WHAT I LIKED:
Usos vs Bryan/Wyatt: It warms my heart to hear the fans still chanting 'Daniel Bryan' even though he's basically a heel now. On one hand, I think they know this won't last too long. On the other hand, I think they just know a great performer when they see one. It doesn't matter if he's a heel or a babyface. One thing I LOVE about this match is that Bray Wyatt is in action. Thanks to having Harper & Rowan as his enforcers/protectors, this doesn't happen very much. It's the one criticism I have about The Wyatt Family. Most heel stables are booked that way in WWE for some reason. And this match didn't last for too long before that booking problem reared it's ugly head. WWE should be able to call an audible if a match is going better than they anticipated. This audience was enjoying the match before Harper & Rowan interfered. They were kinda miffed, as was I, when it had to end prematurely. The post-match proceedings were interesting. I've never seen Bray Wyatt ask Harper and/or Rowan to sacrifice themselves after a loss. That just leads everyone to believe what we already know: This is temporary. Better enjoy it while it lasts.
Cena vs Sandow: Before commercial: John Cena in action NEXT. After commercial: Damien Sandow in the ring. This can't end well. Sandow just lost to The Great Khali. I strongly doubt he's going to do anything against a SUPERFACE. Not even as the new, improved Damien Sandow that the announcers are trying to sell us. This match didn't surprise me, as I know what Cena and Sandow are capable of. They had a great match when Sandow cashed in the MIB briefcase and Cena was 'wrestling o one arm.' But John Cena did surprise me a bit. He deviated from his normal repertoire. He executed a half-nelson-to-neckbreaker and a modified-DDT pretty flawlessly. Perhaps he used the last two weeks of not performing on television to train? Sure looks like it. In the end it was the same as ever, but a pretty damn good match from both superstars. The announcers can be amazed at Sandow. I'm amazed at John Cena. Props.
Punk/NAO vs The Shield: I LIKE this matchup on Smackdown Friday. I see no reason I won't do the same tonight. That is, as long as they allow CM Punk to do the heavy lifting. No offense to Billy Gunn or Jesse James, but Punk was able to defeat The Shield on his own. With them at his side, he's 0-for-2. No one LOVES the New Age Outlaws more I do, but Punk could use some younger/better partners. Although, I do appreciate this nostalgic week of WWE. If nothing else, it emphasizes the point of the WWE Network. If you like them now, check out how much better they were in their prime. Well, I didn't mean for the NAO to take that so personally and abandon Punk like that. I can't imagine why WWE would have them effectively turn heel. It's not like they plan on them being continuing presences on TV. Or maybe they do. I don't know. But it's left me scratching my head in a good way.
AJ/Tamina vs Funkadactyls: AJ Lee is a welcome sight for sore eyes. She's been conspicuously absent the past few weeks. Conspicuously present is Tenille Tayla, aka Emma from NXT. I wonder if it's more than a coincidence that she's there? If so, it may give some credence to my prediction that AJ Lee will lose the Divas Championship to a diva not currently on the WWE roster. Of course, if there was going to be any diva to be called up, I thought it'd be Paige, but I think she's currently injured. The announcers said today makes 211 days for AJ Lee as Divas Champ, second only to Maryse at 216 days. AJ is going to best that record and she should. No way Maryse should hold any record, especially since that record is just because of lazy booking instead of actual title defenses. AJ has defended her title well, yet against some really inferior competition. But the competition is coming. One of which is at ringside.
WARRIOR!!!: They could not have picked a better first entrant for the Class of 2014 WWE Hall of Fame than Ultimate Warrior. I could never get a handle on that guy. It was impossible not to LOVE him. He had an unlimited amount of energy and an undeniable appeal. He could easily have been laughed off as a joke due to his over the top persona, but he made it work and made a name for himself. Seriously, he renamed himself Warrior. Legally. Talk about commitment. It's still his legal surname. Even his children have the last name, Warrior. That's a pretty badass last name. Warrior is Guerrero in English. I still associate the Intercontinental Championship with Ultimate Warrior when I think of him. Probably one of the best IC Champs of all-time, back when it was actually prestigious. Congrats, Warrior. You deserve this.
Orton vs Kingston: Stupid! Sorry, that just comes to mind whenever I see these two in the ring together. I watched the series of matches they had three years ago when the 'Stupid!' occurred and I was even impressed at how strong they were pushing Kofi Kingston. It's kind of sad that one misplacement later, and he's a permanent mid-carder now. I think Kingston deserves another push, but just don't say the words 'he's on a roll.' It'll ruin it for me. Wow. I was not expecting for Kofi Kingston to actually win this match. And against the WWE World Champion, no less. I guess they are bringing Orton down and elevating Cena so that when Orton does retain the WWE World Title at Royal Rumble, he'll look even stronger going into the Road to Wrestlemania. But don't expect this to lead to anything specific for Kofi Kingston. He'll just toil away in the mid-card forever.
Brotherhood vs Rybaxel: I'm a big fan of both of these teams. That's right. I am a Rybaxel fan. And the news that Micheal Cole dropped about Cody Rhodes & Goldust being in the Royal Rumble might be good news for Ryback & Curtis Axel. If The Brotherhoo starts to implode at the Royal Rumble, Rybaxel might be able to capitalize on the situation and win some tag team gold. It's a longshot, but something has got to give for one of them. They both have too much to offer to be wasted the way they have been lately. Losing matches like this doesn't help that, however.
Tag Team Cage Match: As glad as I was to hear Kane say that the door on the steel cage would be locked, I would be amiss if I didn't plead the case for there to be no door on the cage. Well, not no door. For emergency purposes, I can understand it being there. But it should never be an option to win a cage match. Walking out of the cage should not be the way to win, it should be the way to lose. All cage matches should end only by escaping over the top of the cage - not even by pinfall or submission. It's more fun that way. More dramatic. And this was a fun way to end RAW. I wasn't necessarily expecting The Usos to win, but it made sense that they did. Because now Daniel Bryan is alone in the cage with Bray Wyatt. It's the perfect opportunity for him to get retribution on Wyatt without the other family members getting involved. And that's exactly what happened. Well played, WWE.
WHAT I HATED:
Swagger vs Big Show: Just like with the match before this one (Cena vs Sandow), the difference in status from the superstar shown before the commercial and the opponent shown after the commercial is too big to really buy the match itself as competitive. Big Show is being served up to Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble. They have to book him strong so that when he's defeated by Brock Lesnar, it makes Lesnar look even stronger. In the meantime, Big Show has to be the dominant guy he once was, meaning that he can't exactly start crying and blubbering like an idiot anymore. I suppose I should just be happy that it wasn't Antonio Cesaro doing the job. They also have to build Big Show's status as a babyface up after they just let him flounder once his main-event storyline drowned. That's why he got to KO Zeb Colter for no real reason. There's plenty of superstars who need to get their hands on Colter. Big Show is not one of them.
Mysterio vs Del Rio: This match was nothing more than WWE using Mysterio as bait for Del Rio, so that they could use Del Rio as bait for Batista. Supposedly they are already engaged in a Twitter war, if you follow such nonsense. I don't. It wasn't a bad match. Mysterio and Del Rio know each other very well and are excellent opponents, but this match wasn't supposed to be about competition. It was about them just looking ahead to next week. I'd have rather they just had Del Rio come out and cut a promo. Save the extra time for the upcoming steel cage match.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:
"It seems beauty really is only skin deep." - Paul Heyman (to Renee Young)
Is it just me or does Paul Heyman openly flirt with Renee Young every time she interviews him? He puts her down in true heel fashion, but he always slips in a comment pertaining to how pretty she is right before he lowers the boom. I can't blame him. She is a beautiful woman. But Paul has to know that he has no chance.
MATCH(ES) OF THE NIGHT/BEST IN SHOW:
Bookending RAW tonight were two tag team matches featuring The Usos vs Daniel Bryan & Bray Wyatt. The cage match was obviously better than the non-cage match. Not to mention that the first match ended in DQ or No Contest. Good for The Usos stepping up and main-eventing RAW. They have been on a steady ascent over the past year or so, but never quite got over the bump to make them WWE Tag Team Champions. They will get there now that there are no other teams (i.e. The Shield, The Brotherhood) forcing their way in front of them due to overwhelming popularity. That video promo they cut was pretty fun too, if not a bit cheesy.
REACTION:
WWE is riding high off of the successful announcement of the WWE Network. And it's pretty evident that they are confident because they came out swinging tonight. They booked some good matches and put on a hell of a show. But then again, I guess they kind of have to do that. They have a lot of eyes on them right. They can't afford to misstep in one direction or the other. But credit to them for recognizing that tonight could be important to their brand for the present and the future, and for executing this show almost perfectly.
I HATE that they went the storyline route of Randy Orton attacking John Cena's father. Not that it doesn't make for a stronger rivalry, but it's been done before. And I don't mean that at one point Superstar A attacked Superstar B's father. I mean that five years ago, Randy Orton attacked John Cena's father. They even showed a clip of it a few weeks ago on RAW. Whose idea was it to rehash this storyline? It feels so forced. Maybe they felt they had to do something to reinvigorate the intensity of this rivalry due to it basically being non-existant on WWE television for the past two weeks. This was not the way to do it.
It didn't even strike me that the reason Road Dogg & Billy Gunn abandoned CM PUnk was due to their connection to Triple H. That could be indicative of Punk being higher on The Authority's shit-list. Seems to line up with my prediction of Punk winning the Royal Rumble and facing Randy Orton for the WWE World Championship at Wrestlemania. Unless, of course, The Authority are distancing themselves from Randy Orton. In which case, I was way off. It could be Punk vs Triple H at Wrestlemania XXX.
Personally, I think WWE should have kept Daniel Bryan as a member of the Wyatt Family up until Royal Rumble before he turned on them. But I cannot argue with how well-planned this was. I didn't even realize what they were doing until right before it happened. Great job of putting Daniel Bryan back on top. The fans responded just as WWE thought they would. Daniel Bryan is more over now than before.
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