Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
Pretty good opening segment to get Orton over as a big deal. I'm glad they're putting spotlight on Bryan (though of course he never really fell that far from the main event scene). It is weird for Bryan to get a main event after losing to the Wyatts, but maybe they'll explain that. Or maybe the Wyatts cost Bryan the match.
Ehhhh. The match itself was mostly good, but there are a few things I have issue with. I'd much rather see a team of Rey and the new Sin Cara, for one. Show's becoming increasingly affected by Kevin Nash syndrome of only doing a few signature moves. I don't expect him to be Antonio Cesaro out there, and maybe it's just a sign of how many bumps he's taken making it hard for him to "go" like he used to, but he's not really able to keep up with the other performers.
Anyway, more importantly to take issue with his the booking here. I definitely understand them wanting to get to a Rhodes Brothers vs. Rey/Show feud. My concern is there was very little honeymoon period for the champions after winning last night. They could have at least gotten a backstage interview on Raw to set this match up. Cody and Goldust talk to Renee about still being champions, then find out Rey and Show are their opponents. Ideally, tonight would have been Cody and Goldust vs. one of the heel teams from last night with Rey and Show facing the other team leading to this match being next week. Or even singles matches between these two teams (unless they don't want Rey or Show to work singles matches in their conditions).
That was actually kind of funny from Barrett. I'm still not sold on this gimmick taking him very far, but I should have an open mind.
I liked the backstage segment to sell Orton vs. Bryan. Technically, they're right that Orton is the first unified champion. Jericho was the UNDISPUTED champion.
Are Ziggler and Fandango going to be the new Kofi and Miz, feuding for no reason? Have Ziggler try to hook up with Summer Rae or something. Just have some kind of story. This is sports entertainment and not wrestling, after all.
I don't think Zeb would want to risk running afoul of Mark Henry. Speaking of which, did we get a return promo from Henry or did he just come back as a face?
I really liked this tag match. Henry had his spots, but let the younger guys show what they can do. Henry works well in the role of guiding veteran. I hope other performers are getting knowledge from him while he's still an active member of the roster.
Ryback and Axel finally got some momentum back. It's a shame it'll be overshadowed by Tensai vs. Clay.
Pretty cool post-match to build Clay as a heel and whatever we're calling the team of Truth and Woods as faces.
I liked the segment with Punk and HBK. I think I might rather see Punk vs. HBK than Bryan vs. HBK. Obviously Bryan and HBK have a pre-WWE history and that match would be a technician's dream, but I like the idea of the conflicting styles of the outspoken atheist vs. the poster boy for Christianity.
How big of a pop would there have been online if the American Wolves came out as Punk's partners here? Most of the audience would have no idea who they were, but I could see the Internet crashing if it happened.
That was a pretty nice six-man tag. I cringed a bit at Punk using a brainbuster (I thought those were banned?), and they might have gone a little heavy of big moves, but all in all, I'd rather watch this than a Big Show or Great Khali match. Good work by everyone.
Bray continues to be an enjoyable enigma with his promos.
I'm ready for a new chapter in the Divas division. It's time for someone to pose a threat to AJ.
Fine Christmas segment.
Fine Orton promo. I wonder if/when we'll get another round of Orton vs. Haitch.
Orton vs. Bryan was amazing, especially given the chaos both men went through last night. Orton's not perfect, but performances like this are why I don't ride him too hard as being the top guy.
Good ending. I look forward to where this goes.
Man, I literally only got two matches correctly predicted at the pay-per-view. Even though I took a hit to my predicting skills, that is a good thing that the WWE threw a good amount of curveballs. I think many people (a poll on WWE.com showed 80 percent) of fans picked Cena to win the unification match. That being said, it seems like now more than ever the WWE is really trying to make Cena into a hero. His promo the Raw before the pay-per-view was very empathetic and passionate and with Orton continuing to draw heat, I'm interested to see what will happen with the unified titles. Bryan has legitimate claim now that he won on Raw against Orton, albeit by DQ.
ReplyDeleteThe one complaint I'm having about the Bryan situation is that with how over he is with fans and with him having the first match against Orton since he won the unified titles, is he going to continue his feud with the Wyatts since they upended him at the pay-per-view or feud with Orton for the title? Since summer, I rarely have understood the WWE's direction on Bryan and it's even more opake than it was then.
The burning question regarding Punk is how can he upend The Shield all by himself and yet lose against them with two partners? It's odd for two reasons: 1) Many probably wonder if The Shield members on the same side of the fence now and 2) Where does the feud itself as well as The Shield as a unit go from here?
By the way, I was looking at some clips from the past year and scrolled upon the SmackDown Christmas party. Remember at that party when Otunga declared that "2013 is the year of Otunga" and yet hasn't had a match in over eight months? I couldn't help but chuckle at that.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't think WWE should do curveballs just to do curveballs, I was pleasantly surprised by TLC.
ReplyDeleteHere's how I see what WWE's doing with Bryan:
They wanted to start a big angle with him in July-ish leading to what happened at Summerslam, presumably leading to a big match at WrestleMania. That's a LOT of TV time and PPVs to fill in the meantime. As TNA found out with the Aces and 8s angle, things can really drag when you focus on one feud for a long time. I see the Wyatts feud as a break between Bryan feuding with the Authority. It's like how movie studios split up the final installments of the Twilight and Harry Potter series with some space in-between to avoid audience burnout.
I don't think Bryan's been cooled off all that much. He didn't lose "clean" in any of his WWE Title matches, and actually won some of them. He's consistently been a top part of the show. They've just moved him down for now before bringing him back to the main event picture for Mania.
I think part of WWE's booking is to keep us tuning in to see if The Shield will break up. It's the whole "slow burn" thing. Also, WWE has some time to kill before the Rumble, so they're figuring out what to do between now and then.
WWE likes to do goofy things on holiday shows. As far as I know, they like Otunga. They just presumably don't have any role for him.