Randy Orton was a guest on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel
This was a long promo segment that went around 15 minutes. Jericho was awesome as the snobby heel that didn’t care much for Orton while Orton looked happy to be in a WWE ring after being out for over nine months with shoulder surgery. It was done to hype up Orton’s match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, which is interesting because Orton’s a Smackdown guy while Lesnar is a part of Raw.
Towards the end of the promo, Orton referenced Lesnar’s two failed drug tests prior to his UFC 200 fight that were in the news last week. Here’s the part of the promo where Orton said that it only takes one RKO to get to Viperville, then he paused, said “no enhancement needed” and the crowd let out a huge “oooohhhh” reaction because they knew it was a shot at Lesnar.
” No enhancement needed ” #WWEBattleground pic.twitter.com/h8aZiBuRqu
— Deno (@DeathToSmarks) July 25, 2016
The way Orton delivered the line was so good that it had some fans tweeting me about whether it was a shoot by Orton or if it was a part of the show. I think with something like that, it was definitely part of the show. There’s no way Orton would say it without taking it up with Lesnar, Paul Heyman or somebody in management. Another interesting thing about Orton’s line is that he was suspended twice for Wellness Policy violations and also for behavioral reasons, so he knows what it’s like to take some heat from people too.
Orton ended the segment with a predictable RKO on Jericho, who thought he could avoid it, but Orton was able to outsmart him after all.
Dean Ambrose defeated Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
The much anticipated, first time ever (on the main roster) Shield triple threat match started at 10:56 p.m. ET, so it was pretty late in the night by this point. Good news is the Washington crowd was loud for much of the night and they were ready for this match. The Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley were at ringside watching the match along with Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan. The idea was that the Raw people were rooting for Seth and Roman to win because they wanted the WWE Title to be on their show while Smackdown was rooting for Dean to retain.
It's SO CLOSE between @WWERollins, @TheDeanAmbrose and @WWERomanReigns!! Who will win at #WWEBattleground? https://t.co/KegL5k24N9
— WWE (@WWE) July 25, 2016
Reigns was booed heavily in his first televised appearance since his 30-day Wellness Policy suspension on June 21. I know some people like the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer noted that Reigns looked chunkier meaning he put on 10 pounds of weight that wasn’t muscle. It wasn’t that noticeable to me, but his Samoan family has many big guys. I know that prior to being in WWE, Roman was pretty chunky as a football player at Georgia Tech. He’s said himself that when he first met his wife, he wasn’t that muscular.
The match was pretty good for the most part, although not the classic match that some people may have expected it to be. That’s not to say it was bad, though. It was definitely an above-average match and on par with some of the awesome main events on PPVs this year – basically every PPV except WrestleMania.
They built the match really well with all three guys getting a chance to be in control. Reigns was throwing Superman Punches all over the place, Rollins was showing off his athleticism and doing his cool offensive moves, and Ambrose was perfect as the babyface champion that kept fighting back when it looked like he was done.
A big spot took place towards the end as Rollins and Ambrose decided to work together to try to take out the bigger man in Reigns. It led to the two of them clearing off the Spanish announce table, Ambrose lifting up Reigns, and Rollins driving Reigns through the announce table. That’s the old Shield move which was usually delivered by Reigns. Immediately after that, there was another nod to history with Rollins hitting Ambrose in the back with a chair and Reigns in the back with a chair, just like he did two years earlier when he broke up The Shield.
DIRTY DEEDS! @TheDeanAmbrose drops @WWERomanReigns to retain the #WWEChampionship! #WWEBattleground pic.twitter.com/IUTZOWps44
— WWE (@WWE) July 25, 2016
The finish was done in a way similar to many triple threat matches where one guy hits a finishing move, then another guy hits a finisher and that’s it. In this case, it was Reigns dropping Rollins with a Spear and then Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds on Reigns, leading to the pinfall win for the champion. Is it a surprise that Reigns took the pin? Nope. Not at all. He lost clean to Rollins last month at Money in the Bank as well. If he didn’t get suspended, he probably wouldn’t have been pinned cleaned in both matches. Why reward him for his mistake? He should get pinned.
I’m really happy with the way Ambrose has been booked as WWE Champion. He has had great matches on a consistent basis, he beat Rollins clean on Smackdown last week and beat Reigns here. They are doing an excellent job of making him look like a guy that belongs at the top of the food chain, so to speak. It’s not something that WWE does well all the time, so I’m encouraged by it.
One final note about the end of the show, Ambrose celebrated with the Smackdown roster. Included in that were The Usos, who put Ambrose on their shoulders. A lot of people commented on that because they are the cousins of Roman Reigns, but I think it’s easy to explain as not a big deal because they teamed with Ambrose a lot earlier this year.
Closing Time
I was very impressed with the show. It was better than I thought it was going to be, thanks to one of the best matches of the year between Zayn and Owens, a main event that was very good, two solid six-man tag matches and the women’s matches were good too. It is right there with Money in the Bank as the best WWE PPV of the year.
As we look ahead to what’s next, since we are to assume that there will be no more Raw vs. Smackdown matches (aside from Orton vs. Lesnar), that means that Raw has the US, Women’s and Tag Team Titles while Smackdown has the WWE Title and IC Title. Raw may also have a Cruiserweight Title in a few months.
It wouldn’t shock me if they introduce a World Title for Raw, as well as Women’s and Tag Titles for Smackdown. They shouldn’t do it right away, but I think if they want the brands to be separate entities then it should happen.
This week’s Raw and Smackdown should be very interesting. I’ll be back Tuesday to dissect the new-look Raw.
