Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
I missed Fandango the solid wrestler. Working with Bryan really brings out the best in someone. Good work by both men.
For as much as some things are really terrible in WWE, stuff like the Bryan/Wyatts feud is what makes me enjoy wrestling. Both acts are something relatively fresh with talented workers involved. Neither party is coasting on name value or past work. It's great.
Ugh. They successfully brought me down from the opening match and post-match with the first Slammy of the night. I really hope the target audience likes a lot of non-wrestling stuff, because I don't.
Sandow's match was fine enough, though he definitely didn't look like the guy who had a competitive match with John Cena not that long ago. I don't like how much offense Santino got in there.
Fine enough post-match to set up Sandow vs. Big E on Sunday. I look forward to it.
Oooohhh... I liked the segment with HBK. I think I'd actually be OK with a Bryan/HBK feud. I'm usually against part-timers being centerpieces, but how many more opportunities will there be for them to feud? We could see Punk vs. Bryan another 50 times. Maybe roll the dice with HBK coming back for one last match with his student? That'd be a much better "last match" rub than Taker.
Kofi vs. Miz is still a thing. Talk about two guys WWE doesn't have any ideas for. This needs some kind of story development beyond them wrestling a lot.
Weird post-match, since usually attacking someone after the match is a heel move. It's consistent with the story they're telling, but generally the babyface gives the devil his due after losing clean. It's the honorable thing to do.
Don't care about the Slammy segments if there's no storyline development. Moving on.
I'm dying for Zeb to cut a promo on Goldust's "deviant lifestyle". The city I'm in has some oddball characters and every once in a while a conservative street preacher will fail miserably to "convert" them. Speaking of Dust, imagine if we got this Dustin in TNA during his time there? Oh right, the match. I liked it. Blatant babyface win which did nothing to set up any future story or title matches even though there's a PPV to sell for Sunday, but the action was fine.
I liked the HBK/Bryan segment. I hope Bryan still becomes WWE Champion and gets comeuppance on Haitch if he wrestles HBK at Mania.
Good enough little Del Rio promo. I don't know what needs to be done to revitalize his career, but he's definitely spinning his tires.
That was really good from Sin Cara and Del Rio. The "new" Sin Cara's got legs. I know they basically hit restart on him, but if Sin Cara can become a big deal, that's fine. Getting the rub from Mysterio and maybe Ricardo could help him. If the original Sin Cara won't go to the Performance Center to improve, they might should send him back to Mexico (like Zeb Colter would want). As for Alberto, I'd say they should keep him off TV for a time once this feud's over and do something fresh with him.
Ehh. Not crazy about the Bryan segment.
Ziggler vs. Fandango's good by me, though Ziggler's really fallen since being World Champ.
Damn, son. Xavier just got squashed. Are they just preparing him for a role as the next JTG?
I like Clay as a heel, though I hope they have more planned for Xavier. It can be hard to make a second impression.
Blah blah blah. Slammy segment.
I liked Punk vs. Ambrose a good deal, but there's no surprise there. Ambrose is something special, for sure. Great performance by both guys.
Interesting post-match. I can definitely see Ambrose turning face to end The Shield at TLC. Or this could all be a red herring. We'll see. Ambrose is pretty good, so I hope whatever they're doing sets him up for bigger things. Rollins and Reigns are also quite good.
Pretty good segment to put Punk's performance over. I still get a kick out of Foley's cheap pops.
I liked the tag between the Wyatts and the Usos. Will the Usos redefine tag team wrestling or anything? I doubt it. But they're a good team.
I'm a little shocked we didn't get any tease of Cena/Rock III. It must not have a chance of happening. I know there'd be a lot of complaints about it, but the match would almost definitely be a draw.
Looks like that could be our babyface moment to signify AJ retaining on Sunday. But plans could always change between now and Sunday. I think Brie should take the title at the Rumble as Bryan's girlfriend.
Now THAT was a cool ending to the show. Convoluted, but they did a good job of getting over how important Sunday is for the company. There could be some interesting developments come Sunday. and maybe now people can FINALLY let the theory of Daniel Bryan being "buried" die.
More wrestling coming up.
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