WWE SmackDown Aug 13 TV results & recap: Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro & Neville

By Steve Khan, WrestlingObserver.com

– Air Date: August 13, 2015 (Aug 12 in Canada)
– Location: Moda Center in Portland, OR

The Big News:

Seth Rollins vs. John Cena was made official for SummerSlam, as well as Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens.

Show Recap:

[Ctrl+v] Seth Rollins came out to start the show. He said we need to slow down and stop taking life for granted because Rollins is at the top of his game and this would be like if Babe Ruth hit 1,000 more home runs or if Michael Jordan won 20 MVP awards.

Rollins said he tamed Randy Orton, thwarted Sheamus, brought Neville down to earth and shattered John Cena’s nose. He said everyone in the crowd would tell their grandchildren that their greatest accomplishment would be that they saw Seth Rollins live.

Rollins showed a clip of Cena accepting his challenge on Tough Enough with help from Daniel Bryan. Rollins called him a coward for doing it this way and challenged Cena to accept the match face-to-face on Raw. Rollins said when you face greatness like him, you will fail.

Neville interrupted. He mentioned that Cena still beat Rollins despite his broken nose and, if it weren’t for Orton, Sheamus would be champion. (I guess now that Cena is cleared to wrestle, they focused more on Sheamus getting screwed rather than Orton.) Neville also said Rollins couldn’t kick out of his Red Arrow.

Rollins said Neville failed to beat him, and Neville used Cesaro’s line about Seth going “on and on and on and on…” Sure enough, that brought out Cesaro, who repeated the line and gave a shout out to the Cesaro Section. Kevin Owens attacked Cesaro from behind and Rollins attacked Neville in the ring. Owens walked away and Rollins stood tall. Not much of a segment really.

Charlotte (w/Becky Lynch) beat Naomi (w/Sasha Banks & Tamina) via submission

They did entrances after a commercial, but they went to another break one minute into the match. After the break, Naomi beat down Charlotte with forearms. Jimmy Uso said it’s a good day for him when Team B.A.D. win, but not so much when they don’t.

The crowd chanted “Let’s go Charlotte” during the heat. Charlotte came back with chops, a swinging neck breaker and spear for two. Charlotte back dropped Naomi over the top rope onto Banks and Tamina, which was scary. Charlotte then applied the Figure Eight for the win. This was ok. They got about 8 minutes.

They recapped the Stephen Amell/Stardust angle from Raw and pushed the tag match for SummerSlam.

Ryback came out for a promo and said he feels better than ever. He called winning the Intercontinental Title the proudest moment of his career, and it made all the sacrifices worth it. But after all that, he got a staph infection, and he showed a picture of it on the big screen.

Ryback said he meat-hooked and shell shocked the staph infection, and the crowd chanted “Feed me more.” He said people were calling the IC Title cursed, but he was inspired by all of the fan support on social media and would defend his title at SummerSlam. This was a fine segment and Ryback should really retain the title.

Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt came out for a promo. Harper said he was born holding the devil’s hand. Bray began rambling but Dean Ambrose interrupted. Ambrose admitted he had nothing to say, he just wanted to watch Reigns do what they do best — talk using their fists.

Roman Reigns (w/Dean Ambrose) beat Luke Harper (w/Bray Wyatt) via DQ

Again, they went to commercial about a minute into the match. At least time it was preceded by a talking segment. After the break, Harper had the heat and used a Michinoku Driver for two. Reigns came back with a few clotheslines but Harper drop kicked him out of the ring.

Reigns caught him with a back suplex onto the ring apron, followed by an apron dropkick. Bray got in Reigns’ face, so Ambrose backed him off. Bray again tried to distract Reigns so Ambrose wildly attacked him, but Bray gave him a uranage onto the barricade.

Reigns tried to attack Harper in the ropes but the referee held him back, allowing Harper to hit a superkick for a nearfall. Reigns countered a powerbomb and hit a superman punch, but Bray interfered for the DQ.

Ambrose immediately jumped in and sent both Wyatt and Harper out of the ring, followed by a suicide dive. Wyatt and Harper basically no sold this and attacked Ambrose, but Reigns made the save. Ambrose and Reigns sent the heels over the barricade. The heels bailed and the faces posed for the crowd.

This was a fun segment but the constant disqualifications are tiresome to say the least. The crowd liked Roman Reigns.

Backstage, Sheamus told an interviewer that the audience is sick of Rollins rambling on and Orton hitting RKOs out of nowhere. Sheamus said he was about to give the crowd what they wanted on Raw — a real man as champion — but Orton ruined it. Sheamus threatened to Brogue kick Orton over and over until he’s finished, leaving Rollins to himself. This was a much better promo than the one from Raw, because he was intense and not doing dumb comedy. He also hugged the briefcase.

Non-Title: Tag-Team Champion Prime Time Players beat The New Day (w/Kofi Kingston) via pinfall

They might have been chanting “New Day Rocks” on Raw, but they were chanting “New Day Sucks” tonight. New Day had the heat on O’Neil through a break until he made a hot tag to Darren Young.

Young hit a Northern Lights suplex on Woods and tried to follow with a Gut Check, but New Day yanked Woods out of the ring. New Day tried to leave, but Los Matadores and Lucha Dragons came out separately to their music in the middle of this wrestling match.

New Day had no where to go, so PTP knocked down Big E and Kingston. This left Woods on his own. O’Neil tossed Woods back in the ring and Young hit him with a Gut Check for the win. This was kind of dumb.

They aired the Undertaker/Brock Lesnar video package and plugged that these two would both be on Raw.

WWE Champion Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens beat Cesaro & Neville via pinfall

Cesaro had Rollins up for a delayed vertical suplex. Owens tried to interfere but Neville kicked him out of the ring. They also tossed Rollins out and, again, the match went to commercial about one minute in.

Owens gave Neville a fallaway slam into the barricade and they had the heat over him after the break. Neville tried to make a tag but Rollins pulled Cesaro off the apron. Neville eventually made the tag and Cesaro ran wild, hitting Rollins with a suplex and uppercut parade.

Cesaro tried to press slam Rollins onto Owens but Owens moved and Rollins splattered on the floor. Cesaro then went for a suicide dive into both men but Owens moved again and Cesaro took out Rollins. Neville took out Owens and Cesaro hit a running uppercut to Rollins.

Back in the ring, Cesaro hit Rollins with a flying cross body for two. Rollins came back with an enziguri and turnbuckle bomb. Cesaro countered a pedigree into a sharpshooter but Owens interfered, allowing Rollins to use a school boy holding the tights for the win.

Owens attacked Cesaro immediately after the match, but Cesaro hit him with a Swissblade and Neville nailed him with a Red Arrow. The show ended with Cesaro and Neville celebrating even though they lost.

Final Thoughts:

This show was easy enough to watch I guess, especially after the last couple of weeks. I didn’t like the finish in either main event. I’m not sure what I would’ve done in the tag match, but having Cesaro lose a lot doesn’t seem like the best idea. And Neville losing in a tag match is dumb too considering his upcoming match at SummerSlam.

Also, if you ran a wrestling show, why would you start a match knowing you had to go to commercial a minute later? That happened in every match on this show.