Csonka’s WWE Raw Review 6.08.15

Introduction
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 6.08.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ NXT Title Match: Champion Kevin Owens defeated Neville @ 13:53 via pin [***]
~ Non-Title Match: Champion Nikki Bella defeated Summer Rae @ 2:15 via pin [NR]
~ Sheamus defeated Randy Orton @ 13:10 via DQ [**]
~ Kane defeated Dolph Ziggler @ 9:42 via pin [*½]
~ Harper and Rowan defeated Los Matadores @ 2:18 via pin [NR]
~ Big E defeated Titus O’Neil @ 3:05 via pin [*½]
~ Roman Reigns defeated Kofi Kingston @ 12:07 via pin [**½]
~ Handicap Match: J&J Security defeated Champion Seth Rollins @ 9:08 via pin [**½]

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John Cena’s US Title Open Challenge?: John Cena came out and gave his pre-challenge soliloquy, hyping MITB and his rematch with Owens. Cena wants to prove Owens wrong, and to keep himself relevant in the eyes of the young up and comers and to remind people that he’s the man that runs this place. Owens then came out, ran down Cena for being delusional, and said that people were sick and tired of Cena’s same old shit and proposed an NXT Title challenge. Cena accepted, but Owens said Cena can’t fight him tonight because they have a PPV match on Sunday. Cena called Owens for not having an real open challenge and wanted to make this the US Challenge again, but Owens said that they would let whoever comes out next decide who they want to challenge. Neville made his way out and chose Owens. Owens and Cena were really good here; they have chemistry in the ring as well as on the mic. While it was still a talking segment, at least it wasn’t the same Authority one, so that’s something positive. Cena joined in on commentary, and did a good job of putting over the rematch with Owens. The only ad part of this was the fact that commentary largely ignored the match. They got time, working through the commercial, working a really safe and basic match until Neville started to bring out some of his flashy shit and the overall pacing picked up. Again credit to Cena for working to put the match over once they came back from the break. Owens fought off the red arrow several times, and scored the win with the pop up powerbomb. That developed into a good match, and we had a final stare down post match. I loved that the NXT title is still on Owens for now, because by feuding with John Cena and appearing on the big shows and treating the belt with importance, I feel that they are trying to make the title an important thing and drawing positive attention to the NXT show and the future touring dates. Wild idea, the IC Title wishes it got this kind of proper attention. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the fact that Neville, who is in MITB on Sunday, had to be the one to take the loss here.

* Highlights of the Ambrose vs. Rollins feud.

* Rollins is with HHH and Steph and is pissed that Ambrose is going around New Orleans with the WWE Title. They remind him that he said he could deal with this on his own, and Rollins then kissed their ass. They will be there on Sunday to observe, because Rollins can do this on his own. They also said that Rollins could choose his own opponent for tonight for a warm up match.

* We then get highlights of the Bellas screwing over Paige last week.

* Renee now interviews Nikki Bella. Nikki claims that Paige expects things to be handed to her, and that’s not how it works. Nikki faces Summer Rae tonight, and Paige gets a rematch at MITB. She also claims that Paige isn’t good enough to change how things are.

Champion Nikki Bella vs. Summer Rae: Nikki is working her Scott Steiner 101 heel taunts here as Paige watched on from the back. Nikki won clean with the rack attack. It was fine for two-minutes, and thankfully the champion won heading into a title match.

Roman Reigns Talks: Reigns talked up winning the MITB match, and was cut off by Kane. Kane explained that he’s in the match to protect the Authority’s interest, which brought out Ziggler. You know how this goes; it’s the old revolving door segment as Truth, New Day and Sheamus all came out to the ring. Truth was informed that he’s not important enough to have a match tonight because he’s not in the MITB match, so he bailed. Because jokes. Ziggler made tool jokes to Kane, well I would call them jokes if they were funny, but he vowed to become the winner and cash in again. New Day did their New Day stuff; Sheamus said that he’s win because the WWE deserves a true icon as the champion and then Randy Orton appeared to set up our rematch from last week. This went way to long to set up what it was designed to do, but they had time to fill. Reigns, who is supposed to be a star they are pushing, felt like a bit player here in a sea of goofs talking largely about nothing. They push the guy as the Big Dog but he was basically walked all over here. This wasn’t good, and was a completely paint by numbers segment. Nothing was really accomplished here, and no one came out of the segment looking good.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus: They worked through the commercial, and brawled a bit early to play off of last week’s match but then settled down into doing largely nothing. They were simply having a match that existed. Then like last week they brawled to the floor, and we got a DQ finish. But it’s different this time, because Orton got the better of Sheamus and he stood tall this week. I like Sheamus, I like Orton, but they seem to have absolutely no chemistry. They have matches, technically they are solid, but when they face each other they do nothing to make me care.

* More wacky Dean Ambrose images are shown.

* J&J talk with Rollins about his recent words, they forgive him because they know he didn’t mean it. Rollins was upset that they “forgave” him, and he meant exactly what he said, they are nothing without him. He ran them down, and said he felt sorry for them. Noble told Rollins “screw you” and says that they are the Shield 2.0, and that Mercury is an upgraded Roman Reigns and he’s the better version of Ambrose. I ABSOLUTELY DIED. Noble said that Rollins wouldn’t have lasted as champion without them, and said he’d face them tonight in a handicap match. Rollins and Noble slapped each other, and Mercury broke them up and said they’d kick his ass tonight. On the positive side, no one lost here, but at the same time this did absolutely nothing to make me excited about the MITB match. Part of that is because we saw almost the same thing last week (they just reversed roles this week).

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane: Lana watched on from the ramp. They went back and forth for about five minutes and then went to commercial. After the commercial they did a double down spot, and Rusev then came out to try and talk to Lana. She then tripped off the ramp (the short side part) and hurt her ankle, so Ziggler got distracted and ate the chokeslam for the loss. So we have the Raw distraction finish, one of the MITB guys losing again and another boring and uninspired match. Three strikes and your out. Seriously, Lana’s “fall” was horrible, and the angle as a whole isn’t good at all because Rusev can’t do anything due t injury, the acting is bad and no one buys Lana and Ziggler as a couple or whatever the hell they are because they have zero chemistry. The only good thing was Rusev’s sinister little smirk, but that can’t save us from all of the bad.

* More wacky Dean Ambrose images are shown.

* J&J talk about tonight’s match against Rollins and try to set up their strategy.

MIZ TV: Ryback and Big Show are the guests, so that they can hype Sunday’s IC Title match. Show challenged The Big Guy last week when he knocked out Miz prior to his match for the IC Title. Ryback and Miz had some back and forth, Miz is a great douche bag and Ryback has a weird charisma that on certain nights really connects, and did so tonight. Show them came to the ring and noted that he hated Miz as a tag team partner. Show and Ryback said that they wouldn’t play Miz’s games, the Big Guy is not afraid of Big Show and told him if he wanted the title that it was right here. She fell back on his “no one can stop him because I’m a giant” gimmick, and promised to beat Ryback at MITB. Miz attacked Show, got tossed and then Ryback hit shell shock on Show to stand tall. That excited the crowd to close a fine segment to hype Sunday’s PPV match. I personally would have saved Ryback hitting the finish for Sunday, or for later in the feud to build anticipation for it instead of just giving it away like it wasn’t special. It was definitely better that the previous few segments, and credit to the Big Guy for getting the crowd to react to something tonight.

* More wacky Dean Ambrose images are shown.

Los Matadores vs. Rowan and Harper: The Matadores tried to use their speed early, they got some stuff in but fell to the 3D. They tossed Torito to the floor during the match and also gave the 3D to the other Matador. Post match Harper cut a promo, about the judgment waiting at the door to make those pay for their sins. Rowan told everyone to be afraid. It was fine, but felt like filler because it has nothing to do with the PPV. I will say that they are setting up potential challengers for the titles, so it’s not horrible or anything, it was just fine.

* Kane meets with Rollins and makes fun of him and brings up the Ambrose pics. Rollins says he needs no luck tonight, because he is the champ. Kane then says Rollins may win on Sunday, but he may have to deal with Kane after he wins the MITB match. Rollins promises to win and says he will beat Kane if he tries to cash in. Kane then said he would be in J&J’s corner tonight.

* More wacky Dean Ambrose images are shown. He has a ticket to get into the show.

Titus O’Neil vs. Big E.: Obviously this is designed to set up Sunday’s tag title match. They worked a power match, it was a bit sloppy, and then we got the Raw distraction finish from New Day and that allowed Big E to pick up the win. You see, this might have worked better if they hadn’t already done it earlier in the show. It’s not that the finish is a horrible one, it’s that it means nothing because they already did it and other guys on the PPV in important matches have already lost. It’s lazy.

* King Barrett vs. R-Truth will face off on the PPV kick off show.

Roman Reigns vs. Kofi Kingston: They worked through the commercial as New Day got involved, allowing Kofi to tack control of the action. They did the old Shield surround the ring gimmick to Reigns here. Post break Kofi had control for a while, Reigns made his comeback, fought through the New Day trying to get involved and caught Kofi flying through the air with a Superman punch for the win. This was a solid match overall, they worked well together when there wasn’t all of the extra curriculars going on. But again, we have another guy on the PPV losing, which still seems completely counter productive to me.

* Ambrose made his arrival with beads, soda and popcorn to take a seat for the main event.

J&J Security vs. Seth Rollins: As promised earlier, Kane is out with J&J. They did basic stuff early, Rollins tossed them to the floor and then Kane gave them a pep talk and they surrounded Rollins. They did the same exact spot in the previous match. This allowed J&J to clear Rollins to the floor, so Ambrose could dump popcorn on him. J&J got some moments, but then Rollins took control and beat down Mercury for a while. Noble got a fun hot tag, but Rollins made the comeback and appeared to have things won but Ambrose distracted him by tossing the WWE Title into the ring. Mercury then rolled him up for the win. YUP. J&J are still good enough in the ring that when called upon, they work hard and look good so this works in that regard. Bur for Rollins to look overmatched at times against guys that have been established as goofs was a bit damaging. Not to sound like a broken record, but this finish would have meant something if we didn’t already have two distraction finishes on the show. I hate the champion losing, but with the issues with Kane, J&J and Ambrose, it all could have worked, but they abused the finish through out the show because of a complete lack of creativity.

* Ambrose hit dirty deeds, and stood tall on a ladder to close the show.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

This was a completely lazy and frustrating show to sit through. The overuse of the distraction finish completely took away from what they were going for in the main event, and that’s just one example. Also, the fact that we keep having guys in the main PPV matches losing on the Raw prior to the PPV ensures that no one has any momentum, no one really gets over and continues the narrative that wins and loses do not matter because WWE thinks that they can make you forget about the losses that constantly happen. Listen, Jack Swagger, Heath Slater, The Matadors, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, Damien Sandow, Fandango, Mark Henry, R-Truth, Zack Ryder; these are guys all available and doing nothing that they could have used in various ways to make sure that the MITB guys were in matches that they could win and actually gain some momentum by doing so. Instead almost everyone looks weak, the build feels weak and the show overall did a great job of not making me excited or interested in Sunday’s PPV. That doesn’t mean Sunday will be a bad show, they may knock it out of the park, but the build has been complete shit. The show, for the most part, was all down hill after the opening 30-minutes or so and failed as a show designed to make you want to watch/buy the MITB show.