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 9/7/15)

Seth Freakin’ Rollins 

– WWE World Heavyweight and United States Champion Seth Rollins’ in-ring promo did drag on, but it was cool to see him soak up all the heat as he used the “boring” chants to help his ego boost and talked about how great he was. Sting interrupting to show he had the statue in his possession was funny, but maybe WWE should’ve gone more for a serious approach. Sheamus coming out to confront Rollins was entertaining to see and set up a potential outcome for Night Of Champions. Rollins didn’t hold back either, also resorting to insulting Sheamus’ look, which the crowd seemed to dig.

– The Rollins-Stephanie McMahon backstage segment saw Rollins talk to Steph while being super-flustered and sought out Triple H for a plan. Triple H showed up and talked about Rollins needing to be focused on NOC instead of the statue and would compete twice during the show – the first match against Ryback and the second teaming up with The New Day against The Prime Time Players/John Cena. Sort of a fun segment where you can see Trips using his power to make Rollins work hard, while disguising it as “giving him a place to show off why he’s the man.” Something to reference later down the road.

– The Paige-Sasha Banks match was a rematch from last week that we hoped would go longer this time around. The action was more slowed-down and open to telling a story somewhat, though there were some rough spots (something seemed off with the way Banks sold running into the ring ropes and falling down) but got better as it went along. Nothing truly groundbreaking or awe-inspiring besides that German Suplex spot, but we got the finish that saw Banks take advantage of Naomi’s interference to pin Paige and “upset” her two weeks in a row. WWE probably went with this match to please fans with quality wrestling, but it would’ve been smarter to feature Charlotte in some sort. Where is this Paige-Sasha thing going? We’re not quite so sure ourselves. On another hand, this could be WWE’s way of giving Paige an excuse to ruin Charlotte’s Title shot next week.

– The Ascension-Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose match looked to be a squash match on paper with The Brotherhood being the team with a bigger push. It’s disappointing considering The Ascension just found themselves in a new role with Stardust just to be fed to the faces. The Wyatt Family TitanTron promo saw them hype “the apocalypse” at Night Of Champions. Will this be the unveiling of yet another new member?

– WWE Intercontinental Champion Ryback’s backstage promo talked about his match with Rollins for later and put him over. Then, he did some acting out of the match. Kevin Owens showed up trolling with an apple wishing him luck. Like this feud for sure.

– The Ryback-Rollins match was a pleasant surprise with plenty of time to tell a story, as Ryback resiliently avoided being broken down by Rollins (the many Suicide Dives) and we liked how Sting played into the finish by showing up on the TitanTron with the statue. We thought perhaps Owens would interfere to give Rollins the win here, but this was a better way to go to give more focus to the bigger main event program. Sting putting the mask on the statue making Rollins angry was good yet subtle progression.

– The Rollins/New Day backstage promo saw a perfect cue for the “positive guys” to break in while Rollins was irate. Edge/Christian came literally out of left field and we saw the anticipated Edge/Rollins interaction that was intense, as he took a shot at Rollins saying the job of paralyzing him wasn’t done and challenged him to finish it. Rollins walked away feeling overwhelmed, which was funny. Edge/Christian interacting with New Day was also entertaining, especially with Woods’ essentially fangirling. The segment reached meme-tactic levels once The Dudley Boyz came in and announced that New Day would defend against The Prime Time Players next week and the winners would face The Dudleys at Night Of Champions. The four faces all singing and dancing “Get… The Table!” was hilarious.

– The Summer Rae-Rusev segment started with low hopes with the tabloid-esque, narrator-led video package. Summer’s apology to Rusev and his acceptance were all quite meh. Did anybody not see Dolph Ziggler coming down to attack Rusev? We didn’t grow any further with this angle. Lana’s wrist injury can only mean this gets dragged out even more. Sigh. This is right up there with that John Cena/AJ Lee “scandal” storyline.

– At this point, Sheamus-Randy Orton matches scream “change the channel, nothing new here.” The match wasn’t bad per se, but we’ve literally seen it a thousand times by now to really be impressed by anything here. Orton winning clean via an RKO was what it was, though The Wyatt Family ambushing Orton was a sudden turn of events, though it made sense with Orton talking backstage with Ambrose/Reigns earlier. If Orton is the third man teaming with Reigns/Ambrose, that’ll be a letdown. We’ve been there already.

– The Dudley Boyz-Los Matadores match was an obvious squash from the get-go. Do we even need to state the specifics? Only thing new we got here was El Torito getting attacked, which only led to a classic Dudley Powerbomb table spot.

– The Cesaro-Miz match had some backing of a prior backstage segment where Miz bragged he could bring Cesaro everything he wanted, while The Swiss Superman refused. The action was okay while it lasted, ending abruptly in a double count out when Big Show came out and stopped Miz from running away. Just when we thought Show was full face, he knocked out Cesaro, an innocent bystander, to many boos. Heel turn #4,567.

– The Team Bella-Team PCB in-ring segment served more hype to Charlotte’s Divas Championship shot next week in order for Nikki Bella to break the record by the end of the show, since she’d tie. It was okay for what it was, all things considering.

– The Big E/Kofi Kingston/Rollins-Prime Time Players/Cena match was definitely entertaining. Woods nearly stole the show himself with the hilarious trombone notes that played to the tune of his tag partner’s offensive maneuvers. The action was consistently good down the stretch that ended with Cena getting the pin on Kofi Kingston, also meaning Rollins lost yet again. Obviously, that was overshadowed with Sting appearing on the TitanTron and unveiling himself being in the parking lot behind a garbage truck, pushing the statue into it, making Rollins irate. The logical part of us wonders how he’d be able to do that in the arena under The Authority’s watch, but we’ll let that go since the angle itself was handled well. Needless to say, “mysterious” Sting is more preferred to “Joker” Sting, but it’s not the worst thing in the world either.

Quick Results

• Sasha Banks (w/Naomi, Tamina) def. Paige (w/Charlotte, Becky Lynch) via pinfall
• Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose def. The Ascension via pinfall
• Ryback def. Seth Rollins via pinfall
• Randy Orton def. Sheamus via pinfall
• The Dudley Boyz def. Los Matadores (w/El Torito) via pinfall
• Cesaro and The Miz to a double countout
• John Cena/The Prime Time Players def. Seth Rollins/Big E/Kofi Kingston (w/Xavier Woods) via pinfall