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John Cena isn't closing the show? That means the very deserving Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt will be, which makes me absolutely happy and thrilled. They deserve it.
Paul Heyman is at ringside? I wonder if he's there to screw with Cena or if he's looking to get Brock Lesnar some revenge against Seth Rollins. After all, he did announce that Brock was rescinding that he accepted Seth's apology for that Curb Stomp. Let's see.
Seth Rollins was on fire early on and looked good and aggressive. Every time Cena had a chance to get ahead, Rollins was right there swooping in to cut him off. J&J Security did a great job as the lackies. Unlike the first two stipulation bouts, they did a nice job at teasing the Tables being brought into the equation (as opposed to going full blast into those big spots). I thought this was a good idea as it gave the match a different blueprint. I've always been a huge Joey Mercury fan and anytime I get to see him working, it makes me happy, so I am really getting a huge kick out of his stuff tonight. Some funny, frenetic brawling in the aisles and in the sequence using the barricade. By the time they started teasing putting the other through a table, it felt like they had actually worn the other down a bit. Rollins was just great as the bastard villain beating the hell out of Cena with the briefcase. The sequence after the referee bump where Rollins avoided the AA and then leapt over the table was great stuff. Of course, this set up Cena putting Rollins through a table while the referee was unable to see it, as he was out cold. Nice false finish. Once J&J had reset the ring, you knew Cena was going to overcome the odds. The double AA on J&J was a cool way to do that and a cool spot to see. I also liked the false finish where both men went through the table, forcing a restart, sort of a modern take on the old Hulk Hogan/Paul Orndorff "both men hit the floor at the same time" steel cage restart from Saturday Night's Main Event years ago. Rollins' splash through the ropes to the floor was pretty damn cool. Cena making the big comeback and hitting the AA on Rollins onto the announce table was a cool spot as well. Big Show hitting the ring to take out Cena, setting up the return of Roman Reigns for a big return was pretty damn cool. The crowd just loved the hell out of that. Of course, Cena gets the win as he's got a date with Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble but Reigns' return to give the assist was a great moment. Good stuff. I can sense fans being mad that Rollins lost, but to me, his job was to have a fun match and he and Cena both accomplished that. The problem I have is WITH the way Rollins lost, because Cena basically beat three stooges, and one of those stooges is going to be called upon to be a serious main eventer at some point. I loved Owen Hart but Bret Hart beat him for a year straight from 1994 to 1995 and Owen was never, really a main eventer again. Seth needs not to be booked like Owen Hart.
The Nikki Bella promo was fine. Brie saying that "nothing" will ever come between them makes me wonder if and when Daniel Bryan gets involved. He is there tonight.
Nikki vs. AJ Lee was OK but seemed to lack any sort of spark. They were working hard but the crowd was never really into it, which took away from the atmosphere. In fact, the crowd only really came alive when Lee nailed the Thesz Press and started throwing punches. Nikki should really be commended as she's done a nice job of building a character over the last year. Nikki whipping out that kick off the ropes was a nice surprise. The finish with Nikki spraying AJ in the eyes with hairspray, seemed to come right out of 1980s GLOW episode. Really lame.
Roman Reigns' backstage promo showed some good energy, although he wasn't smooth through the entire thing. That said, it was still night and day to with his NXT promo earlier this week. Reigns announcing he was the first man in the Rumble made sense as well.
Now onto the Chairs match with Kane vs. Ryback. Just like Show vs. Rowan, on paper this could be pretty brutal. They overachieved. We will see if that happens again here. The action early on was OK. Ryback going to the ropes for splashes over and over was OK but there were a lot of things they did that just felt disjointed early and well, it never got any better. Easily the weakest thing on the show so far. The highlight was Kane walloping a chair into Ryback's face as he charged for a Meathook clothesline so hard you'd have thought Kevin Sullivan or Sabu launched it. Beyond that, not fun to watch. The only good thing, for Ryback (not for us), was that since the crowd is into him and he does carry some charisma, he can pull the live crowd into it by doing relatively little beyond some physical movements, but this was not a good showcase for him. But, um, wow, this was the longest ten minutes ever. lightning did NOT strike twice.
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