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 10/5/15)

Tons Of Boss 

– The opening video again focused on last week’s Raw developments, as Ashley HR found Corporate Kane “sound of mind to fulfill his duties” and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins took him out, until Demon Kane came out of the ambulance and attacked him. Yup, like nothing happened on Smackdown or the freakin’ MSG special.

– The opening in-ring segment with Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman and The Big Show had “Hell In A Cell hype” written all over it, yet it all felt like a repeat. Heyman cuts a promo like no other, but did we need the full-length history lesson of The Undertaker and Lesnar’s rivalry since WrestleMania XXX? Sure, Heyman made some bold statements towards Taker, but it didn’t amount to more than that. We thought it’d be nice to not see Show appear to perhaps sell Saturday’s injuries, but when they announced he was teaming with Rollins against The Dudley Boyz, that went out the window. We groaned when Show’s music hit, since it killed the HIAC hype by revisiting an old feud already. That said, we got a taste of the destructive beast, as he rejected a handshake offer by Show and consequently Suplexed and F5’d him when he told Lesnar he hoped he’d lose at HIAC. Should also be noted that Show wore a cast to sell the injury, so at least we had that.

– Emasculating Stephanie McMahon was back in full force on this show and the results weren’t pretty. Her interaction with Rollins backstage was one of the better ones though, since she threw Rollins “man” nickname at him when he tried to get out of the tag match since Show was now out. We had the hook of seeing who Rollins would get as his partner, but didn’t we have something like this not too long ago already?

– The six-man tag match between Roman Reigns/Randy Orton/Dean Ambrose and The Wyatt Family was a smart way to keep the Reigns-Wyatt feud going, while also keeping the other guys involved in the storyline busy. This was your basic brawl-happy match with non-stop action, and we liked the way things winded down, especially how Strowman was taken out by Ambrose, leaving things in the finish between Reigns and Harper, as Reigns speared Harper. The crowd was hot for the finish despite some boos for Reigns. Bray was able to escape without being pinned too. This ended up one of the highlights of the night, believe it or not.

– The idea of another Neville-King Barrett feud makes us yawn. We’ve been there already. Why go there again? That’s essentially what the Neville-Sheamus match played into. Sheamus was just the angry Irishman here, insulting Boston for their “taste in Irish culture” and telling Neville he was a loser no matter what. Would’ve been nice if they got some time before Barrett predictably factored into the finish like he hinted during commentary, leading to a decisive Brogue Kick. We’re guessing the Neville-Stardust program is finally done? Whew.

– The Corporate Kane-Rollins-Steph in-ring segment saw more of emasculating Steph in action, as we got the big announcement that Demon Kane-Rollins would fight for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and Corporate Kane was welcome to tag with Rollins later if he was up for it, with the catch at HIAC being that Corporate Kane would be relieved of his duties if he lost. Despite the pop Steph got when she endorsed the New England Patriots, we’re not sure the football references were necessary given NFL is direct competition and ratings aren’t stellar lately.

– The Rollins-Triple H backstage segment was more of Triple H bestowing more advice upon his chosen one who was complaining about having to team with Corporate Kane later. Was Trips setting Rollins up to fail with his advice?

– Given their recent conflicts, it was about damn time we seen a Natalya-Paige match. Now if only the match wasn’t as mediocre. We understood the whole “Nattie teaches respect” story and all, but way to squash Paige’s tweener momentum with a submission loss. For that matter, Paige didn’t sell much after the bell. Just what did we get from that happening so soon?

– We think it’s doing a major disservice to the Ryback-WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens feud to only have Ryback be the one talking. For that matter, we didn’t quite get the whole “video package within a backstage promo” thing, but whatevs.

– Good way to use the Owens-Lucha Dragons match as an original hook for TV viewers to come back from break to see who Owens was fighting. Thought the Dragons would be introduced with a bit more fanfare from commentary. This was a basic squash match though entertaining since Owens broke down two men. It also keeps Owens strong for the Ryback rematch, which allows him to be cast as the “fighting champion who backs up what he says.” Ryback making the save before an Apron Powerbomb on Kalisto was a smart way to have the two interact directly.

– The Steph-New Day backstage segment saw the immaculate return of emasculating Steph, as she pretty much threatened New Day because they interrupted her clapping and singing while she was busy. The big thing out of this was that she booked a rematch between them and The Dudley Boyz for the Tag Team Championships at HIAC due to how they retained the belts on the MSG Special. New Day’s confused and insulted reaction played it off perfectly.

– The Rollins/Kane-Dudley Boyz tag match was exactly what we feared – predictable overbooking that gave us the same thing we saw on Smackdown – with Rollins trying to smartly keep Kane from going backstage by handcuffing him to the ropes, before that plan went awry when Kane was knocked loose and taken backstage. The stuff with Rollins and Dudleys were okay, but we were all waiting for Demon Kane to come out. The Dropkick table DQ spot was a lame finish, though it led to the Demon. We liked the continuity purpose of the 3D exacting revenge from Smackdown, which led to the table spot with Rollins’ plan backfiring. The only problem we’ve got here with Kane-Rollins is that it feels like we’ve already explored all the avenues for the feud and there’s still three weeks of hype left still. Sigh.

– Give Team Bella and Team BAD credit – their interactions were another strong show highlight. The Boston environment was a big plus, since it was Sasha Banks’ hometown and luckily, WWE pushed Team BAD as the faces here, while making Team Bella clear heels by having Nikki Bella act stuck up and wearing a New York Yankees cap. Banks’ opening promo felt genuine and the crowd was hot for her, which made the upcoming six-Diva tag fun to watch. This was the smart way to go since we had clear faces and heels on this night, no “shades of grey” catty women. The match itself was kind of clunky, but recovered nicely once Banks was “hotly” tagged in. The rapid fire finishers worked in this regard, since it led to a Bank Statement for the submission decision for the hometown heroes.

– The WWE Divas Champion Charlotte/Becky Lynch backstage promo saw Charlotte talk about how the HIAC rematch against Nikki Bella was what she needed to prove everyone that it wasn’t luck she beat the longest-reigning Divas Champion. Basic, but effective. Also smart to not have her and Sasha butt heads here.

– The Rusev-Summer Rae “marriage proposal” segment was just an ungodly waste of time on both ends, from the sappy video package to the lame soap opera-esque dialogue. Rusev saying “yes, but not now” because he wanted gold around his waist first gave us slight hope maybe he’ll return back to beast form in the future. At least we avoided a campy wedding segment. Summer’s upset expression yet obedience to Rusev does make us fear they’re having her follow the same “mistreated lady” storyline that Lana did, that ironically started this whole damn dilemma. It’s all WrestleCrap material to be honest.

– While the hype for the United States Championship open challenge was consistently good throughout the night, what we ended up with was mildly unspectacular. Does Dolph Ziggler have the power to hit his entrance music from his locker room to answer the challenge? Commentary insisted New Day laid out Ziggler in his locker room when his music hit, which doesn’t exactly add up since they dragged him to the front of the stage. Didn’t quite understand what the promo with Kofi Kingston/Xavier Woods was going for in terms of introducing Big E as the challenger, since Big E could’ve just cut a promo himself. The match was okay, though we never bought Big E as a threat to win the Title and that was a constant factor of enjoyment hinderance. Not to mention, the ending was very anticlimactic. Thing picked up post-match at least with the seeds for a future Cena-Ziggler feud planted (accidental Superkick) and we got more physicality between New Day and Dudleys when they came out. New Day getting the last laugh made sense, but gave the show a weird vibe to end on. The show’s start was pretty strong but the only thing great past the first Six-Man Tag was the Team BAD-Team Bella and that was solely because of the crowd’s reaction towards Banks.

Quick Results

• Six-Man Tag – Roman Reigns/Dean Ambrose/Randy Orton def. The Wyatt Family via pinfall
• Sheamus def. Neville via pinfall
• Natalya def. Paige via submission
• 2-On-1 Handicap – Kevin Owens def. The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
• The Dudley Boyz def. Seth Rollins/Corporate Kane via DQ
• Six-Diva Tag – Team BAD def. Team Bella via submission
• WWE United States Championship – Open Challenge – John Cena (Champion) def. Big E (w/Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston) via pinfall to retain