Our Favourite RAW Moments

What's this? A shameless cash-in article because it's RAW 25 tonight? Absolutely not. Shut up. Don't go away though, read these views. 

I thought I'd ask our writers and a few friends what they've enjoyed the most over the last twenty five years and this is the collection of those views. What a treat for you the reader. We've got a cavalcade of the great and the good when it comes to ATPW involved Craig Hermit, 

CRAIG HERMIT 

Twenty Five years people, that's a quarter of a century. That's how long RAW has been on that long?! So what is my favourite moment? I genuinely can't give you one because think about it. You as an individual has changed throughout that time.

Case in point, I remember being a child cheering watching the RAW episode when Mr Perfect sent Ric Flair away to WCW after a career ending match. I wouldn't be having the same reaction now. I remember watching the Stone Cold vs Mr McMahon feud every week with something else added on, now I'd be saying this is just drawn out. 

Kurt Angle feuding with Stone Cold was my highlight of the Invasion, "Milkomania!"

Then when the Trish Stratus feud with Lita reached new levels, they main evented the show. WWE had consistently fed fans that Women in the division were eye candy, but damnit that match, both women displayed exactly why they were role models to women that this was just the beginning and it's to WWE's discredit that fans never saw more of this and more development from their wrestlers until recently.

And Daniel Bryan, or should I say the Daniel Bryan movement, wow, think about it, highjacking The Authority's Championship speech and then in the run to Wrestlemania highjacking the show.

Closing with Paige, remembering her first Divas Title victory. It was incredible, not the match but the moment. Fans who'd seen her in NXT, Shimmer and UK knew how awesome she is and this moment seeing her seize the Title. Damn incredible.

So those are some of the moments I remember, oh The Shield breaking up too, there we go!


Think about your 25 years, can you sum it up in one moment? Much like RAW, you can't.

JOZEF RACZKA

Not everything great in WWE happened in the Attitude Era. I'm sure a lot of them did but as someone whose first Wrestlemania was Thirty, it would be disingenuous to write about something that really had no meaning to me. The first full episode of RAW I watched was June 2nd 2014, does that mean anything to you? It should, it's when Seth Rollins, the Architect of The Shield brought it all crashing down around him when he beat Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose with a chair. It was the beginning of my understanding of why you dumb nerds watch this shit and also of me becoming one of you.

But here's the thing, that's not even the death of friendship, I wanted to talk about today. Sure, we've had the end of The Shield, we've had The Miz & Damien Mizdow but in recent years, there's no contender for one moment that we're going to all look back on , maybe even 25 years from now and think 'well that was basically perfect'. I talk to you, of course, about Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens' Festival of Friendship. The Festival is a tribute to the rock-solid nature of Owens and Jericho when it comes to character relations, you see, anyone who's been watching the programming could have worked out that Owens was going to turn on Jericho but Jericho being so blinded to how one-sided the friendship is at that point makes it all the more heartbreaking. Yet it doesn't forget in making Jericho the hero of the story, that he's also a grand-stage narcissist who talks of himself as a gift and makes his entrance with a chorus of showgirls, it's a celebration of friendship but very much, it's a Chris Jericho event, nothing of the flash or pomp suggests Kevin Owens. Wrestling is just a media through which the story is performed, stories of superheroes and supervillains can stand alongside more nuanced tales of broken people refusing to see that they can't make someone change.

That's what we got here and with all the Craigslist magicians, reinterpretations of The Creation of Adam and surprise Gillberg returns you could ask for. This segment was great, as good as the pipebomb, as good as The Rock: This Is Your Life. All this and we learnt one of the most important lessons that wrestling has taught us in years: "It's art! You don't need pants!"

SEAN TAYLOR-RICHARDSON

When Nitro commentator Tony Schiavone joked about Mick Foley’s title win putting butts on seats, he not only hammered a nail in the WCW coffin, he also pointed viewers in the direction of Raw’s greatest ever moment. In front of a wild crowd, Mankind and The Rock engaged in a fiery brawl, aided and abetted by a rich cast of supporting characters: from the McMahons to D-X, this who’s who of the Attitude Era was capped off by the arrival of the never-hotter Stone Cold Steve Austin. As the glass shattered, the fans came unglued; more than happy to see a major star, this pop was reminiscent of a home crowd witnessing a last minute winner over the local rivals Moments later and Mankind was champion: for all of Schiavone’s sarcasm, this represented one of the most genuine feel good moments in WWF/E history.

ANDY SCOTLAND 

I think for me personally, my favourite moment from Raw would be the segment between Mike Tyson and Steve Austin from January 19th, 1998. Steve Austin had just come off his Royal Rumble win and was as popular as anyone had ever been. Vince McMahon was a proud as could be about having “The Baddest Man On The Planet” Mike Tyson on Monday Night Raw and you just knew that Austin was coming to spoil the whole thing. I can still remember the whole segment almost from memory. I was glued to the TV watching it. You could have offered me anything in the world but as a 10 year old, nothing else existed for those minutes. It made regular news around the world. That brawl between the two was probably up there with the best brawl ever on TV, not just WWE. Over 20 years later, people still put it in the top moments in WWE history and I can completely agree.

JAMES MARSTON 

When I asked myself to write my favourite RAW moment, it seems like a lot of our writers I struggled to find my moment. Not because of a lack of choice, but because of the abundance of choice. As much as we, the fans, like to bemoan the WWE, there's no doubt that Vince McMahon and his pals know how to create moments that stick in your mind for years and years. Part of that is how often WWE likes to replay it's classic moments...how often have you seen D-Generation X invade on WCW get an outing on RAW? But another part is the power behind the moments themselves in the first place. Whilst storylines might not always hit home or end how we'd like to see them end, the moments along the way are what keeps us coming back. 

I was a young fan during the tail end of the Attitude Era, but didn't have Sky, so my main exposure to WWF was Sunday Night Heat on Channel 4 and the handful of PPVs they showed. Whilst I've obviously seen the majority of the iconic moments from this period, it would be wrong to choose something from here as it just didn't have the same impact on me watching them years after the fact and often knowing what was going to happen. I began finding WWE back again in 2007, before learning how to connect with RAW online a few years later. Therefore the moments I've been most effected by mostly come from after 2010. I remember being baffled by Donald Trump buying RAW, thrilled by the Nexus invasion angle and saddened by Edge's retirement...but the first time I remember coming away thinking "Holy shit, what has just happened?" was CM Punk's Pipebomb promo. 

Coming after a fairly forgettable Tables Match between R-Truth and John Cena, from the moment Punk sat cross-legged on ramp, clad in a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin t-shirt, his energy came straight through the screen and made me take notice of what was about to happen. Pre this moment, Punk's 2011 had been hit and miss, placed as the leader of the New Nexus, over as fuck and picking up victories over John Cena, Rey Mysterio and John Morrison, but also losing ever match in his series with Randy Orton, there was no particular indication of what was about to come. That's probably what made the subsequent promo so special. 

It might have launched a series of worked shoots that didn't always work, but in that moment as Punk began to rile off his issues with WWE, Vince McMahon, John Lauranitis and the fans, it felt like a real shift was occurring. Winks and nods to things outside the company, mentioning New Japan, Ring of Honor and even Colt Cabana, at a time when WWE was much more cut off from the rest of the wrestling world than it is today, felt like nothing else that had happened on that show, that month, year or beyond. Punk bought attitude, a real visceral energy as he spat his lines at the audience, the camera and mentioned the death of Vince McMahon. Pulling back the curtain and airing petty grievances, all whilst John Cena, the Micky Mouse to WWE's Disney, lay prone in the ring, selling a table bump for what felt like an age. It propelled storylines for months and months to come, resulting in a lengthy WWE title run for Punk, the return of Paul Heyman and gave WWE a genuine buzz. Even if WWE essentially dropped the ball after Money in the Bank, this promo also gave us one of the greatest WWE matches of all-time. 

(All this nice stuff and we're still blocked by CM Punk on Twitter!) 

--- 

Enjoy RAW 25 tonight folks, lets hope it brings us many more fantastic moments to talk about!

Article by Craig Hermit, Jozef Rackza (@NotJozefRaczka), Sean Taylor-Richardson (@GrownManCenaFan), Andy Scotland (@WrestleRopes) and James Marston (@IAmNotAlanDale) 

TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1219 - New Day v Jeri-KO

WWE rolled into Los Angeles for the third time of the year, RAW was headlined by a tag team encounter as Universal Champion Kevin Owens teamed up with Chris Jericho as Jeri-KO to face current Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods). With Sasha Banks, Seth Rollins, Rich Swann, Tony Nese and Brian Kendrick featuring in major spots on the card, how would this trip to the Staples Center live up to Los Angeles classics like WrestleMania 21 and SummerSlam 2013?

The lesser spotted duo of Big E & Xavier Woods managed to overcome Universal Champion Kevin Owens and "Y2J" Chris Jericho in the defacto main event, despite not having tagged on TV since May! This was a well-crafted tag clash, paced just right that it remained entertaining either side of the break, as both teams slotted together nicely. Jeri-KO worked well when in control, with Owens hamming it up on the number of occassions, like mocking Woods as he reached for the hot tag. It's a shame that Owens can't seem to get the heat that his performances deserve, as the vocal portion of the fan-base almost always cheers his actions, because they are so bloody entertaining. The build to Woods' hot tag to Kingston was great stuff, as Owens' #1 Contender Seth Rollins' music hit, distracting the Universal Champion and flowing wonderfully into a barage of belly to belly suplexes from E. Rollins would also get involved in the finish, jumping on the apron as Jericho had Woods locked in a Liontamer, meaning that after a bit of back and forth, New Day got the win with the Midnight Hour on Y2J. The result and events seem to leave a couple of options open over the two weeks building towards Rollins and Owens at Hell in a Cell, whilst also elevating E, Kingston and Woods even further.

The New Day v Jeri-KO bout was put together earlier in the show, as E, Kingston and Woods interrupted Jeri-KO after the villains had mentioned the possibilities of going for the tag team titles. This produced one of the best talking segments on WWE television in recent memory as all were on stellar form, creating issues out of thin air and being incredibly entertaining whilst doing so. The beginning with Jeri-KO explored a number of storyline possibilities, as Owens suggested Y2J be the referee for a title bout with Seth Rollins, before Jericho would shift the conversation towards the tag belt, with the cracks beginning to show when Y2J proposed that he could perhaps put his Universal title he could always go after Owens' title instead. Once New Day came out on the stage, the five guys seemed to bounce off each other, as both teams digging into the verbal bag of tricks. Jericho ran riot with his list gimmick, Owens' deadpan delivery was perfect for questioning the sancity of Booty-O's cereal, whilst New Day were their usual happy-go-lucky selves as well as bringing a new "Team Huddle" idea to their gimmick. The segment concluded robustly as Owens said that New Day had "jumped the shark" and had a wonderful back and forth with Woods, where both men showed a promising amount of chemistry, before the tag match would be confirmed.

The show closed with Sasha Banks winning the Women's Championship for the second time after submitting Charlotte with the Banks Statement, following a superb contest. Easily the best match on the show, this featured some great storytelling, some very good wrestling and a wonderful finish. Banks' selling of the back, following being tripped on the top rope, was consistently strong, adding genius touches like stretching her fingers to suggest nerve damage, whilst The Genetically Superior Athlete focused in on the injury with a number of interesting holds, including a modified Camel Clutch in the ring ropes. The narrative brought us the best moment of the match, as after Charlotte dug deep and connected with a corkscrew moonsault to the floor, Banks would roll into the ring and whilst the Boss grasped her back Charlotte hit Natural Selection with spot on timing. The pacing of the finish that saw Charlotte shouting at Banks to stay down before The Boss would recover quickly getting a headscissor into a Banks Statement before holding onto the move long enough to win the prize. With an extra five minutes (minimum, I think it could have actually been given another ten or fifteen minutes and not been hurt) and the removal of a couple of slip ups, I wouldn't have thought twice about given this bout the full beans! 

At the other end of the show, United States Champion Roman Reigns, "The Ravishing Russian" Lana and "The Bulgarian Brute" Rusev opened the evening in a storyline advancing segment that lead to a Hell in a Cell bout being booked between Reigns and Rusev on 30th October in Boston, Massachusetts. Having Lana interrupt Reigns alone, produced a different dynamic, whilst also meaning that Reigns wasn't left exposed on the mic on his own for too long. Lana played her part much better than I was expecting, appearing genuinely emotional at the lack of respect that she perceived that her husband had been shown, adding extra dimension to the feud, that very well could be the missing piece of the puzzle. The pair's brawl around ringside and through the crowd was fun stuff, but whilst the conclusion that saw Reigns blindside Rusev on the ramp with a Superman Punch got a decent pop, I found it hard to buy that Reigns was capable of taking a multiple kicks and being thrown into the steps and barricade, before legging it up to the stage within minutes, but Rusev was left lying for an age after a Superman Punch. A spear onto the hard floor I perhaps could have bought, but an otherwise strong opening segment was harmed by having The Big Dog look so much stronger than the Bulgarian Brute once again.

The opening match saw Brian Kendrick pick up a victory over Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins in an improved version of their bout from 25th September. The story told in this one was simple but effective as Kendrick developed his veteran, win at any cost gimmick and Perkins face shine was much pacier and exciting than the previous encounter. The moment where Kendrick took control of the match was a particular highlight, as he trapped Perkins fingers in the turnbuckle, before dropping neckbreaker across the metal part of the buckle. I'd have liked to have seen The Fil-Am Flash's neck play more of a role following this as it could have played into Kendrick's finish The Captain's Hook (Grounded Reverse Chinlock), however I think that perhaps keeping things simple and flashy in these early Cruiserweight bouts is definitely the route to go down as the characters and performers introduced (or reintroduce) themselves to the audience. The Wizard of Odd getting the win through various underhanded means (Eye rake, ref push etc.) advanced their issues between each other, giving Kendrick a claim to a future title rematch, whilst also beginning to cultivate some empathy between Perkins and the wider WWE audience.

Rounding out the top of the card was another Cruiserweight division clash with WWN's Tony Nese picking up his first win since the Cruiserweight Classic 1st Round, as he perhaps surprisingly he defeated WWE contracted Rich Swann. Even more surprising was just how much the presentation was all about The Premier Athlete. From in-vision promo during his entrance to the sheer volume of offence he got in on Swann, it was clear that WWE is taking their Cruiserweight division in a different direction, trying to keep things as unpredictable as possible. The conflict was decent enough, mixing some pacey Lucha style action with hard strikes, including great sequence from Nese after he'd dodged a moonsault. It was a shame about the last quarter of the bout, which included Swann doing a double stomp to the back of Nese's neck, which ended up looking like a double footed version of Seth Rollins' banned Curb Stomp. There also seemed to be a botch in the finish as Nese was unable to catch Swann correctly coming out of a handspring attempt and weirdly moved to an awkward Pumphandle Michinoku Driver II for the pin. 

Best of the Rest 

• Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson picked up a win over The Golden Truth (Goldust & R-Truth) in a short and simple tag clash, with Gallows & Anderson continuing the beatdown post match.
• Enzo & Cass presented replica Women's Championship belts to three women who have survived cancer in a heart warming moment that the crowd loved.
• Michael Cole interviewed Seth Rollins with the Architect dazzling as he challenged Kevin Ownes to a title rematch and adding plenty of depth to the storyline and his slowly turning babyface character.
• Sami Zayn and Titus O'Neil had a dud of a bout, but at least Zayn went over with a Helluva Kick, in a weird moment after O'Neil had debuted a new "Brand" gimmick. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.54/10

A lot of this week's Monday Night RAW was pretty good this week, but then a lot of the show was also filling for time. This meant that while the main segments were all interesting, engaging and humorous (with the exception of the throwaway Nese v Swann bout), there was a bit too much stuff like Golden Truth v Gallows & Anderson and Zayn v O'Neil and that's without mentioning the squash matches for Braun Strowman and the Cesaro & Sheamus tag team. With a good deal of time given to the Cruiserweight division, it appears that WWE still seems to be finding it's feet with how it wants to present the Cruiserweight division and that's coming across in how the wider audience is yet to take to the concept or any of it's performers in any great numbers. With a few tweaks in this area and perhaps a more balanced conclusion to the Reigns, Lana and Rusev segment, then this would have been a good wrestling show. However, with just two episodes until Hell in a Cell, there are certainly worse things that WWE could be putting on in their three hour slot on USA Network than this slightly above average event!

Match of the Night - Charlotte v Sasha Banks 

Non-Wrestling Segment of the Night - The New Day interrupts Jeri-Ko

Words - James Marston

Banner - Kai Stellar 

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TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1218 - Jeri-KO v Enzo & Cass 2

The 1219th episode of Monday Night RAW came just one night after RAW's first post-draft PPV, Clash of Champions, where Kevin Owens had retained the Universal Championship over Seth Rollins, thanks to a little bit of help from Chris Jericho. After Owens appeared on an episode of Jericho's Highlight Reel, the pair would find themselves in the main event against Enzo & Cass, whilst Roman Reigns put his newly won United States Championship against "The Bulgarian Brute" Rusev, whilst Sasha Banks, Tag Team Champions The New Day, Tony Nese, Women's Champion Charlotte and Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins all found themselves in major spots on the show. Heading out of a good PPV, this was going to be brilliant TV, right?

Chris Jericho is on fire, right now. He's been one of the best things about watching WWE television for the last couple of month's and he didn't let me down here either, as he knocked out the park on The Highlight Reel. Even before Jericho welcomed guest Universal Champion Kevin Owens to the ring, Y2J was commanding the screen and the ring, toeing the line between entertaining and annoying perfectly, even when having to build for a feud with Ashton Kutcher and some other lad for next week. The relationship that he and Owens have cultivated plays wonderfully into Owens title reign, as Jericho's heat will transfer nicely to Owens, who has arguably struggled to get heat recently, thanks to the haphazard booking of his title win and feud with Seth Rollins. The Prizefighter's promo about Rollins' injury at Clash of Champions being karma for the injuries that The Architect has caused was great connocotion of fiction and reality, with Owens mocking tone and pacing as he called himself "The Most Dangerous Man in Wrestling" was much closer to where he needs to be promo wise at the moment, whist Jericho parroting his sentences will help even more. Rollins brief appearance, before being pushed to the back by security and General Manager Mick Foley was a nice way to keep the feud going, whilst Rollins was unable to get physically involved. Things would slide nicely into an unnannounced main event, after some hilarious banter between Jeri-KO and old rivals Enzo & Cass. 

The main event was a more than passable TV effort, with the two teams benefitting from having previously feuded but not had a whole load of matches with each other on TV. This meant that things felt recognisable and meaningful, whilst also having a fresh and exciting feel to them. The structure of the match was a fairly simple tag bout, but it was fleshed out with a lot of nice touches that made the ten or fifteen minutes went by quickly. Enzo & Cass' routine is pretty much nailed on now, but with a couple of variations, their face shine is fun, Amore as a face in peril always offers something different, Cass' hot tag is polished and hits the spot and they have a number of signatures to dip into when required. Their act is made even more satisfying when you have two solid heels to work them over and that's what Jeri-KO provided here, pulling out a number of your classic heel tag tactics, cutting off the ring and dominating Amore for a long section. Thinking about it this match had a lot of similarities to the kinds of matches Enzo & Cass were having with The Revival in NXT, especially in the first two thirds. I'd have liked to have seen the pace upped a little in the closing stages and it was frustrating to hear the Cinnicinati crowd not react as well as they could have, but as a main event being used to span some space until Rollins is cleared and to essentially build up Jericho & Owens as a unit, this was a good watch. 

After Roman Reigns and Rusev hadn't particularly wowed audiences with their United States Championship bout on Clash of Champions, it was a brave choice to have the duo open the show with a match that went over 25 minutes. In my opinion, at least in terms of what was presented on screen, that decision paid off as Reigns and Rusev put on a stronger contest than the previous evening and righted a few wrongs as well. Arguably, this bout had the most involved crowd as Cincy reacted to pretty much every movement and were also one of the more pro-Reigns crowds I've heard in a while. Part of the match's success was the storytelling, which was head and shoulders above Sunday's match, as Rusev used his wrestling ability to keep control of Reigns, whilst latter focusing in on The Big Dog's back after sending his opponent into the post. This was handled well by both, as Reigns sold his injury well and it would play heavily into the story as Reigns would unable to hit a number of his offensive moves throughout the contest. At points, I felt like Reigns was over-selling just a bit, perhaps to stretch the match out a little, but it didn't have a major impact on my enjoyment. 

Before I talk about the Dusty Finish, I'd like to mention the terrific sequence the pair had moments before that, when they'd both miss a series of signature strikes, before The Bulgarian Brute would nail Reigns with a superkick as the US Champion came charging in for a spear in a seamless transtion. I was fairly happy with the crowd brawl leading to the double countout finish because it worked well with the storyline of Rusev trying to hold in his rage agaisnt Reigns in order to win the belt, however the stuff that went on after the match took a little bit of the sting out of it. Reigns didn't really need to hit the spear, he really didn't need to that moment after winning the belt the previous night, however a prolonged beatdown from Rusev with a chair would have felt like the natural progression of the match's story and would have also upped the ante for a second rematch for the Bulgarian Brute. However, this was still a great opening match, that started the show off hot and had plenty of action, creating a much more satisfying start to a wrestling show than most of the fifteen minutes promos are. 

Another rematch from Clash of Champions would see Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson get another chance at The New Day's Tag Team Championships as they came up against Big E and Kofi Kingston, in another case of the TV bout being a better effort than it's PPV counterpart. The match started hot with Anderson and Gallows nailing Kingston and Big E with some hard shots on the floor, including a brutal looking clothesline from Gallows to Kingston. After The Dreadlocked Dynamo had slotted into the face in peril role and Big E had come flying out with his belly to belly hot tag sequence, both teams had convincing false finishes hitting The Midnight Hour and The Magic Killer respectively, with some nice build around this to add to the believabilitiy. I think the eventual finish struggled to keep up with the strength of the previous near falls, as Kingston would win the match with a Trouble in Paradise, this was also partly to do with their being a bit of awkwardness as Kingston appeared to be pissing blood from his head for some reason and not quite all there. Still this was a good TV tag and a big improvement on their other matches. 

The Women's Division on RAW continued to offer entertaining talking segments, as the feud between Women's Champion Charlotte and Sasha Banks depended with an in-ring confrontation that set up a title match between the pair for #1220, next week. The drive of Charlotte's initial promo as she reminded fans of her success and claimed she'd put away all challengers meant that Banks' entrance coming right on the peak of the promo was very satisfying. Charlotte calling her rival "Sasha Wanks" was a bizarre moment, that went completely over the Cinnicinatti crowd's collective head, maybe she thought she was in London. Charlotte was however mostly on great form on the mic and in her performance in general as she teased the crowd that she'd give Banks a rematch on the show, pulling her jacket off as Banks did the same on the other side, only to tell Banks she'd have to wait til next week. Dana Brooke was fairly surplus to requirements here though, only really doing anything when she had to take a Banks Statement from Banks, which considering Charlotte got chucked out the ring herself, could easily have been covered by the Women's Champion. Overall, however, this was added a little extra spice to their match next week, whilst also watering the seed that Mick Foley had planted a few week's earlier, making satisfying viewing for regular watchers.

The Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins got his in-ring debut on #1219, besting NYWC's Tony Nese in a brief, pacy encounter. For me, this was the match that should have happened on the Supercard, as Nese has much more of a recognisable "Cruiserweight style" than the way that Brian Kendrick wrestles and he showed that here in a blistering opening section that included a mental dive to the outside. The crowd however were having none of it, which honestly really pissed me off as a home viewer. They chanted "CM Punk" and "Randy Savage" over it and it seemed to effect both guys work as they clearly weren't expecting to be shit on, because they were working their fucking arses off. It seemed to be a case of the audience being horrendously smarky, but hilariously ignorant at the same time. If you don't know who these guys are, give them a chance, stay quiet and let those who want to watch enjoy it, you'll be presently surprised if you do. 

Best of the Rest 

• In more Cruiserweight action, Rich Swann & Cedric Alexander teamed to defeat Drew Gulak & Lince Dorado, which saw all four guys produce impressive spots and work well together for a short, but exciting tag. 
• Mick Foley would declare Cesaro and Sheamus's Best of Seven Series a draw, whilst offering them a Tag Team Championship match together in the future, with all three bring a lot of passion to the segment. 
• Cesaro and Sheamus would later go over Nick Cutler and Willis Williams in a match that clearly got them over as an odd couple tag team. 
• Mick Foley continued his strong show-wide performance opposite Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, with the duo adding more depth to their relationship, as well as the main event of Clash of Champions. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.84/10

This was a fine episode of RAW, that in many ways improved on the PPV from the night before, with both the Roman Reigns and Rusev bout and New Day v Enzo & Cass being a least a step up from what they did on Sunday evening. The tag team main event may have been essentially a way to fill some space, whilst Rollins fully recovers, but it made good use of everyone involved and will only stand to benefit the main event feud, especially with Rollins being forced to the back. The main negative would be that the Cruiserweight division is still struggling to connect with the larger audience, despite producing plenty of exciting action this week, it appears like WWE expected their wider audience to be more familar with these talents and hasn't put the time and effort into getting them over as they should have.

There was plenty of storyline development, producing things that I'm looking forward to seeing where they lead in the future. Therefore, it will be interesting to see the direction that the show takes on next week and which feuds are taken forward for the Hell in a Cell supercard on 30th October.

Words - James Marston

Banner - Kai Stellar

Supercard Review: WWE SummerSlam 2016 - AJ Styles v John Cena 2

WWE's second biggest evening of the year was here, with a six hour spectacular featuring twelve matches, including John Cena v AJ Styles 2 and the first ever meeting between Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion. With a quarter of a day to fill could WWE deliver a quality event? 

In what was arguably the main event and should have closed the show, John Cena and AJ Styles managed to up their game and improved on their 19th June contest. Without the involvement of Styles' The Club stablemates, the match was able to reach a much more satisfying conclusion and with the duo not having to worry about building something for another contest. This meant they could go all in and hold nothing back, throwing in their best ideas and pushing themselves to keep up the pace. The Money in the Bank original was a tasty little taster that left me wanting more, like a decent soup with a crusty roll, Number 2 was a fine main course with plenty of steak for the sizzle. 

The Phenomenal One and The Leader of the Cenation produced a captivating tit for tat "Anything you can do" style match with the two being presented as extremely evenly matched and almost always having a reply for their opponents offense. From the back and forth respectful opening that turned with Styles' suplex onto the apron, the real moment when the match became something special was after Styles' had kicked out of an Attitude Adjustment and Cena had returned the favour with the Styles Clash unable to put him away. The moves were done early enough that they weren't believable false finishes, but late enough to where I knew that the duo had something bigger and better coming up. Inside the structure of the bout the two were almost exclusively smooth and crisp, catching each transition, including plenty of risky switches and a collection of marvelous submission sequences. 

Styles picking up the win genuinely shocked me, as it almost seemed inevitable that Cena would over come, especially after losing the 19th June clash. Cena nailing an avalanche Attitude Adjustment and Styles kicking out of what seemed like it would certainly be the finish, but was only the beginning of the end. Cena's face directly after this as he watched Styles crawl to the ropes was a picture as he sold the bewilderment that anyone had kicked out of his fail safe last resort move. Styles slipping out of another AA attempt and hitting a Styles Clash felt like it could have ended the match also, but the Phenomenal Forearm with the pad removed added that exclamation point that and it was those extra details and thought that made this contest the match of the night and Styles' best match since coming to WWE in January. The win for The Phenomenal One surely slots him into a World Championship match at 11th September's Backlash, but Cena leaving his "Never Give Up" arm band in the ring as he walked out leaves his future up in the air.

The RAW brands strongest showing was the battle to become the first Universal Champion, between Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins. In their first encounter The Demon King and The Aerialist put on a great title match, that was put together astutely with a natural feeling ebb and flow, rising and falling like the tide without ever losing my interest always finding away to hold my attention. It was crying shame that the Brooklyn crowd, which was a piss-poor audience throughout the whole show, was more focused on making their disdain for the new Universal title belt known, booing the announcement of the match and chanting about the the design. Yes the belt is ugly as sin and lazily designed, but you've got two of top ten best wrestler in the company working their fucking arses off to entertain you, barely putting a foot wrong in this process, respect that instead of constantly trying "rebel" against any minor element of the product. As Rollins said on Twitter "More important than a title's appearance is what it represents to the men fighting over it". 

The match came straight out of the traps with a series from Bálor, that included him going straight for Coup de Grâce, which become the main theme of the match. I think that's what made the contest so enthralling, the urgency behind everything, even when Rollins was taking time to trash talk Bálor there was a purpose behind his actions. Whether it was mind games or attempting a big move, every movement from both men was to get them closer to becoming the top dog on RAW and grabbing the Universal belt. The match progress well with the both men showing pulling out new and old moves, with Rollins in particularly digging deep into his deep arsenal of moves like a near fall for off of God's Last Gift, as well as a Phoenix Splash attempt and attempting to turn a superplex into a Pedigree as opposed to his regular Falcon Arrow. Balor went for the Coup de Grace on a number of occasions with Rollins always having a counter, up until the very last moment. 

The finish kept to the motif, as it Rollins attempt to do something different that would ultimately be his downfall as his Pedigree attempt would be reversed, leading to two corner dropkicks from the Demon King before the victory was claimed with Coup de Grace.
Balor winning the Universal Championship on the second biggest show of the year on his WWE PPV debut in only his third broadcast (non-NXT) match is an incredible achievement, that instantly legitmises him and lifts his credibility to WWE's fanbase who might not watch anything outside the company and even more so to those who only watch these big shows. This was simple story, embellished with skillful in-ring performances and some great commentary by all three RAW announcers. 

The task of opening the show was handed to RAW's tag team division as Big Cass & Enzo Amore tangled with Jeri-KO (Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens). Enzo & Cass have become a reliable act to kick off a show with, they were famed for it during their run in NXT and have opened a number of episode's of Monday Night RAW recently and they didn't disappoint in Brooklyn. Despite having more than a passing similarity to The New Day's work on last August's Brooklyn shows, The Realest Guys in the Room's New York cliche-laden promo remained a fun watch, thanks to their undeniable energy and charisma. It was also a pleasant surprise that Cass has pretty decent singing voice! Not having Jericho & Owens get a chance to reply before the match was a missed opportunity though. 

This was a decent match, that was unfortunately let down by a handful of slips on risky moves. This included the finish which saw Owens launch Amore into the air, as if going for his Pop-up Powerbomb, and sending him straight into a Codebreaker from a waiting Jericho. Regrettably, Amore and Owens didn't get enough air on the Pop-up, meaning that Y2J double knee facebreaker had much less of an impact than it usually did. When the match was sticking to a relatively straight forward tag formula, everything was fine and dandy, with everyone playing their roles well, creating an entertaining mid-section to the contest. It was however when the four tried to produce something a bit different and more precarious that the fight ended up not delivering on the promising build. 

In the Smackdown Live's World title match, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler wrestled an oddly paced contest, that got a reaction of almost complete indifference from the Barclay's Center. The pair put on some decent wrestling, they went through a number of different styles and began with an interesting story, but it never changed gears. Fifteen minutes of plodding wrestling with more than a little lying around, isn't going to get a crowd excited in 2016. It might keep their interest, but it's not going to make them get behind anyone. The pair did some lovely detail work in the match, like Ambrose being out-wrestled in the early going and certain applications of simple moves like the Single Leg Boston Crab, but the broad strokes, like fleshing out the character work and changing the pace were missing.

The match lacked a definitive heel or babyface and neither did it give a reason to get behind one guy over the other. It was this guy doesn't like this guy, because he doesn't like him and so he's going to half heatedly do his taunts, but with little conviction. If this was a babyface v babyface match, they should have both bought their A games, got the crowd whipped up in a frenzy. This was the biggest match Ziggler has been given for years and he decided to do it on autopilot. It's also notable than on one of biggest stages possible, Ambrose bottled it once again. They had an opportunity to steal the show with little storyline to pander to and they left it sitting on the table. 

In the strongest match on the undercard, Charlotte won back the Women's Championship in a great match with Sasha Banks. After the duo had a handful of slip-ups in the first couple of minutes and Banks seemed to be knocked silly by a nasty bump of a backbreaker onto the top turnbuckle, it was impressive that The Genetically Superior Athlete and The Boss were able to compose themselves, not just regain the crowd's attention and support but enliven them with some top class wrestling. The sequence that had the crowd sit up, take notice, then rise to their feet saw Charlotte hip toss a charging Banks into a tree of woe position, before after a battle on the top rope Banks would smoothly reverse an avalanche crucifix powerbomb into a hurricanrana in a Halloween Havoc '96 throwback.

The final five mintues or so was dramatic stuff, with both women getting strong near falls and Banks always looking to find a way of getting the Banks Statement locked in. A long sequence in the hold that saw Banks push off the ropes to bring Charlotte back into the ring at one point with Charlotte hitting a chop block to set up Natural Selection for two, leading to both women selling the pain and frustration of the match in their faces and throughout their entire bodies. It was a cool pause, that allowed the women and the audience to breath before the final stretch, allowing time to consider the previous action with the knowledge that there was more to come. The selling across the bout was very good. Charlotte getting the pin was somewhat of a surprise after only losing the belt three weeks earlier, but it does also present a more interesting story to go forward with. However, I would have like to have seen The Nature Girl grab the tights on the pin, instead of getting the clean, albeit flash, pin.

Heading into the show, I certainly wasn't expecting to be writing about Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton's match six matches into the review. But here we are, after a bizarre final match. The finish is what most people will remember here and it was odd to say the very least. About ten minutes into the show closer, Lesnar delivered a number of blows to Orton with the Viper on the mat. A few seconds into the series of strikes and Orton was PISSING blood from his forehead. The stream of claret coming from his dome was reminiscent of the Guerrero v JBL bout from Judgment Day in 2005 and perhaps looked even worse because of the ever-growing pool on the mat. I stay away from dirt sheets so have no idea what the plan was hear, but it appeared like something had gone wrong somewhere whether Lesnar caught Orton too strong or it was a blade job gone awry, but it felt to me like WWE had to call an audible by sending Smackdown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon in to take an F5 just to give the show an actual ending. If this was what was the plan all along, whoever had the idea shouldn't be booking wrestling. 

The thing is, I was enjoying the interaction between Lesnar and Orton and felt like the two characters has slotted together exceptionally well. Orton having the RKO blocked in the first few exchanges and then taking an absolute beating from The Beast was a clever start that played off the story that had been presented across the two months of build. Lesnar battering people is rarely boring and this was no exception. He dominated his opponent with the regular German suplexes hitting seven without reply, before also just lobbing The Apex Predator through an announce table. We'd been told throughout the build that Orton could pull out an RKO at any time and that's what happened with one coming onto the other announce table and putting and end to The Conqueror's momentum. The spot were Lesnar crawled back towards the ring, only for Orton to hit his rope assisted DDT  may have been ever better. After both had kicked out of each other's finishes in the ring, it looked like the match would head towards a finish similar to that of Cena v Styles, but that wasn't to be! 

I'm not sure that anyone had picked out the Smackdown Live six woman tag bout as one they were particularly looking forward to, but it was perfectly acceptable contest, that included on of the biggest pops of the night. That pop was the return of the 2 time Diva's Champion Nikki Bella. This was Bella's first match since November and Brooklyn initially seemed pretty happy to see Bella. The return was built up well, with Eva Marie's entrance music playing, despite her being suspended, with her personal voiceover explaining that she was unable to compete due to stress. The angle is great way to turn a negative into a positive and the heat upon Marie's return will be nuclear. The returning Bella bolsters Smackdown Live's women's ranks and after the strong run she had before her injury matches with Becky Lynch, Natalya and Alexa Bliss should create some good action. 

The wrestling was decent, nothing spectacular, but it kept a good pace, showcased six talents effectively and featured some nice exchanges between Bliss and Lynch and later Natalya with both Carmella and Naomi. For me, Bella seemed to have more than bit of ring-rust and has perhaps came back a little to early, with her timing being off at a couple of point during the match, but the other five performed well, with Bliss and Carmella both rising to the occasion in their biggest match of both of their careers. Lynch did a solid job of trying to get the shit Brooklyn crowd going (although one fan at ringside looked at her in utter disgust when she was getting the audience to clap with her) whilst the heel trio were working over Carmella, whilst David Otunga did some of his best work on commentary here also. The finish built up well with Lynch and Naomi both getting flurries of action in, before the breakdown allowed Bella to pick up the win with a Forearm strike and TKO on Carmella.

The most disappointing match of the evening came in the form of the Tag Team title match as The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) put their belts on the line against The Club (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson). The most infuriating part was that the match flopping was nothing to do with Kingston, Woods, Gallows and Anderson, but everything to do with some horrible booking decisions. The first of those booking decision was having comedian and former Daily Show host Jon Stewart anywhere near the ring. It wasn't just his involvement in the finish getting physically involved and not allowing Gallows & Anderson to get the win after Magic Killer, but also the fact that the one thing you'd expect him to be good at, the introduction of Kingston and Woods, was fucking shambles. Maybe it's the whole American sense of humour being non-existent thing that leads to Stewart being a professional comedian and hosting a major chat show for sixteen years and still being painfully unfunny and seemingly unable to perform in front of a crowd, or maybe he's just shit. It was made even worse by it being a replacement for the usually magical New Day pre-match promo. Fuck you, Jon Stewart, you are to energy what a Dyson is to dust. 

So, Stewart getting in the ring and flapping about like a fish in a bush wasn't actually the finish, Big E running down to the ring to stop Stewart getting pulled dick first into the ring post was, because of the disqualification. Now, Big E hitting multiple suplexes on the outside and cleaning house is always going to be a joy to watch, but it made no sense for him to come out and especially not in full gear and clearly able to compete. He wasn't in the match because he was (kayfabe) injured when his testes got squashed into the ringpost a few weeks ago, okay cool, I can buy that. What I can't buy however is that an injured Big E was backstage watching the match and when he saw Stewart's nuggets were in danger, stripped nude, rushed to get his singlet and boots on, repaired his knackered knackers and legged it to make the save. It was a mind bending piece of booking, that felt very much like a first draft that no one had bothered to look at a second time.  

Headlining the Kick-Off event was a twelve man tag team rematch from this week's Smackdown Live as The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso), The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) and American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) took on The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch), The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) and Breezango (Fandango & Tyler Breeze) in a fun match, that also opened that portion of the show. With twelve men the action should always be exciting and giving the match over double the time it had on TV meant that all twelve men could get a time to showcase themselves as individuals and as teams. It also gave room for a nice face in peril sequence from Ryder, which came either side of flurries of action involving all competitors, as well as hot tag turmoil from both Jimmy and Jordan. 

The build towards a clash between The Usos and American Alpha got a whole lot more ammunition as the two teams were clearly the stars of the match, working together at points, trying to outdo each other at others and ending up like they might come to blows come the finish. It was an intelligent piece of build, with America Alpha hitting Grand Amplitude on Gotch, only for Jey to come flying off the top with a splash before Gable could get the pin, taking the victory for himself. Both Jey and Gable played the moment perfectly, staring at each other, as Gable tried to work out just what was going on. Jey had seemingly turned heel at the end of the match, putting his thing to his lips in "Shush" to the crowd, whilst also appearing to try to get in the face of American Alpha. There's some real potential for this feud, especially if given a slow burn and it could very well light up the blue brand before the end of the year.

The lone singles match on the Kick-Off was the 1st of a Best of 7 series between perennial rivals Cesaro and Sheamus. This was a match of two halves, as the first half was flat and the second half was an exciting stretch of action that had the crowd marking out and featured some creative spots and good quality wrestling. This was the tenth televised match between the two in just over two years and therefore the first part of the match felt like more of the same, lacked a bit of purpose, whilst also lacking the hard hits that have made their earlier bouts watchable on multiple occasion. You could easily have cut five or six minutes from this one and made it a better contest. 

Luckily for Cesaro and Sheamus they managed to end the contest on a high with strong final stretch. It would have been hard to continue a Best of 7 series otherwise! The crowd finally rememberedd that they like Cesaro when he started doing cool moves like using the new bulkier ringpost as a launching pad for a massive crossbody and the Cesaro Swing, whilst the two used their signature offence to create impressive reversal sequence and get good near falls. The finish was definitely the right way to go, after Cesaro had won two non-series matches previous, as Sheamus countered the Sharpshooter with a thumb to the eye, threw The Swiss Superman into the post and hit a Brogue Kick for the pin. It was a good combination of a dominant victory for The Celtic Warrior, whilst also have him cheat to win, leaving more room to create interesting and compelling narratives for the next three to six matches between the two.

Rounding of the Kick Off action was another tag match (making that five on the entire event) where Sami Zayn teamed with Neville for the first time since March to earn a victory over The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley). This was an enjoyable clash, that made the most out of all four of the competitors, using their strengths to communicate a simple story that was easy to watch. It was paint by numbers kind of stuff, but was done well with Dudley Boyz being superlative veteran heels, whilst Zayn and Neville are two exciting babyfaces that may have found a spot for themselves in the tag division. Some of the stuff that Neville & Zayn (The Underdogs that Gravity Forgot or The Men from The Underground?) were doing in their face shine was super pretty and added to the promise that they have as a team, they would only get better and more creative with their offense if working together consistently. The finish involved Neville escaping a 3D thanks to his agility, before Zayn would hit D-Von with a Helluva Kick and The Man That Gravity Forgot nailed a Red Arrow was a exhilarating finish that capped off a solid tag clash. 

Rusev defending the United States Championship against Roman Reigns would never happen as the two began to brawl before the bell, leading to Reigns picking apart his Bulgarian counterpart on the outside of the ring and having to be pulled away from the scrap. In my opinion, this should have been how their match the previous episode of Monday Night RAW should have gone down, because it was a really good angle with a great brawling and got over the problems that the two have with each well. The problem was that this was on PPV and the second biggest show of the year, using this show to have an angle in the place of advertised contest is a bit silly. On it's own merits this was a strong piece of action that did what it had to do to show how the problems between two men had gotten out of hand, but it also has to be taken in the context of the PPV and the fact it came before the Lesnar v Reigns match meant that the show concluded on a bum note.

Bringing up the rear at SummerSlam 2016 was an Intercontinental Championship match where Apollo Crews challenged for The Miz's belt. This was an okay match, but the crowd would have cared more about a someone standing in the ring with a sparkler. Only going five minutes meant that Crews got no face shine and no chance to get an audience that is yet to invest in him to care about what was going, so we Maryse causing the distraction from the bell ringing. Both worked pretty well with each other, with the two characters and performers both seeming to have a little chemistry in the ring, whilst Crews comeback and spot that saw him catch a clothesline from Miz and hit a Belly to Belly suplex were also nice moments. Miz would end retaining his title with Skull Crushing Finale after pushing Crews into the ringpost to make sure the match did nothing for the career of the 29 year old former Uhaa Nation.

Best of the Rest 

• Tom Phillips spoke to Jeri-KO in a funny but menacing interview ahead of their bout with Big Cass & Enzo Amore during the Kick-Off show.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 

Kick-Off - 6.1

Main Show - 6.43

Combined - 6.36

There matches stand out from SummerSlam for me, Cena v Styles, Balor v Rollins and Charlotte v Banks. Each one was worked was different from the other, but all three featured a big dollop of urgency and some great wrestling. Cena and Styles may have had the match of the night, but Balor and Rollins weren't far off and Banks and Charlotte produced another match that will help towards one day positioning women's wrestling in the main event slot. Even though Ambrose v Ziggler wasn't the match it could and should have been, I still think the stuff they did do was done well and it wouldn't have taken a whole lot more to boost it into the category of those first three matches. The Kick-Off event also managed to produce some strong action with the Twelve Man Tag and Sheamus v Cesaro worth a mention. 

It was, of course, the show was not without it's problems. Lesnar v Orton concluded the PPV in bizarre fashion, whether it was planned to unfold that way or not, which wasn't helped by the previous Reigns v Rusev having not actually started. Then there was New Day v The Club, which at no fault of the competitors turned into a shambles thanks to Jon Stewart and some first draft, no thought booking.

Nontheless, when you've got six hours of a mainstream product like WWE, especially on a show like SummerSlam, you aren't going to like all of it. That's just how it is, if something isn't directly at you, six hours of it isn't going to be all for you. However, I thought SummerSlam was a good PPV event, that had a mixture of styles across the show and featured some excellent wrestling at points. 

All content - James Marston