RAW Rundown - 01/09

Picture: WWE.com

Whilst this wasn't the greatest RAW in WWE history, it was a huge improvement on last week's episode which we covered in our previous blog post.


The show was scheduled to begin with Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel starring special guest Randy Orton.
Orton did make his way to ringside, but with Triple H, Kane & Seth Rollins in tow - suited and booted!

Picture: WWE.com

Apparently Triple H had decided that it might not be best for business for John Cena to face Brock Lesnar at Night Of Champions, and he is considering naming a new #1 contender for a title shot at Lesnar.

Cue everyone who's everyone try and claim their place as the new #1 contender including all of the men in the ring (bar Triple H) before John Cena came stomping out to ringside to make his point.

Cena claimed that it is his legal right to rematch against Lesnar and if he doesn't get it then he will sue!

Then Roman Reigns made his way (through the crowd - obviously) to ringside to stake his claim for being the #1 contender. What? You didn't think they'd leave him out did you!?

In the end Triple H decides that all of the men in the ring will get a chance to prove themselves in the main event of RAW - Cena, Reigns & Jericho vs Orton, Kane & Rollins - Six-Man Tag.

That's more like it, WWE!

Picture: WWE.com

The first match of the evening was Dolph Ziggler & Sheamus vs The Miz & Cesaro - accompanied by Damien San(Miz)dow and a makeup artist!

The Miz & Cesaro picked up the win following some interference from Mizdow and then a Skull-Crushing Finale from the real, proper, actual Miz on Ziggler;

Next up, another tag team match in the form of Mark Henry & Big Show vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan - As we were reminded by Michael Cole - That's 1,400 pounds of human meat/Mark Henry's copious amounts of sweat.

Everything was going just fine until big, bad Rusev (accompanied by the lovely Lana) made his way way out to "observe" the match. Absolutely nothing to do with his ongoing rivalry with Mark Henry, nothing at all. He just LOVES watching wrestling...

...Oh.

Mark Henry had Harper in his arms ready for the 'World's Strongest Slam' but Rusev entered the ring and kicked Henry square in the jaw - And there was us thinking he was just innocently interested in watching the match!

Meanwhile, Rusev's old foe Jack Swagger was in singles action against Curtis Axel, forced into singles action due to the fact Ryback is out of action.

Incredibly, Swagger managed to pick up the win! Not due to the quality of his opponent, more the fact he hasn't won in about 2 years! Ok. Slight exaggeration there - but it did feel a bit like he was just being used as Rusev's punchbag for a couple of months.

These days Swagger has himself a new rival in the form of Bo Dallas. We imagine Swagger is absolutely THRILLED by this - But heck. At least he may now win the odd match on a PPV!

So anyway. Swagger picks up the win and then Bo Dallas makes his post-match appearance; 

We really didn't know how to call this next one. One of those kind of matches where there is so little between the superstars, it's just easier to sit on the fence...

...Rusev vs Zack Ryder

Rusev won - Mark Henry made his way to the ring - Rusev retreated. What a chicken! (although we wouldn't call him that to his face).

The Diva's division has just been given a brand new lease of life as Stephanie McMahon revealed that she was going to hand Nikki Bella a shot at Paige and her Diva's title.

Brie Bella was next out from behind the tron to exactly the same music as her rival twin sister. This was referenced by Steph who proclaimed that from now on the Bella's music is only to be exclusively used by Nikki Bella.
Nikki was generally horrible to her, about her and her troll-like husband Daniel Bryan - Her words, not ours. 

Then AJ came to the ring claiming that she was owed her title rematch against Paige.

Then Paige herself entered the fray as they couldn't have this conversation without the champion herself being present.

Nikki then took the microphone to suggest that her twin sister leave the WWE as a kind of sacrifice - Basically in the same kind of way she did for her husband, Daniel Bryan.
As she continued screaming at her sister to "leave", Brie finally snapped and pushed Nikki over into Paige who then dropped the Divas title, giving AJ the chance to seize the belt and skip around with it in circles!

The upshot of this being that the Divas division has just got a lot more exciting - And to think some idiots were chanting "Boring" at the beginning of the segment;

Gold & Stardust are now bona fide bad guys. We like this. It adds something to the tag team division.
For the first time in ages we have a feud between two tag teams, who actually look like tag teams! Credit where credit is due - WWE Creative did good when coming up with the 'Stardust' character.

This time round it was Goldust in action against Jimmy Uso (We think.You can never be 100% sure).
Goldust picked up the win after hitting his 'Final Cut' finisher. But despite the win being clean, what happened next was very much the opposite.
Both of the Rhodes Bros went after poor little Jey Uso's bad knee. Firstly issuing a kneebreaker and then wrapping his leg around the ring post and smashing it with a steel chair. Ouch.

Bad guys indeed;

Next up was the main event - Cena, Reigns & Jericho vs Orton, Kane & Rollins.

This match was a VAST improvement on the main event we were served up last week on RAW.
Big names. Fast paced action. Near-falls. Different Superstars finishers being hit in quick succession. This was certainly good enough to pass as a main event on RAW. Much more like it!

Both Reigns and Y2J spent lengthy periods in the ring before Cena was let loose towards the end of the match. As predictable as this is - The crowd erupted.

What wasn't as predictable was the fact that it wasn't Cena who picked up the win for his team. That distinction was left to Roman Reigns. Further proof, if it were needed, that he is being pushed on and up the WWE roster; 

As for what happens with Triple H planning to change the #1 contender - Who knows?
I would imagine that nothing will come of it and the Cena/Lesnar rematch will go ahead, as planned, at Night Of Champions.




FINAL THOUGHT:
Good on the WWE for FINALLY forward selling what is coming up next week on RAW. They always forward sell what is coming up on Smackdown, but let's face it, RAW is their flagship show.
By forward selling, I mean actively advertising what matches are coming up next week on RAW.
By doing this we now know next week will include Reigns vs Orton is a SummerSlam rematch PLUS Jericho vs Wyatt in a steel cage.

If I was a gambling man, I'd wager that by making those simple announcements, they have just added THOUSANDS more viewers onto their ratings for next week's show.

RAW Rundown 19/08

Following on from a decent SummerSlam PPV the previous night, this was a decent RAW showing.

This episode came complete with the brand new 'Clean' WWE logo which has been much talked about in recent weeks.

I think it is very nice and clear and suits this PG era very much. At the same time I'm sad to see the old Attitude Era one disposed of, but I guess we all have to move with the times.

The new 'Clean' WWE logo: Pic courtesy of WWE.com

A lot of celebrities haven been taking part in the "Ice Bucket Challenge" all in aid of a good cause.

Seth Rollins took part in the challenge, not through choice, but through Dean Ambrose' choosing;

Following on from SummerSlam the previous night, Nikki Bella was invited out to ringside by Stephanie McMahon to explain why she turned on her twin sister, Brie the previous night.

Initially I liked the idea of a feud between Steph and Brie - That was until I realised Brie is truly terrible at acting! Meanwhile, Steph as a character is as good as ever.

So imagine my surprise to discover the only person worse at acting than Brie Bella is...

...Nikki Bella!

The match between Steph and Brie at SummerSlam was decent enough. But I've really struggled to buy into the whole storyline to be honest.

From here we are obviously heading towards a match between the Bella Twins.

I'd be keen to see the match - But not the acting during the build up!

Dolph Ziggler defended his newly-won Intercontinental belt against former champ The Miz. Albeit by default after The Miz won the match by countout.

Since we've now had the title change and rematch, it is definitely time to move on.

 

On paper, the scheduled three-way tag team match looked to be a weird one.

Sheamus, RVD & Roman Reigns vs Rybaxel & Randy Orton.

Luckily the end product was actually quite good and it was nice to see RVD pick up the spoils instead of Roman Reigns for a change.
Let's be honest, a Five Star Frog Splash is more exciting than a Spear any day of the week!

The other highlight of the match was Ryback perfroming in front of his hometown, Vegas crowd.
He was comfortably the most over out of all six men, without having to do very much!

Along with a brand new look WWE logo and RAW graphics - A new WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt was presented to Brock Lesnar.
It features the new look WWE logo and does away with the need to carry two championship belts. 

The new WWE champ - With the new belt: Pic courtesy of WWE.com

With the formalities out of the way, Paul Heyman took the microphone to address the WWE Universe as only he can;

WWE seem keen to grow and develop the tag team division recently and who can blame them?
Tag teams have become a neglected commodity in recent years and for a long time The Usos have been the only real tag team.
So it was nice to see recent competition from the Wyatt's, who appear to have slipped in the pecking order having lost both of their recent title challenges.
Recently, Mark Henry & Big Show have had a push as a tag team - Which is an interesting (and big!) proposition.

On RAW things just got much more interesting as the reigning champs The Usos lost to Goldust & Stardust.
I had a feeling that it was going to happen and it puts them right at the front of the queue for a title shot.

Seeing as the Rhodes brothers are so over with pretty much every WWE crowd, along with their brilliant, synchronised new look, I think you could well be looking at the next tag team champs!

Looks like WWE are moving on from the Rusev/Jack Swagger feud.

Last night Swagger lost clean to Cesaro; Interesting, given Cesaro hasn't been able to buy a win of late;

Meanwhile Rusev looks as if he could be heading into a new feud with Mark Henry after the World's Strongest Man came out to confront him on RAW.

Has Rusev finally met his match? 

The main event of the evening followed on from the epic Lumberjack match at Summerslam between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
This was a rematch, with the stipulation chosen by WWE fans, who were given the chance to vote via the WWE app.
The choices were either No Disqualification, Falls Count Anywhere or No Holds Barred - We chose Falls Count Anywhere - But basically all three of the options added up to same damn thing anyway!

This match was on a par quality-wise with the Lumberjack match at SummerSlam the previous evening, which is especially encouraging to see on an episode of RAW.
There were some brilliant high spots featuring a Powerbomb onto a stack of steel chairs and a Superplex through a table.
After such an entertaining match it was a real shame to see it all ruined by such an unrealistic gimmicky end, involving Seth Rollins Kerb-Stomping Ambrose' head through a pile of concrete blocks...

Concrete blocks. A gimmick too far: Pic courtesy of WWE.com

I mean, seriously? Come on WWE! It's supposed to be CONCRETE!!!

If it was the real thing I would imagine Ambrose would probably be dead now - Seriously injured at the very least.

Look. We all know that wrestling is, for want of a better word in this instance, "fake". But there really is no need for these gimmicky incidents. It's way too over the top. It's unrealistic. It just makes a mockery of the product and, what was up until that point, a great match.

That aside, the good news is that this feud is going to run and run. Brilliant news for the fans and I'm sure they've got plenty of great matches to come.

Who knows - Maybe they could be fighting for the WWE World Title soon enough?

RAW Rundown 11/08

If you missed last night's RAW, or you just fancy watching the highlights all over again, here are the best bits from last night's show;

Paul Heyman and his client Brock Lesnar opened the show. With Lesnar sporting a new, modified version of his trademark vest;

Heyman once again reiterated that Cena is in for the "beating of a lifetime" at SummerSlam on Sunday.

We can only assume that Lesnar has very sensitive vocal chords or a very small vocabulary. Heyman certainly suffers from no such problem.


Roman Reigns then faced the world's most boring tag team Rybaxel, as per the orders of corporate Kane.

Rybaxel were disqualified. Reigns picked up the win and then proceeded to go through his usual routine against both members of Rybaxel. Superman Punch, Spear etc...You know it by now!

Mr. Money In The Bank Seth Rollins took on Mr. Monday Night Rob Van Dam. Rollins predictably picked up the victory with a vicious Kerb-Stomp.

However on his way back up the ramp, there was a little surprise lurking for poor old Seth; 

In an ever so slightly ridiculous angle, Stephanie McMahon revealed that Daniel Bryan has been having an "Affair" with his Physical Therapist. CRINGE.

The whole angle was made worth it however, due to the facial expressions of Steph when Brie Bella put her in the 'Yes Lock'. Enjoy;

Sticking with the ladies for the time being - "She can't wrestle" but Eva Marie managed to pick up a surprise win over Divas Champ AJ Lee - With a little help from crazy Paige;

Regardless of what you think of John Cena, I think we can all admit his promos of late have been brilliant. This one was no different;

Then, following on from the ridiculous Daniel Bryan/Brie Bella/Physical Therapist love triangle, Brie Bella got herself arrested for the 'assault' earlier in the evening.

Haven't we been here before?

For the record - We'd also add a charge of 'Crimes against acting' to the Brie Bella charge-sheet.

After all that nonsense, it was time for the WWE superstars to gather at the top of the ramp to celebrate the 61st Birthday of The Hulkster. Who was joined in the ring by some very special guests.

Everything was going well until Heyman and Lesnar pooped the proverbial party;

We were kind of hoping that Hulk Hogan was going to receive an 'F5' as a Birthday present from Brock, but no such luck.
Instead John Cena sprinted in to save the day;

FINAL THOUGHT: If you think Brock Lesnar really is the "Beast Incarnate", then think about this - Cena called him out TWICE in the space of an hour, but the "Beast" politely declined. Just something to consider.

FINAL FINAL THOUGHT;

This.

SummerSlam Predictions

With less than a week to go until the BIGGEST event of the summer, here are our predictions for SummerSlam.

Remember, these are just predictions. No inside info. No spoilers.

JACK SWAGGER vs RUSEV 

FLAG MATCH

PREDICTION: RUSEV WIN

 

 CHRIS JERICHO vs BRAY WYATT

 PREDICTION: WYATT WIN

THE MIZ vs DOLPH ZIGGLER 

INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

PREDICTION: MIZ WIN

AJ LEE vs PAIGE

DIVAS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

PREDICTION: AJ LEE WIN

BRIE BELLA vs STEPHANIE MCMAHON

PREDICTION: STEPH WIN

ROMAN REIGNS vs RANDY ORTON

PREDICTION: REIGNS WIN

DEAN AMBROSE vs SETH ROLLINS

LUMBERJACK MATCH

PREDICTION: ROLLINS WIN

JOHN CENA vs BROCK LESNAR

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH

PREDICTION: LESNAR WIN

SummerSlam Lineup So Far

Quite a few matches have already been confirmed for SummerSlam.
Here is how the card is looking so far;

John Cena vs Brock Lesnar - For the WWE World Heavyweight Championship;




Stephanie McMahon vs Brie Bella;




Jack Swagger vs Rusev - Flag Match;




Chris Jericho vs Bray Wyatt




So those are the confirmed matches so far, obviously with another 3 or 4 to come.

On Smackdown last night, Randy Orton challenged Roman Reigns to a match at SummerSlam. I would imagine Reigns will accept on Raw this coming Monday.

After cruelly denying us (the fans) a match between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose at Battleground, the WWE really owe us this one at SummerSlam.
What with Rollins running away from Ambrose any time he is challenged, this could be leading to a steel cage match.
Not sure how Ambrose would get Rollins and The Authority to agree to it. But if they can work out a way to do it, I'm sure it will be an awesome match - Probably the most exciting on the whole card.

Paige's heel turn on AJ was about as predictable as the sun rising and setting. With this rivalry continuing to hot up (and with Paige getting crazier every week) expect this to be a Divas title match at SummerSlam.

Finally for now, the other title rivalry seems to be between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental strap.
With the amount of air time WWE are investing in this feud, surely a match will be on the card in two weeks time.

What matches would YOU like to see at SummerSlam?
Get in touch and let us know!

RAW Rundown 28/07/2014

If you missed out on RAW last night, here is all you need to know;

John Cena got very emotional about his impending doom at Summerslam. After a war of words with Paul Heyman he was confronted by Heyman's ex 'client' Cesaro;

Y2J interrupted The Authority, and as predicted, was given a match against Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam;

SHOCK OF THE NIGHT - Went to R-Truth ending Bo Dallas' streak;

Which in turn, gave us the excuse to make this meme;

Randy Orton SNAPPED on Roman Reigns;

But the grand finale was saved for Stephanie & Brie;

We make the score 2-1 to Stephanie in terms of slaps. So Brie certainly owes her one by our reckoning. 

We'll see you there ladies!