Randy Orton & Roman Reigns meet New Day
I thought this would be a standard, hey- I respect you but if you get in my way I'll kill you type back and forth between Orton & Roman before they inevitably got put in a Tag Match against Kane and Rollins or some combination of the RAW Main Event tag teams we've seen for pretty much a solid 6 Months. What we got instead was great. New Day are truly the Rocky Maivia of the current WWE landscape, everyone hated them until they turned- now I'm pretty sure the general consensus is that they're great in their new roles and especially last night they were one of if not the most entertaining part of the show. Randy & Roman sarcastically playing along with the Clapping stuff made it that much better, I said it last week that Xavier was finding his role as the main heater- and that was apparent again last night which is a good thing because when they were babyfaces he was just kind of there.
New Day v Roman Reigns & Randy Orton
If you were following along on Twitter you'll know I was a bit distracted during this match- it's a long story involving a potential fire hazard, a microwave and Garlic Bread- no, really. But from what I did see of the match it was pretty good- Booker butchering what the freebird rule was annoyed me but apart from that there wasn't anything obviously wrong with it all. I was scared they were going to have New Day lose clean- and given the way they've booked "secondary" champions I think I was rightly concerned, but the finish was good and it gave New Day a great platform as well as teeing up the Main Event match and teasing the tension a lot more than any promo could have done.
Kane Backstage Promo
A Common Theme for most of the Backstage Segments last night in that New Day were a highlight- them going mental after winning was entirely in keeping with their characters and I think it speaks highly for them that they got pretty much more air time in one night than they did in their entire babyface run. The Kane/Rollins stuff is getting a bit repetitive now- we're getting pretty much the same thing every week with very little progression, and they need to either pull the trigger on this Kane/Rollins feud or drop it because it's losing steam every repetitive week.
Ryback & Bray Wyatt's thing
We already had the Ryback sob story promo a couple of months ago- then again in keeping with Rybacks on/off pushes presumably Vince forgot all about it and thought it was an original idea. The one thing you do have to say to Ryback's credit is that he won the crowd over when they were split on him. The Bray promo was, well a Bray promo- I still say he's a bit wasted with all if this build, but hopefully this is something just to hold him over for something a lot bigger for Summerslam.
KiddSaro v The Ascension
KiddSaro didn't come out to that much of a reaction- and I started to think maybe we'd were overestimating their over-ness, but if the crowd weren't won over by them before- after Cesaro proved how much of a beast he is every single person in the crowd had bought into them. But nope, Cesaro hasn't connected... Has he Vince.
Seth Rollins Backstage Promo
As with the previous backstage promo it did feel a bit like they just Copy & Paste, Seth antagonises Kane- Kane responds into every RAW script.
Dean Ambrose v Seth Rollins
I really liked this match, I'm going to preface everything I say with that so people don't get the wrong idea. The "Holy Shit" and "This is Awesome" chants have lost all meaning now- they did the former after a Suicide Dive, which you see almost every week on RAW whether it's from Neville, Harper, Reigns, Ambrose etc. it's not a special occurrence when someone does a suicide dive- and for me it just didn't merit it. Then the first "This is Awesome" chant broke out when the match was just starting to click from my point of view- and as such didn't deserve it at that time. However, by the end it deserved all the adulation in the world, the finish was near perfect, in that a roll-up protects Rollins to an extent- but at the same time J&J coming down meant the odds were against Ambrose.
I got into a semi-argument with someone over what I'm about to say last night, Ambrose from my point of view is completely out of place being in a Main Event. Since Hell in a Cell he hasn't even had a sniff of the Main Event scene, and since his "What other potentially dangerous stipulation can we put these guys in" feud with Bray fizzled out he hasn't even had a heated feud with which to sink his teeth into. While there is obvious history between Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns- Ambrose within kayfabe is nowhere near credible enough to be in the Main Event, and has presumably been put in solely to take the pin before going back to the Midcard. I like Ambrose, and the crowd clearly care about him- but going from the most filler of filler matches on the last PPV card to the Main Event with no bridge makes little sense to me.
Seth Rollins, Kane Backstage Promo
Do I even need to say what happened, you can fill in the blanks.
Lana Backstage Promo
Lana dropping the seed of her Murican-ness was a nice subtle touch- I completely disagree with the reported plan for her, because she's almost perfect in her Russian role and has almost naturally turned into a babyface of her own accord so why they feel the need to do anything other than slightly tweak her gimmick so it's more "fan-friendly" is beyond me. If you just disengage for a second and pretend Fandango is Johnny Curtis and he chloroformed Saxton, you feel that- that's the feeling of the world being right.
Rusev v Fandango
To be fair to them- they actually gave us a proper match, with a story attached to it with Lana and Fandango getting in some good offence. If all of Rusev's squash matches had been like this one the crowd would have gotten into him a lot earlier.
KRUGAH!!!!!
Stardust v R-Truth
I really liked this RAW, but this was one of the worst things to ever happen in a Wrestling ring ever. You can tell it was a Vince idea and he was probably pissing himself laughing when it happened, but everyone else- not so much. It's a shame as well because both guys are a lot better than a win via Plastic Spiders.
John Cena v Sami Zayn
I'm going to try incredibly hard to not go on a rant- everyone is entitled to an opinion and I respect every one equally. However, how anyone can say Sami Zayn was "buried" last night and Cena "buried" him is beyond me. I was tempted to do an entire post last night when RAW ended about why Sami Zayn wasn't buried- but I was way too tired and I don't like half-arsing any of these posts, because you lot have decided to read this; and I want you to keep coming back week after week for these. Sami Zayn, someone who was completely destroyed by Kevin Owens- gave Cena a proper match, even when he was injured; and if that doesn't elevate him and Owens to a different level, he was introduced by Bret fucking Hart. Without being ITK I'm assuming this whole part was produce by HHH because Cole was actually calling moves and telling a proper story- it might not seem like a lot but when you get so used to the usual half-arsed commentary, for Cole to actually be calling a Koji Clutch and a Blue Thunder Bomb added a lot to the match. I'm not sure if this was his "Debut Debut" or if they're Charlotte-ing him, the injury may have a part to play in all of it- but either way this was top draw stuff.
Oh Yeah... Justice for Slater.
New Day, KiddSaro Backstage Promo
This and what directly followed it with the Ring-Walk for the Bellas cemented New Day as one of the highlights of a very good RAW, and if you'd predicted that before they turned you'd have been sectioned.
Nikki Bella v Naomi
So pretty much the highlight of all of this was New Day when they were doing the walk to the ring. The Naomi is getting AJ's turn stuff is pretty apparent to the point they put Tamina with her- who looked out of place without wearing someone's merch, if there were ever a reason to give Naomi merch it's for the sake of Tamina. The attack was alright, for me it was positioned wrong because there was no way they were going to get a hot reaction after the crowd had expended so much energy during Cena/Zayn. If they really want to "Give Divas a Chance" they need to stop being in the pallet cleanser spot, I'm not necessarily saying give them the Top of any of the hours- but give them the first match of the night or something.
King Barrett and Sheamus v Neville & Dolph Ziggler
This was alright for what it was, all 4 guys are solid in-ring- so if they were to not put on a good match it would be more of a surprise. While I know it's a long-shot I'd have Neville turn on Dolph and do a British Invasion type faction- even though Sheamus isn't British.
Randy Orton v Roman Reigns
Literally nobody saw this match playing out the way it did and then subsequently getting an Ambrose run-in to make the save before everyone took each others finishers, nobody. While the Main Event was shaken up with the Ambrose addition there's still an air of predictability surrounding the current Main Event picture and the way each Main Event is going to play out which WWE needs to address- because especially on a RAW like this one the Main Event looks like shit in comparison.
Thanks for reading as always, as I said at the start this RAW is the start of the Wrasslin Summer for this blog now the Football Season is over from a Fulham view, and with that comes Impact Reviews! So they'll be going up every Saturday, and while they won't necessarily be regular there's going to be quite a few booking blogs between now and August- so stay tuned for both of those things and I hope you enjoy them. Thanks again for reading, and remember- JUSTICE FOR SLATER BAYBAY!!!
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