Tonight’s WWE Monday Night Raw episode is being called the Season Premiere and will include what Michael Cole advertises as the final match between Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt in a steel cage (which means Jericho’s Night of Champions match is open). That steel cage match will open the show.
Steel Cage Match
Chris Jericho is out first. Bray Wyatt is out next and has The Wyatt Family by his side. The crowd is really bad this week and isn’t making much noise (for the second week in a row). The match also included a “holy shit” moment that got the crowd involved with a “this is awesome” chant. Jericho tried to get out over the top of the cage, but the Wyatt Family blocked him from coming down. This caused Jericho to turn around, shrug and hit a flying body press on Wyatt. Jericho sold a knee injury. The two crawled to the door and just laid on the mat, and beat each other. Wyatt then started hitting the knee of Jericho and then dived over him and hit the floor to give Bray Wyatt the win. After the match, Wyatt slammed the door into Jericho’s knee and then beat him down before hitting Sister Abigail to end the beat down.
Seth Rollins and Kane are backstage talking about how awesome that match was. Triple H comes in and says they need to create a huge moment tonight. Randy Orton comes in and says only one man is in the main event tonight, and it isn’t the Corporate Suit or the Corporate Sellout, it is The Viper. He said he will create a moment that makes the Dean Ambrose injury pale in comparison and Triple H gives him his permission.
Dolph Ziggler is in the ring in street clothes (and he is wearing his IC title belt like a champ). The WWE takes advantage of the recent cloud hacking and leaked photo scandal. Ziggler said that no one deserved that, but maybe The Miz does. He then showed three photos that were leaked of Miz. The first was Miz with a facial mask, the second was Miz shaving his chest. Then Miz came out with his stunt double Damien Mizdow. Damien was funny as he was mimicking everything Miz was doing as Miz threatened to sue. Miz said if Ziggler showed anything else, he would make sure Ziggler never worked in that town again. Ziggler said he needed to get his money’s worth and showed the third photo, this one of Mizdow spray tanning Miz’s butt (which was blurred out). Sandow’s reaction was priceless. Miz sent in Sandow, but Ziggler hit a dropkick and then the Zig Zag and stood tall as Miz slowly backed away.
Natalya and Rosa Mendes are in the ring after a Total Divas promo and their opponents will be AJ Lee and Paige, which makes no sense because these two hate each other. The announcers say that Stephanie McMahon forced this to give Nikki Bella the advantage in the three-way Divas title match at Night of Champions. Rosa Mendes is trying to prove herself (she has never won a match since joining the WWE many years ago). Paige was beating up Mendes and refused to tag in AJ Lee. Rosa also refused to tag in because she wanted to prove herself. However when Paige got too close, AJ grabbed her hair and slapped her chest to tag herself in. AJ Lee immediately locked in the Black Widow and Rose tapped out. After the match, Paige and AJ Lee taunted each other about the title belt before AJ Lee skipped off.
Chris Jericho was in the trainer’s room getting his knee worked on and Randy Orton attacked him. He tossed him around a little and told Jericho it was the season premiere as Jericho was on the floor in pain.
Paul Heyman Calls Out John Cena
Back from commercial and Paul Heyman is in the ring. He said that he is there to deliver a message meant for John Cena, but before he can say anything John Cena comes out. Paul Heyman then cut the best promo of the year where he points out the people who yell “Cena Sucks” and tells Cena that the only way he can beat Brock Lesnar is to be a man and tell the fans what he thinks of them. Cena delivered a great line about how Brock Lesnar beat Undertaker and he hasn’t been seen since. Lesnar beat Cena and John was back on week later. Cena then cut one of his best promos about not changing because being there for kid’s last wishes and being there for soldiers are what he loves and he won’t throw that away just to be a bad guy for Internet fans.
U.S. Champion Sheamus is up next to battle Mr. Money in the Bank Seth Rollins. The match was only going for a few minutes when Cesaro’s music started playing and he came out (Cesaro faces Sheamus for the U.S. title at Night of Champions). Cesaaro tied into the end when he started taunting Sheamus with the title. Sheamus got the better of him, but it allowed Rollins to hit him from behind and then hit the Curb Stomp for the win. After the match, Cesaro came in the ring and yelled “Fella” before slapping Sheamus and hitting the Neutralizer.
Lana is out next with Rusev. She mentions the Star Spangled Banner was written in this city (Baltimore). She then starts to sing it with different lyrics and then she plays the “real National Anthem” and the Russian anthem plays.
NXT Invades WWE Monday Night Raw
This is awesome. NXT is getting some WWE Monday Night Raw time and the fans are giving Sami Zayn the “El Generico” chant. The match is Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville taking on Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd. Michael Cole mentions that a lot of people feel that Sami Zayn deserves to be wrestling on Raw. The heels got a chance to show off their work and then Zayn hit a BIG swanton to the outside of the ring followed by Neville hitting his Red Arrow to get the win. The fans loved the end of this match.
Stephanie McMahon is out to introduce the Jerry Springer segment with the Bella Twins. Springer comes out with his security guard Jason. He first calls out Brie Bella, who has new music now. Brie Bella said that she shouldn’t have stooped down to her sister’s classless level. Springer asks if Brie thinks she is better than Nikki. He then calls out Nikki Bella, who has the old Bella music. They showed Total Divas footage where Brie Bella was treating Nikki Bella like crap. Then Nikki Bella said that it was probably Brie Bella’s fault that their dad left. Then Springer showed interview footage from their mom and dad. Brie said no matter what their mom and dad said, she doesn’t care because of everything Nikki did to her but at least she has JJ (their younger brother) in her corner. JJ then tells Nikki to stop acting like the victim. The two start fighting with Jerry in the middle. Nikki accidentally slaps JJ and then Stephanie McMahon comes in to separate them with the help of referees. Uh-oh, Jerry Springer is hurt and has to be stretchered out (twisted ankle and bruised ribs – he is 70).
Goldust and Stardust are out next. Their match is against Los Matadores. It wasn’t that long ago that Cody Rhodes took out El Torito, who hasn’t been back since. Stardust won the match for his team with Dark Matter. After the match, they set to pose but The Usos attacked them from behind and chased them off. After the match was a tribute to Joan Rivers.
Adam Rose (who shaved this week) is going against Titus O’Neil in a rematch from last week. Just like last week, the bunny was distracting O’Neil in the match. The bunny hit Heath Slater with a superkick and then O’Neil turned into the Last Call to give Adam Rose the win again. After the match, Rose told the Bunny to go to the top turnbuckle and he hit a flying splash from the top buckle.
Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton
Renee is backstage with Roman Reigns. Reigns said that Randy Orton is the viper but he has the antidote to the viper’s venom. Randy Orton is out for the main event and then Roman Reigns is out next. The match was a pretty typical Reigns vs. Orton match, with both men getting in their big moves. The end came when Orton realized that he wasn’t going to win. He started signaling for someone to come to the ring. Kane and Seth Rollins ran out and Rollins was signaling for someone as well. The road crew raced to the ring and started working on something and then Orton signaled for the steel cage to be lowered.
It looked like Roman Reigns was going to get the better here when he tossed Kane and Rollins out as the cage lowered around him and Orton. Just when it looked like Reigns was going to take out Orton with a chair, Kane tried to come in. Reigns stopped him but Rollins flew off of the top of the cage onto Reigns to take him down. Kane came in and choke slammed Reigns. Orton DESTROYED Reigns with chairs and Rollins finished it off with the Curb Stomp on the chair. The Authority stood tall to end WWE Monday Night Raw.