RAW Review and Reactions
Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good. Last night was of course the go home episode of Monday night RAW and after a packed, busy, and fun show I' back today with this weeks RAW Review and reactions. Personally I thought we actually got a really good RAW. I thought from start to finish we had some really good action. Great matches, strong segments, a change up in how things were done, and the booking all made sense. Last week I decided to bring back my RAW Review and Reactions post after taking a break from them for quite some time. I mentioned that these are not my favourite posts in the world but I do sometimes enjoy writing them and they do go down really well so I'm am going to try and upload these every single week at Tuesday at five o'clock UK time. I also want to mention that I won't be uploading any Fastlane prediction posts. I was planning on pre posting them last week but because I got so ill I never had the time or was feeling up to writing them. Instead I will be writing and uploading a Fastlane Review and Reactions post. I will start writing pay per view prediction posts starting with Wrestling as part of Wrestlemania season on my blog. As always the links to any recent blog posts will be listed bellow and you can let me know what you thought of lasts night's RAW and what your predictions are for Fastlane by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.
Setting out to make life as difficult as possible for Ambrose, Stephanie McMahon announced the opening match as a fatal five way with the Intercontinental Championship on the line. There was also one more little twist; if Reigns came out to help Ambrose or interrupt than Ambrose would be disqualified and no longer apart of the Fastlane triple threat main event. Perfect. Honestly I loved everything about the first thirty minuets of last nights' show. To start off with, they didn't waste any time with any boring over done segment. For once they skipped the crap, kept it basic and jumped right into a fantastic match that was so well booked. The four contenders would be Stardust, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Tyler Breeze. My big issue I have matches like these is superstar relevance. This is something I moan about and bring up even with triple threat and fatal four ways. In matches like these there is always at least one superstar who doesn't belong in the match. Who is just there and this one was a big match with a championship on the line. Five contenders is a lot of wrestlers in one match and all of them having a place in this match was never going to happen. There was a clear link between Ambrose, Owens, and Ziggler. Ambrose and Owens have a lot of history, working a great feud less than a month ago, and of course more recently we have seen a feud kick start between Owens and Ziggler. So they all had a place and all felt relevant in the match. The same can't be said for Breeze and Stardust, especially Stardust anyway. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post talking about how I felt Tyler Breeze is being misused and is heading in the direction of becoming the next Dolph Ziggler (that will also be linked bellow) and so what I will say about last night is this is the type of match I was talking about. This is the type of booking I was claiming was exactly what Breeze needed. I and everyone else new he was never going to walk away as the Intercontinental Champion last night but the fact he was booked in such a great match that generated so much attention and allowed him the time to shine meant that this is exactly what he needed and exactly what I was talking about. Throughout the match Breeze had several stand out moments that gave him some time in the spotlight. Nothing of course that truly touched what we saw of him back in NXT but he had a handful of moments that really forced everyone to pay attention to him. He may have been the one to take the fall but if the WWE continue to book him in stronger matches like this than things can only slowly get better for him. He was the one superstar who walked into this match with a tactic, with a plan and while it didn't work it was obvious.Stardust for me did nothing out there or anything that grabbed my attention. Yes, don't get me wrong there were a couple of good shots but he had no place or relevance in this match what so ever. The main stars were of course Ambrose, Owens, and Ziggler as expected. Owens for me was the stand out. He made he's presences known focusing he's attentions on every single superstar in this match. He made sure he was the centre of attention and in the end it paid off as Owens picked up a huge winning pining Breeze to become the new and two time Intercontinental Champion. I wasn't expecting a title change last night and despite loving Ambrose as champion I thought it was a great idea. Now that Ambrose no longer has the intercontinental Championship there isn't anything holding him back and that is exactly the message the WWE wanted to send and we all know that Owens is a fantastic champion. What they do wit him is going to be pretty amazing over the next thew months. The match itself last night was an amazing kick start to the show. We had some great action here and I'm sure it will go down as one of my personal favourites of the month.
The New Day are without a doubt still the most entertaining things in the WWE right now. I will honestly never ever get bored of them. Never. Ever. I could sit down in bed, watching the New Day all day long without any problems. Last night it was announced that at Fastlane this coming Sunday the tag team champions will special guest for an edition of the cutting edge peep show. I seriously, cannot wait for this. We saw what greatness the New day and Edge and Christian can put on when they are put together. We are putting together two of the most charismatic and entertaining tag teams in WWE history, we are bound to get something very very special this weekend between these five guys. It's also nice to see the WWE continue to use the New day so well and keep them booked so strongly. I kinda of like the idea of them not defending their championships at Fastlane and doing something a little different. Of course the main reason they are doing this instead of a tag team match is because there is only one baby face tag team right now, the Usos and their busy working a new feud with the Dudley Boyz. I'm not going to include Sin Cara and Kalisto because we know that Kalisto is working great on he's own as the United States Champion. But like I said, I love the plan for the New Day for the Fastlane pay per view. Last night they cut another entertaining promo before Big E took on Mark Henry. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this match. There was a reason for this match, thats right, booking that actually made sense! and the two superstars worked well together. Kofi and Xavier Woods played their parts perfectly and it all came together well. We saw Big E focus on the ribs of Mark Henry that fell into place during the closing moments of the match. There were some great moments for both Henry and Big E throughout the match but once again, it was all about the New Day and Big E is continuing to be one of my favourite WWE superstars today.
Th past week has been very emotional for Brie Bella. In face the past month has been emotional for Brie Bella. With her sister having neck surgery, her husband Daniel Bryan retiring, and a big divas championship match under her belt, there has been a lot for the former champion to face and last night she came out to address the WWE universe in an exclusive interview. I will admit, I'm not the biggest Brie Bella fan but I will also admit that I do think she has come so far in the past couple of years and has improved massively both on the mic and in the ring. She's actually, in my eyes, walking into her Fastlane championship match as a serious threat to Charlotte. The first month or so of the divas revolution storyline last year proved just how capable Brie is in the ring. Last night Charlotte of course interrupted Brie, pushing her buttons and string the pot witch only lit a fire in Brie even more. It's clear that she is walking into this match with a lot of emotion and the little segment last night was a great way to allow the WWE universe to gain interest, I know I for one am actually now looking forward to seeing what these two women have to offer in their match this weekend. There have been rumours over the past twenty four hours or so that this could be Brie's last match in the WWE and if so then I hope she gets to have a great showing and the time to really put on a fantastic match because she is one hundred per cent capable of it.
Throughout the past couple of weeks I have seriously been invested in the feud between Chris
Jericho, AJ Styles, and the Miz. I know I moan about the Miz a lot and he has had a harsh past thew years but we all seem to forget that he is a seriously fantastic performer. He's a great wrestler, amazing speaker, solid character, and has had he's moment. He has main evented Wrestlemania, he has been world champion, he has faced some of the biggest and best names of the past decade and I have felt over the past couple of weeks that he has find himself involved in something that is actually seriously entertaining and fun to watch. Working with AJ Styles and Chris Jericho is exactly what The Miz should be doing. He can easily pull of fantastic match up and I admitted last week how I think the three superstars could deliver a phenomenal triple threat that could easily be Wrestlemania quality. I actually really do hope that we get that at some point but I won't be getting my hopes up any time soon. It has however of course been very refreshing seeing him get some well deserved good attention. Last night Miz did take on AJ Styles one on one in a solid match. I would have liked to have seen them go at it a little longer just because I think with more time this could have been something very very special but they did work well together last night and it was refreshing (totally over using that word today) to see the Miz compete in a good match with a serious contender. He had some strong moments throughout and held he's own well but in the end AJ Styles was of course the one who picked up the victory. Throughout the match Chris Jericho was seated at commentary over viewing the match and adding he's input, commenting on he's previous two matches against the phenomenal one himself. Just like everyone else I am really enjoying the work between Styles and Jericho. It's a dream to see them feud and competed both with and against one another and I think it's the perfect first major feud with Styles in the WWE. So far everything these two have done has been gold and we haven't even truly scratched the surface with what these two can really do to one another. After picking up he's win against the Miz, Styles requested a third one on one match up between him and Jericho to take place at Fastlane this weekend but Jericho left Styles and the WWE universe hanging claiming that he would give an awnser this coming Thursday on Smackdown. Check out my Smackdown Review on Friday to see what I have to say about the developments there.
Last week the Dudley Boyz finally had their heel turn when they attacked the Usos after teaming up together to take on the New Day and Mark Henry. Just like everyone else, I did not see it coming last week at all but I loved the turn so so much! I have wanted to see the Dudley Boyz turn heel for a very long time now. I and everyone else knows thats they are bloody amazing heels and there is so much more they could do today as heels. Turning on the Usos last weeks was so well timed, so unexpected and so well done. It's been quite some time since I have been interested in a storyline the Usos are involve in but I am sitting here genuinely excited and interested to see where this is going to go and how this is going to develop over the next couple of months or so. The promo last night from the Dudley Boyz was right up my street. I loved every single second of it. I was hanging on their every word and I was genuinely interested in the whole thing. The tag team divsion is slowly heading in the right direction. The one thing they do need is more teams and more importantly more baby face teams.
Divas action next and as Paige made her return to the ring the former two time divas champion took was set to take on Summer Rae. Now, I am someone who has been watching NXT pretty much from the start and so seeing these two compete against one another always takes me back to their NXT feud all those years back. If you have no idea what I'm talking about I advise you to go and do some research. A couple of weeks back I wrote a blog post where I was talking about underrated and underutilised superstars and divas (will be liked bellow) and Summer Rae was one of those talents to feature in that blog post. You will all probably know by now that I'm very passionate about how badly the WWE have been using Summer Rae. I'm always banging on about the fact that I hate how she has only been used as eye candy and to stand by the side of WWE superstars throughout most of her career. If you have seen her work in NXT and paid enough attention to her then you would know that she has a lot of potential and I mean a lot of potential! It felt so good seeing her compete last night and the fact that I can sit here and say that this match was all about Summer makes me very very happy. She went out there last night and she owned it. The crowd were pretty weak and the match wasn't the most exciting or fast paced but Summer proved she had some skill and serious potential. She took control straight away wasting no time what so ever and set her eyes firmly on a big victory and that is exactly what she got. I will admit I was very very surprised to see her actually get the win. I was expecting Paige to get the victory for all the obvious reasons but this win is a huge step forward for Summer and I'm hopeing that her days in the back are over and she is finally getting the attention she deserves. It was a short match but an important one for Summer. The two women have great history and good chemistry so I'm hopeing we get more from them in the up and coming weeks.
Paul Heyman made an appearance next so of course I was all ears. Whenever Heyman makes an appearance and is holding a mic my TV has all my attention. You just know your in for some gold. Las night, Heyman wasted no time as usual, he called Roman Reigns, one of the three men competing in the triple threat match this weekend and one of the two men facing Heyman's client, Brock Lesnar at Fastlane on Sunday. Now, I love Paul Heyman and a Heyman promo/segment as much as the next person but this was a very obvious segment last night. It was what we had all heard time and time before. There was nothing really said last night that we haven't heard before but yes, it did add to the hype of Fastlane and that big main event. Heyman continued to stir it up between Reigns and Ambrose, Claiming that Reigns had to choose between family or friendship. It was either Ambrose or Reigns' family. Once again, I love the little work we are seeing with the Authority and Heyman pushing this "thing" between Reigns and Ambrose. Dean really is being used and pushed right and the story between them is so strong and so entertaining. Last night, Roman kept he's cool better than ever. He didn't show any signs of an issue between himself and Ambrose. After shaking the hand of Paul Heyman out of nowhere the Dudley Boys attacked Reigns witch of course meant that it was only a matter of time before Ambrose would come to he's brothers aid and even up the numbers. I'm not going to lie, I liked this. With the Dudleys going in a new direction as heels this is exactly what we needed to see from them. But this wasn't about the Dudleys. This was about Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns and after Ambrose attempted to hit dirty deeds on Reigns unexpectedly, he made it clear that he's going to have to be a lot faster than that if he wants to make it to Wrestlemania. The peace might still be kept between these two at the moment but what unwinds this Sunday will be special as it's every man for himself.
The social outcast were in action next as Heath Slater went one on one with Zack Ryder. I'm not gonna lie, I'm loving the idea of the social outcast. No, I can't take them seriously at all but they are so entertaining and together they all just work. It's like the wrestling version of the Inbetweeners. I love it and I'm definitely going to get one of those shirts when pay day rolls around. The match last night was of course short lived. I wasn't expecting much at all but it's nice to see the four of them and even Zack Ryder get some TV time and for Slater to get a victory.
It was six man tag team action next as Adrian Neville teamed up with the Lucha Dragons to take on Rusev, Sheamus, and Alberto Del Rio, the League of Nations. With Sheamus' recent injury I wasn't expecting him to be in action last night but of course I was happy to see that he was. The booking last night made sense. It wasn't completely out of the blue and stupid. Kalisto is set to defend the United States championship against Alberto Del Rio this weekend at Fastlane and so it made sense but the booking wasn't much different last week. I think I would have preferred to have seen Kalisto compete in a solo match gain some much needed momentum and Del Rio in he's own singles match for the same reason. The League of nations spent a great deal of time dominating and in control of this match with Sheamus really showing how barbaric and ruthless he is taking it to Kalisto big time giving the champ a slow beat down. But the high flying team of the lucha Dragons and and Neville kept the League of nations on their feet and looking up with bodies quite literally flying everywhere. Now, the ending to this match was unexpected for me. A very very impressive victory for Del Rio as he picked up even more momentum sending a clear message ahead of he's match up against Kalisto this up and coming Sunday.
We then had the third, yes third, divas segment of the night as Naomi went one on one with Becky Lynch. If you guys haven't seen the one on one match up between Naomi and Sasha Banks from last week then I seriously advise you to go check it out because it was really something special. I'm one of the many people who really wanted to see those two women compete against one another and they did not disappoint what so ever last Thursday. This feud between Naomi and Tamina and Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch is honestly the most interested I have been in a main roster divas storyline in a very long time. However saying that, the Divas division is actually pretty strong right now. The storyline's are interesting and pretty entertaining so maybe I should just come the writers some slack for one night. Now, if you give Becky Lynch and Naomi around fifteen minuets in the ring together they could easily put on a great match up but despite how long they would actually have, I was interested to see what they would bring and what they would put on together. The expectations were pretty high. After, their confrontation backstage as shown before the match up, Becky Lynch was more than ready for this match and wasted no time getting straight into things and taking control but it didn't last long with Naomi getting right back into the ring and feeding Becky a bunch of kicks. Throughout the match these two divas did not disappoint at all. It was a short lived match that saw Becky pick up a much needed win. Both divas received a strong reaction but there is only one diva right now that is truly over with the fans. One certain diva the crowd wanted to see, the boss, Sasha Banks who did eventually make an appearance witch put a great big smile on my face thats for sure. I honestly cannot wait for this match on Sunday. I have high expectations and I'm really hopeing they get the time and the spotlight to showcase what they can do. All four of these women deserve it.
Throughout the past month or so the Wyatt family have been building so much momentum. We have seen them take out several WWE superstars over the past thew weeks including Kane and Brock Lesnar and we have seen some phenomenal, literally, phenomenal promos. Last night we saw Braun Strowman main event RAW as he took on the Big Show. I will be honest, I aint sold on Strowman yet. I don't know what it is, but I just have not connected with him yet at all. He's clearly a beast of a man and has loads of potential but I think because we never saw him in NXT and don't know much about him and what he can do I just haven't connected with him yet. But he has been very impressive, I'll give him that and the WWE are clearly very high on him and have some big plans for him. The Wyatts getting the main event picture of a go home RAW of a pay per view they are not featuring in is a pretty big deal but they really deserve it. I said it last week but I do think this is exactly what they need and have needed for a while.Their on a serious high right now and I don't see them coming
down for some time. Last night the Wyatts cut yet another great promo that left me on the edge of my seat listening closely to every single word that came out of their mouths. I still amazes me just how amazingly talented Bray is on the mic. He still manages to leave me speechless. It's insane. Last night Strowman was impressive. These are two huge huge superstars and so it was always going to be a battle of power and strength over wrestling ability. The boring chants did piss me off a little, fans crave and demand something new and we get something different and they moan. I know some people hated the main event last night but I really liked it. No, it wasn't a fantastic match but it had a meaning behind it, a story and I personally was very interested. Plus it amused me hearing "lets go big show" chants. The match of course was very very short and ended in DQ. Ryback and Kane soon both came to the aid of the big show, making the numbers a little more even as it became a clash of titans as some of the biggest superstars in the WWE collided. An interesting ending but yeah I liked it.
I actually thought this was a great episode of RAW. I honestly really really enjoyed it. I thought it was one of the best RAW's of the year so far. We had some great matches, good segments, the bookings made sense, we had really strong start to the show and a different, refreshing ending to the nigh so I can't complain. Next Monday I'm going to try my best to write and upload my Fastlane review and reactions posts so make sure to keep an eye out for that. Of course you can let me know what you thought of lasts nights RAW and what your predictions are for Sunday's Fastlane pay per view by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.
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