WWE Monday Night RAW Review // 19th March 2018

With just under three week's until WrestleMania, the latest episode of Monday Night RAW came to us from Dallas, Texas for the first time since 2016's RAW after Mania. The show featured the culmination of the Bray Wyatt and "Woken" Matt Hardy feud as the two faced off in Ultimate Deletion at the Hardy Compound, Asuka putting her streak on the line against RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, the return of Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, a six man tag between The Miztourage and The Balor Club, an escalation of the issues between Bayley & Sasha Banks as they faced Absolution's Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, John Cena demanding an answer to his WrestleMania challenge to The Undertaker, Braun Strowman vs. RAW Tag Team Champion Cesaro and Titus Worldwide taking on The Revival...but was it any good? Here's our review. 

Commentary - Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman & Seth Rollins 

Interviewer - Charly Caruso 

Ring Announcer - JoJo

The Ultimate Deletion // 

"Woken" Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt

Before the match - As Queen Rebecca played the piano, Matt Hardy introduced us to King Maxel and Lord Wolfgang, told Vanguard1 to scan the Hardy Compound for an intruder and Senor Benjamin to prepare the battlefield - Hardy discussed his plans for the match with the spirit of George Washington, now inside a giraffe - Hardy took a trip around the Lake of Reincarnation, inside his dilapidated boat, Skaarsgard

So, The Ultimate Deletion finally arrived, with Matt Hardy victorious over Bray Wyatt, and it was...good. I'm not sure it was TNA's Final Deletion levels of madness, but it was much closer to that than the House of Horrors thing we saw last April, which is a massive positive. The close camera work produced a claustrophobic feel, that was difficult to get used to at the start, because of the match coming at the tail end of a three hour RAW. The idea of the two moving between different "zones" within the Hardy compound was a cute one, with the on-screen graphic helping to create the feel, with the match shifting in tone numerous times because of this. This could have been jarring, but I felt like the darker moments gave the comedy a more unexpected feel, which helped some of the more out there times. I would've liked Bray to have been a bit more engaged in the wackiness, as his character has more potential than what was shown here, with most of the memorable moments coming from Hardy's utterances, like when he tried to work out whether to use a "chair with wheels" or a "mower of lawns" on his opponent. The finish was the best part of the whole thing, being completely absurd and felt like WWE fully embracing the concept, as Hardy disappeared after Vanguard1 had caused a distraction, Senor Benjamin throwing an inflatable globe (take that Flip Gordon!) at Wyatt (who had found Benjamin hiding under Skaarsgard) to catch, with Benjamin and a debuting Brother Nero singing "He's got the whole world in his hands", before Hardy returned to win with a Twist of Fate. It was very daft and presumably not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed this a lot, especially the second half. Overall, it was simply just a treat to see the Broken Universe fully realised on WWE television, making what felt like an endless and, at times, directionless feud feel worthwhile.

After the match - Matt Hardy pushed Bray Wyatt into the Lake of Reincarnation, with it being insinuated that Wyatt had perished in the water by Senor Benjamin.

RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss (with Mickie James) vs. "The Empress of Tomorrow" Asuka 

Before the match - Alexa Bliss made it clear that she wasn't sorry for what she said about Nia Jax last week in a fairly run of the mill promo for the Goddess. Your classic Bliss bait and switch situation, before being interrupted by Asuka for the match. 

Asuka remained undefeated this week as Alexa Bliss ended up losing by countout after attempting to walk out on what had been a sloppy match. I'm not quite sure what the issue with this bout was, but as soon as Asuka got on offence it went downhill quickly with Bliss taking a number of weird bumps off Asuka's attacks, alongside a weird moment where they dicked around the ropes for a bit and then Bliss took a back bump. Whatever it was it didn't work. Whilst 80-90% of the match didn't come together as well as it should have, there were two nice moments of action that stopped the match from being a complete dud, as Bliss jumping out of the way of a leg sweep from Asuka and immediately landing a dropkick, as well as a Code Red out of the corner from the RAW Women's Champion both looked lovely. It's also worth noting that Dallas was pretty into the match, especially the Code Red near fall. After some fumbling around Bliss spent a lengthy period in the ankle lock before attempting to get out of dodge with the help of James, which at least wasn't another pinfall or submission loss for the champion before WrestleMania.

After the match - Nia Jax charged down to ringside and chased Alexa Bliss through the crowd after sending Mickie James head-first into the ringpost - After Bliss complained about Jax, Kurt Angle made a match between Bliss and Jax for the RAW Women's Championship at WrestleMania. 

Brock Lesnar returns 

Ruddy hell. After week's of boiling under nicely with no appearance from Brock Lesnar, the Universal title feud was kicked up a gear or two as The Beast returned and brutally assaulted WrestleMania challenger, Roman Reigns. Takeaway the transparency of what WWE have been doing with Reigns lately, because elements of the fanbase will never be convinced for whatever reason they have, this was a great piece of WWE theatre from start to finish. Reigns turning up despite being suspended last week gave him a rebellious edge and even if destroying three US marshals whilst handcuffed was a bit heavy handed and should probably result in Reigns missing WrestleMania, it was at least a fun thing to watch. I think that was the main takeaway from the segment, as the subsequent appearance from Lesnar, as he destroyed a still handcuffed Reigns was at what ever you chose to watch it at an entertaining situation, with a number of well-timed moments tent-poling the segment. Both the initial appearance of Lesnar and when he returned as Reigns was being carted out on a stretcher produced a good sense of foreboding as you knew exactly what was going to happen (whilst Reigns played both moments well) and either you got excited because you dislike Roman Reigns or it made it dislike the Brock Lesnar character for assaulting a defenceless Big Dog. I'm big into this feud at the moment and look forward to seeing what WWE has in store on the final two episodes before WrestleMania.

Intercontinental Champion The Miz, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel vs. Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson & Finn Balor

Before the match - The Miz cut a promo about not being on the cover of "WrestleMania Magazine", which had echoes of CM Punk once again, whilst also promising to send "Tyler Black and Prince Nevitt (sic)" back to the bingo halls in a weird moment. 

Nothing special to be found in this six man tag, as Finn Balor got the win for his team with a schoolboy roll-up pin on WrestleMania opponent The Miz. Most of the action was solid, yet unspectacular, with it often feeling like the teams were simply trying to get through the bout and move on to next week, with nothing getting past second gear. The Miztourage have their act pretty nailed on, with lots of creative heely cheating here, as they targeted Balor early on, which made a lot of sense considering Balor challenges for Miz's title in less than three weeks. The one moment of weirdness came as Karl Anderson seemed to struggle with Miz's snap DDT routine, leading to an atrocious looking chain of action, that hurt the match heading into the break. I wasn't a massive fan of the finish either, as Balor and Miz went for the overused reversal of Skull-Crushing Finale, where the person taking jumps when taking the move and rolls through for a pin, before a slightly clunky series of reversals and nearfalls lead to Balor getting the win. The three-way rivalry between Balor, Miz and Seth Rollins (who was on commentary) had been moving at a nice pace and whilst this week didn't quite put the brakes on the IC title feud, it did end up taking the creative foot off the accelerator a little.

After the match - Seth Rollins made the save for Finn Balor after The Miztourage attempted to assault the Irishman, with the Rollins and Balor having a staredown to conclude the segment. 

Sasha Banks confronts Bayley 

We got the closest we have so far to getting some form of explanation for the ongoing issues between Bayley and Sasha Banks this week as the pair got some mic time before their match with Absolution. Whilst I am interested in the feud and there's a couple of good ideas in there, this segment felt a little forced to me, with Bayley especially not bringing much conviction to her promo. That being said, the content she was supposedly given to work with wasn't the best as she had lines like "it ate at my core" and motivation being that Banks smiled after she kicked her off the pod at Elimination Chamber. We again saw glimpses of Banks "Legit Boss" character when she told Bayley she'd allow her to apologise to her, but I think it's taking a little bit too long to get into the meat of this feud. Sometimes a slow-burn can be effective, but the content needs to be stronger than what these two are being given and actually play to their strengths, rather than putting them in awkward positions like this one. It wasn't a bad segment, but it could have been a lot better with either better or looser scripting. Absolution would interrupt before we'd find out anything significant and we'd head into the match.

Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville (with Paige)

A decent tag team encounter saw Absolution's Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville pick up a big victory over Bayley & Sasha Banks as the issues between the later continued to cause them issues. This was a pretty standard tag team match structure, with the relationship between Bayley & Banks being used as fuel to keep things interesting throughout as both women would tag in on each other at various points. It was hardly revolutionary storytelling but it worked well enough within the time and was highlighted by a rather lovely hot tag from Bayley in the final third. There were a couple of moments of awkwardness, mostly revolving around the Absolution duo struggling with pinfalls, as well as a sloppy hiptoss from Banks to Rose at one point. The finish obviously played on the Bayley/Banks relationship as Banks ended up inadvertently distracting the referee by attacking Rose as Bayley had a backslide pin on Deville, before more arguing between the pair allowed the New Jersyan to pick up the win with a jumping roundhouse kick. I'd like to see WWE get a bit more creative with this feud sooner rather than later, as whilst it's been okay, it's been very paint by numbers and has quite often failed at getting into what had made the relationship between the pair interesting in the first place, that being their juxtaposed characters and history in NXT.

John Cena wants an answer from The Undertaker

Another firey promo from John Cena this week, as Big Match John looked to find a way to get The Undertaker to face him at WrestleMania, before Kane turned up and chokeslammed the 13 time WWE Champion, leaving the audience with more questions than answers with just two more episodes before WrestleMania. Cena's promo was a natural progression of what we saw last week, with no answer from The Undertaker on Cena's Mania challenge, as John went in hard on The Deadman with an angry, almost rant-like speech about what he believed to be cowardice. Cena's performance the last two week's have been spot on, managing to portray a number of different things at the same time, as it appears more like the character is simply trying to rile up Undertaker, rather than believing what he's actually saying. Some of the lines in this were superb as well with the pinnacle being "You are not the God that they made you, you are the man that you've allowed yourself to become. And that man, Undertaker, is a coward. The Undertaker is a coward.", as it built towards the coward line and pulled on a number of topics Cena had discussed previously. Adding Kane into the mix is a good way to prologue the feud with Undertaker having to appear, but having the commentary team wonder whether it will be Cena vs. Kane at WrestleMania seems counter-productive, as I'm not sure many people would either be interested in seeing that match on the biggest stage or would even buy into the possibility. It'll actually be Cena vs. Kane next week on RAW , when hopefully Kane's brother will finally make his appearance post-match.

Braun Strowman addresses having to choose a tag team partner for WrestleMania

So we didn't actually find out who Braun Strowman will be tagging with at WrestleMania, but we did get a Mighty Boosh reference from Sheamus. I can forgive Sheamus stumbling all over his promo and having to repeat himself a few times, because he mentioned "Old Gregg" and Old Gregg's got a mangina. What more do you want from a promo? Seriously though, I wonder how many people watching actually got the reference that was tucked away in between Black Panther, Captain America, Ricky and Morty and Dallas Cowboy's owners references. Who cares it worked for me, so fuck everyone else. The rest of the segment was Cesaro & Sheamus telling Strowman they'd give him a beatdown and Strowman being like "Nah pals, you wo" and we'd transition into a match between Cesaro & Strowman, after Sheamus had bluffed that he'd help fight the Monster as well. Oh, there was also a weird moment where it was implied that Cesaro & Sheamus were sleeping together that really popped Dallas for some reason, but felt kinda dated from where I was sitting. 

Braun Strowman vs. RAW Tag Team Champion Cesaro 

A fairly straightforward Braun Strowman match here as the Monster Amongst Men put away one half of the RAW Tag Team Champions with a running powerslam after catching a crossbody attempt. With just over of five minutes of television time for the bout, the two worked a solid encounter, that saw most of Cesaro's offence coming from dodging a Strowman attack or from a Sheamus distraction, whilst the Swiss Cyborg struggled against the power of his #1 contender. Within the structure there was a number of good highspots, including Braun catching Cesaro diving off the steps and ramming him into the barricade and Strowman charging around the ring to shoulder barge the fuck out of Sheamus, whilst the best wrestling could be found in a nice sequence where Cesaro attempted the Neutralizer and the springboard spinning uppercut to no success. I guess next week we'll see Sheamus step in against the Monster and then at some point we'll find out Strowman's partner of choice, with my money on a returning Big Show.

Apollo & Titus O'Neil vs. Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder

The Revival put away Titus Worldwide with a Shatter Machine to Apollo in what was a completely random, but all-action tag bout. There was some really nice stuff in this bout, especially when Apollo got tagged in, with the Georgian working well with Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder on a couple of sequences. 

After the match - The Revival announced themselves as the first entrants into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

Also on the show 

- An extended sit-down interview with Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle, featured an emotional Rousey discussing her previous exploits and how they've lead her to be ready for the Grandest Stage of The All, with very little from Angle. It's weird that WWE announced Rousey would be at every RAW between Fastlane and WrestleMania and now she's missed two in a row.

- Mark Henry was announced for the 2018 Hall of Fame class, with a package including interviews with The Godfather, Xavier Woods, The Big Show and The Rock. No problems with Henry's induction here, he's given the company over 20 years of services, had over 1000 matches with them and his 2011 World Heavyweight title run and Hall of Pain gimmick was one of the highlights of the early part of this decade. 

- This week's "Hungry for Mania Moment" was John Cena defeating John "Bradshaw" Layfield for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21. 

ATPW Scale Rating //

5.5 out of 10

Written by James Marston //

@IAmNotAlanDale 

WWE RAW 25th Anniversary Review // 22nd January 2018 // Roman Reigns vs. The Miz

It was the 25th anniversary of WWE's flagship show on 22nd January (okay the actually anniversary was on 11th Jan, but this  as RAW hit the Barclays Center and Manhattan Center in New York City to celebrate. This was also the go-home RAW for the Royal Rumble, so surely it was going to be an epic success and not at all a let-down?...Right?

At a Glimpse

- Roman Reigns vs. The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship 
- D-Generation X and Scott Hall with The Balor Club
- Vince, Stephanie and Shane McMahon open the show with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin 
- Appearances from: The Undertaker, John Cena, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy

Intercontinental Championship // The Miz def. Roman Reigns (C) // Pinfall

The show's main event came at the top of the second hour and was the only match on the show that felt particularly important or consequential. The match was solid stuff and a very easy watch, but also suffered from feeling a little lightweight, short and overly familiar. The pattern was that of any recent Miz match, with lots of interference and distraction from Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel at ringside, bringing to mind Jinder Mahal's WWE title run, a comparison that nobody would want to be drawn. A couple of cute spots, including a nice moment where Dallas held onto Reigns leg in the corner as the Big Dog set up for a spear, allowing Miz to hit his Awesome Clothesline, but the body of the match featured nothing different and very little in the way of narrative beyond the interference. The last couple of two minutes or so were well done, with Miz getting a well-crafted near fall off a Skull Crushing Finale, after the referee had kicked Axel & Dallas from ringside, for a massive pop. Moments later Miz would dodge a spear, sending Reigns into an exposed turnbuckle, allowing for a second Skull Crushing Finale to pick up Miz's eighth Intercontinental Championship run and first victory over Reigns at the eighth time of asking. Overall, a solid yet unspectacular match, that could have been livened up by having the various General Managers (Daniel Bryan, William Regal, Eric Bischoff and John Laurinaitis) who were on stage before the entrances being involved somehow in the decision to remove Dallas & Axel from ringside somehow, as only having them wave a bit to the crowd was a waste and not particularly interesting for the home-viewer. 

D-Generation X and Scott Hall met the Balor Club 

then...

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson def. Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder // Pinfall

The top segment from the Manhattan Center came in the form of the D-Generation X reunion and their subsequent interactions with Razor Ramon and The Balor Club. There were a few fun moments when Triple H and Shawn Michaels were out there together, but things quickly descended into one of Triple H's pre-NXT Takeover speeches, full of buzzwords and claims about D-Generation X being at the forefront for the next 25 years. Past that the reunion felt like it was the same stuff we've seen time and time again from the group and considering they did a similar segment a few years back at RAW 1000, the only special thing about the reunion was the Manhattan Center setting and the crowd chanting "1-2-3" at X-Pac. Razor Ramon turning up added a little, but Finn Balor, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson at least bought a fresh angle to things and considering that BULLET CLUB leaned heavily on tropes from DX and the Kliq it was super cool to see them interacting here and throwing up the ol' Too Sweet hand gesture. The match that followed with Gallows & Anderson going over the Revival was a deathly disappointing squash. Considering Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder would go on to take everyone's finishes after the match, I'm not sure why they had to lose the match as well, as surely a cheap victory with some underhanded tactics would have given more reason to the beatdown and also not completely cut the legs out from under the former NXT Tag Team Champions. 

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin stunned Vince and Shane McMahon 

The show peaked early with this wonderfully entertaining opening segment featuring Vince, Shane, Stephanie and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Everything from when Vinny Mac hit the ring onwards was a joy to watch as Vince and Stephanie owned their performances, peppering in some comedy around crowd funding and ripping into Brooklyn for being a bit of a shithole. It amazes me how easy it is to get an American crowd to react to stuff like that, with Brooklyn even reacting repeatedly to mentions about plaque (Vince's kids had crowdfunded him a plaque, because....that's just what happened). Once that famous glass smashed, the Barclays came unglued and it was time to head to stunner-ville. Seeing Vince having so much fun inside the ring, as he threw out reasons why Austin should stunner Shane instead, was brilliant. Seeing the joy on the 72 year old's face throughout the whole segment absolutely made this for me. The highlight for me was Vince's apparent ad-lib after Austin had stunnered Shane, as the crowd chanted "One more time" and Vince replied "I don't think Shane can take another time". The build towards Vince taking the stunner was timed perfectly, building the anticipation before delivering on what we all wanted to see.

Elias took out John Cena

Wow, I wasn't expecting to see this on the show. Elias rebuffed a John Cena comeback, nailed a low blow, guitar shot and Drift Away before leaving the 16 time World Champion laying in the centre of the ring. For me, this was the best booked segment on the entire show, as anyone tuning in to see Cena on the special episode, would've seen one of WWE's biggest star get left laying by a relative newcomer, lending the Drifter legitimacy amongst casual fans and reason for those fans to tune in for a regular episode. We also got one of my favourite Elias songs to date as he just bitched about various legends and Brooklyn booed the shit out of him. It was hardly nuanced, but boy did it work! Before the segment, Chris Jericho made a brief appearance with Elias backstage, pulling out a few catchphrases and placing The Drifter on the list. 

The APA returned and played poker with some lads...

then...

Titus O'Neil & Apollo Crews vs. Heath Slater & Rhyno // No Contest  

A lot of time went into this weird storyline, that began with the APA reopening their office thing with a door but no walls and concluded with Heath Slater taking a 3D from the Dudley Boyz through a table, and I'm still trying to figure out who decided any of it was good use of time and talent. The backstage segments were poorly produced and whilst appearances from Ted DiBiase, The Usos, Montel Vontavious Porter, Jeff Hardy, Natalya and The New Day were cool to see, no one particularly stood out as the multiple segments came across as incredibly messy and unorganised. There were things that each of those non-regulars could have done that would've been far more interesting and probably taken up less time than whatever the fuck this was. Somehow we got to a match between Heath Slater & Rhyno and Titus O'Neil & Apollo Crews and then the match was over. Nothing happened. It just ended because it got a bit rowdy. Slater getting thrown to the Dudley Boyz was also a thing, because it would appear Rhyno doesn't give a fuck about Slater's kids. Did you think about the kids, Rhyno? Shithead. 

Sasha Banks & Mickie James & Bayley & Asuka def. Alicia Fox & Nia Jax & Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose // Submission

Another inconsequential and down right dull match up was the opening contest of the evening. For some reason this bout was stretched across two advert breaks, with the second garnering a groan from this reviewer, but absolutely nothing of note had happened in the first two parts of the match. Asuka had a face shine, Sasha Banks was the face in peril and Banks tapped out Alicia Fox in the Banks Statement, with no hot tag or any particular feeling that such a finish was coming. Michael Cole made a big thing about there being no women's match on the first episode of RAW and to be quite honest there was the same amount of effort put into this women's match as there was back then. At least, Asuka turning on her team and throwing them over the rope after the match was a good piece of business heading into the Royal Rumble.

RAW Moments

Throughout the pre-show and beyond we got a reminder of some of the greatest moments in the shows history. These included Bobby Heenan trying to enter the Manhattan Center, Steve Austin driving a Zamboni, Mankind winning the WWF title, Eric Bischoff's debut, Lita vs. Trish Stratus as the first women's main event, The Undertaker's general career, Chris Jericho's debut, D-Geneation X invading WCW, Seth Rollins turning on The Shield, Brock Lesnar's return and the career of Edge. All well an good, I guess.

Brock Lesnar, Kane and Braun Strowman collided ahead of Royal Rumble

Whilst it seemed like creative had about six ideas for the closing segment of the show and decided to do all of them at the same time, it was Paul Heyman who ended up stealing the moment and giving us one final hard sell on the Universal Championship match at Royal Rumble on Sunday. Heyman coming out and with his usual bombast declaring that Lesnar wasn't there for a nostalgia trip, but for a fight, was delicious stuff that the crowd lapped up and actually made me excited to see the three of them scrap. For reason, the ring had some of the legends from earlier around it and some of the regular roster stood in between Strowman and Kane for a bit, before doing absolutely fuck all. The brawl between the three that will be involved in the Sunday's Universal title match didn't do a whole lot for me, being too short to offer much of an insight into the matches potential. After Lesnar hit Kane with an F5 early doors, it was Braun Strowman who ended the show standing tall following a running powerslam to Lesnar through a table.

Peep Show with Seth Rollins, Jason Jordan, Sheamus & Cesaro 

Jason Jordan has really came into his own since being placed alongside Seth Rollins and it was never more evident than it was here as the pairs uneasy partnership became the focal point of a special episode of Christian's Peep Show (definitely would've been improved by a Super Hans appearance). Jordan's overtly cocky to the point of it almost being uncomfortable to watch character was on full display, making references to his Dad whilst Rollins looked on uneasy. The interruption from The Bar provided us with a good little bit of build for their Tag Title clash at the Rumble, with the two teams scrapping as Sheamus & Cesaro had lead the crowd in a "You suck" chant directed towards Jordan. The last little bit of misscomunication between the champion as Rollins nailed Jordan with the springboard knee gave us the last bit of story development before Sunday, opening up the possibility of a title change. The segment would've been improved by an appearance from Edge as they could've pushed the tag team theme a little further, but you can't have everything in this life.

Bray Wyatt def. Matt Hardy // Pinfall 

The only other match from the Manhattan Center was this disappointingly short and straightforward contest between Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy. This has been built to for a long, long time and then just happened. To my knowledge it wasn't announced prior, which makes things even worse. To be fair, the match was ticking along rather nicely for a while as both men mixed up a number of their signature moves and poses, whilst the Manhattan Center was hot for deleting things. Then it just ended as Wyatt blocked a Twist of Fate, pulled Hardy's throat into the top rope and hit Sister Abigail to earn the win in a couple of minutes. What happens now? Wyatt won, with a slightly underhanded tactic, but in such a quick fashion that it feels like any momentum that was left from the overly long build was killed stoned dead. At least Wyatt won I suppose, that's something. 

The Undertaker said nothing

What on earth was this? Seriously, what was the point? Obviously, there's always a thrill when The Undertaker is on your television screen, but when it's five minutes of the Deadman talking but saying absolutely nothing, then you start to wonder why it's happening at all. Taker mentioned some of his old rivals and then said a cryptic sentence about them being able to rest in peace now. What? The commentary team offered no help at all either. No interaction with anyone, no development to a story and no important announcement, this was five mind-numbing minutes of nothing fucking happening. The Manhattan Center got screwed. 

Also...

Eric Bischoff joined the pre-show panel for a chat about his RAW debut, in which we learnt absolutely nothing new...In another waste of talents, Trish Stratus, Kelly Kelly, The Bella Twins, Maria Kanellis, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Torrie Wilson, Lilian Garcia, Jacqueline and Terri Runnels came out and waved at the crowd...The New Day's hilarious lip sync battle with Triple H & Stephanie McMahon from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon aired on the pre-show...The Boogeyman, Teddy Long, Jonathan Coachman, The Brooklyn Brawler, Brother Love and Harvey Wippleman appeared in a segment in Kurt Angle's office...AJ Styles featured in a fun interview segment with "Mean" Gene Okerlund discussing his WWE Championship defence at Royal Rumble...SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair bumped in RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, before Charlotte's Dad Ric Flair arrived to do some Wooing and what have you...Mark Henry and The Godfather caught up backstage...

Finally...

Lets be honest, RAW 25 was a massive let down, especially if you happened to be inside the Manhattan Center. "Stone Cold" and the McMahons, John Cena and Elias and The Peep Show segments were the only ones that I felt fully delivered, whilst Roman Reigns vs. The Miz was a solid, yet unspectacular main event. D-Generation X and Balor Club was fun, but the squash of the Revival frustrating, whilst all of the matches felt throw away and the legends backstage segments fell flat. Perhaps the most disappointing thing on the show was The Undertaker's appearance, which promised a lot and delivered nothing. Here's hoping the Royal Rumble manages to live up to the hype better than this.