After a monumental Survivor Series that saw Team Authority fall to Team Cena, John Cena left the duties of RAW to former world champion Daniel Bryan. After a tirade by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon about how the universe won’t exist without The Authority, Bryan quickly dispelled that notion by giving them the formal exit. Soon after he brought the entire Authority team out to give them each matches more in the favor with the Universe. Seth Rollins was to team up with Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble against Cena and Ziggler, Luke Harper’s Intercontinental title on the line against Dean Ambrose, Kane now runs concession stands, Ryback feeds on Mark Henry and Rusev must take on the entire roster to keep his title. In a night which showed the rest of the world conflicted chaos, all is coming right again in the WWE Universe.
Ryback makes quick work of Mark Henry. After smashing his head against the steel post it only took Ryback a few minutes to rev up for the meathook clothesline. Daniel Bryan is looking to give a truly entertaining night after Survivor Series. There were rumors of Ryback in title contention but for now we will be happy with fun match ups with powerhouses like these.
Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper mixed it up next for the Intercontinental Championship. After tons of exciting action from both competitors we found ourselves in another promo for TLC. Just when Ambrose seemed to get the upper hand in the match Luke Harper shoved him into the referee. That caused the match to be a disqualification. Ambrose took a superkick from Harper but was able to regain himself to grab a chair and finish Harper with dirty deeds. As expected Bray Wyatt came out to return the favor from Sunday night’s Survivor Series. In ECW fashion he attacked Ambrose from behind and after a “Sister Abigail” threw him behind the announcer table and buried him in chairs. TLC was made for extreme grudge matches so we will see who else starts to feud as the PPV develops.
The special guest of the night is Larry The Cable Guy and luckily for the universe the former tag champions Gold and Stardust showed up. You could tell that the Cable Guy appearance didn't go too well with the audience so it was best they moved it along. We would rather see Mizdow anyway right? He and The Miz had a rematch for the WWE Tag Team titles in the now interesting division. Mizdow is the main attraction of the event of course and Goldust and Stardust have their way with The Miz as he is unable to tag in. Once he is finally in he goes on a little streak as The Miz gets medical attention leaving Damien alone in the ring. The dust brothers soon take over as The Miz milks the injury. This of course set up the distraction as he tagged Mizdow as soon as Stardust does his new top rope move. The Miz lands his finisher and the two remain champions. The only outcome for this is for one of them to turn on the other. It has to be The Miz as the popularity of Mizdow will continue to grow.
Maybe one of the more disappointing parts of the evening was the supposed fate of Rusev. Daniel Bryan left him with the choice to either say the Pledge of Allegiance or fight in a battle royal. After a visit from Sgt. Slaughter couldn’t do the trick Jack Swagger arrived to make sure nothing happened to him. It’s disappointing because we have already seen this feud and it was pretty one sided. Maybe they feel there was something left on the table that they can capitalize among the chaos. Another person looking to respark his career is Fandango. He faced Justin Gabriel to continue to show off the new darker Fandango. He make quick work of Gabriel and he and Rosa danced away. Not sure what is so new about this version of Fandango but it seems to be focused on more wrestling less dancing.
Big Show came out to address what happen with his turning on Team Cena in Survivor Series. When the crowd had enough he called out anyone in the back who has an issue with him. That prompted Erik Rowan to arrive and go after the Show claiming “he does not like bullies”. The big man then did a round house to Show and dropped him out of the ring. Looks like we have a giant sized feud brewing and Show is the perfect person to push Rowan over. The Bella Twins continue their newly formed reign taking care of AJ that may bring us a handicapped match heading into TLC. The world of Tyson Kidd, Natty, Adam Rose and Bunny continue on with another victory for Kidd who continues to climb up the heel ranks.
The night ended with the match that was proposed at the beginning of the show. The team of Dolph Ziggler and John Cena would match up against Seth Rollins and the obvious choices of Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. The two are former cruiserweight competitors from some time ago so at least they know their way around the ring. The match was able to remain even with Seth Rollins giving an assist or two when he was not in the match. When Mercury and Noble were both double pinned Rollins tried to make his way to out of the ring but Daniel Bryan was waiting to send him back in. Seeing Daniel lay his hands on anyone is good news for fans and could mean he is closer to getting back in action. The night ended with strange email notifications that went directly to Michael Cole. He spoke for the “anonymous” general manager who told everyone to enjoy the night but it is business as usual next week on RAW. Who this anonymous general manager is we have no idea. A few names that come to mind of course would be Sting, Vince and the guy no one is talking about Paul Heyman. Should be an interesting few days on the message boards as the fans try and figure this out.
Rating 4 / 5