RAW Review: June 13th

Hello! We're officially less than a week away from the WWE billed "Best Money in the Bank ever" now. I do wonder how the whole "Best Money in the Bank ever" thing will work as a tag line. For example, if it isn't the best ever- would I be able to get my money back if I'd bought the actual PPV? These are the questions that need answering. Anyway, with the "Best Money in the Bank ever" fast approaching, last night was the go-home show for it. I've learned never to have any expectations on RAW, and I get the feeling my no expectations of RAW will be lowered into minuses after the Brand Split.

Anyway, there's quite a few things to talk about- so I'll just jump right into it.

New Day, Enzo & Big Cass, The Vaudevillains & The Club Opening Segment
This Opening Segment, after last week was another just weird and wacky one. We had Xavier and Big E burying Kofi's Shoes, in a situation where I've got no idea if it was an "in joke", a joke I'm supposed to know- or they just didn't like his shoes. So if you could tweet me if I've missed something, feel free to tell me. Then Enzo and Cass came out, and they spent probably a good 2-2 and a half minutes basically saying Enzo had sex with Francesca II- building to the line from Xavier "Nobody blows my girl but me". This all happened guys. Then The Vaudevillains carried on their new gimmick of interrupting something that'd be fun, Gallows & Anderson came out and said some things- of which I can't remember and then they cut to an Ad Break.

New Day & Enzo and Cass v The Vaudevillains & The Club- 8-Man Tag
This match had the potential to be really, really fun. What did it in for me, was the fact they started the match during an Ad Break- and then I reckon about 5 Minutes later, there was another fucking Ad Break. It just took me completely out of the match, and it actually makes me slightly wary of the Brand Split and the potential for even more Adverts to fill time after the split. The actual match was still decent though, and there's nothing in the match that you could call "bad". It just ended up being quite "meh".

Make Darren Great Again Vignette
Okay, I hate these vignettes. We all know that D-Young's just going to have an underwhelming 3 week TV run, with possibly a PPV Pre-Show match depending on when he re-debuts before he's off TV again. However, Backlund's "this is my only shirt" line was the first time one of these vignettes has actually made me laugh, or provoked any sort of reaction out of me. So, with that in mind this wasn't a complete waste.

Shane, Stephanie & Korporate Kane Backstage
This segment was funny to me for two reasons, the first being the mental image of The Undertaker writing Kane a letter of recommendation. The second wasn't anything to do with the actual segment, but you just knew the writer for this segment was stood off to the side so proud of himself for writing all of the fire related jokes for Kane. Well done, kid. You did good.

Zack Ryder & Sheamus Backstage
The one thing I'm surprised about in this segment is the fact they didn't bring up the truly epic, 6* WWE Title match these two had a few years ago. This was the twice in a lifetime match we actually wanted to see, and they didn't even build it up with that in mind.

Epico & Primo Vignette
I'm too lazy, and there's too much Football on for me to even attempt this. But, if someone could please workout who has a worse Match to Vignette Ratio out of Epico & Primo and Golden Truth it'd be much appreciated.

Rusev attacks Titus O'Neil
Another question to put out there. With Rusev attacking Titus they're presumably going to do an injury type angle on Sunday. So, if someone can answer when- if ever there's been a scenario where someone has wrestled two different people, on two consecutive PPV's with an injury angle in both that'd be much appreciated.

The Ambrose Asylum w/ Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Seth Rollins was absolutely fucking amazing in this segment. Ambrose actually ruined the middle part of this segment for me, because Seth had just done an absolutely amazing, intense promo and then Ambrose just cut-in doing his usual "lunatic" stuff and it kind of ruined the atmosphere to me. With that said, everyone played their part- and this was still one of the best segments on the show without a shadow of a doubt.

I'm not sure what to make of Ambrose laying out both guys in the WWE Title match on the go-home show for a PPV though. I know it was a sort of "brawl" type thing where anyone could've ended up on top- but it wasn't anyone, it was Ambrose. Someone who's not even in the fucking match. It was just a really weird decision after everything they've done in the build, having Rollins sell hasn't been one of them- and then they just give it away on the go-home show.

I'd also like to point out, this was the segment that was the 2nd Hour lead-in- and we had 1 Match at this point. Especially with that 1 Match probably having as much time spent during an Ad Break as actually being shown- it's a wonder to me why this RAW felt like it was dragging.

Stephanie & Dean Ambrose Backstage Segment
More Talking! This was just quite a "meh", "standard" setting up a match segment. I would say Stephanie's line about hatred is going to lead to him turning on Roman- but I've been burned too many times on that front.

Paige v Charlotte
We finally had another match! The problem of course being, the match was completely fucking ruined by the charisma vacuum that is Natalya on commentary talking about her fucking Cats. The funny thing about this match, and just the feud in general is the fact that if Sasha had replaced Natalya in the feud after the last PPV it would actually be quite an interesting one to me. But, as it is- I just have zero interest, and most other people reflect that by the fact the Tag Match is on the Pre-Show.

On top of that, regardless of how it happened- Paige now has a Pinfall victory over the Womens Champion. Will she get a Title shot at Battleground? Of course she fucking won't. Especially with the fact we've got a meaningless Tag Match on the fucking Pre-Show with Charlotte, Dana, Becky & Nattie, why they couldn't do a singles match on RAW to build it up is completely beyond me. Looking back over this RAW, the more I realise just how stupid it all was.

Cesaro & Sami Zayn Backstage Promo
I loved Cesaro just being a bit of a dick in this segment. Especially with the Brand Split coming up meaning there'll be a shortage of top heels on both shows, I really wouldn't mind Cesaro turning soon. The segment was fine, and it did a good job of giving even a slight reason as to why the audience should be interested in the Zayn/Cesaro match beyond the fact it's Zayn/Cesaro.

Charlotte & Dana Brooke Backstage Promo
I don't know why they're teasing Dana turning on Charlotte literally 3 weeks after she aligned with her. I can't see them taking away Charlotte's "heater", especially while she still has the Title- so these type of segments are completely pointless to me. They could always do the whole "turn on, but they haven't actually turned" type angle- but considering they did that with AJ and The Club within the last month I really hope they don't.

Sheamus v Zack Ryder
There's a lot of talk from the WWE about Styles/Cena and Rollins/Reigns being "Wrestlemania Main Event worthy". See, those would be a much bigger deal if they didn't give us a match that topped both of them on RAW on the go-home show. In all seriousness though, this was a fairly standard squash match, Crews looked good during his run-in and I just hope to god that Crews wins on Sunday.

After Breaking Ground: Reloaded I'm officially back on the Apollo Crews bandwagon. Funny that, isn't it? On Breaking Ground they showed him as just a really nice guy with genuine emotions and a love for the business- and now I like him and want to see him succeed. I know that's such an "out there" concept to the WWE Writers, but if any of them are reading this- firstly do my Bray Wyatt idea on Sunday please. Second, just make someone genuinely likeable come across like that on TV. It's the easiest thing in the world.

Kane, Shane, Kevin Owens & Alberto Del Rio Backstage Promo
They really got their moneys worth for the Backstage Sets last night. This was quite a funny one I'll give them that, and it's doubly funny if you picture Del Rio travelling and being stopped while just wearing his Wrestling gear. Which isn't really out there considering the fact I don't think we've seen him in anything else since he came back last October.

Sami Zayn v Cesaro
I said it on Twitter before the match happened, and I'll echo what I said here. It was literally impossible for WWE to fuck this match up. The match was shockingly really good, and both Zayn and Cesaro are in fact really good workers. The only real thing of note is the fact Sami did his whole "celebrating after hitting a big move" thing, and he actually did in with the move he performed for once. I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the move that was the finish for the match. The only question now is whether they could somehow work out how to do it at the top of a Ladder.

AJ Styles & John Cena Contract Signing
In something that'll surprise absolutely nobody, the AJ Styles/John Cena segment was in fact the best on the show... again. The segment was really good again, although that'll surprise absolutely nobody really. My one issue with the segment, is the fact it was all based around what Contract AJ would sign. The one with The Club and the one where he'd "go it alone".

There's always a chance they don't do the usual Cena formula of him losing the 1st match and getting his wins back and winning the feud in the next two PPV's. But, if AJ's winning on Sunday I can't see him doing it without The Club- which'll make the whole point of this segment redundant. They could not go that route because it's Cena's first match back of course, and I think it'd actually be more interesting if they did it that way- because as we all know Cena's Summerslam record where the 3rd match is likely to take place is horrendous. Plus all of the "Cena buried AJ" comments after Sunday would be hilarious to me.

Also, I really want this feud to just keep going and going- almost entirely because I want to see how many ways Cena can think up of dancing around outright saying "Bullet Club".

Kevin Owens & Alberto Del Rio v The Lucha Dragons
If you want to talk about burials, look no further than this match. The Lucha Dragons were fighting against two people who were fighting amongst themselves, hit both of their finishers and still lost. That is what you call a burial. Owens was great, to the surprise of absolutely nobody- and he ended up getting the win. My only real issue with this match, is the fact the stipulation was if Owens & Del Rio lost they'd be replaced in the MITB match by Kalisto and Sin Cara. Nobody actually thought that'd happen, which meant Kalisto and Sin Cara hitting their finishers completely redundant.

Miz "Movie Set" Promo
I still wish we'd have the 24/7 rule in progress for these things.

Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio & Stephanie Backstage Promo
It's getting tedious just having to type out "Backstage Promo" at this stage, let alone having to watch all of them.

Shane & Stephanie Backstage Promo
Would you look at that? It's a Backstage Promo.

Dean Ambrose v Chris Jericho
Dean Ambrose (and Jericho) LITERALLY have 5 possible opponents that they can be wrestling between now and Money in the Bank. So the fact they've done Ambrose/Jericho twice in less than a week is beyond stupid. The match was fine, I would've said the same for the Cesaro/Zayn match in that it's a match that WWE couldn't fuck up- but we saw at Extreme Rules that they actually could.

The stuff with Del Rio, Zayn, Owens and Cesaro filling the various ringside jobs was fun at least. Although I bet Del Rio was gutted that he couldn't even wear Triple H's blazer. The Post-Match stuff was fun, and Jericho standing tall to end the show was a decent end to the show I thought.

There was nothing outright "bad" on the show. So in that respect it was quite a solid go-home show. However, it was tedious just writing out how many Backstage Segments there were for this Review- and especially with me being quite tired last night this show did nothing to hold my attention with the exception of a few segments. To be blunt, I was bored. I ended up checking the Copa America score(s) on more than one occasion and checking  the Odds for Bets I was going to put on for the Euros games today.

Thanks for reading as always, with a PPV weekend comes the Predictions and Review on Sunday and Monday so hopefully you'll be back here for those. I've got reasonably high expectations for Money in the Bank, although if my memory of last year is right I was saying the same for last year. In short, don't underestimate WWE's ability to massively fuck something up. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good week- and let's hope for a good PPV on Sunday.