Raw kicks off this week the same way that it did last week, with WWE Champ Seth Rollins. He brags about keeping the belt last week and what he did to John Cena. He shows a picture of Cena on the screen and they do some comedy stuff with Cena's mouth cut out and Seth dubbing in some stuff. It made me laugh a bit but didn't really build towards SummerSam. Cesaro came out to accept an open challenge but Seth quickly says there is none. Kevin Owens and Randy Orton don't listen though and come to to accept too. Triple H shows up and books a triple threat match for later, with the winner facing Seth for the gold tonight. Your usual opening segment but at least it made the WWE title feel as wanted as the US Title.for once this year. The opening contest was a six women tag pitting Team Bella against Team BAD. The lazily named Team PCB was on commentary and honesty, stunk up the joint there. The match itself was relatively fine but I had one major issue. The Bella Twins played face, specifically Brie. Stop flip flopping them. I get that they were near Daniel Bryan's home, but Brie shouldn't be doing Bryan stuff. Be a fucking heel. They won, leading to a brawl between everyone, even giving us a tease of the Charlotte/Sasha rivalry. I wish that the girls were given more time to develop characters rather than have matches. Why is Alicia Fox a Bella? They explained that Becky joined up with Paige due to their past, but why did Charlotte? What is the reason for any of this?
The entertaining New Day faced Los Matadores next in a decent tag team match. The Prime Time Players watched from the back. New Day won but the story was the post match dance celebration. New Day's gimmick has basically become "obnoxious viners" as my buddy pointed out, and I'm totally okay with that. Backstage, they meet up with Renee Young, who informs them that they get a shot at SummerSlam along with Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons. So the loss that Los Matadores just suffered means nothing I guess. I wish that they actually took time to build a legit tag team program instead of giving teams wins over each other and throwing them all into the big Pay-Per-View match.
To close hour one, the number one contender's Triple Threat match took place. Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Rusev had an excellent triple threat match last month and while this one was really good, it didn't quite reach that level for me. Everybody got a chance to shine and it nearly went 20 minutes. Orton won with an RKO on Cesaro. The only way this finish makes sense to me is if Seth Rollins cleanly beats Orton later in the night. He needs to look strong heading into SummerSlam. Next, we got a video package to build Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker. This is the biggest issue with booking part timer vs. part timer. Neither guy shows up. I prefer that we don't get rematch after rematch heading into a PPV, but at least show up and give me some reason to care.
Dean Ambrose faced Luke Harper in a preview of upcoming "Diet Shield vs. Wyatts" match at SummerSlam. This was fine as the match was good and Luke Harper was able to pick up the win, which he needs since he never gets to look very good. That was followed by MizTV with Daniel Bryan. Bryan is just as over as ever and I realized here just how much I missed him. Miz was great in this segment, saying that Ryback should give up the title just like the injured Bryan did. This brings out Big Show to bore us before Ryback returned. He took out both Show and Miz and celebrated with Bryan. Having the crowd "Yes" and chant "Feed Me More" at the same time was pretty cool. I'm not a fan of the Intercontinental Title program, but at least this was a good way to build it without just having two of the three guys wrestle.
After a video package to hype up Charlotte, we get a new match made for SummerSlam. Team PCB vs. Team Bella vs. Team BAD in an elimination match. Rusev met Mark Henry next in a rematch from last week. Lana was on commentary and went after Summer Rae. Somehow, this caused a disqualification. Summer ended up getting the better and locked Lana in the Accolade. Then, because Rusev is amazing, a flag came down from the rafters with Rusev's face on it. It was magnificent and continued Rusev's trend of being so ridiculous that it's incredible. Also, Summer Rae's Accolade looked like it was going to break Lana in half. Either she pulled back harder than she should have or Lana can bend in strange ways.
Neville took on King Barrett next following a sweet Neville/Stardust comic book like video package. Neville won in relatively short order but the real story was after as Stardust appeared to attack Neville. He turned his attention to Stephen Amell, who was in the front row. Stardust shoved him and got back in the ring. Amell hopped the guardrail and leaped into the ring in athletic fashion before attacking Stardust. It came off better than I expected. In the back, Triple H was upset with Amell for getting involved. Neville asks for a tag match against Stardust and Barrett. Amell says his lawyers will sign whatever they have to and the match is made. Amell was great here. The combination of being an actor and a big wrestling fan is key as Amell made sure to bring his A game. Barrett's inclusion is random as hell but this should be fun.
Time for the main event as Seth Rollins defends the WWE Title against Randy Orton. They worked a solid match that wasn't as good as their WrestleMania one but better than their Extreme Rules cage match. Orton hit a massive RKO and covered but Sheamus came out to cause the DQ. Seriously? If they were going to go for the DQ finish, why not have Cesaro win the triple threat? Then he can have a great showing against the champion and win via DQ after Kevin Owens interfered or something. This made no sense and only furthered to make Seth look like a chump and build towards another Sheamus/Orton match that nobody wants to see. Sheamus teased cashing in but Orton stopped him. Overall, this was another middle of the pack Raw. There was some good and some bad. I give it a slight thumbs up because it was cool to see Daniel Bryan, Stephen Amell, New Day and the triple threat was good. 6.5/10
