Read on for my take on last night's Raw.
I'm not sure I like the 30-man battle royal. It sounds like pre-show material to me. I guess if Cena's not 100%, I can live with them going that route, but it feels pretty weak compared to Cena vs. Bray. And great way to no-sell Bray as a threat. Instead of the guy who's beaten Kane and Daniel Bryan and the team who beat The Shield, Wyatt's just a homeless guy with two goons who goes to Cracker Barrel. If Cena beats Bray, all he's done is beat a non-threat Cena considers to be a joke. If Bray wins, one of the top champions ever loses to a homeless guy. It's a lose-lose. Now, if Cena sells Bray as being a sadistic cult leader who's in his league, the match actually feels Mania worthy. I don't know why WWE doesn't get this.
$&%*ing Cena. There's not a lot of drama if he can beat just about everyone in his path.
I'm ready for Bryan to get his revenge on HHH. This story's been going on for quite some time now.
Ryback winning? Right...
Good little match to keep the Usos strong. I don't know how realistic it is to hope for a Dumpster match at WM30, but I'd love to see it. It's the perfect way to write NAO off.
I liked the Shield/Kane segment, even if it was odd given they're all heels. There can be some shades of gray, but generally I think things need to be pretty binary.
So no IC Title match at Mania? That's great for the battle royal, but I'd like to see the IC Title as an important goal in its own right at WM30.
I wasn't crazy about Big E vs. Swagger. The IC Title's somewhat lost in the background here when it could be a major focal point.
Cesaro vs. Swagger could be great, but I guess it's going to get absorbed into the battle royal. I can see that one being a throwaway. I really hope Cena doesn't win. He's already for enough going for him.
Pretty good stuff with Heyman and Taker. I'd hope we get to the previous history between Heyman and Taker, but I don't know if they'd be willing to pull back the curtain that far. Taker used to be a Paul Heyman guy after all...
That's a nice lineup for Main Event. I'm honestly not sure I wouldn't do a title switch in AJ vs. Natalya unless they've got something big planned for Mania.
Great tag team match! Both teams work quite well together.
Good Divas match. I don't fault the competitors for the angle really spinning its tires. I'm ready for the endgame, which is hopefully at WrestleMania.
Good post-match to advance the angle.
Great segment with the Yes Movement. We're finally getting some of what we want. Hopefully WWE is just starting to wake up and change things to fit what the crowd really wants to see.
Kind of a silly ending, but the physicality there was off the charts. Sheamus and Christian both worked really hard.
Interesting stuff with Randy and Batista. I hope they don't shoehorn Big Show into this any more than they have to.
I liked the Rusev/Lana segment as we continue to build to him competing.
Another good video segment from the Wyatt Family. I hope THEY don't split up anytime soon.
Great ending to the show after so many episodes where Bryan is left for dead. Obviously there needs to be some drama before he finally prevails, but he can't be decimated EVERY week.
More wrestling coming up.
I'm sure you and I have talked about this occurrence before, but it's definitely a bit perplexing in that so many different main event tag matches - and tag matches in general - have been booked to get a babyface team to win. The Bryan/Big Show booking over Batista/Orton is the most puzzling in that two-thirds of the main event of WrestleMania lose to a 42 year-old who may not even be on the card without even getting an upper-hand after the match! I mean, I understand having the crowd going home happy is important, but that is a cue to have a post-Raw dark march to have a face team win. Batista is already viewed as "overrated" and not may are picking him to win at 'Mania, so what is the point in having him and Orton lose to Big Show if you're trying to build him strong? It's just a bit perplexing to me staying up to watch a main event on the flagship show, all to reach a common ending that I have seen literally 1,000 times or more.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian/Sheamus "feud" is also a bit confusing to me. I know you and I talked about Christian's confusing heel turn before, but this is literally now at least eight straight defeats dating back to last year at the hands of Sheamus. I understand WWE REALLY must like Sheamus, but with other guys like Bryan, Orton, and Cena being a step ahead of Sheamus, why have Sheamus be so triumphant when it's obvious he won't be a top three guy any time soon and feels a little flat as a character right now?
I mean, in the past few years, I can only remember Sheamus losing MAYBE five or so matches, and two of those were to CM Punk. I definitely would be a bit upset if I was Christian. Maybe there is a plan for him to retire soon that I may be missing, but if not, he's definitely got a lot left in the tank from what I have seen and being booked as negatively as he has been is a bit irksome. To me, a "feud" doesn't really maximize its potential when it's so one-sided. If anything, it makes Christian continue to look inferior.
I'll definitely be interested in the outcome of the Wyatt v. Cena showdown. I understand your justification in that it's all or nothing for Wyatt. I agree he has more to gain. Although, I definitely don't see losing to Cena in one of the main events of the top pay-per-view the company has to offer in being necessarily a bad thing. There are definitely some hall-of-famers or future hall-of-famers haven't been able to win, let alone compete in a main event at a 'Mania event in their first match. I would definitely consider Wyatt being in that main event as a great sign, win or lose. If he does lose, I can still easily see him being in the upper card and having big things happen in the near future. It's a situation where if Cena loses to Wyatt, many would wonder why the face of the company is losing to a first-year main roster guy. I would understand if the company gave Wyatt, who is only 26, a little longer to gel before going over the true face of the company.
I am playing devil's advocate here, as I would be interested to see if Wyatt comes out victorious. But, I also don't see losing to the top guy in the company at the top company event in his first 'Mania match as a bad thing, though. It will definitely be intriguing, regardless.
Right now I just see Show as something of a Macguffin to move the story of Bryan gaining momentum along. It definitely doesn't look like they're adding him to the main event mix. Since Cena's tied up with Wyatt and Punk's nowhere to be found, Show was the babyface they put to team with Bryan there.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bryan's team winning, given the crowd responses to so many episodes and PPVs where Bryan ends up getting screwed somehow, they needed to give people some hope he can actually succeed this time. There are a LOT of upset fans who want to see him treated better booking-wise based on the crowd reactions. This is more than the online fans who are upset and they are kind of hijacking the show until Bryan is booked like a star. I see this more as Bryan winning alongside Show than Show winning and taking the spotlight.
I think Batista is being built strong! He won the Rumble, destroyed Del Rio and hasn't really been left vulnerable. From a kayfabe perspective, he seems like the favorite at Mania instead of Orton (whose grip on the title is tenuous at best given the endings to his title defenses) and Bryan (who has to beat HHH AND win the triple threat in the same night). The "smart" fans might not be picking Batista to win, but he definitely looks like a credible challenger.
Some of it's WWE's love for Sheamus, but it could just as easily be their indifference toward Christian. I don't know about him retiring, but there's definitely talk of him not re-signing with the company once his contract's up. He's been outside of the bubble of stars WWE pushes for some time now and both sides could just be going through the motions until his contract ends.
Wyatt losing to Cena really halts his momentum. The Wyatts have been on a path of destruction for a while now and I don't see any reason to end it, especially just to put another feather in Cena's cap. The fans have made it clear they want new acts in top positions after year after year of Cena as a main eventer. It's much easier for Cena to rebound than Wyatt.
I definitely get how it's a big honor for Wyatt to even face Cena at Mania given how he's a fairly recent addition to things, but if there's any time to shake things up, it's now. They could easily have Rowan and Harper be instrumental in Cena's loss so it doesn't really hurt him to lose while Wyatt can still say he won. It defines Wyatt as beneath Cena (like so many other promising acts have been) if Cena slays him like pretty much any other challenge he's had.
My justification for thinking Batista isn't being built as strong is more along of the lines of that he has A LOT to prove in that being 45 and certainly not gaining any credibility from the fans by being placed in that main event that he shouldn't be booked to lose to Big Show twice. No offense to Big Show, but as we mentioned, he may not even have a 'Mania match. I'm certainly not a member of the Creative team, but I think they can definitely do more to help establish Batista better as being worthy of a main event shot over some of the top guys that are 10 years or more younger than him and are more over with the fans.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what happens with Christian. It's tough to speculate what the company's vision is for him at this point. Part of the confusion with how he's been booked may be indeed that the company has spent more time focusing on its 'Mania combatants. It does seem odd that he would return just for a short amount of time, turn heel, and then move off into the sunset. If it turns out he's only indeed back for such a short amount of time, he would probably be conceding any chance at a title shot or, more importantly, establishing any sort of momentum.
Looking back on this segment between these two, it's a shame that Christian would go something along the lines of 0-for-8 in this series from that point on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ViWHpHVxPk
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on the Batista booking lately. I mean, Batista did win the against Del Rio, but remember he lost the very next night in a very embarrassing fashion and has done very little since to avenge that loss except lose three main event matches on main roster shows to built any sort of credibility as to why he was picked as main eventer at WrestleMania. To me, it's more of a "what have you done for me lately" type of deal in that a pay-per-view one month ago could be ancient history with how the WWE has it's A.D.D. in its decision making. I think more people will remember the combination of Batista being up-ended by Del Rio in an embarrassing fashion moreso than him winning beforehand. I personally just feel the company has an uphill battle to prove why he deserves to main event their biggest pay-per-view and that they have not accomplished doing that.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what happens with Christian. I definitely also think he is very talented - even at 40 - and deserves a bit more than to be upended by Sheamus week after week. I, personally, think it would have made sense to keep him a good guy and challenge Ambrose for the U.S. Title at this point in his career.
By the way, what were your thoughts on that Muppets/Christian/Sheamus segment? I personally thought it was so corny to the point where it was actually funny.
ReplyDeleteDel Rio only beat Batista because Orton's music hit. Generally that's considered a "protected" loss, as in he didn't lose because Del Rio was better than him or because he's not good or anything. Note Batista's still in the main event picture while Del Rio just worked Superstars. So the loss didn't really hurt his standing.
ReplyDeleteBatista then got a dominant win over Ziggler, a DQ loss to Bryan and his tag team losses occurred when his partner was defeated. While he's not running through people squash-style, he's also not being made to look like he's not a top performer or his opponents are better than him. If he was getting pinned a lot, I'd see it more, but when he does lose, he's always got an "out" for why it happened.
I understand how outside the fiction of WWE, people question him coming in and getting a big push. I'm arguing that in WWE's "world", he won the Royal Rumble, won at Elimination Chamber and has generally been protected while Orton has taken a number of big losses since winning the WWE Title at Summerslam.
I like the idea of Christian vs. Ambrose, but I think I like the idea of The Shield vs. the Wyatts better leading to a triple threat between the three members of The Shield at Mania. The Shield and the Wyatts have more momentum than Christian's had in a long time and pushing them as future stars is in WWE's best interest.
That said, facing a former WWE and World Champion in Sheamus seems to me a step up compared to fighting for the U.S. Title. Sheamus has had top PPV matches in the past while there are times the U.S. Title hasn't even been on the card.
I liked most of the Muppets segments, that one included. My sense of humor's kind of offbeat, so WWE segments can go either way with me.
ReplyDelete