With this in mind I think the January 27th RAW
has to be seen as a disappointment. Good opening segment, hour two opener, and
main event match aside there was nothing of significance on the show. In fact
there was an omission more significant than most of what was included.
That was CM Punk. He was apparently backstage but he didn’t
appear in front of cameras at all. It was assumed that he would in order to
further his feud with Authority member Corporate Kane. The reason he didn’t
appear could be anything. It could a simple case of time constraints or it
could be that Punk has given notice to the group. Whatever the cause he wasn’t
on RAW and it was noticeable.
The show opened with Michael Cole saying “unpredictability”
had reigned at the Royal Rumble. This after the number most regarded as the
favourite had won the thirty man extravaganza and the most shocking thing about
the show has been the lack of Daniel Bryan after his loss to Bray Wyatt. Still,
he’s got to say something, I suppose. The Authority pointed at the ‘Mania sign
and welcomed everybody to RAW. Triple H mocked the fans for liking Daniel Bryan
and said the Rumble was incredible. There was no subtlety there.
They announced that Orton would defend the title in the
Chamber. Then D-Bry came out. The audience went nuts for him, which was to be
expected. Bryan said his match at Royal Rumble, win, lose or draw, was a
highlight of the show. Trips said described it as “a good little effort.” Steph
stepped in to say it was a great match. Bryan revealed he'd asked several times
to be in the Rumble but had been told no every time.
Stephanie said they were looking out for him by not
asking him to compete twice. When she asked if Bryan believed the fans had paid
just to see him there was (predictably) a "Yes!" chant. The audience
then answered “No!” as Bryan asked if they'd paid to see Randy Orton or Triple
H. Bryan's message was basically for The Authority to listen to the fans and
give him a push. At points he came dangerously close to coming off as a whiney
heel. That’s something WWE should try to avoid in future: the basis of Bryan’s
popularity is precarious.
Bryan announced he wanted to be a part of Elimination Chamber
match. He went nose-to-nose with 'The Game' (impressive in its own way) before
The Shield were called out. Even though he grabbed a chair ‘The Hounds of
Justice’ still got the better of D-Bry. They do have over a year's experience of beating guys down. Sheamus
lilted down to make the save, followed by Cena. The babyfaces stood tall as
Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns retreated through the crowd. This was the setup for
a six man tag main event, the three winners of which would be given slots in
the Elimination Chamber match.
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| The sign gimmick makes its long-awaited return to wrestling |
The first break was followed by the first match, Mysterio
and Sin Cara v The Real Americans. Mysterio and Sin Cara got the
"currently in the ring" treatment, perhaps because WWE were concerned
about him getting booed as he had been the night before. It was a really match,
probably the best on the show. Nothing of importance happened though, beyond Zeb
Colter giving Swagger a motivational slap. Cesaro got the win after lamping
Cara with an uppercut and the Neutraliser.
After that Bad News Barrett had some bad news. It was as awful
as it usually is. This gimmick screams mid-card and won’t add anything to his
matches, whenever his return to the ring occurs.
Match two was Fandango v R-Truth. It was most interesting
for Xavier Woods complaining about his Rumble number being stolen and NXT Diva
Emma wandering around in the audience. Truth won with his finisher, which is
called Pay Dirt, Little Jimmy or Little Jimmy's Revenge depending on what
Michael Cole prefers at any given moment.
Randy Orton was given his own personal introduction by
Brad Maddox when he sauntered out for his promo. They've got to get Bradley on
to the show somehow. 'The Viper' was annoyed about the planned WWE title
Elimination Chamber. He'd barely said that before Batista interrupted him. He
heard boos when he got to the ring just as Orton had. And they were not the
right kind of boos. They were crowd sending a message of boredom and
disapproval boos.
Chants of "Daniel Bryan" started up as ‘The
Animal’ reminded Orty of his three goals (win the Rumble, headline WrestleMania,
and leave as champ). He said he didn't care who he has to beat and listed
Orton, The Shield and Bryan as potential WWE champs he’d be happy to steamroll.
It was clearly a list given to him by management, delivered with very little
enthusiasm. His proclamations were met with boos.
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| If Cena had been a part of this we'd have had a full OVW Class of 2002 reunion |
Brock Lesnar's music struck up and 'The Beast' walked to
the ring for something of an OVW reunion. He got the most positive reaction of
the three stars. Heyman told Maddox (who'd hung out in the ring after
introducing the champ) he had two choices. Choice one was to announce Orton v
Lesnar for the championship(s). Choice two was to put Lesnar in the ring with
Batista for the Rumble-earned title shot. Heyman said he wanted an answer by
the end of the night "or else."
The three wrestlers deserve credit here. Orton flipped
out as a top heel should when presented with the idea of facing a man like
Lesnar, while Batista looked concerned as a fightin’ face (and that’s what he
is for now)should. Lesnar looked intimidating, which isn’t hard for him, and
stared holes through the other two wrestlers.
Hour two is what brought the quality of the show down so
much. Miz and Ziggler's Battle of Cleveland was won by Ziggler with a Zig Zag.
The Usos defeated RybAxel with a pair of super kicks and a Jimmy top rope
splash. ADR v Kingston was most memorable for JBL and Lawler disregarding the
match they were being paid to discuss to play up to the crowd, overshadowing
the men that were wrestling as they did. ADR won with a double stomp and his
low super kick. None of it will be referenced ever again. It was completely
pointless and sapped the enthusiasm of the crowd.
The New Age Outlaws v Cody Rhodes and Goldust did as good
a job of getting things back on track as it could. It was a title rematch from
the Rumble pre-show. The Outlaws did their shtick then Road Dogg said they won
the titles not because of who they knew but because they were better than the
Rhodes boys. That earned him a punch from Cody which sent him sprawling to
ringside. When it started the match was good but not as good as the Rumble
meeting. The crowd weren't as hot, because they'd been sitting around for
hours, and the pace was slower.
It ended in a double DQ when Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar
returned to the ring. Lesnar F5’d both Goldust and Cody as the tag champs ran
away. Heyman threw a chair to 'The Pain' and said this was happening because
they hadn’t gotten what they wanted. Lesnar then bashed the brothers a few times
with the chair.
The filler matches returned after that as the Bellas and
the Funkadactyls united to face AJ Lee, Tamina, Aksana and Alicia Fox. Naomi
pinned AJ after the Rear View. The girls danced to celebrate. If they’re to be
taken seriously as wrestlers that needs to stop. Rock, Austin, Hogan and Cena
wouldn’t have gotten to the top if they celebrated meaningless victories by
dancing about.
After that we learned that Jake 'The Snake' Roberts would
be joining The Ultimate Warrior in the 2014 Hall of Fame class. He definitely
deserves to be in there.
 |
| Shield six man tags will soon be a thing of the past |
Then it was main event time. Even Cena struggled to get a
reaction from the crowd by this point. They'd quietness down considerably
throughout the night. Bryan did better. The crowd came to life whenever either
of them tagged into the match and fell silent whenever 'Great White' did. The
audience weren't just giving their opinion on Bryan there, they were telling WWE
something about babyface Sheamus too. Also worth noting is that the audience
reacted to Reigns' taunt for the Superman punch, a move I really like by the
way.
They also reacted to Reigns powering out of the STF,
something which happened moments before the lights went out and the Wyatt Family
appeared. The faces sent them packing and then it was announced they'd won by DQ,
granting them entry to the Chamber match. The Shield flipped out at ringside.
This was a clever way of setting up The Shield versus the Wyatt Family for the Chamber
card. The programme went off the air with the faces celebrating to Bryan's
music.
Elimination Chamber came out of this RAW looking
promising. So did the potential for a renewed Daniel Bryan push. But if WWE are
going to make people care about WrestleMania future episodes of RAW need to be
significantly better than this one.
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