Raw Review: John Cena and Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton and Kane
By Mike Smith
WWE.com
Bad News Barrett update
The announce team announced that Barrett would be undergoing surgery on his shoulder, forcing him to vacate the Intercontinental Championship. They said that a battle royal would take place at Battleground to determine the new Intercontinental Champion.
Paul Heyman promo/Kofi Kingston pre-taped promo/Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston
Heyman came out and talked about how great it is that the Intercontinental Championship is vacant, and is now Cesaro’s for the taking. He said that Cesaro is the obvious first entrant in the match, having won the biggest battle royal in WrestleMania history. He then introduced Cesaro.
Kingston talked about how excited he is for the battle royal at Battleground, as he looks to become a five-time Intercontinental Champion.
Kofi beat Cesaro on the WWE App with a roll-up. When Raw came back from a commercial, Kofi was celebrating, but it didn’t last long as Cesaro completely dismantled Kofi after the match. Honestly, WWE had no right to allow Kofi to win this match. “Paul Heyman Guys” like Ryback and Curtis Axel didn’t get over because of losses like this, Cesaro can follow suit if you really want him to, but he might be the most talented guy on the main roster so that would be pretty dumb.
At one point, Cesaro threw Kofi over the announcers table, forcing Michael Cole to sell a bump for a short time. This had to be related to the reported incident from Money in the Bank, when a Spanish Announcer didn’t sell a bump to Triple H’s liking.