The Miz & Damien Mizdow def. The Dust Bros(c), The Usos and Los Matadores(15:25)
Thoughts: I was looking forward to the match a lot, but felt it underachieved a bit. It felt sluggish and slow in the bad way in the middle. The beginning felt solid, but then it just felt slow because they were stretching what was likely a good 11-minute plan into 15. The ending part was well done and picked up the pace, which was appreciated, but I had hoped for more. They continued the tease all match long with Sandow not getting into the match, which was done well. My thought was that is Miz and Sandow won it had to be Sandow winning to infuriate Miz, who would then take all the credit. The crowd loved Sandow, they loved that he won and Miz looked pissed. He then took both titles and celebrated while Sandow had to pantomime in the other corner. So we had a good overall match, I liked the title change and felt that the Miz/Sandow dynamic played out well so it ended up as a good combo platter to open the show as far as the in ring goes.
Rating: ***
Team Fox(Alicia Fox, Emma, Naomi and Natalya) def. Team Paige(Paige, Cameron, Summer Rae and Layla)(14:34)
Survivors: Fox, Emma, Naomi and Natalya)
Thoughts: I felt that the Divas match was a solid outing. It had some hiccups at times and similar to the opener felt a little long. I was glad to see the ladies get some actual time, but you have to make sure that they have the tools (match layout) to go that long. Some hiccups and some stalling held back my enjoyment of this a bit. Also, I have no issue with the face team doing the clean sweep here. I know some felt that it “buried” Paige, but she was left alone and allowing Naomi to look good and get some momentum was needed to get some fresh momentum on someone new in the division. Again, not bad and at times pretty entertaining, but it could have benefited from losing a few minutes.
Rating: **1/4
Thoughts: I felt that they showed that they can work together pretty well. Thankfully they worked this match like there was some hate and drama, with Ambrose attacking right at the bell, no lock up shit because he hates this man. That’s the kind of thing I can appreciate. The DQ was caused by Wyatt bringing a chair into the ring and Ambrose using it and then destroying him with chairs, tables and burying him under them and standing tall on a ladder, setting the stage for their inevitable TLC match and that was confirmed later in the show when WWE announced that they would face off again at TLC in that very match. The match was good, and they set up next month so I really don’t have a lot of complaints with this.
Rating: ***1/2
Thoughts: This match was added to the show when the teams involved had a backstage segment involving a WWE toy shit segment. Yup, they were filling time. The wrestling wasn’t very good and this was all about causing more drama between Rose and the Bunny. The Bunny got the win and got carried away by the Exotic Express while Adam Rose looked sad. This was nothing but a filler segment, which would have been better placed on TV. The set up was horrible. This really should have been in the “death spot” because the crowd always reacts in some way to the Adam Rose entrance/exit. Also it was a late bullshit addition that no one cares about.
Rating: 1/2*
Nikki Bella def. AJ Lee(c)(0:35)
Thoughts: Oh, boy. I can recap this match with one sentence. Bell rings, Brie climbs on the apron with the title, drops it and kisses AJ, Nikki KTFO's her, rack attack, three count and we have a new Divas Champion. At the time, I didn't know what to make of it. I thought that Nikki was just using that whole personal assistant thing to her advantage since it would be over tomorrow, but it doesn't appear so as The Bellas are back together again. By the way, the call back to AJ kissing D-Bry and him losing to Sheamus in 18-seconds was actually well done by commentary. Since they were forced into the death spot, they at least kept it quick and as long as they follow up on it properly, I don’t have a problem with what they did.
Rating: N/A
Team Cena(John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback) def. Team Authority(Seth Rollins, Kane, Luke Harper, Ruzev and Mark Henry)(43:06)
Survivor: Dolph Ziggler
Thoughts: First off, let me just say how much more awesome this match could've been had D-Bry and Roman Reigns not been injured; food for thought. Anyway, here I'm go into detail about all the eliminations. First was Mark Henry, in a kind of funny way. Bell rings, Trips stops the match to hype up his team, Mark is ready to go and walks right into a right hand from Big Show, KTFOing him and Henry's gone a mere 50 seconds into the match. 2nd elimination was Ryback, thanks to a Curb Stomp for Seth Rollins and a jumping side kick from Ruzev, who was the one that got the pin. So yeah, all that talk about Ryback being a big free agent for this match with both teams wanting him and what did he do here? Jack shit! The 3rd elimination was Ruzev. After he had given Dolph a beatdown, he set him up on the spanish announce table and Ruzev climbs onto the english announce table, flys off, but Ziggler rolls off the table and Ruzev crashes through it. Ziggler makes it back into the ring, but Ruzev gets counted out. I like how they eliminated Ruzev here, while still keeping him strong. 4th to go was Rowan, thanks to a high knee for Rollins and a discus clothesline from Harper. Seriously, Harper's clothesline is 10X better than JBL's. So now it's down to 3 on 3. Rollins, Harper and Kane are all ready to go. Big Show is ready to go, but Cena is barely on his feet and Dolph is barely conscience, so Show does the most logical thing he could do... HE TURNS ON CENA! Cena gets KTFOed and Rollins gets the three count. My jaw dropped when I saw that, cause I honestly didn't see it coming. I know Big Show tends to turn more than a revolving door, but this was just unexpected. Still, it puts the focus on Ziggler and that definitely a good thing. Big Show gets counted out and now it's 3-1, but not for long. After toying with Ziggler for a few minutes, he gets a super kick and a ZigZag to eliminate Kane. Two minutes later, he eliminates Harper, leaving us with Ziggler vs Rollins. Rollins misses what looked like a Super Curb Stomp from the top rope and Dolph gets a Fame-Asser for 2. J&J Security distract Ziggler, but it doesn't work as Rollins misses a splash into the corner and Dolph hits ZigZag, but only for 2 as Trips pulls the ref out the ring and takes him out. J&J hit the ring and attack Dolph with Steph on the apron, they go for a double team move, but it backfires and J&J accidently send Steph crashing into Trips. Dolph superkicks J&J, but misses Rollins. Seth powerbombs him into the corner and sets up for the Curb Stomp, but misses and Dolph hits another ZigZag. Another ref comes down, but only counts two as Trips takes him out too. Trips beats down Ziggler and hits him with the Pedigree and puts Rollins on top of him. He calls for another ref and it's Scott Armstrong, who I don't recall seeing since Wrestlemania. He gets two when suddenly the lights go out, a crow is heard...and then....THIS!
Rating: ****1/4
Thoughts on Sting's WWE Debut: Yes, I'm taken part of this review to talk about this. There is no other wrestler I would ever do this to, besides Sting. To be honest, I thought the stand off was a bit long, but I still loved it and obviously, others did too as it was received well and it felt like a big moment. So much for the people that said that WWE fans won’t know who he is. I felt that they did a good payoff with ending the Authority angle and introducing Sting. Hell, they chanted “this is awesome” for their standoff. Even young fans who had never seen Sting before were chanting that. That proves how much Sting means in the world of Pro Wrestling. The fact that they got the big reaction played into the overall package of the angle and the story that they were telling in the match.
+ 5 for Sting's Debut
Final Rating:
3.70 out of 5
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