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 8/27/15)

It’s All Wyatt

– The Wyatt Family started things off by coming to the ring, while highlights were shown of Braun Strowman man-handling Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose on the previous Raw. Bray did a solid job in his promo, speaking of Strowman’s purpose in the family and mentioned Sister Abigail a ton of times. Maybe she’ll indeed be a real character down the road. Definitely dug the look and feel of the whole thing, done in the dark, mind you. Ambrose/Reigns “crashing the party” made sense, since they wanted revenge from Raw. The stare-down was intense. Liked Wyatt backing away with his family, priming this battle for another time.

– When you think of a tag team whom The Dudley Boyz could squash but still be looked at as “tough guys,” The Ascension definitely fit the bill. Dudleys ran through their usual spots, though the initial table tease was interrupted to give the heels heat. We all know how this one ends – a 3D to win the match. A table was put in the ring, which was the perfect way to bring The New Day into it, protesting with big picket signs about saving tables. Funny. Dudleys went ahead with it anyway, to piss them off more. Great stuff. Simple, yet effective.

– The Neville-Kevin Owens match was something that seemed fit more for Smackdown than Raw. While we got a glimpse of what these two could really do in the ring together, the match wasn’t long enough to really make a lasting impression. Since we were shown highlights of SummerSlam of Neville/Stephen Amell beating King Barrett/Stardust, it looked like Neville would maybe get the win here, but Owens got the nod for a pleasant surprise. That’s two matches won this week, that has to be a record.

– The Becky Lynch/Charlotte-Bella Twins backstage segment saw Bellas condescendingly talk about PCB and Charlotte picked up on them trying to turn them against Paige, bringing up SummerSlam 2014. Just came off as more pointless banter despite bringing up past storylines.

– The Charlotte/Lynch-Bella Twins match with Team BAD on commentary was another “going through the motions” part of this Divas Revolution. More pointless action, though at least Sasha Banks mentioned not getting a Divas Title shot against Nikki Bella yet, thank god. The finish was actually decent, since it involved Bellas trying to use dirty tactics to stop Lynch from getting tagged in, but it backfiring. Given what happened on Raw, was it really the smartest thing to have Team BAD dismiss the match as “boring”?

– Given how WWE World Heavyweight Champion/United States Champion Seth Rollins is close to The Aurhority who are supposedly proud of him, why would they give Sting an opportunity to become World Champion at his expense? He pretty much disguised himself as a statue and ambushed their plans. You’d think The Authority would make Sting jump through hoops to make the match official, not just grant it like that. Rollins’ in-ring promo touched up on this logic loophole thankfully, as he explained he begged to finish what Triple H started in destroying Sting. He also spoke the feeling of wanting to see his big statue and how disappointed he was to see Sting. You got angry Rollins here, which was good because it showed his seriousness. It also carried his “on and on” personality.

– Sheamus’ backstage promo hyped up the main event match against Dean Ambrose. He gave some threats, put himself over as Mr. Money In The Bank. You know the drill.

– The Ryback/Dolph Ziggler-Rusev/The Big Show match carried on the combination of two feuds from Raw, with tension between Rusev and Show still showing. Show kind of looked like a dodo for just tagging in the match after Rusev told him minutes before he didn’t trust him. Liked the way that Rusev tried to put the Accolade on after Show hit the KO punch and got KO’d for his own troubles, allowing Ziggler to win the match. Is Show turning face again?

– The Reigns/Ambrose backstage segment saw Ambrose eager to fight Sheamus descriptively, while Reigns said he’d focus on the Wyatts. Alright then.

– The Sheamus-Ambrose match was your usual brawling, physical match, which led to The Wyatts being a sudden distraction at ringside, which was a predictable yet logical way for Sheamus to get the win. The trio was about to attack when Reigns’ music hit, whom came down, Superman-Punched Harper on the outside and stared down Strowman in the ring, but couldn’t get the best of him physically and got laid out, basically a repeat of the Raw segment sans the reveal. Solid way to get to next week, though ultimately uneventful, since chances are they’ll just replay this next week anyway.

Quick Results

• The Dudley Boyz def. The Ascension via pinfall
• Kevin Owens def. Neville via pinfall
• Charlotte/Becky Lynch def. The Bella Twins via pinfall
• Ryback/Dolph Ziggler (w/Lana) def. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)/The Big Show via pinfall
• Sheamus def. Dean Ambrose via pinfall