WWE Raw 5-27-13: Bret Hart Appreciation Night

This Memorial Day edition of Raw was dedicated to all the men and women serving in the U.S. Military. The show began with WWE Champion John Cena coming out to address Ryback’s challenge to an Ambulance Match at the upcoming Payback Pay-Per-View event. Cena announced that at Payback, he will defend his championship against Ryback in a Three Stages of Hell Match. A Three Stages of Hell Match consists of a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match with with each fall having a stipulation. Cena said that the first fall’s stipulation will be a Lumberjack Match, the second fall a Tables Match, and, if necessary, the third fall will be the very stipulation Ryback challenged Cena to, an Ambulance Match. Ryback then came out and accepted the challenge. So, it’s official, at Payback, Cena will defend his championship against Ryback in a Three Stages of Hell Match. After Ryback accepted, Paul Heyman and his newest client, Curtis Axel, came out and issued a challenge to Cena for a non-title one-on-one match for the main event of the evening, which Cena accepted. Also, the WWE Universe were given the opportunity to vote on the WWE App on which role The Miz would play in the non-title match between Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett and Fandango (accompanied by Summer Rae). The choices were for Miz to either be the special guest commentator, ring announcer, or referee. Special guest referee ended up getting the most votes. I am not a fan of either Barrett nor Fandango and I wasn’t sure who to root against. As for the match, at one point, Barrett actually threw Miz aside; Miz responded by hitting Barrett with his signature maneuver “The Skull Crushing Finale”, which allowed Fandango to get the pin and the win. After the match, while Fandango and Summer Rae were having a dance celebration, Miz kicks Fandango in the face and Summer ends up falling on top of him. Miz then mockingly counts 1-2-3 while Summer is atop Fandango. Also, Chris Jericho hosted another edition of his talk show “The Highlight Reel” with Paul Heyman as his guest. One particular question Jericho asked Heyman was where his client CM Punk has been since he walked out on Raw six weeks ago. After hearing this, Heyman quickly clammed up; however, Jericho managed to goad Heyman into accepting a one-on-one match against Jericho at Payback on behalf of Punk when Jericho brought up the fact that Payback takes place in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois and that he felt since Punk has been sitting at home for the past six weeks, he cannot call himself “The Best In the World”. Therefore, it’s official, at Payback, Jericho will go one-on-one with Punk. Also, WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn teamed up with Natalya Neidhart to take on The Bella Twins (Nikki & Brie). Natalya was not only in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but it was also her birthday. As for the match, in the end, when Kaitlyn attempted to hit one of The Bellas with her signature maneuver “The Spear”, The Bella Twin ended up side-stepping Kaitlyn, which caused her to spear her own partner instead. The Bella Twin then threw Kaitlyn out of the ring and then picked up Kaitlyn’s scraps by pinning Natalya to get the pin and the win for her team. After the match, The Bellas decided to get personal by giving Natalya an insincere rendition of “Happy Birthday” on their way out. I sure hope this comes back to bite The Bellas in their asses. Also, a bizarre and eerie vignette of The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & current NXT Tag Team Champions Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) was shown with them sending a message that they are coming to Raw soon and that everybody should run while they still have the opportunity. What exactly does The Wyatt Family have in store for Raw? Also, in the main event match between Cena and Axel (accompanied by Paul Heyman), in the end, it seemed that Cena had things well in hand until the very same ambulance that Ryback came out in last week on Raw came out once again. Cena then left the ring in pursuit of Ryback; however, when Cena opened the ambulance doors, Ryback was nowhere to be found. Then, out of nowhere, Ryback ambushes Cena; after Cena gains the upper hand over Ryback, Ryback then hightails it backstage. The one thing Cena didn’t realize is that the referee was counting out Cena; Cena did not make it back into the ring before the count of ten, thus, Axel won the match via count-out. Finally, in the Raw Post-Show, it was Appreciation Night for Calgary’s own WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart, hosted by fellow WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler. Lawler presented Bret Hart with a plaque from the Mayor of Calgary himself, which officially declared the date of May 27th “Bret “The Hitman” Hart Day”. Hart was then congratulated by the rest of the WWE Locker Room, including his niece and fellow Hart Family Dungeon Graduate Natalya, his protege, fellow Hart Family Dungeon Graduate, and fellow Calgary Native Tyson Kidd, fellow Canadian and WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, and even the WWE Chairman and CEO himself, Vincent Kennedy McMahon; as well as a few visiting guests, which included fellow WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and fellow hometown guy and Hart Family Dungeon Graduate Lance Storm. I would also like to point out that none of the superstars, as well as the visiting guests, were in character during this segment, it was all a real-life moment, paying homage and respect to one of the greatest wrestling legends of all-time.