Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
The "dance contest" was ok for setting up Jericho vs. Fandango. Not really my cup of tea, BUT maybe the match on Sunday will make up for it.
Same old, same old: Ryback gets the win in dominant fashion. Makes sense going into Sunday. I wish he would have gotten a promo before the match, but maybe he'll get something later?
I was all set to write something about PTP continuing their losing streak. Nice change of pace with that ending. I don't see it really leading to anything big for the NXT alumni, but who knows?
Swagger vs. Del Rio in an "I Quit" match could be INCREDIBLE. Wow. Fine segment overall.
New U.S. Champion coming on Sunday? I wouldn't be surprised.
Fine Sandow promo. The sooner they make me forget about him singing, the better.
Good little match. I wouldn't have minded this going longer, since PTP vs. Tons of Funk wasn't really that important (unless they get a match on Sunday).
I remember my jimmies being all sorts of rustled when JBL beat Guerrero in that Bullrope match. Pretty genius ending actually. One of my favorite "heel gets lucky" finishes, behind the Barbed Wire Steel Cage match between JBL and Big Show.
Not a bad segment setting up the Strap match. I hope there's some nice action in there, because it's kind of a silly gimmick.
Orton vs. Cesaro wasn't bad. As always, I wish Cesaro looked better in defeat.
Why is Miz facing Cody Rhodes? Who makes these matches? There's hardly any story anymore. It's just "Here's another match". All they had to do was interview Miz backstage about returning and have Rhodes interrupt him or something.
Fine match to re-establish Miz. Of course, it did nothing to set up the match on Sunday. They could have had Kofi face Heath and Miz face Sandow to add some story to the matches.
I got pretty worried there that Cena was going to beat all 3 Shield members clean. That was an ok compromise, I guess. I think I would have preferred Ryback coming in and leading to Cena taking a triple powerbomb or something. To me, the main point of most TV matches is to continue stories leading to PPV matches (or at least more important TV matches).
The post-match was fine by me. I still want to see Ryback hire The Shield and win the WWE Title on Sunday. I'm sure people would complain about it copying Aces and Eights or something, but it could be a pretty good story to elevate some new talents who have potential.
Fine Ryback promo. A little weird that they didn't end the show with that match and post-match. It's short-sighted in my eyes to put more focus on HHH vs. Lesnar than Cena vs. Ryback since HHH and Lesnar will probably disappear for a while after Sunday. At the very least, they're not full-time guys. WWE needs to be able to sell PPVs in months when they don't have the likes of HHH and Lesnar, and neither of those guys work any live events. I'm not faulting them for their schedules. I'm faulting WWE for not "doing right" by their full-timers.
Swagger vs. Big E was fine to kill some time and move us closer to Sunday.
Fine post-match.
Why do we need all those people at the announce table? 3 announcers and 1 guest is often too much as it is.
Fine little Divas' match. I like that there was more to it than just a wrestling match. It further set up Kaitlyn vs. AJ and the "crush" story.
Another post-match that made sense.
Glad that Jericho is serious now. I'm hoping for a good match on Sunday leading to a big moment for Fandango.
I really don't like the mentality that HHH and Lesnar are more important than the "regulars" and current champs. Both guys are great and I enjoy seeing them. I just think WWE needs to have more faith in guys like Cena, Ryback, Del Rio, Swagger, and The Shield.
That ending segment was all kinds of badass. I think it was worthy of ending the show, as short-sighted as that mentality is.
More wrestling coming up.
I was also a bit surprised that PTP got the win. For them to get a win on the flagship show of Raw after being booked so poorly on virtually every other show, that's a feather in their cap. You made a good point in that we have no idea what this means in a very confusing tag team division. We'll see what amounts from it, if anything.
ReplyDeleteI am also a bit confused on the Miz vs Rhodes match. I'm not a big fan of matches with no real storyline associated to them. My guess is that since Miz is "returning" and has been billed to challenge Barrett again for the IC Title, they're trying to make him look strong and gain credibility with a large audience. I see him winning against Rhodes (although I think Rhodes should win).
I'm very glad Jericho showed that ruthless side instead of the more watered-down comedic side. Given, he's got the charisma to pull off funny segments and comedy is fun in certain instances, but with him getting up-ended by Fandango numerous times and at the biggest wrestling event out there, he needs to get serious. I hope he can be booked to pull off a victory. Lord knows he deserves it.
What are your predictions for the PPV? Are you aiming to have a prediction post?
Management could have just been throwing them a bone since they lose so much. The match itself felt kind of out-of-nowhere. WWE Creative has got to be one of the most frustrating jobs out there. The vibe seems to be that Vince will just swoop in and change things all the time whether it makes sense to do so or not.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense from that perspective. Since I do see things as more "entertainment" than sport, I like for there to be storyline reasons for more matches. This is something TNA is doing very well lately. It rarely feels like they're just throwing a match out there that has no purpose. It's insane how different their Creative approach is from previous teams and from current WWE. WWE used to plan pretty long-term, but these days that's not really the case. Though to be fair, they have a lot more TV time to fill and a lot more people to keep track of than "back in the day".
Jericho's one of my all-time favorites and I have tons of respect for him, but I hope they don't kill Fandango's momentum. I see some similarities between Fandango and Jericho's early WCW/WWF career in that they have to be careful not to sabotage Fandango by feeding him to an already established act (like Jericho leaving WCW rather than just become more fodder for Goldberg). I think it's worth taking a chance to see how far Fandango can go. If Jericho makes short work of him, he becomes a flash in the pan. Fandango could very well fizzle in time and be a punchline in the history of wrestling, but WWE should be trying to avoid that.
The way I see it, Jericho's a future Hall of Famer no matter what. As long as he can still "deliver", most fans aren't going to get caught up in his wins and losses.
I'll see if anything's added/changed on Smackdown before I go into that. As always, there could be curveballs.
Predictions:
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Miz beats Cody. Either way, I think they'll continue his momentum possibly going after Barrett. In WWE, wins and losses aren't everything. Henry beat Ryback clean at Mania, and now Ryback's going for the WWE Title while Henry's lower on the card.
I'm almost certain that The Shield win the Tag Titles, and possibly the U.S. Title. Just remember that a lot of times Vince changes his mind at the last minute, so there's hardly any telling.
Jericho just might beat Fandango, but in general Jericho allows the up-and-comers to look good even in defeat, so if you're looking for Jericho to be dominant, I don't see it.
I see Orton and Sheamus winning, unless they just want to throw Show and Henry a bone for some reason. These four are really "stuck" without much to do right now, and I don't see that really changing much.
Del Rio's almost certainly beating Swagger.
Cena will probably retain, but I don't see this being over. Possible interference by The Shield.
HHH vs. Lesnar is tough to call: they clearly could benefit from both men being on TV more in the months to come. I'm going with HHH, though, since this will probably be the end of the feud. Where they go from there is anyone's guess, since theoretically they're going to stay with Cena vs. Ryback for a while and they can go to Ziggler vs. Del Rio next month. I keep hoping for a big angle with HHH and/or Lesnar, but don't know what they'll actually do.