Hulk Hogan Birthday Celebration Hype
The WWE SummerSlam “go-home” edition of RAW opens up this week with a shot of the top of the stage. We see tons of presents on the stage, wrapped in red and yellow wrapping paper. The announcers put over Hulk Hogan’s Birthday Celebration tonight and all of the expected surprise guests, until they are cut off by Brock Lesnar’s theme song.
Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman Head To The Ring
Out walks Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman together. They make their way to the ring as the announcers do a hard sell for Sunday’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view.
Lesnar stands in the ring with the “Eat, Sleep, Conquer” shirt, only instead of “The Streak,” the bottom of the shirt has a piece of tape that says John Cena written over top of it. Heyman introduces himself and then says after this Sunday, he’ll be the representative of the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion — Brock Lesnar.
Heyman says he’s out here to sell Lesnar’s chances at SummerSlam to the “Ce-Nation.” He shows off highlights of Lesnar ending Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania XXX. One of the pictures is “shocked Undertaker guy,” which gets a big pop from the crowd. That truly is one of the best pro wrestling photos of all-time.
Paul Heyman goes on to run down some of Lesnar’s other historical achievements, such as dethroning The Rock to become the youngest WWE Champion in history. He talks about taking out Hulk Hogan in his rookie year. Heyman promises the “Ce-Nation” that after this Sunday, you truly won’t be able to “see him” anymore, complete with the hand-waving gesture that Cena does.
Heyman goes on to reference the Lesnar-Cena match from Extreme Rules a few years ago, noting that Lesnar was still dealing with the diverticulitis that ended his UFC career. He says this Sunday will be different. Heyman closes with a rhyme, mocking Cena’s old hip-hop character. As Heyman goes to leave, Lesnar stops him. Heyman tells us that his client wants us to know that as of tonight, “this is Brock’s house now.” He says this ring is Brock’s home. He says he’s going to take the man of the house out to dinner. He says when he’s done eating, he’s coming back home. With that said he drops the mic and Lesnar’s music plays as the two leave.
Coming Up Next …
Backstage we see Roman Reigns taping his arms up, preparing for battle. As we head to our first commercial of the evening, Jerry Lawler informs us that Reigns is in action next against an opponent hand-selected by The Authority.
Roman Reigns vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
When we return from commercial, Roman Reigns’ theme hits and he makes his way to the ring through the crowd. Reigns finally enters the ring to a nice pop as we await to see who The Authority chose for him to face tonight.
Kane’s theme music hits, however out walks “Corporate Kane” with a microphone. He says it’s his pleasure to once again be out here as the Director Of Operations for The Authority. Kane accidentally says “six weeks” instead of “six days” when telling Reigns who his opponent(s) are for tonight.
With that said, Ryback and Curtis Axel’s music hits and out walks RybAxel together. The bell rings and here we go with handicap action.
Axel starts things off for his team. Reigns looks confident and prepared for battle, all-the-while Axel is avoiding contact early on. They finally lock up and Reigns starts to over-power the RybAxel member.
Axel shouts at Reigns that he’s nothing but a punk kid and then proceeds to push him. Reigns simply knocks him on his ass with a big right hand. Axel crawls over and tags in the larger member of the team.
Ryback comes in and the two power-houses stare at each other before locking up. Reigns and Ryback run into each other, but neither man budges. A second time and Reigns simply knocks him on his butt with a big clothesline. Reigns now begins to go to work on Ryback.
After some double-team action and cheap shots, Ryback and Axel manage to gain the upper-hand over the former Shield member. On that note, we head to a mid-match commercial.
When we return from the break, we see Reigns locked in a headlock by Ryback, but the crowd is in the middle of rallying behind Reigns. Reigns begins to fight his way out, ultimately knocking Ryback out of the ring.
Reigns goes out after him. Axel tries to attack him from behind, but Reigns turns around and catches him. As he deals with Axel, however, he is blasted from behind by Ryback. The numbers game catches up with Reigns and now the tag-team duo is working on the arm of Reigns, slamming him shoulder-first into the ring post. They do that again and the referee disqualifies them.
Winner via DQ: Roman Reigns
After The Match
After the match, the attack continues. They beat on Reigns’ shoulder again before throwing him back in the ring. As they go to deliver additional punishment to him in the ring, Reigns recovers and takes out both guys with high-impact offense. He hits them each with a Superman punch. The fans start chanting “spear, spear, spear,” and Reigns obliges, blasting both guys with spears as well. His music hits and he celebrates with the crowd a bit as some replays are shown.
