This Week In WWE TV – November 11-17, 2013

This week: The WWE takes a trip to England and HHH and Stephanie take a week off. If you like handicap matches then well that seems strange, but Raw is the show for you, with no less than three (and no more than three, so, three) handicap matches. And if you like the idea of The Shield brawling with The Wyatts, that seems a little more understandable and Raw’s also got what you’re looking for. Plus, The Union Jacks, the parting of the Heyman guys, Charlotte pulls off an old Flair family scheme and a rough week for Mr and Mrs Natalya.

RAW

– Orton came out to start the show. He said after the beating Big Show took last week, he’d be victorious at Survivor Series and remain the face of WWE. He said since HHH and Stephanie were on vacation, he was in charge. Maddox interrupted and got a big cheer. Further example of British wrestling fans having great taste. Brad reminded him he was Raw GM, before Kane came out and pointed out he was Director Of Operations. They argued over what Rhodes brother Orton would face, until Vickie interrupted and amidst much heckling, she made a handicap match. Two On One Handicap Match: Cody Rhodes and Goldust d. Randy Orton by count out in 7:12. Orton held his own for a while, but eventually had enough and walked out. Big Show stopped him from leaving and attacked Orton, putting him through the announce table with a chokeslam off the steps as payback for last week. They showed Big Show leaving in a taxi to get a pint, because England.

– Santino Marella and Los Matadores d. The Union Jacks (Santino pinned Jinder) in 2:56, who were 3MB dressed in union jack attire, in a comedy match. Santino wore bull horns since he was teaming with the Matadores and gored Slater after El Torito had given him the run around. Drew caught Torito but Los Matadores hit a double dive, before El Torito took out Slater with a somersault dive and Santino hit Jinder with a bull horn wearing Cobra.

– Backstage Maddox and Vickie tried to apologise to Orton. Orton got mad at them until Kane warned him if he didn’t listen to him, Big Show wouldn’t be his only problem. Damien Sandow d. Kofi Kingston in 3:53. They played up that Sandow was more aggressive because of his MITB loss and he won with the You’re Welcome full nelson slam.

– WWE Intercontinental Championship: Curtis Axel (c) d. Dolph Ziggler in 9:05 to retain the title. Ziggler got this shot for beating Axel last week. Crowd were into Ziggler. Axel got control after Ziggler was whipped into the corner and crashed outside. Ziggler came back and there were near falls for both guys towards the finish, before Axel blocked the Zig Zag and won with the face first neckbreaker. Then, backstage, Brad and Kane agreed to put Cena in a handicap match against The Real Americans and in another handicap match, Punk and Bryan against The Shield. After Zack Ryder and his new goatee did the merchandise shill segment, Tamina Snuka d. Nikki Bella in 4:24 after a cheap shot by AJ, leading to Tamina hitting the superfly splash. Brie got rid of AJ and Tamina with dropkicks afterwards.

– In the trainer’s room Orton complained to The Shield that they didn’t help him. The Shield said they didn’t work for Vickie, Brad, Kane or Orton, but at least told him to feel better. Fandango d. Tyson Kidd in 2:57. They showed a clip from Total Divas to set this up, with Kidd getting jealous about Natalya and Fandango training together. There was Fandangoing here and Fandango also had union jack gear. In shades of Summerslam 1992, the guy with the union jack tights pinned the guy from Calgary by sitting down to block a sunset flip.

– Two On One Handicap Match: John Cena d. The Real Americans by submission in 9:51. Before the match Colter insulted the crowd, claiming England was full of soccer thugs, bad food, evil monarchs and people who found Mr Bean hilarious. Of course, everybody still did “we the people” on cue. Del Rio came out during the match to join commentary. Cena escaped the giant swing and the Neutraliser. Swagger got the ankle lock and Cena escaped before hitting the AA, but Cesaro broke the pin. Cesaro got a near fall with a pop up uppercut, before eventually Cena managed to get rid of Cesaro and beat Swagger with the STF. As two on one handicap matches go, and I’m really not a fan, this was strong. Afterwards Cesaro tried to attack, before Del Rio hit Cena with a chair and put him in a chair assisted cross armbreaker. Big E made the save, which lead to Vickie and Kane putting Del Rio in a match later with Big E.

– R-Truth d. Ryback in 4:03. Truth had a new rap insulting Ryback. Ryback had things completely under control until Truth got a lucky roll up. Not my words, the commentators words. After Alberto Del Rio d. Big E Langston by submission in 4:06 with the cross armbreaker, Heyman made an in ring appearance with Axel. Heyman was in a wheelchair nursing a whole bunch of injuries. Heyman claimed Punk was no match for him one on one. He called Ryback a big, ugly dummy and distanced himself from Ryback being a Heyman guy, saying Ryback bit off more than he could chew with Punk. Heyman also blamed the crowd for cheering Punk on. He called Manchester a ghetto and promised to return and deal with Punk, until Punk interrupted. Axel tried to attack Punk but Punk gave him a GTS. He then beat up Heyman with a kendo stick again.

– Three On Two Handicap Match: CM Punk and Daniel Bryan versus The Shield went to a no contest when The Wyatt Family interfered. No surprise here: this was good. Not great by all five’s high standards, but good. After an even start, The Shield eventually isolated Bryan. The match really picked up when Punk got the tag. Bryan hit a dive on Rollins, Reigns took out Bryan with a clothesline, but Punk then hit a dive on Reigns. Punk hit the GTS on Reigns and got Ambrose in the anaconda vice, but that’s when The Wyatt Family appeared. The Shield were caught in the middle and Punk knocked Rollins into them, which lead to Rollins and Ambrose fighting Rowan and Harper, while Bray fought with Reigns outside. They all eventually squared off and the crowd were into seeing them fight, but Bray convinced them to all go after Punk and Bryan. The Usos, Cody and Goldust made the save and it turned into a 12 man brawl, with The Shield and The Wyatts being cleared out of the ring.

MAIN EVENT

– WWE Divas Championship: Natalya d. AJ (c) by DQ in 9:08. This was Natalya’s title match for beating AJ in a six woman tag match on Smackdown 2 weeks ago. Tyson was shown watching backstage. Natalya was on top early until AJ tripped her off the ropes. She fought back and got AJ in the sharpshooter, but Tamina hit a superkick to save the title. AJ put Natalya in the Black Widow after the match and later showed Tyson trying to console Natalya backstage.

– A clip from a WWE.com interview with Kane was shown. He said his monster side would come out when it was needed, but his methods were more subtle and sophisticated now and he was evolving. Once he was done consoling Natalya, Justin Gabriel d. Tyson Kidd in 6:11 in a good technical match. Gabriel hit a clothesline off the ring steps and Kidd hit a second rope russian legsweep in the main highlights. In the end Kidd crotched Gabriel on the top rope. But Gabriel rolled through a hurricanrana off the ropes and got the surprise pin. They played up Kidd being frustrated after the match a little.

– Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater of The Union Jacks/3MB d. The Primetime Players in 6:51. Truth was at ringside with the PTP for some reason. Young got worked over and Titus made a big comeback, but got distracted by Jinder. Truth took out Jinder, but Drew hit the Future Shock DDT and Slater followed up with a spinning slingshot splash to get a rare 3MB win.

NXT

– Tensai was on commentary with Regal and Saxton this week. Summer Rae and Sasha Banks d. Charlotte and Bayley (Sasha pinned Bayley) in 6:23. Before the match started Bayley gave Sasha and Summer headbands as a gift. They weren’t impressed. Crowd got behind Bayley as she was cut off most of the match. Then when she went to make the tag, Charlotte slapped Bayley and hit her flipping ace crusher allowing Sasha to get the win. Charlotte raised Sasha and Summer’s hands after the match and left with them.

– Aiden English d. Camacho in 2:08. Regal admitted to a ‘man crush’ on Aiden. Camacho actually took most of the match, before English escaped a samoan drop and won with the Director’s Cut. The crowd demanded and got an encore, which moved Regal. Lana was shown speaking with Rusev backstage in (what I assume was) Russian and Mason Ryan d. Danny Burch in 2:35 with the cobra clutch slam.

– In the main event, 2 Out Of 3 Falls: Adrian Neville d. Corey Graves by 2 Falls to 1 in 12:59. Neville started the first fall quickly and won it in about two minutes with the corkscrew shooting star. Graves rolled away from a second one in the next fall and took out Neville’s injured leg. He eventually won with Lucky 13 to even it up. In the last fall Neville fought back on one leg and tried to go to the top rope, but his leg gave out and he fell. Graves applied Lucky 13 again but Neville got to the ropes. And as Graves tried to reapply it, Neville rolled him up to win.

SUPERSTARS

– The Funkadactyls d. Aksana and Alicia Fox (Cameron pinned Alicia) in 4:04. There was a “this is awesome” chant during this. Honestly. Consider this a PSA from UK wrestling fans. If you’re going to chant “this is awesome”, please, do so ironically. It’s more amusing. Thank you. Cameron won with what I’m hoping is called the Girlbye DDT. If not, it is now. In the other match Great Khali and The Usos d. The Miz and The Primetime Players (Jey pinned Young) in 7:15, in a match of teams which for all I know may have been picked at random. Khali beat everyone up with chops early on, before the match became fairly even. Finish saw Jimmy hit a superkick to set up the superfly splash from Jey.

SMACKDOWN

– The Wyatt Family d. The Usos (Harper pinned Jey) in 7:54. Jey ran wild at the end and almost won with a superkick. Jimmy then hit a dive, but Harper intercepted one from Jey and finished him off with the spinning clothesline. Usos tried to fight back after the match but got beat down. Bray hit one of them with the Sister Abigail and warned Punk and Bryan to run at Survivor Series.

– Ryback told Axel if he was still a Heyman guy, he had a problem with him. They argued over who the biggest suck up was, before both agreeing they didn’t need Heyman and they needed to work together tonight. Truth and the Primetime Players had a segment backstage where they sung and danced. Natalya d. Tamina Snuka by submission in 1:18 with the sharpshooter and Brad warned Vickie she’d be in trouble with The Authority next week, but she blamed him and Kane for not overruling her. Then R-Truth and The Primetime Players d. The Union Jacks/3MB (Truth pinned Slater) in 3:43 when Truth hit the Little Jimmy.

– Del Rio challenged Cena to an arm wrestling match. Cena accepted of course. He won immediately in maybe the easiest arm wrestling contest ever. Del Rio challenged him to do it again, but attacked Cena as soon as Cena won. He tried to injure Cena’s good arm with a chair and Cena escaped, but got put through the table with a spinebuster. The Funkadactyls d. The Bellas (Naomi pinned Brie) in 2:35. Nikki showed off some new power moves before Naomi pinned Brie with the Rear View. Renee then interviewed Punk and Bryan. They called themselves the beard and the best. Punk said once they went through Harper and Rowan at Survivor Series, they’d be going after Bray.

– Two On One Handicap Match: Great Khali d. Hunico and Camacho in 1:16, pinning Hunico with the Punjabi Plunge. And finally CM Punk and Daniel Bryan versus Ryback and Curtis Axel went to a no contest when The Wyatt Family interfered again. After a strong start by Punk and Bryan including a pair of dives, Punk was cut off. Bryan made a big comeback after some miscommunication between Ryback and Axel, but when Bryan got Ryback in the YES Lock the lights went out for the Wyatt Family. Bryan and Punk disappeared while the lights were off, leaving Ryback and Axel to be destroyed by the Wyatts. Once Ryback and Axel were beaten up, Punk and Bryan reappeared and kicked Rowan and Harper from behind before escaping up the ramp.