Hi! My name is Bryan Rose, and I’m new here to SLTD. I don’t know how you’ll like me after reading tonight’s PPV recap, as I don’t think a lot of people are happy right now, but give it a few weeks, OK? I enjoyed this card, to be perfectly honest. So lets get things started!
0. WWE Tag-Team Championship Match: New Age Outlaws vs Cody Rhodes and Goldust (c)
Cole mentioned on commentary that perhaps the New Age Outlaws won the title opportunity here because they screwed CM Punk over a few weeks ago on Raw. Cody and Road Dogg start things off. Tag to Gunn, but Cody eliminates Dogg over the top rope as Goldust flies off the apron with a senton. Cody follows with a crossbody off the top to the floor as we go to commercial.
Back from there, the New Age Outlaws are in control. Goldust is worked on until he powerslams Billy and looks to tag Cody, who does the hot-tag comeback. Road Dogg tries to hit the Pumphandle Slam. Cody counters with Cross Rhodes, but Billy breaks it up and makes a blind tag. He hits the Fame Asser on Cody for the three count, and the Outlaws are the tag-team champions in 2014.
Doesn’t matter though, this was a fun match and the Outlaws aren’t terrible. **3/4
1. Daniel Bryan vs Bray Wyatt
Bryan’s in control early as he lays out Harper with a suicide dive when Rowan tries to interfere. The referee quickly sends them off to the back. As Wyatt consoles them, Bryan attacks him and remains in control until Wyatt stops a top rope attempt and sends Bryan to the floor. Cole notes that Daniel Bryan indeed suffered a concussion recently. Wyatt goes to charge Bryan, but Daniel moves out of the way as Wyatt collides his knee into the steel steps.
Bryan tenderizes him with kicks and works on the knee. Bryan with a curbstomp, showing some aggression but Wyatt kicks out before 1. Bryan remains in control as they go to the apron, but Wyatt takes his hand and smashes it on the apron. Bryan tries to fight back as they get back to the ring, but is taken out and he’s thrown over the top rope.
Wyatt repeatedly hits Bryan with punches as his head collides into the post. He falls to the floor and looks injured. Wyatt with a big splash as he throws Bryan into the ring and works him over.
Wyatt does the creepy as hell crab walk as he hits a splash to the corner. Bryan does a comeback with a forearm shot and he wallops Wyatt with a drop toehold into the corner, followed by a top rope hurricanrana. He goes for another forearm smash, but Wyatt drills him with a shot to the midsection.
It’s back and forth until Bryan flies off the apron with a tornado DDT to the floor followed by a shot into the guardrail. Bryan with a missile dropkick as he hits Wyatt with kicks and covers, but he only gets a two count. Bryan goes for the running splashes to the corner, but Wyatt counters with a clothesline that sends Bryan spiraling to the floor. Wyatt goes for Sister Abigail. Bryan counters with a roll up, following up with the Yes Lock, but Wyatt bites him and mounts him with punches.
Wyatt grabs him and takes him to the corner. Bryan counters, lays out Wyatt and hits a headbutt. Wyatt exits the ring. Bryan goes for a suicide dive, but Wyatt counters that and lays him out with the Sister Abigail into the guardrail. He takes Bryan into the ring and covers him for the three count.
This is one of those examples where WWE booking finds itself in a corner it can’t get out of. Bryan doesn’t need to be losing every blow-off match to a feud that he’s in, but Wyatt’s destined to face off with Cena soon, so he needed a clean win here. Regardless, TONS better than anyone would have ever imagined. ****
A Paul Heyman promo. He promises Big Show’s going down. Does he need to introduce himself every time he does a promo? That’s a pet peeve.
We go to the kickoff panel with Ric Flair, HBK and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Duggan thinks Big Show will win, but HBK and Flair both say Lesnar will.
2. Big Show vs Brock Lesnar
Lesnar immediately charges at Big Show before the bell rings and lays out Big Show with steel chair shots to the midsection. Brock continues to lay out Show with chair shots as he orders the referee to ring the bell. He eventually does, and as the bell rings, Big Show punches out Brock. They go to the outside where they brawl for a bit. Big Show goes for a punch, but Lesnar ducks and hits the F-5 for the pinfall.
A nothing match, but that’s what it needed to be. *
After the match, Brock takes off his gloves and grabs a chair as he slowly makes his way back to the ring. More chair shots to Show as he bails to the outside. This went on forever. Brock shoves a referee as he finds another chair and delivers more chair shots. Finally, Lesnar leaves the ring as they show a long replay, then show Big Show being escorted to the back.
Well geez…are they killing some time here?!?!
Shield promo. Ambrose says the hounds are on the loose tonight. Reigns says it will be three of us who will be left standing. Rollins says after that, it will be every man for itself and regardless who wins, the Shield will stand united. Reigns says he has the winning number. It ends up in a argument about showing numbers, but Rollins says either way the Shield will emerge victorious.
Randy Orton promo. He says he’ll beat Cena tonight. Renee Young mentions there are a lot of challengers gunning for the title. Orton dismisses most of the top potential challengers and says none of them are worthy of being the face of WWE, and neither will Cena after tonight.
Wrestlemania 30 promo. 70 days away!
3. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) vs John Cena
Since this is 2014 booking, they go from having a TLC match to the blow-off match being a straight-up grappling contest.
Orton and Cena do some back and forth early. There is a guy holding a sign of (I guess) himself as a large head that seems more interesting than this match.
Crowd chants “Y2J” as Cena actually tries to do the walls of Jericho but Orton powers out. “Undertaker” chants. Orton locks in a headlock as loud “BORING” chants start. Uh oh! Cena eliminated Orton from the ring. Cena goes to the outside but Orton grabs him and throws him into the steel steps. “Triple H” and “Daniel Bryan” chants as Orton yells at the crowd. Cena with an AA attempt, but Orton counters it with a DDT.
Cena does his comeback to a chorus of boos. Cena with a top rope legdrop, but Orton kicks out. Orton goes for a draping DDT but Orton is thrown over the top rope. Cena climbs out, but Orton grabs him and hits the draping DDT – FROM OUTTA NOWHERE!! Orton throws Cena back in and covers him for a nearfall. Orton teases the fans as he goes for an RKO, but Cena grabs his feet and locks in the STF.
“End this match” chants as Cena goes for the shuffle again and hits it. AA attempt, but Orton grabs the ropes and kicks the referee. Orton falls to the floor as Cena locks in the STF and Orton taps, but Cena gets up and checks on the referee. Orton hits Cena with a belt shot and covers him as the referee comes to, but Cena kicks out.
“This is awful” chants as Cena hits an AA. Kick out by Orton. Cena picks up Orton, but Orton counters with the RKO for a two count. “We want refunds” chants. The crowd really doesn’t like this match, you see. Orton sets up for the punt, Cena counters with an AA attempt, but Orton floats over and hits an STF. Cena powers out and hits a crossface, but Orton counters with a rollup and Orton hits an AA as Cena kicks out at two.
Cena hits the RKO and covers, but Orton kicks out at two. Cena with a tornado DDT off the top rope and locks in the STF as suddenly…THE WYATTS appear! They distract Cena long enough for Orton to hit the RKO and cover him for the three count.
The crowd HATED this match, and rightfully so. It was nothing to write home about, but it picked up near the finish and was decent enough. The dynamic in the WWE is interesting right now. The crowd love Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, but at the end of the day, it’s Cena who’s scoring the ratings and buyrates. Hmm. ***
The Wyatts destroy Cena after the match, with Wyatt laying out Cena with the Sister Abigail. After showing a bunch of replays, Cena leaves, confused. He undersold that attack big time and really came off as stupid.
Individual Royal Rumble promos. Batista, Miz, Usos, and others claim victory tonight.
4. Royal Rumble Match
I won’t cover the whole match, as that’s a ton of writing, but I’ll mention all the good stuff.
1 and 2 were CM Punk and Seth Rollins, who stayed their for a good duration of the match. Big surprises were Alexander Rusev from NXT, who looked pretty good and kept strong, and Kevin Nash, who came in and did some stuff for a bit before Roman Reigns eliminated him.
The big story of the match was Reigns, who eliminated 12 people – a new record. That definitely means they’re going to do something with him, and that’s great because he totally has something worth pushing.
Sheamus returned and looked alright. #30 came and was…Rey Mysterio, who got booed out of the building. That wasn’t very nice. People turned on the match after this. They kept booing Mysterio, which wasn’t nice, and Ambrose ending up attempting to eliminate Reigns. Reigns didn’t like that one bit, and along with Cesaro eliminated the other two Shield members.
Final 4 in the match were CM Punk, Sheamus, Batista and Roman Reigns. Punk was eliminated by Kane, who was eliminated earlier by Punk and laid him out by putting him through the Spanish announce table. Sheamus was eliminated by Reigns, breaking the record for most eliminations.
At this point, the crowd were completely behind Reigns and booed Batista out of the building because they knew what was going to happen. They traded offense until Batista threw Reigns out of the ring, winning the Royal Rumble.
Always a fun match and was the same this year. ***
After the match, Batista pointed to the sign. Heavy booing as the show ended.
SUMMARY: I enjoyed this show a lot, primarily because of the opener and the crowd reactions to the last two matches. And since the entire internet community is on meltdown, look. Daniel Bryan sounds like a far more interesting Royal Rumble winner. Reigns sounds better. Someone new sounds better. But they brought Batista back to be in the big title match at WrestleMania. That’s where they’re going. To foam at the mouth over a finish everyone pretty much assumed was happening is kind of ridiculous.
Besides, look at the Raw rating. Batista’s return popped the biggest number in ages. Now, do I like that? No. It’s time for something new. Randy Orton vs John Cena has been done to death and it’s time for something new.
I agree with you. But look at the ratings. Look at the buyrates when Cena wasn’t there. There’s a difference between crowd reactions and ratings. The new guys that people like get the crowd reactions, and the old guys that people boo out of the building get the ratings. Unless everyone – and I mean the viewing audience…people who buy WWE merchandise, and the crowd get behind the new guys, WWE are just going to assume you want Orton, Cena and Batista until they finally give out.
I want something new, the internet seems to want something new, but unless EVERYONE wants something new, you’ll get the same.
Oh, right, the PPV. It was good, like I said. Watch the opener, and obviously the Rumble match.
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