SmackDown Result: Seth Rollins def. Cesaro & Corporate Kane Returns to TV
Video: Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
Video: Seth Rollins & Corporate Kane (Backstage Segment)

Seth Rollins is Assigned An Opponent (by Corporate Kane)
Reinstated after being suspended for Raw, Corporate Kane wasted little time putting Seth Rollins into a match — but the Director of Operations left the opponent’s identity secret. He also warned The Architect not to run out on the match like he did Monday on Raw because he never would know who would be there to stop him. Kane also opted to put The New Day into a main event showdown against Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose.
Rollins’ opponent turned out to be Cesaro! And when the action seemed to get a little too hot for the titleholder, he decided to take a walk — only to stop when he remembered Kane’s earlier warning.
Despite the Director of Operations’ mind game and a hard-fought offense by The Swiss Superman, in the end, Rollins was able to knock his powerful opponent off the ropes and hit the Pedigree for the victory.

Raw Result: The Demon Plants Seth Rollins through a table, Seth takes a DQ in a match against The Dudley Boyz
Video: HBK Meets Monday Night Rollins
Video: Rollins Agrees to a Shield Reunion of Sorts
Video: Seth vs. Ryback
Video: Seth/Ambrose/Reigns vs. The Wyatts

Seth Rollins Meets Shawn Michaels
HB-Shizzle, meet Seth Freakin’ Rollins. Shawn Michaels swung by Raw in Dallas, as promised, though he apparently didn’t stick to his planned duties of introducing Seth Rollins to the WWE Universe in The Lone Star State. An irate Seth Rollins confronts the Showstopper over not introducing him & blasts him for wasting time talking about “relics of the past.” Seth states that everyone calls him the second coming of Shawn Michaels, a Shawn 2.0. Shawn Michaels laughs and says if he had a nickel for every time there was supposedly a second coming of him, he’d be a billionaire. The Showstopper then gave Rollins a bit of veteran advice, saying “It never once EVER, occurred to me in my career to try to be the second coming of anybody. Because I was too busy becoming the greatest of all time.”
Perhaps Rollins should take the Showstopper’s advice and focus on being only Seth Rollins. Rollins got fed up with HBK’s responses and tried to time out early but Shawn replies “The downside to being the second coming of someone is when you tell them to hit your music, they won’t do it.”
Shawn then places Rollins in a match with Ryback.
Rollins makes short work of that match up and gains one of his first victories in a Raw match in what feels like quite some time.

A Strange Reunion Where Not Much Has Changed
Backstage a meeting again occurs between the authority and Shawn Michaels. They are discussing Ambrose & Reigns and how they need a partner in the upcoming main event match, considering Randy Orton has been rendered absent. Shawn kindly suggests Rollins for the job but the authority disagrees thinking past histories may become a problem. Rollins though wants to prove to the Showstopper he can do what he pleases on Raw and agrees to be the partner.
Don’t call it a reunion by any means, but Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns’ first re-teaming since the days of The Shield — against The Wyatt Family, no less — undoubtedly left the WWE Universe misty-eyed with memories of wars past. If only the outcome was better. Somewhat predictably, Ambrose and Reigns got along less than swimmingly with the man who “destroyed” them to strike out on his own, as Rollins refuses a tag pretending to have a charlie horse in his knee. Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman and a returning Erick Rowan (Luke Harper was suspiciously absent, as was recent Wyatt rival Randy Orton) capitalized in a big way.

Raw Result: The Demon Plants Seth Rollins through a table, Seth takes a DQ in a match against The Dudley Boyz
Video: Kane vs. Seth Rollins (Lumberjack Match)

Seth Rollins Confronts Corporate Kane
As we all know, Corporate Kane’s a pretty nice guy. But to paraphrase a famous Chicagoan, never mistake kindness for weakness: The Director of Operations responded to The Authority’s — still marooned mid-travel — command that he remove himself from the main event by replacing himself with … himself. Kind of.
Instead of Corporate Kane, Rollins had to contend with The Devil’s Favorite Demon in a Lumberjack Match and, devoid of support, The Architect was high and dry on the road to Hell in a Cell. With a wall of humanity tossing him back into the ring every time he broke free, Rollins was at the mercy of The Big Red Machine until The New Day dragged Kane to the outside, kicking off a Pier Six brawl between Lumberjacks and competitors alike. When the dust cleared it was down to Rollins, Kane, and a Tombstone with the champion’s name all over it.

Raw Result: The Demon Plants Seth Rollins through a table, Seth takes a DQ in a match against The Dudley Boyz
Video: Dudley Boyz vs. Seth Rollins & Corporate Kane

Seth Rollins Confronts Corporate Kane
Now comes the ultimate conflict resolution. After weeks of mind games between Seth Rollins and Kane — both sides of him — The Architect and The Devil’s Favorite Director of Operations were ordered to put their beef to bed by a direct report they both share: Stephanie McMahon. When Kane made himself Rollins’ partner against The Dudley Boyz and the WWE World Heavyweight Champion took exception, Stephanie arranged that Rollins would defend his title against Demon Kane at Hell in a Cell, with a final warning Paul Revere would appreciate: Should The Big Red Monster fail to capture the proverbial brass ring and win the title, Corporate Kane would be relieved of his duties as Director of Operations. Two birds, one stone. Ashley from HR would be thrilled.

The Dudley Boyz def. Seth Rollins/Kane(DQ)
With Big Show … indisposed, The Authority had to look in-house to find Seth Rollins’ replacement partner against The Dudley Boyz. And with J&J Security nowhere to be found, that meant the on-again, off-again partnership between The Architect and Kane was back on! The corporate incarnation of The Big Red Monster was seemingly more fallible than Rollins would prefer, bickering with his partner and aggravating his ankle injury on top of everything.
Despite a bizarre attempt by Rollins to handcuff Kane to the ropes and keep him in plain sight, you can probably guess what happened next. Kane went back to the trainer’s room and re-emerged as the demon in full after Rollins got himself disqualified by kicking a table into the Dudleyz’s faces. After shaking off a payback-motivated 3D from the Dudleys, Kane then re-enacted the Boston Massacre by planting Rollins through said table. Wicked good — emphasis on wicked.

Raw Result: Seth Rollins interrupts Kane’s HR Evaluation
Video: Seth Rollins & Kane Confrontation

Kane Undergoes a Job Evaluation & A Transformation to attack Seth Rollins
Of all the recent revelations about Kane, the fact that he can be subjected to a corporate performance evaluation has to rank among the most surprising. Even more so was the fact that the jovial Director of Operations passed his exam with flying colors despite the underhanded attempts of Seth Rollins to sabotage the big man’s rapport with his evaluator, Ashley from Human Resources.

Less surprising was that Rollins — who received a dirt-poor write-up — reacted to this news by beating Kane up, causing him to be carted out in an ambulance. Nor was it surprising that said ambulance was derailed before it could leave the arena by Kane’s transformation into his demonic form. Nor, once again, was it surprising that said demon returned to the ring and beat the holy hell out of Rollins before laying hands on the WWE World Heavyweight Title. To be fair, he did say he was great at conflict resolution.