Ross' Raw Review 09/06/15 or 06/09/15
I'm gonna be honest and say that this is the first full Raw I've watched in a long time. I think the last time was in October last year. The three hour Raws were just becoming so tiring and since then I've only been watching the highlights on YouTube, but now that I'm reviewing again I'm gonna have to start watching the whole thing again.
I'm not expecting much from the show although it is the go-home show for Money in the Bank so we might get some desperate selling. I'm also hoping to see our Lord and Saviour, Kevin Owens taking someone out, whilst we wait for our other Lord and Saviour, Brock Lesnar to return.
Better get started.
And we're starting off with John Cena. Well it's better than the Authority anyway. Byron Saxton is replacing Booker T tonight. Oh joy. Trading shucky ducky quack quack for a boring bastard. Great.
The hard selling begins quickly with Cena promoting the MITB ladder match on Sunday as well as his rematch with Owens. We get the usual Cena schtick as he says he also fights for those who chant 'Cena sucks' which starts a half-assed chant from the crowd. Thankfully that brings out Owens. Why is Owens even in a rematch? He proved himself against Cena.
Owens says what we're all thinking and says that we're all tired of Cena coming out at the start of Raw. And he also wants to issue an NXT Open Challenge right now instead of a US one. Hell yeah! Cena agrees and tries to accept the challenge. Owens calls him delusional and Cena cuts a promo. Cena starts his US Open Challenge. Owens isn't interested and wants the next wrestler to come down to choose which Title he wants to fight for.
That brings out Neville. Neville's had awesome matches with both of these guys so I'm fine with either. Neville chooses Owens and it looks like the match is happening right now! The promos didn't really go anywhere but this match should be good.
Kevin Owens vs Neville
The NXT Title is on the line. This'll be Owens first official Raw match then. I'm pretty sure Owens was the one that put Neville out of commission in NXT so I don't know why they didn't use that as a small backstory that could have made it a bit more interesting. This was a great match with Owens getting to show his dominance while Neville got to show off his high flying skills. There was some great drama towards the end as it looked like Neville would hit the Red Arrow, but Owens got the better of him and retained the gold. ***1/2
Owens invites Cena into the ring and then leaves the ring holding the NXT belt up high. Great way to kick off the show.
We get a recap of the Ambrose/Rollins match at Elimination Chamber. I know I've not reviewed that show so here's the quick ratings.
Tag Team Chamber: ***1/2
Divas Title Match: *1/2
Cena vs Owens: ****3/4
Bo Dallas vs Neville: **
Intercontinental Chamber: *1/2 (Worst Chamber match ever, so congrats to the ECW Chamber finally being beaten)
Rollins vs Ambrose: ****
Rollins is backstage embarrassed by the fact that Ambrose is parading around with his WWE Title belt. Rollins is looking for help from HHH and Stephanie and they aren't interested in giving it due to what Rollins said last week about not needing anyone's help. Rollins is allowed to pick his own opponent tonight.
We get a recap of last week's Divas Title match with the stupid twin magic move even though Brie barely looks the same as Nikki anymore. Good god just bring in the NXT women already.
We're getting Nikki vs Summer Rae tonight. You can just hear my excitement can't you?
Summer Rae vs Nikki Bella
Nikki starts doing press ups in the ring for no reason. I've seen a lot of people praising the Bellas for improving but I don't see much improvement, and while the NXT girls exist, they are always going to look like low level workers in comparison. The match here was about a minute long and not much happened until the finish with Nikki hitting the rack attack. 1/4*
We get a recap of all three of Reigns' matches last week where Bray Wyatt took a completely unnecessary loss.
Roman Reigns is here but not for action, just to talk. Reigns once hated that briefcase but now it doesn't seem so bad and he wants to cash in against Ambrose once he beats Rollins. Yeah Reigns is totally winning this thing. This brings out Kane to explain his place in the MITB match. Why the hell is Kane in there? Wasn't there anyone more entertaining available? Speaking of entertaining, here's Dolph Ziggler. He's here to insult Kane with tool jokes.
After Kane talks back to Ziggler (more tool references) out comes R-Truth even though he's not in the match. Weird comedic moment there. And here comes the New Day. I love these guys. The power of positivity will lead Kingston to the top of the ladder to retrieve the briefcase. Before Kane can comment, out comes Sheamus. He's one Brogue Kick away from winning the briefcase.
Finally we have Randy Orton. And we cut to an ad break. Freaking weird segment. I'm not sure that it accomplished anything except to tell us who's in the MITB match on Sunday.
Randy Orton vs Sheamus
This is a rematch from last week where we got a shitty DQ finish. And in this rematch we yet again get almost the exact same finish except it's Orton hitting Sheamus with the chair. Up until that finish though the match was going good with some nice finisher countering towards the end. **1/4
We get more Instagram pictures from Ambrose going around the town with the belt.
J&J Security want to go back to Rollins but Rollins ain't having it. Jamie goes on a tirade about Seth and even calls the team Shield 2.0. Rollins picks J&J for his opponents tonight.
Kane vs Dolph Ziggler
Neither guy got entrances here. For goodness sake just let Kane have his mask and gear back. He looks ridiculous with work trousers on and I just cannot get used to it. The crowd's more interested in Lana than the match. Ziggler is distracted by Lana falling off the stage thanks to Rusev and takes a chokeslam from Kane to take the loss. Boring match. *1/2
God three hours is just way too long for this show. I'm bored already and next up we have Miz TV. Oh no.
Here's Miz TV with Ryback and Big Show. It has the potential to be a fun power match at MITB. Ryback says if he fought Miz last week he would have taken years off his career. Shoot comments that aren't supposed to be shoot comments everyone! I'm sure CM Punk would've laughed at that. Ryback's actually not too bad on the mic. I'm kinda looking forward to this match now. Miz is an idiot and tries to attack Show which earns him a beating, and Ryback hits an impressive Shell Shock on Show. Not a bad segment at all.
Harper & Rowan vs Los Matadores
Well I wonder who's going to be winning this one? Basically just a squash match here to put Harper & Rowan over here. When did they start using the 3D as a finisher? They need to bring the Dudleys back for a match with them. 1/2*
Kane is backstage with Rollins and tells him that he'll cash in his MITB briefcase on either Ambrose or Rollins to become the new champion. He's also going to be in J&J's corner tonight.
Titus O'Neil vs Big E
I like a good power match. By the way why is Xavier credited as one half of the Tag Champs? Is the Freebird rule a thing now? Pretty fun match while it lasted but it was only two minutes long. Big E hits the Big Ending after a distraction from the rest of New Day for the win. *1/4
No time to celebrate though because here comes Roman Reigns,
Roman Reigns vs Kofi Kingston
It feels like they're just trying to race through these matches tonight. Kofi's a good pinball for a big guy like Reigns. Xavier's reactions outside the ring are just awesome. Good match here as Kofi got in a lot more offense than I was expecting and I liked the finish with Reigns hitting the Superman Punch while Kofi was in the air. Good stuff. ***
Reigns grabs a seat and here comes Dean Ambrose as a member of the audience, with a huge bag of popcorn and a drink in tow.
Seth Rollins vs J&J Security
I was kind of hoping that J&J would have found some ring gear, but their stuck looking silly in their suits just like Kane. Joey Mercury still has some moves! A weird match but it was kind of fun with J&J trying everything to beat Rollins, but it took the distraction of Ambrose to roll up Rollins for the upset win. **
This Raw started off amazingly well with Cena, Owens and Neville, but it took a major nosedive after that and didn't really become good until the Reigns/Kingston match and a surprisingly fun main event. Not a good Raw as there was just way too much crap and filler, and not enough good stuff.
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