wrestling / TV Reports
Csonka’s WWE Raw Review 6.15.15
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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 6.15.15
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus @ 10:49 via pin [*¾]
– R-Truth defeated King Barrett @ 0:22 via pin [NR]
– Non-Title Match: Champion Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler @ 15:16 via pin [***]
– Kane defeated Randy Orton @ 4:22 via Sheamus [*]
– The Miz defeated The Big Show @ 2:48 via countout [NR]
– Handicap Match: The Bellas defeated Paige @ 5:40 via pin [**]
– Neville & The Prime Time Players defeated New Day @ 9:30 via pin [**½]
* We started off with the 10-bell salute from MITB and the video package celebrating the career of Dusty Rhodes.
Seth Rollins Talks: Rollins put himself over, gave a little praise to Ambrose but made sure to remind us all that Ambrose’s best wasn’t as good as his was. Rollins then thanked everyone responsible for him getting to the top, which included “Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins and most importantly Seth Rollins”. This led to him running down J&J and Kane and also saying that he didn’t even need HHH and Stephanie. Totally over the top, braggadocious stuff from the conceded heel that feels he could say all of this because he finally won without the help of team Authority. Dean Ambrose is somehow still alive, and came to the ring and they brawled. He wasn’t selling anything from last night, but then decided to limp and sell the knee. Ambrose ran off Rollins, and decided that he wasn’t done with Rollins so did the old sit-down strike in the ring. After the commercial Ambrose was still in the ring, leading to Rollins complaining to HHH and Stephanie about this. He of course had to kiss Stephanie’s ass, and this led to the Authority informing Rollins he will have a new challenger by the end of the night. Ambrose was still in the ring, and at 8:28 PM ET Sheamus and his shiny new MITB Briefcase came to the ring. Sheamus called him a loser and then challenged Ambrose to a match on behalf of the Authority. In the first 30-minutes, they managed to do absolutely nothing of note. I should be insulted, but am almost impressed by the lack of nothing accomplished.
Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose: They worked through the commercial and Sheamus worked the knee a bit but Ambrose kept fighting back because if you saw last night’s show conventional weapons cannot kill Dean Ambrose. Ambrose made a comeback and Sheamus tried to bail, so Randy Orton came out for the distraction, and Ambrose scored the win. Orton then brawled with Sheamus at ringside but Sheamus bailed before he could eat an RKO. I hated this segment for a few reasons. 1) Dean Ambrose had everything tossed at him last night minus being run over by a Hummer, and I’m supposed to buy him as competitive here with one leg? (when he remembered to sell) 2) Standard Raw distraction finish. 3) MITB winner losing the night after winning the big match. 4) Orton and Sheamus feuding is a horrible idea because they have shit chemistry. This just did not work at all for me.
* Rollins met with J&J, and they had a back and forth which led to Mercury telling Rollins that he is afraid of him because Rollins lost to J&J last week.
* We get career highlights featuring Dusty Rhodes.
* R-Truth is out, wearing a white sheet with some bedazzling as a cape, he has a plunger as a scepter and a Burger King crown with some aluminum foil on it.
R-Truth vs. King Barrett: And if you didn’t get enough of these two from last night’s PPV pre-show, you get it again here. Truth won in 22-seconds. Barrett laid out Truth post match, and said he earned the right to be called King and was not pleased that Truth mocked him. Do I even have to explain how badly Barrett is being booked here? And don’t give me that shit that they are tearing him down so that he snaps and gets serious. He won the King of the Ring; maybe just push him properly for winning that? Nah, that’s too easy. My fault for using common sense I suppose. Labeling Barrett as damaged goods at this point may be an insult to damaged goods.
* Some of the geeks and divas are pretending to know who Machine Gun Kelly actually is, and Paige then informed the divas that they were having a meeting later.
* That may have been the least productive and worst hour of Raw this year.
* End hour one.
Kevin Owens Talks – Open Challenge: Kevin Owens came out to try and to save the show. He explained that Cena wouldn’t be here tonight and that it is all Cena’s fault. Owens claimed that Cena forced him to powerbomb him on the apron, because Cena said to him and said that Owens belonged. Owens knew he belonged here, and didn’t need Cena to endorse him. Owens claimed that Cena wasn’t a gracious winner, he tried to hog the spotlight and be the hero and that was disrespectful. Owens says deserves a rematch and this time he wants the US Title since he already beat Cena. He then set up an open challenge, and Dolph Ziggler answered. Ziggler then tried to tell his tale of woe, and played to the crowd discussing sacrifice. Owens, being a dick, said that he never said this was for the title and accepted a non-title match. They went to commercial 20-seconds in, and came back to Owens beating down Dolph and asking him to show off. They teased Ziggler being counted out, as Owens tossed him into the timekeeper’s area. Ziggler made a comeback as we went to another commercial. We came back from commercial as Ziggler scored a few good near falls on Owens, but Owens continually surviving and scoring the win with pop up powerbomb. That was a good match with a really good crowd and well worked home stretch. Owens is a great heel (saying Cena disrespected him with the handshake and refusing to defend the title here) and is being established well here through is initial main roster matches.
* Paige holds her meeting with the Divas, and tries to rally them to take out the Bellas. The basic theme here is that no one trusts Paige, no one likes her and they all think she’s jealous because she lost again last night. Paige has apparently challenged the Bellas to a two on one handicap match. The Bellas arrived and mocked Paige, and said that the others could side with Paige if they wanted to, but Nikki also mentioned her relationship with Stephanie McMahon. They all started to leave, because they were afraid and also because Paige is apparently the worst babyface ever.
Kane vs. Randy Orton: Kane and his trousers controlled early, and there was no heat for this at all. They worked for a few minutes, and then Sheamus came out and Kane made the match a no holds barred match. Orton tried to fight them off, but ate a brogue kick and Kane picked up the win. Kane picking up a win for no reason and this is all leading to more Orton vs. Sheamus. None of this is good for any of us.
* Kane was blown up backstage and met with Rollins. Rollins made sure to tell him about how he won without his help, which reminds Kane of everything Kane used to be. Kane said to keep winning, Rollins needed a team and if he didn’t understand that he’s an idiot. Rollins than claimed Kane always needed someone; the Corporation, the Authority, Undertaker and Paul Bearer; that made Kane snap and warned Rollins never to discuss his family. Kane was not happy with this whole situation.
* We get career highlights featuring Dusty Rhodes.
Big Show vs. The Miz: This was set up at the PPV last night, when Miz got involved in the Show vs. Ryback IC Title match and cost Show his chance at the title. Miz ran around and played hide and go seek. Show chased, and slid into the ring and teased that he hurt his knee but it was A TRAP and he then started to chop the hell out of the Miz. This led to Show tossing Miz onto Ryback, and the big guys arguing and Miz winning via countout. This was a big game of grab ass to set up the triple threat match for the IC Title. Ryback was at least fun on commentary.
* End hour two.
Roman Reigns Talks: Roman Reigns is pissed because he lost MITB and didn’t get his beauty sleep. He challenged Wyatt to a match right now because he wanted his revenge. Wyatt spoke from backstage; delivering his usual well spoke soliloquy and claiming that Reigns tried to take his destiny. Wyatt wants to be the beacon of hope for the world, but Reigns denied him that. Wyatt says that they are opposites that balance the scale and that they need each other, but he will haunt and destroy Reigns. He won’t do it tonight, because they would be setting a bad example for father’s day. He had a photo of Reigns in the tea party father’s commercial and sang “I’m a little teapot” to close it out. At one point he was calling Reigns a chosen one, and comparing him to Jesus or John Cena, I’m not sure which but we do know that they aren’t fighting just yet. Reigns barely spoke, Wyatt said very little while speaking a lot. Basically, when Reigns won on Raw a few weeks back to keep his MITB spot, he stole Wyatt’s chance to win MITB and become the beacon of hope. It was fine.
Handicap Match: Paige vs. The Bellas: Paige fought hard, but constantly goy cut off as the Bellas used the numbers advantage to keep control. Miscommunication between the Bellas allowed Paige to make a comeback, and she even got a near fall when she slammed the Bellas together and hit ram-Paige on Brie. Nikki made the save and hit the rack attack for the win. The story continues as the Bellas dominate the division, with the rest of the ladies not willing to help, hopefully this leads to someone new from NXT joining the mix to aid Paige. This was fine.
* Machine Gun Kelly performed. No one cared until KEVIN OWENS ATTACKED AND POWERBOMBED MACHINE GUN KELLY OFF THE STAGE! That’s what you get for being friends with John Cena Mr. Gun Kelly.
New Day vs. Neville & The Prime Time Players: They did some spots and a Neville dive to the floor and then went to commercial. New Day got the heat on Young for a bit; Neville got a fun hot tag and ran wild on New Day. It broke down a bit from there, the PTP were able to fight off Woods and Big E, Young hit the gut buster on the injured Kofi and Neville hit the red arrow for the win. That was a fun and energetic match, although it got a bit sloppy down the stretch. Neville & The Prime Time Players winning makes sense as they took advantage of the injured Kofi.
* Dean Ambrose threw darts at a photo of Rollins. Kane met with him, and Kane mocked Ambrose for not being a world champion and Ambrose said that “this Kane” was never world champion. Ambrose said he needed to win the world title and he won’t stop until he gets it, and made Kane question his trouser wearing ways.
* We get career highlights featuring Dusty Rhodes.
Who Faces Rollins Next?: The Hs and Stephanie came to the ring. They promised disciplinary actions against Kevin Owens, fuck that, give that man a raise. This was the set up to Rollins’ next challenger. They said it certainly wouldn’t be Kane, Ambrose or J&J, which brought out Rollins. He was confident and said it didn’t matter who his opponent would be, because he will beat and embarrass them. The Hs and Stephanie said that they have invested in him, but feel he still has more to prove and want to see if their investment will pay off. His opponent will be… BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOCK LESSSSSSSSSSNAR! Rollins looked completely petrified as they had a stand off, and Brock walked him down and Rollins bailed to the floor and backtracked up the ramp. Lesnar seriously is such a star, the dude can do nothing but look like a bad ass and it works. This was a good end to the show as we reintroduce Lesnar to the product. As for the booking, we’ll have to see where they are going but I personally would have saved this for Summerslam along with the third Cena vs. Owens match.
* End scene.
* Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
