RAW Review: 9th March

Hello! Its another RAW Review, and we're headed into the business end of this Mania build- as such we should be getting a quality product in an attempt to build the "biggest show of the year".

One thing I'm going to pitch before I start reviewing- Something along the lines of "Fantasy WWE", I'd organise it and do all the leg-work obviously, but I wouldn't want to put a load of effort in with nobody actually doing it; so if you're interested tweet me- and I'll gauge people's interest over the next week or so- it'll be free obviously before you ask and if it were to happen I'd be looking at starting it either for Wrestlemania- or the night after Wrestlemania. Now lets get reviewin'

Randy Orton & The Authority Promo
I missed the first bit of this because of Daylight Savings- if it wasn't for me casually scrolling through Twitter working on one of my Mania Week Blogs I'd have missed the whole of the first hour. But anyway, what I saw I really liked- I've never wholly liked Orton as a babyface, especially considering how you've seen he can be as a heel; but for once his Promo was really entertaining- him going down the line of The Authority and roasting everyone was entertaining, but he spared Mercury; you know why because Joey Mercury is god. It was so obvious the way he described destroying Rollins & passing it off as a joke was exactly what would happen later on in the night- but in a way that added to the story.

Daniel Bryan v Bad News Barrett
As far as I can tell this was the first time we'd had Bryan v Barrett since that 10 Minute Ref Bump in the build to Summerslam '13. The pairing has potential, but the match was nowhere near long enough to actually be anything special- and Truth on Commentary was clearly meant to detract from the match in my opinion; fairplay to Truth though because he's somehow got himself into a Mania match and being featured regularly again. They booked themselves into a corner with this match because Bryan can't lose to people at the level that Barrett's at- but at the same time Barrett can't afford losses in the build to this Mania because he's already being made to look like an idiot by failing to get his IC Title back.

Dean Ambrose v Stardust
As I'll get into in my (Realistic) Fantasy Booked Mania, Stardust shouldn't even exist by this stage- but they've gone the way they're going and Cody isn't going to have the Brother v Brother match. That said he's still entertaining enough to keep the wheels turning through Mania. As with with Bryan/Barrett pairing this pairing has potential, we just didn't get enough to really see it. The mass brawl after was alright, Truth has clearly been watching the early Cryme Tyme vignettes because he's become a master thief with the move he pulled. I don't like them consistently making Barrett the joke- especially when you consider how some of the other guys in the match have been booked lately.

Paul Heyman Promo
There's certain times in a Wrestlemania build where you suddenly start to feel like its Wrestlemania Season. This promo was that moment. The build for this Mania has been pretty rough, but Heyman has somehow stayed on track the whole way- and while his promos are always good- this promo was outstanding. 2 of the 3 Nominations in my 2014 Sammy Award for Promo of the Year were Heyman- and I don't think I even need a section this year; if a Promo tops this one it'll either be from Heyman or be the Promo of whomever does so's life.

Bray Wyatt Backstage Promo
This was a pretty short promo, and it was more to set up what was going to happen later- but it was still good, then again its nearly impossible to find a Wyatt Promo that isn't good.

Ryback & Erick Rowan v Big Show & Kane
Ugh.

Stephanie McMahon Promo
I liked this Promo, as we had Triple H "firing" Booker last week- and now the way Stephanie acted during this promo its good we're now seeing the "power trip" side of the "power couple" and they're starting to flex their muscles in that regard. I like it, as long as this is at least close to the last chapter of the Authority Saga.

"Wizdow"
This was alright, in a fun kind of way- I do like them constantly pairing Miz with the guest hosts because it suits his gimmick really well.

Wiz Khalifa Performs
Now this RAW has passed, we're now two RAWs away from Wrestlemania. Any TV time on RAW is prime real estate- so we had nearly 10 minutes of it transpires a baked, pretty bad rapper jumping around progressively wearing less clothes,

AJ Lee v Summer Rae
Summer has really regressed in the ring, she was really starting to piece everything together down in NXT- but now she's massively gone backwards in the ring in my opinion; and her selling is atrocious. I don't necessarily blame her for it though because while I don't always pay attention to things like Superstars, Main Event etc. I can't even remember seeing her mentioned in a match on those "secondary" shows.

Rusev v Curtis Axel
AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA, AXELMANIA.

John Cena kills Rusev
The babyface John Cena got a spot on Wrestlemania by choking out the guy standing up for his beliefs- and effectively blackmailing a woman. Good Guy Cena.

The New Day v KiddSaro
THE NEW DAY WON ON RAW, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Natalya v Naomi
These are arguably the best two in-ring workers on the Main Roster at the moment, and as I've said a few times tonight this pairing has a lot of potential- they just weren't given nearly enough time to make anything of it.

Los Matadores v The Usos
LOS MATADORES WON ON RAW, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Undertaker "answers" Bray Wyatt
On a night where Heyman wasn't firing on all cylinders, and then bought new cylinders and fired those as well- this would have been my favourite segment of the night. I've repeatedly said Taker doesn't need to show up, with the way Taker's character has been built he doesn't need to show up to make an impact. The Bray Promo was really strong, and the imagery we've had throughout this feud has been great- but Bray laughing inches away from the flames really was great.

Roman Reigns v Seth Rollins & Randy Orton
The match was short, perhaps thankfully given the fact Roman was involved. The fact Roman is essentially two weeks away from Mania and he's being given 7 Minute Main Events where he isn't even the focal point says a lot for WWE's faith in Roman's ability. The Orton beatdown was satisfyingly brutal- but it did seem a bit overlong in my opinion, I wasn't obviously timing it but I think it ended up going for nearly 10 Minutes overall- no disrespect to Orton but not many people will be getting Wrestlemania because of Orton/Rollins so I'm not sure they really needed this to be positioned where it was. In my opinion the best way to end this RAW was to have the Bray segment last- because it'd have made you believe Taker was showing up because it was positioned in the Main Event segment.

Thanks for reading as ever, This RAW was quite a fun one in all honesty- if it wasn't to build Wrestlemania I'd have said this was one of the better structured RAWs we've had recently, but unfortunately it is- and between the Rumble fiasco, DeMott etc. the build for this Mania has arguably been the worst ever- which I'll discuss in great detail in one of my 31 Mania Week Blogs. Anyway, Thanks again for reading- and don't forget to tweet me if you're interested in the "WWE Fantasy League" idea I pitched.