RAW Review: 1st June

Hello! It's another RAW Review- It was such a doubt when the next one would be out. The Elimination Chamber hadn't filled me with hope that we'd get a good RAW, but at the same time with just two weeks until Money in the Bank I had hopes they would go for it as they did in the two weeks prior to the Chamber to get people excited for the PPV that was actually a PPV this time. I've been biding my time- and slept on the RAW last night, let's see if I can contain myself.

Quickly before I start, I just wanted to say how good was the Austin Podcast? They gave you 9/10th's of a show where they pretty much broke down everything that's wrong with the current product and it was just a shoot. Then for the last little bit they went back to Kayfabe and showed everyone how to actually do it, Also the thing about Promos where people go straight into "I'm going for "X" thing made me wonder- Is what Heyman said why Enzo Amore is so over? Right then enough about the Positives of Last Night, Let's get Reviewing.

The Authority & Roman Reigns Promo
I'm going to try something different this week. Seeing as WWE just Copy & Pastes the Opening Segment every week I thought I'd Copy & Paste my Review for the Opening Segment as well...

Much in the way of an Authority Promo I'm going to make this paragraph unnecessarily long when the payoff would take much less time- and of course I'm going to make all of you suffer through it (forget the fact you can scroll down). This paragraph will be so unnecessarily long you won't even know what's hit you- it's like I could make a "Things Longer than Seth" joke, but it would be moot because the paragraph would be so long. This paragraph will be so, so, so unnecessarily long. I didn't really like it.

Roman Reigns v King Barrett
I'm now convinced the only reason they brought back King of the Ring and had Barrett win it was to kill the "Bad News" gimmick and in turn kill any semblance of momentum for Barrett who yet again was getting over. Then we get onto the logic of The Authority supposedly stacking the odds against Roman by putting him against Barrett who was pinned by R-Truth less than 24 hours ago at the point of the match. The match itself was alright in fairness, it gave us a fresh pairing crucially and it gave us a fresh pairing with Roman, which is something I've been harping on about for a while now. The match itself was ok in fairness- there was just never that jeopardy of "Roman could Lose" which after all was the point of the match in that if Roman loses he loses his MITB spot.

It's not worth getting into the Backstage Segments with Roman because there were so many of them- and I'm not going to talk about the Bellas thing with Paige because I'm saving all my Divas Related Energy for a bit later on.

Ryback v The Miz
With Ryback's Promo I thought "You Know, I could be wrong here- Ryback's really got the crowd". Then Big Show came out. I respect Show, but how is he not retired yet? If you look at what Cena's done with the US Title he's made it relevant and to my mind the most interesting Title in the Company without a doubt. It goes without saying Ryback isn't a Cena level guy- but the Title hasn't been elevated solely because Cena has the Belt- it's been elevated because Cena's been putting on great matches every week with fresh guys. Ryback v Big Show could surprise us- but I highly doubt it.

Kevin Owens & John Cena Promo
I'm not going to get into Cena using a Cancer Kid for a Pop. I had my say on Twitter Last Night & I'll leave it at that. I was sort of taken out of the Promo Last Night after Cena used the Kid for a Pop but his Promo was still good- it did a good job of selling the feud and the match in a couple of weeks. But it had nothing on Owens' Promo. I could use a Baseball analogy of "hitting it out of the park" but I'm English so... Cricket. Cena hit a 4, Owens hit a 6 that ended up out of the ground. Everything about Owens' Promo just clicked last night, and I'm not just saying that because "Ermahgerd he said Supercena"- it really worked last night. I genuinely believe they're working Owens to be a Brock level threat and I might be being optimistic to think Owens would win with shenanigans in  couple of weeks but I hope that's where they're going.

Dolph Ziggler v Kofi Kingston
This was too short to be anything of note, the Promo before was good in obvious New Day fashion.

Dolph and the Primetime Players v New Day
I'm happy that the PTP are seemingly getting a push now because they do deserve it. However, let's not pretend they're getting the push because of their Talent. They're getting the Push because Batista spoke out for Titus when he got that Dad of the Year thing and that put a Rocket Up Creative to actually do something with them. The match itself was alright, Titus was without a doubt the star of the show rightly because he's streets ahead of Darren who I've already had my say on many times. I've said it before if Titus was 5 Years Younger he'd be in the Main Event or at least on the periphery.

Roman Reigns v Mark Henry
This was a bit too slow for my liking, I know they had to up sell Roman being a bit out of it from the first match and have Henry dominate for a bit- but this was too slowed down for my liking. The count-out victory at this stage was a good way to go because Roman won by the skin of his teeth and it protected Henry to an extent because he didn't get pinned. So it was the best of a bad situation, I don't blame Roman for it- I blame whoever booked him in the match(es).

Sonic Ad
Jesus Christ.

Nikki Bella v Paige- Divas Title
Right then. Where do I start with this one. I suppose I'll start with the actual match, it was awful- not only was it awful everyone knew it would be awful going into the match which in a way makes it infinitely worse. I'm alright with matches being bad if it's a one-off and you can call it "one of those days". The Main Roster Divas Matches are now consistently bad, and they're made to look worse by what's going on in "Developmental". Then we get onto when the shit really hit the fan, "Twin Magic" was something I thought we'd never see again when Cena most likely paid so Nikki could get her own twins. But if they worked it right it could still work because Twin Magic usually ends with a Roll-Up. NOT ONLY DOES BRIE NOT EVEN LOOK LIKE NIKKI NOW, HER GEAR WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AND HER HAIR WAS DIFFERENT! WHAT COMPETENT REF WOULDN'T NOTICE THAT? I'M HAPPY TO THINK WITHIN KAYFABE, BUT COME ON YOU'RE JUST INSULTING EVERYONE'S INTELLIGENCE. THE WORST THING IS BECAUSE OF THE FINISH THEY'RE CLEARLY ANGLING FOR ANOTHER MATCH WITH THESE TWO. WHEN WILL THEY LEARN?

I thought Nikki would beat Paige they'd shake hands before Sasha Banks or Charlotte came out and we had a new match for Money in the Bank.Instead we got a crap finish from a crap match which set-up another crap match in the future.

Randy Orton v Sheamus
I think it was around 5 minutes before RAW started and someone just said "Hey Vince, Randy's here- he's near a purse we should probably give him something tonight". We ended up with Orton v Sheamus which we've literally never seen before. The match was alright, but both guys are capable of so much more than a throwaway filler match- like for instance feuding over the IC Title which would elevate it because both guys are former WWE Champions and two of the biggest guys on the Roster.

Rusev Promo
This was Rusev's best Promo by a mile. It's funny that Rusev meme of "When you realise you lost the Title etc." was pretty much exactly what this Promo was- but Rusev made it work. I can't say where they're going with it yet but if they sell this character right it'll really work. If they don't he's Kozlov 2.0.

Neville v Bo Dallas
The same issue plagued this match that did their match on Sunday. Where was the psychology? Bo said "I just want to hurt you" in his Promo Pre-Match, so why didn't he work the Leg that was pretty much the whole build for their match at the Chamber. It was labelled with the Magic Bandage which means he's still meant to be selling it. It's basic stuff like that which really annoys me. Then we get onto the fact this was a move for move copy of their match on Sunday in less time and this segment completely lost me.

Roman Reigns v Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyayt has feuded with Undertaker, beaten John Cena, beat Ryback who is now the IC Champion less than two weeks ago. He's beaten Jericho, Bryan the list goes on. A Bray at 100% is now not good enough to beat Roman Reigns who's already had two matches and barely scraped past Mark Henry via Countout. LOGIC. I freely admit I'm a huge Bray fan- so feel free to call me biased etc. but come on. REALLY?! I thought Bray would win via Distraction and then Ambrose would hold the Title up in a Contract Signing and refuse to give it back unless they put Roman back in the Match. Instead Roman went over even after the Authority attempted to distract him. Bray is someone with so much Main Event potential it's unreal and they're killing him. Not only are they killing him he's not only losing "big matches" he's losing RAW matches as well and that just shouldn't happen for Bray. It's clear they see value in Bray, they wouldn't have put him in the ring with Cena and Taker for his first two Manias if they didn't. But they're killing him- and when he does poke his head above water for another "big" feud it won't mean as much.

Three matches for Roman was overkill last night, and it's a shame because he's really been growing since Mania- to the point some people who were against Roman are coming round to him now. I'm not that far into Roman- but I've liked how his character's been booked recently and they've been smart to have him as "the other guy" with Ambrose but still feature him prominently and get him over. This was just wrong- and it's a case of 3 Steps Forward 30 Steps Backward when it comes to how Roman's character comes across to those against him.

This RAW was absolutely atrocious. With once again Cena and Owens being the exception. I always try and be open minded to stuff- but when you see a Product that is going out and on a "good night" it's passable it's just hard to be motivated by it and to want to continue watching.

Thanks for reading as always, I hope you enjoyed the Review as always even if the Show was awful. I'm still in two minds about the Bumper Wednesday Review (Lucha Underground, NXT, TNA and ROH) so I'd appreciate opinions on that before I get back into the Impact Reviews his week. So stay tuned for that as always- thanks again for reading and I hope you have a good couple of days.