Monday Night Raw Results 7/21: RAW kicked off with Triple H and his cohorts, Randy Orton and Kane, confused on what they should do next. Confident that they will be able to dethrone John Cena on Battlegrounds, Triple H was left scratching his head as neither of his representatives was able to take the title away from the Cenation Leader. Eventually, Roman Reigns, the other participant in the Fatal 4-way match, interrupted The Authority's meeting.
As a result, The Game devised a plan: a Handicap Match that would either feed the former Hound to his dogs, or see him rise above them.
WWE.com has the recap of every match that transpired tonight:
Roman Reigns def. Randy Orton & Kane
Despite a shaky, albeit steady, united front early in the match, "best for business" proved to be a tenuous glue between The Viper and the former Director of Operations: Further squabbles between the team caused Kane to target Orton when The Viper refused to tag in and Reigns capitalized. The Big Dog blasted the demon with the 1-2 combo of the Superman Punch and Spear for the win, and for all his own talk, Randy Orton wanted no part of the former WWE Tag Team Champion when all was said and done.
Alicia Fox, Eva Marie, Cameron & Rosa Mendes def. Nikki Bella
Stephanie's fearsome foursome feasted upon the hapless Nikki, with Alicia herself doing the honors by executing a scissor kick to the Bella's back.
Bo Dallas def. Damien Sandow
Like all true winners, though, Bo only needed one moment to seize his opening - in this case, it was when Sandow took too long to drop the Elbow of Disdain. Bo simply evaded the signature strike and pounced with the running Bo-dog to hit 16-Bo.
Dolph Ziggler def. Intercontinental Champion The Miz
Stealing the show? Check. And Dolph Ziggler stole the new Intercontinental Champion's thunder to boot as well, knocking off The Miz in some well-deserved retribution after the underhanded Battle Royal elimination of The Showoff that returned the vaunted title to Miz's clutches. Ziggler ended the match with a Zig Zag.
Divas Champion AJ Lee & Paige def. Natalya & Emma
Paige took the bulk of the offense from the two submission experts, tagging in AJ only after she'd suffered the Dil-Emma and Sharpshooter in quick measure.
Zack Ryder def. Fandango
Even though 'Dango reached the ropes with his foot, Layla secured the win for Long Island Iced-Z by shoving his foot off the cable, enabling the ref to count to three and handing Ryder a big Raw win, plus some serious kisses from Summer & Layla.
RybAxel def. Big E & Kofi Kingston
Ryback proved his worth by reversing a top-rope cross body from The Boom Squad General into a pin.
Rusev def. The Great Khali
A couple of well-timed kicks and the Accolade spelled doom for Khali, and the "Fist of Russia" remained unscathed.
Cesaro def. Dean Ambrose via Disqualification
Dean Ambrose tapped into his rabid side and beat the former U.S. Champion to the point of a disqualification.
Triple H selected John Cena's SummerSlam challenger
And John Cena's SummerSlam opponent is ... Randy Orton?!?!
Not quite. The Apex Predator emerged when Triple H made his move to announce The Champ's challenger, though he was intercepted by Roman Reigns on his way to the ring. So, Plan A is out. Plan B has Dean Ambrose to deal with.
Enter Paul Heyman with Plan C. "C" as in the conqueror himself, Brock Lesnar. And one quick handshake with the COO and reiteration of Brock's bona fides later, Heyman made a declaration that may yet become a spoiler as well: "This malpracticing Doctor of Thuganomics is in for the beating of a lifetime."
Bold words. But he's been right before.
