RAW Review and Reactions

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well. Last night was the official go home show for this Sunday's first ever, Fastlane pay per view. To be fair it was a much much better show than last week. The booking was stronger and made more sense. The attention was put on the other storyline's/ feuds for this weekends show and altogether it was a better three hours in my opinion. I mentioned last week that I feel like the WWE need to start paying attention to their other storyline's apart from the main event one and they did that last night while still adding extra heat to the main event picture with Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. I did think that we would see an NXT Star debut, mainly because they were in Florida, but that was only the major let down to be honest. Today, I will be recapping everything that happened last night and what I thought of it all. Remember that my Fastlane predictions have already started going up and the links to the two that have already gone up will be listed bellow. Wrestlemania season has also started on my blog and the links to the recent post in that series will also be bellow so you can go and check all that out. Finally, you can let me know what you though of last nights show ad what you would like to see in Wrestlemania season by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.


As announced on the pre- show, John Cena opened the show witch you will be surprised to hear, I was actually really happy about. I think I have to sit through another Authority or Roman Reigns/Daniel Bryan opening, I would throw something at my TV. I keep saying how important I think it is that the WWE start paying more attention to their other feud/storyline's going on, instead of putting almost all their attention on the main even work, witch of course is currently all about Reigns and Daniel Bryan. So it was nice seeing the show open, focusing on a separate feud. As Cena addressed the WWE universe and of course, he's Fastlane opponent, Rusev, he told everyone he was going to win he's match this Sunday and become the new United States champion. When Rusev and Lana made an appearance we saw the tensions really rise once again and for the second time in two Cena had a good old fashioned brawl with the super athlete. The link to my Fastlane prediction post for this match will be listed bellow, but I mentioned in that blog post that I think it's really important Rusev get's a clean loss this weekend, find out why in my prediction post. The brawl last night ended in a very aggressive Cena the last man standing,  with the United States Championship in he's heads above the 15 time world champions head. Hopefully, this means that he will get the clean loss at Fastlane.


Dean Ambrose VS Luke Harper
The first match of the night saw Dean Ambrose go one on one with Luke Harper in a nice little CZW flashback. I'm really glad this match went ahead, I predicted in my RAW Predictions post earlier on in the night (the link to that post will be bellow). I'm a huge fan of both of these guys as you all already know by now. I'm always saying how there are so many amazing heels in the back that the WWE could use more and Harper is one of them. Together, the two really do put on some great matches and you can see they would have an amazing feud, hopefully we will see it come to life at some point. I'm also hoping that in the next couple of months Harper will get a big push. I'm always commenting on how I think he's a top main event star quality. He's one of the most talented and diverse superstars on the whole roster and as soon as they get him in a solid feud he really will shine that little bit more, even though he always impresses whenever he's in the ring. A good mood for Harper would probably be for him to win the Andre the giant battle Royal at Wrestlemania. I'll be taking more about that throughout Wrestlemania season. Last night, Ambrose intentions were fully on getting Bad News Barrett to sign a contract for an intercontinental championship match at Fastlane. I would of liked this match to be a little longer, mainly because I could watch these two wrestle all night long, but it was much longer than I thought it was going to be and it was Ambrose who walked away with the victory.


The New day VS Gold and Stardust
Tag team action next, and with Dusty Rhodes backstage, he's sons went to the ring to try and resolve

their problems as they took on the new day members, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. This of course was a nice little short match to push the growing feud between the Dust brothers. I'm still hoping this will all just lead to Stardust realising he's gone crazy and we get Cody back. As for Goldust I still do think this could either be on of the last feuds in the WWE or he's actual retirement feud, witch would make sense anyway. Towards the end of the match, we star Stardust once again cost him and he's brother a win and when the match ended we finally saw Stardust actually let out all he's anger when he attacked Goldust when he hit the signature maneuver of a certain Mr Cody Rhodes.


Roman Reigns VS Kane 
Up next, Roman Reigns took on Kane in a one on one match up. I think I speak for the entire WWE universe when I say, I'm beyond bored of all this Daniel Bryan, Kane, Roman Reigns, and Big show drama. All they did was switch the opponents around, and it was honestly painful sitting through this match. To be fair, it wasn't a terrible match and the fact that Bryan was at commentary causing all types of trouble, I think was the main reason I was able to watch the whole match and pay attention. Throughout the match, Bryan would try he's best to distract Reigns and get the live crowds attention by instigating the "YES" chant repetitively.  As I said, the match wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but because I was so bored of the same matches It was hard to be interested at all. I really do think the WWE should start using more of their other heels in the back just like they did with Harper earlier on in the night. In the end it was Reigns got the win but only by count out and even after the match Bryan continued with the mind games as the Yes chants carried on going strong.


Paige VS Summer Rae
Divas action next, and number one contender for the divas championship, Paige, once again took on Summer Rae. You would of seen last week on Smackdown that the two went one on one and after watching them perform against each other in the ring when they were both down in NXT, I wasn't complaining about the match at all. We all know how talented Paige is, she wouldn't be a two time divas champion if she wanted extremely talented but I do also think we need to pay more attention to Summer Rae. She's a really talented women and clearly has a passion for what she does. Since arriving in the WWE she has just been getting better and better and has used everything the WWE have to offer to better herself. I think where they are going wrong is with the fact she's a heel, she makes a good heel don't get me wrong, but I do think she would make a much better baby face. The match last night was longer than usual and we got to see them both show quite a bit but in the end it was Paige who go the win once again at the end of the match she and the divas champion, Nikki, exchanged a thew last words before they go one one this Sunday at Fastlane.


Dolph Ziggler VS Seth Rollins
It was then the return of the Dolph Ziggler/ Seth Rollins matches. The WWE did go through a stage when we getting match after match against these two and the fact is, is there amazingly talented superstars, two of the best on the roster even, but I really do wish we had a little more diversity with the booking. Seth Rollins VS Erick Rowan would of been completely different but it would of been a great match, given the right amount of time and would of been just what Rowan needed. Anyway, the match we got was of course a great one. These guys could wrestle all night long and keep us entertained. They have great chemistry in the ring and know how to entertain a crowd both as heels and baby faces. After J&J Security tried to get involved  they were sent to the back  and it was left for the two to carry on going at it. As the match went on and got even better it would of course end in DQ when J&J security came back out and attacked Ziggler. We later in the night found out that on Smackdown this week it will be Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins, one on one with J&J Security banned from ring side.


Last night also saw a segment between Triple H and Ric Flair, witch of course was all centred around Sting and Fastlane. I thought this was a really nice touch to the Triple H/ Sting feud and really did work in getting me even more excited for their confrontation this weekend. We also saw the return of Darren Young. Yes, you guessed it right, I was beyond happy to see Darren Young back in action but as they were set to take on The Ascension, out of nowhere, Titus O'Neil came out to save Young and it turnt out to be a Prime time players reunion, witch made no sense considering they hated each other the last time Young was in action. Bad News Barrett also got a win over Damien Sandow/Mizdow, witch all came down to the help of the Miz. Throughout the match, Miz would repeatability stop Damien from being able to compete, in the end the distraction was enough for Barrett to score the win. But it wasn't enough to keep Ambrose away, as after the match the Lunatic fringe tied the IC champ to the post by the wrist and forced him to sign the contract. Only Dean Ambrose could be a baby face and do that. We then had one half of the tag team champions, Jimmy Uso, team up with wife Naomi to face Tyson Kidd and he's wife Natalya. This was actually a pretty good match and the

divas were in control. Naomi and Natalya are two of the most talented divas on the roster and I was so happy to see them get some attention for a change and in the end it was Naomi who managed to pin Nattie for the win. This Sunday the Usos will defend the Tag team championships against Tyson Kidd and Cesaro.



It was finally main event time and Daniel Bryans turn to take centre stage when he took on the Big show. Of course, Reigns was on commentary and decided to play Bryan at he's own game distracting both him and the live crowd. Throughout the match he would sign autographs, take seflie's and acknowledged the crowd. I'm going to be honest, it kills me to admit that slowly Reigns is turning my opinion in him around. He's clearly working really hard to improve in the ring, on the mic and with he's character and he's doing a great job recently, really selling he's Fastlane match. The one thing that did annoy about the end of this match was the fact Roman got involved and cost Bryan the win as it ended in DQ. This of course led to a collision between Daniel and Reigns witch later escalated into an all out brawl, witch went down really well with me. I do think this was a great way to end the show and add last minuet heat to their Fastlane matches.

RAW Predictions
Fastlane Predictions