The show began with WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H going against his father-in-law, WWE Chairman, and CEO Vincent K. McMahon’s and Triple H’s wife Stephanie McMahon’s wishes by going one-on-one with Curtis Axel (accompanied by Paul Heyman). At one point, while Triple H had the match well in hand, Vince McMahon comes out and orders the timekeeper to ring the bell to end the match, then he tells ring announcer Justin Roberts to announce Curtis Axel as the winner as a result of a disqualification. Then, Triple H gives the order to restart the match. Afterward, Mr. McMahon gives the order to declare Curtis Axel the winner as a result of a forfeit. Then, Triple H gives the order to restart the match and declares it a 60-minute Iron Man Match. Lastly, Mr. McMahon comes out to declare Curtis Axel the winner once and for all by absconding the ring bell and microphone used by Justin Roberts, so that Triple H can’t restart the match again. Later on, Triple H speaks with his wife backstage and tells her that her father crossed the line. While Stephanie agreed with her husband, she begged him not to hurt his father-in-law. While Triple H agreed not to do so, he told Stephanie that she needed to go talk to her father, which she agreed to. Later on, Stephanie talks with her father. Mr. McMahon claimed that he was doing what was best for business and that whether anybody is family or not, business always comes first. Later in the show, Stephanie plots her husband and her father to come into their office backstage, so that they all can fix things. Eventually, Mr. McMahon decides to grant Triple H a rematch with Curtis Axel; however, instead of accepting the rematch, Triple H told his father-in-law that he saw his point of view of things. After a little more bickering between the two, Stephanie then insists that they all hug it out, which both Vince and Triple H reluctantly agreed to. From my point of view, I think problems were solved, but only to a certain extent. I would also like to point out that a microphone and ring bell were brought back out for the show at one point. Also, Raw Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero informed Randy Orton and Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) that two matches would happen at the upcoming WWE Pay-Per-View event, Payback. The first match she announced was that WWE Tag Team Champions and Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns will be defending their championships against Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan. The next match she announced was that United States Champion and the leader of The Shield Dean Ambrose would be defending against Kane. These three men have been at odds with one another as of late, so the question is, will Orton & Bryan be able to co-exist? Also, Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett was scheduled to defend against both The Miz and Fandango in a Triple Threat Match at Payback; however, after suffering an injury, Fandango was removed from the bout, thus making the match one-on-one…or so we thought. Vickie Guerrero sent out Paul Heyman to make the announcement that his client Curtis Axel would be taking Fandango’s place; therefore, the match is once again a Triple Threat Match. Also, while Chris Jericho was addressing his upcoming match with CM Punk at Payback, he is interrupted by the returning World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by his girlfriend AJ Lee & Big E Langston). Eventually, Jericho challenges Ziggler to a match, but instead, Ziggler sends Big E to do the match instead. At one point in the match, Ziggler tries to provide a distraction, but is thwarted by Alberto Del Rio. Jericho then hits Big E with his signature maneuver “The Codebreaker” to get the pin and the win. At Payback, Ziggler will defend his championship against #1 contender Alberto Del Rio. Also, after weeks of WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn receiving gifts and anonymous texts from her secret admirer, it was finally time for the secret admirer to come forth. While Kaitlyn was anxiously awaiting inside the ring, to her’s and everybody else’s surprise, Big E Langston comes out with a bouquet of flowers in hand. At first, it appears that Big E is the secret admirer; however, just as he dips Kaitlyn, he lets her fall to the ring canvas. As Big E walks off, his friend AJ Lee comes out and reveals that the whole thing was just a ploy set up by her to pyche Kaitlyn out. AJ then began to berate Kaitlyn, which led to her slapping AJ and going on the attack. After AJ escapes Kaitlyn’s grasp, Kaitlyn is left shaken up by everything that had just transpired, while AJ has the upper hand going into their upcoming championship match at Payback. Finally, during the faceoff between WWE Champion John Cena and Ryback, lumberjacks surrounded the ring to make sure that the faceoff would remain civilized until their upcoming 3 Stages of Hell WWE Championship match at Payback. In the end, the lumberjacks had to keep the two men from battering one another to end the the program.

Leave a Reply