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We are only a couple of weeks away from reaching our ultimate destination to the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California but before that WWE made a stop at Moda Center, Portland, OR, on its road to Wrestlemania 31.
With the beatdown that Seth Rollins received last Monday night at the hands of Randy Orton, we waited to see if The Viper is going to challenge Mr. Money in the Bank at WM. Also, how will the feud between Sting and Triple H build up?
The show opened with the Authority showing up in full force, backing up Seth Rollins as he made his way to the ring to address the attack by Randy Orton from last week. Rollins looked in fine form on the mic as he toyed with the crowd, and warned Orton that messing with him would turn out different than what he is used to and challenged him to a match at Wrestlemania. He put a condition up though, challenging Orton to a confrontation in the ring tonight. It didn’t take long for The Viper to come out and accept the challenge and he promised to ‘wipe the future of the WWE’ off at Wrestlemania 31.
AJ Lee (w/ Paige) vs Nikki Bella (w/ Brie Bella)
In the first match of the night, AJ took on the current Divas’ champion Nikki Bella and it was hard-fought match between the two. But Nikki is able to take advantage of a distraction by Brie & Paige’s brawling outside, to hit her with her finisher and pick up with the win.
Winner – Nikki Bella
Ryback vs The Miz
After Miz starts off with some offense, he gets into an argument with Mizdow on the floor and gives the opportunity for Ryback to connect with a meathook clothesline and the Shellshocked for a big win.
Winner – Ryback
Next up was the contract signing for the United States title match at Wrestlemania, with Michael Cole enabling the proceedings. Cena comes out first and cuts a promo about how Rusev disgusts him as the US champion and at Wrestlemania, he will kickstart a revolution. Rusev comes out with a lawyer and reads a prepared statement, insulting the crowd. He finishes the segment by signing the contract nonetheless and runs away after flipping the table onto Cena.
The New Day (w/ Xavier Woods) vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd (w/ Natalya)
Los Matadores come out to watch the match, which is a tightly contested match between the two teams. After some back & forth action, due to the distraction caused by the team outside, New Day ends up losing the match after Cesaro rolls up Kofi. The post-match melee continues as Torito attacks Cesaro after the match.
Winners – Cesaro & Tyson Kidd
Lesnar appears on the titantron via a pretaped promo, where he talks about all the rumours of him leaving the WWE. In a smart move by the WWE, they integrate it into the storyline as lesnar vows to remain champion even if he leaves the company. In the line of the night, he says that if people think he is bad on ‘hunt mode’, they should wait to see him in ‘defense mode’. He lists down his beatdown of The Undertaker as a proud moment and says he doesn’t care as to what people think and end the promo by promising to f*$k Reigns up at Wrestlemania 31.
Big Show vs Erick Rowan
Show attacks Rowan quickly enough and lands a beatdown on the Rowan, knocking him out and landing an elbow before leaving without pinning Rowan, resulting in a no-contest.
Kane gathers a bunch of Superstars in the ring, to demonstrate that he will win it. Mark Henry interrupts him to throw his name in the mix and tries to throw Kane on the outside. Axelmania runs in and tries to throw both men out but ends up getting tossed out by Henry.
It’s Paul Heyman promo time and he delivers yet another vintage ‘advocate’ promo as he readies people up to the concept of what it means when Brock Lesnar goes to war. During the promo, as has been the case recently, Heyman’s mic gets cut off and that just makes him mad and things get more interesting as Reigns comes out to retaliate with his own verbal onslaught. Reigns look right into the camera and says he is ready for a war and even he has to be carried out, he will have his family do it, but with the WWE championship.
Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper & Stardust vs Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler
In an interesting tag match, everybody plays their roles to perfection as Bryan is the attacker, Ziggler the seller and Ambrose turns out to be the finisher as Ambrose pins the champion with a Dirty Deeds. Harper starts a brawl after the bell that results in everyone playing hot potato with the title, until Wade unloads with several Bullhammers and gets his title back.
Winner : Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler
Seth Rollins is shown backstage arguing with HHH & Stephanie and for a little while, it seems Rollins has parted ways with the Authority and is left alone to face The Viper in the ring.
Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins
It all turns out to be a ruse, as the Authority make their way to the ring to decimate Orton as the Viper readies up with a chair. HHH mocks him and leads the gang into the ring, bu the lights go out and when they come back on, Sting appears next to Orton, baseball bat in hand! The duo attack the Authority with chair and baseball bat as the punctuation mark comes in when Sting hits the J & J security with a splash and Scorpion death drop, while Orton hits an RKO on Mercury.
Result – No contest
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
