This Week In WWE TV – July 22-28, 2013

This week: Team Uppercut collides when Daniel Bryan meets Antonio Cesaro on Raw, as part of a Daniel Bryan gauntlet, perhaps the best kind of gauntlet there could be. After all, the more Daniel Bryan, the better. Plus, the NXT Womens Title tournament concludes, Sandow takes a swim, Brad Maddox’s blue pants and the debut of Tyler Breeze.

RAW

– Raw started with Maddox and his drum roll. And his awesome blue trousers. He hosted the contract signing for Cena versus Bryan at Summerslam. Brad questioned why Cena chose Bryan before he came out. Crowd were really into Bryan. Cena put Bryan over and said it wasn’t about size, bringing up Shawn, Rey and Eddie, but said even being the best wouldn’t be good enough at Summerslam. After they both signed, Brad gave Bryan an opportunity to prove he deserved the shot by putting him in multiple matches tonight.

– Alberto Del Rio d. Sheamus in 9:50. Del Rio quickly went after the leg Sheamus injured at Money In The Bank. There was an ugly bruise which probably looked twice as ugly because of Sheamus’s skin tone. Sandow was shown watching backstage mid way through the match. Del Rio went back to the leg any time he was in trouble. This got really good by the end. Del Rio avoided a Brogue Kick and went to the knee. Sheamus then escaped the cross armbreaker, but as he went for White Noise his knee buckled, allowing Del Rio to turn it into a roll up for the win. Not the most inspiring pairing on paper, but this exceeded expectation.

– Renee interviewed Booker and Teddy. Booker said he respected Vince’s decision. Teddy got annoyed at Booker for leaving him in the lurch. Teddy said if he wasn’t going to be made GM, maybe Vince made the right decision getting rid of Booker too and left.

– Christian d. Titus O’Neil in 4:41. Titus overpowered Christian for a while, before Christian fought back and after taking Young out, caught Titus with the Killswitch.

– Josh interviewed Ryback about his attack on Jericho. He basically spelled out that he was a bully now, in the most obvious way you could without actually saying “I am a bully now” and said he hated average. Then he intimidated Josh until he ran off and Ryback laughed.

– Henry came out and said he was proud of his effort against Cena, but he wasn’t proud of what happened with The Shield. He said his heart didn’t pump kool aid and he called out The Shield. Henry tried to fight all three of them solo but they beat him down, until The Usos made the save. Rollins and Ambrose pulled Reigns to safety and they escaped through the crowd.

– Backstage Cena spoke with Bryan. Cena wanted Bryan to make it to Summerslam in one piece, but Bryan said he’d be fine and Cena would say the same if he was in Bryan’s position. Bryan said he’d fight and he’d win tonight and warned Cena not to get involved, because that would prove everything good he said about him was crap.

– Dolph Ziggler d. Darren Young in 4:24. Ziggler won with a Zig Zag after Young spent too long taunting him. After the match Big E tried to attack, but Ziggler pulled another escaping act on him.

– Miz hosted MizTV with the cast of Total Divas. Miz mentioned he was hosting Summerslam before letting Lawler take over for some reason. Eva Marie slapped him for basically no reason and one of the Bellas had a minor wardrobe malfunction. Nothing really happened, it went less than 5 minutes and only one of the girls spoke so I’m not sure what the point was.

– HHH accused Brad of having Vince put words in his mouth about Bryan. He put Bryan over and warned Brad to pick the right train. Stephanie told him she had an idea.

– Cody Rhodes d. Fandango in 4:14. Sandow did commentary, which was of course very entertaining. Sandow teased attacking from behind but Cody ran Fandango into him and kicked the briefcase into Fandango, before winning with Cross Rhodes.

– Punk came out. He said Brock hit him with his best shot last week, but he kept getting up and he was still standing. Punk talked Lesnar up as a former NCAA, WWE and UFC champion. He said Brock’s biggest weapon was fear, but he wasn’t afraid of Brock. He reiterated his warning to Heyman and promised he’d get his hands on him. He said monsters were put on earth to be slaughtered and challenged him to a match at Summerslam, The Best versus The Beast. Heyman showed up on the screen via satellite, which he seemed happy about, because he didn’t have to step foot in Texas. He mocked Punk down for playing the hero and asked if he was a coward with no more options or a fool too stupid to know when to stay down. Heyman accepted, but told Punk it wasn’t The Best against The Beast, because The Beast was The Best.

– Rob Van Dam d. Wade Barrett in 4:18. Wade got his mouth busted by a kick within a minute. Just incase you were wondering if RVD’s back. Van Dam won with the Five Star.

– Daniel Bryan d. Jack Swagger in 2:59. They didn’t outright call this a gauntlet, but I guess technically it was. Colter cut one of his promos on the crowd before the match. Bryan got through Swagger after catching him by surprise with the YES Lock. Which lead to:

– Daniel Bryan d. Antonio Cesaro in 13:38. Cesaro kept trying to wear Bryan down with his rear choke, but couldn’t keep Bryan down for long. Swagger got involved, pushing Bryan off the top into an uppercut. Bryan recovered and it was an even finish, with a brutal tree of woe dropkick by Bryan and Cesaro countering a back superplex. They exchanged european uppercuts and Cesaro turned Bryan inside out with a clothesline. Bryan countered a Neutraliser and fought back with some brutal forearms. Bryan hit a dive on Cesaro and Swagger, before countering the pop up uppercut into maybe the best small package ever for the pin. This was, unsurprisingly, great with an awesome finish.

– Brad was shown watching backstage with, of all people, Alex Riley. Brad wanted to see how good Bryan would do against his next opponent. Who was:

– Daniel Bryan d. Ryback by DQ in 9:12. Ryback dominated early with Bryan already worn down. Bryan mounted a comeback and hit a dive as Ryback set up a table outside. Ryback countered the YES Lock once, but Bryan managed to lock it in a second time. Ryback got to the ropes though. Ryback then powerbombed Bryan on the floor, before powerbombing him through the table for the disqualification. After the match Cena ran out and got rid of Ryback, before challenging him to a table match next week.

– Vince went to Brad backstage and convinced Brad to put Bryan in a match with Kane as well. Bryan then stood tall at the end of the show.

MAIN EVENT

– Sheamus d. Jack Swagger in 13:19. Colter accused Sheamus of sneaking into the country before the match. Like Del Rio, Swagger went after the injured leg. Colter also provided a distraction to help Swagger out. Sheamus fought back and survived the ankle lock, making the ropes. After fighting off Swagger’s attempt to ram his knee into the post, Sheamus hit a Brogue Kick out of nowhere for the pin. Another solid match revolving around Sheamus’s injury.

– Sin Cara d. Drew McIntyre in 3:56. Sin Cara started hot and even broke out some air guitar, before Slater interfered. 3MB ended up catching Sin Cara on a dive, but Sin Cara recovered and beat Drew with a kneeling hurricanrana while Heath and Jinder weren’t paying attention.

– Damien Sandow d. Justin Gabriel in 8:38. Sandow controlled most of the match. He won with a full nelson slam, which hopefully isn’t a new finisher going forward.

NXT

– NXT Womens Championship Tournament Semi Final: Paige d. Emma in 11:14 to become the first NXT Womens Champion. Crowd were split with dueling chants. After an even start, Paige took control for a while, before Emma got the upper hand herself. Paige got Emma in a cloverleaf but she escaped. Emma then tried the Emma Lock but Paige avoided that as well. In the end, Paige hit the Paige Turner out of nowhere for the win. Other divas came out to celebrate with Paige and HHH came out to congratulate her as well.

– A promo from Zeb and Cesaro aired. They accused Sami Zayn of being in the country illegally, claiming a background check on his name turned up nothing. Zeb claimed Sami used to wear a mask early in his life, just like people south of the border who sneak into the country and accused him of being one of them. They threatened to have him deported and make his life a nightmare, inside and outside the ring.

– Tyler Breeze d. Angelo Dawkins in 1:20. Breeze is a male model, who takes pictures of himself on his phone during his entrance. Lots of them. To the point it was holding up the match from starting. He apparently has a ‘seasonal residence’ in Milan too. Breeze and his tassely boots won with a spin kick. Then he took some more selfies.

– The Ascension d. Mickey Keegan and Aiden English (Victor pinned English) in 1:57. Total squash. Keegan didn’t even tag in and The Ascension beat English with a Total Elimination style move, with Conor doing a legsweep and Victor a spinning back elbow

– Sheamus d. Luke Harper in 9:57. This came about from last week after the Wyatts attacked Sheamus and Sheamus cost Harper and Rowan the tag titles in retaliation. Rowan got involved a couple of times. Harper almost won with his spinning clothesline, before Sheamus took out Rowan, hit White Noise and won with the Brogue Kick. For some reason Bray reacted by laughing and applauded Sheamus.

SMACKDOWN

– Randy Orton d. Damien Sandow in 11:05. Money In The Bank holder versus Money In The Bank holder. Cody came out during the match and stole Sandow’s briefcase, distracting him and allowing Orton to win with an RKO.

– Punk came out. He said Heyman had taught him how to play dirty and exploit people’s weaknesses, which is what he’d do to Brock at Summerslam. He said that weakness was trusting Heyman. Punk claimed Heyman only supported him because of his own ego and said he wanted it all, but Punk would take everything from him. He promised something special for Heyman after dealing with Brock, when Fandango interrupted. Punk immediately attacked him with the microphone when he got in the ring and gave Fandango a GTS.

– Mark Henry and The Usos d. Wade Barrett and The Primetime Players (Henry pinned Titus) in 3:29. This was a warmup match for Henry and The Usos before facing The Shield on Raw. Henry ran through the PTP and after superkicks from The Usos took his partners out, Titus took the World’s Strongest Slam for the pin.

– Del Rio met with Vickie. He told Vickie she owed him for making him face RVD and suggested she let him choose his Summerslam opponent, like Cena. RVD walked in and wanted the shot, but Alberto said he had to prove himself. RVD said that was a great idea and he’d beat him tonight to do it.

– Sandow was shown looking for Cody backstage. He ran into Sin Cara, who was no help, so he called an anaemic pathetic piece of vermin.

– Alberto Del Rio d. Rob Van Dam in 2:32. Del Rio stalled a lot, lulling RVD in, before hitting him with a cheap shot superkick for a cheap win.

– Still looking for Cody, Sandow ran into Henry and Booker. Sandow pointed out Booker used to be General Manager which Booker got annoyed about.

– AJ came out with Big E. She gave a “State Of My Mind address”. AJ claimed, somewhat unconvincingly, that she was fine despite Dolph breaking up with her. She said she was still Divas Champion and that would never leave her. AJ said she had the keys to Dolph’s house, which brought out Ziggler, who said he’d already changed the locks. AJ started cutting up Ziggler’s belongings including his driver’s license, his passport and his money. Ziggler didn’t seem concerned. AJ flipped out and threw his clothes around. Crowd chanted she was a psycho. As AJ was leaving the ring Kaitlyn then laid her out with a spear. Ziggler then gave Big E a fameasser as he tried to check on AJ.

– The Wyatt Family d. Tons Of Funk (Rowan pinned Tensai) in 1:05. Just a squash. Harper gave Tensai the spinning clothesline and Rowan followed up with a splash. Afterwards Bray gave Tensai the Sister Abigail and told Kane if he needed him, he’d be right there with all his friends, waiting for him.

– Sandow stormed into Vickie’s office trying to find Cody. Vickie said everything would be fine and told him to relax. He didn’t take her advice.

– Christian d. Jack Swagger in 4:43. Christian won after a back and forth finish, countering the ankle lock and sending Swagger shoulder first into the post, before hitting the Killswitch.

– After the match Sandow stormed out and demanded Cody be arrested and fired for stealing his briefcase. Cody appeared on the screen with his briefcase, by the Gulf Of Mexico. He dared Sandow to come get the briefcase. Sandow stormed across the street to find him. He pleaded with Cody and tried to suck up to him, even claiming Cody was smarter and more handsome than him. This didn’t work and Cody threw the case into the water. Sandow was distraught and tried to dive into the water to save it, despite the fact he couldn’t swim. He managed to drag himself to safety but without the briefcase.