This Week In WWE TV – December 9-15, 2013

This week: The 2013 Slammy Awards end in creative chaos (the good kind), as the Championship Ascension Ceremony descends into a champions brawl to set the table, amongst other things, for TLC. Plus, Washington really likes Daniel Bryan, Brodus really doesn’t like rookies, Shield tension, RybAxel and the final NXT appearance of Kassius Ohno. I wonder what he’s up to now.

RAW SLAMMY AWARDS

– Daniel Bryan d. Fandango in 5:42. Big reaction for Bryan since they were in Washington. Fandango countered a missile dropkick into a sit out powerbomb for a near fall at one point. Bryan avoided the top rope legdrop and hit a flying headbutt, then the running knee for the win. Fun match. Afterwards the Wyatts appeared on the screen and Bray and wanted him to join the Wyatt Family again, but Bryan got the crowd to chant No.

– For the Slammy awards they announced the nominees, brought out guys for matches, then announced the winner before the match started. Which was a little strange, but makes for easy formatting for me. The Rock won LOL Moment Of The Year. King and Booker were the Slammy hosts and The New Age Outlaws, in Dumb and Dumber suits, presented. Nominees were Vickie getting fired, Titus vomiting, Jinder and Khali charming the Cobra and Rock singing about Vickie. The Rock won which I guess made some people very mad. Obviously Rock wasn’t there, so Vickie stole the award for herself. Damien Sandow d. Santino Marella in 2:32. Big E did commentary. Sandow won clean avoiding the Cobra and hitting the You’re Welcome full nelson slam. Big E confronted him after the match and punked Sandow out.

– Shawn Michaels won Double Cross Of The Year. The Shield, in suits, presented. Nominees were Mark Henry’s fake retirement and attack on John Cena, Shawn Michaels superkicking Bryan at Hell In A Cell, Heyman costing CM Punk at Money In The Bank and HHH giving Bryan the pedigree at Summerslam. Shawn said he’d been double crossing people for as long as he could remember and only now did he get a Slammy for it. The Miz d. Kofi Kingston in 2:38. Miz avoided Trouble In Paradise early. He teased walking out and Kofi stopped him. But Miz then won with a roll up holding the tights. Kofi hit Trouble In Paradise after the match.

– The Bellas won Diva(s) Of The Year. Eve Torres’s music and Eve presented. Nominees were The Bellas, The Funkadactyls, Kaitlyn, Natalya, Eva Marie and AJ. The fans didn’t seem pleased at the Bellas winning. They must still be mad The Bellas dissed Bryan’s house on Total Divas. Cody Rhodes, Goldust, Rey Mysterio and Big Show d. The Real Americans, Curtis Axel and Ryback ( pinned ) in 8:52. Goldust eventually got cut off. Cody made a big comeback and Big Show took everyone else out, while Axel took a disaster kick, the 619 and a splash for the win.

– Daniel Bryan won Superstar Of The Year. Shawn presented. Lesnar, Punk, Big Show, Bryan, Orton and Cena were the nominees. There was an awkward moment between Bryan and Shawn before Bryan gave his speech, saying if it weren’t for Shawn he wouldn’t be in WWE but if it weren’t for Shawn he’d be WWE Champion. Sin Cara d. Alberto Del Rio in 7:35. Del Rio did an inset promo in Spanish. Sin Cara won again with a swanton.

– Daniel Bryan won the Fan Participation Award. The Primetime Players presented. Nominees were Fandangoing, Yes Yes Yes, Let’s Go Cena/Cena Sucks and What’s Up. Brodus Clay d. Xavier Woods in 0:40 with a second rope splash. He continued to attack Xavier after the match until Tensai held him back.

– Stephanie McMahon won Insult Of The Year. Miz presented. Nominees were AJ, Zeb, Heyman and Stephanie. CM Punk d. Dean Ambrose in 14:00 in a rematch from Smackdown. Ambrose avoided the GTS early and rolled outside. Punk hit a dive and Rollins and Reigns teased getting involved, but didn’t. Ambrose took over for a while. Punk got back into it and there was a strong back and forth finish, before Punk got sent outside and Rollins and Reigns teased getting involved again. Ambrose got upset at them for not attacking Punk, which lead to Punk winning with the GTS. After the match though, Reigns gave Punk a spear and they helped Ambrose through the crowd.

– CM Punk won Extreme Moment Of The Year. Foley presented. Nominees were The Shield’s attack on Undertaker, Ryback putting Cena through the LED screen at Extreme Rules, Punk attacking Heyman at Hell In A Cell and The Wyatt Family attacking Kane. The Wyatt Family d. The Usos (Harper pinned Jimmy) in 5:07. Usos hit a pair of dives early. Jimmy had the match won with the superfly splash but Rowan made the save. And after Rowan took out Jey and Jimmy took out Rowan with a superkick, Harper hit the spinning clothesline for the pin.

– John Cena versus The Rock won Match Of The Year. Bret presented the award. Nominees were Undertaker and Punk from Wrestlemania, The Shield versus Cody and Goldust from Battleground, Lesnar versus HHH from Extreme Rules and Rock versus Cena from Wrestlemania. Cena accepted the award. Natalya d. Tamina Snuka by submission in 1:37 after Tamina accidentally knocked AJ off the apron and Natalya got the sharpshooter.

– The show closed with the ‘Championship Ascension Ceremony’. They had former WWE and World Champions in the ring- Rey, Bryan, Miz, Henry, Khali, Booker, Bret, Kane, Big Show, Shawn, Punk, Foley, Ziggler, Del Rio, Swagger, Christian and HHH with Stephanie obviously. The crowd chanted for Bryan and chanted Yes to try and drown out HHH pretty much from the start. They brought out Orton and Cena to hang both belts above the ring. Orton said Cena didn’t have his ruthless aggression anymore and he’d regret not dealing with Orton last week. Orton told Cena he’d be the man who lost the most important match in WWE. The crowd tried (and largely failed) to drown Orton out, as he pointed the things he’d done to Foley and Shawn, then claimed there wouldn’t have been a Montreal screwjob if he was around in 1997 because he’d have left Bret laying. Cena then responded. He brought Bryan to the front of the group and gave him his moment, pointing out that Bryan worked for everything he got whereas Orton was given everything. Cena said he was hiding behind HHH and Stephanie. He ran down Orton and put himself over as a fighting champion, while putting over Punk, Ziggler and Bryan. Cena said if he won he’d give Bryan a rematch and that was what a champion was about. He told Orton last week was about proving he could be just as brutal as him before saying he’d be at his best at TLC and he hoped Orton was too. Cena was awesome here. And then, things got even better.

– Cena offered a handshake and they raised the belts up, at which point Orton gave him a cheap shot. Everybody pulled them apart and Orton pie faced Punk, so Punk attacked Orton. HHH threw down Punk, so Punk laid out HHH. That caused Shawn to hit Sweet Chin Music to Punk. Bryan then gave Shawn the running knee, before countering an RKO, which sent Orton into Stephanie. HHH responded to that by Pedigreeing Orton. And the show ended with HHH, Kane and Cena helping up Stephanie and standing side by side, as Orton looked up at them. Fair to say this was quite the ending to Raw.

MAIN EVENT

– The two title belts were hung above the ring with tables, ladders and chairs at ringside on all the other shows (sans NXT of course), I guess to subliminally sell the PPV. Or liminally. Curtis Axel d. Dolph Ziggler in 11:42. Axel had Ryback at ringside with him. Ziggler missed a splash in the corner to give Axel the advantage. Ziggler fought back and had the crowd behind him. After an exchange of near falls at the end, Ryback got on the apron and Ziggler took him out, but that allowed Axel to hit the face first neckbreaker for the pin.

– Natalya d. Alicia Fox by submission in 5:00 with the sharpshooter in a pretty good match. And R-Truth and Xavier Woods d. Tons Of Funk (Truth pinned Brodus) in 10:21. Brodus refused to start the match with Xavier. Xavier got worked over first and Truth made a comeback. When Truth got caught on a dive Xavier dove onto the pile, but Truth was then cut off as well. In the end Xavier put up a fight and escaped a powerbomb, before Truth made a blind tag which led to him rolling up Brodus after he’d hit a suplex on Xavier. After the match Brodus attacked Truth, but Tensai stopped him from hitting a splash causing Brodus to shove him and leave solo.

NXT

– NXT Tag Team Championship: The Ascension (c) d. Hunico and Camacho (Victor pinned Camacho) in 8:40. Camacho ran wild at the end but took a full nelson slam. As he went to tag out, Hunico was then pulled off the apron by Victor. Which left Camacho to lose to the Fall Of Man.

– Alexander Rusev d. Kassius Ohno by submission in 3:06. I assume, maybe, possibly this is the last match Ohno taped for NXT. Ohno had his back taped. Rusev basically dominated the entire match and won with the camel clutch. Referees tried to pull Rusev off of Ohno, but he only let go when Lana told him to.

– Backstage, Natalya told Bayley they were friends before their match. They replayed what Cesaro did to Saxton last week and Regal said if Cesaro had a problem, there was no need to take it out on Saxton. Summer Rae and Sasha Banks d. Natalya and Bayley (Sasha pinned Bayley) in 3:29. Bayley was extra aggressive and Summer and Sasha had problems early. They briefly cut off Bayley before Natalya made a comeback. Summer saved Sasha from a sharpshooter and Sasha then beat Bayley with Bankrupt, which is a cross arm neckbreaker.

– Backstage, Kruger said he was on a quest to become a Real American and he’d hurt Sami tonight. Mojo Rawley d. Scott Dawson in 2:52 with the butt splash. Crowd were into Mojo here. After the match Lefort distracted him and Dawson attacked from behind. And Leo Kruger d. Sami Zayn in 4:01. The match started as a brawl before Kruger gained some control. Sami fought back but got crotched on the rope as he tried a swinging DDT, setting up the Slice clothesline for the win. That was abrupt. Kruger tried another after the match but Sami ducked and clotheslined Kruger outside, then hit a dive, before referees pulled them apart. So at least it seems there’ll be another match.

SUPERSTARS

– Kaitlyn d. Aksana in 4:46 in a rematch from last week with a spear and Los Matadores d. Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre of 3MB (Diego pinned Drew) in 9:35 in a rematch from pretty much every week with their still as yet unnamed double team samoan drop slam finisher, before hitting their also still unnamed triple team with El Torito on Jinder after the match.

SMACKDOWN

– Daniel Bryan d. Erick Rowan by DQ in 3:07. Bryan hit a dive on Harper but as he went for one on Rowan, Bray tripped him for the DQ. Bryan avoided an two on one attack after the match and gave Bray the running knee in his rocking chair as he escaped. The Real Americans d. Cody Rhodes and Goldust (Cesaro pinned Cody) in 6:19. Zeb cut a promo before the match, angry because somebody in a Santa costume said “Feliz Navidad” to him in the street. Finish saw Cody hit a dive on Cesaro, but get pulled off the top rope into an uppercut when he went for the moonsault.

– For some reason they reaired the entire Del Rio Sin Cara match from Raw. At his podium, Bad News Barrett delivered some more bad news, saying the crowd’s opinions were worthless and they were living vicariously through winners like him. Mark Henry d. Damien Sandow by count out in 1:20. Big E did commentary. Sandow decided to take a count out loss. Big E threw him into the ring for Henry but Sandow managed to escape. And AJ and Tamina Snuka d. The Bellas (AJ submitted Brie) in 2:35 with Natalya on commentary. AJ pushed Brie into Nikki and then put Brie in the Black Widow for the submission win.

– Cena came out and hyped up his match with Orton. He said he knew what Orton was capable of, but claimed Orton had a glass jaw and he ran when things didn’t go his way. Cena said if he went through a table he’d get back up because he never gave up, but when Orton was hurt he’d have to make a choice whether to take the easy way out or not. And Cena claimed Orton didn’t have the nuts.

– Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins d. The Usos (Reigns pinned Jey) in 8:57. The guest commentary trend continued with Ambrose here. Jey ran wild and almost won with a big samoan drop. When he went for the superfly splash Rollins rolled outside, so Jey hit a dive to the floor. Reigns speared Jimmy and Jey was sent into the post. He barely beat the ten count but Rollins stomped him, then teased a GTS, instead setting up a spear by Reigns for the pin. Afterwards, Punk appeared on the screen. He said he’d exposed their weaknesses the last two times he was in the ring with a Shield member and told them to believe in the best in the world.

– Big Show d. Ryback in 1:44 with a chokeslam. Axel tried to attack him afterwards and took a 619 fro Rey and a KO punch. A Wyatt promo aired and Kofi was supposed to wrestle Del Rio, but Miz gave him a Skull Crushing Finale on the floor. Then Orton came out for a ‘public apology’ to HHH. He showed footage to prove him knocking over Stephanie was an accident. HHH said he could fire Orton, but it wouldn’t be best for business and accepted his apology for one time only. Orton then questioned Cena being at HHH’s side at the end of Raw and asked if The Authority still had faith in him. HHH shook his hand and said they knew exactly where their faith lied, then left without elaborating.