I love blurry lines, don’t you? Cody Rhodes gets fired, the Internet goes crazy, and then WWE.com posts reaction from the Rhodes family. These days, WWE.com posts stories which could run on dirtsheets, so the reader is left to wonder if this is a real bona-fide firing or not. Then, we find out Dustin Rhodes, better known to Attitude Era fans as Goldust, earning himself a match by Tweeting constantly how he can get his little bro re-hired. So this sort of kills any chance of it being real firing. Dustin then is all over WWE.com about how he is preparing hard to take down the Chosen Champion, Randy Orton.
Entertaining. The scripting, possibly beginning some sort of McMahon/HHH vs. Rhodes family feud is brilliantly executed. Cody Rhodes now reaches uber-face status as fans all over and with the sudden inclusion of Goldust fighting Orton, this may soon take main event status. Not a joke. Bring out The American Dream himself, and I see a match headlining Survivor Series in November.
We start the show with the live crowd erupting as Edge makes his way out. The crowd cheer drowning out his theme music, and Tony Chimmel goes vintage and does his high-pitched “Rated R Suuuuperstar” intro which was appreciated by the WWE Hall of Famer.
On the mic, he welcomes us to a returning Cutting Segment, he reveals Triple H wanted Edge on RAW to reunite with a tag team partner, not Christian, but a guy who is “less entertaining than watching paint dry” (Yes, Edge did say this), Randy Orton. Instead Edge brings out Daniel Bryan, and once again, theme music drowned out. Edge and Bryan have a nice chat, hyping him up to beat Orton, lots of Yes chants, but Orton interrupts, and inevitably Triple H interrupts as well to confront Edge. Edge has a great line against Orton, “I may have problems with my spine, but at least I have one.” Anyone notice how Triple H comes out to the “King of Kings” theme? Triple H offers Daniel Bryan a chance to prove he is championship quality, by facing Dean Ambrose. Eventually the crowd taunts Triple H, calling him an a-hole. Edge shows off his Hall of Fame Ring, proving his worth to WWE. The COO then brings out a KO’d Christian, saying he knows he can’t touch Edge, so he’ll beat up his buddy instead.
Backstage: Edge goes after The Game, but he is protected by The Shield as he throws Edge out of the building. Intense.
Kofi Kingston defeats Curt Axel via DQ
Match goes for just a few minutes until Axel goes bonkers and gets himself DQ’d. Heyman tries calming him down, but Axel winds up getting clocked by Kingston and Heyman is sick to his stomach, clearly losing faith in his Intercontinental Champion. Axel looks like a chump, Heyman looks like he is going to hurl, and it would seem Punk will decimate the two antagonists with ease.
Backstage: Heyman appears to fall. They want to get a doctor, but he wants his own.
Backstage: Booker T shows support for Big Show caving in to Triple H and punching out Bryan. Booker seems to be going the heel route these days. Yawn.
Bray Wyatt defeated Dolph Ziggler via Pinfall
Wow, this match was awesome. Put these guys in there again, just give them another five, seven minutes maybe? Ziggler upped his game, likely because Wyatt is someone he can easily work the ring with, and the same goes vice versa. Bray sold Zigglers big moves like a pro. Wyatt does some creepy taunting during the bout, ultimately getting the win thanks to distractions from Rowan and Harper, leading Wyatt to hit his spinning Facebuster, now called Sister Abigail.
Bit of a shame though, Ziggler has been on a losing streak, I believe his last win was his defeating Big E. Langston. Well, hopefully this is just a lull for Ziggler before another push.
Heyman and Axel are back in the ring with his personal doctor, due to his not believing in the Canadian health system, Dr. Michael Kirschenbaum. Hey, Jews know Jews, OK? I know this guy too, he’s cool. He goes to my friend’s brother’s wife’s father’s roomate’s Shul. We did Chanukah together. Therefore, Heyman has an injury, and will not compete this Sunday at Night of Champions. Before he can sneak off, Brad Maddox brings out the WWE doctor to fully examine Heyman. Makes you wonder, Maddox and Triple H are supposed to be heels, yet their treatment of Heyman somehow makes Heyman a bigger heel. Crowd chant is either “this is awesome” or “this is awkward” I am just not sure, but this live leg examination is very strange. After a few very long minutes, the WWE doctor gives Heyman the good ahead to compete. Enter CM PUNK wielding a Kendo Stick! Heyman throws Kirschenbaum in front of Punk who eats the Kendo, while Heyman runs away, Punk then wails away with the stick.
Natalya, Brie, Naomi defeated Alicia Fox, Oksana, & Layla
Natalya forced Fox to tap to the Sharpshooter. Moving on.
Lots of promos for Goldust tonight. Big hype!
Alberto del Rio defeats R-Truth via Submission
Fans uninterested in this one, as Michael Cole, JBL, Lawler, and even the ref get chants. Del Rio puts him in the cross-armbreaker for the quick win.
Zeb Colter brings out Antonio Cesaro, then makes fun of Canada. Something about moose. Interrupting the promo is… Santino Marella. Wow. He is back. This is a night of shocks for sure.
Santino defeats Antonio Cesaro
Cesaro spins Santino around with the Giant Swing for nearly a minute, the crowd going nuts, and I got dizzy just watching. Cesaro blasted him with uppercut after uppercut, even a dashing one in the corner, but Santino kicked out. Cesaro threw the Cobra sock out of the ring, but Santino countered with a hooking-hip toss with a rollup for the win.
Damien Sandow pins The Miz
Miz gets booed by the Toronto crowd. Fandango arrives, crowd goes nuts, and Sandow gets the sneak win. Just comical. Poor Miz.
Backstage: Goldust! He promises victory, however Triple H arrives to add on the pressure of failure.
Randy Orton defeated Goldust by pinfall
Epic. Epic fight. Good lord this match was a fast paced brawl! Believable too. Orton and Dustin trade blows back and forth, crowd embracing Goldust with “You still got it’ chants. Amazing match. Wish he would make a return to the ring. Goldust competed as if he never stopped at all. He and Orton put on one hell of a show, Goldust countered an RKO into the cross-rhodes for a near fall, but Orton wound up successfully striking with the RKO for the surprisingly clean win. Reminds me of the days of heel-Rock and heel-Austin where he would have epic matches with Benoit, Jericho, Angle and even the underdogs where you think the challenger has a chance, but ultimately heel-Austin prevailed.
Backstage: Stephanie lays on the guilt, calling Dustin a failure, having let down the whole family. Big gold guy crying his way out. Evil Steph. Just evil.
RVD vs. Ryback either went to a Double Count Out or a No Contest
Decent match, and I am now undecided on whether RVD will capture the World Title. Ricardo could turn on Van Dam, proving this whole bit was a setup from the start, or perhaps RVD will capture the championship and ultimately silence the doubters. On one hand, having RVD as champion gives way for an altercation with Damien Sandow over the title, while keeping the belt on Del Rio maintains his solid championship streak. Either scenario is a good one in my book.
Daniel Bryan vs. Dean Ambrose
Big Show out at ringside, forced to sit and watch, not allowed to get involved should the Shield opt to interfere. Watching Show hulk out in support of Bryan is hysterical, the chants “this is awesome” from the live crowd does not cover this match. Bryan and Ambrose put on an epic main event pay-per-view quality. Words cannot describe the incredible match. Bryan has proven time and time again he is the future of the business, and a guy like Dean Ambrose will be there right with him. Post match Orton and Shield beat up the challenger, and Big Show is forced to do nothing. After Orton taunts the giant, he drops his challenger with the RKO. Triple H then orders Show to return to the ring and knock out Bryan. Show does not want to do it, but Orton tries to bully Show, only to get a running knee to the face from Daniel Bryan. The giant walks away from the ring smiling as Bryan celebrates with WWE Title in hand.
This was an epic RAW. Huge. Not a lot of matches, however many of them were just ultimately awesome. The build for Bryan is huge, the storyline with Rhodes will continue for sure, and the McMahon family power trip rages on.
Here is the thing, Night of Champions does not seem all that great. Punk vs. Axel/Heyman sound predictable enough, where Axel has been portrayed as easy prey for the Straight Edge superstar. Del Rio vs. RVD will probably be a good match, but the build has been so overshadowed by Bryan vs. Orton. As of now, only four matches have been announced and one of them, a tag team gauntlet match is the pre-show. So what is a Night of Champions without more title matches? The ads say all titles on the line, yet so far, not. Is it worth it to order the PPV for just one match? Time will tell this week.
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