That's right, it's this time again already. It's not exactly a secret that Post-Wrestlemania, the on-air product has improved massively- and the latest effort was of course coming from the O2 in London. I HATE Pre-Taped RAW's most of the time, just because there's not really a sense of jeopardy involved when the RAW's already happened. I did consider watching that Stream for RAW live that was being hosted on that Russian Website to counter-balance it, but I just decided to watch it at 1-4am like usual. Rather than avoid Spoilers, which is impossible for me- just because of how I am. I instead decided to embrace the Spoilers, and use them to try and get excited for what I was actually going to watch. There was definitely some things that looked good on paper, so let's see how it all came off.
The Ambrose Asylum w/ Every Upper-Midcarder & Shane McMahon
I was at the forefront of the Potted Plant jokes last week, so I'd like to take the credit for without a doubt the best bit of this segment- which was of course them protecting the new Potted Plant at all costs. I started off liking this segment, we of course had Dean Ambrose playing the role of Dolph Ziggler. Then Shane came out, then Owens came out, then Zayn came out, then Jericho came out, then D'lo Brown came out. I may have made that last one up, in short- this turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. The end-game was good, and this segment was far from bad- but it was just too much in my opinion. Just because it's not an Authority Promo opening the show, it doesn't mean that Opening Segments are now immune from criticism.
A I said the end-game of the segment was good though, in that they announced the two "main matches" of the night- which are seemingly becoming a fixture in the Post-Mania WWE. We also of course got the two Payback Matches announced in Zayn/Owens & Jericho/Ambrose, which everyone saw coming. I just wish it hadn't have all come in this segment. But the Potted Plant was safe, and that's all that really matters.
Chris Jericho v Sami Zayn
I absolutely love Jericho at the moment. His character's just so self-aware, and Jericho's highlighted all of the less desirable aspects of both his character, and upped the "Antagonising Smarks" levels of his character- and it's just perfect. I can almost forgive them for beating AJ at Mania, because we've gotten this character amped up to 11 as a result. Yes, we had another "burial" of young talent here by Jericho when he beat Sami Zayn. The match was good without being great. I think a common theme of the two "main" matches on RAW's- assuming that' the direction they're going in now will be me saying giving who's involved it's impossible for it to be a bad match. Which is of course the case here. This was about as good as it could have been in my opinion, barring giving these two a long feud and a long PPV match.
AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson reunion
I'm surprised they went so far in on the whole "former lives" aspect of these three- especially right off the bat. If you read my RAW Review last week, you'll know I was predicting a tease of these three aligning at Payback before Gallows and Anderson attacked Styles and it was revealed that Roman was the "3rd Man". That was all I was expecting, a tease. However, I'm definitely not complaining about this segment- because it was just fucking cool to see it.
Enzo & Big Cass v The Dudleys
The weakest part of Enzo & Big Cass has always been their ringwork, without a shadow of a doubt. I know not everyone watches NXT, but we've now had 3 weeks of Enzo's Promos on the Main Roster- so it's not even worth saying that Enzo's money on the mic any more. What was far more remarkable was the match that took place.
This was probably Enzo & Cass' best match, including NXT. I've given The Dudleys, and specifically Bubba a lot of stick since their return- but one thing I don't question is that they're amazing Heels. This goes back to my point about Roman that I've been making, a Heel's job is to make sure that whoever they're up against is the most over Babyface on the show. The Dudleys are masters of this, and they played their roles last night to absolute perfection.
I'm not sure why I mentally paired Enzo & Cass with The Dudleys when I was thinking about call-ups around Mania, but now I know. They're exactly what they need coming onto the Main Roster. While the NXT Tag Teams are great, they're pretty much all exclusively "WWE bred" talents. Pairing them with The Dudleys gives Enzo & Cass a new proposition in-terms of styles- and they can learn from veterans along the way.
Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Gallows & Anderson Segment
I realise this joke's been massively over-used, but the Promo that Roman's doing now isn't a good promo, it isn't a bad promo- it's THE promo that he's gonna be doing for a while. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if Roman does turn Heel (officially) he can pause after the "I'm not a Bad Guy" bit and say "You know what, I am a Bad Guy". Also, if you're hating that line- good. Because, Roman is a Heel.
I think, in my mind at least the only "swerve" that can take place at Payback in the Main Event would be if Gallows and Anderson just aligned with AJ. I'm not sure if Gallows and Anderson attacking Roman has strengthened or weakened my theory on Roman being the "3rd Man" to be honest. Yes, they did attack him. But, it wasn't exactly a vicious beating. It was literally one move, and Roman was up walking and talking in the next segment. It's the ol' misdirection routine, my dear Watson.
The obvious direction is of course Finn being the "Puppet Master" in this game. My thing with that though, if it is- I've got no idea how they book Payback. After losing at Mania, Styles needs to be protected at Payback. The obvious way to do this, is to have Gallows and Anderson attack him- because he's not getting the Title. Unless they want to make Roman's gimmick that he's fortunate to be winning- but he's not smart enough to engineer the cheap wins himself- I can't see how Gallows and Anderson get involved without doing Roman a favour. Which just doesn't make sense to me, unless Balor doesn't see Roman as more of a threat than Styles- in which case he's stupid.
All that aside, if Balor is revealed as the Puppet Master. AJ would presumably move on, hopefully to Kevin Owens or maybe even bring Samoa Joe up. AJ/Balor is of course a possibility given how AJ entered the Bullet Club though. The two matches that I could see happening, are of course Finn/Roman and Balor Club/Shield. My worry with Balor, if the angle is him going after Roman- is that they'd better be ready to give him the Title if they pull the trigger on that feud. The Balor Club CAN'T lose any time soon. If it were up to me, the Balor Club wouldn't lose until Wrestlemania. If they build up to Roman/Finn, presumably at Summerslam- and Roman wins. We'll just have another Nexus, but with Roman in Cena's spot 6 Years on from the same show.
With all of that said, the point I've tried to make is there's not going to be a perfect outcome at Payback. There's going to be plot-holes, so now I've written all of that I'm just going to sit back and enjoy what we get given.
Baron Corbin v Fandango
I wonder what the Odds would have been on me genuinely wanting Corbin to beat Ziggler at a PPV when Corbin was feuding with Bull Dempsey and just generally not that good. But, that's where we are now. Corbin's just a complete star, and if they just keep building him up and don't fuck with him or his gimmick- he's going to be in and around the Main Event scene within the next year or two. The match wasn't much, the attack on Ziggler looked great- and Corbin's exchange with the Fan who told him he sucked was just amazing. I said in my End of Year Awards for 2015, that I was heading into 2016 as a massive Baron Corbin fan- and I've only grown more fond of him over the last 4 and a Half Months.
Also just a small aside, because of that Russian Stream of the whole uninterrupted show people have taken Fandango's Entrance from it. HE HAD "LET'S GET WEIRD" ON HIS JACKET! MAYBE THERE'S HOPE FOR HIM CHLOROFORMING BYRON YET!
MizTV w/ Cesaro
Miz and Maryse are just great. I said it last week, and it's worth repeating. Miz is the one true Heel left in the WWE. Everything about him is done in a way that makes people want to boo him. Maryse is just the perfect addition to the act, and it all just works. I know people were pissed that Zack lost the Title so quickly, but Miz without a doubt deserved his IC Title run with his work prior to Mania- and now he's got it he's not slowed down one bit. The one thing I want Miz to do now, after his "multiple take" Promos- is to now require multiple takes to do moves. Miz goes for the Skull Crushing Finale, Cesaro powers out of it, Maryse storms the ring shouting "Cut" and "Do it again", Cesaro's distracted, Miz takes advantage, hits him with the Skull Crushing Finale and wins.
Also, quick point. If anyone in charge is reading this. PLEASE, stop using the Royal Family to try and get heat. Nobody in England gives a fuck about them. How do you get heat in England? I'm assuming the next pair of UK Shows will be in Manchester, right? Have someone come out in a Liverpool Shirt and sing "You'll Never Walk Alone". As I'm writing this, Bubba Ray has tweeted a picture of himself in a Liverpool Shirt with the Hashtag #YNWA from when he did it at Impact. Remember what I said earlier about them just "getting" being a Heel.
Cesaro's doing really well with this new character he's been given. I love Cesaro, but I do have a feeling its one that I'll get bored of fairly quickly though. I'll never be bored of Cesaro in the ring, but the character isn't great in my opinion. Obviously AJ had an in-ring talk segment last night, but on the whole they've done their best to hide his weakness-that is of course Promos. They need to do the same with Cesaro and have him become almost exclusively "just" a Wrestler- and let the Bond Entrance, Sunglasses etc. as well as his mannerisms get the character over. The whole tearing off the Suit to reveal the Booty O's T-Shirt thing was good though- and the reaction to New Day and Big E's whole "OOOOOOOHHHHHHH LONDON etc." was probably the loudest I've ever heard.
Cesaro & New Day v The Miz & The League of Nations
This match was really fun. I was reminded of the really fun New Day/KiddSaro matches we had around this time last year as a result of Cesaro teaming with New Day, and this match was just pretty good all things considered. I doubt it was what they intended to book when everyone left to go on the tour, but they did a decent job of getting everyone involved in these two segments.
Speaking of this match not being what they intended to, I feel like this is the right section to talk about Bray Wyatt getting injured. It's fucking annoying, and I can't imagine how Bray must have felt when it happened after the RAW he had last week. There's not much to actually say, I suppose. Summerslam's enough of a distance away that I doubt he's a doubt for it- so he just has to do Promos from his Rocking Chair in the meantime.
Natalya, Paige, Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks v Charlotte, Summer Rae, Naomi & Tamina
This match wasn't much, although I did find it funny that aside from Naomi, Summer and Tamina- Paige was the person who got the least reaction last night. She's young enough to the point where it's not an un-fixable issue, but they've massively fucked her up. Natalya made Charlotte tap, which was good in a way to just try and legitimise Nattie as a contender to Charlotte. If the last 8 Years of bad booking hadn't have happened they may have even succeeded. I suppose the big thing from this stuff last night was the announcement that Bret's in Nattie's corner at Payback. Which is obviously good after his fight with Cancer recently, and it obviously reminds me of the NXT match these two had with Bret and Flair in their respective corners. Which was absolutely hilarious, because Flair sold everything like he was going to die if Charlotte didn't get the win- and Bret just looked like he didn't really give a fuck.
The Vaudevillains v The Usos
After the attack on them last week, I think it was pretty clear that The Usos weren't going to be winning the Tournament- and of course with Enzo & Cass feuding with The Dudleys that The Vaudevillains would. I'm perfectly fine with that, because they need to work on building Enzo & Cass (and Gallows and Anderson)- and The Vaudevillains are more than solid place-holders for them.
The match was fine, they're both capable of more- but with The Usos selling the attack on them last week, the crowd being worn out, and the match not getting that much time it was about as good as it could have been in my opinion.
Apollo Crews v Heath Slater
The match was just a fairly standard squash, but the good thing about this segment was just how much they were putting Crews over on Commentary. They were using phrases like "mega-star" and "future champion" in relation to Crews. That can only be a good thing in-terms of his future prospects.
Dean Ambrose v Kevin Owens
If this RAW was condensed into 2 Hours, shifting one of the Tag Title Semi-Finals over to Smackdown, cutting the time down massively on the Womens Tag, and taking a few minutes off some of the matches- it would have been great. As it was, everyone was just worn out by the time this match came on- including me. Everything that Owens and Ambrose did was good, and going back to my point with Zayn and Jericho- it's impossible for these two to have a bad match with each other. I just couldn't really get into it, with how long everything felt up to this point. The Jericho attack was good, and I did love the fact Jericho kept his Scarf on when he was attacking Ambrose to end.
Last Night started off great, and it just slowly declined as the show went on. Pretty much from the whole Gallows and Anderson attack on Reigns, everything just slowly felt more dragged out- to the point where we had complete disinterest in a Main Event of Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens. This was basically because they packed everyone worth watching into the first half of the show. We had Zayn, Jericho, Shane, Owens and Ambrose all in the first segment- using up their "main" pop. Enzo & Cass should have swapped with The Usos match in my opinion, New Day were in the 2nd Hour, Cesaro was in the 2nd Hour- and the last Hour was an 8-Women Tag, The Usos/Vaudevillains, another Apollo Crews squash and then a Main Event of two guys we'd already seen. You don't need to be a genius to work out the trajectory at which the show went.
Thanks for reading as always, we're I believe 2 Weeks away from Payback which is likely to be judgement day in regard to the whole Gallows and Anderson angle and where they go- so that should be fun. In the meantime, I hope you have a good week and will be back here for the RAW Review next week. Thanks again for reading, and with the movement getting some traction on RAW last night- I'll just remind all of you. #PlantLivesMatter.
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