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 9/24/15)

Split Personalities 

– The opening video highlighted WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins defeating Sting after losing his WWE United States Championship to John Cena just prior, leading to masked Kane’s return, tombstone pildriving the Champ. We saw the events of Raw, where Corporate Kane returned from vacation and had no recollections of the night before, while ending the night dragging Rollins “to hell” (or underneath the ring, which we’ve never quite understood either…) as the demon.

– Corporate Kane started the show off in the ring, welcoming everyone. Some piped-in cheers there. He booked WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens/Rusev vs. Ryback/Dolph Ziggler, Luke Harper vs. Roman Reigns with no interference from outside allowed and before he could go further, Rollins came out and told Kane to stop his “Bruce Banner” act. Kane recommended Rollins come down to the ring for some “productive talks.” Rollins refused. Kane continued to duck any demon references. Rollins said Kane needed serious help. Kane booked the main event of Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Pretty good back-and-forth that slightly furthered things but laid out the show ahead of us. We also seen Kane use his corporate position to look like the good guy, but make Rollins day difficult. We also liked the broadcast team at odds on Kane’s behavior.

– The Reigns-Harper match with Wyatt Family and Ambrose banned from ringside was pretty good, as both guys worked well together with their “big man” styles meshing. The ringside barring allowed for us to solely focus on the two and while Harper was in control and pulled off some close near-falls, Reigns eventually scored the upper hand and came out on top. Pretty standard finish.

– The six-man tag match between The New Day and Neville/The Lucha Dragons started with a New Day promo that hyped the 10/3 WWE Network Live Special match for the Tag Titles against The Dudley Boyz. While this felt like a match we’ve already seen, the chemistry was spot-on and we saw some amazing aerial maneuvers. Liked how New Day wrestled back the momentum just after Neville/Dragons had it. New Day danced on the announce table as the trombone sounded. These guys are comedic riots.

– We held our collective breaths upon who Cesaro’s opponent would be when Bo Dallas came out. Thank god. Dallas’ opening promo dissed Cesaro for not being able to beat Big Show, which provided fuel for the Swiss superman to basically have fun in the ring. We were shocked to see Dallas dominate as much as he did, but it quickly went back to Cesaro’s way for the win. Still get the slight feeling Cesaro is floating without direction, but maybe they’re in the process of setting something up for him.

– The Charlotte/Becky Lynch promo started off with Charlotte talking about how last Sunday was a dream scenario before Paige interrupted and insincerely apologized, as Natalya came out to stop the trash talk, saying she credited Paige a long time ago for making her happy to come to work, but her being jealous of Charlotte was ridiculous. The interaction with her and Paige was pretty good, ending with Paige saying Natalya was pathetic and intensely slapping her. The basic goal here was to make Paige look more like a heel, while further establishing her feud with Natalya. We got both.

– The Ryback/Ziggler-Rusev/Owens tag match was entertaining and a good time-filler, which culminated with Owens abandoning Rusev, leaving him prey to get finished off by Ziggler and then the Shellshocked. The finish was interesting in that perhaps we get a four-way IC Title match at Hell In A Cell? We know Rusev will want to get his hands on Owens after this and Ryback is due for a rematch, which then you could easily add Ziggler since he’s feuding with Rusev.

– The Dudley Boyz’s backstage promo ran down New Day for pretending to care about the fans and tables when they looked to change that in front of their “NYC home crowd.” The Prime Time Players came and wished them luck and said they were in the hunt afterwards. Good to see the Tag Titles are the big prize here, as it should be.

– The Rollins backstage promo talked about the match with Ambrose, as he continued to be convinced Kane was a demon because of him being jealous and needed help. Basic stuff to set things up for the main event.

– The Ambrose-Rollins main event match was about as excellent as you could get between the two, as they delivered a thrilling, near PPV-quality effort that ended when Ambrose pinned Rollins after Kane’s music hit and the red lights struck. Rollins took the mic and told Kane he was warning him not to mess with him because he was still World Champ. Corporate Kane watched from backstage. Is Ambrose going to get another Title shot, since he pinned the Champ?

Quick Results

• Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Dean Ambrose Banned From Ringside – Roman Reigns def. Luke Harper via pinfall
• Six-Man Tag – The New Day def. Neville/The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
• Cesaro def. Bo Dallas via pinfall
• Ryback/Dolph Ziggler def. Rusev (w/Summer Rae)/Kevin Owens via pinfall
• Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins via pinfall