Event: WWE Monday Night RAW
Airdate: Monday, September 21st, 2015 (USA Network)
Location: The Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, TX
Results by Matt Boone
“Yes, sir, we promised you a great main event…”
The Wyatt Family, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose & Randy Orton Kick Off RAW
The post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW kicks off with The Wyatt Family cut-in immediately happening, followed by the lights going out and Bray Wyatt making his way to the ring holding his lantern and being accompanied by his Wyatt Family members Braun Strowman and Luke Harper.
The music fades but the lights stay extremely dim as The Wyatt Family are in the ring now. Bray starts off by addressing Roman Reigns, calling him a fool for attempting to run from his destiny. He continues to talk about The Wyatt Family’s destruction of Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho at last night’s pay-per-view.
Before Wyatt can gloat or talk anymore trash, he is cut off by the theme song of Roman Reigns. With that said, Reigns — by himself — makes his way through the crowd as he heads down to the ring.
The fans chant “Roman Reigns! Roman Reigns!” as he enters the ring with a mic. Reigns says it’s not about Roman Reigns, it’s about Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt. He tells Wyatt to send Strowman and Harper “back to the swamp,” claiming then we will see who makes it out of Laredo, Texas tonight, the site of tonight’s RAW.
As Wyatt, off-mic, explains why it’s a dumb idea, Reigns pulls his punk card by saying they don’t need a referee, they don’t even need to have a match. He suggests they just have a fight, so he drops his microphone and stares the trio down.
Wyatt sends Strowman and Harper out of the ring and he and Reigns immediately start trading punches. Finally, Reigns gets the better of the exchanges, including flooring Wyatt with a Superman punch. As Reigns has Wyatt down and pounding on him, Strowman and Harper hit the ring and attack Reigns.
As they prepare to beat him down some more, Dean Ambrose’s them hits. Ambrose charges to the ring as Strowman tries to meet him half way up the ramp. Ambrose runs right past him, hits the ring and takes out Harper. He then hits a dive through the ropes, crashing onto Strowman on the floor, but Strowman still didn’t budge. Ambrose goes back into the ring, runs and dives through the ropes onto him on the floor again, but again Strowman won’t go down. Ambrose hops on Strowman’s back, but Braun just walks around with him on the floor and eventually slams him down.
Meanwhile, Ambrose and Harper are fighting on one side while Strowman is working over Reigns. Ambrose, now with Harper out of the picture, heads over to help Reigns with Strowman. Strowman gets the better of him too. Now The Wyatt Family members are in firm control as the fans chant “Y2J! Y2J!”
As The Wyatt Family licks their chops and prepares to further punish the already down and out Reigns and Ambrose, out of nowhere, Randy Orton’s theme hits. “The Viper” sprints to the ring and starts taking out The Wyatt Family members one man at a time. He back-suplexes Harper through an announce table. He fires away at Strowman with punches now but a Strowman headbutt slows Orton down. Strowman throws Orton back in the ring and goes in after him.
Strowman waits for Orton to get back to his feet, only for Ambrose to come off the top rope with a flying dropkick. Strowman still didn’t go down. And another. He still didn’t go down. Finally, Reigns hits a Superman punch that knocks Strowman over the top and out to the floor, but in old school Undertaker style, Strowman landed on his feet. The Wyatt Family retreats up the ramp as Reigns, Ambrose and Orton stare down The Wyatt Family from inside the ring.
Announcers Hype Some Night Of Champions Outcomes
On that note, we shoot to the announce table where Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton, who officially introduce us to the show and then introduce some video highlights of Seth Rollins’ two title matches at last night’s WWE Night Of Champions pay-per-view in Houston, including what went down with Sheamus and Kane after his match with Sting.
Backstage: Corporate Kane & Seth Rollins
Backstage, we see Rollins outside a dressing room. He barges in thinking he’s going to talk to Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, only to see Kane from behind in a suit with his regular short hair. Rollins, in mid-sentence, began talking about how we need to come up with a plan after what happened last night.
Once Kane turns around, Rollins seems confused. Kane asks what they need to figure out a plan for. He insists on playing dumb, pretending tonight is his first night back at work, as if “The Demon Kane” or “Masked Kane” is a completely different person. Before Rollins leaves, Kane tells him that Rollins vs. Cena rematch for the U.S. Championship is scheduled for tonight. Rollins just says, “right. right…” and then walks off confused. On that note, we head to our first commercial break of the evening.
Cosmic Wasteland vs. Neville & The Lucha Dragons
We’re back from the break and we see Cosmic Wasteland — Stardust and The Ascension already in the ring finishing their entrance. From there, their opponents for tonight’s six-man tag-team match are out next, starting with “The Man That Gravity Forgot” — Neville. Out next are his tag-team partners for the second week in a row — The Lucha Dragons, Sin Cara and Kalisto.
Thje bell sounds and here we go with our first official match of the evening here at the post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW in Laredo, Texas.
Konnor and Sin Cara kick things off for their respective teams. Konnor takes it to Sin Cara straight from the word go, however a kick from Sin Cara as Konnor comes in slows things down. Seconds later, Sin Cara takes a bad fall off the top ropes, which the announcers are semi-selling as a potential legitimate mistake and/or injury. Regardless, the action continues as Viktor keeps Sin Cara grounded and is just doing basic moves to keep him grounded, not doing anything too physical. Grabbing chin locks, throwing stops, tagging in and out. Really no bumps or anything yet, so if he’s injured, they’re working around it. If not, then this is just a good job of making a spot that looked like a botch that could’ve resulted in injury look legitimate.
Stardust tags in and taunts his opponents on the apron before going to work on Sin Cara. Sin Cara rolls through a slam attempt from Stardust and immediately crawls over to tag in Neville.
Neville takes the hot tag and one-by-one, “The Man That Gravity Forgot” took out both Ascension members and then turned his attention to Stardust. He’s got him down and heads to the top rope. The Ascension cut Neville off on the top. Stardust knocks Neville out to the floor as we head to a mid-match commercial.
When we return from the break, the action is still going on inside the ring until we finally near the finishing sequence. The finish in this one sees Kalisto hit Salida del Sol on Viktor for the victory.
Winners: Neville & The Lucha Dragons
Backstage: Seth Rollins & The Authority
Backstage, Seth Rollins is with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, still uneasy about what he just spoke to Kane about. Triple H claims to know nothing about what Rollins is talking about in terms of Kane’s actions and decisions. Regardless, “The Game” tells Rollins that he should focus on taking advantage of winning back his U.S. title from John Cena later tonight. He promises that The Authority is going to take care of everything.
Ryback vs. Bo Dallas
Former WWE I-C champ. “The Big Guy,” Ryback makes his way to the ring. Already in the ring is Bo Dallas, who cuts a Bo Dallas style promo just before the match. Meanwhile, Kevin Owens makes his way down to the ring and the new I-C champ joins the gang on commentary for this one.
The bell sounds after Dallas finally shuts up and Ryback immediately goes to work on him, squashing him in a corner with a splash and then rag-dolling him half-way across the entire length of the squared circle.
Dallas tries fighting back with punches, but within seconds, a more aggressive-than-usual Ryback beats down Dallas and then scoop-slams him. He suplexes him down to the mat now while an unimpressed Owens is shown watching on from ringside.
After a brief distraction, Dallas finally turns the momentun in the match and now he is in control of the offense. Owens still appears to be laid back and unphased on commentary.
Finally, “The Big Guy” takes Dallas down with a big slam and now he’s calling for his finisher. He takes Dallas out with a Meathook Clothesline and immediately follows it up with a Shellshock. 1-2….Kevin Owens attacks to break up the pin attempt.
After the match, Owens beats down Ryback just as long as he can, until finally “The Big Guy” starts fighting back. Once he does, Owens slips out under the bottom rope and heads back up the ramp smiling and proudly wearing his I-C title as he and Ryback stare each other down from a distance. We head back to commercial.
Winner via Disqualification: Ryback
Charlotte’s Divas Title Win Celebration With Ric Flair
Prior to heading to the break, we’re told that Charlotte’s WWE Divas title win celebration is up next after another commercial break.
When we return from the break, Ric Flair is introduced by Lilian Garcia. The two-time WWE Hall Of Famer makes his way to the ring to a great pop from the fans in Laredo, Texas.
Flair asks if he looks like a proud father, to which the fans reply “Yes!” Flair talks about partying in Laredo in the 1970s. The fans break out into loud “Thank you Ric! Thank you Ric!” chants. Ric thanks the fans in return and then gets back on track with his promo.
“The Nature Boy” talks about some of his legendary accomplishments, but pointed out the fact that nothing has made him more proud and happy than to see his daughter win the WWE Divas title. He insists she did it on her own, having nothing to do with being Ric Flair’s daughter. He says she’s that good and then he introduces his daughter, the new WWE Divas Champion Charlotte.
Charlotte, accompanied by her Team P.C.B. members Paige and Becky Lynch, head down to the ring to join Ric Flair for Charlotte’s big celebration, which will obviously be invaded by some Divas soon to re-direct focus back into a current angle instead of a 9pm prime time opening segment that’s just a basic, “Congratulations, we won a title last night!” speech.
That being said, the emotions are already flying as Flair tears up watching his daughter Charlotte trying to talk through tears herself. The fans are buying it up, as they should, as this is definitely powerful, emotional stuff, even knowing that Flair cries all the time over almost anything. This is different, it’s special, and you can sense it watching their performance and facial reactions.
Charlotte thanks Becky for helping remind her not to take life so serious all the time. She then mentions the name Paige and the fans in Laredo really popped strong just for her name being mentioned. Charlotte puts over Paige and says all she’s done is try and be like Paige and follow in her footsteps.
Paige, all bashful, tells Charlotte she’s just so nice. Paige then turns the table and says who really deserves the credit — and it’s her, Paige. She mocks Charlotte for talking just now about how she’s being inducted into the Hall Of Fame. She says all she did was win a title, something Paige did on her first day on the main roster. Paige then tells Charlotte she’s just a place-holder as champion.
Becky Lynch tries to get involved so Paige talks trash to her, too. She says Lynch is the least important of all the recent Diva call-ups. She then blasts Natalya, questioning whether or not she even works her. Then she takes the low blow by saying The Bella Twins only got where they are because of who they sleep with, without outright saying it.
Paige tells Charlotte she wouldn’t even be where she is now if it wasn’t for her old man. Paige screams “this is my house” as she leaves Charlotte and Lynch alone in the ring.
From there, Team Bella — Nikki, Brie and Alicia Fox make their way out. Nikki gets in a quick dig at Paige, who has already left to the backstage area. Now as Team Bella makes their way to the ring they start verbally dressing down Charlotte and Becky Lynch.
Nikki says Charlotte is about to lose to her sister and when Nikki gets her title rematch with Charlotte, she’s taking back her WWE Divas Championship. We head to a commercial break with Divas action coming up next
Charlotte vs. Brie Bella
When we return from the break, all the Divas are still at ringside, with Charlotte and Brie, the two competing now, both in the ring.
The bell sounds and here we go. Early on, Brie Bella manages to get in some offense, some of which fell in her lap due to outside help from her Team Bella members, Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox.
In the end, however, Charlotte finally makes her comeback, locks Brie in her Figure-8 submission hold and Brie has no choice but to tap out, giving the WWE Divas Champion the victory and her second win over a Bella Twin in consecutive nights.
Winner: Charlotte
Sheamus vs. Mark Henry
We head back to the ring for our next match of the evening. Out first comes “Mr. Money In The Bank” Sheamus, who is followed out afterwards by his opponent for this evening, Mark Henry.
The fans jump on Sheamus’ case with “you look stupid!” chants as Henry immediately knocks him down and the physicality begins. Sheamus rolls to the floor to recover.
Back in the ring and Henry clotheslines Sheamus back to the floor and now he’s getting pissed. Back in the ring, Sheamus avoids the onslaught from Henry and blasts him with a Brogue Kick. Henry stumbles back up and walks right into another Brogue Kick, this time for the 1-2-3.
After the match, “Mr. Money In The Bank” gets on the mic and talks about how it’s just a matter of time before he cashes in and becomes the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Winner: Sheamus
Backstage: The Authority & Kane
Backstage, The Authority catches up wth Kane. Kane is happy to be back but they don’t seem to believe him. Kane asks if they’re upset about the Cena-Rollins match he made for tonight.
HHH brings up what happened last night and Kane claims not to know what he’s talking about, obviously because that was “The Demon” Kane, while this is “Corporate” Kane.
Stephanie cuts in and says Kane can play mind games with Rollins, but tells him not to do so with them. Stephanie wants to get everyone on the same page and asks for Kane to give his mask back.
Kane still doesn’t know what she’s talking about and says if Steph lost his mask, then they may have a big problem. He says he will help them find the mask and then he storms off.
Backstage: Paige & Natalya
Backstage, we see Paige and Natalya. Natalya says Paige isn’t the only Diva who has felt frustrated and lashed out before. She says if anyone has felt left out of the ongoing “Divas Revolution,” it’s her, not Paige. She tells Paige that she acted unprofessional. She says it was Charlotte’s moment just now and Paige ruined it. Natalya goes to get ready for her match against Naomi, and says the only person standing in Paige’s way is Paige herself.
The New Day & Rusev vs. The Dudley Boyz & Dolph Ziggler
Six man tag-team action is up next, as out first comes The New Day, accompanied by Rusev. The New Day do Rusev’s little stretching routine, mimicing his style as he makes his ring entrance.
Out next are their opponents for this evening, first off — The Dudley Boyz — Bubba Ray and Devon Dudley make their way down to the squared circle. Out next is their tag-team partner for tonight, Dolph Ziggler.
This match was given a solid amount of time, and went through at least one commercial break. After the heels dominated early, Xavier Woods gets going doing his shouting and tromboning playing all-the-while.
Finally, we near the end, which was somewhat of a clusterf*ck as bodies were in and out and all over the place. When the smoke clears, due to distraction, Ziggler turns right around into a super kick from Rusev. 1-2-3. The heel team wins. We head to a break.
Winner: The New Day & Rusev
Naomi vs. Natalya
We’re back from the break and it’s time for another Divas contest, this time with Naomi from Team B.A.D. taking on Natalya of team …well, is she part of a team? I guess we’ll call her Natalya part of Team Total Divas, or Team Kidd & Cesaro. Who knows.
Anyways, this Divas match was kept much shorter, likely due to the amount of in-ring and camera time that the Divas received earlier this evening with their lengthy promo segment.
In the end of this one, however, we get what feels like one too many distraction-finishes, as Nattie is distracted and turns around into a Rear View from Naomi for the end of the match, with the victory being awarded to the Team B.A.D. member.
Winner: Naomi
Backstage: The Authority & Seth Rollins
The Authority are once again shown behind-the-scenes when WWE Champion Seth Rollins walks in. Rollins asks them what the plan is. They believe Kane is ready to get back to his corporate responsibilities but Rollins argues it. HHH gets upset and shuts Rollins up, telling him they will worry about Kane and he should worry about Cena. Rollins storms off as we head to another commercial break.
Big Show vs. Cesaro
After the break, we return back to the ring where Big Show makes his way down to the ring. Out next is his opponent for this evening, Cesaro.
The bell sounds and here we go. Big Show, within seconds, is easily dominating the offensive action from the word “go.”
Show dominates a one-sided match until missing a big elbow drop, which briefly allowed Cesaro to turn the tide and get in some offense of his own.
The action spills to the floor, where Show smashes Cesaro into the ring post. Now, with Show bringing Cesaro back to the ring, Show blasts him with a Knockout Punch. 1-2-3.
Winner: Big Show
Big Show Delivers A Warning To Brock Lesnar
After the match, Big Show cuts a promo encouraging fans to boo him. He then sends a message to Brock Lesnar, who he faces on the 10/3 WWE Network special live from Madison Square Garden. He reminds everyone that he was the man who took the WWE title off of Lesnar in the past. He says there’s no way he’s going to Suplex City once the “Suplex City! Suplex City!” chants break out. Big Show promises to knock out Lesnar at the 10/3 special.
John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
We see the once again new WWE United States Champion John Cena making his way down to the ring for tonight’s RAW main event. Out next is his opponent for tonight, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, as Cena and Rollins prepare for a Night Of Champions rematch here on WWE Monday Night RAW.
As Lilian Garcia handles the formal introductions for this, our main event of the evening, while Garcia is introducing John Cena, out of the blue, Rollins attacks Cena from behind and our RAW main event is now officially underway.
As Rollins establishes control over the new U.S. champ, we finally take a break and head to a mid-match commercial, if not our last break of the evening, certainly our second-to-last commercial. Anyways, RAW should be wrapped up upon returning from the break.
We return from the commercial break and we immediately hear dueling “Let’s go Cena” and “Cena sucks” chants as Rollins continues to go to work on the leader of the Cenation.
Cena gets in one quick transitional hope spot, but literally a split-second later, Rollins turns Cena inside-out for a near fall to regain control of the offensive momentum in tonight’s main event, which is for Cena’s newly won WWE United States Championship.
Finally, Cena starts making his comeback, and the fans in Laredo who were just dueling chanting “let’s go Cena” and “Cena sucks” now seem completely behind the Dr. of Thuganomics as he continues to fire up and make his comeback on the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Cena with a roll-up on Rollins but Rollins rolls through and now he’s got Cena hooked for a 1-2….Cena kicks out just in time as well. Now we’re getting a quick series of quick falls from each guys trying to fniish off the other and get out of their with their gold belt. The fans are now outright loudly chanting “Cena! Cena! Cena!” so either Laredo is a Cena town, or Rollins has done a great job with ring pschology to turn the fans so against him that they are completely cheering Cena on, just several minutes after echo’ing “Cena sucks” chants throughout the building in Laredo.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Rollins dominated the last few minutes of offense. Finally, Cena starts showing signs of life, and then furthermore, began getting in some offensive moments here and there. In the end, Cena caught Rollins with the Attitude Adjustment and a three-count later, John Cena manages to get his hand raised and walk out of Laredo, Texas with his WWE U.S. Championship.
Winner and STILL WWE United States Champion: John Cena
After The Match: The Demon Kane Strikes Again!
After the match, as Rollins is upset in the ring for not managing to recapture the U.S. title from Cena. Finally, he is told that as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, he better be ready to take on all-comers. With that said, “The Demon Kane” comes from under the ring and attacks Rollins. A freaked out Rollins gets taken out while “The Demon” Kane does his pose, the fire pyro explodes and his music plays to end the post-Night Of Champions edition of WWE RAW in Laredo, Texas.
