TV Review: TNA IMPACT Wrestling #610 (TNA World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender's Gauntlet)

On 22nd March 2016, TNA aired the 610th episode of Impact Wrestling, having previously taped the event on 15th March 2016 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, USA. The show featured Bram, Jeff Hardy, Ethan Carter III, Matt Hardy, Rockstar Spud, "The Miracle" Mike Bennett, Eric Young, Lashley and Tyrus competed in a Gauntlet Match to crown a new #1 Contender to Drew Galloway's TNA World Heavyweight Championship, after a chaotic opening segment involving everyone (minus Lashley) lead to Dixie Carter announcing the bout...but was it any good? Let's take a look.

impact wrestling #610 match card

Match 1 - TNA World Tag Team Championship - Beer Money (C) vs. The Bro-Mans

Match 2 - Street Fight - Crazzy Steve w/Rosemary vs. Eddie Edwards

Match 3 - TNA Knockout's Championship #1 Contender's Three Way - Jade vs. Marti Bell vs. Rebel

Match 4 - TNA World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender's Gauntlet - Bram vs. Eric Young vs. Ethan Carter III vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Lashley vs. Matt Hardy vs. Mike Bennett vs. Rockstar Spud vs. Tyrus

drew galloway opens the show, shenanigans occur

What a start to the show! An exciting opening segment with lots of different faces and storylines, that set's up something to stick around for in the shows main event spot. New TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway was on form with passionate opening promo, showing just what kind of Champion he'll be and kicking off his run well. The Matt Hardy Brand interrupted, before we got a slew of competitors attempting to state their case for a shot at Galloway's title. Jeff Hardy, Eric Young, Bram and Ethan Carter III all had a bit of a brawl, before Mike Bennett was the final one to have his say, coming out with Maria and reminding us that he was the last one to pin Galloway, back at IMPACT Wrestling #607. That's what made this segment work best for me, everyone involved had a real claim to a title shot and Galloway looked more than up for a scrap with anyone of them! "I'll bloody fight you all" he said.

TNA President Dixie Carter was out to settle things to the delight of everyone....I actually thought that Dixie did a pretty good job with what she had to do. I much prefer her role at the moment, compared to the over-done all-powerful heel boss thing she was doing a few years ago. Her saying something "they don't wanna see you argue for a title shot, they wanna see you fight for it!" was a sweet line, that managed to cut through the chaos of the rest of the opening. It set up the main event for later on and presented something a little bit different for people to tune in to. One of the strongest opening segments TNA have done in the last six months, and having plenty of names vying for a title shot can only be good for the title.

fast-forward...Mike Bennett selected his number for the gauntlet match from Jeremy Borash's golden tumbler...

beer money defeat the bro-man to retain the tna world tag team championships

The Bro-Mans were hardly the most excited duo to have answer Beer Money open challenge (only open to former tag team champions) but they did offer James Storm and Bobby Roode someone to quickly build their title reign up against, which with a pretty lacklustre tag division (You've only got The Decay and Bram & Eric Young teaming regularly) at the moment could have been hard to do otherwise. Although it was hardly a highly anticipated reunion, considering they last teamed together on One Night Only: Joker's Wild 4 that aired on 4th March. The bout itself was fairly basic in it's tag team structure, with Beer Money obviously coming out on top after about five minutes. I thought the closing stages of the bout were a little bit sloppy, with the four bumbling their way through what looked like it should have been a pacy series of moves, before Roode pinned Robbie E after a weak looking D.W.I. Not the greatest start to Beer Money's title reign this and it showed up just how much TNA need to build up it's tag division. 

fast-forward...The Decay cut another creepy backstage promo, calling out Eddie Edwards to a No Disqualification bout later in the show...Bram and Eric Young picked their numbers out of Jeremy Borash's tumbler, with Young seeing Willow again...

eddie edwards defeats crazzy steve in a no disqualification match

A decent no disqualification bout here, as Eddie Edwards looked to seek revenge on The Decay after they defeated him in six man tag action last week. Steve and Edwards worked well together, keeping a strong pace throughout and peppering in a couple of cool spots. A piece of action on the outside that saw Steve trip Edwards on the steps before hitting a cannonball stands out as the highlight of the match. Rosemary's involvement in the finish was handled well, as she costs Edwards the victory, before Steve accidentally ran into her allowing Edwards to get the win with a school-boy roll up. Whilst it didn't featured as much brutality as other recent TNA bouts, there was a lot to enjoy throughout here. It'll be interesting to see if this feud continues, but without Davey Richards able to compete, there isn't really anywhere else to take things at the moment. It'd be cool to see Edwards get a run as a singles competitor, as we saw in ROH he's got a lot to offer TNA in that department as well.

fast-forward...Jeff Hardy and Ethan Carter III picked their numbers for the Gauntlet from Jeremy Borash's tumbler, with EC3 cutting a passionate promo on Mike Bennett...

jade defeats marti bell and rebel to become number one contender to the tna knockout's championship

This was all a little weird, but I think I ended up liking it. Basically, Maria was supposed to face Gail Kim for the TNA Knockout's Championship, but called out the Dollhouse, revealing that TNA management had said she could give any Dollhouse member her shot at the title, setting up the three way and leaving Gail to awkwardly walk to the back. At first I was skeptical about the segment but with Maria explaining her position on commentary, saying she'd already defeated Gail and wanted the title to truly mean something before she won it, I was won round. It builds even more anticipation to final showdown between Gail and Maria. The three way itself was a good bout, with quite a few cool spots involving all three girls. The closing stages made Jade look like a boss as she dominated both of her opponents, and actually pinning both of them herself. Jade faced Gail on IMPACT Wrestling #608 and I asked for a more focused rematch, so I'm pretty happy on that front, and with the added element of Maria claiming that Jade is her protege, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the three do with the opportunity they have.

fast-forward...The Matt Hardy Brand selected their numbers for the gauntlet from Jeremy Borash's tumbler, with Rockstar Spud's performance standing out especially...

jeff hardy wins a gauntlet match to become number one contender to the tna world heavyweight championship

This gauntlet was used to further a number of storylines TNA has going at the moment, was completely watchable, without being particularly memorable in it's own right. It seemed like a missed opportunity to not have any of the Matt Hardy Brand faction in the ring together, as Rockstar Spud found himself eliminated as Tyrus made his way to the ring and Tyrus was gone before Matt Hardy could get there. The group could have been used to drive the bout's story. We did however see Bram accidentally eliminate Eric Young to seemingly set-up a feud between the two, The Pope D'Angelo Dinero got involved in the bout to eliminate the man who attack himself last week, Lashley and after EC3 had eliminate Mike Bennett, Bennett helped Matt Hardy to eliminate him. Three big future feuds coming out of the battle royal with more fuel to add to the fire over the next few weeks, not bad at all.

The two Hardys being the final two in the match was a slightly obvious end to the bout, but both men put in some quality work here. There's definitely a sense that a one on one match between the two is inevitable at this point, and this tease of what could be to come was a pleasing one. The two going back and forth offered a couple of false finishes that kept the Orlando crowd engaged, with the strongest of these being Matt catching Jeff on the top rope as the younger brother went for a Whisper in the Wind. There was lots of drama towards the end of the bout, with Jeff on the apron, barely managing to hang on. Matt going for a Twist of Fate through the ropes was a nice piece of work, even if Josh Matthews called it as a Hangman's DDT, and Jeff managing to hit a back body drop over the top rope to win the bout gave a lovely visual on which to end the show. Jeff will provide a stellar first opponent for Drew Galloway's title reign next week and hopefully the pair are allowed to go full throttle, as they're more than capable of putting on a classic TV main event.

finally...

atpw scale rating - 5.71/10

TNA continues to deliver a solid two hours of television, with this episode scoring the highest ATPW Scale Rating for the show this year. The opening segment of the show completely nailed it, allowing a number of different faces to come across as stars, showcasing the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway well and setting up an interesting main event for the show. Whilst that main event was hardly a blow away contest, it did set the wheels in motion for at least three different feuds, whilst also providing us with a new #1 Contender in the shape of Jeff Hardy. Hardy vs. Galloway next week is a marketable main event that if advertised well should draw a good rating. 

The undercard was varied, including a No DQ bout, a three way women's match with lots of storyline development and a World Tag Team Championship match that whilst not quite hitting the spot gave Beer Money more credibility as a Champions of a fairly weak division. 

 I want to be writing about great matches, not just good or decent matches! I think it's also worth noting that some of the promotions most exciting workers need to start getting more TV time, I'm talking about the likes of Trevor Lee, Andrew Everrett, Mandrews and Tigre Uno...basically the X Division! The show remains a watchable product and has been so for most of the year, however, with no storyline based PPV's it's time for the show to up their game in time of match quality.

WWE Raw 26th August 2013 Review

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 5^th 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. 

WWE Raw 22nd July 2013 Review

Raw this week had a number of big names missing from the broadcast, with Randy Orton, Kane, Curtis Axel, an announced Big Show, Brock Lesnar, The Wyatt Family and a departed Chris Jericho all absent. However, this didn’t really seem to matter that much, as this Raw belonged to one man and one man only. That man is of course, Daniel Bryan.

Gauntlet Match: 

Daniel Bryan

 vs. 

Jack Swagger, Antonio Cesaro & Ryback

We kicked off the show this week with my all time favourite wrestling cliché, the contract signing. Any regular reader will know that last line was some nice British sarcasm. However, as contract signings go this one, between WWE Champion John Cena and Daniel Bryan, actually wasn’t too bad. There was enough talent in the ring to make it entertaining for the amount of screen time it was given. John Cena’s promo ability seems to have returned for the first time since post-Wrestlemania as he delivered a believable promo on why he choose Daniel Bryan for his Summerslam opponent. However, it would have been nice to hear more from Daniel Bryan on the situation, as Cena did the lion share of the talking, which Bryan is more than capable of doing on his own. The other thing that brought the segment down was the involvement of Brad Maddox. Now, I’m a fan of Maddox, and enjoy his delivery on the microphone which couldn’t really be faulted here, and he did play his role well, but he just felt surplus to requirements, being overused in a storyline between Cena and Bryan that really only needs two people to tell. Maddox went on to place Bryan in a Gauntlet Match, as the night’s main event.

As the show continued we got a number of backstage segments, hyping the match and developing the story. Firstly, John Cena went to visit Daniel Bryan in the locker room. Bryan told Cena to stay out of his Gauntlet Match, because he wanted to prove he belonged in the Summerslam main event. I like the dynamic between Cena and Bryan, both clearly have a mutual respect for each other, but bring something totally different to the table of WWE. Elsewhere, it seems the McMahon family can’t help but get involved when a wrestler begins to spike in popularity, we saw it in 2011 with CM Punk and now we’re seeing it with Daniel Bryan in 2013. Both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon visited Brad Maddox, wondering if he was being control by someone else, obviously referring to Vince McMahon’s apparent dislike of Daniel Bryan. I don’t understand why WWE thinks the John Cena-Daniel Bryan match, needs Vince, Triple H, Stephanie and Brad Maddox all involved, as if this will somehow sell the match more!

Now for the Gauntlet match, Bryan started off against Jack Swagger, who of course had Real Americans Antonio Cesaro and Zeb Colter at ringside. This was fairly good match, with Swagger dominating for most of the contest, before hitting his signature Swagger Bomb for a near fall. With Swagger taking time to gloat, Bryan caught him in the No Lock for the Submission victory. It was a good warm up match for what was about to come as Bryan’s second opponent was Antonio Cesaro. The two went back and forth with a number of interesting submission holds and vicious strikes. The match had me glued to my screen from start to finish, knowing exactly when to up the pace and when to bring things back in again, each man brought they’re “A game” and told a great story in the ring, that really helped to sell Bryan as someone with absolutely no quit. This is the closest I’ve seen to a Ring of Honor style match in WWE, typified by the repeated uppercuts that Cesaro used on Bryan for a near fall, it would seem that the two had a lot of free-reign when putting things together, which can only be a good thing. The ending was also clever, with Bryan jumping over Cesaro from the top rope, and with Cesaro about to launch Bryan into an uppercut, Bryan reversed into a small package to pick up the victory. If WWE still doesn’t believe Antonio Cesaro has what it takes to be a top star in their company then they probably never will.

The final opponent for Bryan was Ryback. Now after the classic contest we’d just seen between Bryan and Cesaro, it was clear that this match with Ryback would never live up to the technicality that we had just seen, however it was still a pretty decent contest, that had a good story to tell and worked well enough in telling that story. With Bryan exhausted it would appear the Ryback would simply come and pick the bones of a victory, however the heart of Bryan kept him going, as he frustrated Ryback at every turn. With Ryback unable to pick up a regular victory, he ended up powerbomb Bryan through a table that he had previously set up at ringside, after already delivering a powerbomb onto the floor. It made sense as a finish for the Ryback character, but was a frustrating one for Daniel Bryan, especially with what was to come. John Cena came out to make the save for Bryan, albeit a little bit too late, before challenging Ryback to a Tables Match next week. It was frustrating for me, as it felt like Cena and Ryback had attempted to steal the spotlight off of what should have been Daniel Bryan’s moment.

Punk Rocked

Some of the most epic story telling WWE has ever seen continued this week, with two masters of the microphone, CM Punk and Paul Heyman, duelling once more with some excellent promo and character work to build for Punk’s match with Heyman’s client Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. It was then however a little frustrating that the Beast Incarnate was only referred to and never actually seen onscreen. It’s been great to have Lesnar back with WWE over the last year and a half, but at times his contract does do more harm than good, with Lesnar only contracted for a certain number of appearances, WWE has to be extremely careful on which shows to place Lesnar. Whilst this can be effective, it does remove a certain gloss from the situation.

Punk started off proceedings by talking about the altercation between he and Lesnar the week previously. Punk somehow managed to put over both Brock Lesnar’s power and strength and his own ability to get back onto his feet. It’s a skill that not a lot of WWE wrestlers have on the microphone, they can easily talk about how good they are, but to build to a big match you need to have your opponent look good as well. Punk went onto talk about how Lesnar’s strongest weapon was fear, but he wasn’t afraid of Lesnar. It’s a idea we’ve seen before, Punk himself used the idea in his feud with The Undertaker, but it works here, as long as it isn’t pushed too hard, I’ll accept it being used again. Where the promo really hit its stride was towards the end with Punk talking about how he would slay the beast at Summerslam, the delivery was spot on, helping to show the emotion of Punk and making me want to see him get his hands on Brock Lesnar even more.

With Punk’s promo finished, Paul Heyman turned up on the tron, with the classic “Live Via Satellite” caption in the corner of the screen. Heyman did a good job of talking up Brock Lesnar and the story that he’s had with Punk over the last year or so, even stopping off on the way to get some cheap heat from the Texas crowd. With Punk desperate to find out where Heyman was, Heyman agreed to the match at Summerslam, with the nice touch of referring to Brock Lesnar as his “Best friend in the entire world”, a status once held by Punk himself. Heyman finished by saying that Punk should stop calling himself the Best, because The Beast is the Best. It was a strong segment that kept the momentum off the feud rolling as we head towards Summerslam, hopefully we’ll get to see the Beast next week on Raw.

So far, the story between Punk, Lesnar and Heyman has worked extremely well. The history between Punk and Heyman has really helped to push the story along in the times when Lesnar wasn’t scheduled to appear. However as we get closer to SummerSlam, it becomes more important that we do begin to see Lesnar more, as whilst the history between Heyman and Punk is rich, there is only so much for them to play with without going over old ground and becoming repetitive. All the players are currently in place for an epic encounter at Summerslam, WWE just have to keep that anticipation running over three more episodes of Raw and along with Bryan/Cena they could have a very successful SummerSlam buyrate.

Sheamus 

vs. 

World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio

The opening match of Raw this week pitted World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, against long time rival Sheamus. It’s a match we’ve seen multiple times before including match at last year’s Money in the Bank, SummerSlam and Night of Champions, as well as episodes of Raw and Smackdown. Therefore whilst WWE attempted to push this match as a major contest on Raw, it was harm a little through over familiarity with Sheamus and Del Rio, and didn’t quite have the big match feel that WWE clearly wanted it to have.

The content of the match was also harmed because of the overfamiliarity the audience had with this match. Whilst the action was technically sound, there wasn’t really much difference in what was being presented to what we’ve seen from these two dozens of times before, therefore making it a frustrating encounter to watch. Whilst Del Rio works well in his heel role, I find it difficult to get behind Sheamus in his current face role, distancing myself from this match even further. I think Sheamus is capable of playing a believable face, but just not in the current character, there’s too many inconsistencies, between him being a hard-hitting no-nonsense competitor and the goofish Guiness drinking, potato eating, Irish stereotype.

Del Rio spent a lot of the time working Sheamus’ arm to soften it up for the Cross Arm Breaker, as well as Sheamus’ injured leg, which had a huge bruise from the All Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match. The ending saw Del Rio miss a Cross Arm Breaker attempt, but with Sheamus going for White Noise, his injured leg buckled allowing Del Rio to take a roll up victory. I actually quite enjoyed the ending as it used the story that was being told throughout the match well. It was also good to see Del Rio pick up the victory, as mentioned in my Smackdown review, I hate it when champions lose on television.

Now, the main talking point for me coming out of this match was who will be Alberto Del Rio’s SummerSlam opponent. WWE seems to have missed the boat by not having a final blow off for Del Rio’s feud with Dolph Ziggler, instead opting to enter Ziggler into a feud with Big E Langston. Looking at the WWE roster left, they don’t really have a lot of options in terms of opponent for Del Rio. It has to be someone who has been booked strongly over the last few weeks, and someone who has yet to show signs of a feud heading into SummerSlam, they must also of course be face. Looking at the WWE roster, it would seem Rob Van Dam, Christian and outside bet of Randy Orton (who already holds a victory over Del Rio from Smackdown) would be the best options to pick.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere this week, Mark Henry came out to call out The Shield. Henry’s promo ability has certainly got better over the last few years and this was another strong performance. He seems to know how to work the crowd either way, whether getting them to boo him or cheer him. People will always cheer for someone who shows bravery and heart, as well as someone from their state, all of which Henry drew upon in his promo. Once The Shield were down, similar to last week, Henry fought valiantly against United States Champion Dean Ambrose and Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, but of course the three man advantage was too much with The Shield eventually gaining the upperhand.

It was then that The Usos returned the favour from Smackdown, coming out to even the numbers for The World’s Strongest Man. With the fight then even, Mark Henry even threw The Usos out of the way to get at The Shield again building the intensity of the rivalry well. It was Roman Reigns who took the brunt of the attack, taking a Superkick from an Uso and then a Stinger Splash in the corner from Henry, before The Shield managed to pull Reigns to safety and live to fight another day. I’m interested to see where this feud is heading into SummerSlam, as WWE have a number of options to run with, but if they keep going like this WWE could have another big match to help sell SummerSlam.

Dolph Ziggler was also in action this week, against Darren Young of The Prime Time Players. Interestingly, Young’s tag team partner Titus O’Neil was not at ringside, although this could be to do with a bout against Christian earlier in the night (more on that later). Young’s run against a number of top WWE stars continues, after recent bouts with John Cena, CM Punk and Rob Van Dam, across WWE programming, it has to be wondered if WWE has bigger plans for Young than his current tag team role. The match didn’t particularly set the world a light, but it was solid and set up well for what was to come. With Young having control for most of the match, Young took time to gloat over Ziggler, allowing the Show Off to sneak through and hit a Zig Zag for the victory. I enjoyed the ending and it continued the character development for Ziggler well, as someone who may take a beating but always manages to get a victory.

After the match, Divas Champion AJ Lee and Big E Langston came down to the ring, with Big E attempting to take out Ziggler again. This time however, Ziggler was able to get the upperhand using his speed and brains to throw Langston out of the ring, before getting away from his larger opponent. Seeing as Langston got the better of Ziggler last week, it was important to keep Ziggler looking good here by returning the favour. We’ve also seen very minimal actual competition between the two, therefore making their inevitable SummerSlam contest even more anticipated as we really don’t know how it will play out.

Cody Rhodes was in action, in his first match as face in over five years for WWE, he took on Fandango, who was accompanied to the ring by Summer Rae. With Damien Sandow at commentary it was pretty clear we were going to get some involvement from him during the match from the outset. The contest was short, the content within the match was good, but it was clear it’s going take a little bit more time for Cody to get used to playing a face. As expected, with Cody just about starting to role, pulling out moves from his father and brother, as well as mentor Hardcore Holly, it didn’t take long for Sandow to get involved with his briefcase. What was nice however was Rhodes getting the better of Sandow taking out both he and Fandango with a Disaster Kick, before hitting Cross Rhodes for the pinfall victory. A decent enough contest, which would have benefitted from having an extra five minutes, but it didn’t do much to advance the Rhodes and Sandow feud heading into SummerSlam.

Rob Van Dam was also in action, this week against Wade Barrett. These matches are basically being used to refresh the WWE fans memory of what Van Dam can do in the ring and what he brings to the table that is WWE. It’s a shame then that Barrett has dropped so far down the WWE pecking order, since losing the Intercontinental Championship to Curtis Axel at Payback, I’m starting to think we may never see Barrett get pushed any further than this. The match was fairly good, with Van Dam getting a lot of his signature offence in, before hitting a Five Star Frog Splash for the victory. It’s still to be seen where Van Dam is heading into SummerSlam, although we should find out more on Friday as he faces World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio on Smackdown.

Whilst Darren Young had a losing effort to Dolph Ziggler this week, his tag team partner Titus O’Neil was in action against Christian. I couldn’t say I was particularly excited about this contest, as although I like both Christian and Titus, I wasn’t quite sure how they would gel together in the ring. I was pleasantly surprised, as the match told a good story and the action was solid throughout. O’Neil controlled throughout most of the contest, a role he certainly seems comfortable in due to his size and presence, with Christian working a natural underdog role. With Christian’s comeback building to a Killswitch attempt, Darren Young caused the distraction allowing for a near fall for Titus. It didn’t take much longer for Christian to hit the Killswitch and pick up a pinfall victory. Christian’s picked up a number of victories since Money in the Bank, could he be next in line for a shot at Alberto Del Rio’s World Heavyweight Championship?

Before taking out Daniel Bryan in the main event, Ryback was interview by Josh Matthews regarding his attack of Chris Jericho on Smackdown. I was relatively impressed with this promo from Ryback, he seemed to have gained an ability to show emotion in his speech and told an interesting story, comparing himself to a school yard bully. Even if it was a little bit Bully Ray, it was a vast improvement on Ryback’s previous offerings. It would seem like when Jericho makes his return to WWE, he will re-enter his feud with Ryback, or at least the door has been left open. 

We were also treated to the worst edition of Miz TV we had seen, with The Miz presenting us the cast of Total Divas. We got a clip from the new show, which premieres this Sunday, and it certainly didn’t make me want to sit down and watch the show, although I guess I’m not it’s target audience. There was even more debacle with The Miz getting Jerry Lawler into the ring, who ended up in an altercation with new Diva Eva Marie. I don’t understand why WWE, after having a fairly exciting and heated Divas feud between AJ Lee and Kaitlyn have gone backwards in presenting this on Raw, that really did go nowhere. Yes, they need to promote the show, but that’s what adverts are for.

There was another bizarre segment, with Renee Young interviewing Teddy Long and Hall of Famer Booker T backstage, about Vickie Guerrero being named the new General Manager of Smackdown. Booker and Teddy got into a war of words, with Long eventually saying he was glad Booker didn't get the General Manager job. I'm really not sure where WWE are going with Long and Booker arguing, are we going to see Booker T vs. Teddy Long at SummerSlam?

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Raw?

1. Daniel Bryan is the star of the show, no matter how much WWE wants it to be John Cena and Ryback.

2. I could listen to Paul Heyman and CM Punk verbally joust for most of Raw.

3. SummerSlam is shaping into one hell of show.