My overall feeling coming out of this
week's Raw was that the show was saved by a few star performances, as
whilst the direction for the main storylines, like Daniel Bryan vs.
The McMahons and CM Punk vs. Paul Heyman, have been incredibly
strong, a lot of the rest of the show has lost direction, for example
guys like Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow suddenly feel lost after a
very strong build into SummerSlam. Let's take a look at how it all
broke down...
Gauntlet Match:
Daniel Bryan
vs.
The Shield
So the build up to
this bout began at the start of the show, with WWE Chief Operating
Officer Triple H in the ring, delivering a surprisingly succinct heel
promo, once again patronising Daniel Bryan, before going on to talk
about how the ratings are up with Randy Orton as WWE Champion. I'm
not a massive fan of on screen characters references ratings in WWE,
but it worked here to further Triple H's heel turn, because we as
fans know that people aren't tuning in specifically to Orton as WWE
Champion, they're tuning into see Bryan get his hands on the belt
once again. What had up until that point been a good opening segment,
took a turn for the worse when Triple H presented Randy Orton with a
car (I'm not saying the brand unless they wan't to pay me) and Orton
didn't really know how to react, it was all a little awkward, and
everyone knew what was going to happen to the car later in the show.
Of course Daniel Bryan came out to reply to Triple H and Orton,
thanking the fans for supporting him, it was clear that he meant what
he was saying and was enjoying the fans response to him, so it was
strange that the second part of the prom felt so forced as Bryan
thanked John Cena, which felt as forced as the first time on
Smackdown, unless this is leading to a Cena ambush a few months down
the line, it's pretty pointless. Bryan went on to insult both Orton
and Triple H, with Triple H placing him in the Gauntlet Match against
The Shield as punishment in the main event of the show. The opening
segment didn't really draw me into the show at all, whilst I was
excited for the main event, the story was a bit of repeat of last
week's Raw and Smackdown.
So after Orton's
match with Christian (more on that later), Daniel Bryan appeared on
screen next to Randy Orton's car. Bryan did his best with some
awkward lines of dialogue about Orton being the face of WWE, before
posing the question of if Bryan wins the title at Night of Champions
would he be the new face of the WWE? Of course, the answer was YES,
and was revealed by Bryan as being spray painted all over Orton's new
car. I like the original reveal, and Bryan through in a nice little
ad lib half way through, but again this segment didn't quite work.
Mainly, because it felt too similar to when Kofi Kingston destroyed
Orton's gift from The Legacy, another car on Raw in 2009, and it was
so clear the Bryan was destroying the car, that the whole set up felt
ridiculously contrived. With Triple H and Raw General Manager Brad
Maddox surveying the damage, we found out that The Game doesn't know
how presents work, and the same goes for the WWE Championship, as he
still believed both the car and the championship to be his personal
property. Triple H went on to tell Maddox that every WWE personality
had to be out on the ramp for Bryan's Gauntlet match and if anyone
did interfered they would be fired, and interesting addition to the
match, and a good way to involve more wrestlers in the McMahon feud.
Some really poor lines of dialogue throughout these segments.
Luckily, the final
portion of the show was able to repair the damage the had been done
earlier in the show. Whilst Renee Young interviewing Big Show and
Dolph Ziggler on the ramp was a nice addition and some good follow on
from last week, the interview with The Miz felt completely random and
out of place, I couldn't see The Miz being someone to stand up to the
McMahon's anyway. The opening bout of the gauntlet saw Bryan take on
Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins. Now anyone that's been watching Raw
since this years WrestleMania, will now that when you put Bryan and
Rollins in the ring together you some incredibly good television
wrestling. The pacing was great, with both men knowing when to raise
it up and bring back down, including a nice little moment with
Rollins imitating Bryan. The crowd, of course, lapped up every second
of Daniel Bryan's now familiar comeback, before the two launched into
a nice series of pinning combination, which when done properly like
this is always a joy to watch. The ending saw Rollins attempt a
Superplex, only for Bryan to slip free and hit a German Superplex
that turned Rollins inside out. Unfortunately, the WWE crew missed
the ending as they panned the crowd, but apparently Bryan got the win
with the same version of the Knee Trembler he's been using since
SummerSlam. It would have been a nice ending if we'd had seen it!
United States Champion Dean Ambrose was up next, but the bout ending
quickly with Bryan locking in the Yes Lock, only for Tag Team
Champion Roman Reigns to make the save, giving Bryan the
disqualification victory. They played out the same ending again for
Bryan's match with Reigns, with Ambrose making the save this time. It
was a good way to keep both The Shield and Bryan looking good.
After the bout,
The Shield decimated Bryan with their usual pack mentality finishing
him off with a spear from Roman Reigns, whilst the rest of the WWE
roster looked on. Triple H then made his way back out to the arena,
starring down with Big Show and Dolph Ziggler, before indicating to
The Shield to hit the Triple Powerbomb. Randy Orton then entered the
arena, and with Triple H's blessing headed down to the ring. With
Rollins and Ambrose holding up Bryan for Orton, the WWE Champion hit
an RKO on The Submission Specialist, closing the show up on the ramp
with Triple H. I really enjoyed this ending, it once again put Daniel
Bryan in an empathic role, we can see his fight, but the odds stacked
against him are too great, we know he can beat Randy Orton one on
one, but will he get that opportunity at Night of Champions? Bryan is
someone who will get more over when he loses, he works tremendously
in an underdog roll, and with Triple H and Randy Orton on the
opposing side, it's shaping up really well at moment, as long as they
stay away from bizarre segments with cars.
Christian
vs.
WWE Champion
Randy Orton
So whilst the main
storyline was thundering on Raw, WWE Champion Randy Orton took a nice
Captain Charisma shaped detour. With Christian being interviewed by
the ever annoying Josh Matthews, Christian's promo about living
through the McMahon-Helmsley era felt a little nervous, I'm not sure
if this was intentionally, but it certainly what we've came to expect
from Christian. With Orton turning up, talking about how Orton had
won at SummerSlam and Christian hadn't, before claiming history would
repeat itself tonight. I thought with the history between these two
they could have done a hell of a lot better with this promo, which
never really clicked which was a real shame.
Fortunately, the
two continued to click in the ring, and made up for a rather dull
contest they had on the 5th July edition of Smackdown, as
they returned to their usually form when going head to head. It was
interesting to see the dynamic switched here as we had previously
seen a face Randy Orton against heel Christian, or both men going in
as faces. After a shaky start, Orton quickly ground Christian working
him over well, with Christian's impeccable selling helping to keep
the crowd interested in the bout. Now with Orton back to being heel,
his use of the headlock as a rest hold makes a lot more sense, as it
allows him to show of a nice array of facial expressions, whilst
building for a comeback for the face. The moment when Orton foiled a
Christian comeback with Christian selling as if he was out cold,
lying in Orton's lap as the WWE Champion laugh was an especially
poignant moment.
The final few
minutes saw Christian and Orton launced into a top notch back and
forth section of the match, with numerous near falls for Christian,
his closest coming from Spear. The match however was of course, Randy
Orton's as after reversing a Killswitch attempt, by sending Christian
into the referee in the corner, Orton hit a thumb to the eye,
allowing him to capatialise easily with an RKO for the pinfall
victory. Whilst the ending screamed “I'M HEEL NOW!” it worked
well enough to end the bout. This was a really strong television
match that could easily have been the main event on a regular Raw,
when Orton and Christian get enough time and enough story to tell
they are a great pairing in the ring, with Christian quickly becoming
WWE's go to guy for great television matches.
This match really
got me thinking, WWE truly missed the boat in terms of giving
Christian an extended main event push and run with the ball. Whilst,
this would not be the right the direction for Christian now, I truly
feel he could have made more of an impact in WWE when he returned to
WWE in February 2009, with WWE missing out on a number of rivalries
that could have resulted in successful programmes, Christian vs. CM
Punk jumps instantly to mind. He is definitely in the right role now
though, helping to get over talent that WWE needs to get over,
similar to the role we've seen Chris Jericho in, but able to step
into a big match spot if needs be, and always deliver.
CM Punk
vs.
Intercontinental Champion
Curtis Axel
with Paul Heyman
(If CM Punk wins, Paul Heyman will be forced to get in the ring with CM Punk)
This match was
made on last week's Smackdown, with the stipulation been added just
prior after receiving over 80% of a WWE App vote (with the other
options being Paul Heyman being banned from ringside and Paul Heyman
as Special Guest Referee). Talking of the WWE App, we got was
apparently a WWE App “Exclusive” segment shown on Raw, which 1.
Proved that WWE don't know what exclusive means and 2. Gave us a nice
short CM Punk promo about how much he wanted to get his hands on Paul
Heyman. I don't understand why WWE think I would download the app,
when anything worthwhile is shown on the show anyway! We then got
Paul Heyman and Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel's reaction to
the segment, with Heyman twisting Punk's words superbly, and Axel's
over-inflated ego being shown once again. Whilst I'm still not a fan
of Axel using varations of “Perfect” as a catch phrase, the
ending of the segment where Axel asked Heyman if he trusted him and
Heyman replied with “As if my life depended on it” were very well
written and worked as a good piece of build up heading into the bout.
Whilst I can't
really fault the action that happened in the ring, I never really
felt drawn into the match. I think this is because at no point during
the bout did it feel like Curtis Axel was going to win, and I was
more interested in seeing the aftermath between Punk and Heyman and
how that would play out. One thing that worked for me during the
bout, was Heyman's constant presence at the top of the entrance ramp,
it gave Punk a reference point and constantly reminded the viewer
what the match was really all about. There were some nice spots like
Punk trying to run after Heyman only to to stopped by Axel, and a
nice section with a number of reversals resulting in a neckbreaker
from Punk. Axel's closest opportunity in the match was a Running
One-Armed Swinging Neckbreaker (formerly known as the McGillicutter)
but we've seen so many wrestlers kick out of that now that we know
Axel isn't picking up the victory with that one.
The ending saw
Axel taunting Punk with a slap to the back of the head, after his
near fall, only for Punk to react with an instant GTS to pick up the
pinfall victory and the opportunity get Heyman in the ring. It was a
decent ending, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Now,
however, was where the real fun started. After Heyman had tried to
escape twice, only to be dragged to the ring by security, it looked
like Punk would finally get his hand's on his former best friend.
This was not the case, however, as Heyman had another ace up his
sleeve. With Punk pushing Heyman into a corner, Axel recovered
hitting Punk vicious low blow. Heyman handed Axel some handcuffs and
things were about to get a little uncomfortable. I really enjoyed
this swerve, as it felt like they might have been blowing off the
angle on Raw at one point, but really I should have known better from
the dastardly Paul Heyman!
Despite a brief
fight back from a no armed Punk, a steel chair and a singapore cane
allowed Heyman and Axel to take advantage. With Axel holding Punk
again the ropes, Heyman delivered a series of vicious shots with the
cane, whilst saying things like “You broke my heart”, this whole
story has had shades of a dumped girlfriend, and this segment
hammered it home. It was beautifully uncomfortable, and really made
me sit up and take notice. What worked so well for me, was the amount
of depth in the story. Yes, Paul Heyman is clearly a bad guy with
twisted morals, but you can't help but feel for him at times, even as
he beats his former best friend with a singapore cane! Later on,
Renee Young caught up with Heyman and Axel, and Heyman once again
delivered a superb promo, as close to tears, he discussed having to
punish his “prodigal son” repeatedly for crossing him, Heyman is
far and away the best actor in WWE and this proved it for me. Punk
later went to see Brad Maddox, with Maddox making a Elimination
Handicap Match between Punk and the team of Heyman and Axel at Night
of Champions, which without sounding smug, I predicted before
SummerSlam.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
Elsewhere, Rob Van
Dam took on World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, in a match
where if Van Dam won he would get a World Heavyweight Championship
match at Night of Champions. With Van Dam being accompanied by
Ricardo Rodriguez, WWE have still failed to explain how the two
became acquainted, with Michael Cole's explanation that the are “both
cool dudes” only making it seem like Rodriguez has been joining in
with Van Dam's favourite pass time (I'm saying nothing, but if you
guessed the numbers I were thinking of as Four and Twenty, you'd be
correct). All it would have taken was some mic time from either guy
before the bout to give us a little explanation.
The match itself
was pretty rotten, from the opening it was filled with botches, like
Van Dam struggling to set Del Rio up on the top rope, before missing
a diving side kick by a country mile, but Del Rio still selling liked
he'd had a brick thrown at his head. For me this was Van Dam's worst
match since returning to WWE, and the first he looked genuinely old
in. Del Rio didn't really help either with a nasty double stomp to
Van Dam's back that looked simply careless, and some awful looking
headbutts, it really was a challenge to get into this bout. The
ending saw Rodriguez get on top of the announce table, getting the
crowd to chant “RVD”, before RVD used a leg scissors roll up to
get the pinfall victory and a World Heavyweight Championship match at
Night of Champions. Whilst Christian's matches prior to facing Del
Rio at SummerSlam were solid television bouts, this didn't really
fill me with hope for Night of Champions, hopefully they'll both
return to form, but this bout wasn't a great sign.
The opening
contest of the night saw Cody Rhodes go up against Fandango. I was
actually interested in seeing this one, and with World Heavyweight
Championship Money in the Bank Winner Damien Sandow providing
hilarious guest commentary, I thought we were in for a decent opening
contest. This was thrown out of the window barely two minutes into
the contest, when The Miz came out to Fandango's music, dressed as
Fandango and dancing with a returning Rosa Mendes. Obviously they
were looking for a counterpart to Summer Rae, but I have no idea why
Rosa Mendes, who was last seen as a heel manager to Primo & Epico
was chosen. The Miz's dancing made me want to punch him in the face,
if WWE are trying to get him over as a face, it really isn't working.
The distraction allowed Rhodes get a pinfall victory via a School Boy
Roll Up and I was left simply scratching my head.
After the match,
Fandango went to attack Rhodes, only to end up in a Cross Rhodes,
with Sandow making the save for the Ball Room Dancer. With Sandow and
Fandango beating down Rhodes, The Miz finally got to the ring and the
four men engaged in a brawl, with Miz and Rhodes coming off better,
sending Fandango and Sandow to the outside, with Miz almost knocking
out Summer Rae by throwing his jacket dangerously close to Mrs.
Fandango. Brad Maddox turned up channelling Teddy Long and making a
tag team match. The tag bout was actually better than I had imagined
with Rhodes and Sandow having the majority of the match with some
nice action between those two, finishing with a well worked double
clothesline spot, to allow Rhodes to get the hot tag to The Miz.
Whilst some of the moves used by The Miz (Big boot? Really?) didn't
look great, the overall comeback was done well with Miz raising the
pace, and after Fandango had left his partner high and dry, the
double team effort of Rhodes and Miz allowed Miz to hit a Skull
Crushing Finale on Sandow for the victory. Whilst the tag team match
was surprisingly good, I'm not sure where it leaves anyone in the
match, I'm not enjoying the Fanango vs. Miz rivalry and Rhodes and
Sandow's feud seems to be treading water with nothing really
happening for those two this week.
There was also a
SummerSlam rematch pitting Brie Bella against Natalya. It was a
pretty forgettable contest, with Bella picking up the victory after
some distraction from Nikki Bella and Eva Marie allowed Bella to
escape the Sharp Shooter and with Natalya distracted hit the Bella
Buster to pick up the pinfall victory. I'm pretty sure a one point
Eva Marie ran into the ring post after being chased by The
Funkadactyls, why she is anyway near a wrestling ring I have no idea.
After the bout however hope was restored by the saviour of WWE's
womens division Diva's Champion AJ Lee, who delivered a deliciously
sweet promo about Total Divas and talking about how she had to work
for everything she has received, rather than “sucking up” to
people. If you haven't seen the promo, go and watch it now, nothing I
can type here will do it justice. The fact that it's been compared to
CM Punk's infamous “Pipe Bomb” promo should tell you all you need
to know. The Bellas however were however intent on ruining the
excellent promo as they talked the whole way through, like some
annoying kid in the cinema, someone needs to tell them to stay quiet
until someone else is speaking. Hopefully, WWE will have Natalya take
on AJ at Night of Champions, instead of Brie Bella, because I'm
pretty sure Natalya vs. AJ could be a potential show stealer if given
a good amount of time.
Ryback continues
his bullying backstage, this week working his way up as high as Josh
Matthews, as Matthews once again felt the brunt of Ryback's offence.
With Matthews interviewing Ryback backstage, the Human Wrecking Ball
quickly became bored with the conversation, squashing Matthews' face,
before throwing him to the floor. To be quite honest, I fairly
enjoyed Matthews being pushed around, at least I didn't have to
listen to him talk for too long. I'm guessing WWE has plans for
Ryback going forward, as they are deliberately keeping him out of the
ring, I wonder if they'll keep this going until Chris Jericho returns
to the company after his tour, it could be a push but the moment a
returning Jericho halts Ryback's bullying could work very well.
Also on Raw, Titus
O'Neil of The Prime Time Players took on Jack Swagger of The Real
Americans. With Swagger's “Founding Father” Zeb Colter cutting
his best promo in a long time on The Prime Time Players, even if it
was a bit uncomfortable, it looked like Colter could have finally
found the creativity he has been lacking in recent months. The bout
itself actually surprised me, it was of course short, but was
actually an enjoyable contest, with the two working well against one
another. Swagger dominated the early going with some well applied
submissions, before O'Neil got his comeback, including an impressive
fall away slam. With Swagger turning his focus to O'Neil's leg, in an
attempt to soften it up for the ankle lock, Swagger attempted to get
a pinfall victory with his feet on the ropes, only for Darren Young
to know them off. With Young and Antonio Cesaro squaring off, Swagger
was distracted an walk straight into a Clash of Titus to give O'Neil
a pinfall victory, definitely the biggest singles win of his career.
I'm over Prime Time Players impromtu face turn now, I'm beginning to
wonder what the next step is for the talent duo...
There was also
another Los Matadores vignette, in fact it was the same vignette they
showed last week on Raw and they showed it twice. It's a little bit
frustrating after seeing WWE show multiple Wyatt Family promos only
few months ago building up there debut, which were all entertaining
and offered us something new about the stable, that WWE has came back
to doing these kind of vignettes. Whilst the Wyatt Family felt
incredibly fresh and exciting, this gimmick feels like a step
backwards, and I'm really not sure the fans will take to it, but I
could be wrong and I hope for the talented Epico and Primo that I am.
Finally...
My final thoughts on this week's WWE Raw....
1. Raw ended stronger than it began.
2. Christian still deserves "One More Match" for a major championship in WWE, even if it's just to get a heel over with the crowd.
3. Punk vs. Heyman continues to be the most consistently fascinating story on WWE television.
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