THE ROAD TO BATTLEGROUND
By Tarron Coalson
MONDAY NIGHT RAW comes to us from Tampa, Florida this evening & Seth Rollins comes out & immediately starts blasting Roman Reigns for his violation of the WWE Talent Wellness policy & his thirty-day suspension. This is pretty bold as the usual policy is that these kinds of suspensions are not mentioned & certainly not amplified.
It almost had a “shoot” feeling to it as Rollins & Dean Ambrose both said that it was embarrassing for WWE & Rollins said he was personally embarrassed as he brought Reigns to WWE. Rollins went as far as to say Reigns should be pulled from the upcoming BATTLEGROUND PPV main event. Of course, it’s self-serving, but you have to wonder if WWE considered such a penalty as this is arguably the most noteworthy Talent Wellness violation in the company’s history & it seems he will miss four weeks of TV but go right back to the main event at BATTLEGROUND. Regardless of how it goes, WWE can not be pleased with Reigns at this point.
AJ Styles comes out to suggest that Reigns should indeed be pulled form the main event & that he should be added to the Triple Threat match. Ambrose is fine with it, but Rollins is adamant that it should be a one on one match with Ambrose.
John Cena makes an appearance & suggests a Fatal Five Way match. The same pattern holds as Ambrose is OK with it, Rollins…not so much.
Finally, Stephanie McMahon comes out & takes a shot at Reigns as well & says that she can’t believe Dean Ambrose is the “Face of the Company”. She decides to give AJ & Cena a chance to get into the main event at BATTLEGROUND. If Cena defeat Seth Rollins, he’s in. And, if AJ can defeat Dean Ambrose, he’s in. So, the tone for the night is set & away we go!
First up is a Ladies tag team match as WWE Womens Champ Charlotte & her protege Dana Brooke matched up with Paige & Sasha Banks. The excitement is back in the ladies division & this is a solid match featuring the heels cheating, the hot tag, & Sasha dominating the end. She hits Dana with the Backstabber into the Banks Statement for the win as it’s obvious they’re setting up Sasha & Charlotte, which should be great for the Women’s division.
Oh my gosh, a recap of the Titus O’Neill & the United States Champ Rusev feud is next, followed by another dreadful match with these two which ends in O’Neill winning by count out, which means we’ll be tortured by more of these matchups.
I feel sorry for Rusev. The high spot of the match was that he hit a beautiful dropkick right on the mush of O’Neill which was pretty impressive given the size of Rusev. The fact that he’s having to work with O’Neill is strange enough by itself, I’m not sure what WWE is doing here. I can’t believe that they’re going to let O’Neill win the belt. It’s not that I don’t like Titus, he’s just not very good.
Next up is Stephanie being interrupted by Corporate Kane, who’s still lobbying for the SMACKDOWN GM job. They’re interrupted by the Intercontinental Champ The Miz with his wife Maryse. He’s back from filming The Marine 5. Kane reminds Stephanie of the long ignored rule that a champion must defend their title every thirty days & Stephanie announces that the Miz will defend his title against a mystery opponent that evening.
PROMO-John Cena is hosting The ESPY’s on ABC July 13th. He’ll probably do a good job as you can see Cena transitioning into TV more & it seems to suit him.
Seth Rollins & John Cena are up next & it’s a good match that hits the right notes. Seth hits the Superplex into the Broken Arrow for a near fall (& it’s a cool looking combination). Cena hits an AA & seems to launch Rollins for a near fall. Cena hooks on the STF & out comes The Club (Styles, Gallows & Anderson) & distracts Cena long enough for Rollins to hit the Pedigree. Match over & the Triple Threat Match at BATTLEGROUND is intact for now.
Enzo Amore & Big Cass are up next against what can only be assumed as two guys from the WWE Performance Center. Seriously, their names were not given & the match lasts fifteen seconds & ends with the Ba Da Boom Sha Ka La Ka, yes the Rocket Launcher.
Following the match, the Social Outcasts (Curtis Axel, Heath Slater & Bo Dallas) make their return & challenge Enzo & Cass. Slater catches a boot in the face & there’s never an official match.
Following that is a nice WWE promo as they announce a partnership with Special Olympics & brought some Special Olympians into the WWE Performance Center to work out with them. Big Show, Cesaro, Sasha Banks & yes, my favorite, Titus O’Neill were all part of it & they announced the new PLAY UNITED concept. For more info, go to PLAYUNITED.org.
Summer Rae is up next to face Becky Lynch with Natalya doing ringside commentary but there is no match as Lynch attacks Natalya & they brawl at ringside.
A nice shot of Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston is next, showing he’s in the house!
A nice Highlight Reel follows as Chris Jericho has Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn out to discuss their feud & history. It plays well as Zayn accuses Owens of doing what’s in his best business interest when he attacked him at NXT. But Owens fired back, saying they promised to do everything together & Zayn did what was in his best business interest when he left Owens to join NXT, which seemed to catch Zayn totally off guard. They both Superkicked Jericho but didn’t fight themselves, which was interesting.
The Miz is up next & his mystery opponent turns out to be the Demon Kane. It’s a mostly forgettable match but ends as Kane gets the win via countout.
Next up is The New Day, dressed as The Wyatt Family. They come out & say the Wyatt’s need positivity but the Wyatt’s come out & Bray Wyatt, who does great mike work goes on a tirade of how the world is a cruel place.
For the second time, Xavier Woods of New Day is totally out of sync & seems almost in a trance like state when dealing with Bray Wyatt, so it’ll be interesting to see where they go with this. Will Woods turn on the New Day? Can the Power of Positivity save him? We’ll see!
Next up is Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio in a League of Nations reunion verses Cesaro & Apollo Crews. The match is flat & the highlight comes when Del Rio turns on Sheamus & kicks him in the head. Crews hits a spinning power bomb on Sheamus for the win.
Finally, it’s AJ Styles verses Dean Ambrose in a match that was saved by the ending. The match itself was flat & I have questions whether Ambrose can be a long-term success as champ. Ambrose appears to be a good ground technician but doesn’t have the high-flying & combination skills of some of the other main eventers. The Club tried to interfere but Cena comes out to stop them & Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds for the win. After the win, the Club pounds Cena hitting him with The Magic Killer on the metal stage area & Rollins hits the Pedigree on Ambrose.
It was a pretty good RAW that continued to march toward BATTLEGROUND. Obviously, there will be a Cena/Styles match of some sort added to BATTLEGROUND & New Day verses Wyatt’s. We’ll see how they continue to build in the coming weeks.
