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 10/1/15)

The Demon Fights

– The opening video highlighted the Raw “Kane Job Evaluation” segment where Ashley from HR (that’s human resources in case you weren’t sure) found Kane “in full sound of mind,” leading to WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to go in full denial mode before essentially taking out Corporate Kane’s leg and put him in an ambulance, who broke out of said ambulance as the Demon, exacting revenge. Watching what unfolded for over 20 minutes on live TV condensed into a two-minute video was a relief, but the video also made Demon Kane’s ambulance rising look awfully kooky. Yep, TV ratings are slipping and you wonder why. Stuff like this is leading the program. Yes, we like Corporate Kane and it’s nice to see Demon Kane back and we expected a “challenger of the month” out of this, but it didn’t have to be the lead storyline.

– The opening segment with Rollins and Corporate Kane was basically the two of them arguing about who needed a mental evaluation more. How much TV time has been dedicated this year to these two bickering? Honestly. The only fun we got here was Corporate Kane’s ongoing denial of the Demon’s actions mixed in with sudden main event hype where he paired Rollins with The New Day “to cheer him up” against The Dudley Boyz and Demon Kane. He also announced that he’d have a United States Championship match against John Cena at the 10/3 WWE Network Live Special from Madison Square Garden. That made it sound like he spontaneously booked that match, no? Rollins was also pretty funny here, as he was determined to expose Kane’s mind games by adding a stipulation to the main event that Corporate Kane needed to be at ringside to watch. Fair enough we could say it was predictable, but albeit, we wanted to stick around to see how Kane would pull it off.

– The Six-Diva tag match between Team Bella and Team BAD continued to expose the major flaws of the ongoing “Divas Revolution.” Exhibit A – lack of roles of clear heels/faces. Who is who here? We had Team BAD coming out to cut a face-ish promo (Sasha Banks asked the crowd if anybody really cared who started the Divas Revolution to not much of a response and made true points) to a heel reaction. Later on in the match, they were encouraging the crowd to cheer for a hot tag. Team Bella, who’re usually surrounded by egotistical “Queen Bee” Nikki Bella, were looked at as faces against the heel Team BAD. Brie Bella was doing her husband’s kicks again, which would obviously get the crowd cheering for her. This was a problem the whole match. The Bellas’ face-heel flip-flopping hurts them going forward. Exhibit B – another pointless Six-Diva tag match with no relevance whatsoever than to kill TV time. Now, the positives – the match was actually entertaining for the lengthy time it was given and Banks being over with the crowd was a factor of that, especially with the finish taken into account, as she made Nikki tap out to the Bank Statement.

– The backstage segment with Rollins/New Day provided more priceless comedy as New Day tried to cheer up Rollins to the point where it eventually worked, while Corporate Kane walked up as they walked away. Hilarious. Rollins’ facial expressions completely sold us on it.

– The Charlotte/Becky Lynch/Paige/Natalya backstage segment continued to shed light on Paige’s latest evil deeds of abandoning her former teammates on Raw, even though she technically turned on them a week prior to that. If you’re Charlotte/Lynch, why on earth are you on the fence about Paige being with you or against you? Wouldn’t you want to… you know, get revenge on her for dumping you guys a few nights ago? Can we talk about how the Divas Champion was in a segment and the focus wasn’t once on the Championship? Can Natalya and Paige have a match already? That said, the segment was at least acknowledging a slight build to something else brewing in the near future.

– The fact that they went to Smackdown for Ryback’s Intercontinental Championship rematch against Champion Kevin Owens instead of saving it for Pay-Per-View should’ve already been a red flag that Owens would keep his belt. The story headed into the match was if Ryback could “right his wrongs” and get back his old gold. It was given enough time to be more than a yawner and while Owens/Ryback have good in-ring chemistry, this didn’t amount to anything special. On that note, the finish made Owens look smart yet cowardly by deliberately staying out of the ring to a 10-count to retain his Title, though we knew that was also an excuse for Ryback to exact revenge with a Shellshocked. We got the sneaking suspicion that this feud would continue since Ryback technically won the rematch. Hmmm… perhaps a stipulation match at Hell In A Cell?

– Okay, we’ll admit the comic book-esque feud between Neville and Stardust was cool for the first few months, but ever since bringing in The Lucha Dragons and The Ascension, it has gone nowhere. They seem to fight every week and trade victories in entertaining matches with no real idea of where the story is going. Hell, even the worst of comics have basic ongoing storylines. What the hell are they even fighting over or for? Stardust’s boxed promo literally saw him talk like a demented blackjack dealer. What can anyone gather from that? The faces getting the victory gave us a happy ending, but it means nothing when these six will probably fight again next week. The more they fight, the more it will drag.

– You might find it misleading that a strong segment involving The Wyatt Family and Roman Reigns included standing around and only about seven words uttered between both guys, but that’s what happened. This was a good way to follow up the hot barricade-separating, table-breaking brawl from Raw. Reigns looked strong for heading down to The Wyatts while in their dark element and only wanting one thing: Hell In A Cell. The tension was strong throughout the segment and we had that feeling that anything could break down at any time, which worked to the entertainment factor.

– The six-man tag main event with New Day/Rollins and The Dudley Boyz/Demon Kane had a combination of New Day’s trombone antics (beginning to reach a tiring point, though it still works since they’re heels) and Corporate Kane managing to find a way to get backstage by deliberately standing in the way of a Rollins suicide dive. Was anybody truly shocked to see Demon Kane come out right after Corporate Kane went backstage? Only cool moment out of this was the sadistic face Corporate Kane gave Rollins before he went to the back. Basically, Demon beat up Rollins, but not enough to deliver a Tombstone Piledriver. The Dudleys got the pinfall victory, which looked good on them, though that means they probably lose to New Day at MSG. It was only fitting that their original tag partner didn’t show up until later and Chokeslammed them after the match, huh? At least New Day getting Chokeslams gave the crowd a reason to cheer to end the show.

Quick Results

• Six-Diva Tag – Team BAD def. Team Bella via submission
• WWE Intercontinental Championship – Ryback def. Kevin Owens (Champion) via countout; Owens retains
• Six-Man Tag – Neville/The Lucha Dragons def. Stardust/The Ascension via pinfall
• Six-Man Tag – The Dudley Boyz/Demon Kane def. The New Day via pinfall