RAW Review and Reactions

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well. So, we are just under four weeks away from the big one, Wrestlemania thirty one and as I mentioned in my prediction post, every show from this point onwards is extremely important. Last night's episode of RAW wasn't a terrible one at all, I have to admit I was really really tired again. It's been a long week and I've been struggling to get some sleep at night but I had to fight through the tired eyes and carry on watching and to be fair I don't really mind. With, another match announced for Mania last week on Smackdown, last night's show focused on the build up of that match and potential other matches on the card. So, did the divas division get the push the WWE universe demanded? Did we see any other matches announced for Wrestlemania? Did we get any returns? And did Randy Orton finally turn on and get he's hands on Seth Rollins? Today, I'm going to be answering all those questions as I take you through everything that happened during last night's Monday night RAW from start to finish and what I thought of it. Some quick reminders before we get into today's post; it of course is Wrestlemania season on my blog and the link to the most recent post in the series will be linked bellow. Also linked bellow will be my most recent posts including my top fifteen superstars of the month and top twenty superstars of the month. I will be uploading more information also this week about my Wrestlemania Q&A so keep an eye out for the link to that later this week. Remember you can let me know what you thought of last night's show by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

Last night's show kick started with Seth Rollins who got a great reaction from the live crowd in New Jersey. Being assisted by J&J Security, Mr Money in the bank made he's way to the ring with the recent confrontation between Rollins and Jon Stewart playing on the titron. You all know how much I hated this idea from the get go. It was all cringey, boring, an so typical of WWE. What I think was frustrating about all this was the timing. We are under four weeks away from Wrestlemania and the WWE should be focusing on building up the card for the biggest pay per view of the year as strongly as possible, and I just feel this is doing absolutely no good and just wasting time. One good thing that did come out of all this is another great promo from Rollins. Half way through that pretty good promo we saw Roman Reigns interrupt making he's way to the ring with a big grin on he's face. To be fair, the man is main eventing Wrestlemania for the WWE World Heavyweight championship, he has every reason to be grinning. I didn't like the attitude Reigns was presenting last night. I keep saying it but, there's a certain mood Reigns need to stay in and this whole smiley, cocky, joke making, wannabe Rock attitude just isn't cutting it. To be fair the segment between the two was pretty good and they did a good job in selling the Wrestlemania pay per view and setting up a potential big feud between the two later on in the year. After taking out Joey and Jamie, Reigns cleared the ring and was left the last man standing. For now. It was really good to hear some more talk about the Money in the bank briefcase and when it will be cashed in. After the ad break we saw some backstage work between Orton and Rollins witch was a good build up into their later feud.

Following the commercial break we saw the lunatic fringe Dean Ambrose make he's way to the ring ( who by the way is still carrying round Barrett's Intercontinental championship) to take on Bad News Barrett who is still the actual IC champion despite not actually carrying the title around with him. At commentary was of course R-truth once again. We found out last week on Smackdown that Barrett will defend he's championship against multiple opponents in a ladder match and that does include R-truth. You all know by now how I feel about all of this and the link to where I have spoke more about the IC championship and the current storyline around it. You guys also know just how much of a huge fan I am of both Ambrose and Barrett, I could watch these guy's wrestle all night. Both
amazingly talented superstars, with not just great wrestling ability but great characters, mic ability, and all round personalities. Last night the two put on yet another solid match. We saw the momentum change hands throughout the match up with the champ Barrett dominating quite early on. I was also pretty shocked to not be bothered by truth at commentary, he made me laugh again and is a nice little entertainment touch to the storyline. As I said, the match was very back and fourth, for a RAW match it was pretty barbaric, it had bags of character and story telling and I really enjoyed it. I had a problem with the timing of the ad breaks, I'm always complaining about how the WWE time their commercial breaks, it takes the feel away from the match and that's exactly what happened last night. Once they came back from the ad break I just felt like I had to re-connect with the match. Half way through the match we saw Luke Harper make an appearance at commentary and demand the IC championship from R-Truth, Harper then did an Ambrose and simply walked off with the title, distracting Barrett and allowing Dean to score the win over the champ. I love love love the idea of Harper being in the picture for the championship. It's a good way to let him shine on the biggest pay per view of the year and give him the spotlight for a little while, it also allows him to kick start a fresh feud after Wrestlemania season.

We also some backstage tensions between the Miz and Damien Mizdow after the add break.
Up next we got another great promo from Bray Wyatt who spoke once again about the Undertaker, building up their Wrestlemania match. I will be uploading my post on these two tomorrow so keep an eye out for the link to that post in the next twenty four hours. In my opinion, Bray cut one of he's best promos to date last night and the coffin was a great addition to it also. What was also great about this apart of the show was the addition of fire! I always loved seeing fire on live shows in a wrestling match and so it was a super nice touch to the promo and a nice little flashback for me. A really well put together piece. Setting the coffin on fire was a key part in the build up for the Undertaker/Bray Wyatt feud/match up.

We then had a six person, mixed tag team match, witch saw the current Tag Team champions, Cesaro ad Tyson Kidd and Natalya take on the former tag team champions The Usos and Naomi. Now, I spoke extremely highly of the feud between these six stars last week. We saw some great work from them and I really have started to enjoy watching the Usos more in the process and I have really began to grow to the idea of Kidd and Cesaro being a tag team. Trust me, if you had told me last month this would be the feud I was most interested in I would of told you you were insane but I really am loving the work between these guys and the addition of Naomi and Natalya is great. Last night saw yet another great performance from all six stars. We once again saw the amazing athleticism from the two divas, I keep saying these two are two of the most talented, athletic, and underrated divas on the entire roster. I would of liked to have seen them in action a little more, but Nattie sold her injury really well. Tyson played a great role as a heel and maintained in character throughout. In the end it was Naomi who was able to score a quick pin fall to get the win for her team. After the match we saw Nattie express her anger about the tag and how she loss the match because of Kidd but it was all hugs and kisses by the end of the night.

Up next we got our weekly does of John Cena as he spoke about he's second chance match at Wrestlemania against the Unites States champion, Rusev. I have strangely grown to like this feud and I think the turning point was defiantly the Fastlane match between the two. They proved they can put on a great match and tell a really good story while competing, it was also Rusev's best performance to date. During this part of the show last night, Cena spoke yet again about Wrestlemania and Rusev and to be fair I actually enjoyed this little promo despite the fact he was in one of those moods last night. He of course gave us the Cena, never give up speech witch did make me roll my eyes a little but it was all a nice touch tot he feud. However, there was a twist, as he officially placed himself in the Andre the giant battle memorial, but he would soon be interrupted by Stephanie McMahon who reminded Cena of the rules. This segment was a great way to promote the Andre the giant battle royal and add some heat and interest in it was great. Yet again, Cena was told No last night as Stephanie

made it clear he was not allowed to enter the battle royal. I loved this segment as it got closer to the end and what really put a smile on my face was the interruption of Curtis Axel. At this point Stephanie wanted Cena to prove himself so gave him a match against Curtis Axel right then and there and also said it was down to Cena to change Rusev's mind about a match at Mania.I just want to quickly say how much Curtis Axel entertained me last night, amazing. The match itself was very predictable. Axel was the man entertaining me but Cena dominated and scored a very quick win. At the end of the match Rusev and Lana made an appearance where Rusev made it clear he will not face Cena at Wrestlemania.

We then heard from the Game himself, Triple H as he addressed the Sting situation. Last night really was the night of great promos and pushing the feuds/storyline's for Wrestlemania, and that pattern continued at this point of the stage with Triple. Talking about what happened at Fastlane and what will happen at Wrestlemania, Triple H delivered a great promo, pushing he's match with Sting. During the promo, he invited Booker into the ring and express he's opinion and share he's theory. Once again, Booker did a great job selling both Sting and Triple and their match up set to take place in four weeks time at Wrestlemania. After not liking what Booker had to say, Hunter went and fired him right then and there...yep. Well, he was just proving a point. Proving that he has all the power. Great heel promo, and a nice section of the show, really got the crowd on fire and did just what he set out to do and proved a point.

Up next was divas action as Nikki Bella was set to defend her divas championship in a rematch against Paige. After all the controversy with the divas division and the hash tag #GiveDivasAChance last week, the WWE had a huge point to prove and make the WWE universe realise that they do respect their female talent and change things around for them. I liked the idea of the a rematch, we hardly see any championship being defend on RAW especially the divas championship so it was a nice to finally see it being defended on a live, weekly, broadcast. One thing the WWE did do well last night was push the match throughout the show. We got several reminders about the match up witch in itself was a nice improvement, giving the match ore attention. Throughout the match you could tell the announce team were trying their best to push the match and talk highly of it throughout witch we hardly see, usually they do go off track and talk about everything but the divas match happening in the ring. Paige dominated the match very early on but when we returned from the break we saw that Nikki had turned things around and managed to take control. Also throughout the match we saw the announcers promote total divas. What we got in this match was a great crowd reaction. The live crowd paid the girls a lot of respect and really backed their fave divas. I was disappointed in how the match ended, just as Paige was going to get the win Brie caused the DQ and the girls attacked Paige until we got the surprise return of AJ Lee as she took out the Bella's.Of course it was great to see to AJ back and she got an insane reaction from the crowd. The girls did get longer in the ring but I was expecting a slightly longer match, around twelve to fifteen minuets would of been perfect. We also got a nice little backstage interview with AJ and Paige were AJ gave divas a chance a little discreet mention.

Up next we got the part of the show I was least looking forward too, the confrontation between Seth Rollins and Jon Stewart. I literally, had no interest in this what so ever,so I honestly have next to no opinion on this. As I mentioned earlier on in the post, I thought it was a waste of time. The time they put into this crappy segment they could of put into the divas match.I just had no interest in this part of show at all and decided to go and make a drink during this segment. I will admit parts of it were entertaining and did make me chuckle a bit but no, this was just not for me at all. The addition of Orton was great though of course.

Other matches during the night included Luke Harper (who is now walking around with the Intercontinental championship) VS Daniel Bryan witch I thought was great booking. Two very talented superstars with two very different styles. You guys all know by now how much I'm a huge fan of Harper. He's one of my faves, and has been for quite a while now. I've been a fan of he's work from way before the WWE and I really think putting him in the IC Title picture is a pretty good idea as I already mentioned. At the start of the match Harper went straight on the attack and dominated the match throughout, having an all round solid, strong, impressive performance. I'm always commenting on how I think Harper is one of the most diverse if not the most diverse superstar on the current WWE roster. Despite all that he lost the match...yeah this really frustrate me. You have no idea how angry I was after this match. Harper has the potential to be the biggest heel in the WWE and yet they waste he's talent time and time again. After the match, Ambrose, Harper and Barrett all took a swing or two at each other and then R-truth got involved. The best part about this was the fact Harper was the dominate one at the end of it and he walked off with title. Well that was until Dolph Ziggler made an appearance and super kicked Harper to take the title.Mixed feelings about this but it's great seeing
so much attention on the IC championship. We also found out Blayze was the latest inductee into the two thousand and fifteen hall of fame. Paul Heyman also made an appearance and did what he does best. Addressing the rumours and made it clear that Brock Lesnar will be at Wrestlemania and he will be wherever he wants to be before and after Wrestlemania. This of course is in response to the pictures of Lesnar at a recent UFC show. Heyman gets my personal award for promo of the night, he just owned it last night.

Main event time now and Mr Money in the bank took on the man who will main event the two thousand and fifteen Wrestlemania pay per view, Roman Reigns. I do hate how repetitive the main events are. I do think we need to see things change up but Rollins is the perfect opponent in pushing and putting over Roman Reigns in time for Mania. The match was decent and better than I thought it was going to be. Reigns is defiantly showing some improvements and is clearly working really hard behind the scenes to better himself, but he does still have so much more work to do if he is going to be able to defeat Lesnar at Mania in a convincing manner. As I said,, great match, strong performance from both superstars. The addition of Randy at ringside did raise the tensions between Rollins and Orton. In the end it was Rollins who scored the win after having help from Orton. After the match, Reigns got he's revenge, letting he's anger out on the Authority and I have to admit, he really impressed me in these closing moments. Great way to end the show and a really good way in making Reigns look strong.