They hype up the Roman vs. Braun main event before Miz TV begins and demands Jason Jordan come down so he can get revenge. Kurt comes down and talks about JJ facing Curtis Axel tonight. Kurt brings Brock out as a guest on MizTV. This needs to lead to people being thrown around. Brock’s new blue Suplex City shirt clashes horribly with the belt. Miz talks for a long time and puts over Roman Reigns and everyone else Brock is facing at the PPV. Heyman says, not to be personal, but he asks if Miz and Maryse role play – because Paul is. Paul says that Miz is Roman, while Bo is Joe and Axel is Braun. Oh my yes. YES! GUYS GET TOSSED AROUND! F5s for everyone!
We get a Nakamura-Jinder hype video, which is so surreal. Seth comes out to face Sheamus, and we get a recap of Seth and Dean’s issues. They have an okay match and Sheamus actually beats Seth thanks to a distraction from Cesaro. This is played off as being due to Sheamus having an ally and Cesaro not having one – so they tied it into things perfectly. The champs beat up Seth on the floor and then hit the double team celtic cross. Dean and Seth argue and Dean tells him that he has Cesaro tonight and he’ll go it alone. This should play out with Seth making the save for Dean to actually show that he’s sorry and then we’d have some rare character building.
Jason Jordan comes out to his C-grade SNES JRPG theme and no reaction. He is legit less over than Kurt was even facing Shawn Stasiak in ’99. The trainer is with Axel and Kurt backstage. THE TRAINER IS WORKING ON HIM and Kurt asks if he’s okay to go out there now. He finds some random man in a singlet named Jean-Pierre Goulet to face his son. Well, logically, you want the underdog to win this…despite Jordan being a babyface. JJ squashes him and gets a ton of boos. Well, that was easy to predict since they set him up to fail against the babyface underdog and he just destroys him. Corey gives him the hard sell and talks about him being gold blooded. JJ is doomed.
Bayley is mid-ring with a sling and talks about being hurt. She talks about being inspired by tweets and texts. She gets booed heavily and says she’s thanking the fans who aren’t booing. Corey says that they’re in Toronto and uses the bizarro world line. Bayley cuts this corny goofball promo about having a smile on her face and wanting to come back as soon as possible. The interview robot hypes up the two triple threat matches and Bayley wants Sasha to win. This gets her slightly less boos. Sasha comes out to face Emma and Alicia. Alexa comes down to do commentary. Alicia eats the backstabber and bank statement, but then Emma tries a cradle and falls to the crossface. Okay then.
Renee’s mic is turned down as she interviews Braun, who says I LIKE HURTING ROMAN REIGNS AND HEARING HIS BONES BREAK. This was awesome. Enzo comes down and hypes up Show like he did Cass. Show says that Cass’s jaw is SAWFT after the big punch and then The Club comes down. This leads to a tag match and Enzo loses to the Boot of Doom. Enzo and Cass brawl after the match and then Show KOs Cass with the punch. We get a recap of the Bray/Balor stuff and Balor talks about kicking fear in the face. They fight and Bray eats a high kick. Bray leaves and says scary words.
Dean and Cesaro have a pretty athletic match. Dean gets a pop-up monkey flip and they fight around for a bit. They brawl up top and Cesaro teases a superplex to the floor, but Dean counters with a superplex to save himself. Dean gets a la magistral cradle for 2. Cesaro gets the sharpshooter and Dean makes it to the rope before diving onto Cesaro on the floor. Sheamus goes to distract Dean, but Dean avoids it and cradles Cesaro to win before a double team attack. Seth comes down to make the save, finally furthering his character and proving that he’s a man of his word. The crowd is super-hot for all of this – so now is the time to pay this off with a hug and a tag title win at the PPV. A giant yes chant breaks out and they face off. Dean puts the fist out and Seth leaves. Well, Seth looks somewhat bad here – but the end game is still clear.
Brock’s mayhem is recapped and we get Titus Worldwide backstage before Neville comes in and talks about the match with Tozawa at Summerslam. Okay then. Ariya Daivari faces Tozawa here and Titus does commentary. Booker says that Titus should be at ringside, while Titus says that Tozawa didn’t need him on 205 Live and he doesn’t need him at ringside here. Tozawa ends this with the senton off the top. Roman cuts a cocky prickish promo about both Summeslam and tonight’s match with Braun.
Nia, Mickie, and Dana face off to see who gets added into the mix to see who faces Nia next week. Dana gets clubbed to death by Nia with a bodyblock against the ropes. Mickie sends her down with the seated senton before getting 2 on Dana. Dana just hops around and Nia crushes her with the legdrop. Summerslam is hyped up with a two hour kickoff show – so the whole event will run from 5PM EST until at least 11PM. Yikes. This really doesn’t truly feel like a big Summerslam show either, and the WWE Title match is certainly a reason why.
Goldust cuts another weird Hollywood-style promo about sharing a new masterpiece and watching Summerslam carefully. He wants a find either a hero or villain, and is seemingly setting up a run as a manager by talking about directing them. Cass talks to Angle and wants Enzo banned from the state at Summerslam, and Kurt somehow turns this into “what, you want him in a shark cage!?”. Cass will face Show at the PPV with Enzo in a shark cage. Okay then. Braun comes out for his match with Roman and Roman eats a ton of offense.
Braun runs him over with a charge on the floor. Roman gets the corner lariats. Braun catches him off the Superman punch and wants a spienbuster, but Roman avoids that but eats a Yokasuka cutter. Braun goes for the reverse chokeslam, but the Superman punch hits in mid-air. Braun dropkick him mid-Superman punch to send him down. A table is brought mid-ring and Roman rains down punches. and lands a Samoan drop through the table after struggling to hoist him up. They brawl on the floor and Braun chucks an office chair at Roman’s head.
This chair toss is called ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE THINGS ON RAW by Cole. They fight on the ramp and it’s Superman punch city. Roman charges for the spear, but eats a kick. Roman launches himself into Braun with a spear that looks incredible. Roman goes to the barricade, but Joe chokes out Roman! Now Braun is still down, so the ref should count him down still. Braun uses the steps to get up and wins it to a huge pop. THis was great.
