From the Bowery: Best of RAW and SmackDown 2014: DVD (Disc Two)

From the Bowery: Best of RAW and SmackDown 2014: DVD (Disc Two)

-Byron jumps into things as he discusses the road to WrestleMania and how Daniel Bryan had help from the Yes Movement to get him to Mania

-RAW: March 10, 2014: This is from Memphis, TN and is the awesome Occupy RAW moment. Bryan heads to the ring and in front of a crazy crowd has a crap load of fans storm the ring and hijack the show. At the time I was pissed with asking for a match with HHH because that wasn’t what I wanted and it irritated me the fans were buying into it, but it worked out by the end of this. Bryan and the fans hold the show hostage until HHH agrees to a match at WrestleMania. It is a pretty awesome visual and it works in bringing Steph and HHH out on the stage. The crowd greets them with NO chants as JBL wonders why the Memphis police aren’t stopping things. HHH congratulates Bryan on the movement and compares them all to dirty, hippy, trolls. HHH gives all of them 30 seconds to leave before security escorts them out of the ring. Daniel calls HHH’s bluff and threatens to walk out with every fan in the building and they can have RAW in an empty building. Two security guards head to the ring and they say screw it and leave. Steph is none too pleased, and is great as she bags on Bryan for letting power go to his head. HHH decides to keep the show moving and calls on the next match, and that brings out Sandow. He has no idea what to do and just bails which pisses off HHH and Steph. She is rather pissed at this point and screams for everyone to get out of the ring because she owns all this. Bryan comes back to having the match with HHH at WrestleMania XXX, and says HHH can have the show back when he gets what he wants. HHH tells Daniel he liked him and tried to protect him and this is the thanks he gets. He finally accepts the match and the building explodes. Things only get better though as Bryan has one more demand: If he beats HHH, he wants in the WWE World Heavyweight Title Match at WrestleMania. Hell Yeah! HHH is so irate that he rushes the ring before security holds him back, but he does agree to everything. Great stuff here, and one of the more memorable moments in RAW that lead to one of greatest stories in WrestleMania history!

John Cena vs. Luke Harper (with Wyatt and Rowan)
RAW: March 24, 2014

-Cena tries to win with power to start, but Harper just elbows him in the face. Nice! The crowd starts with mix of cheers for and against Cena as Harper hits a backbreaker for two. Now the crowd starts a very loud chant in support of Harper and boos Cena as he makes a comeback. Cole calls the crowd emotional and Harper kills the comeback with a clothesline that draws a huge roar from that emotional crowd. Now a Fruity Pebbles chant as this crowd is just extra mean spirited tonight and I love it. We take a break and when we come back Cole mentions we are in Brooklyn and that explains the crowd. Some uppercuts leave Cena rocking on the ropes, but he ducks a third one and hits a suplex. He tries the AA, but Harper hits a superkick. He misses the spinning clothesline and Cena lets him know he can’t see him, but apparently Harper can as he hits a sit-out slam for two. Harper goes to a powerbomb, but Cena rolls through with a rana and looks for STF, but Harper kicks him out of the ring. Harper follows him out with a suicide dive and the crowd is stunned by that one. I will say one thing, Cena is letting Harper look great in this one. It’s sad they have no direction for the guy nearly a year later. Cena gets the STF, but Harper breaks by raking the eyes. They fight on top and Harper tries a suplex, but Cena powers out and hits the top rope fameasser for two. Every time I see Cena hit that move I think of Hogan talking about how all these years later he wished he had a different finisher because of the toll it took on his body. Cena starts the 5 Moves of Doom, but Harper cuts him off by slamming him face first into the mat. Cena looks pissed now and just destroys Harper with a clothesline. Damn! JBL nearly has an orgasm over that clothesline as we all know the man loves his clotheslines. The lights go out at around 11:00 (shown) and as they come back we see Cena tied up in the ropes with a lamb mask on. Awesome! Wyatt tells us to follow the buzzards and the crowd chants “this is awesome.”

Winner: No Contest @ 11:00 (shown)
-Fun match that showed what Harper can do, and kind of sucks he didn’t get a chance to finish, but the lamb mask angle at the end was pretty cool. ***

-To the fans as they discuss Cena’s feud with The Wyatts, and a fan credits the feud with making Wyatt a huge star.

-RAW: April 7, 2014: AJ Lee is out with Tamina the night after defeating every Diva on the roster to keep her Diva’s Title. She cuts a CM Punkish promo as she celebrates holding the title for 295 days and declares herself The Best Diva in the World (drawing a CM Punk chant) and The Divas Division. She is interrupted by Paige, making her main roster debut from NXT, and the crowd gives her a crazy loud pop. Cole informs those not familiar with NXT that Paige is the NXT Divas Champion. Paige is pretty over with the crowd thanks to all the international fans in the post Mania crowd. She congratulates AJ on her win last night, but AJ doesn’t need her congratulations. AJ tosses out a challenge and then slaps her in the face for good measure. Paige accepts and that leads to:

WWE Divas Title: AJ Lee © vs. Paige

-AJ attacks at the bell and the crowd hates AJ right now after going nuts for her at the start. A kick to the ribs, and then AJ gets the Black Widow, but Paige escapes and counters to the Paige Turner for the win and title at 1:20.

Winner and New WWE Divas Champion: Paige via pin at 1:20
-Fun moment and probably the most memorable way to ends AJ’s monster reign. Sure it wasn’t a competitive classic as fans wanted from the two, but still a cool moment. *

-The fans talk about the AJ/Paige RAW Title Match, and don’t really add much, but it gives me a few more shots of AJ Lee on my screen.

-Byron talks about Paige making her debut and switches topics to The Shield turning face and getting HHH to bring back Evolution.

The Shield vs. Rusev, Alberto Del Rio, Bad News Barrett, Jack Swagger, Fandango, Titus O’Neil, 3MB, and Rybaxel
RAW: April 14, 2014

-The week before The Shield cost HHH the WWE World Heavyweight Title as they found out HHH put a hit on them, so they interfered in his match with Bryan. This is HHH’s way of getting back at them by putting them in an 11 on 3 handicap match. All 11 guys rush the ring and the Shield are able to single out Slater and have him start the match. No bell though as the ref gets things under control and then we start proper with Rollins and Slater. The Shield abuses him in the corner and makes frequent tags while keeping an eye on the other 10 guys. Rollins gets a cover, but Barrett makes the save. Ambrose rushes him before being forced out of the match. Rollins gets stuck in the wrong corner and Titus gets a few moves and talks shit to Reigns before tagging Rusev. He runs run for a bit and then over to Swagger as the crowd is scary quiet. Ryback in now and he hits a press slam into a powerslam and the fans are growing restless. Rollins gets sent to the floor and Reigns hits a spear on Ryback. Everything breaks loose and the ref calls for the bell at 3:10. Rollins dives onto the pile on the outside and The Shield stand tall for a few minutes before the numbers game catches up to them in the ring. JBL points out The Shield made their living with 3 on 1 or 3 on 2 attacks and now are getting a taste of their own medicine. Cole says that 3 on 1 is not same as 11 on 3 and JBL rightly points out it is still an advantage. With The Shield subdued “Line in the Sand” blares and Evolution (minus Flair) reunites. HHH directs traffic and has everyone leave the ring as Evolution gets to pick the bones. Reigns fights back as they all had their attention on Rollins, but he eats RKO and then a Batista Bomb. Rollins fights to his feet and takes RKO and then a Batista Bomb as well. Ambrose runs in to save, but he is no match and suffers an even worse fate as he takes the Batista Bomb/RKO combo. They taunt Reigns as he crawls towards them and HHH tells him to believe in evolution before sticking him with a Pedigree.

No Contest at 3:10
-Really had to be a no contest as didn’t want Shield to lose, but can’t have them go over 11 guys (including a few guys WWE actually wants to push). The match was nothing obviously and just served to bring back Evolution and start a kick ass feud. Great heel beat down at the end there. *

-RAW: April 28, 2014: Cena cuts a promo while standing inside a cage and he seems a bit flustered. He questions why the fans put him in a handicap match last week against all 3 Wyatt members and they let him know that he sucks. Awesome! Cena waxes poetic as he quotes The Dark Knight and brings up how he was drafted to RAW in St Louis about 10 years earlier and the crowd pop for him then was massive. Now everyone has changed and this seems like Cena going heel on the fans, and he wants to know why the fans are drawn to Bray Wyatt. He mentions that one day he will soon step aside and the crowd cheers. Cena agrees with them and says he is proud of the future of the WWE with stars like Reigns, Rollins, Cesaro, and Bryan. He even drops the names of Neville and Zayn in NXT. He calls Wyatt a dangerous man and unlike those other guys his passion isn’t the WWE, but Bray Wyatt. Cena hypes the cage match at the PPV on Sunday, and says he can’t let Bray win because he will continue to corrupt and manipulate. That brings the lights down and we get a choir of little kids at the top of the ramp singing “the whole world” and Cena looks genuinely freaked. It only gets worse as Bray comes out next singing the song and he has the kids follow him to the ring. Cena is all about the kids and this is crushing him as they surround the ring. The lights go out again and when they come back on the kids are all sporting lamb masks and Cena seemingly has had his heart ripped out as Wyatt rocks one of the kids on his lap like a demented Santa Clause. I found this more entertaining than it had any right to be thanks to Wyatt. The crowd was great too with a “this is awesome” chant that turned to stunned silence.

-Fans talk about the choir of children and some were freaked out while some found it awesome. Obviously I fall in the latter category.

-Back to Byron and he goes back to talking about The Shield. He brings up Ambrose being forced to defend his US Title in a 20 Man Battle Royal and we get that match next:

WWE United States Title: 20 Man Battle Royal
May 5, 2014

-We have Ambrose obviously and the following: Goldust, Cody Rhodes, Mark Henry, Titus O’Neil, R Truth, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Heath Slater, Sin Cara, Ryder, Dolph Ziggler, Fandango, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Jack Swagger, Sheamus, The Big Show, Santino, and Damien Sandow. The previous night The Shield beat Evolution and this is HHH’s way of punishing Ambrose. Big ass brawl to start and really no way to recap this so we will just go with the eliminations until things settle down. Woods is the first to be tossed at the hands of Show. Ryder is next to go as he should be happy he lasted longer than someone. R Truth is next as only thing standing out is Dolph bumping like a mad man. Titus is tossed by Show as he is dominating this thing in the early going. Sin Cara gets pressed to the floor by Show as he is the next one gone. Ziggler is best thing about this thing so far though with his constant teasing of being eliminated and bumping all around the ring. For some reason Show slams Slater on the ass as I now have that visual in my head. Sandow gets his chest beat on by Sheamus and then gets knocked to the floor by Slater. When Slater is eliminating you then you know aren’t high on the totem pole. We take a break and I have no clue if anyone was tossed why we were gone, but who cares at this point. Cole tells us that Slater was eliminated during the break. We have a showdown between Henry and Show and that wakes the crowd up. Show wins that battle with a chokeslam, but Sheamus rocks him with a Brogue Kick and everyone teams up to eliminate Show and then Henry. Smart! Fandango gets tossed by Ambrose and then he kicks Kofi out for good measure. Goldust gets sent to the floor by Ryback and Cody is gone soon after. Santino breaks out the Cobra and eliminates Dolph which draws big boos from the crowd. Poor Dolph! Rybaxel take out Santino and we are down to 5 in the match: Ryback, Axel, Sheamus, Ambrose, and Swagger. Sheamus goes nuts on everyone, but Ryback catches the Brogue kick and hits a powerbomb. Ambrose attacks Ryback in the corner as a Goldberg chant starts. Now the crowd chants for CM Punk as Ambrose fights off being eliminated. He backdrops Axel out and then fights Ryback on the apron. Ryback gets eliminated by Ambrose and Swagger soon follows. Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick and then dumps Ambrose to win the US Title at 12:36 (shown).

Winner and New United States Champion: Sheamus via eliminating Ambrose at 12:36 (shown)
-Just a way to get the title of Dean and continue the story of HHH screwing with The Shield. Some were hoping this would be a sign Sheamus was turning heel, but didn’t happen. Battle Royals are tough to rate, but this was like any other one until a decent ending saved things. **

The Usos and John Cena vs. The Wyatt Family
SmackDown: May 9, 2014

-According to this DVD apparently nothing good happened on SmackDown for nearly 3 months as this is the first mention of the show on this Disc. We actually take the break before the opening bell which is a nice change of pace. Cena starts and dominates Rowan before a tag is made to Harper. Cena dominates him as well including a running bulldog and a running boot to the face. The tag is made to Jimmy and he gets a two count off a roll-up, but Harper kills that noise with a shot to the face. Back to Rowan and he gets caught in the corner where the tag is made to Jey. Rowan overpowers him and sends him to the apron before making the tag to Harper. He pounds away and hits a slingshot into the middle rope which is always a cool looking move. Wyatt finally gets the tag as Jey is your Samoan in peril. Bray continues the onslaught as Cena makes weird faces on the apron. Spider walk and it scares the piss out of Jey, but he is able to fight back a bit and then sends Bray over the top to the floor. Rowan gets Bray back in the match and Harper cuts off the hot tag. There is a reason tag wrestling has a tried and true formula to follow. Harper gator rolls Jey and hits a sick boot before tagging to Rowan. He hits a slam, but a splash misses and Jey finally makes the hot tag to Jimmy. He goes off on Bray and hits a splash in the corner. Cena gets in a shot as well and Bray has had enough as he tags to Harper. He eats a superkick for two and things break loose on the floor. Jey dives on the pile on the floor, but back in the ring Harper hits a nasty clothesline on Jimmy to end things at 8:16.

Winners: The Wyatt Family via Harper pin on Jimmy Uso at 8:16
-Solid tag match with the Wyatts coming out looking strong as they should since they are a more experienced 6 Man team. Kind of shocked at little Cena got to do in the match, but I guess this was SmackDown so no need for more than a cameo. **1/4

-Various fans talk about how they are inspired by Bo Dallas.

Bo Dallas vs. Sin Cara
SmackDown: May 23, 2014

-Cole brings up how Dallas is the longest reigning champion in NXT history. The crowd doesn’t know what to make of him yet and probably wasn’t best sign that he made his debut on a taped SmackDown from England. Chain wrestling sequence to start and Bo celebrates when he gets a takedown. Back to working off the arm and Dallas ends up with an armbar. Cara kicks out, but gets caught with a forearm on a leapfrog attempt. Bo drops a knee and then gives Cara a thumbs up before hitting a third one. Cara gets a roll-up for two and then a second one before sending Bo into the corner. Cara comes off the top with a head butt and then springs off the ropes with an elbow for another near fall. Cara heads back up again, but misses a dive and Dallas catches him with a clothesline before the Bo-Dog finishes at 3:33. Bo celebrates with a victory lap around the ring. He heads back in and tells Care he did good and to never stop trying and bo-lieving.

Winner: Bo Dallas via pin at 3:33
-Again poor Bo was doomed from the start it seems as it is never a good sign when your debut gets shelved for SmackDown. He probably should have dominated more in this match, but the character stuff was on point. *1/2

-RAW: June 2, 2014: The Shield heads down to give a promo to celebrate their clean sweep over Evolution the previous night. HHH comes down with Orton and a sledgehammer and says that better than anyone, he adapts and there is always a Plan B. Rollins turns as he takes out Reigns with a chair and then beats the tar out of Dean with one as well. A curb stomp to Ambrose on the chair is done for good measure. The crowd is floored by this though some seem kind of pleased. In a symbolic gesture Rollins hands the chair to Orton and he gets to tee off on Reigns for shits and giggles, and finishes him with the RKO on the chair. Some felt this was a signal that Rollins was taking Dave’s spot in Evolution, but what we got was much better as Rollins became the chosen one. The WWE rushed the breakup due to Bryan’s injury, but worked out in long run as Rollins has been killing it as a heel.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

So far so good with these set as they have made sure to highlight what went right with the WWE in 2014: The Shield, The Wyatt Family, and the rise of Daniel Bryan. Also nice to include things like the debut of Paige and Bo Dallas. One more disc to go!