WWE RAW August 3 TV results & recap: Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman return

courtesy WWE.com

by Jeff Hamlin. WrestlingObserver.com 

The Big Takeaway: 

The biggest news is the Seth Rollins-John Cena match at SummerSlam will be a Title vs. Title match. Rollins made it clear that the championships aren’t being unified, just that someone was walking out of Brooklyn as the WWE World Heavyweight and U.S. Champion. Rollins and Neville had the weekly 4-star open challenge match and Paul Heyman cut his monthly candidate for promo of the year. 

Show Recap: 

The entire roster stood out on the ramp, many of them wearing “Hot Rod” shirts, for a 10-bell salute to Roddy Piper. Bagpipes played as they faded to a tribute video. All of his famous Piper’s Pit moments were shown, including several still photos of Piper with Hulk Hogan. Another wonderful tribute to someone gone far too soon.  

Seth Rollins came out. He was smiling after watching repeated highlights of him breaking John Cena’s nose last week. Rollins said he was too sympathetic for his own good, and last week was a good example when he broke Cena’s nose. He got a noticable amount of cheers and “Thank you Rollins” chants. 

He sbowed several photos of Cena’s crooked nose after the match, and asked who wouldn’t feel sympathy for a face like that? Rollins wanted to stop the match immediately after Cena suffered the injury, but his sympathy and the referee allowed the match to continue. It was his sympathy that allowed Cena to win, but he will never let his guard down ever again. 

Rollins challenged Cena to a title vs. title match at SummerSlam, winner takes all. If Cena doesn’t have the guts to show up, he can just forfeit the U.S. Championship, but someone will hold both the WWE and U.S. Championships at the same time. 

Rollins said this was the site of his WWE World Heavyweight Championship victory at WrestleMania in April, then issued a WWE World Heavyweight Championship open challenge. 

For some reason, Jojo was in the ring to interview Rollins after a commercial. Rollins changed the rules and said there were two rules for the challenger….they had to be under 6-feet tall and under 200-pounds. They played El Torito’s music, but Neville came out instead to answer the challenge. So happy Vince could remind us that he could never get Floyd Meaweather, Connor McGregor, George St. Pierre or Uriah Faber over as money drawing stars. 

Seth Rollins (C) defeated Neville to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (13:04) 

Very good match where Neville missed a 2nd Red Arrow and Rollins hit the Pedigree for the pin. Neville hit a Red Arrow and fans thought it was going to be a title switch, but Rollins got his boot on the ropes. What was really strange was Neville didn’t look very much shorter than Rollins. Somebody watched their G1 this week, as Rollins debuted the Hiroshi Tanahashi Slingblade during the heat. Neville followed with a reverse Frankensteiner which the crowd brought for a near fall. Nevile used a jackknife cradle for another near fall, so close the referee had to noticeably hold up his count, which the fans gave him grief about. 

The “Did You Know” feature mentioned Daniel Bryan’s book being a New York Times bestseller. Wait, they promoted Bryan’s book? Isn’t that a fireable offense?  

The New Day and the Ascension defeated Los Matadores and Lucha Dragons (8:21)

Kofi Kingston pinned Kalisto after Xavier Woods distracted him, despite Toritio tripping him from the apron. Diego and Fernando hit stereo topes on Konnor and Viktor. Titus O’Neal and Darren Young were on commentary again. O’Neal asked Byron Saxton if he had a girlfriend, which he didn’t answer. 

Charlotte and Becky Lynch defeated The Bella Twins via submission (13:09)

Charlotte got the hot tag and made Nikki Bella tapout to the Figure 8. Michael Cole mentioned that Charlotte, Paige and Becky Lynch have dubbed themselves the “Submission Sorority.” Crowd was dead. The NXT Divas already feel like just another part of the show instead of something relevant. 

Jojo talked with Team BAD, who were watching from the back. Alicia Fox objected to Jojo’s question about Charlotte, Lynch and Paige taking over the Divas Division. Fox mentioned she made Paige tapout last week. Naomi said she was going to challenge Paige to a match tonight. Naomi also brought up Ronda Rousey, whose name got a huge pop. Naomi said they were the baddest women on the planet. They can’t even top Rousey on the mic. 

It was time for MizTV, and the Miz did a tribute to Piper’s Pit. He looked a little emotional about it. He went back heel and cut a promo on Ryback, saying he should forfeit the I-C title like Bryan did. Kevin Owens came out as a guest. Owens said he owned every single one of the Miz’s movies on Blu Ray.  

Owens said Cesaro was jealous of him. Cesaro came out with fans holding up “Cesaro Section” signs. Owens said Cesaro will never match his god given ability for this business. Cesaro said he was ashamed of Owens because he keeps walking away from matches. He called him embarrassment. Owens got up, and the chair stuck to Owens’ rear end. Cesaro challenged him to a fight. Owens said he’ll fight anyone, anytime, for the right price. But the price wasn’t tonight. Cesaro said Owens was about to do what he does best, which is “Walk, Owens, Walk.” Owens hit Cesaro from behind, but Cesaro recovered and tried to give him the Cesaro Swing, but Owens…well, walked.  

They showed a clip of Rousey’s postfight promo from Saturday night dedicating the fight to Piper. They keep enticing Ronda for WrestleMania.  

Rusev defeated Mark Henry (2:05)

Rusev got the pin clean with a Thurst Kick on Mark Henry. He delivered another one after the match. Summer Rae continues to do Lana mannerisms. I’m surprised she hasn’t copied the “Rusev Crush” line. 

In a clear reponse to the Investment Caller’s Call, JBL held up signs showing how much money people will save if they just watch SummerSlam through the WWE Network instead of on PPV. Then, in an attempt to entice people to buy the network, they showed a hot angle from 1985 Mid South Wrestling. Ummm….no…they really showed a scene from Swerved. Sort of like if the NBA Network debuted tomorrow, and instead of showing highlights from the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers, they showed clips from the 2015 Los Angeles Lakers. 

Bray Wyatt held a flower is a symbol of beauty, but if you remove all of its pedals, it becomes a troublesome weed. He said Roman Reigns has become their symbol of beauty, but he’s really do different from anybody else. Sheamus someone found his way into the Wyatt Liar and said he was going to drive his Brogue Kick into Randy Orton’s face tonight. Bray said the Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend, so tonight Sheamus was his friend. 

King Barrett defeated Zack Ryder (1:53)

Zack Ryder went for the Rough Ryder, but Barrett dipped under it and pinned him after the Bullhammer Elbow. Last half hour wil likely not be shown on the 90 minute versions of Raw. 

Paul Heyman was in the ring and showed the footage of the Undertaker jumping Brock Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said Undertaker can’t live with himself because he will never be able to beat Lesnar. Brock came out and threw part of the ring steps into the ring and stood on them while Heyman cut his promo. 

Heyman said the last time Lesnar wrestled Undertaker, the Undertaker left in an ambulance, spent a week in the hospital  and took a year to recover. In fact, Heyman said Undertaker called Vince McMahon and begged him for a rematch at WrestleMania. But Vince turned him down because he was afraid of Undertaker risking permanent injury. So Undertaker had to surprise Lesnar at Battleground. Heyman said at SummerSlam, Lesnar will slap the “Repeat” in “Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat.” He said Undertaker was going to Suplex City. 

Heyman was on fire at this point, saying Undertaker wasn’t going to need an ambulance this time, he was going to need Last Rites. In regards to promos in the WWE, there’s Paul Heyman and there’s everyone else.  

Paige defeated Naomi via submission (7:25)

Paige won with the PTO. Crowd was pretty dead again. For all the talk of a Divas Revolution, they don’t have a Diva on the roster half as over as Lita was in 2000 or Trish Stratus in 2004. 

Stardust did a promo about Neville’s loss to Rollins. They’re back to Stardust doing an angle with Steven Amell, who tweeted that he will be at Raw next week in Seattle. 

They replayed the Piper tribute video. This led to a promo where Dean Ambrose and Reigns repeated the Piper line from “They Live” saying they came to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum, and they’re all out of bubblegum. JBL said the same thing earlier. Orton told Ambrose and Reigns to leave Sheamus to him.  

Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt, Sheamus and Luke Harper (16:39)

Good match with a really good finish. Reigns cleaned house at the end, giving Luke Harper a Superman’s Punch. Orton gave Wyatt an RKO, and Reigns pinned Sheamus after a spear. Buildup to the hot tag with Reigns was good and this was the 2nd best match on the show.  

SUMMARY: Show opened well, was nothing until the Heyman promo, and was nothing after that until the main event.