RAW Review and Reactions

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well. Last night we saw the final big stop before Wrestlemania thirty one as the WWE came live from Los Angeles for the Wrestlemania go home show edition of Monday night RAW and to be fair it was a good show. Of course for the go home show everyone has pretty high expectations and last night could of been a better three hour show but there was some nice final touches to each feud/storyline heading into the biggest event of the year and it was a fairly well put together show altogether. But did Brock Lesnar talk about he's contract with WWE again? Did Roman Reigns finally get he's hands on the WWE Champion before the biggest match of he's career? Did we see any special appearances? Did Seth Rollins gain some much needed momentum? And will Barrett be walking into Wrestlemania with he's championship around he's own waist? Today, I'll be taking you through everything that happened during last nights huge show and what I thought. Last night was of course another great night for us UK fans, with the show still airing an hour earlier it means an hour earlier in bed so all is good there! Anyway, before we get into the blog post there is a couple of other things that I need to remind you of and tell you about. First up is Wrestlemania predictions. You would of seen by now that my Wrestlemania predictions post have started and the first one went up yesterday, the link to that will be bellow so you can go and check that out if you haven't already done so. The second post will be up later today. There is also two more editions of my Wrestlemania flashback posts left to upload. Because it is Wrestlemania prediction week there will be no Smackdown, Main Event, Superstars or NXT Review and reactions post but everything will return to normal next week. The information post to my Wrestlemania Q&A will also be linked bellow. Finally, you can let me know what YOU thought of last nights show and what your predictions are for Wrestlemania by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria. 

Last night's show kicked off with the icon himself and the man that will face Triple H this Sunday at Wrestlemania thirty one, Sting. The WWE broke the news on twitter and their website earlier on in the night and so even though I was considering recording this weeks RAW, I could not miss Sting of all people open the show. My prediction post for the mania match between the two icons will be up in a couple of days time so I don't want to talk too much on how I feel about the match but what I will say and what me and my friend have been talking about a lot is that this feud has been missing something and the build up has been weaker than expected. It really needed that something more before they went face to face and this was exactly what it needed. After he cleared the ring alongside Randy Orton and took out member's of the Authority, Sting had a lot to awnser for and has a thew words to get off he's chest before he graced the Wrestlemania stag for the first time. To be fair, I think having Sting kick off the go home show for Wrestlemania was the best decision the WWE have made in a long time. He literally gave us a great promo last night. It was such a major part in their match this weekend and he's words really did tie the their feud together. It of course wouldn't take long for an Authority  member to make their presences known but surprisingly instead of getting the man himself, Triple H, we got Stephanie McMahon. The little segment between these two was just gold. For me, seeing Sting and Stephanie in the ring together putting on a segment brings tears to my eyes. Both huge influences in my life as a pro wrestling fan and yeah,this was pretty amazing. Stephanie once again did a great job brining a whole new feel to the feud and really brought that little bit more to it. It wasn't until Sting blocked a coming slap from Stephanie that we saw Triple H actually make an appearance. We saw a great stare off between the two with Hunter bringing out the iconic sledge hammer and Sting of course coming prepared with the baseball bat. For me this whole thing was just amazing. Seeing Sting inside a WWE ring on RAW was just great for me and I'm sure everyone else watching. Brining in the WCW history was such a strong touch. A really really good way to kick off the go home show for the biggest event of the year. For once we got a great opening.


The first match of the night saw Dean Ambrose team up with R-truth to take on Stardust and Luke Harper. I wasn't a fan of this booking. I still think Ambrose is so much better than what we are seeing what they are doing with him. Having him team up with R-truth is just not settling well with me. The same for Luke Harper to be honest. You guys all know how much of a fan I am of Harper. I've been watching he's work for years now, way before he came to the WWE and knowing how good he is in the ring, how amazing he is in the ring in fact, and seeing how poorly treated he is really does frustrate me. I'd really like to see both these guys in the main event picture and even a feud between the two of them. During this match we also had the current Intercontinental champion, Bad News Barrett at ringside witch I really liked of course. Who doesn't love having a Britt on commentary and especially when its that Brit is Barrett. The match itself wasn't the best of matches if I'm honest but to be fair I wasn't really expecting a lot. It started out pretty slow but with so much history with all these superstars and such a good build up heading into the Wrestlemania match it all came together well and made sense, for me it just felt a little repetitive and predictable. Harper did a great job and was a stand out throughout. He dominated a good chunk of the match keeping all eyes on him. I think he really will be the stand out this Sunday, he will be so in he's element in a ladder match and he does have a great history in a ladder matches witch will work in he's favour. Ambrose was another stand out last night also. Spending the most amount of time in the ring. He was the centre of a attention and the man the crowd spent most of the match chanting for. Stardust had he's moments but in the end it was R-truth who the win. To be fair he did need it the most and it was nice to see someone different get the win. A decent match, should of been a little longer but was key in the build up to their mania match. Dean dancing with Truth at the end was like an early birthday present.

Up next, we got a ten man tag team match with saw Erick Rowan, Ryback, Titus O'Neil, Darren Young, and Zack Ryder take on The Miz, Damien Sandow, The Ascension and Adam Rose. I get the whole point of this match. Promoting the Andre the giant memorial battle royal and some of the competitors was something we had to more than expect and it was nice seeing certain superstars get their moment before mania.Darren Young had a thew great spots. Some of you will know that I freaking love Darren Young, I think he's super underrated and the WWE have missed the ball with him quite a thew times. Zack Ryder also got he's moment witch was nice to see. I have to admit, it always feels a little strange seeing Ryder compete randomly. I'm gonna put it out their. I've never ever been a Ryder fan. I didn't like the idea of the Ascension being in the match. They were getting such a strong build up and really climbing the ladder in the tag division and things just don't seem to be going there way at the moment. To be fair nothing has been going their way since going up to the main roster but I still think they will be tag team champions by the end of the year. Ryback was the fan favourite in this match aside from Damien Mizdow/Sandow and in the end it was him who got the win for this match. We also had Bill Simmons on the commentary team for this match.

The next match saw Randy Orton take on he's opponent of the night chosen by the WWE universe
via the WWE app. The options provided were, Kane, the big show, or Seth Rollins and J&J Security, Taking 77% of the vote, Orton's challenge of the night was a three on one handicap match. I didn't think this was a terrible move. After all it could of been worse. It could of been Kane or the big show in the match witch would of caused me to exit the room for however long the match went on. I would of preferred to have seen both Orton and Rollins in separate one on one match to allow them to gain the momentum they both need heading into Mania. I thought this match was the perfect way of putting Rollins back on top and reminding everyone how dangerous he is and how strong he is with J&J Security by he's side. I think it was also a reminder that they will be at he's side this Sunday also and that Orton is gonna have to watch their every move as well while taking on Rollins. Of course, Mr Money in the bank spent most of the time outside of the ring, watching on and allowing Joey and Jamie take on the viper who dominated the match completely, scoring a quick win. In my opinion this just wasn't enough. We needed more added before Sunday. This match wasn't stronger enough in my opinion. We needed more in ring action from both off them before Wrestlemania.

Up next, divas action, as we saw on the pre show, Nikki announced she was giving out a divas championship match between either AJ Lee or Paige with the two having decided witch one will face her, in the end it would turn out to be Paige taking on the challenge. It was clear that the point of this match was to create some tensions between Paige and AJ before Wrestlemania this Sunday and allow some cracks to show between the two. You usually have to see me moan about the divas booking but I'm gonna be nice for a change, I actually thought this was great booking. It made sense, it worked with the feud, it was a strong addition to the build up of the Wrestlemania tag team match and the timing was perfect. Having a divas championship match on the go home show of RAW, only six days until the show itself, is a pretty big deal and it just works. It brought a lot more to the match and I liked how for once it was fairly unpredictable. It's not often I congratulate WWE for their booking. Plus I always love seeing championship matches on RAW. What I also found about this match was that it had a strange sense of importance witch we don't get very often in divas matches. I found it a little intense (for all the right reasons) and I kinda had the feeling of anything could happen at any moment. I know I have said it enough times, but Paige and Nikki  have put on some great matches and work really well together in the ring so I didn't rule this match out at all. It was also great hearing the commentary team talk about #GiveDivasAChance and really speak in more detail about the division, I have a huge problem with the announce team going completely off track and talking about everything apart from the divas match currently going on but we didn't get that last night witch was fantastic. Paige dominated this match very early on and had some great spots that really put her centre of attention. Personally, I really wanted to see a title change. I thought it would of made sense going into Wrestlemania and would of opened some interesting doors for the months to follow. I would of loved Paige to get the win, and take Nikki on in a rematch the night after mania to have Charlotte then make her debut and shake things up. That was the little dream scenario I had in my head anyway. Brie and AJ wee great addition outside of the ring and really kept the feel tot he match and kept it all alive. All round I thought this was a great match. Well put together, and we got some great moments. During the end of the match AJ mistook Paige for Nikki and accidentally hit Paige, allowing Nikki to get back on track and eventually get the ring. After the match, Paige and AJ had a little moment and took some anger out on each other, giving the Bella's exactly what they wanted. I'm not gonna lie, this match actually did it's job an got me excited for this match. It was great seeing a divas match on the main roster that was a good length, had great storytelling and progression and the crowd got into it.

We also got was surprisingly a pretty awesome segment between Curtis Axel and Snoop Dog. I was not expecting Hogan to make an appearance at all last night. I didn't even know he was booked for the show but I loved this. This was easily on of the best moments of the night for me. After that we got an interspecies rematch between Los Matadores and El Torito and the Tag team champions, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, and Natalya. I didn't like this match on Smackdown last week and I didn't like this match last night on RAW. I feel like the tag division in the WWE gets treated terribly and is just slacking at the moment. It was announced last night that there will be a fatal four way match for the tag team championships including Los Matadores, the current champs, The Usos and the new day. I really didn't like this decisions.  I saw it coming a long time ago but in my opinion I think it would of been a much better move to have just Cesaro and Kidd take on the Usos. They have great tensions and a strong history, it would of really worked and really made sense. The match last night was better than the one on Smackdown and I found it pretty funny that it was El Torito this time who pinned Natalya to get the win. The tag team title match will take place on the kick off show. It was then time for the match I was dreading the most last night; Rusev VS Jack Swagger. I will be honest I did not pay hardly any attention to this match at all. I'm sick and tired of the poor treatment of Jack Swagger. I say it way too often but he is such a talented superstar with a real strong gimmick that could allow him to do so much, yet they treat him like some kind of rookie and have him loose time and time again to a superstar who hasn't been on the main roster for a year. What I did see of this match surprisingly good, really good. Swagger got a lot offence and had some great spots but of course in the end it was not enough to put Rusev away and we got the predicable ending. And after the match Cena came to the aid of Swagger and got straight on the attack, with the two brawling. It was nice to see Rusev on top this time round. This feud really has been the making of Rusev. Great beat down and a really do addition to the show.

We then got yet another outstanding promo from Bray Wyatt where he once again teased the Undertaker and push their match even more. I have already said a thew times that this is the match I'm most looking forward to this weekend. Bray did a phenomenal job last night, cutting what was in my opinion the best promo of he's to date. The sounds of thunder, the special lighting, the sound in he's voice, the way he said every single word, everything was done to perfection. The passion in this promo was just amazing. Wyatt proved once and for all he is the strongest speaker on the roster.

We then had the second match witch involved the WWE universe, as Daniel Bryan went one on one with Dolph Ziggler with a special guest referee being decided on the WWE APP. The options for the special guest referee were all the other men involved in the Intercontinental championship ladder match so, Dean Ambrose, R-truth, Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper, and Stardust. Regardless of who was going to be the special guest referee we all knew this match was going to be the match of the night. They are two of the most popular, loved superstars in the WWE right now and have been for years. This match was guaranteed to be amazing. What topped it for me was Ambrose was voted as the special guest referee. Can I just say that Ambrose in that referee shirt made me die a little inside. and when I say a little I mean a lot. A heck of a lot. This match really did live up to the expectations. It was back and fourth and we had a really split crowd. These guys proved they were two of the best,

most talented superstars on the roster and they really did deserve to have their moment. This was hands down the match of the night and was a key match in the build up to the Wrestlemania ladder match. After the match we saw Ambrose turn on Ziggler and bring a ladder out witch caused all seven men to brawl until literally non of them were standing.

Finally, we had the on thing I had been waiting for all night. The face to face confrontation between the WWE World heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar and he's opponent for Wrestlemania thirty one, the number one contender, Roman Reigns. I really don't have to say this again, but Paul Heyman yet again cut a great promo and did the job in selling the Wrestlemania main event once again. This was one of those promos that made everyone realise just why they love Paul Heyman. When Roman Reigns made he's appearance that's when things started heat up. After Lesnar held he's title in the air Reigns grabbed it from him causing the biggest amount of tension in the night.  I was really disappointed with this. I was expecting a huge brawl but we just didn't get that at all but the face to face confrontation was much needed I just don't think it was well put together.

All round, I thought it was a decent show, it had some fantastic moments but parts of the show I think just took up valuable time. My second Wrestlemania prediction post will be up later today. You can let me know what you thought of last nights show and what your Wrestlemania predictions are by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

Wrestlemania Predictions: The Bellas VS Paige and AJ Lee