WWE Raw 23rd September 2013 Review

We've been away a few days, but we're back with a review of this week's edition of WWE Raw. I thought this week's Raw was a fairly strong showing, which is surprising when you look at the card, which on paper was at best underwhelming and at worst nonsensical.

Eleven-on-Three Handicap Elimination Match: 

Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam, Prime Time Players, Dolph Ziggler, The Usos, R-Truth, Justin Gabriel & Zack Ryder 

vs. 

The Shield

See what I mean? This match, on paper, should be an absolutely awful clusterf**k, luckily it wasn't, but we'll get into why a bit later on. Firstly, let's talk about how this match came about and the build up throughout the show. The opening segment featured Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in the ring, with Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam, Prime Time Players, Dolph Ziggler, The Usos, R-Truth, Justin Gabriel & Zack Ryder standing up on the stage. This was, of course, to do with those ten wrestlers saving Daniel Bryan last week on Raw. Triple H & McMahon were on top form as heels, really winding up the faces on the stage, claiming that they should be fighting for themselves and not Daniel Bryan, with the nice little touch of the pair finishing each others sentences. Triple H went on to book the eleven on three handicap elimination match for the night's main event, after Rob Van Dam had stepped up to speak for his colleagues with his usual laissez-faire promo style

Later in the night, in the build up to the contest, we got to hear what The Shield though about being put against eleven other men. I thought it was refreshing to see The Shield not backing down when the odds look to be stacked against, as we have seen time and time again from WWE heels, with Dean Ambrose delivering a very strong promo (back in The Shield's patent hand held style) outlining why the group work best when they are against the wall, with a metaphor that actually made sense! Seth Rollins still looks a little awkward having to follow an Ambrose promo, coming off as a little bit of a sidekick, whilst Reigns is at his best standing there as the muscle of the group. Daniel Bryan also got some mic time prior to the match, with another strong promo, talking pulling wholes in the idea that he and Scott Armstrong had a plan for him to win the WWE Championship at Night of Champions and that Bryan would be winning back the WWE title at Battleground on October 6. The passion that Bryan is bringing to his performances at the moment is something a lot of the WWE roster should be looking at, and looking to bring to their performances, he's clearly a man enjoying what he does and it shows.

After Bryan's promo, The Shield headed down to start the match early, only to be cut of at the pass by a returning Goldust and Cody Rhodes, in a moment that really made you sit and watch, even if it was little weird that Goldust was still wearing his face paint. That stroyline feels like it's about to catch fire and if it keeps going in the right direction WWE will have another star on their hands in Cody Rhodes. Once the match got started The Shield took control, with the idea being that most of the other wrestlers had already competed in match and some like Rob Van Dam had taken vicious beatings at the hands of Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio (even if he couldn't be bothered to sell it) With The Shield ploughing through RVD, Kingston, Titus O'Neil of The Prime Time Players, Justin Gabriel and Zack Ryder, it quickly boiled down to three on six, with Kingston looking the most competitive after a nice sequence with Dean Ambrose, whilst Roman Reigns looked fantastic taking out O'Neil, Gabriel and Ryder in quick order.

With Daniel Bryan entering the match, the leader of WWE lockeroom changed the momentum in favour of his team, with his usual comeback taking out all three members, before tagging in the The Usos for a Superkick and Superfly Splash combination that allowed them to eliminated Reigns, giving that team strong momentum heading into a Tag Team Championship match down the line. With the Allstate Arena absolutely loving it, the match settled back down for a bit, with The Shield managing to eliminate Darren Young, with Young looking particularly impressive in action against Ambrose. To be quite honest, Ambrose was excellent throughout this match, including a great section with Dolph Ziggler that showed promise for their United States Championship match on Smackdown this Friday, with Ziggler eventually getting the better with a Zig Zag to eliminate Ambrose. Hopefully the two get a solid fifteen minutes on Smackdown to really impress, because they just didn't have enough time at Night of Champions to put on the bout we all know they are capable of. With Rollins the only man left for The Shield, it was clearly only a matter of time, but Rollins was still allowed to look a million dollars against Dolph Ziggler, before even managing to eliminate R-Truth (Truth literally did nothing all match). The four remaining faces then ganged up on Rollins, drawing the rest of The Shield. With Ziggler and The Usos taking out Ambrose and Reigns, and all five men ending up on the outside, Rollins tried to take advantage attacking Bryan from behind and setting him up for a superplex. However, Bryan reversed sending Rollins crashing to the mat, and hitting a Flying Headbutt, before finishing off Rollins with the Running High Knee to pick up the pinfall victory for his team. I really enjoyed this match, I thought it was a lot of fun throughout and did wonders for a number of competitors giving them the oppurtunity to really shine in the main event, long may it continue. 

CM Punk returns to Chicago

Anyone who has watched WWE television over the last few years will know the kind of reactions that CM Punk gets when he heads to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. We saw it most recently at this year's Payback pay-per-view and perhaps most famously at Money in the Bank 2011, when he won his first WWE Championship. So here we were again on this week's Raw from the Allstate Arena, as soon as Punk's music hit the place erupted, with a pop that is rarely heard in today professional wrestling scene, especially for a regular performer. To top it off, Punk came out wearing, what I have been told was a Chicago Blackhawks jersey, as if Punk really needed extra help getting the pop.

Punk was out to cut a promo on losing to Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel in the Handicap elimination match at Night of Champions. Punk started off talking about not being able to bring the Stanley Cup out with him, which means very little to me at all, it is frustrating when WWE forgets that most North American sports, aren't played outside of North American and that Raw airs all over the world! It means that the cultural reference they are trying to make is completely lost on the majority of it's audience! Whilst the passion that Punk brought to his promo is something that you don't see too often on WWE television, I found it hard to get into what he was saying, because I simply don't have the knowledge of Ice Hockey to really care about the metaphors that he was trying to pull upon, Chicago of course absolutely loved it.

Punk was interupted by Paul Heyman, who is now comically riding around on a mobility scooter. The confrontation between the two was red hot and animosity between the two characters felt believable throughout. Heyman continued to bait Punk reminding him of Heyman victory at Night of Champions, as well as going for the cheap heat of insulting Chicago, with the city playing a massive part in the entire segment. I'm usually completely against cheap heat, but in this case, with the characters so clearly involved in the city that WWE happened to be in this week it worked incredibly well, and Heyman's a proved genius so I'll let him off. It was clear for all to see where the segment was leading, with Heyman placed precariously on the ramp and Punk in the ring, Heyman attempted to leave the arena, unfortunately, for Heyman, his mobility scooter broke down. I'm sure they could have come up with a better idea than this one, with Heyman messing with his scooter not really doing it for me. It didn't really suit the story they have been trying to tell, and I would have much rather seen Punk just launch himself at Heyman, without all the silliness.

Punk, of course, went after Heyman, only to be cut off by Heyman's clients Ryback and Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel. The brawl between the three was another very strong piece of work, reminscent of Punk's brawls with Brock Lesnar heading into this year's SummerSlam. Punk would continually fight back agaisnt the overwhelming odds, sending Axel into the video screen, before flying off the stage onto Ryback, in what was a spectacular visual. The numbers game was eventually too much for Punk, with Axel causing the distraction and allowing Ryback to gain the upperhand, and finish Punk off with a Gorilla Press Slam through off a production box through a table, in what looked like a really nasty bump for Punk. With Punk vs. Ryback booked for Battleground, I'm a lot more interested in how the storyline is going to play out, than I am about watching the two lock up in the ring again, after their previous encounters proved uninspiring, but I'm willing follow along to find out what happens with Punk and Heyman.

Rob Van Dam 

with Ricardo Rodriguez 

vs.

 Randy Orton

This match was set up in the opening segment, with Stephanie McMahon announcing that she would give the fans the oppurtunity to vote on who would face Randy Orton later in the show, with the options being Rob Van Dam, Dolph Ziggler or R-Truth. Of course, this could only be done via the WWE App, meaning we also received a few minutes of Michael Cole informing us of how to download the blasted thing. Personally, I would have prefered to have seen Dolph Ziggler get the nod from WWE fans, as whilst Orton vs. Ziggler was a regular occurrence between 2011 and 2012, it's been quite some time since we've seen the two lock up on WWE television, whilst Orton has had a number of high profile matches with Van Dam over the past few months and R-Truth has become utterly irrelevant in today's WWE. The rest of the voters on the WWE App, however decided it would Van Dam to step into the ring with Orton, with a strong majority of 57%.

As we've seen in the past between Orton and Van Dam, this was enjoyable bout with the two contrasting styles of both men meshing together nicely in the ring. Orton's slow methodical style allows for Van Dam's quick flurry of offence to stand out and really got the crowd involved from the outset. Van Dam's comebacks were short and impactful throughout with a number of strikes looking strong, alongside signature moves like Rolling Thunder. There was a slight awkward moment, when Orton seemed to get to his feet too early with Van Dam planning to hit a Five Star Frog Splash, luckily the veteran Van Dam was able to recover quickly and the match didn't really lose any of it's flow.

Things really interesting when Orton thwarted another Five Star Frog Splash attempt from Van Dam, and sent him crashing to the outside. From here, Orton returned to the more vicious side that we saw up against The Miz last week, really working over Van Dam on the outside, sending him into the barricade, with the referee counting both men out. Orton went on to beat the absolute crap in Van Dam, sending him into the steel steps and finishing him off with Rope Hung DDT off the top rope. This side off Orton is certainly one that has been missed over the past few years, and allows Orton to look capable on his own, rather than simply Triple H's lackey hiding behind The Shield that he had been dangerously close to becoming in the build up to Night of Champions.

With Orton leaving the ring, and Van Dam being helped to the back by WWE officials, World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio came down to the ring, attacking Van Dam and locking in the Cross Armbreaker. I thought this was another nice little touch for their rivalry, but I'm still not quite sure why they are feuding. WWE need to position the World Heavyweight Championship front and centre in that rivalry, to help build up the belts prestige a little more, as it's just getting lost in the mix at the moment, especially with so much focus on the WWE Championship on Raw and Smackdown. Another questions that bugged me whilst watching was where Ricardo Rodriguez had gone? He was definitely at ringside for the match, but couldn't be bothered to help out his supposed friend Rob Van Dam at any point. I thought the injury played nicely into the main event with Van Dam being part of the eleven man team to take on The Shield and gave the show a nice arc that was followable throughout the three hours.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

The aforementioned World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio was also in action on Raw, taking on Kofi Kingston. Now, a lot of the audience on Twitter was quick to jump on this match for whatever reason, with the Chicago crowd also deciding to chuck around your usual chants for “Randy Savage”, because that really encourages WWE to push new talent. I was myself a little sceptical about the contest going in, as we've seen Del Rio vs Kingston on a number of occasions, and whilst the bouts have always been technically sound, they've never exactly stood out as anything special, with Kingston representing a stepping stone for Del Rio to move onto an opponent higher up the card. Yes, this was the case again here, but the two did bring something extra to their match that by the end had grabbed the attention of Chicago, who were more than into the match by the finish.

Basically, for almost the entire match Del Rio was working over Kingston's arm, with the obvious story being Del Rio was building up for the Cross Armbreaker. With Kingston doing a fantastic job selling the arm injury, and being repeatedly brought up throughout the match thwarting a number of Kingston's comeback's this one built up really nicely, with a flow that felt natural and believable. There was superb spot with Kingston attempting Trouble in Paradise, only for Del Rio to reverse into a German Suplex that looked absolutely beautiful. The finish saw Kingston going for a Springboard attack from the apron to the inside, with Del Rio moving out of the way, before sending Kingston into the ringpost, of course shoulder first, before locking in the Cross Armbreaker to pick up the submission victory. A really strong opener for Raw, that again played into the main storyline of the show, whilst also allowing Del Rio to look great in control of the match.

Miz TV also returned to Raw, after Triple H had set up the segment backstage, saying that Chicago wanted to see Miz TV. Chicago truly is a bizarre place then. The Miz's guest for the segment was Big Show, with the segment geared toward continued the storyline between Big Show and The McMahon family, with The Miz asking Show about why he punched Dusty Rhodes in the face last week on Raw. With Show not saying anything, Stephanie McMahon came down to the ring and the segment picked up a little, with some great heel work from McMahon. McMahon ripped into Miz labelling him a utility player with a scathing promo. It's just a shame that The Miz still isn't working as a face, and looks out of place fighting against the machine.

With McMahon ordering Big Show to knock out Miz, luckily this week saw no crying from the World Largest Athelete, as he delivered a Knockout Punch to his former Show-Miz partner. I have been calling out for months for someone to just punch The Miz in the face, and it finally happened. It was certainly a refreshing change to having Big Show dealing with another moral dilemma, and it made sense for him to just punch the smarmy Miz in the face. I'm interested to see where this is going with Big Show, as surely there is only so long that the big man can take of being pushed around by the McMahon family before he snaps, but how long can WWE play this one out. I wouldn't be surprised if they ran a short programme between Miz and Show for a match at Battleground either.  

 There was also tag team action, with The Wyatt Family's Erick Rowan & Luke Harper teaming up to take on The Prime Time Players. It was a decent tag team match, with Harper and Rowan dominating Darren Young and looking pretty impressive in the process. Young eventually got the hot tag to Titus O'Neil who managed to get some offence in on Harper, before Rowan got involved and the bout headed towards the finish. Young took out Rowan with a clothesline sending both men to the outside, before O'Neil walked straight into a Discus Lariat from Harper to give The Wyatt Family the pinfall victory. It would seem that Prime Time Players push is ending now that the media storm that surrounded Darren Young has died down a little, and I'd expect to see Harper and Rowan competiting for the tag titles soon, possibly against The Usos who seem likely to end The Shield's reign. The Wyatt Family finished off the segment with Bray Wyatt hitting Sister Abigail on Darren Young, in what has become a familiar finish to their appearances on television.

Fandango was also in action this week, taking on Santino Marella, in a comedy encounter. There was some decent stuff in here, but it was difficult to find with the bout consisting mainly of rest holds, with a few comedy spots thrown in the mix, that unfortunately came across more goofy than actually funny. The finish came off the back of a comeback for Marella, with Summer Rae causing the distraction, allowing Fandango to attack him from behind, hitting a suplex before heading to the top rope to hit a Diving Leg Drop for the pinfall victory. It wasn't the worst match you'll see on television this year, and at times it was entertaining, but there really wasn't much point to it, with WWE not seeming to have any plans for either man going forward.

There was also women's action with a ridiculous ten woman tag team match pitting The Bella Twins, The Funkadactyls and Natalya against Diva's Champion AJ Lee, Alicia Fox, Aksana, Layla and Tamina Snuka. Prior to the bout there was segment between AJ Lee and Stephanie McMahon with the two clearly still not seeing eye to eye, and it just made the whole women's division look completely incorrehent. Who is a heel, who is a face? The match itself last less than two minutes, with only a few women getting involved, and saw Brie Bella pick up the pinfall victory over AJ Lee after a Bella Buster. I've got no idea what they were trying to get over here, but it just seemed like a complete waste of bringing out all those women, to only have them stand on the apron!  

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Raw.

1. Don't judge a book by it's cover: the eleven on three match should have been awful, but it was booked really well and wrestled even better.

2. Ice Hockey references mean nothing to me.

3. Randy Orton is really coming back into his own, and looks to be enjoying himself back in his maniacal role

WWE Main Event 11th September 2013 Review

This week's main event seemed like a return to form for the show, with a strong card of matches, with enough variety to keep me interested throughout the hour. Antonio Cesaro continues to leave WWE fans scratching their heads wondering why the organisation doesn't seem to notice the talent they have, with a top notch bout with Kofi Kingston, but I've chosen to focus this week's review on another match, and I'll explain why...

R-Truth 

vs. 

Big E Langston

The reason this match is in the main slot for this review, is because I was really intrigued by Big E Langston appearance on the show. We haven't seen Langston for a fair amount of time on television after Langston lost to Dolph Ziggler in the blow off match of their feud on the 20^th August edition of Smackdown, and I was half expecting for Langston to take some time off television, before returning as a face, with a couple of matches against Damien Sandow at house shows recently, pointing towards that. So I was quite surprised to see him lined up to face R-Truth here. Truth has really been struggling to hold my attention with a stale gimmick and some so-so performance.

The match itself was decent enough to keep my attention and entertain me to some degree, but really lacked any proper structure or flow which let it down. Langston looked impressive when incontrol of Truth and his signature moves such as the Big Splash he did, looked very impressive. R-Truth's offense were mainly limited to strikes, but they came at such random moments, that when Truth launched into what should have been his comeback, it didn't really have much of an impact as Langston had spent to much time on top. What could have been the big spot that helped this match, was unfortunately botched, with Truth cannon-balling over the top rope on Langston on the outside and landing awkwardly on his, this was mainly down to Langston being in the wrong position and not being able to properly catch Truth, so the fault has to lie with the big man on this one.

The finish saw R-Truth miss his Corkscrew Scissors Kick, allowing Langston to hit a clothesline, before pulling down the straps and hitting The Big Ending to pick up the pinfall victory. The finish was simple, but effective using both men's signature moves well, it's just a shame that what preceded it hadn't quite flowed so well. It makes sense to give Langston the win here, as he is someone WWE does seem to have some sort of plan for, even if they aren't quite sure what it is yet, but it does make Truth's victory over World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank holder Damien Sandow even more random and perplexing. It certainly wasn't the strongest performance I've seen from either man in a WWE ring.

So, what should WWE do with Big E Langston? I've been saying this for quite some time...turn him face! Simply do replays of what Langston did in NXT, running over heels opponents, whilst asking for a five count instead of a three count. It got him over on NXT, and I'm pretty certain it would get him over on Raw. He's certainly most comfortable as a face, and is entertain enough on the mic to really get some fan support behind him. From there give the guy a run with the United States Championship with an entertaining rivalry, with any of a number of WWE's heels, and then see how it goes. As for R-Truth, I'm struggling to see what he offers WWE in 2013, although I'm beginning to wonder if they could partner him up with someone and give him a run in the tag team division, which could be an interesting move for Truth, maybe someone like NXT's Xavier Woods could work with Truth.

Best of the Rest

Elsewhere on the show, Kofi Kingston and The Real American's Antonio Cesaro particpated in the match of the night, and arguably the best match to ever grave and episode of Main Event. Cesaro spent much of the match in control, which is a role that suits him down to the ground, as we saw in his battles with Sami Zayn from NXT. Kingston worked well fighting underneath and the two built a good foundation of solid technical wrestling, with a few highflying moves from Kingston thrown in as well. There were also a number of exciting spots that really lifted the match and got the fans to sit up and take notice, including Kingston using the steel steps in a similar spot from this week's Raw, although the cannonball certainly looked by than the forearm strike used on Monday, and of course Cesaro's extra long Giant Swing, which would seem to be becoming a regular part of his offence going forward.

The finish saw Cesaro go for a Neutralizer, with Kingston reversing in a roll up for a near fall, that saw Cesaro show off his strength once again bridging out of the pin and going for a backslide, Kingston slipped free and hit Trouble in Paradise to the pinfall victory. I thought this was a strong finish that allowed both me to continue looking good, with Cesaro bridge out of Kingston's pin being an outstanding show of strength, and Kingston's finisher happening so quickly that you could easily make a case for a rematch. It's baffling that either of these competitors has never been pushed strongly by WWE, whilst many have argued that Kingston lacks the mic skills to move past the mid card, Cesaro certainly does.

There was also tag team action on the show, with Prime Time Players taking on Heath Slater & Jinder Mahal of 3MB. Darren Young & Titus O'Neil were in control for most of the match, with O'Neil's power keeping Mahal & Slater in check in the early going. The best section of the match for me was a nice series of reversal between Young and Slater, with the two former Nexus stablemates showing a familiarity, with their section flowing nicely. The finish saw Slater break up a pinfall by O'Neil, with Young and Slater going on to battle on the outside, ending with Slater sending Young crashing hard into the announce table. With O'Neil taking out Slater with a shoulder barge, Mahal attempted a roll up for a near fall, with O'Neil escaping and finishing Mahal off with Clash of the Titus for the pinfall victory. I thought the finish had some good ideas, but a lot of it didn't flow particularly well, but it was good to see The Prime Time Players back on top after last week's defeat to The Wyatt Family.

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Main Event.

1. Big E Langston probably still isn't ready for a big push, but seeing him in more matches on television will get him ready quickly.

2. Antonio Cesaro deserves to be higher up the card in WWE. 

3. The Tag Team Turmoil bout on Night of Champions could be a very interesting contest indeed. 

WWE Main Event 4th September 2013 Review

This week's WWE Main Event was a bit of a funny one for me, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the match that I was most interested in, wasn't place in what has been considered the “Main Event” slot on Main Event (the first match on the show), neither was it the longest match, it actually went on last. I'm not quite sure if I like the change of format for Main Event they used this, the old format is what made it stand out from other WWE programming and made me want to watch in the first place. It risks going the same way as WWE Superstars if they carry on this way.

Tag Team Match: 

The Prime Time Players 

vs. 

The Wyatt Family (Harper/Rowan) 

with Bray Wyatt

As I said in my opener, this was the match that really caught my attention when I noticed it was scheduled for this week's Main Event and for a number of reasons. Firstly, both of these teams have been a role as of late, with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan still undefeated as a Tag Team on main roster WWE television, and The Prime Time Players were on a decent run as well, with victories over The Real Americans and 3MB on Raw and Smackdown recently, so who would WWE chose to go over here. Secondly, I was interested to see how the two teams fitted together in the ring, with The Shield possibly dropping the Tag Team Championships at some point soon, it would seem logical that these two teams could end up feuding over the belts, I'm guessing that WWE might have been interested in that idea to, which might have been the reason for this bout in the first place.

The match was shorter than I imagined it would be, running at around three minutes, but it was probably the most competitive match we've seen someone have with Harper and Rowan. With Titus O'Neil and Rowan having a nice big man exchange to kick off the match, before it settled into you usual beat down from the heels, who worked over O'Neil pretty well. I was really impressed by Darren Young in this match, as he has really taken to his new role as a face, he worked the corner nicely, really helping to sell the need for the tag from O'Neil. Young certainly seems to be enjoying himself in the ring again, which was something that he seemed to miss during the later stages of The Prime Time Players heel run, which is understandable, seeing as they finally have some upward mobility in the tag team division again.

I thought the finish was also strong, with Rowan looking to interfere, during Young's frenzy off of the hot tag, only to be shoulder barged over the top rope by O'Neil. Just when it looked like The Prime Time Players might be going over, they pulled the switch with Harper hitting a big boot on Young and Rowan sending O'Neil into the barricade. Harper went on to hit a Discus Clothesline to get the pinfall victory for his team. I enjoyed the quickness of the switch they used here, really pulling the rug from underneath the viewer. The match was too short for either of these two teams to really show us what they could do, but they did the best with the time available. To close the show, Bray Wyatt entered the ring and hit Young with Sister Abigail before posing and reminding us to Follow The Buzzards! It's becoming a signature of The Wyatt Family's matches now to have Wyatt come in to take out the opponent again, I'm interested to see what happens when they lose.

So, it looks like The Wyatt Family is going to continue to roll on for now, but where exactly to. It would be difficult in their current state to have them go after the Tag Team Championships from The Shield, yes they could do heel team vs. heel team, it's been done before, but with The Shield so close to the Triple H/Randy Orton/Daniel Bryan storyline that's dominating WWE at the moment, I don't think it would really work right now. Yes, they could turn The Wyatt Family face, we've seen from their last appearance on NXT that it can work very well, but so soon after their debut, I just don't think it would feel right, especially with the feud with Kane still left open. I imagine they're going to be treading water for a while, until Kane is ready to return. The Prime Time Players on the other handed have been rumoured to be getting a Tag Title shot at Night of Champions, personally I think this match puts that match out of question, as if WWE were planning to have O'Neil and Young challenge for the titles, surely they wouldn't have them lose so close to the pay-per-view.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on Main Event, R-Truth took on World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Winner Damien Sandow. Before the match, Sandow cut a nice little promo about Cody Rhodes' firing on Raw, which I thought was a nice touch. We've seen this match a handful of times before, most recently on Raw in June, and unfortunately this felt like the pair going through the motions. It's something I've noticed a few times with Sandow, and it's even more frustrating because I know when he does turn up he can put on a very good match, and I'm sure with the time given here with R-Truth they could have done so. That's not saying the match was awful, it was a decent contest, with a nice series of roll-ups being the highlight for me, but it just didn't seem like the effort was being put in to elevate this match from a decent match to a good match. Josh Matthews and Alex Riley on commentary didn't help the match much either, spending most of the match talking about Big Show. 

The finish saw Sandow go for Terminus, with Truth pushing him into the ropes for a roll up for a near fall. Sandow then ran straight into a Little Jimmy to give R-Truth the pinfall victory. It was a nice finish, but I have absolutely no clue why they had R-Truth going over Sandow. They've done literally nothing with R-Truth on television for months, and it's obvious to anyone that R-Truth is going nowhere in WWE at the moment, and Sandow is holding the Money in the Bank briefcase and a possible future World Heavyweight Champion, so why would they have R-Truth win here? WWE seems intent on having Sandow lose to everyone on the roster before he cashes in his briefcase, and they'll have the same problem they had with Jack Swagger and Daniel Bryan when they were given similar runs with the briefcase. It would be nice if WWE would learn from their own mistakes in booking, and at least have Sandow looking competent in the ring. 


The match that took the usual “Main Event” slot was Fandango going up against Justin Gabriel. No offence to Gabriel, I think he's a terrific in-ring talent but he just doesn't have the name value some of the usual wrestlers that get put in this spot have, mainly due to the fact he usually loses on television. The match itself was pretty sloppy throughout, including a horrible looking bump where Gabriel somersaulted over the top rope and landed on the back of neck and head, Gabriel certainly didn't look the same after that moment and was favouring his head for the rest of the bout. The finish saw Fandango hit a Pele Kick for a near fall, before heading to the top rope to hit the Diving Leg Drop for the pinfall victory. Personally, I would have rather seen Fandango go straight from the kick to the Leg Drop to get the pin, but the finish was decent enough. These two have had better matches on television before, and seeing as they've worked a few house shows together as well I was expecting a little better, but I guess a lot of it has to do with the head injury Gabriel suffered pretty early on.

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's WWE Main Event.

1. The Prime Time Players are really growing on me as a face tag team.

2. Damien Sandow should be winning more matches, although continuing to go through the motions won't help him.

3. I really, really don't like Josh Matthews on commentary

WWE Main Event 28th August 2013 Review

This week's Main Event was helped by two strong supporting matches, after the main attraction didn't quite deliver as I had expected. Main Event continues to be an entertaining hour of WWE television, and in allowing those wrestlers poised for the real main event scene in WWE, such as Cody Rhodes to experiment in these longer matches, they can only end up coming off better than when they entered.

Cody Rhodes

vs.

Intercontinental Champion

Curtis Axel

with Paul Heyman

With a highlight package of Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel's attack on CM Punk on Raw starting the show, the Intercontinental Champion was in action against Cody Rhodes. This was a rematch from last week's Smackdown, where Axel got the victory following some distraction from Paul Heyman, so I was interested to see how this one would go, especially with Axel and Heyman now booked in a Handicap Elimination Match with Punk at Night of Champions. It seemed odd that the commentary team of Josh Matthews and Alex Riley didn't really mention the match they had on Smackdown, which would have allowed them to build up the contest more and make it feel more important for Rhodes to get his victory back, instead they focussed on the build to Night of Champions, making this bout feel pretty inconsequential.

Similar to the match on Smackdown, this one wasn't particularly anything special and I think the extra time it was given actually hurt the match. Rhodes is taking longer to adjust to his current face role, than I originally expected and hasn't quite got the psychology of being a face down yet, a longer period of holding Axel in a chickenwing was not going to help the crowd get behind him! After a nice period of amatuer style wrestling at the beginning, things did look promising for this contest, but it quickly fizzled out. Axel looked good in control, with his slow methodical approach picking Rhodes apart, but what was needed was a pacy comeback from Rhodes, which really would have got me interested in the bout. This however didn't really come, as when the time came for Rhodes' comeback, he was visibly winded, after a good looking Diving Moonsault. It was a shame really that conditioning played apart here, as this match could have worked extremely well. Rhodes is definitely going to need more of these longer matches to build his conditioning for a potential main event push.

The ending of the bout saw Rhodes trying to drag Axel back to the centre of the ring, but Axel holding onto the ring apron. The referee tried to get Rhodes to move away, only for Axel to hit a duo of kicks, one to the gut, one to the face, before jumping to his feet and hitting the Hangman's Facebuster for the pinfall victory and to go 2-0 over Rhodes. It was a bit of an “out of the blue” ending and seemed to come out of nowhere, blink and you'd have missed it. It was good however, to see Axel pick up a victory without having to rely on Heyman, who was pretty much a non-entity at ringside, as that was the main problem with Axel's match with CM Punk on Raw, without Heyman at ringside Axel never seemed like he could win, this will go some way to making Axel look like a more legitimate competitor in his own right.

So, with Axel heading to Night of Champions already (as you'd expect, him being Intercontinental Champion and all) where does that leave Cody Rhodes. A month ago, Rhodes was closing Smackdown with his Gulf of Mexico segment with Damien Sandow, now it feels like Rhodes is back to treading water. I'd suspect Rhodes will pick up on his feud with Damien Sandow at some point, but if WWE are planning for the two to be feuding over the World Heavyweight Championship, then why are they having both lose these kinds of matches? Yes, Axel needed a big win heading towards Night of Champions, but there are plenty of others that could have been thrown into this bout, that WWE don't seem to have any plans on having in their World Heavyweight title picture anytime soon.

 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on Main Event, Kofi Kingston was in action against Fandango in what was essentially a rubber match for their series, with the two picking up victories over each other at the start of the month on Raw and Smackdown. This was by far the longest match the two have had on television and they were clearly relishing the opportunity. The match was quick paced from the lock up, but really got going with a nice spot, that saw Kingston land on his feet off a monkey flip from Fandango out of the corner, and go on to land his own version of the move. Both men had spells of control, with a number of quick paced reversals along the way, Fandango looked incredibly comfortable in control and you can see he has improved a lot since his days as Johnny Curtis on NXT.

With Kingston making the comeback that Rhodes' needed to make earlier, hitting a Boom Drop and building for Trouble in Paradise, the match was strangely cut short, when Summer Rae grabbed Kingston's leg and the referee called for the disqualification handing Kingston the victory. It was odd because both Kingston and Fandango continued to wrestle and everyone looked very surprised by what had just happened, it certainly felt very sudden and definitely wasn't the satisfying ending that the bout needed. Hopefully, they'll have a rematch soon, so we actually get to see the ending of the bout. Kingston's comeback from injury has been pretty disapointing, he's quickly been relegated to Main Event and Superstars, and this entertaining match will hopefully remind WWE that he still has something to offer, I'd much rather see Kingston feud with Fandango than The Miz!

There was also tag team action with Prime Time Players taking on Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro of The Real Americans. We've seen these two teams have a rivalry of sorts over the last two weeks, with a number of technically sound matches all won by members of the Prime Time Players. This was more of the same, with a basic yet entertaining contest. Cesaro and Swagger looked good working over Darren Young, before the hot tag to Titus O'Neil. O'Neil is great in this role, as he looks really impressive when ploughing threw his opponents. His Fall-Away Slam still impresses me, he seems to do it with ease. The finish saw both Young save O'Neil from being pinned by Swagger, with Cesaro taking out Young with a nasty looking dropkick, before Swagger walked straight into Clash of the Titus and with Cesaro unable to make the save, Prime Time Players picked up the pinfall victory. Hopefully, both teams feature in future plans for the Tag Team Championships, with a tag team scene which is really coming to life lately, although I'd much rather see Cesaro in singles competition.

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Main Event.

1. Cody Rhodes needs to be working longer matches and picking up more wins, if WWE expect him to be a convincing main event competitor.

2. Kofi Kingston's return has produced nothing, but a costume change.

3. Alex Riley is actually quite informative on commentary, when he isn't talking about The Miz.

WWE Main Event 31st July 2013 Review

For the second week in a row, Main Event didn’t really deliver a main event that I was particularly excited to see. I’m a big fan of Wade Barrett, and think R-Truth can go when he wants to, but WWE have made it clear in recent weeks they don’t really have any plans for either of these wrestlers, so there was very little reason to care. The other contests, saw the 1000^th meeting of The Usos  and The Prime Time Players, whilst Mark Henry was in full bulldozer mode against Drew McIntyre. After the previous months worth of Main Event was very strong, the last two week have been incredibly disappointing with WWE picking some uninspiring combinations of wrestlers, hopefully this will change once the tours of Australia and South Africa are over, and WWE returns to it’s regular schedule.

R-Truth

 vs. 

Wade Barrett

Now the reason I wasn’t as hyped for this match, as I was for say Christian vs. Damien Sandow or Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes a few weeks ago, was because both Barrett and Truth have been made to look fairly rubbish in the last couple of months. We barely see R-Truth on either Raw or Smackdown, and when we do he’s getting his shoulders pinned to the mat, like this week’s Raw against Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel (okay he didn’t actually get pinned in that match, but as good as). I’m pretty sure Wade Barrett hadn’t won a match since he dropped the same title to Axel at Payback, and for some reason is not in favour with WWE higher ups at the moment.

The match itself took a long time to get going, probably because Barrett and Truth hardly ever wrestle matches this long on television and are used to the simpler four minute format that most WWE matches take. Therefore when it came to building a coherent story for this match, there simply wasn’t one. When there isn’t a story to follow with a match, it makes it much easier to zone out of what you’re watching, which I kept finding myself doing. It didn’t help that the in ring action at this point wasn’t particularly exciting either.

The match got a lot better as it went on, with Truth and Barrett string together some interesting sequence and it became a much better fight. The ending saw Barrett setting up for the Bullhammer Elbow, only for Truth to side step and hit Lil’ Jimmy (Remember that?) instead. Barrett managed to get out of the ring before a pinfall, and with Truth looking to dive between the ropes, Barrett awoke hitting the Bullhamer Elbow for a pinfall victory. The last five minutes or so of the match was actually pretty good, with some face paced action in a style that Barrett is comfortable with.

I wouldn’t imagine we will be seeing Truth on WWE television for much longer, WWE has done nothing with him for almost six months now, with him only rarely appearing on Raw to lose to whoever is flavour of the month. In the current WWE climate, where we are seeing a lot of younger talent getting moved up the card, I can’t really see a space for R-Truth anymore. Barrett on the other hand I’m sure WWE will come up with something new for him, whether it will work, or be another failed push that sends him back into mid-card obscurity is yet to be seen.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

The Usos were also on action on Main Event this week, as they faced off against old rivals The Prime Time Players. Now we’ve seen Jimmy, Jey, Darren and Titus squared off on numerous episodes of WWE Television over the last year, and whilst the contest is usually technically sound and tells a good tag team story, it’s difficult to get excited for something you’ve already seen multiple times, especially with no real storyline or anything new there to drive the match in a different direction and that’s how I felt when watching this bout.

It was good solid tag team action, with a strong babyface team in The Usos, against a strong heel team in The Prime Time Players, with both doing their jobs well in producing a good quality contest. The teams compliment each other well, with The Usos speed, being matched by Titus O’Neil’s power and Darren Young’s precision. That’s probably why these two teams have been placed together so many teams, including numerous house show circuits, because WWE knows it works so well. The Usos went on to pick up the victory this time, and continue their recent push towards the top of the tag team division, sending Darren Young over the top rope, before hitting Titus with Stereo Superkicks and finishing him off with a Superfly Splash from Jey. Will this victory gain The Usos another tag team title shot against The Shield’s Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at SummerSlam? With no other tag teams around at the moment, it would certainly look so.

The Usos have been teaming with Mark Henry to face the Shield as of late, and The World’s Strongest Man was also in action on Main Event as he faced off against 3MB’s Drew McIntyre in what was essentially a squash match. With Henry throwing McIntyre around the ring, Henry certainly looked very impressive in this kind of atmosphere. Drew did get a little offense in, but it wasn’t for long as Henry finished him off with a World’s Strongest Slam, within a few minutes. Henry seems to be enjoying his face run at the moment, and so am I. It’s miles better than his run as a comedic face a few years back, but I’m still sceptical on how long WWE can keep it going before he reverts to that smiling babyface prototype. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Main Event?

1. Wade Barrett vs. R-Truth is not a Main Event!

2. The Usos vs. The Prime Time Players might have been done to death, but it's still worth watching.

3. JBL seems to legitimately dislike Josh Matthews.

WWE Main Event 26th June 2013 Review

The impressive thing about Main Event this week was that it featured two matches that on paper could have held the main event spot, with one cut short by interference, the other was a solid contest that showed off what the men involved can do well.

Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes

For me this match felt like WWE taking a look at what Cody Rhodes can still do when tasked with a longer contest, such as this one. It’s been a while since Cody was in a position to have a match anywhere near this length on either TV or PPV, after kind of getting lost in the mix on Raw and Smackdown after the original break down of Team Rhodes Scholars in February. He hasn’t really been given anything to get his teeth into in terms of a feud, apart from a bit part in the Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow feud. It truly is telling that with Money in the Bank coming round, Cody isn’t being talked about as a potential winner, as he’s been the first name on most people’s lips for the last few years events.

The match was a back and forth type of contest, with each man being given just enough time in control of the match to showcase what they are capable of in the ring. The majority of the contest focussed around an injury to Jericho’s eye, caused after a stray thumb from Cody Rhodes. It was nice twist on the heel taking advantage of an injury type of match, which would usually see the heel work on the arm or leg. Rhodes used a lot of his signature moves throughout the contest including a beautiful moonsault onto a standing Jericho, the Disaster Kick (taking advantage of the Jericho’s eye) a huge Alabama Slam and Cross Rhodes all of which got him a two count. Rhodes managed to keep himself looking strong enough with by getting his foot on the ropes after a Codebreaker.

The end of the match saw Jericho block a kick from Rhodes, and after a long struggle eventually manage to turn it into the Walls of Jericho, resulting in the submission victory. I enjoyed this ending, as with Cody reaching and clawing to get to Jericho’s eye before he was turned over it felt like the storyline running throughout the match had led somewhere and brought a satisfactory conclusion to what was a good contest, for both men.

Chris Jericho has been known over the last few years for helping young talent get over with the WWE audience, mainly due to his selfless style of wrestling which allows his opponents to look as good as possible, as well as years of wrestling knowledge built up from around the world. Cody Rhodes certainly benefitted from being in the ring with Jericho for this amount of time and the psychology and story throughout the contest was spot on. It would seem Rhodes is being positioned for another repackage soon, after a long losing streak and having seen his finishing moves kicked out of by a number of opponent on the way. WWE would be foolish to let a talent like Rhodes go without ever giving him a proper chance to run with the ball.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

 

I mentioned at the start of this review that there was another match that could have potentially taken the Main Event spot, and if the rivalry hadn’t been completely missed from Raw this week it probably would have been. The match in question was Christian against the United States Champion Dean Ambrose of The Shield, it certainly had potential to fill the fifteen to twenty minute slot and with the rivalry behind it could arguably been a bigger draw than Jericho-Rhodes.

The match was essentially a brawl between the two spilling to the outside before Ambrose took control with a nice version of an STF. With Christian hitting a number of familiar moves, this match finally looked to be getting going, but was the unfortunately cut short as Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns interfered to push Christian off the top, to give Christian the disqualification win. It was a shame to have this match end so quickly, especially with a number of Ambrose’s matches having had similar endings recently, he hasn’t had much time to show what he can do on his own as of late. With The Shield beating down Christian, the number one contenders The Usos made the save, seeing off The Shield in style. Whilst both Christian and The Usos deserve to be in this position with The Shield, it’s difficult to see either in the same position as some of The Shield’s opponents over recent months.

Before Tons of Funk made their entrance to face The Prime Time Players, they were given a new entrance with The Funkadactyls and new Diva Jo-Jo (who’ll be appearing on reality show Total Divas in July) sang the entrance theme. It really was awful to watch and I felt pretty uncomfortable watching the three young ladies struggle in the ring, luckily this wasn’t Raw and hopefully it never happens again. Luckily the match was good tag team fare, with both teams looking good in the ring. It’s a shame we don’t see enough of Clay and Tensai as a duo, because as big men go they’re pretty good in the ring. The Prime Time Players needed the win to go into their match on Raw with CM Punk and Curtis Axel looking strong and duly delivered when Darren Young hit Brodus with his afro comb, allowing Titus O’Neil to get the pinfall, in a nice ending to develop the heel duo.

For the first time this week, I was disappointed with a Zeb Colter promo. I was behind the partnership with Antonio Cesaro to start with, if it emphasised how Colter had back tracked from his previous position, however that does not look to be the case. What was presented here was a over long rambling promo that took way too many tangents and seemed to forget that Colter was now aligned with a foreigner. Cesaro attempted to pull it back with a decent promo of his own, but it couldn’t quite paper over the cracks in the logic of their relationship. I'm sure the crowd chanting U-S-A was not the desired reaction! 

Announced For Friday's Smackdown:

Christian & The Usos vs. The Shield

WWE Raw 24th June 2013 Review

This week’s Raw couldn’t quite live up to the week before in terms of excitement and action, however it was still another strong outing for WWE, with a number of strong matches and story development as we head towards Money in the Bank on July 14^th.

Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton

It was nice to see this story get spotlighted this week, as it opened and closed the show with both competitor looking very strong throughout. The show kicked off with Daniel Bryan in the ring, who cut an entertaining promo about little man syndrome before claiming he would defeat Randy Orton tonight, which lured Randy Orton out to the ring. The two quickly went at it and seemed like the match would take place then, only for it to spill to the out side, before referee Charles Robinson was knocked down in the melee and called for the double disqualification. It was decent start to Raw, and we got to see a taste of things to come later on, with Orton and Bryan’s dislike for each other really coming through well here.

Street Fight: Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton

As we built up towards what would now become the main event of Raw, we got a number of backstage segments. Firstly we saw Bryan rage at Raw Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero and her assistant Brad Maddox, even challenging Brad to a match if he couldn’t get the match with Orton later. Vickie agreed until Mr. McMahon turned up, to talk about how Daniel Bryan was too small. Even though it was little frustrating to see the McMahon’s get involved in this feud, I actually quite liked this moment, as it seemed to come from a real place and we all know that Bryan doesn’t exactly fit Vince’s idea of a what a WWE superstar should look like. With Vickie contemplating cancelling the match Triple H turned up to give an opposite view and even offered the idea of holding a WWE App vote to choose the match type. It’s interesting to watch Vickie agree with whichever McMahon spoke to her last and I’d foresee a split between Vickie and Brad with each eventually siding with a respective McMahon.

The WWE App vote included Lumberjack Match, Street Fight and Falls Count Anywhere match. With the WWE Universe opting for the Street Fight option, it was strange to see both Bryan and Orton come out in regular wrestling gear. For me, there is no real different between a Street Fight and a Falls Count Anywhere match except the street clothes. For someone reason WWE also decided that in a Street Fight pinfalls could only happen in the ring, it’s called a Street Fight! So what we basically got here was an Extreme Rules Match, but the two competitors in the ring did an amazing job as we got one of the best match up’s of this kind since WWE went PG. It was much more than your regular one weapon WWE No DQ match, as we saw both Orton and Bryan go through tables (Bryan a little awkwardly after a Exploder Suplex), chair shots to head (yes, to the head), Bryan take a back body drop onto the ramp and the use of what has become Orton’s signature weapon, the Kendo Stick (or Singapore Cane)

With all matches of this type, they’re made even better by good solid wrestling and a good story tell. This match had both in bucket loads, with a number of reversals including a nice powerbomb from Orton as Bryan jumped off the tope rope. The ending revolved around Bryan’s No Lock and the Singapore Cane, with Orton able to get out of the hold first time round with use of the cane, however second time round Bryan had to move scouted and used the cane against Orton to get the Submission victory, in what felt like an extremely satisfying ending to a great television main event. After the contest the two shook hands, although I hoping for a bit more development post-match, I can see why WWE went for this ending and hopefully we’ll get to keep seeing this side of Randy Orton over the coming weeks and months.

CM Punk with Paul Heyman vs. Darren Young with Titus O’Neil

Before the match took place we saw CM Punk backstage in a segment with Vickie Guerrero. Guerrero attempted to inform Punk that he would be in a match later on, The Best in the World ignored her before using Vickie’s “Excuse Me!” catchphrase against her and informing her that if she saw Heyman or Lesnar turned up that she should let him know. It was a nice segment between the two, even if it did slightly damped Punk’s appearance later on. Guerrero is someone who probably doesn’t get as much credit as she should for her job, considering she has no sought of training in any field, it’s been fantastic to watch her develop since her 2005 debut. She has to do very little to garner any heat from a crowd, although that has made it difficult for her to transition into a more likeable role as of late.

Later on in the show, Paul Heyman came to ring and called out the Best in the World. What followed is difficult to fully describe, but we got a conversation between two of the best talkers professional wrestling has ever seen. The conversation they had revolved around Brock Lesnar’s attack on CM Punk last week and whether Paul Heyman was involved. Heyman of course denied any involvement blaming Punk and Lesnar’s respective egos on the attack. Heyman said it was up to Punk what he choose to do from then on, and after a long pause Punk apologised for doubting Heyman and the two embraced. The whole scene felt like something out some big budget US drama series with the hug at the end teasing that all was still not well within Camp Heyman.

The match that Vickie mentioned earlier was against Darren Young of The Prime Time Players. The match was a lot more competitive than I had expected with Young getting a fair amount of offence in on Punk, even hitting his Gut Check finisher for a two count. Punk eventually got the win after a Roundhouse kick followed by an Anaconda Vise for the submission victory. Young’s Prime Time Player’s partner, Titus O’Neil then entered the ring and the two began to beat down Punk, until Heyman’s other client Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel made the save, much to the displeasure of Punk. It’s interesting to see WWE playing around with the concept of what makes a heel and a face as of late, with this storyline and Orton and Bryan being some of the most interesting television WWE has put on in a long time.

Later on backstage we caught up with Punk and Heyman, with the Voice of the Voiceless not particularly happy with his best friend’s actions, he was even less happy to find out that he’d be teaming with Curtis Axel next week against The Prime Time Players. Punk cut a promo on his goals for the future, including beating Brock Lesnar, winning Money in the Bank and the WWE Championship. This feud involving Lesnar, Heyman and Punk (and to some extent Curtis Axel) feels like it could run and run, with a lot of avenues that could be explored and an eventual Punk-Lesnar contest (or even series) being a mouth-watering prospect for true wrestling fans. 

John Cena & Mark Henry

After the fresh feel to feud between these two last week, it felt like business as usual this week on Raw. It seems that every single feud we’ve seen from Cena at one point has featured these duelling promo type segments. We saw it recently with Ryback, we’ve seen it with The Rock as well. I expect the week before Money in the Bank we’ll see the Cena and Henry “face to face” segment make a return also. It’s a shame because this could rivalry really could’ve helped to freshen up Cena’s act as well as give the match a lot more importance come Money in the Bank. A regular match between Cena and Henry will be nothing special, a match with heaps of story and background could be extremely entertaining.

Cena’s promos as of late have been pretty poor, and that’s not just by Cena’s high standards, that’s in general. It used to be that the current WWE Champions promos were one of the strongest parts of his game, however this week like last he seemed to phone it in once again. It was basic cookie cutter Cena promo, as he spouted his Never Give Up, RTime=Now catchphrases and it didn’t particularly put over Mark Henry as all Cena wanted to talk about was himself. It’s definitely time to add some dimension to Cena’s character, I’m not talking about the myth of a heel turn, just some level to the character, have him talk to the audience for once, not shout at them!

Mark Henry on the other hand delivered a much better effort, talking about how he got the fans last with his faux retirement speech. He talked to the fans, making fun of them and really should have got more heat than he did, if it weren’t for a crowd that was dead for most of the night. The World’s Strongest Man manages to use humour in his promo that is actually funny, whilst staying within the parameters of being a heel, which definitely brings that extra dimension that all wrestler characters should have. Henry finished off by proclaiming he would win the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, it was a nice follow up to last week’s segment and built up the match at the PPV well.

The positioning of the segments on the show certainly felt like WWE taking their foot of the gas for this rivalry, compared to last week. It didn’t quite feel as big as last week’s segment and a lot of other segments on the show felt more important than what we saw here. If this match is to main event the Money in the Bank show, which it could do if handled well enough over the next two weeks then we need to see it in a much more prominent position on WWE television, other wise what could be a good feud is going to get lost in the mix.

Best of the Rest (in the World)

In other action, there was a rematch from last Friday’s Smackdown pitting World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio against Chris Jericho. It was another strong contest between the two, even if it was similar to their original Smackdown contest. Del Rio worked over Jericho a lot of the contest, with a number of short lived comebacks from Jericho. With Y2J dodging Del Rio sending him into the ring post, the match really got going with some nice back and forth wrestling between the two, focussed on the pairs submission finishers. With Jericho getting Del Rio into the Walls of Jericho in the centre of ring, Ricardo Rodriguez had to inference with his trusty bucket to give Jericho a disqualification win. These two could have a great contest if given the time and a decent storyline, as well a clean finish, but for now I guess this match is more than good enough for Raw.

It wasn’t long before Dolph Ziggler came out to take on Del Rio, hitting him with a Zig Zag, whilst Jericho took out Rodriguez with a Codebreaker. With Ziggler and Jericho squaring up, supposedly over Jericho’s Code Breaker to Ziggler on Smackdown, it was Ziggler who attacked this time, hitting Jericho with a Zig Zag as he tried to leave the ring. I’m not sure why Jericho was added to this rivalry in such a way, it really didn’t need him to get involve to fuel it, whilst Ziggler attacking Jericho certainly won’t help his recent face turn get over with certain parts of the audience.

Stephanie McMahon was also involved on television this week, firstly in a backstage segment with Vickie Guerrero. McMahon was quick to show who was boss and questioned why Vickie hadn’t announced who was in the WWE Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match, after they had previously spoke about it, referencing a conversation seen of screen is never fun as a viewer, imagine the same happening in Coronation Street and it could get very confusing. Personally any relevant information for the storyline should be seen on screen, if it isn’t seen it shouldn’t be mentioned, bar the occasional addition of background on characters.

Stephanie then went out into the arena to announce who would be taking part in this years WWE Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match. The participants would be CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Christian, Kane and Rob Van Dam. This match sticks to idea featured in last years match of having former WWE or World Heavyweight Champions in the match, with only Daniel Bryan and Christian yet to win the WWE Championship. Some may moan that the Money in the Bank should be used to raise the profile of other talent, however personally I am not too bothered by the selection here and with a good storyline in place anyone should be able to win the briefcase regardless of past achievements. There’s a lot of different stories going into this one match and it will be interesting to see how they mess together to create the contest.

There was also Diva’s action with Kaitlyn (who for some reason was accompanied by Layla) taking on Aksana. Luckily, the match didn’t go very long before it was interrupted by AJ Lee, dressed as Kaitlyn complete with muscle suit. AJ cut a promo as Kaitlyn, in a segment reminiscent of the Piggy James angle from 2010. It finished with Big E coming out with flowers and carrying AJ away, it’s nice to see WWE hasn’t forgotten what happened a few weeks ago and this was done well, and with a lot more taste than Piggy James was. With Aksana trying to take advantage of the situation, Kaitlyn quickly fought her off hitting a spear for a victory. It’s simply good to see such a heated, dimensional rivalry between the Diva’s that is still grabbing my attention this far in, even if Layla does seem a bit of a spare wheel.

The Shield got a new contender to their championship as The Usos picked up a win in a Number One Contenders Three Way against Tons of Funk and 3MB’s Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal. It was decent quick match, which featured a nice spot with Brodus Clay diving off the apron, but it was clear who was going to win from the outset with The Uso’s being the only team in the match having anything resembling a push as off late, and it could even be questioned why Tons of Funk or 3MB deserved to be involved in a number one contenders match. After the match, The Shield came out but simply stayed in the crowd and pointed at The Usos, in what was a disappointing start to the rivalry.

Ryback was also in action this week against The Great Khali, in match that was set to delight wrestling purists. In all honesty, it was an abysmal match, with it’s saving grace being how quickly it was over and the impressive visual seeing Ryback deliver Shellshocked to Khali. After the contest Ryback went to Vickie Guerrero to demand he be added to the WWE Championship Match at Money in the Bank, whilst Chris Jericho also turned up asking to be added to the Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Eventually, Vickie decided to put them in a match with each other at Money in the Bank instead. I’m not sure how good this match will be, but if anyone can make Ryback look a million dollars, it’s Chris Jericho.

The Sheamus/Damien Sandow feud continued with Sheamus teaming with Christian to take on Team Rhodes Scholars. The majority of the match was worked by Christian and Cody Rhodes, who did a decent job with the time they were given in the ring, Christian sold especially well meaning the hot tag to Sheamus felt more important than it really should have. Sheamus took out both Rhodes Scholars before eventually hitting a Brogue Kick on Rhodes for the victory. It was an okay tag team match, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.  It would look like the Sheamus/Sandow rivalry is set to finish on Smackdown with the two having a Dublin Street Fight.

Vickie Guerrero, Brad Maddox and Jerry Lawler also revealed the cover for the new WWE 2K14 video game in what was a pretty poor segment. The idea of a create your cover competition was put over with covers from Guerrero and Maddox, in a segment that really should have been over quickly to simply show the cover and promote the game. The cover itself features The Rock, and personally looks like a fairly uninspiring cover.

Finally...

What have we learned from this week's Raw?

1. A street fight must finish within the ring, who'd have thunk it.

2. CM Punk and Paul Heyman of as much genius opposing each other as they were as partners.

3. The WWE App references slowing down, make the times it is referenced more significant, making me more likely to use the App!

Announced for this Friday's Smackdown

Fiesta Del Rio

Dublin Street Fight: Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow

Announced for next Monday's Raw

CM Punk & Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel vs. The Prime Time Players

Announced for July 14th's Money in the Bank

WWE Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match: CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus vs. Kane vs. Christian vs. Rob Van Dam

Chris Jericho vs. Ryback

WWE Superstars 11th April 2013 Review

It's been a while but Across The Pond is back and we're catching up with the last week of wrestling, starting with last weeks episode of WWE Superstars.

The Great Khali w/Hornswoggle & Natalya Vs. Darren Young w/Titus O'Neil

 

Now let's be honest, The Great Khali is never going to have a technical masterclass of a match, and there were no surprises here against Darren Young of the Prime Time Players. Young manages to carry Khali to a half way decent match, controlling Khali's legs and keeping him grounded for the majority of this short match, with The Punjabi Playboy picking up the win after a Brain Chop.

However, for me, the real interesting thing as part of this match, has to be the mistreatment of Natalya as of late in WWE. Especially at a time when WWE's Divas division is looking extremely lacklustre with only a hand full of competitors, it seems strange that WWE would place arguably one of it's strongest female competitors in this strange group of characters.

Another division that seems to be floundering as off late is the Tag Team division. Although Team Hell No are doing a solid job as Tag Team Champions, the title sometimes seem to get lost on the pair, whose ongoing storyline overshadows the belt. However WWE has not left itself with any viable options in terms of challengers for the belt. We've seen The Prime Time Players lose in a Handicap Match to The Miz recently, and having Mr. No Days Off lose to someone who clearly isn't going anywhere isn't going to help the situation.

Best of the Rest

Continuing with the Tag Team division, we had The Usos taking on Epico & Primo for what seems like the millionth time, however the two teams continue to impress with their matches, coming up with new elements for their matches, which keep their encounters feeling fresh. A number of false finishes including a butt bump from Jey and a nice neckbreaker from Epico, quicken the pace towards the conclusion of the match, where Jey hit a huge Superfly splash on Epico and Jimmy delivered a sweet Superkick to Primo.

It will be interesting to see where these teams go from here, as both have been made to look weak by the likes of Team Hell No and The Rhodes Scholars, both of which it is clear will eventually split, and WWE will have to spend time making both look like viable options as Tag Team Champions. Personally I think the Usos have the most potential as they are clearly the more charismatic of the two teams and can get a reaction from the crowd when needed, with Epico and Primo's strange face turn in the Summer of last year seemingly confusing the fans and removing any momentum which the team had going forward.

Finally, there was a multitude of recaps from Raw, including the ending of the Del Rio Vs. Swagger & Colter handicap match and Dolph Ziggler's Money in the Bank Cash in, Undertaker and Team Hell No's encounter with the Shield and finally John Cena's match with Mark Henry including Ryback's pre-match attack. Do we really need this many re-caps? It feels a little bit like WWE insulting the intelligence of it's fans.