Segment 1: Huh, we haven't had a cold-open in a while. Seth Rollins is in the back with J&J Security, and he's wandering around in the back, whereupon he bumps into Kane. They argue and blame each other for their tag loss on Monday, then switch to Rollins getting angry about Kane indirectly booking the upcoming triple threat title match. Rollins thinks Kane is just jealous, since he's a has-been corporate stooge who doesn't understand that “best for business” means protecting him. Kane retorts that part of his job in doing what's best for business is to make a man out of Rollins... which is why Rollins has to face Dean Ambrose tonight, the match that was supposed to happen a few weeks ago. Rollins isn't happy, and declares that what he thinks is best for business is the Kane from 20 years, and dares Kane to do something tonight to prove he still has relevance.

Now we get the opening signature, and then it's back to the ring.

Pre-Segment 2: Roman Reigns hits the ring to talk about his side of the tag match on Monday, and to verbally shit on Rollins for his recent activities. He promises he'll totally beat the shit out of Randy Orton and Rollins at the triple threat match at the next pay-per-view.

Uh... then here comes Kane? Kane calls for a ref, and I guess we've got a match? Reigns is fine with it, and no words are spoken between them as we start the match.

Segment 2 [Singles Match]: Roman Reigns defeats Kane by intentional countout. Kane with the early offense, punchy-kicky-slammy, practically throwing Reigns around like he was Brock Lesnar. Reigns gains a breath when he counters a back body drop and indirectly tosses him from the ring. The fight spills to the outside, where Reigns delivers a couple shots but takes a side slam onto the commentating table. First ads!

Back, it's the bear hug of doom, which Reigns fights out of presently before being rammed into a turnbuckle. Kane continues the heel beatdown with stompy-slammy. Reigns gets a breath after minute and goes punchy-kicky, concluding with a suplex which puts both men down. Once they're back up, Reigns continues the momentum with a jumping lariat and a flying chop off the middle rope.

Reigns continues the strikes but eats a right hand, though that didn't discourage him from hitting a Samoan Drop and signaling for the Superman Punch. Kane caught his attempt and hit a chokeslam, but only got two on the pin. Kane called for the Tombstone Piledriver, but Reigns countered with a DDT. As both men got up, Reigns hit the Superman Punch clean, then called for the Spear. Kane dodged it by just leaving the ring, and...

Uh, and he left? Huh. Okay. After a shot to the back, we see that even Seth Rollins is confused. Reigns is pretty disappointed for not seeing the match to its finish.

Segment 3: Continuing the smoothness of the way this episode is being booked, Renne Young (wearing a fetching see-through black dress, or dress covering, whatever you'd call it) interviews Rollins. Rollins basically says that Kane showed his nature here, and that it proves he doesn't need Kane's help to win to win his triple threat title match. In fact, he doesn't need anyone's help: not Kane, not anyone from The Authority, not even J&J Security. Hm.

Pre-Segment 4: Damien Sandow hits the ring with his new music that... well, its intro doesn't do anything for me, but the main melody is fine. When Jojo introduces him, Sandow mimics her introduction, though he subtracts a few pounds.

Oh, and he mimics her introduction of Curtis Axel as well, adding in a few key shots. It was funny, but that'll get annoying quickly if he does it every week.

Segment 4 [Singles Match]: Damien Sandow defeats Curtis Axel by pin. Standard offense to open as Sandow wins an exchange, then flings Axel out of the ring and mimics his selling. Once the fight gets back in the ring, Axel is overly angry and takes control by stomping the hell out of Sandow, then delivers a couple running strikes to the corner. Sandow fights out of it, kips up, steals Hulk Hogan's taunts, then hits the full nelson slam, which is apparently called the “You're Welcome”? Meh, whatever; it was short, pretty much did what it needed to do, and doesn't require more thinking about.

Segment 5: Renee Young interviews Ryback, who says that he has no idea why Bray Wyatt has targeted him. But if Bray wants to question his dedication, well, he'll show just how dedicated he is after beating the shit out of Luke Harper tonight. We'll see.

Segment 6 [Singles Match]: Ryback defeats Luke Harper by pin. Power versus power early, each guy getting a “win” on an exchange. Nothing really settles down either: each guy exchanges power moves, from headlocks, roughneck strikes, or slams. Ryback reversed a suplex into one of his own, drove Harper to the corner, tried to hit ten punches, then just ate a powerbomb counter. Ryback rolled out of the ring at that point to take us to ads.

Back, and Harper is in control with roughneck offense, including the Gator Roll, a move that I still don't know whether I particularly like or not. Still, Harper can't hold momentum for too long when Ryback counters a headlock with a front suplex.

Ryback can't hold it as the guys continue to exchange moves; I swear, no one is getting more than like four moves in a row before the other counters it in a big way. The only time Ryback is able to string together a few moves and concludes with stiff spinebuster, Harper answers a Meathook Clothesline attempt with a big boot and superkick.

In the next exchange, Harper tried a discus clothesline. Ryback ducked it and answered with a Meathook Clothesline out of nowhere, followed by the Shellshock. Ryback won, but that wasn't much of a “message.”

Post-Segment 6: Bray crashes the ring during Ryback's celebration, hitting a one-arm side slam (basically a Rock Bottom), mounted punches, and the Sister Abigail. Now that is how you send a message.

During the action, Harper was in the ring, sitting in the corner and watching. Bray took a purposeful look at him before shouting “Follow the buzzards!” to the hard camera. Hm...

Segment 7 [Tag Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles]: Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (w/ Natalya) defeat The New Day (w/ Xavier Woods) by disqualification, but The New Day retains. So, this match is happening only because Cesaro and Kidd decided to invoke their rematch tonight. Let's see how it goes...

Technical chain wrestling to start between Kidd and Kofi with no one getting the upper hand. Kofi sort of got momentum after the first couple exchanges, then went to throw Kidd over the west ropes. In a unique counter, Cesaro (who was illegal at the northwest corner) ran along the apron, positioned himself in Kidd's flight path, held onto the middle rope, then leaned forward. Kidd grabbed the top rope as he went over, then basically “laid” back-to-back on Cesaro to regain his balance, then sort of skinned the cat. (Given Cesaro's help, I'd like to call this “shaving the cat,” also because that's a hilarious visual.) Kidd then tagged out, finally getting applause from the crowd as they paused to “Oooh!” over the neat teamwork.

Cesaro entered the match with aplomb as he nailed a European Uppercut, then used power offense to keep Kofi contained with several near-falls. He finally settled down by targeting Kofi's arm. Kofi fought out of it eventually, then went punchy-kicky and went for a quick roll-up... which just resulted in Cesaro deadlifting him up to the delayed suplex position. Kidd tagged himself in, then assisted with the suplex by flying off the top rope and bringing Kofi's legs down with him. Pin attempt, only two.

Kidd knows how to play, so he applied an arm wrench to help add to the damage. A quick tag from there kept the ring cut in half, and Cesaro added to the damage with a double underhook suplex. Kofi bailed from there and ran around the ring; Cesaro chased him but was distracted by Xavier Woods, giving Kofi a chance to tag out behind Cesaro's back. Cesaro slid in the ring but didn't realize E was legal until he attacked him from behind. Not that it mattered: Cesaro ducked E's initial attack, then nailed him with a German suplex. He tagged out, and he and Kidd stomped on E. The fans started chanting “New... Day sucks!” their stomps, so they played along and stomped E with the same 1, 1, 2 rhythm just to get the fans into it. Heh, adorable.

Once E was back up, Kidd thought it was a good idea to try Irish Whipping him, which he paid for with a counter-whip. Kidd defended himself with a backflipping forward kick that connected to E but also sent Kidd backward out onto the apron. Kofi tried to run interference but got elbowed in the face; Kidd wanted to follow up with a flying move off the apron, but Woods got in the way. Kidd, now a face, decided against doing the move; it played into E's hands, as E hit him with a running shoulder tackle that sent him off the apron.

E then had control, slamming Kidd into the barricade while Woods pretty much started commentating the match for everyone at the top of his lungs. E tossed Kidd in the ring, then rapid tags from the heels—it feels weird to say that about Kofi—kept Kidd isolated. But when Kofi went for a middle rope flying move, Kidd knocked him out of the air with a front dropkick.

Kidd didn't get his hot tag as Kofi tagged first. E knocked Cesaro off the apron then German suplexed Kidd across the ring. Kidd intentionally oversold it so he could tumble under the bottom rope and crash into the mats, thus taking us to ads.

Back, and New Day is in full control. However, Kofi takes too much time preening after hitting the Boom Drop, and he whiffed on the Trouble in Paradise. Hot tag to Cesaro, who beat up just everyone, but couldn't close the deal thanks to E breaking up the pin attempt. Cesaro took a kick to the face when he tried to charge Kofi in the corner, which I think was the moment a tag happened too, as E came in and flattened Cesaro with a running shoulder tackle. Only a two thanks to interference from Kidd.

Pier Four Brawl from there, as Kidd tossed Kofi over the west ropes. E grabbed Kidd and flung him off the east ropes, intending to clothesline him; Kidd ducked it and instead suicide dove through the ropes to take down Kofi.

Back to just E and Cesaro. E charged Cesaro in the corner, but Cesaro countered with a knee, followed by a flying tilt-a-whirl elbow. Cesaro then hit a spinebuster to E and tagged in Kidd, where they did their trademark Cesaro Swing to Low Dropkick finisher, a think that really should get a proper name. Kidd shot the half, at which point Woods decided he had played enough on the outside of the ring, slid in, and broke up the pin attempt to draw the DQ.

The heels swarmed the faces and beat the crap out of them. There was no big move to finish them: they simply threw Kidd shoudler-first into the ring post, then stomped the shit out of Cesaro until they got bored. They left the ring posing with their belts as they went up the ramp as Kidd and Cesaro glared at them from the ring.

Segment 8: We see an “earlier today” segment as Cameron and Summer Rae say how awesome it is for Naomi to beat the shit out of Brie Bella on Monday. Nikki then pops up; Summer runs away, and Nikki tells Cameron to stop talking shit about her sister, especially since Brie isn't even there. If Cameron wants to keep being a bitch, they should totally fight in the ring. Cameron is all for that, and does a lot of stupid eye rolls and “Girl Bye” blathering, but I guess the match is happening at some point.

Okay, Cameron's star may be justifiably on the rise, but Jesus, I hate that style of talking. I know it's a character, but the whole White Trash Valley Girl thing drives me up a freaking wall, gimmicked or not.

Pre-Segment 9: During Nikki's entrance, we get a pre-taped to-camera monologue from Naomi. Naomi goes for the “Nice girls finish last” style of insults, which is a swing and a miss. I mean, it works from a heel, but it's not the Bellas turned that long ago; only goldfish have forgotten that the Bellas were mean, arrogant, and rude as of like two weeks ago. I agree with Rick that they were handling Naomi right by making this about her wanting to be taken seriously, and now they're handling her wrong by making this less about her confidence and more about that the “sweet polite girls” like the Bellas will get the shit knocked out of them by how the world really works. That's a step backward.

Segment 9 [Singles Match]: Nikki Bella defeats Cameron by pin. Nikki opens with a few take downs to keep Cameron literally off-balance. When Cameron gets her first move, she taunts by sticking her butt up in the air and slowly bending at the waist. It's a hot move in pole dancing, but stupid when you're wrestling, and Nikki responded by elbowing her face off. (Just for clarity: Cameron was totally within her idiom as she did it. But Nikki was with within her idiom by not falling for that.)

Not that it mattered, because when Nikki when to follow, Cameron dodged and took her down. Cameron then flung her out of the ring and chucked her into the barricade. Nikki properly oversold the knee, but Cameron whiffed by not going for leg-targeted moves, instead going for sleepers and headlocks. Weird.

Nikki fought out of the headlock but was taken down with a running face buster before Cameron reapplied the sleeper. Whoever is calling this match should get a quick wrestling psychology lesson from Paige, but so it goes: both women are vastly improved in-ring overall, this slight hiccup in storytelling aside.

In fact, the announcers are more on it: as Nikki fights out of the second sleeper and rallies, she uses running kicks and clotheslines. She kinda soft-sells the knee, and the commentators highlight the knee as if it's supposed to be part of the story. Doesn't seem to matter though: Nikki whiffs a clothesline to the corner, but follows up with a Cody Rhodes-like rebound kick from the middle rope. Nice! Still only a two.

Cameron kicks out and then tries a flash pin. She fails, and as both women get to their feet, Cameron slaps Nikki's cheekbone in half. Then, once again in her idiom, Cameron just preens instead of, you know, wrestles. Nikki takes a moment to compose herself, then just straight jacks Cameron's jaw with a punch that would make Brock Lesnar proud. Nikki followed that up with the Rack Attack, and that was that.

Segment 10: The Prime Time Players do another to-camera bit where they're, uh... well, Darren Young is crying his face off for reasons I'm not quite sure. Regardless, they rag on New Day, then tell WWE to put their shirts on WWE Shop so people start buying them.

Segment 11: Dean Ambrose is in his locker room when Rollins and J&J arrive. Rollins suggests that Ambrose should back out of their match tonight because according to his convoluted logic, Triple H will be so totally mad that Kane booked the triple threat title match in the first place, Trips will take it out on anyone who even had the slightest contact with Rollins in the intervening weeks, including Ambrose. Ambrose isn't buying that garbage, and can't wait to punch Rollins a few times by the time the night is over.

Segment 12: Recap of the King of the Ring tournament on WWE Network.

Segment 13 [Singles Match]: Seth Rollins (w/ J&J Security) defeats Dean Ambrose by pin. Simple technical wrestling to start with Ambrose going right after Rollins's arm. The instant Rollins got loose, he scurried out of the ring for a breather; Ambrose laid across the top rope in the opposite corner to wait. Cute.

Rollins reentered the ring, tried an arm wrench of his own, but Ambrose slipped out and applied his modified STF while hanging onto Rollins nose. Then, unless my ears deceived, a loud (if not large) section of the fans started up a “Boring! Boring!” chant. I don't wish death on anyone, but if anyone is wankery enough to start chanting that 45 seconds into a match, then I don't understand how they eat since no one that stupid can properly work a stove without trying to lick the burners. If I misheard and they weren't chanting “Boring,” then my apologies; but if they were, well, they're burner-lickers.

Rollins eventually fought out of the hold and went for punchy-punchy roughneck offense, milking his offense and preening a little. That gave Ambrose the chance to counter out of a whip with a Lou Thesz Press and follow up by clotheslining Rollins over the ropes. The fight spilled outside, but since J&J ran distraction, Rollins recovered and kicked him in the face when Ambrose tried to reenter the ring. Then Rollins distracted the ref, allowing J&J to kick the shit out of Rollins.

Seemed like the heel was in control... but before we go to ads, we see Kane heading down the ramp. Uh oh.

Back, and Rollins is going for strikes as he keeps Ambrose contained. Between each flurry, he walks over to talk to Kane; their body language is neutral, so it may not be any more than “What are you doing out here?” without any satisfactory answer.

Still, the delays and the preening continue to give Ambrose hope, and he does a couple flurries of his own. Ambrose's first big move was to counter a running bulldog to a lifting facebuster. Looked good, but couldn't close the deal. The fight went to the corner, where Ambrose tried a superplex. Rollins fought out of it, did a partial sunset flip, then hit his corner-to-corner running powerbomb.

(Aside: Am I crazy, or is the corner-to-corner running powerbomb far more dangerous than the now-banned Curb Stomp, especially in light of what happened Droz like 15 years ago? I know that Droz doesn't hold any grudges and the accident was just that, not to mention that Rollins has done the move a million times. But still, like Rick said, you would think that the Curb Stomp, which I'm fairly certain I could teach my 86-year-old grandmother to take safely, is far less of a risk than that fucking running powerbomb.)

Rollins tried to follow up with a flash pin a kick, but Ambrose caught him into a flash pin. Rollins kicked out, slipped out of a Dirty Deeds attempt, hit a no-look enziguri, then nailed him with a superkick. Pin, but only two.

At that point, Kane hopped up on the apron to bitch out the referee. Rollins joined in nearby. Ambrose recovered and charged, knocking Rollins into Kane, sending the latter to the floor. Then Ambrose whipped Rollins off the ropes, then back body dropped him onto Kane, whereupon J&J ran over to help him. Ambrose figured that more destruction always leads to a more fun time, so he launched himself off the top rope to flatten everyone with a flying elbow.

Oh wait: Rollins actually escaped it, so he picked up Ambrose's carcass and threw him into the barricade near the commentating table. Then Rollins checked on Kane, who showed his appreciation by wrapping his hand around Rollins's throat. Ambrose recovered, hopped onto the commentating table, then jumped off with a double axe handle attempt. Kane caught him by the throat too and teased a double chokeslam, but then the ref screamed that he would “disqualify you” to Kane.

Syntax aside—since Kane can't actually be disqualified since he's not, you know, in the match—Kane decides not to risk a dirty finish to the match, so he lets both men go. Then Kane teases he'll totally chokelsam the ref, who decides to stop screaming.

Ambrose recovers from that whole distraction, then throws Kane face-first into the ring post before clotheslining J&J over the commentating table. But then Rollins grabs Ambrose and flings him into the steps, then throws him in the ring. Rollins hits the Step Back DDT, makes the pin, and that's the win.

Post-Segment 13: After the match, Kane rolled in the ring and looked angrily at Rollins, who fell on his butt and backed away. Kane scowled... then stomped the shit out of Ambrose. Rollins and J&J decided to join in for a four-on-one beatdown.

Then Reigns's music started, and Reigns appeared from the stage. He nailed Kane in the face with a Superman Punch without breaking stride, double-Speared J&J, and flung Rollins out. Kane recovered and teased another double chokeslam, this time to Ambrose and Reigns, but they fought out of it. Ambrose hit Kane with a big clothesline, and Reigns followed it up with a Spear. Reigns's music played us out as Rollins screamed bullshit from the stage.

Final Thoughts: Solid episode; although nothing really stood out, there was plenty of storyline advancement. Any complaints I have are nitpicky or myopic, and I've already said them in the body. Nothing more here, and I want to get a little YouTube work done, so I think I'm done for the week.

Have a good night and weekend, everyone. I'll see you next time.

Episode Grade: B-