WWE Royal Rumble 2014 is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now, available from www.wwedvd.co.uk,
priced £12.99 on DVD and £13.99 on Blu-Ray. Broadcast live on
Pay-per-View from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia, USA on 26th January 2014, the show is main evented by 2014 Royal Rumble Match, alongside Bray Wyatt taking on Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena, as well as one other match and nine different segments. The special features include one more bout, as well as three extra segments. The commentary is
provided by John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler.
After struggling to find form throughout the end of 2013, the first PPV of 2014 seemed to see an up turn in fortunes for WWE. Whilst many bemoaned the finish and result of the Royal Rumble main event, on a second viewing three months removed from the match, it is an enjoyable near hour of action with plenty to keep the viewers attention. To date this match is the final appearance of CM Punk on WWE television, and in line with much of his later work in 2013, it's an average one, with the highlight being a Neckbreaker/DDT combination delivered to Seth Rollins and Damien Sandow early on. Kofi Kingston continues his run of inventive ways to prevent elimination, with two impressive feats here, even if the first is slightly contrived. Roman Reigns and Antonio Cesaro are the stand outs in this bout, with Reigns continuing to be booked as a beast and Cesaro swinging everyone in sight around the ring. A showdown between The Shield and The Wyatt Family is cut short as the camera cuts to Ryback's entrance, which is a shame. We also see the seeds planted for the break-ups of both The Shield and Cody Rhodes & Goldust, as well as the beginning of a feud between CM Punk and Kane all of which have yet to come to fruition. The negative crowd reaction to Rey Mysterio's entry would seem to have been toned down in post-production, although a messy hurracanrana from Mysterio to Punk is still included. The crowd picks a favourite for the final two and unfortunately the other man wins, leading to more negative response for the crowd. Luckily, WWE managed to turn things around in the months heading into WrestleMania, as the booking here was certainly ill-advised, however the bout itself still offers a lot to enjoy.
Elsewhere, Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt put on an excellent bout that picked up ATPW's Match of the Month for January. There's plenty of hard-hitting action on display, with Bryan working Wyatt's leg after sending Wyatt clashing into the steps and Wyatt working Bryan's head following a concussion a few weeks prior. Whilst Wyatt's leg injury is forgotten latter on in the bout, a handful of lovely false finishes and Bryan's excellent selling lead to this one ending up a very very good opening contest and most certainly match of the night.
The WWE World Heavyweight Championship contest see's Randy Orton defend against John Cena in a decent bout, with the crowd once again seemingly having their volume turned down as they attempt to show their displeasure. Whilst I agree with the crowd to some degree, they do miss out on a solid title match with plenty of false finishes. There isn't much we haven't seen before, bar a full nelson into a neckbreaker from Cena, but it's still an entertaining battle.
The other match on the main feature, see's Brock Lesnar take on Big Show. The crowd really couldn't care for Big Show as a babyface at this point, so Lesnar's brutal attack of him doesn't quite pay off as well as it should. However this is probably the best this bout could have been booked in 2014.
Throughout the show we also get a number of segments to build towards the matches, kicking off with Renee Young conducting an interview with Paul Heyman. Heyman's talk of Lesnar challenging the winner of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is another story thread that was left hanging on the Road to WrestleMania, but as expected Heyman pulls off a top quality promo. Young also interviews Randy Orton, who has less success with his promo, really not helping to build any excitement to his match with John Cena. To round of the trifeca of interviews Young speaks to Billy Gunn and Road Dogg about winning the Tag Team titles on the Kick-Off show, in a mildy amusing segment, even if the New Age Outlaws continued to act like babyfaces.
We also get two segments featuring the Kick Off Show panel of Josh Matthews, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and "Mr. WrestleMania" Shawn Michaels, both of which are rather strange. The first discusses Bryan vs. Wyatt and Show vs. Lesnar with Michaels putting over Bryan strong despite having cost him the WWE Championship only three months prior. The second see's Duggan, Flair and Michaels pick their winners for the Royal Rumble, with Flair going completely crazy, when the crowd doesn't share his support for Batista.
The Shield cut a fantastic build up promo for the Rumble, teasing tension between Ambrose and Reigns. A tribute to the recently passed Mae Young is beautifully moving, with a lovely voice over from Stephanie McMahon. There's also a package with a number of promos from entrants in the Royal Rumble, with Fandango putting in the best performance, whilst Batista's makes you wonder why WWE decided to push him as a babyface upon his return.
The Special Features presents the Kick-Off Match seeing Goldust and Cody Rhodes against Billy Gunn and Road Dogg in a bout which has it's moments, but could have done with an extra five minutes to really get going. A segment seeing Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox hand wrestlers their Royal Rumble numbers is a dull piece of backstage action with the only bit that made me laugh being the video cutting short before The Great Khali could draw his number. Randy Orton being interviewed by Renee Young after his match is too short for anything of note to occur, whilst Young catching up with Batista only serves to illustrates how blown up Batista is after being in the Royal Rumble for just twelve minutes.
Overall, I enjoyed this PPV a lot more than I did at the time. Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt steal the show with their effort, whilst both the Royal Rumble match and John Cena vs. Randy Orton benefit from being watched three months removed from the actual event. The DVD extras aren't great, and whilst the tag team bout is entertaining, all three segments don't offer much new.
Content Listing
Segment 1:Intro Package
Match 1: Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt with Luke
Harper & Erick Rowan
Segment 2: Renee Young interviews Paul Heyman
Segment 3: Kick-Off Panel talks Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt and Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar
Match 2: Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar with Paul
Heyman
Segment 4: The Shield discuss The Royal Rumble Match
Segment 5: Renee Young interviews Randy
Orton
Match 3: John Cena vs. Randy Orton (C) for
the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Segment 6: Mae Young Tribute
Segment 7: Renee Young interviews Billy Gunn & Road Dogg
Segment 8: Royal Rumble Promos
Segment 9: Kick-Off Panel Select their Royal Rumble favourites
Match 4: CM
Punk vs. Seth Rollins vs. Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Kane vs.
Alexander Rusev vs. Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter vs. Kofi Kingston
vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Goldust vs. United States Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs.
R-Truth vs. Kevin Nash vs. Roman Reigns vs. The Great Khali vs.
Sheamus vs. The Miz vs. Fandango vs. El Torito with Los Matadores vs.
Antonio Cesaro with Zeb Colter vs. Luke Harper vs. Jey Uso vs. JBL
vs. Erick Rowan vs. Ryback vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Batista vs.
Intercontinental Champion Big E Langston vs. Rey Mysterio in the 2014 Royal Rumble Match
WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs is out on DVD and Blu-Ray on 31st March 2014, available from www.wwedvd.co.uk, priced £12.99 on DVD and £13.99 on Blu-Ray. Broadcast live on Pay-per-View from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, USA on 15th December 2013, the show is main evented by WWE Champion Randy Orton and World Heavyweight Champion John Cena competing in a Tables Ladders and Chairs match to unify their respective championships, alongside Cody Rhodes & Goldust defending their Tag Team Championships against The Real Americans, Curtis Axel & Ryback and Big Show & Rey Mysterio in a Four Way Elimination match and CM Punk facing up to The Shield in a three-on-one Handicap match, as well as five other matches. The commentary is provided by John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler.
There's some really quite vicious chair shots in the main event
Randy Orton continues to dominate John Cena
After a dire run of PPV's for WWE in the second half of 2013, they did turn the tide somewhat, closing out the year on a relative high with TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs. The main event sees John Cena and Randy Orton battle it out the PPV's namesake to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships, in what is a fairly entertaining encounter. Whilst it does have it's drawbacks in the placing of the championships being far too low and a lack of any real shocking moments, the clever touches like the use of hand-cuffs, harking back to the duos "I Quit" match in 2009 and the fact that this is the cleanest ending to a PPV main event in a long time, mean it's a fairly easy to watch bout, nothing particularly special, but not a waste of twenty five minutes either.
The Tag Title Four-Way about to get underway
The tag team elimination encounter between Goldust & Cody Rhodes, The Real Americans, Rybaxel and Rey Mysterio & Big Show for tag gold is the show stealer on this one, with a solid twenty minutes of well paced and exciting action. A series of moves between Cody Rhodes and Rey Mysterio is a superb and some of Mysterio's best work in WWE over the last three years.
CM Punk has an up-hill battle against The Shield
In the opening contest, CM Punk takes on the entirety of The Shield, the first of two three-on-one handicap matches on the show. It's a storyline heavy bout, as WWE continues to tease a Shield breakdown, whilst Punk and Rollins produce the best wrestling of the match. Could this be CM Punk's last WWE PPV (non-Rumble) bout?
Elsewhere Daniel Bryan's feud with The Wyatt Family build with a three-on-one handicap match, that is the perfect length to showcase all four competitors, and definitely Bray Wyatt's standout moment in WWE up to this point. Kofi Kingston battles The Miz in a No Disqualification bout, as their will-they-won't-they feud concludes in a decent bout, but one that barely acknowledges the No DQ stipulations.
Can AJ Lee's Black Widow help her hold onto the Diva's Championship?
AJ Lee defends her Diva's Championship against Natalya in a psychical women's outing, but one that's not a patch on what they did on Main Event not too long ago. Damien Sandow got a shot at Big E Langston's Intercontinental title in a mostly uninteresting six minutes of action and Brodus Clay took on R-Truth in well put together bout that plays to each man's strengths, but unfortunately with no real follow up to the conclusion it ends up pretty miss able. The DVD extras see Dolph Ziggler tangle with Fandango on the TLC Kick-Off, which is another throw-away piece of action. There's also a flurry of short interviews, reflecting on TLC, including ones with The Shield, John Cena and Randy Orton, which all adds something to preceding in their own way, but won't swing anyone's decision on whether to buy the disc.
Overall, this is acceptable PPV, with the headline bouts each delivering on some level, especially the 4-Way Tag match. It is however let down by a slightly dull undercard that has seen no real progression for any of the performers in the three months that have followed. You will most likely be entertained by it, but might find yourself skipping through some of the filler.
Okay, I've been thinking about this one
for a few days, and I even started to write up a review of this
year's WWE Survivor Series, but then I thought against it. This
article will hopefully got some way to explaining why this is the
first PPV I haven't reviewed since this year's Wrestlemania.
Firstly, I'd like to say that I don't
think this PPV was as bad as many people have been saying, with the
highlight being the opening bout pitting Goldust, Cody Rhodes, The
Usos & Rey Mysterio against The Shield and The Real Americans in
a Traditional Survivor Series match, and neither did I think the main
event was the worst thing I've seen this year, it told a story and
did the best it could do with what is was given. My problem with this
PPV was the distinct lack of effort that was put in across the board,
from WWE Creative and some members of the roster, in both the build
up and execution of the PPV and if there's no effort being put into
the product, why should I put the effort into writing a 4000 word
review? I'm happy to review a terrible PPV, if there's at least some
effort going into it, but not this.
At no point during the build up was I
made to believe that Alberto Del Rio could defeat John Cena for the
World Heavyweight Championship, with the same being able to be said
about Big Show going after Randy Orton's WWE Championship, these were
stop gap matches until something else came along, and whilst from
time to time that may happen within the WWE, it should never feel
that way when watching the programming. It's the job of the booking
staff or “writers”, alongside the on screen talent, to make me
believe that either man could head out of the PPV with holding the
championship belt. However, after Cena defeated Del Rio on the
previous PPV with an injured arm, how was I meant to buy into the
possibility that Del Rio could defeat a Cena with a slightly less
injured arm? Meanwhile, the focus on television had clearly shifted
off Big Show and on to Randy Orton's relationship with The Authority,
which is weird considering the focus had been on Big Show for months
without Show featuring on a PPV!
The whole PPV seemed to focus and build
towards the final moments, where John Cena came out to stare down
Randy Orton with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon looking on. It was a
big moment and the crowd certainly reacted to it, (although I think
they were expected a match between the two straight away) but there
was one problem...it wasn't advertised! It did nothing to help
towards PPV buys, and whilst it could have contributed to a rise in
the ratings for Raw this week, the PPV buyers should always come
first, in my opinion, especially seeing as it's a much more direct
form of revenue for the company.
The rest of the PPV was a mainly bland
affair, with CM Punk & Daniel Bryan's bout with The Wyatt
Family's Erick Rowan and Luke Harper being the only stand out in the
middle of the pack, a dull Intercontentinal Championship match
between Big E Langston and Curtis Axel that was only ever going to go
one way and Mark Henry answering Ryback's open challenge both failing
to produce anything of warrant, beyond the ill fate of both former
Paul Heyman guys. The Diva's Tag Match wasn't as bad as I imagined it
would be, and there were some nice moments in the match, but it was
clear that most of the women weren't ready for a match like this one.
Okay, in explaining why I haven't
written a review for this PPV, I kind of ended up writing a review of
this PPV, although that was inevitable, I guess. I'm hoping that WWE
begins to pick up it's game again soon and returns to the excitement
of it's run of PPV early in the Summer (Payback/Money in the
Bank/SummerSlam), especially as we get closer to WrestleMania. The
Authority angle is quickly dying a death, as WWE botches another
major angle, it can still be rescued, just about, and I'll be talking
about that in this week's Across The Pond Wrestling LIVE
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 20th
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.
This week's NXT was always going to
struggle to live up to last week's episode, after Sami Zayn and
Antonio Cesaro put together a classic two out of three falls match,
and it was no surprise when it didn't. By no means was this bad show,
with a lot to like, including the newly heel NXT Champion Bo Dallas
and a decent enough main event between Conor O'Brian and Adrian
Neville, but it's going to be a while before a match on NXT even
comes close to Zayn vs. Cesaro.
NXT Tag Team Champion
Adrian Neville
vs.
Conor O'Brian
with Rick Victor
The main event of
the show pitted NXT Tag Team Champion Adrian Neville against The
Ascension's Conor O'Brian. The match was put together following the
pre-titles sequence of the show that featured Neville's partner and
fellow NXT Tag Team Champion Corey Graves speaking to Renee Young
only to be interupted by The Ascension's Rick Victor. Victor cut an
average and cliched promo about how the time of The Ascension was
now, I guess he means in terms of the NXT Tag Team Championship but
that was specifically stated. With Graves' showing his trademark
attitude he was ambushed by O'Brian with a punch to the back of the
head. O'Brian then proceded to hit Graves in the chest with a metal
girder that was part of the NXT interview room set. This didn't
really work for me, as whilst the attack looked brutal and the girder
looked genuinely painful, it didn't really fit with the Ascension's
dark gimmick, with O'Brian spurting the words “Stay down, Graves”
in a ridiculously over the top voice removing any ounces of darkness
from The Ascension in this opening segment.
The bout took on a
simple dynamic, with Neville using his speed early on to take control
of the match, but once Victor had caused the distraction, O'Brian
dominated from that point. O'Brian looks very good when in control,
he has a great look and works the gimmick well when in the ring. He
feels like a bit of a diamond in the rough for me, I think if WWE
protect the character and allow him to develop and improve as a
wrestler, which he will if he continues to go up against the likes of
Adrian Neville, then he could work very well for the company, however
if they follow the trend of how they've been using most bigger built
wrestler over the last few years, he'll be a comedy face dancing
around the ring in lingerie before you can say Giant Bernard.
The bout was
pretty short only about five minutes of the television time, which
isn't really enough for a main event match on television, but they
did manage to fit in a nice faux comeback for Neville and a near fall
for each man before they went to the finish. After Neville had moved
out of the way of a charging O'Brian sending the bigger man into the
turnbuckle, Neville hit a back suplex for a two count, with the
footage looking badly cut together for some reason. Neville then went
to the top rope and hit Red Arrow for the pinfall victory. It was a
very strange ending and felt very sudden, I'm really not quite sure
what happened, but obviously there was a botch somewhere down the
line that caused them to cut the match, but at the same time Neville
still went straight from a near fall to his finisher which isn't
something you see a lot of in WWE. Personally, I would have like to
see this bout go another five minutes or so, which I think both men
are capable off, and certainly needed a more satisfying finish.
After the bout,
Victor came back in the ring and The Ascension began to double team
Neville. Graves tried to make the save, now complete with bandaged
ribs, before The Ascension destroyed him too, finishing him off with
their Spinning Elbow/Sweep Kick combination finisher. With The
Ascension finishing the show standing tall in the ring, it looks like
they have to be next in line for an NXT Tag Team Championship match,
which can surely be only a few weeks away. NXT is pretty low on tag
teams at the moment, since The Wyatt Family were moved to the main
roster and they split Scott Dawson & Garrett Dylan up, they could
really do with creating a couple of new pairing to make the division
look competitive. It can also only be a matter of time before they
split Neville and Graves up and have them feud, seeing as their team
was born more out of neccesity than anything else and they seem to
protect each other out of obligation rather than an actual like for
each other.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
Elsewhere on NXT,
Renee Young conducted an in ring interview with Sami Zayn. After last
week's epic Two out of Three Falls encounter with Antonio Cesaro I
was interested to see what Zayn had to say and where WWE would be
moving with him from here. Zayn did a good job with his promo,
getting himself over as a humble and extremely likeable guy, I think
it is literally impossible not too like Sami Zayn, his character at
times feels like it has been plucked straight from a Rom-Com, with
his interaction with Young typifying that feel. Zayn mentioned the
possibility of receiving a NXT Championship shot, something which
I've talked about a few times in my NXT reviews with Zayn seeming
like the logical option for the next NXT Champion after his
impressive run of matches with Cesaro, as well as bringing a lot of
attention to the show with the feud.
Of course, current
NXT Champion Bo Dallas had something to say about this and headed on
down to the ring himself. I know it's fashionable amongst wrestling
fans to be negative about Bo Dallas for a number of reasons, but his
heel promos actually quite good. Yes, he probably get's under a lot
of peoples skins, but he is supposed to, he is a heel. When he's
coming out saying people don't care about Zayn because he lost and
they want to watch a winner like him, you can just feel the internet
getting ready to reach for it's collective pen of rage and that's
great. WWE is really learning how to play the internet correctly,
which is something they've struggled to do for years with Daniel
Bryan's feud with The McMahon Family on Raw being the most obvious
example of that. With Dallas stealing from The Simpsons (Are you
saying Boo, or Boo-urns?), the pair were interrupted by Zeb Colter.
After some nice back and forth between Colter and Zayn, Colter's Real
American stablemate Jack Swagger attack Zayn from behind, before
hitting a Gutwrench Powerbomb. I'd expect a short feud between
Swagger and Zayn, just to allow a little extra time for the Dallas
and Zayn feud to truly build to a satisfying conclusion.
After Emma had
given a decent interview to Renee Young, she went on to face rival
Summer Rae. After both women had had great matches with Paige on NXT
in the past, I expected at least a decent match here. Unfortunately,
that wasn't what we got and the match felt like your average women's
match you might see on Raw or Smackdown. Whilst both played their
roles well, the bout was pretty sloppy, with a number of notable
botches, including a strange moment with Rae trying to set Emma up in
the ropes, only for Emma to fall off them. Emma went on to pick up
the victory via submission with the Emma-Lock. It wasn't a terrible
finish, but it would have been better to see the submission brought
into the match earlier on to really build to that finish. After the
match, Rae attacked Emma once again from behind, before throwing
“bubble solution” in her eyes, signalling that this feud might
not be over yet. However, backstage in a conversation with Sascha
Banks, Rae signalled that she was done with NXT, whilst also sowing
the seeds for a Sascha Banks heel turn in a nice little scene.
After a backstage
disagreement, a match was made between Sylvester LeFort's protege
Scott Dawson and the charismatic Enzo Amore, who would now appear to
be working as a face. Both LeFort and Amore, who was accompanied by
Colin Cassady, both cut good promos building up the match nicely.
Whilst the match didn't exactly set the world alight, it was a nice
foundation, especially considering Amore's limited wrestling
experience, with Dawson working him over nicely for most of the match
playing a good heel role, until Amore made a comeback with an
impressive head scissors takedown. It was here that Alexander Rusev,
who we saw last week against Dolph Ziggler, attack Cassady, causing
the distraction for Amore, and allowing Dawson to hit what looked
like a version of the Angle Slam to pick up the pinfall victory. It
would seem that Rusev will be joining LeFort's faction, and I think
he will be a nice addition to the group that was screaming out for
more members. I can only speculate that they will begin a build
toward a feud between Rusev and Mason Ryan.
CJ Parker and
Tyler Breeze finally locked it up in the ring, in what was a
disapointing contest. Parker's character is in desperate need of some
more mic time to help bring some flesh to the characters bones, and
Breeze isn't in a much better situation. There's potential in both
characters but without the extra dimension it's hard to get behind or
against either character. The match was focused almost entirely on
Breeze's phone, with the phone playing a big part in the finish.
Breeze used the positioning of the referee to hit Parker with the
phone and pick up the pinfall victory. The ending took too long to
set up, with the referee taking sometime to get into position. I
guess we'll be getting more from this feud in the future, but unless
we start seeing some dimension in the characters and more wrestling
it's going to be difficult to start feeling engaged by either Breeze
or Parker.
Finally...
My final thoughts on this week's NXT.
1. NXT still needs more tag teams.
2. Sami Zayn vs. Bo Dallas should be a red hot feud for NXT.
3. The only thing that would have made Zayn vs. Cesaro better last week? William Regal on commentary.
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.
Raw this week had a number of big names missing from the broadcast, with Randy Orton, Kane, Curtis Axel, an announced Big Show, Brock Lesnar, The Wyatt Family and a departed Chris Jericho all absent. However, this didn’t really seem to matter that much, as this Raw belonged to one man and one man only. That man is of course, Daniel Bryan.
As the show continued we got a number of backstage segments, hyping the match and developing the story. Firstly, John Cena went to visit Daniel Bryan in the locker room. Bryan told Cena to stay out of his Gauntlet Match, because he wanted to prove he belonged in the Summerslam main event. I like the dynamic between Cena and Bryan, both clearly have a mutual respect for each other, but bring something totally different to the table of WWE. Elsewhere, it seems the McMahon family can’t help but get involved when a wrestler begins to spike in popularity, we saw it in 2011 with CM Punk and now we’re seeing it with Daniel Bryan in 2013. Both Triple H and Stephanie McMahon visited Brad Maddox, wondering if he was being control by someone else, obviously referring to Vince McMahon’s apparent dislike of Daniel Bryan. I don’t understand why WWE thinks the John Cena-Daniel Bryan match, needs Vince, Triple H, Stephanie and Brad Maddox all involved, as if this will somehow sell the match more!
Now for the Gauntlet match, Bryan started off against Jack Swagger, who of course had Real Americans Antonio Cesaro and Zeb Colter at ringside. This was fairly good match, with Swagger dominating for most of the contest, before hitting his signature Swagger Bomb for a near fall. With Swagger taking time to gloat, Bryan caught him in the No Lock for the Submission victory. It was a good warm up match for what was about to come as Bryan’s second opponent was Antonio Cesaro. The two went back and forth with a number of interesting submission holds and vicious strikes. The match had me glued to my screen from start to finish, knowing exactly when to up the pace and when to bring things back in again, each man brought they’re “A game” and told a great story in the ring, that really helped to sell Bryan as someone with absolutely no quit. This is the closest I’ve seen to a Ring of Honor style match in WWE, typified by the repeated uppercuts that Cesaro used on Bryan for a near fall, it would seem that the two had a lot of free-reign when putting things together, which can only be a good thing. The ending was also clever, with Bryan jumping over Cesaro from the top rope, and with Cesaro about to launch Bryan into an uppercut, Bryan reversed into a small package to pick up the victory. If WWE still doesn’t believe Antonio Cesaro has what it takes to be a top star in their company then they probably never will.
The final opponent for Bryan was Ryback. Now after the classic contest we’d just seen between Bryan and Cesaro, it was clear that this match with Ryback would never live up to the technicality that we had just seen, however it was still a pretty decent contest, that had a good story to tell and worked well enough in telling that story. With Bryan exhausted it would appear the Ryback would simply come and pick the bones of a victory, however the heart of Bryan kept him going, as he frustrated Ryback at every turn. With Ryback unable to pick up a regular victory, he ended up powerbomb Bryan through a table that he had previously set up at ringside, after already delivering a powerbomb onto the floor. It made sense as a finish for the Ryback character, but was a frustrating one for Daniel Bryan, especially with what was to come. John Cena came out to make the save for Bryan, albeit a little bit too late, before challenging Ryback to a Tables Match next week. It was frustrating for me, as it felt like Cena and Ryback had attempted to steal the spotlight off of what should have been Daniel Bryan’s moment.
Punk Rocked
Some of the most epic story telling WWE has ever seen
continued this week, with two masters of the microphone, CM Punk and Paul
Heyman, duelling once more with some excellent promo and character work to
build for Punk’s match with Heyman’s client Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. It was
then however a little frustrating that the Beast Incarnate was only referred to
and never actually seen onscreen. It’s been great to have Lesnar back with WWE
over the last year and a half, but at times his contract does do more harm than
good, with Lesnar only contracted for a certain number of appearances, WWE has
to be extremely careful on which shows to place Lesnar. Whilst this can be
effective, it does remove a certain gloss from the situation.
Punk started off proceedings by talking about the
altercation between he and Lesnar the week previously. Punk somehow managed to
put over both Brock Lesnar’s power and strength and his own ability to get back
onto his feet. It’s a skill that not a lot of WWE wrestlers have on the
microphone, they can easily talk about how good they are, but to build to a big
match you need to have your opponent look good as well. Punk went onto talk
about how Lesnar’s strongest weapon was fear, but he wasn’t afraid of Lesnar.
It’s a idea we’ve seen before, Punk himself used the idea in his feud with The
Undertaker, but it works here, as long as it isn’t pushed too hard, I’ll accept
it being used again. Where the promo really hit its stride was towards the end
with Punk talking about how he would slay the beast at Summerslam, the delivery
was spot on, helping to show the emotion of Punk and making me want to see him
get his hands on Brock Lesnar even more.
With Punk’s promo finished, Paul Heyman turned up on the
tron, with the classic “Live Via Satellite” caption in the corner of the
screen. Heyman did a good job of talking up Brock Lesnar and the story that he’s
had with Punk over the last year or so, even stopping off on the way to get
some cheap heat from the Texas crowd. With Punk desperate to find out where
Heyman was, Heyman agreed to the match at Summerslam, with the nice touch of referring
to Brock Lesnar as his “Best friend in the entire world”, a status once held by
Punk himself. Heyman finished by saying that Punk should stop calling himself
the Best, because The Beast is the Best. It was a strong segment that kept the
momentum off the feud rolling as we head towards Summerslam, hopefully we’ll
get to see the Beast next week on Raw.
So far, the story between Punk, Lesnar and Heyman has worked
extremely well. The history between Punk and Heyman has really helped to push
the story along in the times when Lesnar wasn’t scheduled to appear. However as
we get closer to SummerSlam, it becomes more important that we do begin to see
Lesnar more, as whilst the history between Heyman and Punk is rich, there is
only so much for them to play with without going over old ground and becoming
repetitive. All the players are currently in place for an epic encounter at
Summerslam, WWE just have to keep that anticipation running over three more
episodes of Raw and along with Bryan/Cena they could have a very successful SummerSlam
buyrate.
Sheamus
vs.
World
Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio
The opening match of Raw this week pitted World Heavyweight
Champion Alberto Del Rio, against long time rival Sheamus. It’s a match we’ve
seen multiple times before including match at last year’s Money in the Bank,
SummerSlam and Night of Champions, as well as episodes of Raw and Smackdown.
Therefore whilst WWE attempted to push this match as a major contest on Raw, it
was harm a little through over familiarity with Sheamus and Del Rio, and didn’t
quite have the big match feel that WWE clearly wanted it to have.
The content of the match was also harmed because of the
overfamiliarity the audience had with this match. Whilst the action was
technically sound, there wasn’t really much difference in what was being
presented to what we’ve seen from these two dozens of times before, therefore
making it a frustrating encounter to watch. Whilst Del Rio works well in his
heel role, I find it difficult to get behind Sheamus in his current face role,
distancing myself from this match even further. I think Sheamus is capable of
playing a believable face, but just not in the current character, there’s too
many inconsistencies, between him being a hard-hitting no-nonsense competitor
and the goofish Guiness drinking, potato eating, Irish stereotype.
Del Rio spent a lot of the time working Sheamus’ arm to
soften it up for the Cross Arm Breaker, as well as Sheamus’ injured leg, which
had a huge bruise from the All Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match. The ending
saw Del Rio miss a Cross Arm Breaker attempt, but with Sheamus going for White
Noise, his injured leg buckled allowing Del Rio to take a roll up victory. I
actually quite enjoyed the ending as it used the story that was being told
throughout the match well. It was also good to see Del Rio pick up the victory,
as mentioned in my Smackdown review, I hate it when champions lose on television.
Now, the main talking point for me coming out of this match
was who will be Alberto Del Rio’s SummerSlam opponent. WWE seems to have missed
the boat by not having a final blow off for Del Rio’s feud with Dolph Ziggler,
instead opting to enter Ziggler into a feud with Big E Langston. Looking at the
WWE roster left, they don’t really have a lot of options in terms of opponent
for Del Rio. It has to be someone who has been booked strongly over the last
few weeks, and someone who has yet to show signs of a feud heading into
SummerSlam, they must also of course be face. Looking at the WWE roster, it
would seem Rob Van Dam, Christian and outside bet of Randy Orton (who already
holds a victory over Del Rio from Smackdown) would be the best options to pick.
Best of the Rest (In
The World)
Elsewhere this week, Mark Henry came out to call out The
Shield. Henry’s promo ability has certainly got better over the last few years
and this was another strong performance. He seems to know how to work the crowd
either way, whether getting them to boo him or cheer him. People will always
cheer for someone who shows bravery and heart, as well as someone from their
state, all of which Henry drew upon in his promo. Once The Shield were down, similar
to last week, Henry fought valiantly against United States Champion Dean
Ambrose and Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, but of course the
three man advantage was too much with The Shield eventually gaining the
upperhand.
It was then that The Usos returned the favour from
Smackdown, coming out to even the numbers for The World’s Strongest Man. With
the fight then even, Mark Henry even threw The Usos out of the way to get at
The Shield again building the intensity of the rivalry well. It was Roman
Reigns who took the brunt of the attack, taking a Superkick from an Uso and
then a Stinger Splash in the corner from Henry, before The Shield managed to
pull Reigns to safety and live to fight another day. I’m interested to see
where this feud is heading into SummerSlam, as WWE have a number of options to
run with, but if they keep going like this WWE could have another big match to
help sell SummerSlam.
Dolph Ziggler was also in action this week, against Darren
Young of The Prime Time Players. Interestingly, Young’s tag team partner Titus
O’Neil was not at ringside, although this could be to do with a bout against
Christian earlier in the night (more on that later). Young’s run against a
number of top WWE stars continues, after recent bouts with John Cena, CM Punk
and Rob Van Dam, across WWE programming, it has to be wondered if WWE has
bigger plans for Young than his current tag team role. The match didn’t
particularly set the world a light, but it was solid and set up well for what
was to come. With Young having control for most of the match, Young took time
to gloat over Ziggler, allowing the Show Off to sneak through and hit a Zig Zag
for the victory. I enjoyed the ending and it continued the character
development for Ziggler well, as someone who may take a beating but always
manages to get a victory.
After the match, Divas Champion AJ Lee and Big E Langston
came down to the ring, with Big E attempting to take out Ziggler again. This
time however, Ziggler was able to get the upperhand using his speed and brains
to throw Langston out of the ring, before getting away from his larger
opponent. Seeing as Langston got the better of Ziggler last week, it was
important to keep Ziggler looking good here by returning the favour. We’ve also
seen very minimal actual competition between the two, therefore making their
inevitable SummerSlam contest even more anticipated as we really don’t know
how it will play out.
Cody Rhodes was in action, in his first match as face in
over five years for WWE, he took on Fandango, who was accompanied to the ring
by Summer Rae. With Damien Sandow at commentary it was pretty clear we were
going to get some involvement from him during the match from the outset. The
contest was short, the content within the match was good, but it was clear it’s
going take a little bit more time for Cody to get used to playing a face. As
expected, with Cody just about starting to role, pulling out moves from his
father and brother, as well as mentor Hardcore Holly, it didn’t take long for
Sandow to get involved with his briefcase. What was nice however was Rhodes
getting the better of Sandow taking out both he and Fandango with a Disaster
Kick, before hitting Cross Rhodes for the pinfall victory. A decent enough
contest, which would have benefitted from having an extra five minutes, but it
didn’t do much to advance the Rhodes and Sandow feud heading into SummerSlam.
Rob Van Dam was also in action, this week against Wade
Barrett. These matches are basically being used to refresh the WWE fans memory
of what Van Dam can do in the ring and what he brings to the table that is WWE.
It’s a shame then that Barrett has dropped so far down the WWE pecking order,
since losing the Intercontinental Championship to Curtis Axel at Payback, I’m
starting to think we may never see Barrett get pushed any further than this.
The match was fairly good, with Van Dam getting a lot of his signature offence
in, before hitting a Five Star Frog Splash for the victory. It’s still to be
seen where Van Dam is heading into SummerSlam, although we should find out more
on Friday as he faces World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio on Smackdown.
Whilst Darren Young had a losing effort to Dolph Ziggler
this week, his tag team partner Titus O’Neil was in action against Christian. I
couldn’t say I was particularly excited about this contest, as although I like
both Christian and Titus, I wasn’t quite sure how they would gel together in
the ring. I was pleasantly surprised, as the match told a good story and the
action was solid throughout. O’Neil controlled throughout most of the contest,
a role he certainly seems comfortable in due to his size and presence, with
Christian working a natural underdog role. With Christian’s comeback building
to a Killswitch attempt, Darren Young caused the distraction allowing for a
near fall for Titus. It didn’t take much longer for Christian to hit the
Killswitch and pick up a pinfall victory. Christian’s picked up a number of
victories since Money in the Bank, could he be next in line for a shot at
Alberto Del Rio’s World Heavyweight Championship?
Before taking out Daniel Bryan in the main event, Ryback was
interview by Josh Matthews regarding his attack of Chris Jericho on Smackdown.
I was relatively impressed with this promo from Ryback, he seemed to have
gained an ability to show emotion in his speech and told an interesting story,
comparing himself to a school yard bully. Even if it was a little bit Bully
Ray, it was a vast improvement on Ryback’s previous offerings. It would seem
like when Jericho makes his return to WWE, he will re-enter his feud with
Ryback, or at least the door has been left open.
We were also treated to the worst edition of Miz TV we had seen, with The Miz
presenting us the cast of Total Divas. We got a clip from the new show, which
premieres this Sunday, and it certainly didn’t make me want to sit down and
watch the show, although I guess I’m not it’s target audience. There was even more
debacle with The Miz getting Jerry Lawler into the ring, who ended up in an
altercation with new Diva Eva Marie. I don’t understand why WWE, after having a
fairly exciting and heated Divas feud between AJ Lee and Kaitlyn have gone
backwards in presenting this on Raw, that really did go nowhere. Yes, they need
to promote the show, but that’s what adverts are for.
There was another bizarre segment, with Renee Young interviewing Teddy Long and Hall of Famer Booker T backstage, about Vickie Guerrero being named the new General Manager of Smackdown. Booker and Teddy got into a war of words, with Long eventually saying he was glad Booker didn't get the General Manager job. I'm really not sure where WWE are going with Long and Booker arguing, are we going to see Booker T vs. Teddy Long at SummerSlam?
Finally...
What did I learn from this week's Raw?
1. Daniel Bryan is the star of the show, no matter how much WWE wants it to be John Cena and Ryback.
2. I could listen to Paul Heyman and CM Punk verbally joust for most of Raw.
