The build is here.
Joey and Regal is your announce team.
(Dark: Sydal/Tatsu d. Pac/Generico)
The show opens with Austin’s glass breaking, he comes to the
ring, Michaels and Bret appear on the video wall. This is the championship committee, they don’t
appear on television, both because a little goes a long way with authority
figures and because their real world deals don’t support more than the
slightest number of appearances. Any TVs
they do are “live” via satellite that can all be taped the same day for the run
of several months. Bret will do one tomorrow
for RAW.
Michaels appeared to open Summer Slam, Bret will open the
Rumble.
Austin’s here to tell us about “fight for your right to 30”
because the underlying idea of the championship committee is they’re a little
grumpy about life being too easy for the current wrestlers (they don’t beat us
over the head with it, but if you’re going to have babyface authority figures
they need to present some type of obstacle, and because retired athletes always
play the “back in my day” card) and Austin’s the only one who can get away with
the thirty year old Beastie Boys reference.
At the Rumble (and before) will be play in matches to get a
spot at WM 30, the biggest show, of course, in wrestling history (quick note,
there is no way we’re giving it away for free on the Network, no way in the
world) and therefore it shouldn’t be easy to get a spot.
The loser of tonight’s IC match will have to fight for his
right to 30. The loser of
Swagger/Claudio will have to fight for his right to 30. Two former champions return to fight for
their right – former IC Champ Matt Sydal, former tag champ The Leviathan Dave
Batista. Win or lose tonight – Dos Caras,
Jr. will fight for his right to 30 – and will do so by taking on a Triple Crown
Winner who volunteered, volunteered to earn his spot – Rey Mysterio, Jr.
Rey’s been gone for months, his target return was 30 – but he
makes a surprise appearance now, just coming out to the top of the ramp to
wave. Tomorrow on RAW he starts calling
out Dos Caras with the desire to expose who Caras is to Vickie.
That ends the segment.
More “fight for your right” matches to come.
1.
Wyatt Family (Harper/Virgil w/Bray) d. Defiance
(Orton/Cody w/Bernard)
-There are two reveals coming in this
match; important for every Wyatt match is we tell the story that Bray controls
the rest of the family. Here, Bernard
gets involved more than Bray does, surprising the announce because there are “relaxed
rules” in WWF tags and this seems like an obvious spot – but he stays on the
rocking chair, Harper and Virgil (in masks always) look to Bray, but he keeps
rocking.
The spot that gets delayed is Cody vs.
Virgil – and pretty quickly Cody gets freaked out, something’s not quite right,
he’s particularly bothered by Virgil, enough that after a particularly telling
spot (a move that’s a signature from someone who maybe Cody knows) he bails out
on the side of the ring with Bray – who leaps from the chair to take him out,
then tosses him back to the ring for the easy pin from Virgil.
Bernard hits the ring and the brawl is on –
John Cena, last seen carried off by the Wyatts runs down for what would
seemingly be a save, but he is motioned to stop by Bray – who then hands Cena a
mask, Cena puts it on, enters the ring, and joins the Wyatt Family in beating
down Defiance (including, of course, his old partner, Orton, with whom he’s had
virtually no interaction over the years). 3 masked Wyatts led by Bray stand
tall over Defiance.
2.
Dos Caras, Jr. (w/Vickie and Ricardo) d. Joe
Hennig
Caras is in a foul mood after finding he is
stuck in a play in match against Mysterio at the Rumble, he takes that out on
Curt Hennig’s kid, for whom creative doesn’t have much after this match. Caras as asshole to Vickie is secondary story
of the match, so we can ready for the next program.
3.
Usos (Jimmy/Jey) d. Ryback/Rowan
4.
Roman Reigns Uso d. Miz
Uso time; they wound up in the middle of
the Clique v. Underground feud that spun of from Nemeth/Christian, they clean
up the effluvia here. Jimmy and Jey go
over Ryback and the debuting Rowan; Miz is in full chickenshit mode and shows
that Reigns is still green – but his athleticism is too much, and he goes over
with the Superman punch. The three Usos
hit their dance when its all over.
5.
Jack Swagger (w/Heyman and Bellas) d. Claudio
Castagnoli
The “Hey Movement” continues to grow –
Claudio points at Swagger “hey” points at Heyman “hey” – points at himself “hey”
– hits his uppercuts “hey” “hey “hey” – does his giant swing “heyyyyyyy….heyyyyyyyy……heyyyyyy”. This is a complete screwjob, the Bellas do
the ref distraction, Heyman hands Swagger a foreign object – it’s a full on, no
question screwjob.
Claudio is able to shrug that off postmatch
and get the hey chant going again. Hard
to bother Claudio.
6.
Tags: The Shield (Black/Langston) d. KTFO
(Henry/PAUL)
7.
IC: Dean Ambrose d. Ka$h Kingston
The Shield wins both of these match,
unsurprisingly – the tag match goes pretty quickly, Kingston gets a couple of
death defying spots in before going down.
All three members of the Shield hit their pose postmatch – it’s
interrupted by the Usos, who come down halfway, Reigns telling the other two “not
yet, we wait” – and that confrontation is again postponed.
8.
WWF Title: Bryan Danielson draw CM Punk
No finish in the main event of what is
largely a one match show. I would have
bundled Survivor Series with the Rumble for purchase this year for this reason,
this show’s designed to be a little disappointing and that show ain’t.
Recall, at the beginning of Summer Slam,
Bret announced a 30 minute time limit for all matches going forward? That gets teased occasionally, whenever we’ve
gotten to 20 minutes, the Fink has said “ten minute time limit remaining” – but
hasn’t been used until here.
Punk opens this match by offering a
smirking handshake, a ROH reference, Danielson accepts it and then they
immediately start throwing punches. They
do the best brawling style of match they can do – when the time limit expires,
both men look for “5 more minutes” but a decision to grant that never comes –
as Lesnar and Swagger come to the ring and kill them both dead.
It’s Lesnar’s first appearance since
dropping the belt at Summer Slam, so that gets the expected pop – and they
destroy Danielson/Punk, which gets the reaction it gets.
Show ends with Swagger grabbing the belt,
holding it over his head while posing with The Bellas as Lesnar looks on.
Back next month with the build for Rumble
2014 – your main event (revealed tomorrow on RAW) is probably not a surprise,
Montreal Match 3, a four way tornado submission match where the winner becomes
the champ and the loser leaves town.
Danielson v. Punk v. Lesnar v. Swagger