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 10/19/15)

The Shield Vs. The Wyatt Family 2015

– With WWE Creative paying precise attention to the ratings mudslide towards the land of panic, this was a heavily hyped show even as early as last month, with legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker rumored to appear. Stone Cold appearing was a surprise since his name was removed from the advertised list last week and we knew he’d be hosting his Podcast with Brock Lesnar as his guest later. That said, it’s amazing these days that Austin’s theme music glass-shatter still produces arguably the biggest crowd pop you’ll ever hear. This was a smart way to open up the show as it must’ve took both diehards and casuals by surprise. Austin can still play off a crowd like no other, embracing the “What?” chants and going with it. All in all, he was out there to introduce a guy who he battled with plenty of times, all in a way to sell Hell In A Cell that coming Sunday, The Undertaker. Given that this was also Texas, we expected a bipartisan reaction for Taker since it was his hometown after all and safe to say, that’s what happened. Never mind that Taker actually cheated with a low blow behind the Referee’s back to win at SummerSlam the last time we saw him. Taker’s line to Lesnar about the depths of hell looking like the gates of Heaven was a strong one and safe to say, we all knew business would go down when Lesnar’s music hit. As usual, Paul Heyman cut a strong sell promo that hyped his client’s streak-breaking moment and how underhanded Taker needed to be to beat him last time. We also liked Taker’s line about how he had nothing to lose since everything was already taken from him. The “mind games” aspect was unique that it teased a fight, with Lesnar looking like the heel coward this time. Still can’t help but feel like this match/feud is kind of just there, when in August, it felt like the hottest thing on WWE TV.

– The Six-Man Tag match between The Tag Team Champions New Day and The Dudley Boyz/United States Champion John Cena again showed us the cheesy/dark side of The New Day from their opening promo that insulted Texas’ fine sports teams and had a good share of puns and buns. Also liked that early on, it was announced that Cena’s United States Championship Open Challenge would recommence at HIAC. That has us thinking perhaps a debut/Title change could occur. Tyler Breeze? Maybe. Anyways, the match was entertaining as it went on, with the story being the heels dominating Cena for a lengthy time before he made the hot tag to D-Von Dudley. Eventually, the action winded down and Xavier Woods ended up scoring the pinfall by pulling on D-Von’s tights. At least The Dudleys scored big revenge when they put Woods through a table with Cena’s help. This also scored a huge pop from the crowd beforehand. Also loved Kofi Kingston/Big E’s over-the-top reaction on the ramp of it all going down. Good way to further the feud and have the Dudleys get something out of it while New Day remains over on the decisive victory side.

– Interesting that they used Randy Orton not being on TV chalked up to a storyline injury (could be real as well) involving The Wyatt Family in some sort. This tied into Dean Ambrose since he was set to partner up with Orton at HIAC against Luke Harper/Braun Strowman. Ambrose’s backstage promo made him look both delusional and tough when he mentioned about Orton not being there on this show and possibly Sunday. He made it clear he wanted a fight at any cost.

– Heading into the Divas Championship rematch at HIAC, it made sense for Nikki Bella to be on the winning side in some way. On this night, she shared the victory with Team Bella stablemate Alicia Fox, as she teamed against Team BAD’s Naomi/Sasha Banks. We looked for some development on the storyline of Team Bella trying to use Sasha’s popularity to cause rifts in Team BAD, but as we saw, nothing happened. The match itself wasn’t bad at all, as the ladies took some tough bumps, probably the more athletic Divas match of the night. The Bellas were all heel here, as Nikki got the Rack Attack on Naomi after knocking Banks to the floor with a cheap shot.

– Considering that Corporate Kane also had a managerial role on Smackdown recently, why would The Authority not suspend Kane sooner than tonight on Raw? This all went mostly unnoticed on last week’s Smackdown.

– The Shawn Michaels-WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins in-ring segment was a solid way to lead off the second hour. HBK fit in some HIAC hype by reminding us that he was in the first-ever one with Undertaker back in 1997 and put over the Wyatt-Reigns HIAC match too, which seemed odd more than anything.  Things became good when Rollins came out to reveal that HBK was supposed to introduce him, but ended up talking about how “the man” was supposed to be the subject of conversation, not the HIAC matches. We liked that he brought up the real-life aspect of the HBK comparisons, as he took the “Shawn Michaels Version 2” nickname to heart, also adding his ego with him thinking he was better than the original. At the same time, HBK met him every step of the way with a more serious demeanor, saying he found it amazing everybody these days compared themselves to him when he never did that in his own career. It was cool that HBK had the last laugh there, since he was able to announce that Rollins would be in action against Ryback right after. Who made the match? The Authority or HBK? Only thing that confused us.

– The Rollins-Ryback match was okay while it lasted though we thought it’d go longer, with Ryback putting in a load of offense until Rollins targeted the ribs and hit the Pedigree. It was over before we could remember it happened.

– The Six-Man Tag between Cesaro/Dolph Ziggler/Neville and Rusev/King Barrett/Sheamus was a good way to continue the rivalries woven in here. Everybody got time to showcase their skills like Cesaro and Neville, but it came down to the Brogue Kick from outside that allowed Barrett to get the win. Are they just going to make Sheamus/Barrett a team now? The fact that this match will be happening again soon probably screams “babyface victory” then.

– The Ric Flair in-ring promo was just a fancy way to introduce Roman Reigns as Ambrose’s partner against The Wyatts later. Way to feel like a repeat. Anyways, we’ll say they probably saved the best Reigns-Wyatt confrontation for last, since we had “good promo Roman” this time, as they sat face-to-face in chairs in the ring, Reigns aggressively taunting Wyatt. Reigns initially seemed blind to notice the returning Erick Rowan standing with his brothers again, but commentary sold it well. Seemed uneventful, but this was the best way to use Rowan.

– The Trips/Steph/Rollins backstage segment probably broke the Internet since it was a smart way to get to Ambrose/Reigns/Rollins against The Wyatt Family in 2015. HBK basically bragged about how Rollins was like a precious child that needed to be protected by The Authority and should team with his old brothers half-jokingly, making Rollins stroke his ego saying he could team up with them to prove he was “the man.”

– The Charlotte-Brie Bella match was more hype for the Divas Title match as Nikki took the Title and posed with it outside at one point. Despite some offensive kicks by Brie, she ended up a Figure Eight victim, all while Paige watched intensely on a backstage monitor. This was addressed afterwards when Renee Young brought up the attacks on Natalya on Smackdown, saying Paige was the prime suspect, while Paige speculated it could’ve been any Diva past or present and attacked Renee with harsh words about her career and looks. Classic Diva promo.

– The Mark Henry-Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens match was another squash for Owens headed into HIAC. Makes sense. Owens was smart to pick on Texas, using Henry coming from around there. It actually was more glorified as we saw a little bit of the trash-talk Henry we all know and love, but that quickly faded in the light of the amazing Pop-Up Powerbomb to end the match. Post-match was pretty good as it made sense for Henry to shove Owens back in the ring when he tried to retreat, getting Powerbombed himself. Ryback getting the momentum here means that Owens probably goes over at HIAC.

– The Rollins backstage segment had him shun any Shield reunion rumors and said it was all about him doing this to prove naysayers wrong and that if Reigns/Ambrose wanted to rehash the past, he’d destroy them too. Solid line.

– The Six-Man Tag main event between Reigns/Ambrose/Rollins and Braun Strowman/Erick Rowan/Bray Wyatt was probably the most interesting main event in a long time thanks to the nostalgia factor. We loved how Rollins didn’t initially stand with his partners staring down the Wyatts, then bragged he’d start the match since he was the “brains of this whole operation” only to cower away to tag Reigns in. The action involving all six was intriguing enough, but Rollins cleverly retained his heel status by constantly holding his Title in the air and teasing a hot tag only to walk away by faking an injury to hop off the apron. It all winded down to end up in a disappointing DQ once Ambrose hit Strowman with a kendo stick. Strowman continued to look strong throughout here. Post-match was all about Reigns getting momentum highlighted by his fancy Over-The-Top-Rope Suicide Dive onto the Wyatts. A fair stance to take headed into Smackdown, which will serve last hype. It’ll be interesting to see how the show does in the ratings given how each hour opened with a respective legend. Into the future, WWE will need to see that the past will not solve the problems of the present.

Quick Results

• Six-Man Tag – The New Day def. The Dudley Boyz/John Cena via pinfall
• Nikki Bella/Alicia Fox (w/Brie Bella) def. Sasha Banks/Naomi (w/Tamina) via pinfall
• Seth Rollins def. Ryback via pinfall
• Six-Man Tag – Sheamus/King Barrett/Rusev def. Cesaro/Neville/Dolph Ziggler via pinfall
• Charlotte (w/Becky Lynch) def. Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella, Alicia Fox) via submission
• Kevin Owens def. Mark Henry via pinfall
• Six-Man Tag – Bray Wyatt/Erick Rowan/Braun Strowman def. Seth Rollins/Dean Ambrose/Roman Reigns via DQ