Last week, the unlikely duo of Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins defeated The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions. The Bar came out and interrupted an opening promo by Kurt Angle, saying that his son didn't deserve a championship match and demanded their rematch for the tag titles, which Angle didn't grant. Instead, he made a match between Cesaro and Jordan.

 

The opening minutes of the match had a nice display of Jordan's agility and strength. In particular, Jordan catching Cesaro in mid-air before ramming him into opposite corner a few times. A quick distraction by Sheamus from the outside allowed Cesaro to deliver a chop block to Jordan's left leg. Cesaro worked over the leg very well a various holds and occasional strikes, and Jordan sold in kind with good screams of anguish and facial expressions. Jordan continued this in his comeback, fighting through the pain to deliver some suplexes to Cesaro. A good moment was when he couldn't apply a full bridge after hitting Cesaro with back to back Northern Light suplexes. The agony on his face along with the lifting of his left leg was very good. Jordan survived a Boston Crab by grabbing the ropes. Rollins attacked Sheamus on the outside after interfering again. This moment distracted Cesaro enough for Jordan to hit the belly-to-back suplex lift into a neckbreaker for the victory ─ the same maneuver Jordan used the win the tag titles last Monday.

 

A good match to kick-off Monday Night Raw with a really good performance by Jordan. The match was well-paced and had effective storytelling that had the crowd invested all the way through. There was also some development between the team of Jordan and Rollins. Jordan continuing to show his arrogance by challenging Cesaro and Sheamus by himself, leaving himself open to attack (as shown moments before the match began). Rollins stating that he has to less self-absorbed and focus on the team. I'm intrigued to see this dynamic further develop in the following weeks.

I think this was a good match with great fire from both wrestlers sports entertainers. Cesaro is great and Jason Jordan is very good but the crowd was not into it early on. The interference was irritating but contributed well to the story. ***

Liked this one a lot. Jordan got to show off his strength early, and Cesaro did a fantastic job working the leg. A fine way for WWE to ring in the new year.

Yeah, this was very fun throughout and a terrific offensive performance from Cesaro, not just in destroying Jason Jordan's leg but also just general aggression (there's a fun moment where just starts dropping elbows into Jordan's "guard"). Jordan keeps up his end of the bargain selling too. I would really love this is if I didn't think the finish was pretty flat.