WWE RAW, 9th September - Best match of the night
Unlike the previous two weeks, WWE started differently with Edge and Daniel Bryan who put on an interesting opening segment. Unlike the usual RAW episodes, this week, we got to see more matches than usual though only a few received decent TV time. Plus Santino and Goldust made impressive return to the ring.
Speaking of returns, Goldust had an great return match with Orton who made it pretty clear to everyone that he hadn’t lost a beat inside the ring. He managed to wrestle toe to toe with Orton despite his age. Both these wrestlers managed to put on a great match and nearly clinched the best match of the night title. However, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose put on a great main event to earn the match of the night title.
Daniel Bryan made his entrance as Big Show was seated in a folding chair. Bryan started things of with kicks to Ambrose who returns with some moves of his own after Bryan is pulled back by the referee. Bryan again counters with a few kicks which forces Ambrose to take a break outside the ring.
Bryan then applied the surfboard on Ambrose but let go as it didn’t seem to connect too well. Bryan then hits a running elbow and a suplex on Ambrose. Rollins then distracts Bryan who gets pushed to the barricade.
Back from the commercial Ambrose is in control and Bryan starts fighting back. He starts kicking Ambrose furiously and then hits a perfect hurricanrana from the top rope for a near fall. . After a few more kicks, Bryan rolls Ambrose who kicks out in a near fall. Bryan then locks in the YES lock. Ambrose reaches the ring and Bryan breaks the hold. Ambrose then tries a superplex which Bryan counters and then lands a huge backdrop from the top rope.
Ambrose then counters a dropkick from Bryan and rolls him up for a close fall. After a few more back and forth action the crowd starts a ‘this is awesome’ chants which I feel should have come early. Ambrose then pushes Bryan out of the ring as both the members of the Shield look to attack him. Bryan manages to avoid them but ends up getting caught in a DDT on the floor from Ambrose.
Ambrose sends Bryan back into the ring but Bryan quickly gets a rollup out of nowhere for the victory.
Bryan immediately pushed Ambrose onto the other members of the Shield and followed it up with the YES chants. Big Show looked absolutely enthralled by this as he joined the chants.
Orton then made his entrance and was welcome with a suicide dive from Bryan. The Shield then caught up with Bryan who was outdone by the numbers game. Big Show then tried to help Bryan with the steel chair but was sent back by Orton. Triple H and Stephanie then made their way into the stage and asked Show to knock out Bryan who was prone after an RKO. Big Show delayed a bit trying to look reluctant which gave Bryan the time to recover and hit a huge knee on Orton. Bryan celebrated as the show ended.
The match and the post-match segment were both extremely entertaining. The fact that Bryan finally managed to come out on top this week must have made several fans feel relieved. Will Bryan be able to repeat the same on SmackDown this week? How long will Big Show act on Triple H’s order? The ending brought out a lot of exciting questions that SmackDown and Night of Champions needs to answer.