wrestling / TV Reports
Csonka’s WWE Raw Review 2.02.15
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As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
MONDAY NIGHT RAW 2.02.15
OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Big Show defeated Roman Reigns @ 2:40 via pin [NR]
~ The Ascension defeated Goldust and Stardust @ 1:50 via pin [NR]
~ Ryback defeated Luke Harper @ 6:00 via pin [**½]
~ Cesaro defeated Jimmy Uso @ 6:20 via pin [**¾]
~ Bray Wyatt defeated Dolph Ziggler @ 14:50 via pin [***¼]
~ Paige defeated Alicia Fox @ 2:44 via pin [NR]
~ Sin Cara defeated The Miz @ 5:40 via pin [*½]
~ Non-Title Match: Champion Rusev vs. Erick Rowan never started [NR]
~ Daniel Bryan defeated Seth Rollins @ 17:15 via pin [***¾]
Stop me If You heard This Before – The Authority Starts Out Raw By Talking: This is the whole announcement that Triple H promised on Smackdown. They mocked the cancel the network deal when discussing the Super Bowl, surprised that they didn’t take a shot at Daniel Bryan since their team beat him team. They showed the end of the Rumble and Rock’s involvement. He vowed to stop allowing people with a name coming back just because it may make the fans happy, and turned that into his issues with Sting, which he promised to end at Fast Lane. Roman Reigns is still officially the Rumble winner, but should he get a shot at WrestleMania is the gimmick. Reigns made his way to the ring at about 12-minutes into the show, and actually sounded like a badass standing up to The Authority. Aaaaaaaaaaaand then it’s the old revolving door promo, because Daniel Bryan then came out to the ring. Bryan addressed being stripped of the WWE Title, and puts is name in consideration for a shot at the title. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now here comes Seth Rollins. “Future, Future, Future, Money in the Bank… is this working?” They actually went to a commercial at 8:17, making this show opening-talking segment even longer than usual, which was already longer than it needed to be. Rollins ran both down and made his case to headline WrestleMania. Triple H then did the old, “we had an announcement, but we’ll change plans now” and made Bryan vs. Rollins for tonight. The winner gets Reigns at Fast Lane, and the winner of that gets Brock at Mania. Triple H and Steph then had to get too cute, noting that Reigns can “prove the doubters wrong, to silence the booing” and such. Seriously, they are just trolling right now. After the prompting, Reigns accepted. They went way too long goading him into accepting, he’s supposed to be a badass, he should have simply accepted to show that he doesn’t give a fuck and is confident. If you want to book him as “THE GUY” then book him as the guy and make him look the part all the way. Now I will say that they could be setting Reigns up for a fall and heel turn judging by his reaction, which could be acceptable as well. Anyway, this went 28 minutes with the commercial break, and was simply way too long. These opening segments are getting tougher and tougher to get through.
Big Show vs. Roman Reigns: Oh you have got to be shitting me? Reigns vs. Big Show AGAIN? This is their FIFTH singles match since December 22nd. That’s at least four too many. We came back from commercial to a bear hug, interference and Reigns losing to Show after taking a briefcase shot. If they’re trying to make Reigns a sympathetic figure, they are failing because he didn’t come off good there. Also, even with all of the shenanigans, if you’re positioning Reigns as a major player, losing to Big Show in 2015 is not the way to do that. Post match, Triple H and Steph were proud of their grand plan and that they couldn’t have stripped Reigns of his title shot. Their grand plan is for Rollins to move onto WrestleMania.
Curtis Axel Wants Justice – Gets an Ass Beating Instead: Axel ranted about not being eliminated from the Rumble, and pointed to the WrestleMania sign and said he wanted Lesnar at WrestleMania. Dean Ambrose appeared, beat Axel’s ass and tossed him to the floor. He pinned Barrett two weeks ago, and announced that he wanted his title match at Fast Lane. Axel returned and attacked Ambrose. Ambrose fought back, hit dirty deeds and stood tall. It was fine.
* We get a Black History Month video for Ernie Ladd.
The Ascension vs. Goldust and Stardust: Another rematch from Thursday Smackdown. On Smackdown, a miscommunication between Goldust and Stardust led to their loss. The Ascension won again, and post match Stardust yelled at Goldust for not having his head on straight. Much like Smackdown, this was not made out to be about The Ascension’s win, as the focus is all on the split of Goldust and Stardust. Also they are recycling the same angle, last year it was Cody that was sucking and then transformed into Stardust. Now it is Goldust sucking and causing the team to lose traction.
* After the commercial, Stardust rambles and is all pissed off. Goldust tries to talk with him, call him Cody, which only makes Stardust more pissed.
Cena Welcomes Back Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler: Cena made sure to advertise the Stone Cold podcast with Triple H first off. He then discussed Triple H trying to run him out of the WWE to ensure his future of the WWE takes place. We then saw Sting’s assist from a few weeks, ago, leading to the returns of Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler. Cena focused more on his upcoming match than actual welcome back sentiments, and then Stephanie interrupted and made Ziggler vs. Wyatt, Rowan vs. Rusev and Ryback will compete next, against Luke Harper. Well that was a hell of a welcome back segment.
Ryback vs. Luke Harper: That was an enjoyable big man match. They got some time, they fit in a lot of action and overall both guys looked good. As far as the wrestling goes, this was easily the most enjoyable thing on the show for me. Not sure where either guy goes from here, but again, I liked the match.
Jimmy Uso w/Jey and Naomi vs. Cesaro 2/Kidd and Natalya: They did Jey vs. Kidd on Smackdown, with Kidd scoring the victory in a short, but fun match. Cesaro got the win in another quality little match. They had scored some tag team wins, and now back-to-back singles wins over the tag team champions to set up the tag title match, presumably at the Fast Lane event. I am not always a fan of the tag champs losing just to set up the match, but the story here is that the Usos are a great tag team, but the new team of Kidd and Cesaro are “more experienced” singles performers, so I can buy them scoring the wins. Plus, there was a bit of distraction both times, so it wasn’t perfectly clean. I also love how Kidd and Cesaro ignore Natalya to play up their bromance, and the little extra kick by Kidd as he ran in and out of the ring post match was a great little “I’m an asshole” touch. Back to back good TV matches have been nice.
* Sandow gets Miz some fruit backstage. Someone requests an autograph from Sandow, which angers Miz so he tears up the picture. Miz then lectures Sandow about being the real star and fires Sandow. Miz then makes him his personal assistant. Hopefully they do it better than the Bellas version of the angle.
* John Cena is backstage and looks sad. Erick Rowan comes to have a talk about being an outcast his whole life, and thanks Cena for standing up for him. Cena warns Rowan about how dangerous Rusev is, and they shake hands.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Bray Wyatt: Stephanie set up this match earlier during the Cena segment. Three enjoyable matches in a row, and this was the most enjoyable match of the evening overall. We all have heard the rumors of Wyatt being groomed to face Taker at WrestleMania, so the win here isn’t surprising. The important things were that Wyatt won clean while Ziggler looked good in defeat as he almost overcame the odds. For once commentary was actually on point, selling Ziggler’s effort in loss, which they rarely do so I appreciated it.
* The Authority and Rollins gloat about their plan. They name-dropped Randy Orton… RKO OUTTA NOWHERE later tonight?
Paige vs. Alicia Fox: The Bellas are on commentary. They had the typical short divas match, Fox hit a tilt a whirl back breaker, but then Paige got the roll up for the win. Fox attacked post match, allowing the Bellas to spray Paige with spray tan. See, she’s pale and it’s funny. Yes this is your hype for a Divas Title match, SHE’S PALE YOU SEE!
Miz vs. Sin Cara: Miz fired Sandow earlier in the show, so the story was that Miz made him stand there and not do his old stunt double stuff. The crowd would cheer for Sandow, and he would go to mimic Miz, and then Miz would yell at him. Sin Cara was there to be a body as they wrestled a match that no one cared about, because they just wanted to hate Miz and cheer Sandow. In their defense, that was what the booking was all about. This led to the old distraction finish, as Miz yelled at Sandow and Sin Cara got a roll up and the pin. The thing is that the Miz should be winning some matches, so that when the break up officially happens, and Sandow faces Miz, the win he gets will actually mean something.
* Bray Wyatt is a dragon and the new face of fear. I’d like to hear from Meng on that one. He then cut a promo on Undertaker without saying his name.
Non-Title Match: Champion Rusev vs. Erick Rowan: No match as Rusev attacked Rowan before the bell. He just kicked his ass and applied the accolade. SHOTS FIRED at John Cena, who did not run out to make the save for his “friend”. Seriously, John Cena is the worst friend ever. Lana then showed a “movie,” where Rusev destroyed all of the heroes that challenged him. He is the only hero and the super athlete. They tried to drop the Russian flag, but it got stuck. To their credit, the fans popped, and Rusev and Lana sold frustration very well. I like Rusev killing people, I liked the video, but seriously, John Cena is the worst friend ever.
* Daniel Bryan meets with Roman Reigns. Reigns promised to get even with Rollins, but Bryan said that he won’t get it at Fast Lane because he is winning tonight. Reigns didn’t give a shit, because he will beat either of them at Fast Lane and then go onto WrestleMania. This was short, to the point and Reigns came off well overall unlike in the opening promo.
Seth Rollins vs. Daniel Bryan: As announced earlier in the evening, the winner of this match faces off with Reigns at Fast Lane, with that winner facing Lesnar for the title at Mania. J&J were at ringside, and then after the commercial Big Show was also there to cause the unfair advantage. As expected, this was good. Why? Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins, very good professional wrestlers. Also, it’s very refreshing to see the crowd react to a pure heel/face dynamic; they aren’t invested in many guys on the roster that way, but Seth and Bryan are two of those guys. Reigns would come out late and completely destroy Show with a sweet spear, and then also took out Mercury. Reigns ended up punching Rollins as Mercury had the ref distracted, and that led to Bryan hitting the knee for the win. After some poor booking of reigns early in the show, he came out and not only got revenge on Show but also on Rollins, so that helps. Bryan vs. Reigns presents something very interesting at Fast Lane. I can see a lot of thing here that could lead to a Reigns heel turn, which may not be a bad thing for him at all. Overall I enjoyed the main event presentation, it was a strong way to sell the PPV and end the night.
* End scene.
* Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
I like Dean Ambrose reminding people that he beat the IC Champion and wants the title, but they actually have to prove that they care about that title before I can actually get emotionally invested in that title again. The Ascension winning was again a complete afterthought, which is a shame. I like Cody and Goldust, and get that Goldust may be winding down, but don’t short change the guys that actually won.
Ryback vs. Harper, Uso vs. Cesaro and Ziggler vs. Wyatt all came at the ring time and picked up the show for me. Wyatt looks strong for his upcoming match with Taker, Ryback is on track, Ziggler keeps looking like the never say die baby face, but as of today a lot of those guys feel as if they are in limbo (Ryback, Ziggler and Harper especially). Hopefully that gets worked out sooner rather than later. The short changing of the divas continues, and the “build” to the title match is completely laughable. I enjoyed the Rusev beat down of Rowan, and overall really like what he brings to the table. I am a big fan of Rusev. But I say again, John Cena is the WORST FRIEND EVER. Seriously, he just had a segment with Rowan and they shook hands and were all buddy buddy, and then he did nothing to help. He hated Edge for YEARS, but was willing to bring back the Authority after one conversation where they showed respect, but he can’t come out to help Rowan?
The main event was a nice piece of business, and Bryan vs. Reigns is a good match to build. I actually loved that Orton didn’t appear, I thought they telegraphed it earlier but thankfully it was jus a tease. Reigns’ involvement in the main event helped him because his booking from earlier was poor. He didn’t so much help Bryan, but got revenge on Rollins, which I like. Bryan vs. Reigns presents some interesting possibilities moving forward, which I like.
Again, I felt that this was a better and easier to watch show in many ways than the last month or so. But with that being said, a lot of the same booking issues are still there and hurting the show.
