By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 6/18/15)

Welcome To The Tea Party

– The opening segment with Sheamus, Dean Ambrose and Kane was a decent way to get across another bragging Sheamus promo, as he promised to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion in due time. Seems that WWE is fully backing the heel Sheamus as a top player, but it still feels a bit rushed. Sure, he still gets a reaction when he comes out, but fans buy him mostly as an upper mid-card act at best at the moment and seeing him as world champion isn’t the best move at this point in time. You also had Dean Ambrose coming out to support his best friend Roman Reigns, insulting Sheamus in the process. Once Kane came out and Ambrose threw around insults, we knew this would turn into a match of some sort and how right we were. Luckily, the handicap match didn’t last long as we all knew Reigns would come make the save, turning the first segment into a main event tag match, like we’ve seen on most Smackdowns. Granted, they could’ve gotten the same results without the useless match. Also, since Kane is Director Of Operations, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to restart the handicap match as the main event and ban Reigns from ringside? Just a thought.

– So, the best friends walking backstage, Ambrose and Reigns, saw an angry Reigns towards Bray Wyatt and threatened him to find him. Reigns did sell his anger well towards Wyatt’s mental advantage, but we know little about Reigns’ daughter, so it’s hard for the crowd to really buy into this emotionally besides the shock of Wyatt stooping to a family level.

– The Paige-Brie Bella match was just another divas storyline progression platform, as Alicia Fox deliberately pushed Paige off the top rope and caused Bella to win, making it established that she was on Team Bella. God, Brie’s music is annoying. Fox still feels irrelevant these days. Maybe she should plan another wedding or two.

– The way NXT Champion Kevin Owens pushes around the announcers and broadcasters is hilarious. We saw more of that in the backstage segment where we finally got him to say that he attacked Machine Gun Kelly since he put his hands on him first and tied it into his hatred for United States Champion John Cena. Cesaro coming out of nowhere to challenge Owens was a welcome surprise, as he did so in a way that was straight-forward yet funny. Gives us some hope for a serious singles run for Cesaro.

– The main highlight of the Dolph Ziggler-Bo Dallas match was Dallas’ opening promo on Lana, which of course set up Ziggler destroying him. We like “The Inspirational One” gimmick and hope WWE will stick by him as more than a jobber in time. Also liked the shots of an angry Rusev watching backstage, which kept this feud going.

– The Xavier Woods-Neville match was just another way of showing less-than-friendly interactions between the New Day and the Tag Team Champions Prime Time Players, as they made their way down to back Neville up. Things made way to a decent finish that saw Neville hit the Red Arrow. Ultimately nothing special than to remind us that these guys exist.

– Seth Rollins’ promo in response to Brock Lesnar’s return was pretty good in getting across his accomplishments while trying to make himself sound like the better guy. Hard to tip-toe around what happened at WrestleMania since it revolves around his now-banned finisher, but for what it was, it worked. His claim about needing to beat Lesnar to cement his legacy was a true yet bold statement.

– The second “best friends” segment again saw Reigns distracted by Wyatt’s motives, while Ambrose was pumped to cause chaos. Funny.

– The Owens-Cesaro match was good, as both guys had great chemistry as most fans probably knew from their past indy matches. This was more or less a watered-down WWE version of their usual style match, with still some freedom to go a little loose. Owens looked good with the win and Cesaro looked good as he stood up to Owens.

– “The Miz At The Movies” segment seems a little lame, but it does let Miz lead the spotlight as a way to make fun of his opponents and with a Big Show movie recently out, he was prime for the picking. We can expect Show to get revenge on Miz at Raw, but will anyone care about their quarrels without Ryback thrown into the mix?

– The Ambrose/Reigns-Kane/Sheamus match was your general time-filling match, which wasn’t bad, but we’ve seen these four work together so often, it has little excitement going forward. This showed Wyatt playing more mind games via the Titan Tron to distract Reigns. The bit with the picture in the ring may was a good way to end things and we’re curious to see how it gets followed up on Raw.

Quick Results

– 2-On-1 Handicap Match – Kane/Sheamus def. Roman Reigns via DQ

– Brie Bella def. Paige via pinfall

– Dolph Ziggler (w/Lana) def. Bo Dallas via pinfall

– Neville def. Xavier Woods (w/Big E, Kofi Kingston) via pinfall

– Kevin Owens def. Cesaro via pinfall

– Kane/Sheamus def. Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose via pinfall