TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1233 - Shawn Michaels Returns

With the Royal Rumble just twenty days away, WWE brought Monday Night RAW to the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on 9th January. The episode was headlined by returning Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and his in-ring promo segment with Rusev, Jinder Mahal, Lana, Enzo Amore & Big Cass, whilst the main event was a Two on One Handicap match over the WWE United States Championship, with Roman Reigns defending against Chris Jericho and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. With The Undertaker, RAW General Manager Mick Foley, Seth Rollins, RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus and Sasha Banks also featured, could RAW start heading in the right direction? 

This week's headline segment, featuring Shawn Michaels, Rusev, Jinder Mahal, Lana, Big Cass and Enzo Amore, is a difficult piece of television to review. I loathed the first five minutes, but it managed to find purpose once Rusev and his pals emerged, but then also ended up being a long-winded set-up for a Cass v Mahal match that I'm pretty sure no one had asked for. The fifty-one year old Michaels' ended up looking like a fish out of water, as he attempted to shill his new film, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, as well as the Rumble, managing to end up talking to some fan off camera. Then the crowd chanted "One More Match" and it was awkward as fuck. At least once The Bulgarian Brute emerged with Mahal and Lana, the segment found a purpose that wasn't one guy telling me to watch a truly awful looking film. The story of Rusev wanting Lana to be in a film that is due for release this month was kind of lame, but RuRu made it work with odd ball humour, like randomly turning heel on Star Wars. The whole thing limped towards a Mahal and Cass match after some clumsy interaction between HBK and Enzo & Cass.

Chris Jericho picked up his first WWE United States Championship by defeating Roman Reigns in a handicap match with WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens on his team. To say that I enjoyed this bout would be an overstatement, but it was certainly watchable and managed to finish positively with a convincing flurry from Owens and Jericho, including an apron powerbomb for KO. It's difficult to get too excited or interested though when presented with a damp squib of a concept. Nothing about this match felt important, from the handicap gimmick, that saw Reigns having to defend against two guys he's beaten previously, to the United States Championship, which has seemed less significant by the week since Reigns has set his focus on Owen's title. WWE needlessly booked themselves into a corner, as an underhanded Jericho win on last week's episode would have felt a much bigger moment than it ended up being here.

RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus went over Luke Gallows, in a scrap that was made by a strong false finish, as the rivalry between Sheamus & Cesaro and Gallows & Karl Anderson heats up. That false finish saw Sheamus distracted by Cesaro and Anderson brawling on the ramp (they had both been on commentary), allowing Gallows' to hit a Fireman's Carry Flapjack (fka Festus Flip) for a long two count. The timing on the moment was perfect by all involved and created a genuinely surprising kick out, something that doesn't often come along on RAW. Sheamus would go on to win with a Brogue Kick to even up the teams series, after Anderson had beaten Cesaro last week. The rest of the match was fairly standard stuff, that aired on the clumsy side at points, with a handful of timing and fluidity issues.

The show's opener saw Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins go to a double countout, after Strowman dodged a dive to the outside and couldn't get Rollins back into the ring in time. It was flimsy finish to contest that had really grabbed me with some cute storytelling in it's earlier moments. Rollins bumped like a trooper for the big fella, including a wonderful chokeslam in which The Architect appeared to be heading for the ceiling until Strowman decided he'd rather attempt to plow his opponent through the mat instead! This also allow for Rollins to look at his most babyface since his turn as he fought valiantly against the Beast, bringing some of the fire that has been missing. It might not have been the most technical of outings, but unlike Rollins' match with Kevin Owens last week, it was full of urgency and purpose. The spot with Strowman being able to thwart a blockbuster attempt by just holding Rollins in mid-air was crazy good stuff and the best way to get Strowman over with a portion of the audience that isn't kind on larger wrestlers.

The Undertaker declared that he'll be competing in his first Royal Rumble since 2009, in a short, but sweet, promo, that also briefly referenced his WrestleMania streak concluding in New Orleans three years ago. The content seemed to signpost that we'll see Undertaker's WrestleMania opponent revealed during the match, as The Deadman put a lot of emphasis on how he'd seek revenge if anyone stopped him from winning. The pre-amble to Undertaker's appearance was less impressive, with idea that General Manager Mick Foley needed Undertaker to appear or Commissioner Stephanie McMahon would fire him being one that I struggled to buy into. The initial tease of a Taker appearance after Foley begged him to come out, only for McMahon to turn up when the light's went off, did garner a little chuckle, but the rest of the segment and indeed, this storyline in general felt more than a little unnecessary when there's more interesting and deserving talent not getting a chance to breath. 

"Titus O'Neil wants to join the New Day" is the worst storyline 2017 has offered up so far. Whilst last week's interaction wasn't all that bad, there was less than no one who wanted to see a sequel. If a return of last week wasn't desired, I believe there were civilisation whose whole belief system was built around praying that the keg run from the bizarre other world of 2010 NXT would never ever make a comeback. Not only did we get replay of O'Neil falling over seven years ago, but there was the added treat of stock falling over sound effects that I'm fairly sure caused a little bit of wee to escape down Vinny Mac's trouser leg. Just when I was pretty sure the pain was over and the segment would be put out of it's misery, New Day presented O'Neil with a keg of "Booty Juice" ("It makes sure your throat is loose") to run around the ring with. Then O'Neil "dropped" the keg just before the line. Then something else happened. Fuck. I don't know. It wasn't good, whatever it was. What could happen next week? Surely, it won't be as bad as this? 

Somehow getting less time than the previous segment was RAW Women's Champion Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax's victory over Bayley and Sasha Banks in a completely baffling piece of booking. Banks was still selling her knee that was injured in the Iron Man match at Roadblock: End of the Line and did so well. However, it was Number One Contender Bayley who worked the face in peril role, after initially being out-wrestled by Flair and then trounced by Jax. After Bayley's fluke win over Jax the week previous she really needed to cemented as a credible contender for Flair's championship in this match, something that could have been done with a roaring hot tag, before Banks ultimately fell to Jax to simultaneously build their feud. Perhaps that was too obvious? Because what actually happened was Bayley failed to see Jax tag in on Flair and then ended up being pinned following a leg drop. What? Just like last week's three minute Bayley v Jax match, I don't get what this achieves and who it's helping. 

Any Other Business

• Kofi Kingston pinned Titus O’Neil with Trouble in Paradise in a match that occurred. 

• Jack Gallagher picked up a victory over Drew Gulak in a fun, but brief match.

• Big Cass went over Jinder Mahal, with Shawn Michaels hitting Rusev with a Sweet Chin Music on the outside.

• Neville defeated Lince Dorado, debuting a new Rings of Saturn-esque submission.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 3.93/10

As you could probably tell, I didn't really enjoy a lot about this week's Monday Night RAW. Maybe it was something to do with having a killer cold and watching it live at past 1am or maybe it was just a bit shit. There was probably about an hour and half worth of content here, that they managed to pad out to fill the 3 hour slot, creating a flabby piece of TV. Having both Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker on the same show, should have driven viewers towards those segments, but both segments wasted their time at points. The main event was solid, but strange piece of booking, Gallows v Sheamus didn't quite deliver and Rollins v Strowman was bright until the finish. Overall, the in-ring quality that helped last week's episode had dipped a little this week, whilst the incomprehensible booking (US title match, New Day & Titus, Women's tag, lack of time given to Cruiserweights) appeared to be getting worse also. 

Seeing as next week is the penultimate show before the Rumble, I'm hoping for a big improvement, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

Review - James Marston

Photo credit - wwe.com 

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TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1232 - Sami Zayn v Braun Strowman 3 *Last Man Standing*

On 2nd January, WWE aired the first Monday Night RAW of the year from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, USA. Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman headlined the show with a Last Man Standing match, that appeared to be the culmination of their feud. With the likes of Chris Jericho, Cesaro, General Manager Mick Foley, Seth Rollins and Universal Champion Kevin Owens all featuring in the show, could WWE kick off 2017 in style? Or would that New Year's Day hangover still be around? Let's take a little look. 

Braun Strowman's Last Man Standing victory over Sami Zayn, produced the most interesting part of the show as the pair had a driven and compelling outing. The match had a sense of urgency from the very beginning, with Zayn using a kendo stick, and the pair managed to keep that going, in part thanks to Zayn's terrific fighting from underneath performance and also because of the believablity of Strowman as an unstoppable, yet frustrated, force. Things were kept interesting by a lot of movement around ringside and into the backstage area, with a good portion of the fight happening on the ramp, with the match using it's one big spot of a crossbody off the stage and through a table form Zayn, as an effective near fall. It was a shame that the Tampa crowd didn't seem to get behind Zayn at any point, as this would have produced a much bigger moment of the finish, as the Underdog from the Underground took repeated punishment, but I can't see what else either guy could have done in this particular bout. I'm still unsure on how far Strowman can go in WWE, because obviously competing with someone like Sami will help to mask some of the inadequacies, but I'm looking forward to seeing if he sinks or swims in 2017.

The show's semi-main saw Roman Reigns manage to retain the United States Championship over Chris Jericho in a solid encounter, with Kevin Owens banned from ringside and the possibility of Reigns losing the title if he was disqualified or counted out. As you'd expect the many gimmicks dominated the story, with Jericho attempted to get Reigns either counted or disqualified. The Eddie Guerrero weapon spot has become a bit of cliche recently and whilst it worked in this situation, it was a little bit lazy to go back to this old classic once again. The set up for the finish was the brightest work in the match, with Jericho able to avoid a handful of spear attempts, but after being unable to win with a Codebreaker and then running into an exposed turnbuckle, Jericho was finally caught off guard. There isn't a whole lot of chemistry between Reigns and Jericho, but they capable of having good matches together in the right situation and that's what we got here.

The show-closer may have been advertised as Goldberg guesting on the new Kevin Owens Show, but Chris Jericho, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman were also involved as the push towards the Royal Rumble was taken up a gear. The initial banter back and forth with Owens and Jericho didn't really work for me, as the scripting was a little on the obvious side and seemed to drag on without offering much that hadn't already been said on the episode, let alone over the last few months. The tease of dissension between the pair was handled well, but the segment didn't really pick up until Goldberg entered and brought a whole heap of energy. Heyman's appearance allowed Brock Lesnar's feud with Goldberg to be kept in the mind, but Reigns and Strowman's involvement gave proceedings a new and potentially interesting twist as the Road to WrestleMania begins to speed up. The double spear from Reigns and Goldberg to Strowman was also a cool moment, even if was majorly signposted by all.

At the other end of the show, General Manager Mick Foley was confronted by Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, with a number of segments being set up for the rest of the show, as Commissioner Stephanie McMahon also got involved. Setting up the Kevin Owens Show segment as well as Owens v Seth Rollins and Jericho v Roman Reigns for later in the show was pleasing, but at times the conversations were clunky and ultimately pretty unnecessary. Of course, no episode of RAW would be complete without Foley fucking something up as at one point he managed to warn Jericho from interfering in his own match. There was a "shark cage" on the set also, everyone said "shark cage" a lot. The whole affair lack any particular energy or tension and I found myself drifting off from pretty quickly. Everything that was announced here could have been announced before the show or by the commentary team, freeing up almost ten minutes for the rest of the show. 

Kevin Owens suffered a disqualification loss to Seth Rollins in the opening match, that meant that the Universal Champion would be banned from ringside for the Chris Jericho v Roman Reigns US title bout later in the show. The two have had good matches in September and October last year, as well as in Ring of Honor in 2010, but this was not one to add to that list. It wasn't that the wrestling was bad, it was just that it wasn't very interesting, especially before the first advert break. Owens missing the cannonball on the outside was a sweet spot, but that moment was pretty much an exception to the rule. I feel like not enough was made of the finish, where Owens purposefully got himself disqualified, meaning he could no longer support his best friend later on in the show. Without telling the story of Owens really not being too fussed about helping out Jericho, the match was left without anything that could be confused with being interesting.

Karl Anderson picked up his first singles victory in WWE, by defeating RAW Tag Team Champion Cesaro in a fun match that saw both Luke Gallows and other RAW Tag Team Champion Sheamus get involved. Cesaro looked great throughout this one, being booked as the superior competitor, whist Anderson was able to take control at numerous points thanks to the outside distractions from Gallows. With Sheamus joining the commentary team, this not only worked to create a decent narrative for this match, but also emphasised the dynamic between the two sides for a potential championship bout down the line. The finish played into this idea more, with Sheamus finally coming to Cesaro's aid and ending up accidentally crotching him on the top rope, with Anderson picking up the win with a diving neckbreaker. The Club haven't exactly lived up to their potential in WWE yet, but if a clash with Sheamus and Cesaro is given enough focus, then we may start to see what Gallows & Anderson can really offer WWE.

New Year, New Day! Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods celebrated a brand new year by making copious amounts of sexual references. They revealed they'd be in the Royal Rumble match and talked about "dipping sticks" and stuff of that nature. If you like thinly vieled, mildly rude references then you were supposedly buzzing your tits off for this. Things got a little weird when Titus O'Neil arrived and wanted to join the group. I was pleasantly surprised by how much O'Neil went for this, as he's previously come across as pretty wooden in his promos, but here he showed a charisma that I can't remember seeing from the former WWE Tag Team Champion. The build towards a match between Woods and O'Neil was handled well, with The Real Deal not taking to kindly to not being allowed to join and dropping the ol' weakest link bomb. I'm not sure I'd like to see this go any further, but as a little bit of filler as we head towards the Rumble it was at least entertaining.

Any Other Business

• Xavier Woods defeated Titus O'Neil, with a sloppy roll-up finish.

• Bayley became #1 Contender to Charlotte's RAW Women's Championship, after defeating Nia Jax, thanks to a distraction from Sasha Banks in a disappointingly short match.

• TJ Perkins defeated The Brian Kendrick - Drew Gulak defeated Cedric Alexander - Rusev & Jinder Mahal defeated Big Cass in a Two-on-One Handicap Match

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.06/10

This was an average wrestling show on the whole, with a couple of good matches (Strowman v Zayn, Jericho v Reigns, Cesaro v Anderson), but also with one story taking up way too much air time, leaving the Cruiserweight and Women's division bout to be horrifically undertimed. It was frustrating to see matches that could potentially tear the house down, only given two minutes. Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho's relationship was over exposed, taking up almost fourty minutes of air time and even with Goldberg managing to change things up with a different energy in the final segment it was just too much for me.

Review - James Marston

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Supercard Review: WWE Clash of Champions 2016 - Seth Rollins v Kevin Owens

After Smackdown's first PPV, Backlash, had been a surprisingly good effort, RAW's Clash of Champions was going to be even better, right? After all it had a stronger card, headlined by Kevin Owens defending the Universal Championship and with Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Sasha Banks all in major spots on the card. This was gonna be a great show...wasn't it? 

The main event that saw Kevin Owens makes his first Universal Championship defense against Seth Rollins in a bout that showed the potential of the performers, but was ultimately held back by some questionable booking. The performances from both Champion and challenger were spot on throughout, with Owens upping his intensity levels when in control, loudly voicing his opinions of Rollins, as he focused in on his opponents hamstring to control the bout, on the other hand Rollins sublte babyface performance was a great watch as he sold the injured leg well and made each near fall count selling just how desperate he was with the look on his face. The Architect didn't quite go full babyface here, which perhaps held the match back a little (especially in the opening), but there were certainly signs that a rematch would see the culmination of the turn. 

The action wasn't always as crisp as it could have been, yet there was still some sequences that betrayed the quality of the wrestlers, especially in the moments before Chris Jericho came to ringside. The section where Owens escaped the Pedigree, flowing nicely into a cannonball near fall, as well as a strike sequence coming moments after Rollins had escaped a Package Piledriver attempt were both done with at a strong pace, whilst the challenger continue to do an explemary sell-job. The build towards Owens putting himself through the announce table was handled well, with Rollins introducing the table earlier in the match, making it a Chekov's Gun. Rollins following this up with a Frog Splash also mirrored a spot moments earlier where Owens would deliver a gutbuster off the top before hitting the same move. 

Despite some problems with the booking not helping the pair, it was the conclusion that would stand out as the most frustrating of these. Having Jericho involved, made perfect sense, he's been associated with Owens for month and arguably has more heat than the champion at the moment, but his involvement made what could have been a simple finish into a big of a mess. There were some nice moments, like Rollins turning a Pop-Up Powerbomb into a Pedigree with the referee down and then hitting a pair of suicide dives on Jeri-KO, but there was also the overly contrived ref bump that left little reason for the ref to be down for so long and a messy finish that saw Stephanie McMahon sound a second referee down to the ring, long after the referee had initially been knocked down. Individually, I don't have any problem with a lot of the elements used in the finish, Jericho's interference, the ref bump, McMahon sending out a second ref, the near falls, but when put together it didn't quite work. You can have the best ingredients in the world, but that doesn't mean they'll all taste well together. 

The semi-main was a straight-forward United States Championship match where Roman Reigns took the belt from "The Bulgarian Brute" Rusev, which didn't have a lot to get excited about. Apart from the Indiannapolis crowd chanting for "CM Punk", there really wasn't anything wrong with this match, both men did everything they did well, it's just for almost 20 minutes of wrestling, there wasn't much that made sit up and take notice. You probably could have shaved ten minutes of this and got a better match out of it, because it felt like about that much action was having to be stretched across that longer time span. This was especially notably in the finish, where the pair seemed to be going over the same kind of ground, repeating a handful of spots and mainly sticking to having Reigns hitting the Superman Punch or Spear in a couple of different situations.

Both men had their moments of effectiveness, where I felt like the match could be going in a different direction, with Reigns selling his injuries well, whilst Rusev got over his frustration at being able to put away The Big Dog nicely. However, these were also two areas that I don't think were explored to their full potentianal, Reigns' rib injuries got slightly lost in the conclusion that seemed to want to do too much, and Rusev's frustration could have been to build to better ending. I think, what truly held this match back was the fact that Rusev and Reigns have had a shit load of matches on television over the last two years and this match didn't feel any different from any of their previous encounters. Yes, a lot of those had DQ finishes, but they've also had bouts with better conclusions that have gone longer and been more intense than this on Monday Night RAW.  

Arguably, the best match on the show was Match 7 of Sheamus and Cesaro's Best of Seven Series, which has been a sleeper hit on RAW over the previous five weeks. This encounter continued the theme, as Cesaro and Sheamus reached into the depth of storytelling opportunities that they'd left for each other over the previous five weeks. There were call-backs to previous finishes, use of the on-going narrative of Cesaro's injured back, as well as the pair pulling out new tricks, which the commentary team put over very well as the the duo attempting to surprise an opponent that perhaps knee them better than anyone else (at least, right now anyway). One of my favourite moments in this was Sheamus hitting a backbreaker version of his Pale Justice Crucifix Powerbomb, that despite not looking as polished as it could, pulled in a number of the match stories and looked fucking brutal in the process. 

I can see the finish splitting the wrestling audience, because having the match end in a No Contest after six previous bouts over five weeks, was a brave decision. However, I thought the pair worked the moment well, brawling around ringside and then into the crowd as Cesaro hit a clothesline over the barricade that kept them both down, as officals came to check on them and the match was called off. It was perhaps not what people were expecting and initially I'll admit that I wasn't sold on them leaving the series at 3-3, but once I saw Cesaro and Sheamus selling the match, selling how much effort they'd put into trying to beat the other and selling the desperation to continue the fight. The fact that the audience began to chant "Let them fight" after initially showing what at best could be described as indifference towards them, showed that the work had been done right. A rematch between the pair is now a bigger match, whilst there's also a couple of different aveneues to go down to prolonge the wait for a rematch, which would certainly beneficial to the guys who have fought 8 TV matches in 9 weeks! 

Charlotte retaining the Women's Championship over Sasha Banks and Bayley was an interesting one, because it was cleverly put together for the majority of the match but concluded with a contrived finish, that left a bad taste in the mouth. Let's tallk about that finish first, because it's bugs me more than a little. Charlotte hits a Big Boot on Bayley that knocked Banks off the apron and then another big boot on Bayley to pick up the win. Firstly, a big boot is a lame finisher, especially when your big boot doesn't look particularly impressive in the first place. The commentary appeared to allude to the fact that Charlotte's manager Dana Brooke was in the wrong place for the finish, which would have made slightly more sense had she been holding onto Banks' ankle. 

Outside of the finish, this was a cleverly booked and well performed encounter, that told a simple story. The idea that permeated the contest throughout was that Charlotte and Brooke were able to work together, whilst Banks and Bayley mostly decided to work as individuals and even when briefly on the same page their union wasn't strong enough to control the Women's Champion. Charlotte is capable of commanding the stage when in control and this allowed the sections were she worked over Banks to be good viewing, as Brooke kept Bayley down on the outside. Mostly the match flowed well, in terms of both storytelling and the action, with only the build towards a moonsault from Charlotte being anything but neat. It perhaps lacked the "Wow" factor off the WrestleMania 32 Three Way where Becky Lynch replaced Bayley, but still had enough dramatic near fall to keep the audience involved til the very end. 

Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn had a solid bout, that featured some strong sequences and near falls, which was held back by a couple of sloppy spot. The opening of the bout may have been my favourite part about it as the two appeared to slot together perfectly, as Zayn produced a fun face shine sequence that included a moonsault off the barricade, whilst Jericho used his crafty ways to take control, using the referee as a shield to hit a triangle dropkick. The characters provided a fine foundation to build upon and whilst there was some great reversal and near fall sequences, it was this foundation that made the contest such an enjoyable watch, as Jericho would always have something up his sleeve to keep control. The bout was only let down by a couple of sloppy DDT spots, that seemed to show Jericho struggling to hold Zayn up to complete the moves. 

Jericho getting the win with a Codebreaker was perhaps another point of contention here as out of all the matches on the card, a clean finish win for the heel made the least sense. A cheap win for Jericho would have worked wondefully, having him play possum before hitting a codebreaker perhaps, it was Jericho's devious ways that the match was built around so why not? Jericho didn't really stand to gain anything from pinning Zayn clean, and it could have potentially have harmed the man who's still developing a relationship with the WWE audience. Outside of his feud with Kevin Owens, Zayn has not just struggled for victories, but also to find an identifiable persona, that more casual fans could latch onto. Whilst Zayn proved once again that he's a reliable hand, the booking didn't help to cement him as top level performer, or even build towards that time. 

Perhaps one of the more dissapointing contests of the night was TJ Perkins first defense of the Cruiserweight Championship against Brian Kendrick, because despite a bright closing sequence, the pair struggled to connect with the crowd and lacked chemistry. I'm not sure that Kendrick was the best person to include in the first Cruiserweight bout on PPV, because despite being a more familiar face, he isn't someone who will "Wow" a casual audience like these intial Cruiserweight matches should. His new character is brilliant, his gritty work and Captain's Hook finish is great, but that only works if a crowd is either invested in the babyface or familiar with that character. As of this match they were neither. The rana spot to the outside woke the crowd up and lead into a good final stretch, where Perkins won with a Knee Bar, but if you missed the Cruiserweight Classic, I think you'd have been wondering what all the hype was about. 

The New Day's Tag Team title match with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson was another contest that seemed to have to work against the booking to produce anything entertaining. Xavier Woods using the trombone to get the win for his team, only works for the babyfaces, if we've seen a lot of shenanigans from Gallows & Anderson, but we hadn't. Yes the duo had used their power to their advantage and had dominated throughout, but they hadn't really used anything underhanded to take or remain in control. The brevity of the bout also meant that their wasn't much of a build towards any hot tag and no lengthy face in peril section where these kind of antics could have taken place. I'm hoping we get to see a rematch because these two teams have come nowhere close to reaching their potential together, but if they're going to have to work against the creative team again, then I'd rather they not bother. 

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.32/10 

This was a good show, but it could have been a great show. There was a hell of a lot of talent on display here and a card that had something to be interested in from top to bottom, but when the PPV ended it felt like we didn't quite get to see the best out of the performers. I feel that this was at know fault of their own, as there was some great displays from the likes of Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Charlotte and Chris Jericho, but each and every one of them was held back by the creative of the show. As a "B" show, you kind of expect these shows to be used to build the bigger events, but a lot of these booking decisions seemed to even work against doing that! 

Show in a Sentence - Good wrestling, bad booking.

TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1212 - Roman Reigns v Rusev 8

Roman Reigns taking up over half an hour of TV time, more than Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Sheamus, Sami Zayn and more was always going to get certain fans backs up, wasn't it? But that's not how these reviews work, as you well know. Was the show any good? It was the last RAW before SummerSlam, so it had to be, right?

Roman Reigns' feud with Rusev over the United States Championship was the main focus of this week's Monday Night RAW taking up almost a quarter of the show's 2 hour 15 minute run time, which when you take out the little nuggets like SummerSlam promo vids and what have you is probably much closer to a third. That's a fuck load of time to fill with just three performers (let's not forget Lana who played a vital part). Whether that is too much I suppose depends on how big a fan of either guy you are and if not, how much those guys did to keep you watching. If you're still watching by the end of the show and feel some kind of emotion too it, then I suppose they did their jobs. It's difficult as a wrestling reviewer to say if a segment is ever a 100% successful because I'm not planning on changing the channel and sit down to watch with perhaps a different mindset to that of a wrestling fan just watching for pleasure and certainly a different mindset to a casual fan or channel hopper. 

There were three elements to the storyline this week, we'll begin with the opening segment that involved Rusev planning to takeover the show until he had an apology from Reigns for causing Lana to get covered in wedding cake on #1211. Parts of this I enjoyed and parts didn't quite work for me. Rusev's time in the ring was cool, he's an entertaining guy to watch and has some nice heat with the live audience, but I'd have liked to have seen his planned takeover of RAW taken up a notch, arguing with General Manager Mick Foley and wanting to speak to Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, whilst threatening to jump to Smackdown Live was a good piece of television, but I'd have liked to have seen his frustration boil over a bit more and for the character to across as much more threatening, leading to Reigns finally coming out. Reigns came across as a bit of a schoolyard bully, claiming that Rusev and Lana would have ugly children. The pair don't have much chemistry on the mic, meaning that things felt a little forced. Foley would eventually make a singles match between the two as the main event, with "Lana's honour" being on the line as opposed to Rusev's United States title belt. 

The second part would be Rusev attacking Reigns backstage, before things would come to a peak at the close of the show. The bout between the two was notably long for a RAW main event, with some interesting storytelling and dramatic choices throughout. For me, even though Reigns would collect the win, Rusev was the one made to look like a star as he dished out a shit load of punishment on his rival and looked like a damn bad ass in the process. He took his time and allowed the crowd to soak in each move, selling his frustration perfectly with Lana adding to this at ringside. Reigns for the most-part performed well, but forgetting to sell the arm that The Bulgarian Brute had worked in the first half of the bout, meant that it was difficult to buy into his character's story and also removed a number of potential moments involving an injured arm and the majority of Reigns' power based offence. I've been outspoken in the past about how Reigns gets too much shit from the majority of fans, but by the end of the match for one reason or another I was rooting for Rusev to pull out the victory. The two battle over the US title at SummerSlam and wrestling booking 101 would have us believe that Rusev will retain the belt on the biggest stages Summer has to offer. 

The next biggest story of the evening came in the form of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman's appearance on the show, hyping Lesnar's match with Randy Orton on 21st August and the sidetrack that came in the form of Heath Slater. The Heath Slater stuff was an entertaining way to showcase The Beast's power and dominance, but also take a minor storyline that's been running across WWE programming since the Draft and elevate it, putting a spotlight on Slater and his free agent gimmick. Fair play to Slater, who has taken a fairly shitty gimmick and turned it into something that people are excited to see each week, thanks to his timing and self-referential rhetoric. Having him call out Lesnar, a man who has been put over no end as a force to be reckoned with, also raises the value of what it means to be on the WWE roster. If Slater is willing to knowingly get his arse kicked, then what must being a Superstar mean to the 33 year old from West Virginia. 

Strapped around Heath Slater's shenanigans, Paul Heyman was crafting another brilliant promo to push Lesnar's match with Randy Orton, whilst the camera was focused solely only The Conqueror's seething face. It really was a piece of poetry and a lesson in how to build a big match without even having the other man present on the show. Talking about what Lesnar was going to do to Orton, saying The Viper wasn't a threat, whilst simultaneously listing his achievements and strengths in the business was a clever way of subverting general wrestling promo rules of building up your opponent as a challenge. Personally, I wish that this segment and the one where Orton RKO'd Lesnar on #1210 had swapped places as the two invading each other's respected brands would have meant for a much more satisfying exclamation point to bring the feud to it's peak before the big match. 

Seth Rollins and Finn Balor's build to their bout over the vacant Universal Championship has intriguingly been downplayed after Balor initially won the opportunity to face Rollins on #1209, but has always remained intriguing and different television. This week we had The Architecht calling out the "Demon King" version of Balor, initially walking around the arena before Foley and McMahon suggest he headed out to the arena. What followed was a fairly paint by numbers situation, with Balor heading out in his paint and besting Rollins in a back and forth scrap. It was a slick sneak peek at what the two could produce at SummerSlam, but again I felt the Demon character was being underutilised. The initial appearance of Balor with the lights changing on Rollins as he cut a killer promo and strange voices being heard was exciting and different, I'd have liked to see this continued with a more mind-games based segment.  

Rounding off the top of the card we had Sami Zayn picking up a victory of Sheamus in a decent, but disappointingly brief scrap of a bout. The Celtic Warrior was allowed to dominate the contest, which suits The Underdog from the Underground character of Zayn, as he clawed from underneath with a number of hope spots, whilst Sheamus was picking up near falls off White Noise and the Irish Curse Backbreaker. The reversal for the aforementioned backbreaker (which is very dangerous and could have broken Zayn's back) out of a Helluva Kick from Zayn was the slickest action of the contest. The finish would be used to continue Sheamus' feud with Cesaro with Swiss Superman leaving the commentary table and distracting Sheamus as he set up for the Brogue Kick, allowing Zayn to come racing in with a Helluva Kick for a big victory. Mick Foley would set up a Best of 7 Series between The Celtic Warrior and Swiss Superman later in the show, despite Cesaro winning two previous matches over Sheamus on RAW since the brand split. 

Big Cass and Kevin Owens put together some solid action in a fight that was always going to be used to build for the 21st August tag bout between with Cass & Enzo Amore facing Owens & Chris Jericho. Fair play to both guys for putting the effort into the match that really could have became a going through the motions type affair, and whilst it wasn't a blow away contest it did it's job well. Owens taking a big bump on the outside after attempting to powerbomb Cass on the apron upped the stakes of feud for me also. Jericho would cause the DQ attacking Cass on the outside, before Owens and Jericho dismantled their SummerSlam opponents, in a powerful beatdown. The new team have quickly gelled as an entertaining duo and this display made them look a legitimate threat to the more experienced tag team of Enzo & Cass. All good stuff.

Ya gotta feel for the Dudley Boyz just a tad, as they put over the The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods in under two minutes. As one and a half minute matches got this was an okay contest, with D-Von accidentally clotheslining BRD before Kingston picked up the pin with a flying crossbody and Trouble in Paradise. However, the match was all about building extra to the New Day's match with The Club on 21st August with both teams cutting promos before and after the match. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows pulled out all manner of testicle based puns in reference to them injured Big E by pulling his dick into the ringpost, whilst a serious reply from Kingston and Woods also had a balls based pun as an exclamation point. 

Another short match saw Charlotte overcome Alicia Fox with Natural Selection, as a lead in for an angle with Women's Champion Sasha Banks. It would have been nice to have seen the women get more time, as Charlotte and Fox are capable of putting on a quality wrestling match, so to see them get less than two minutes was again a disappointment. However, the angle between Banks and Charlotte at the conclusion was a much more interesting prospect and much more important with SummerSlam just around the corner. Charlotte would goad Banks into coming down from the announce table, only for Dana Brooke (who had supposedly had a falling out with Charlotte earlier in the show) to jump the Boss allowing Charlotte to deliver a brutal beatdown, locking in the Figure Eight for a extended time. The angle was well worked with Banks selling the hold well, whilst the crowd was super hot for The Genetically Superior Athelete and her protege. Hopefully we'll see this play into the Charlotte v Banks title match at SummerSlam also. 

Yet another squash bout saw Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in action against The Golden Truth. Two minutes worth of tag wrestling concluded with The Club hitting Magic Killer for the victory. Like a lot of the matches in the night, they were merely a way of getting the performers in place for a bit of a fight with their SummerSlam opponents, as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were back out to jump Gallows & Anderson post-match. The storyline continued to be ball-centric as Kingston & Woods attempted to give Gallows the same move that put Big E on the shelf, only for Anderson to make the save. Personally, I felt like this extra segment for New Day and The Club's feud was a bit of overkill after the New Day v Dudley Boyz match earlier in the night and didn't add all that much to the storyline. 

Neville continued his re-introduction to WWE with a victory over Jinder Mahal, taking the Geordie lad to 4-0 since his return on #1209. A fairly straight-forward victory for Neville who got to showcase some of his funkier moves with a lovely corkscrew senton to the outside and the ever popular Red Arrow earning the victory. It has to be expected that Neville is being positioned as the jewel in the crown of the new Cruiserweight Divsion, that continues to be trailered as coming soon on RAW. Mahal remains without a victory since he his return win on #1210. 

Best of the Rest 

• The Shining Stars (Epico & Primo) picked up a victory over The Prime Time Players (Darren Young & Titus O'Neil) after O'Neil turned on Young hitting Clash of the Titus.
• Nia Jax picked up another squash victory, this time over Rachel Levy. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.13/10

Pretty much ever segment on the show this week was used to push the SummerSlam event, which is what RAW and especially the last one before the PPV should be. It perhaps doesn't make for the strongest three hours of television, but it does add depth to upcoming PPV. Because of the amount of time that the Reigns v Rusev feud took it, then your enjoyment of the show will probably come down to how receptive you are to those two guys. I personally thought the match was good, but the lead-in could have been stronger. That was how I felt about a lot of the show to be honest, there were a lot of cool ideas and most of what was on offer was watchable stuff, but there were a lot of opportunities left on the table.

Not a classic episode, but one that should make SummerSlam a more enjoyable show.

All content - James Marston

TV Review: WWE Monday Night RAW #1211 - Enzo Amore v Chris Jericho

With guest appearances from Puff Daddy and Smackdown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan, a United States Championship bout and two matches confirmed for SummerSlam, this week's episode had to be an improvement on last week's below average show..right? 

Like last week's show, the main event came at the top of the show, as Chris Jericho picked up a disqualification victory over Enzo Amore. Before we'd get to the match, there was an interesting promo segment, where Enzo and Big Cass would be interrupted by Jericho and his new tag partner, Kevin Owens. There were parts of this that worked brilliantly for me, but there was also part of it that felt a little dated. Amore spent a bit too much time talking about Sasha Banks at the beginning, whilst Cass comparing Owens and Jericho to Bert & Ernie felt way too cheap and not something that should be happening on TV in 2016. However, the main bulk of this was extremely entertaining with plenty of comedy brought to it by all involved, but with just enough animosity to make the audience want to see the fight. Jericho managed to steal the segment in my eyes, with some smashing deadpan delivery as he continues to develop his current persona. 

The match wasn't the smoothest of contests, with Amore and Jericho still trying find a groove inside the ring, but the crowd was into the action, helped by Cass at ringside. I don't mean to say that the bout was sloppy, but it definitely could've been a bit tighter. There were a couple of sweet moments like Amore skinning the cat after Jericho tried to chuck him out of the ring and a strong "near fall" when "Y2J" had the Walls of Jericho locked in a for an extended period of time. The finish was a good build towards announcing a tag match at SummerSlam, but as far as ending the match, it wasn't particularly satisfying and probably could've been booked a bit better. After Amore was distracted by Owens and Cass arguing on the outside, Jericho had the win with the Codebreaker, only for Cass to interfere and nail a big boot for the DQ. Byron Saxton kept yelling that Cass had "no choice" which didn't make a whole lot of sense. As a piece of the puzzle this was match worked well, on it's own it was a fairly average TV bout.

At first, I was a little confused as to why Mick Foley inviting Daniel Bryan to RAW was the segment that was chosen to main event the show and in a way I still am. Yes, it would lead to a United States Championship clash, but it wasn't a particularly comfortable segue and featured two competitors who had already been showcased earlier in the show in Rusev and Cesaro. There was a little talk about the incidents with Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar on last week's RAW and Smackdown Live, as well as some chat about Bryan's comments regarding the Universal Championship on Talking Smack, which was all pretty entertaining, with the relationship between the two being established, but at times lacked direction. It felt like the segment was announced before creative had an idea of what they wanted to do with it and tried their best to colour between the lines. 

Somehow the Foley and Bryan segment would segue into an unannounced US title bout, where Rusev would retain over Cesaro. Despite it being oddly put together, Rusev and Cesaro ended up having the best match on the show. Both of these guys has seemingly began to found their niche since the brand split and their European styles suit each other so well, that I'm surprised that they haven't been given a full programme opposite each other yet. In what was a simplistically put together contest, the duo told a cool story and told it well, with Rusev sending Cesaro's injured shoulder into the ringpost after The Swiss Superman's thrilling face shine that kicked off the match. The finish continued two programmes for SummerSlam, as Sheamus interfered, eventually aiding Rusev in victory after hitting a Brogue Kick from the outside, before Rusev's victory was dampened by a spear from Roman Reigns at ringside. A good television contest, that had a number of strong near falls, a lively crowd and advanced to storylines for the next PPV.  

Rusev was without Lana for the main event match as his wife had been covered in cake. A lengthy talking segment, but one that made good use of that time, in my opinion. The majority of the duration was taking up by a promo from Rusev, that acted as a celebration of their wedding. It was a little weird that they didn't do this last week, but hey ho. The Bulgarian Brute's speech did seem to go on for an age, he just kept talking and talking and talking and then showed some pictures of the wedding and talked a bit more. I'm not even quite what he said, but it was glorious. The crowd reacted to everything Rusev had to say and poured a load of heat on the segment, whilst Rusev added a load of little touches that kept me entertained. He also wore just a waistcoat on his torso, which amused me no end. 

The segment built up to the point where the audience was desperate for Rusev to shut up and then outcame Roman Reigns. Some will malign this as another way of "trying to get Reigns over" and see that as a negative, but Reigns got seemingly positive reaction and held himself well throughout. The Guy's attitude during the promo was relaxed and just the right side of jokey, as he looked to raise a toast to the happy couple. As things continued to escalate, Reigns threw a number of insults at his rival, including accusing him of being shit in bed, which Rusev played well before erupting. The segment was only going to end one way and it was Lana who'd end up going face first into the cake, which could have felt like a throwaway moment, but The Ravishing Russian's reaction actually managed to bring an extra edge to the fledgling feud. The visual of Lana screaming covered in pink cake in a bright white wedding dress, whilst Rusev tried to through pieces of cake at Reigns will be stuck in the memory of many for some time. 

Before his impromptu US title match, Cesaro picked up a victory over Sheamus in a good rematch from #1210. They upped their game from last week, in their 13th TV bout, approaching things from a different angle and having a back and forth brawl that was lively from opening bell. A section where both would come up with reversals for each other's signature moves was potentially the strongest sequence of the entire show, with a real pace and purpose to it, that also showcased the pairs familiarity with each other after having so many matches of the last few years. Similarly to a lot of contests on the show, I felt the finish didn't live up to the rest of the match, as the ref bump felt contrived and after the commentary team pushing the idea that Mick Foley wanted a dominating performance, Cesaro winning with a roll up didn't quite seem to fit the bill. However, if it's leading to the duo getting an opportunity to have a match on a bigger scale at SummerSlam, as the end of the show would indicate, then I'm all for it.

In an okay, why's this happening kind of moment, Sin Cara would come out as Neville's mystery partner to face The Dudley Boyz, after a segment from the Pre-Show had set-up the match. I'm not sure what creative were trying to do here, by having Neville have an unannounced partner and then for it to be Sin Cara. When Sami Zayn wasn't on the show at all, it was only going to feel like a let down. The match was perfectly fine, being your regular run of the mill tag match, done well, with Cara and especially Neville bringing an extra bit of flair. Having The Dudley Boyz lose clean to a make shift tag team, seems like a complete waste of their history and talent in the business, especially if WWE aren't planning on making Neville and Cara a regular tag team going forward. 

Shuffled down the card, we had a long solo promo from Seth Rollins about SummerSlam opponent Finn Balor, which at times saw The Architect delivering his lines with a real belief behind them and at other times saw him get a tad lost. He's a strong promo guy, but tends to rely on the crowd reacting the way he wants them to, so when they completely no sold him saying that being called Finn Balor was like Rollins being called Rambo Apocalypse, he appeared to take a minute or two to recover and find his pace. When he began to pick up momentum talking about feeling disrespected by Balor accusing him of not working for a title shot and building himself up as a myth or legend, it was engrossing television as it wasn't played like hyperbole, it was played like that was what the character genuinely believed to be true. WWE has slowly began to create tension between Rollins and Balor and managed to add to that here and in later pre-recorded vignette with Balor. 

Women's Champion Sasha Banks managed to get Dana Brooke banned from ringside for her SummerSlam match with Charlotte, by defeating her challenger's protege in a simple match in the Women's division. At under three minutes long it was difficult for the ladies to do much at all in the ring, so the bout boiled down to Charlotte accidentally slapping Brooke and Banks picking up a swift win with the diving double knee drop in the corner. A solid addition to the storyline, but the match never felt as important as it should have, being oddly pushed aside for other segments. The match being incorrectly announced as a submission match by Jo Jo was not a great start, either.

Best of the Rest

• Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman featured in a special promo for SummerSlam, talking about the history between Lesnar and Orton.
• Luke Gallows picked up a squash victory of Kofi Kingston, before Xavier Woods was able to stop The Club from squashing Kingston's balls into the ringpost. 
• Braun Strowman continued his undefeated streak with sub minute victory over some guy called Jorel Clark. 
• Darren Young got a roll up victory over Titus O'Neil with a hand-full of trunks in a reverse of a match the pair had on #1210.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.61/10 

An improvement on last week's show with Jericho v Amore, Rusev v Cesaro, Reigns interrupting Reigns' celebration and Sheamus v Cesaro all being good slice of television wrestling, even though each had their own individual faults. I think that's the main theme of the show this week, that whilst nothing was perfect or even close, I found something to enjoy in pretty much all of the main sections of the show and feel like further matches and segment will be more enjoyable because of this show taking place. Whilst the structure of the show was weird and WWE still seem to be trying to find out the best way to present the 3 hour show after the format change, it drove multiple storylines towards SummerSlam and tried out a number of different ideas. 

All content by James Marston