By Steve Khan, WrestlingObserver.com
– Air Date: September 10, 2015 (Sept 9 in Canada)
– Location: Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA
The Big News:
The Wyatts took out another friend of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins got his win back over Ryback.
Show Recap:
They announced the two main events for tonight, including a Seth Rollins vs. Ryback lumberjack match. They pushed this with a graphic reading “Champion vs. Champion” in big, gold lettering as if the titles are at stake, but they’re not.
Bray Wyatt and his friends came out for a promo. Bray said Roman Reigns is sick—infected with the desire to become “the one.” Bray claimed that Roman didn’t care about the fans because he’s a smart man.
Bray said Dean Ambrose is cursed, cursed by his loyalty to Reigns who doesn’t care about him. Bray warned anyone who wanted to join their team that they are the modern day Hatfields and McCoys, destined to fight forever.
He reminded us what they did to Randy Orton and showed a clip. Bray warned Jimmy Uso not to make the wrong decision, “and you can believe that.” Braun Strowman finished off by saying, “They all fall down.” This was nothing special and the crowd didn’t care.
The new commentary team is Rich Brennan, Booker T and Jerry Lawler.
Cesaro beat The Miz via submission
The Miz got an entrance. Cesaro did not. Cesaro’s ribs were taped so Miz took control working them over. Miz applied a weak leg scissor and Cesaro impressively countered into a vertical suplex. Miz regained control briefly, but after trying a running kick, Cesaro caught his leg and again did an impressive counter, this time into a Sharpshooter for the tap-out win. Short match.
Backstage, Renee Young asked Ambrose and Reigns about Jimmy Uso. Reigns said it was Ambrose’s idea to bring in Jimmy Uso, but Reigns was hesitant to involve more of his family. Ambrose thought he was the perfect fit and said Jimmy got him so excited he almost painted his face. Jimmy showed up, excited to return to action. He and Ambrose did the “Uce-O” routine and Reigns looked at them like they were nuts.
Paige NC Sasha Banks
They showed a replay of the finish from Raw and said the shoulders of both women might have been down. In an in-set promo, Paige told Sasha it was time to tap. Sasha responded, saying she was the boss of this house. The teams almost got into a brawl before the match so the referee kicked out the peripherals.
Booker and Brennan reminded us that Stephanie McMahon started this revolution and that women have taken the centre stage all over the sports world. Banks had control for a while and Paige started selling an eye injury. As the referee checked on her and backed off Banks, Paige shot out of the corner with a spear and attacked her wildly. The two of them brawled to the outside, ramming each other into the barricade.
Eventually, Team BAD and Team PCB ran out to pull them apart. As with every wrestling brawl, Paige and Banks each broke through a couple of time until this was finally settled when referees ran out and Team BAD left. The crowd was into the brawl and we even got a “P-C-B” chant. I did like the angle, especially if Paige is turning heel.
Backstage, Seth Rollins told Byron Saxton that Sting caused him to have, perhaps, the worst night of his career. Rollins screamed about the statue before calming down to explain that Sting is burying himself into a bigger hole. Rollins said he would crush Sting the way his statue was crushed.
Rollins wanted the locker room to watch him beat Ryback to prove he only lost because of a distraction. He said he would beat Cena and Sting at Night of Champions when Sheamus showed up. Sheamus said something uninteresting and then wished Rollins luck. Same old.
The New Day NC Jimmy Uso, Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns
The crowd was pretty quiet to this point but there were loud “New Day sucks” chants here. Ambrose had control until he was cut off by a Big E clothesline. Kingston knocked Reigns off the apron so Ambrose tagged in Uso who hit Kingston with a superkick and Samoan drop.
Ambrose took out Woods with a suicide dive and Uso took out Kingston and Woods with an Uso dive. With the referee distracted, Big E hip tossed Uso to the outside to regain control.
After a break, New Day stomped a mudhole in Jimmy and Woods stopped in the middle of it to grab his trombone to play a few notes. Crowd popped for that. Xavier ran at Uso but ate a superkick and Reigns made the hot tag.
Reigns hit Woods with ten clotheslines and an apron dropkick, clotheslining Kingston along the way. Big E tried to interfere so Reigns gave him a Samoan drop. Woods hit a spinning DDT on Reigns and presumably had him beat but Ambrose broke it up.
Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds on Kingston, and a rebound clothesline to Big E on the outside. Reigns hit Woods with a superman punch and tagged in Jimmy Uso who went up for the big splash but the lights went out.
When the lights came on, Strowman had Uso in his hugging maneuver on the stage (with Bray and Harper looking on). Ambrose and Reigns went after them but the lights went out and the Wyatts disappeared. Ambrose and Reigns checked on Jimmy as the phrase “They all fall down” played over the speakers.
The Ascension (w/Stardust) beat The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
Ascension came out with Stardust to their own music. Viktor gave Kalisto an STO and they used Fall of Man for the win. Ascension and Stardust attacked Lucha Dragons after the match so Neville ran out to make the save. He tossed out Konnor and Viktor and chased away Stardust. If they’re going to do a six-man they shouldn’t have killed the Dragons so easily.
Backstage, Nikki Bella told Renee that Charlotte is jealous and afraid of her. Charlotte showed up and said none of those things are true. Charlotte asked if Nikki was excited because Nikki was about to become the woman who was almost the longest reigning champion ever. Charlotte said Nikki would be calling her champion after Monday. This is all they did to build the title match on Raw and it wasn’t good.
Non-Title Lumberjack Match: WWE & US Champion Seth Rollins beat IC Champion Ryback via pinfall
After Stardust and Ascension just ran away from Neville and the Lucha Dragons, they were all out here together as lumberjacks. Ziggler, Show, Henry, Dudleys and Owens were among the bigger names out there.
Ryback was tossed to the outside and the heel lumberjacks jumped him for no reason. The good guys backed them off and they went to commercial.
In the middle of his comeback, Show blatantly pulled Ryback out of the ring and tossed him into the barricade. This was not a DQ. Show knocked out Mark Henry for good measure. The good guys backed off Show and he left.
Ryback knocked away some lumberjacks and nailed Rollins with a forearm to counter a suicide dive. Ryback gave him a spinebuster and sent him flying onto the babyface lumberjacks on the outside.
The heel lumberjacks jumped Ryback again, this time in the ring, until the faces made the save. The Dragons hit suicide dives and Neville took out a bunch of them with a moonsault off the top.
With everything presumably clear, Rollins and Ryback traded counters. Ryback had Rollins up for the shell shocked but Kevin Owens hooked Ryback’s leg (ref happened to be distracted) and Seth countered into a pedigree for the win.
This match was nonsense. Booker called this a clean win.
Final Thoughts:
I was almost going to call this show a positive. I like that Paige is slowly losing it and the six-man tag was really good. But two non-finishes and a crappy, overbooked main event sure made the show feel like a waste.
