For the past week, the question most important had been if Shane McMahon will be back on Raw and is the Authority out of the door. Well, Shane-O-Mac was back to continue what he began last week.
He began the night with a string of announcements. Charlotte was set to defend her title against Natalya. AJ Styles will be facing Sami Zayn, who was robbed of his match last week by Owens, to determine if Reigns fights a triple threat at Payback.
Also, there was a tag team tournament kicked off to find out New Day’s new opponents. Shane McMahon met one Kevin Owens who played such a great heel that he earned himself a match against Cesaro to see who faces Miz for the IC title. Good on Shane O’Mac to not be too fair with the heels and not giving Owens the customary rematch.Here are the 5 points to note from this weeks show-
- The Rivalry continues
- The Tag Team Titles Tournament
For the second week in a row, Enzo and Cass crossed paths with the Dudley Boys and again got the chance to completely verbally decimate them with their catchphrase shtick. The crowd was completely into it and even if it isn’t as rabid as NXT, these two can surely build a following as time goes by.
But the biggest revelation of this tournament was the arrival of Gallows and Anderson, the team better known to the world as the ‘Bullet Club’. The announcers did not say that but the audience was chanting that. They destroyed the Usos and made an immediate impact. This was an interesting invasion.
- Miz and Maryse meet Cesaro backstage
Cesaro won a stellar match against Kevin Owens to become the new contender to Niz’s Intercontinental title. The challenger and the champion met backstage and let’s take this moment to reflect on that segment, shall we?
Maryse was perfect as the tantrum throwing wife of an A-lister saying he doesn’t like blue M&M’s and how he doesn’t drink domestic water; only imported European water. This alliance is the most entertaining duo since Miz teamed up Damien Sandow to form Mizdow.
Cesaro of course came and vowed to take away the IC title from Miz but that segment belonged to Maryse and Miz
- Ambrose and Jericho kick-off feud
It was ridiculously fun to have Chris Jericho host himself on The Highlight Reel. You knew somebody was going to interrupt him and it had to be Dean Ambrose. The audience erupted for him.
It had to be this way for Ambrose coming off a pretty disappointing WrestleMania where he wasn’t allowed to put up much of a fight against Brock Lesnar. But what followed was not particularly hard hitting.
It was played into Ambrose’s endearingly funny lunatic character. He hijacked Jericho’s show until he mentioned that this show had been cancelled and was now being replaced by the ‘Ambrose Asylum’.
If this is a long term thing, it’s quite interesting for Ambrose’s character. Also, this has finally kicked off the feud between Jericho and Ambrose. But one can’t help but wonder what the WWE is doing with him despite his overwhelming popularity.
He was on the road to having quite a breakthrough year. While a loss to Triple H elevated his character, the feud with Lesnar made it even better but that match at WrestleMania was a rude shock.
- Face Turn
Keeping up with Wyatt’s supposed face turn, this week he teamed up with mortal enemy Roman Reigns to face the League of Nations. This was interesting but one still wonders about Wyatt’s sudden change of heart.
This face turn came at the heels of a really ridiculous segment with John Cena and The Rock at Mania. One had to wonder that the main event was a lost battle for Reigns. But despite the two of them being wary of each other, the match went on and they worked well as a team.
Rusev tried to help his team out until the rest of the Wyatt Family showed up to outnumber the League of Nations. Wyatt and Reigns gained the win to staredown to end the show. This officially makes Wyatt a face. Where is this heading?
