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 6/29/15)

The Price Is Rollins 

– The opening video reminded everyone of how WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins got The Authority back on his side and helped take down Brock Lesnar like never before. This was a good route to take creatively as things wind down to Battleground. This is arguably WWE’s 2015 money match and it’s no shock to see it a month earlier than anticipated.

– The opening segment with Rollins, J & J Security and Kane was cheesy, but good as Rollins boasted about laying out Lesnar, putting over his fellow Authority mates and blatantly sucked up to them, buying them all Apple watches, Kane a Hawaii vacation and J & J a new Cadillac 2015 CTS. The intent was obvious here, so the “Price Is Right” game show-esque vibe worked in this case. Couldn’t had been hard to imagine some viewers tuning out of this though for its absurdity. This also effectively set up the main event as Rollins proposed a no disqualification tag match with him and Kane against Dean Ambrose/Roman Reigns, as a proper “send off” for Kane. Also had to love Jamie Noble blaring the hell out of that horn, as they managed to turn his sympathy into pure heat.

– One of the more consistent feuds in WWE lately has actually involved three men – Intercontinental Champion Ryback, The Miz and The Big Show. As far as the Show-Mark Henry match, it was a short-sighted squash for Show, but having Miz on commentary helped improve the match hype for Battleground. Also got a kick out of his over-the-top Jim Ross impression, even getting in a cheap strike on Ryback when he came out to attack Show again. This also hot-shotted the Miz-Ryback match to directly after this segment.

– We knew we probably wouldn’t get much from the Ryback-Miz match, which was understandable considering the triple-threat. This did give us a decent sneak-peek of sorts though and Miz was actually protected by serving Ryback a countout victory by running away.

– In a Divas world where the Bella Twins reign supreme and turn every week from heel to babyface, Paige has been the most consistent Diva, staying as a sharp babyface in pursuit of ending the Bellas and their influence on the division. There’s been an effort by WWE to show us that Paige’s attempts have fallen flat, with Alicia Fox the latest to join “Team Bella.” Naturally, this led to a match between Paige and Ms. Foxy Bella. Fortunately, this was a better-than-average match that saw almost 10 minutes of TV time (say what?) and Paige stood out with a great performance in the ring. While she did beat Fox at the end of things, you do have to question the logicality of having her gain momentum in this rivalry against the Bellas where the theme is that she needs help to overcome them. At the least, it showed a swing of momentum in Paige’s favor. Any feud could show momentum swings to keep things fresh.

– Liked how quickly it looked like we’d get the third match between NXT Champion Kevin Owens and United States Champion John Cena right then and there as the Open Challenge match. It all just happened so quickly. This was just a brilliant ploy for Owens to troll everyone and say he’d wait until Battleground to fight Cena and promptly introduced Cesaro, while he joined the commentary booth, which only meant good things all around. Owens again stole the show on commentary with his comments. As for the match… Whoa. Just kept going and going with incredible intensity from the start. It looked like Cesaro was out to prove something and considering all the online buzz, that seems to be the truth. Incredible match as it was winding down to one big move on either side to win it. Owens interfering before Cena could tap out and Powerbombing both men was about as perfect as you could book it since it let Cena-Cesaro have a fantastic match and puts big heat on Owens.

– Bray Wyatt’s fog promo was more rambling about wanting Reigns and it was about him and Reigns. At least it had a goal in mind.

– The eight-man tag match between Lucha Dragons/The Prime Time Players-New Day/Bo Dallas was a replay of the Smackdown match but with a lot more time to tell a story and let both teams do their thing. The heels did a good job of dominating Darren Young to the point of building up the hot tag and Titus O’Neill owned things from there, as the crowd was hot for him. The finish was pretty good too as the PTP are finally taken seriously, but besides for picking up Dallas, New Day are on a continued downfall. Perhaps they need more clap therapy.

– The “Dolph Ziggler and Lana go public” segment started with a giddy Ziggler and Lana trying to talk through loud “What?” Chants (never a good sign) before Rusev came out and insulted Lana and her kissing skills, while Ziggler dropped that she was his girlfriend now. Summer Rae was proving ineffective in this whole thing until she confronted Lana and slapped her hard, allowing a believable cat fight to go on. There’s something about this storyline that’s not really clicking, but at least they’re trying their best to make it work. It mainly comes down to the fact that both couples have no chemistry. Zero. Hopefully, this results in a one-and-done that ends up with Lana turning on Ziggler again, but we see none of that in WWE’s planning seemingly.

– Dean Ambrose’s backstage promo talked about his determination to Terminator statues and Reigns came and asked if he was ready. Ambrose talked about wanting a more aggressive Reigns. This explored the fun brawling side of the duo, though Reigns sounded a bit too close to Alex Riley and frankly, that’s never a good thing.

– The Neville-Sheamus match had some backstory with Neville demanding this match and that he has a new comic? The match was good while it went on, being quite competitive. It seemed like Neville was more on the offensive side, but this was all used to give Sheamus the clean win, keeping his recent winning streak going. Let’s hope Neville finds some more purpose soon, as he’s just thrown into match after match for no reason really.

– The King Barrett-Jack Swagger match came off like an enhancement match for the cringe-worthy King Of The Ring. More cliches as he wants his opponents to bow down to him before the match. Ugh.

– The no disqualification tag match between Ambrose/Reigns and Kane/Rollins was okay but was about the bigger story of an Authority United, and everyone was waiting for the Wyatt attack anyway. The post-match beat down of Ambrose and then Reigns who fought back hard but ultimately overpowered was nice. The table spot added a nice touch and was highlight-worthy, added on with an extra Sister Abigail from Wyatt.

Quick Results

– The Big Show def. Mark Henry via pinfall

– Ryback def. The Miz via countout 

– Paige def. Alicia Fox (w/The Bella Twins) via pinfall

– United States Championship – Open Challenge – Cesaro def. John Cena via DQ; Cena retains

– Eight-Man Tag – The Prime Time Players/The Lucha Dragons def. The New Day/Bo Dallas via pinfall

– Sheamus def. Neville via pinfall

– King Barrett def. Jack Swagger via pinfall

– No Disqualification Tag Match – Seth Rollins (w/J & J Security)/Kane def. Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose via pinfall