposed to have a match. Presumably. Instead The Wyatt Family interrupted with their creepy entrance and Rowan and Harper beat him up. Bray cut a promo and talked about there being no heroes. Truth tried to get back in the ring with a chair and Bray dared him on, but Harper and Rowan distracted him and he got laid out again, with Bray hitting Sister Abigail. Bray then told Kane to follow the buzzards.

– There was a video hyping the Performance Center.

– The Usos d. The Real Americans (Jimmy pinned Cesaro) in 2:17. The Usos won the Raw Active vote by 55% to face Swagger and Cesaro. Zeb complained about people speaking foreign languages in Brooklyn before the match. He also appealed to Cena to pick Cesaro or Swagger to do something for his country. Usos won when Jimmy countered a gutwrench suplex into a pin.

– Christian d. Damien Sandow in 3:04. Christian was banged up from MITB and Sandow had just won the Smackdown briefcase. So of course Christian won clean here with a roll up. After the match Sandow pointed out he was still intellectual savior of MITB, but was attacked by Cody.

– Vickie was outside with a megaphone, petitioning people to bring back CHIKARA. Uhm, I mean to be reinstated as Managing Supervisor.

– Naomi d. Brie Bella in 4:08. Naomi got to show off her athleticism here. Brie gained control for a while, but Naomi fought back and won with a flying crossbody.

– Punk came out and called out Heyman and Brock. Heyman appeared alone. He said he was looking at an empty ring, because in his world Punk didn’t exist. Heyman said Punk was a figment of his imagination in 2005 and he dedicated his career to him. He said the past few years had been “we” not Punk and without him Punk wasn’t the best in the world. Heyman admitted he lied to manipulate Punk, so that history would say he dumped Punk, not the other way around. He also said Punk let him down by losing to Undertaker. Heyman got personal and brought up Punk’s family. He said it wasn’t business anymore and he was even worse when it was personal and not business. Heyman claimed the real reason he betrayed Punk was because he knew he couldn’t beat Brock. Punk said he wouldn’t stop until he got to Heyman and everybody who associated with him. He promised to leave Heyman to last and hurt him worst of all and called him a son of a bitch.

– Heyman then said it was clobbering time, which was the cue for Lesnar to come out. Heyman hit Punk from behind to give Lesnar the advantage. Punk kept trying to fight back, but Lesnar overwhelmed him. He threw Punk over the table and caught Punk as he leapt back at him, sending him into the post. Lesnar then gave Punk an F5 onto the table and Heyman screamed at Punk to stay out of his life. Punk refused medical help, but went down holding his neck.

– Backstage, Cena ran into Khali. Cena not only understood Khali, he had a conversation with him. Khali seemed excited about this.

– Stephanie and HHH were with Brad. They agreed he was doing a good job so far. HHH questioned whether Vince would approve of giving Cena the decision to pick his Summerslam opponent, or approve of who Cena might pick. HHH wished him luck in his future endeavours tonight.

– Rob Van Dam d. Chris Jericho in 15:22. This was RVD’s first Raw match since 2007, apparently. This got a lot of time and went through two commercial breaks. Van Dam took out Jericho with a moonsault off the apron at one point. After a back and forth finish, RVD got caught in the Walls but grabbed the ropes. RVD then caught Jericho with a spin kick and hit the Five Star for the win. A few awkward moments aside this worked for the crowd.

– Most of the roster came out onto the stage for Cena’s Summerslam decision. Cena said he hadn’t made his decision yet and wanted to get the crowd’s opinion. Which lead to a lot of Yes chants. Cena gauged opinions on various guys. Most of whom got booed, except Jericho and RVD. He ‘forgot’ Bryan, so the crowd chanted for him. Cena then picked Bryan, who ran down screaming Yes, to more Yes chants from the crowd.

MAIN EVENT

– Christian d. Fandango in 7:35. Christian was on top at the start and took Fandango out with a crossbody to the floor. A distraction from Summer Rae helped Fandango to gain control. Christian fought back though and after Fandango missed his legdrop, Christian went for a spear. Fandango countered, only for Christian to surprise him with a small package for the win.

– Natalya and Layla d. Alicia Fox and Aksana (Layla pinned Aksana) in 5:26. Aksana and Alicia worked over Layla, until Layla surprised Aksana with a roundhouse kick and won out of nowhere.

– Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater went to a no contest when The Wyatt Family interfered. Gabriel has new music and a new jacket. With wings. There was a scream off early, before Gabriel hit a corkscrew dive. Drew and Jinder got involved to help Slater take over. When Gabriel fought back, The Wyatt Family then showed up. They beat up Gabriel, then went after Drew and Jinder as well. Slater tried to back away but Wyatt blocked his way and he got taken out as well. The beating ended with Bray giving Slater the Sister Abigail, before Rowan and Harper stacked the four of them on top of each other while Bray again told Kane to follow the buzzards.

NXT

– #1 Contendership, Triple Threat: Leo Kruger d. Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro in 7:03. No working together from Cesaro and Kruger. Sami took them both out with a somersault dive. There was a impressive spot where Cesaro gave Kruger a german suplex while Kruger was giving Zayn a capture suplex. Zayn hit a dual DDT and downward spiral and took both men on, until Cesaro blasted him with an uppercut. Cesaro then hit the Neutraliser, but Kruger threw him out and stole the pin as is mandatory in triple threats.

– Bo Dallas d. Scott Dawson in 2:37. Dallas won fairly comfortably with the belly to belly. After the match Kruger ran back out and attacked him though, before laying him out with a modified neckbreaker and cuddling the NXT Title.

– Charlotte d. Bayley in 2:48. Charlotte is the daughter of Ric Flair, who introduced her before the match. Charlotte used her gymnastic background during the match and won with a flipping ace crusher. Ric and Charlotte strutted after the match.

– Tony interviewed Sheamus about competing on NXT next week. He was hit from behind by The Wyatt Family and Bray said it only took one stone to bring down a giant.

– There was a segment with a newcomer Tyler Breeze, who claimed he was a model and refused to let the cameras see him saying next week we’d see gorgeous.

– NXT Tag Team Championship: Adrian Neville and Corey Graves d. The Wyatt Family (c) (Neville pinned Rowan) in 10:34 to win the titles. Graves and Neville made a strong start until Graves ran into a boot from Harper. Graves avoided being beaten and finally got the tag to Neville. Neville gave Harper a hurricanrana on the floor and hit a top rope asai moonsault onto both opponents. He almost won with a second rope phoenix splash but Harper made the save. Bray then crotched Neville as he went to the top, which brought out Sheamus to attack Bray. Graves clipped Rowan’s knee and Neville hit the corkscrew shooting star to win the titles. They celebrated with Sheamus afterwards.

SMACKDOWN

– Teddy opened the show announcing Vince would be here tonight to give him a job evaluation. He tried to get the crowd’s support to become permanent GM, but was soon interrupted by the returning Booker T. Vince then came out. Teddy made Axel against Jericho to try and impress him. Booker made Del Rio against Orton. Maddox ran out and wanted to be GM of Smackdown as well, claiming he was going to suggest both of those matches. After some thought and another drum roll, Vince announced the permanent Smackdown GM would be Vickie. Vickie announced she hated each and every one of the fans for their part in her being fired from Raw.

– Dolph Ziggler d. Jack Swagger in 3:09. AJ and Big E were shown watching backstage. Cesaro interfered so he and Zeb got thrown out by the referee. Ziggler won with a Zig Zag soon after. After the match Ziggler apologised for not dumping AJ sooner which caused AJ to snap backstage forcing Big E to try and calm her down. They teased a kiss but Big E kissed her on the forehead instead and walked off.

– The Usos were supposed to face Rollins and Reigns but the match never got started, as The Usos attacked before the bell and Ambrose ran in to make it three on two. Henry ran out to make the save and The Shield were eventually cleared from the ring.

– Daniel Bryan d. Wade Barrett by submission in 1:54. Bryan won quickly with the YES Lock

– Brad went to Vickie and claimed they were even now. Vickie declined a handshake and slapped the HELL out of him. I watched this so many times.

– Miz hosted MizTV with Heyman as his guest. Miz claimed he had nothing to say to him because he’d only lie and told Heyman to just say what he wanted. Heyman said Brock’s sights were set on Punk and he had no conscience. Heyman claimed he still had ‘love in his heart’ for his former friend and made a public plea to Punk, to stay down and go home, because if he showed his face again Brock would take that as provocation. Miz ran Heyman down for what he’d done and walked out. Heyman brought out Axel before he could leave, reminding him Axel beat him at MITB.

– WWE Intercontinental Championship: Curtis Axel (c) d. Chris Jericho in 9:16 to retain the title. Jericho earned this match with two wins over Axel last week. So at least they lead to something. Match stayed largely even throughout. Jericho kicked out of the swinging neckbreaker and Axel kicked out of a Lionsault. Jericho blocked a perfect plex and went for the Walls but Heyman got on the apron. Jericho recovered and got the Walls in again but Axel managed to get to the ropes. The fight went outside and Heyman distracted Jericho again, giving Axel an opening to hit a boot and a modified neckbreaker to retain. This was good. After the match, Ryback came out to give Jericho a clothesline, hit Shell Shocked and then punt him in the ribs.

– Sandow came out with his briefcase. He quoted Gandhi that forgiveness was an attribute of the strong. Sandow claimed he didn’t screw Cody at MITB and he wasn’t going to react to Cody’s attack on Raw the way the unwashed masses would, as he and Cody were both civilised and still best friends. He brought Cody out and forgave him. As an olive branch, he then named Cody the “protector of the case” which meant until he cashed in, Cody would be responsible for it’s safety. Cody responded to this by hitting Sandow with the briefcase and attacking him again.

– Rob Van Dam d. Darren Young in 3:17. RVD hadn’t been on Smackdown in even longer than Raw, January 2005. Despite Titus’s distractions with his whistle, RVD won with the Five Star.

– Vickie pretended to offer Teddy a truce, before having security throw him out as payback for last week.

– Randy Orton d. Alberto Del Rio in 8:50. Del Rio focused on Orton’s arm. He got the cross armbreaker at one point but Orton was near the ropes. Orton fought back but took a kick that knocked him off the apron. Del Rio tried to hit an RKO but Orton countered it. Orton had an RKO countered as well, before Orton escaped the cross armbreaker, avoided a superkick and won with the RKO.