Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
I know everyone's just as shocked as I am of the tease of Triple H being in the main event of WrestleMania. I like Haitch and all, but how many big matches can they really put him in over the years? More importantly, and this might seem like a minute detail, they insinuated no one cares about Batista's comeback. While there are certainly detractors to him returning, it's not wise to paint one-third of the biggest main event of the year as someone unimportant. If Batista wins, it's someone "nobody cares about". If Orton wins, all he did was beat someone "nobody cares about"! That's very different from beating a worthy and valiant opponent. I'm not saying every match needs to be "two great, amazing athletes who acknowledge how great their opponents are and fight for honor" or whatever. I just think they shouldn't treat their main eventers as not being stars! At any rate, why would WWE try to sell a potential main event on the concept of three heels facing off? If Bryan were to hypothetically lose to HHH, that's exactly what WWE would be asking fans to pay for.
I'm not crazy about Batista thinking coming back to WWE was a mistake, as if being in WWE's a bad thing. Kind of an odd way to promote the company, no?
Very interesting to have Cesaro and Swagger beat the Tag Team Champions clean on the road to what seemed like a breakup angle. Is the Usos vs. NAO over? WWE's narratives seem to be all over the place sometimes. This in particular felt like it was taken out of sequence given the previous weeks of the angle.
I'm a little surprised Kane didn't attempt to punish The Shield, but it makes some sense in the scheme of his character being more cold and calculating instead of letting the monster out all the time.
The Barrett/Hornswoggle segment was really bad. They're ribbing Barrett, right? There's got to be something better for him to do, gimmick-wise.
The spot with Sheamus catching Hornswoggle was clever and well done. It doesn't look like they have much of a plan for Titus. On one hand, it's good for him that they feel they can use him in a way that gets a reaction, as that's technically the goal. But obviously he's not being pushed as a future title contender or anyone in line for a push anymore. I'd love to know the story behind his booking lately.
Good post-match. I like the interviews to add to the matches. I'm also glad we're not in for Christian vs. Sheamus one-on-one at Mania, as that one's really been run into the ground by now.
I'm actually looking forward to Scooby Doo being on Raw. I'd love for there to be some kind of silly mystery angle. That said, it is the road to WrestleMania and presumably things should be more serious?
That was REALLY creepy from Bray. That's the kind of promo I wanted from Cena, by the way. Selling Bray as a threat. Obviously Bray's fairly new to things and could still have a fruitful career if Cena squashes him (see: Triple H at WrestleMania 12), but I see no reason to kill his momentum when he's obviously got something going on. As for Cena having 3500 matches, I don't know where that figure comes from. Cagematch only has him at about 1800, and that includes his pre-WWE days.
I hope there's a good reason Bryan vs. Orton is in the middle of the show, given Orton's theoretically one of THE top guys as WWE Champion.
Wow. Orton and Bryan really put it all out there for that match. Very impressed. Orton still doesn't have a clean (unassisted) win over Bryan in this feud, for what that's worth.
Interesting post-match to keep things going.
Paul Heyman should do weddings or movie trailers or something. He has a way of drawing me in to just about everything he talks about. Maybe not Ryback and Curtis Axel so much, but he's one hell of a talker.
I wonder how long it will take the Internet to crash if for some reason HHH does go over at Mania. Part of me wants to see it from a "watch the world burn" perspective. It'd be a very short-sighted and backward move, but I'd just want to see the reaction. We're talking downfall-of-WCW level bad ideas here.
Very good match between Goldust and Fandango for the purpose of bringing the crowd back down after the intense segments preceding it. I think there need to be some lighthearted segments to give fans some breathing room.
Big move putting Taker on the Network. Pretty smart as well. I have to give credit to the ideas mentioned elsewhere about having some kind of brawl or something end Raw and extend onto the Network.
So, are The Shield babyfaces now? That was a pretty cool segment regardless. I like the idea of The Shield vs. Kane, Rowan and Harper at Mania with the whole "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing going on.
I'm guessing we're in for AJ vs. Naomi at Mania. I think I can live with that.
I'm not really sure what they should do after AJ drops the title and theoretically feuds with Tamina. It might be time for the character to take a break given how long she's been the top heel.
Of course Big Show's in the battle royal. I don't think I'd mind him winning from the standpoint of it being a tribute to Andre. Maybe as something of a last crowning achievement for him, as I definitely don't want to see him hold gold anytime soon.
I'm not going to get too salty over Show winning. The match at Mania's not one of utmost importance, though it would be nice to have an up-and-coming star have a big WrestleMania moment there.
Did we really need two Batista interviews backstage? Why not Orton?
I bet Kofi's ready for his next mid-level title reign. Good to keep Bray strong with the win there.
I didn't see much of a reason for them to tease dissension between HHH and Stephanie, but other than that, I think that was a pretty effective ass-kicking segment to build heat for WrestleMania. Make no mistake about it, Bryan needs to get a big win then to make this all worthwhile.
More wrestling coming up.
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