Dean Ambrose beat John Cena in a pole match to secure his match at Hell In A Cell with Seth Rollins.
Dean Ambrose beats John Cena.
At the end of Raw last week, it was decided that John Cena and Dean Ambrose would face-off at Hell In A Cell for the chance to get Seth Rollins inside the cell at the end of the show. Mid-week it was made to be a contract-on-a-poll match to open up the PPV.
The goofy John Cena and Dean Ambrose relationship continued at the start of tonight’s Raw. Ambrose is the wild youngster who is impatient and wants Cena now. Cena is the savvy veteran who says that Dean needs to be patient and use the two weeks before the match with Cena to prepare. It’s really the worst bit of acting you’ll see on Raw these days.
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon came out to put the two in a triple threat tag match with Goldust and Stardust and the Usos. The belts should’ve been on the line because why not? As you’d expect, Cena pinned Stardust to win the match for his team. They couldn’t beat the number one contenders instead and had to beat the champs?
Triple H stated that all plans are out the window and instead of opening up the PPV with the pole match, it was going to be the main event tonight.
Randy Orton told the Authority that he wanted the loser of the Cena and Ambrose match also in a cell. Orton said it would be the true main event, no matter who he faced.
Ambrose won the match in the main event segment. It wasn’t good and was quite boring and predictable. Kane, Orton, and Rollins ran in and interfered and Ambrose grabbed the contract while Cena fought off the heels. What a pathetic way to earn a match.
What I can’t wrap my mind around is why the pole stipulation still existed if this wasn’t on the PPV any longer. If the pole idea was so that Cena didn’t have to get pinned on PPV, well, Raw isn’t PPV and there should’ve been a pinfall.
Since Orton was going to face the loser at HIAC, he should’ve accidentally caused Cena to lose, and thus, Cena would have a reason to be angry at Orton in the cell. The way it happened made each cell match seem meaningless before the show even started.
The Cena/Ambrose dynamic is terrible. No one buys Cena as the savvy vet. But the dynamic that actually works is Orton and Rollins, who are in the Authority together, but hate each other. That’s the feud that I can buy.
Speaking of those two…
Randy Orton and Seth Rollins try and one-up each other.
Orton and Rollins have been doing the slow tease and have been doing it brilliantly. Eventually, they will break up as part of the Authority and face each other. But that time isn’t now, thankfully. I know that people are bored with Orton, but he’s the one who is selling the hell out of the discontent with Rollins. It’s his facials, his glares, and his jealous that comes through so well, but not in an overbearing way. It’s a slow tease the way they used to do slow teases.
And when the two finally erupt, I think it’s going to be excellent. How big will it be? Time will tell on that one, but in comparison to Ambrose/Cena, this dysfunctional relationship laps that one.
Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler had a very solid match. Rollins was ringside. After Orton finally beat him with the RKO. Rollins came in afterward to give Ziggler the curb stomp as if to show Orton that he had the last word.
In the very next match, Rollins faced Jack Swagger. This match was not as good. Rollins won on a roll-up that seemingly took forever to be counted. Orton came in and then RKO’d Swagger and got in Rollins’ face after. It was really good stuff.
And the rest …
– Layla and AJ beat Paige and Alicia Fox. AJ beat Fox with the Shining Wizard. Layla ran out on AJ like AJ did Emma last week. But it didn’t matter. After the match, AJ ran down and chased Layla and caught her. Layla was looking absolutely fantastic. Shame on AJ.
– Rusve beat the Big Show by disqualification. Show was in the camel clutch seemingly forever before Mark Henry interrupted the match, causing the DQ. Show was upset with Henry for the run-in. Rusev’s flag came down and they then beat Rusev up like a buncha heels.
– Miz beat Sheamus via count out.
– Brie Bella pinned Nikki Bella in a six-diva tag match to win their feud. Hopefully.
– There were more Wyatt family videos, but I’m so tired of their act that I didn’t bother with them.
Final thoughts
The show overall had better wrestling in it, but the main event angle sucks.