OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

OO RAW RECAP
That Just Happened.
June 2, 2014

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

So I guess I spoke too soon about "Pat Smear, Two Time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee"... based on the coverage of the event, I figured he'd been inducted with Nirvana. He was there at all the photo ops with Dave, Krist, Kurt's mom, and all. He played on stage with them.

But it turns out he didn't, technically, get the little statue denoting Hall of Fame status, afterall. So my little thesis goes out the window. I mean, the Foo Fighters are still already in the HoF, for all intents and purposes, and Pat Smear should get a statue then... but it'll be for the first time.

And that's a lot easier for me to wrap my head around than the scenario discussed last week.

Apologies for getting my facts wrong. If I could have been in NYC for the induction ceremony, trust me, I would have been... but I wasn't, so I was making do with the second hand accounts. Oh well.

You have my standard promise of accuracy, however, as we shift towards my primary area of expertise: the pro rasslin'. Here's what happened on tonight's RAW:

Video Recap for the Benefit of Those With ADD kicks things off, and then we're live from Indianapolis, IN, which is the Birthplace of The Rick, and the Home of NOT An NBA Franchise To Be Proud Of. Well, generally speaking, I've been a fan of the franchise over the years, especially when they were a thorn in the side of the Hated Knicks. But this whole disgrace known as Lance Stephenson could give one pause for thought....

Anyway, Cole & the Gang quickly welcome us, and then it's time to start the show with Evolution.

BATISTA PULLS A PUNK CARD (ZING~!)

Triple H takes a mic and says "I feel sorry for you. You all think this is over. You think they won. But they didn't win. *I* win. I always win. And therefore, this isn't over UNTIL I win, and the Shield no longer exists."

It goes without saying: BOO~!

In fact, HHH says this will happen tonight. And all of a sudden, Batista yanks the mic away, and says, "Yeah, that's NOT gonna happen. The Shield? Been there, done that. It's time to move on, and that means I want a one-on-one match for the WWE Title." Ohhhh. And also: Ahhhhh.

HHH points out the simple fact that there will be no WWE Title matches, because Batista's forgetting the obvious: Daniel Bryan is injured and can't wrestle. So even if he wanted to give Dave his match, he can't. "And it probably doesn't matter, since you'd just choke. Again. Like you did last night." OOOOOOOHHHHHH. And also: AAAAHHHHHHHHHH.

HHH tries to backpedal and turn it into an inspirational speech about how he knows Batista deserves that title shot, but first, they must beat the Shield, together. Men don't walk away from a fight they haven't yet won, so c'mon, Big Dave, we've got to do what we gotta do, and that means facing the Shield again.

But Batista disagrees. He's had enough of HHH's self-serving agenda, and the only thing he's "gotta do" is look out for Number One. So he declares: "I quit." Unlike Brie Bella, he opts not to add in a bitchslap, and instead just does a snarky Royal Queen Wave goodbye, and walks away, while HHH sputters about how Batista is done in this business, and how he won't be welcomed back when his movie bombs, and yadda yadda yadda... but Batista just keeps walking, with a purpose, and disappears backstage to mild cheers mixed with the "Na na na naaa" song.

Meantime, HHH pitches a minor hissy fit, while Orton just stands there looking clueless. He's a natural~!

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Backstage: Batista is WALKING~! And Josh Mathews manages to stop him long enough for Batista to confirm that he's done. He's tired of all the "crap." Told this, he gets crap. Promised that, he gets crap. Enough. Done. Keeps on WALKING~!

SHEAMUS/ROB VAN DAM vs. CESARO/WADE BARRETT (w/ Wade Barrett)

Sheamus and RVD are trying to figure out who'll start the match when Cesaro picks for them: he bum rushes Sheamus, and we're off. It's largely a re-do of the opening moments of their match from last night, until Sheamus again goes for the Early 10 of Clubs, but this time, Cesaro powers out, and tags in Barrett.

RVD comes in at the same time, and goes on a mini-rally. But when he goes for his springboard back kick, Barrett catches him in mid-air with a forearm shiver. Wade starts slowly recovering his full faculties, while RVD rolls out of the ring. In other words, a natural break in the action, leading to a break for...

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Back, and we join a Van Dam Hope Spot, in progress. Barrett snuffs it out with a boot to the head, and then tags in Cesaro. Cesaro grinds RVD down, while Heyman (on commentary) goes on an inspired ramble about the many virtues of Cesaro. Barrett back in after a while, as Van Dam continues to connect with his Inner Ricky Morton.

After several minutes, RVD finally gets some separation with the step-through enzuigiri, and Sheamus gets the hot tag. He cleans house on both Barrett (legal) and Cesaro (looking for a cheap shot). In fact, when Sheamus starts lining up for a Brogue Kick on Cesaro, Heyman shoots up from the commentary desk, and drags Cesaro out of the ring to safety.

Then, the two leave the ring, and Barrett's alone against two men. After a quick bit of double reversey, Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick, then tags RVD in for the Five Star finish.

Your Winners: Rob Van Dam and Sheamus, via pinfall, in about 12 minutes. Cesaro vs. Sheamus was clearly intended to continue, given last night's flash finish and Heyman's belief that Sheamus "stole" the win. But here, with RVD pinning Barrett, he stays relevant as an IC contender, I guess. More importantly, all four of these guys figure to be players in the quest for the MitB Briefcase in 4 weeks, so keeping tensions high among them is a good idea. To that end, having Cesaro and Barrett at odds (due to Cesaro's walk-out) is a borderline genius masterstroke of booking. Really good match, really nicely conceived finish.

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BIG SHOW vs. DAMIEN SANDOW (Sort of)

Damien Sandow's latest incarnation has him wearing a Pacers jersey, and -- SPEAK OF THE DEVIL -- he's claiming to be Lance Stephenson. It appears as though the dyed in the wool Hoosiers aren't as embarassed by Lance's antics as I am, as a displaced Hoosier, because they boo the hell out of Sandow as he makes a mockery of Stephenson. Really, Indianapolis? I know everybody hates LeBron for being the tone deaf jackwagon that he is (myself included), but I thought even Stephenson's fellow Pacers decided he was an asshat, and that he probably cost himself millions on the free agent market...

Anyway, Lance Sandow concludes with a display of his Mad Skillz that mostly involves prancing about like a ninny without actually putting the basketball in the novelty basket in the corner.

Finally, Big Show's music hits, and he comes out to put an end to the silliness. Sandow points out that Show actually did play college basketball, and so is he here to "get on the board"? If Show wants, there's the hole, and here's the rock, so go ahead, and try to get on the board...

Show takes the ball, surveys the scene, and then decides to just whip the ball -- at Mach 7 -- into Sandow's balls. As JBL screams about the Flagrant Foul, Show drops Sandow with the WMD, and celebrates by dunking the ball into novelty backboard, breaking it in the process.

Poor Sandow. Poor, poor Sandow...

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KOFI KINGSTON vs. "THE INSPIRATIONAL" BO DALLAS

This is allegedly going to be the make-good on last night's match that never happened, due to Kane's interference. Before that can happen, though, Dallas cuts a Bo-mo (tm, JBL; credit where it's due), also getting cheap heat by referencing LeBron and the Heat.

Bell rings, and it looks like this will actually be happening tonight. Despite having his ass handed to him last night, Kofi comes out strong, forcing Bo to switch to Plan B: he feigns respect and friendship, but kicks Kofi in the gut on the faux handshake. From here, it's Bo with the heel beatdown.

Kofi's fire up comes after he counters a whip with a springboard dropkick. But nothing in his arsenal puts Dallas away, and when Kofi gets frustrated and resorts to fisticuffs (in the form of the turnbuckle mount-and-punch), Bo counters with an modified snake eyes, and a (botchy) "Bo-dog."

Your Winner: Bo Dallas, via pinfall, in 4 minutes. Nothing special, but the Bo gimmick seems to be getting over as a phoney jerkface. One thing I'm not entirely sure about: isn't this the time of year when WWE should be pretending to take Kofi seriously? He's always good for one trademark spot in every MitB Ladder Match, but now that there's only one Briefcase, instead of two, there's not room for a guy who's little more than a jobber.

Backstage: Renee Young is looking for an interview with Triple H regarding Batista's quitting, but instead, gets Stephanie McMahon, who walks out of their office, and says if Renee wants a "scoop" she should stay tuned, because Steph is about to make a huge announcement about the WWE Title. And by "about to," we mean After These....

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STEPHANIE'S SCOOP, CENA'S STATEMENT

As promised, here's Stephanie. But she's not delivering a "scoop," she's delivering demonstrable horseshit about how Daniel Bryan behaved selfishly last night. But I guess it's because Steph's not about to speak the truth about Brie being the one who behaved selfLESSly, without any encouragement from Bryan... because Steph is mighty pissed about getting slapped by Brie.

Which only makes the crowd cheer louder when reminded about said slap. Ahhh, Stephanie, you magnificent wench.

But once she's done pushing everybody's buttons, she does have some information for us:

If Daniel Bryan can get cleared medically, he will compete at the Money in the Bank PPV, and defend his WWE Title against Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane") in a Stretcher Match.

But if Bryan can't, then the Money in the Bank Ladder Match will be for the Vacant WWE Title, instead of for a Briefcase.

Huh.

And before I can even go into why I'm confused by this, John Cena's music hits, and he comes out to his standard mixed reaction.... and further muddies the waters by making comments about how "No one person is bigger than the WWE Title," and reminiscing about the times he's lost the WWE Title, and evne had to give it up due to injury. Which all seems to add up to him endorsing a move to strip Bryan, so there's an active, fighting champion.

But then he goes on a rampage of rationalization, saying that the title's also bigger than one entitled self-serving brat like Steph, and says that no matter what he's had to do, he was confident of his place in the company and that he'd get another shot. But every single act taken by the Authority since SummerSlam was towards the end of making Daniel Bryan go away, and so he (Cena) understands why Bryan doesn't just want to give up the belt: he'll never get a fair shake.

Well, that doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense, or at least, it's not as compelling as Cena seems to think it is: "Hey, you could do that to me, because I'm awesome, but you can't do it to Bryan, because he's a delicate little flower who deserves special treatment."

Cena makes a quick joke about Steph's fake boobs skewing her view of surgery, since it generally hinders careers, but made hers... and then declares that one a scale of 1 to 10, he rates her a 0 in terms of leadership skills, and suggests it might be time for a new boss around here.

But Steph assures us that that day isn't coming any time soon. And to prove it, she books Cena in a match against Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane"), and it's happening RIGHT NOW. Because life's a bitch, and so is she.

Oh, and by "RIGHT NOW"? You guessed it: she meant, After These....

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JOHN CENA vs. KANE (correction: THE DEMON KANE)

We join the match in progress, with Kane (correction: "the Demon Kane") already in command, due (according to Cole) to the fact that Cena was in a brutal LMS match last night, and Kane wasn't.

That goes on for a few minutes, then Cena rallies, building up to the Five Knuckle Shuffle. But when he goes for the F-U, his broken body fails him, and he drops Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane"). And then, Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane") starts pounding away on Cena, backing him into the corner, and not stopping when the ref applies a five count.

Your Winner: John Cena, via DQ, in about 3 minutes of televised action. Obviously, if Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane") is to be taken seriously as a contender to the WWE Title, you can't have him lose here. Nor does it do any good to have Cena lose, at this point. So this is about the only out. Yippee.

After the Match: Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane") keeps on beating on Cena, until the brawl spills outside, and Kane (correction: "The Demon Kane") tries to use the steel ringsteps... but after last night, the ring steps are Cena's thing, and he immediately makes a comeback, hoists up the steps, and throws them 10 feet into Kane's head. Correction: "The Demon Kane's head."

And I think I've had about enough of correcting myself. But I just wanted to convey the tangible sense of Vince's Pestering In The Headset... because any time an announcer made the mistake of calling Kane "Kane," they came back less than 10 second later with a "Demon" thrown in. And it's for only one reason: there's one person in the universe who thinks adding "Demon" to Kane's name is somehow a vitally important development, and he's the one person who has the power to shout into the announcers' headsets to tell them to say whatever he wants them to, no matter how stupid it makes them sound.

Backstage: Renee Young is still looking for Triple H, and this time, comes up with Randy Orton. Turns out, Randall just had a talk with HHH, and they are so totally on the same page... this thing with the Shield is NOT over. And to that end, Orton has challenged Roman Reigns to a match later tonight.

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LOS MATADORES (w/ El Torito) vs. 3MB (w/ Hornswoggle)

Before the match, Heath Slater declares that Hornswoggle's magical powers have allowed him to regrow his hair, over night. So here's the new Hornswoggle, with an afro wig!

That lasts for about 90 seconds. McIntyre and Slater actually get the better of the Matadores, and Hornswoggle gets up on the apron to celebrate with them. Torito sneaks up from behind and yanks the wig off, revealign the same half-a-haircut from last night.

Swoggle flees in shame, and a Matadore gets the cheap roll-up on Slater.

Your Winner: Los Matadores, via pinfall, in 2 minutes flat. I can state, with authority, that this is a thing that happened.

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NIKKI BELLA vs. ALICIA FOX/AKSANA

So the story, as Cole tells it, is that Nikki was bemoaning Brie's absence, so Steph booked this match to help her get used to being alone.

And in the time it took me to type that, Alicia pins Nikki without Aksana tagging in.

Your Winners: Alicia and Aksana, via pinfall, in 90 seconds. Alicia's tantrum this week consists of continuing to beat the crap out of Nikki while shouting "Hashtag Winning" and "Hashtag Losing" over and over again. Thrilling.

Sheep Mask Freeze Frame: we cut to the Wyatts's lair. But Bray's rocking chair is empty. We pan up, and Harper handles the talking. He says, "Now, we take up his cause. Now, we complete his mission." He says the Usos have made a terrible mistake, and now they must pay. They. Will. Burn. Follow the Buzzards.

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ADAM ROSE vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/ Zeb Colter)

When we come back from commercials, Zeb is already in mid-rant about gluten-free hippies and how he thinks Adam Rose should be deported. He wraps up, and Rose and his Menagerie of Hipster Wangnozzles make their grand entrance.

Rose starts off with mostly comedy spots (involving the repeated spanking of Swagger's ass). Then Jack boots him in th ehead, and we get serious. But not for long. The crowd inspires Rose by singing his theme song, and he powers out of a double arm bar thingie, lands a couple of kicks, and hits the Party Foul.

Your Winner: Adam Rose, via pinfall, in 2 minutes. As far as Rose is concerned, Come for the Spectacle, Stay for the Second Spectacle after a super-short and forgettable match!

Backstage: Byron Saxton interviews the Usos about their match against Haper and Rowan. And the Usos immediately lose their shit and start raving like loons.Ten out of ten for intensity, minus several million for coherence. In other words: the Ultimate Warrior would be proud.

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THE USOS vs. HARPER/ROWAN (Non-Title)

Bray Wyatt's empty rocking chair is at ringside. But no Bray. When the Usos make their entrance, they actually pull a bit of a Dick Move, and toss the rocking chair into the ringside barricade.

Jimmy Uso gets off to a fast start. But once Jey tags in, he quickly enters Face in Peril Mode. Rowan keeps it simple when he's in the ring, but Harper continues to impress with both his versatile moveset and little nuances (the latter perhaps coming through even stronger as Harper adopts more of a leadership role in Bray's absence).

But as babyfaces are wont to do, Jey made a comeback, and tagged in Jimmy. But it turns out that wasn't our REAL FiP/Hot Tag sequence, it was just a first level decoy. When the Usos set up for Stereo Planchas, Harper and Rowan scurry to safety, putting the match on hold so we can watch some...

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Back, and NOW we've settled into the standard tag formula, and Jimmy is entrenched as the Face in Peril. We get more of the same that they did to Jey, just for twice as long. Also, Jimmy's got his ribs taped (he's the one that took the crazy superplex bump last night), adding to the Sympathy Factor.

Finally, the hot tag to Jey. Corresponding move to Harper. Jey goes to town, and has Harper on the ropes... but Rowan is able to jump up and make the save. That forces Jey to change plans and hit a top-rope-to-the-floor dive onto Rowan. Harper follows suit and hits the crazy through-the-ropes plancha. Taking it back into the ring, Harper sets up for the big clothesline, but eats a superkick, instead.

But before Jey can follow up, Rowan blind tags himself into the match, and plants Uso with a sideslam for the pin.

Your Winners: Harper and Rowan, via pinfall, in 15 minutes. Really good match, with plenty of time to develop and fully ripen. As if they weren't already, the Wyatt Family are now in line for a tag title shot, and curiously, they're doing it sans Bray Wyatt. Definitely adds another layer of intrigue to things....

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DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO (MitB Qualifying Match)

One of the reasons why I was confused by WWE's decision to do the "either/or" thing with Bryan's title is because you would construct the MitB Match entirely differently if it was for the vacant title, rather than for the Briefcase.

The fact that Eternal Jobber Ziggler and Likely To Be Leaving Del Rio are in a qualifier here leads me to suspect WWE's really counting on Bryan being able to wrestle in 4 weeks. Cuz both fit in perfectly in a match for a briefcase, but less so in a match for the biggest prize in the game. And yeah, I know they're both former MitB winners who successfully cashed in... but that was then, this is now.

To be fair, Ziggler is pretty monstrously over with this live crowd (that doesn't happen every week), but there really isn't much to debate as far as his current career trajectory goes. After a fast start for Dolph, Alberto takes over, and starts working over the left arm, in anticipation of cinching in the cross armbreaker.

Dolph starts his rally by escaping a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Standing dropkick, then a Fameasser for two. But when Dolph charges, del Rio ducks behind and hits the tilt-a-whirl on the second try. Alberto up top, but Ziggler joins him and hits his awesome run-up Atomic Facebuster. Only a two. Then, after a rapid fire quintuple reverse-y spot, Alberto locks in the cross armbreaker, and Ziggler has no choice but to tap out.

Your Winner: Alberto del Rio, via submission, in 6 minutes. Short, but they did about as much with the time as they could. I won't get my weekly backstage update till Wednesday, but I wonder if this bodes well for contract negotiations with del Rio. He was claiming to be perfectly content to head into semi-retirement (working sporadically back in Mexico), if WWE wouldn't use him as a featured performer... suddenly landing in a match that might be for the vacant WWE Title (after months of borderline irrelevance) is certainly a featured role.

Backstage: Cody Rhodes and Goldust are talking, and we learn that Cody meant it when he told Goldust that he (Goldust) deserved a better tag partner. In fact, he's helped Goldust find a new partner, and we'll find out who it is, after these...

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GOLDUST & SIN CARA vs. RYBAXEL

Cody is shown watching the match on a monitor, backstage. Goldust and Sin Cara make a couple quick tags early, to convey the idea that they're working well together. But then Goldust is trapped in the proverbial Wrong Part of Town, and the heel beatdown is on.

It continues until Ryback gets cocky and tries a second rope move, only to whiff. Goldust gets the tag to Sin Cara, who goes to town on Axel (now the legal man). But Axel moves out of the way when Sin Cara tries for the Swanton, and follows up with his spinny neckbreaker finisher.

Your Winners: Rybaxel, via pinfall, in 5 minutes. So now Cody's failed as a talent scout, as well as as a tag partner? Hmmmm... I wonder if he keeps trying? Or if Goldust keeps losing, does he eventually conclude that Goldust was the weak link, all along?

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REMEMBER THE 80s? SO DOES VINCE...

The ring is set up for a "Hero of the Federation" ceremony, honoring Rusev for his decision to become a Russian citizen. But first, Lana will rile up the audience. But it's a big swing and a miss when she references Edward Snowden, expecting the crowd to boo, except they don't (because, apparently, even in Indiana, they do a better job staying up on current events than the Writer Monkeys do).

Eventually, Rusev himself makes a grand entrance, and stands on a podium in the ring, as three random dudes in dark suits are at the ready to present the Gold Star to him. As one dude speaks, another places it around Rusev's neck. Rusev adds a few comments, in Russian, which get "What?'d" because Uhmerica.

Then, the Russian National Anthem plays. Nobody comes out to interrupt this sacred ceremony, and I guess WWE actually expects us to take this seriously and at face value, here in 2014, when it's camp. This isn't the 80s. People aren't that stupid or spiteful. Not even in Indiana. Their "BORE RING" and "THIS IS AWE FULL clap clap clapclapclap" chants bear that out.

But here we have it: Rusev now has a personal gift from Vladimir Putin himself! You know, kind of like how the Iron Sheik got a personal gift from the Ayatollah back before any of us were old enough to be watching wrestling. And then, via some mechanism never quite fully explained, Saddam Hussein regifted them to Sgt. Slaughter when we were kids and were STILL smart enough to know it was an utterly retarded storyline. And yet, here it is, recycled again.

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ROMAN REIGNS (w/ Ambrose and Rollins) vs. RANDY ORTON (w/ Triple H)

The Shield hit the ring at 11:01pm (eastern). And if you were under the impression that we'd be getting a real main event, guess again. Because at this late hour, the Shield still want to preface things with a promo. Ambrose talks about how they're beaten and bruised, but they're winners. Rollins talks about how they won because they are together, they are a team, but Evolution are just three guys who happened to be standing on the same side of the ring. And Reigns amplifies that by saying "We aren't a team. We're brothers. Right? Brothers!" and he demands high-fives from Ambrose and Rollins. Then, he closes with "Now, Randy, just get on out here so I can break your jaw with this Symbol of Excellence."

So, at 11:04pm, Orton and HHH enter, and HHH has the sledgehammer with him. Apparently, Sweet Lady Sledge evens the odds at three apiece. So Seth Rollins unevens the odds by grabbing a steel chair... and as HHH grabs a mic and talks about switching to Plan B, Rollins moves behind Reigns, and levels him with a chairshot.

Did not see that coming. Dont' get me wrong, I definitely felt something was hinky as it played out. Reigns talk of brothers seemed suspicious (and if you're gonna pull some stunt booking out of yer ass, you go big or go home, right?), and Ambrose just oozes heelishness at all times. But I would never have put my money on Rollins being the one.

Ambrose's look of shock is so over the top that you almost assume he's in on it too, and just being a sarcastic ass... but nope, he's serious, and Rollins drops him with a chairshot, too. Then, about a half dozen more chairshots each for Ambrose and Reigns.

Rollins ducks out of the ring, and presents the chair to HHH, who in turn suggests that Randy take it. So Orton does, and piles on with a few more chairshots, each. HHH and Rollins join him, and stand over Ambrose and Reigns as the show fades to black...

And so ends the show.

Wow, that just happened. As an in-the-moment type of thing, I hereby congratulate WWE on Mission Accomplished... but there's still that naggy jerk in the back of my head who knows that WWE's mission here was just "Oh jesus, the ratings, the stock price! DO SOMETHING ANYTHING MAKE THEM START TALKING!!!"

And when you get into pure hotshot booking like this, the in-the-moment historically lasts, well, for the moment. And then it still has to hang together, make sense, and be compelling. The value of Seth Rollins' heel turn will only be revealed in the coming weeks, both in terms of how he fits and performs in the new role and how fans react to him. And the latter is predicated entirely upon a rational explanation for his actions.

It doesn't have to be a NOBLE explanation, mind you (in fact, it should be the opposite), but it should be rational. And with that in mind, WWE can only operate within a very tiny box that includes HHH getting to Rollins at some point in the 24 hour period between the end of Payback and the end of RAW... find the right motive and deliver the right explanation, and you got yourself a hell of a heel turn. Flounder and fail to follow through on the random hotshot move, and you end up with nothing more than a latter-day "Rikishi did it" angle destined for WrestleCrap.

So we'll see how that pans out. But for now: wow, that really just happened. Wow.

Besides that, there was a bunch of really good (the opening tag match, and especially the Usos/Wyatts match), a bunch of really bad (Rusev, Matadores/3MB), and one thing trapped right in the middle that I'm still having a hard time getting a handle on (WWE's continued kicking-the-can-down-the-road on Daniel Bryan; part of me thinks it's kind of cool that they're giving him some lee-way, another part of me is a "shit or get off the pot" kind of guy and would have pulled the trigger on a puppet interim champ and Bryan coming back when healthy still with a legit claim onthe title).

You take the customary step back, and maybe it works out to a solid B grade for the whole show. But honestly: tonight was pretty much about Seth Rollins selling out to Evolution, and everything else was secondary...

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Bonding Exercises

RAW RECAP: The New Guy Blows It

PPV RECAP: WWE Night of Champions 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: 18 Seconds? NO! NO! NO!

RAW RECAP: The Show Must Go On

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Boot Gets the Boot

RAW RECAP: Heyman Lands an Expansion Franchise

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Losing is the new Winning

RAW RECAP: Say My Name

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Deja Vu All Over Again

RAW RECAP: Dignity Before Gold?

PPV RECAP: SummerSlam 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Backfired!

RAW RECAP: Bigger IS Better

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Hitting with Two Strikes

RAW RECAP: Heel, or Tweener?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Destiny Do-Over

RAW RECAP: CM Punk is Not a Fan of Dwayne

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Returnening

RAW RECAP: Countdown to 1000

PPV RECAP: WWE Money in the Bank 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Friday Night ZackDown

RAW RECAP: Closure's a Bitch

SMACKDOWN RECAP: In-BRO-pendence Day

RAW RECAP: Crazy Gets What Crazy Wants

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Five Surprising MitB Deposits

RAW RECAP: Weeeellll, It's a Big MitB

SMACKDOWN RECAP: #striketwo

RAW RECAP: Johnny B. Gone

PPV RECAP: WWE No Way Out 2012

RAW RECAP: Crazy Go Nuts

SMACKDOWN RECAP: You're Welcome

RAW RECAP: Be a Star, My Ass

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Needs More Kane?

RAW RECAP: You Can't See Him

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Lady Power

RAW RECAP: Big Johnny Still in Charge

PPV RECAP: WWE Over the Limit 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: One Gullible Fella

RAW RECAP: Anvil, or Red Herring?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Everybody Hates Berto

RAW RECAP: Look Who's Back

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Care to go Best of Five?

RAW RECAP: An Ace Up His Sleeve

PPV RECAP: WWE Extreme Rules 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Sh-Sh-Sheamus and the nOObs

RAW RECAP: Edge, the Motivational Speaker?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: AJ is Angry, Jilted

RAW RECAP: Maybe Cena DOES Suck?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: No! No! No!

RAW RECAP: Brock's a Jerk

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Back with a Bang

RAW RECAP: Yes! Yes! Yes!

PPV RECAP: WWE WrestleMania 28

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.