The post-‘Mania RAW has also become known for its rowdy
crowds that react to things the way they like, not necessarily the way WWE
desires. Which is important to note, because these crowds have been important
in the ascent of Daniel Bryan over the last two years. It was such a crowd that
firmly established the “Yes!” chants as a thing the night after WrestleMania
XXVIII and, more than that, embraced Bryan as a star based on his ability and personality.
Without those reactions he wouldn’t be on top now. Without those reactions it’s
entirely possible Batista would be the WWE champion now.
 |
| Worth waiting for? |
Daniel Bryan referred to this in his show opening speech
on Monday’s RAW. Before that we were treated to the video package that had
preceded his match with Triple H the previous evening, which was just as good a
second time, and over a minute of “Yes!” chants from the crowd. After
acknowledging that it’s harder to lift his arms to chant while holding two
belts, something the audience ate up, Bryan heard “You deserve it!” chants. He
told the crowd that he deserves it only a bit and that we’re the ones who
really deserve it.
Then he was joined by Triple H, entering to his bad guy ‘King of Kings’ theme. Trips didn’t get into the ring because he didn’t want to hurt Bryan (ahhhh… the old “I’m scared what I’ll do to you” routine, it’s a classic), instead standing on the apron to inform Bryan that he still intended to destroy the Yes Movement. Bryan held his belts up in ‘The Game’s’ face and led a thunderous “Yes!” chant.
Tripper said Bryan’s moment would not last the night then
booked himself into a title match in the main event. That was received well by
the crowd: they wanted to see Bryan give Triple H another good kicking.
After the first break we got some more Triple H. He and
Stephanie stood backstage discussing the end of Bryan’s Yes Movement. Then
Batista walked in, followed seconds later by Randy Orton. They wanted title
shots against Bryan for themselves. Batista said he’d earned a singles match
for the title by winning the Rumble (which isn’t actually the case) and Orton reasoned
that as the former champion he was entitled to a rematch. They were both peeved
that Tripper had given himself first crack at Bryan. The boss soothed their
egos and said he’d get them both world championship matches in the future, then
booked them for a tag title match against the Usos.
No mention was made by any of the three that they’d been
involved in a feud the week before, cheerfully overlooking Bryan and expecting
to battle amongst themselves for the title. This was particularly incongruous
considering the knocks Batista had sent Stephanie’s way. In fairness the rest
of the show, this thread in particular, was pretty well put together, so a relatively
minor aspect like this can be overlooked. The union did ultimately make sense,
and that’s what counts.
The first match of the night was a six man tag pitting Big
E, Sheamus and John Cena against The Wyatt Family. You know it’s a packed show
when Cena’s in an opening six man tag. The bout was okay but nothing special.
There was no real reason for it to be happening beyond Cena’s issues with Bray.
Shaymo and E had had zero troubles with The Wyatt Family and none were created
by this. Unless of course you think Bray pinning E after Sister Abigail was
done to set up an Intercontinental title match, which I don’t. It was an excuse
to get Cena and Wyatt together and Big E and ‘Great White’ on to the show.
Between the first two matches we got the first of two
vignettes for Bo Dallas. They had a motivational speaker vibe to them, playing
into his gimmick of acting like a 1980s babyface who thinks he’s adored but is
actually hated. I hope this run goes better for Bo than the one he got last
year did. So much can be done with his deluded character.
Match two was a mixed tag match pitting Emma and a
bearded Santino against Summer Rae and Faaaaaan… daaaaaan… goooooo.
WrestleMania and the RAW after it are the two nights of the year where Fandango
is massively over (thanks to his entrance music) so I’m pleased he got
something to do on the show. The match was very short. The ladies tagged in
almost instantly and Emma submitted Summer with an Emma Lock. Santino and Emma
celebrated awkwardly together afterwards.
Hour two started with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman
sauntering to the ring to gloat about ending The Undertaker’s Streak the
previous evening. Heyman spent several minutes hyping up ‘The Beast’ as someone
truly remarkable within wrestling and sports in general for accomplishing
things nobody else can. It was a necessary speech because the whole point of
having Lesnar snap The Streak is to turn him into an unstoppable force of
nature, but I zoned out halfway through. Heyman’s Lesnar-themed promos have all
started to sound alike. Lesnar is an impressive athlete with a main event aura
to him but I can only hear the same accomplishments reeled off so many times.
After the commercial break we got another vignette, this
one the first of two for Adam Rose and his Erotic Express. I was surprised to
see him getting promoted to RAW because the character only appeared on NXT a
month or so ago. I’m pleased though. Adam Rose is a fun character, exactly the
sort of thing RAW needs. Hopefully a call-up for Adam Rose is also a call-up
for Bowler Hat Guy, Masked Bodysuit Guy, and The Spartan. The gimmick will only
work if he keeps his beefy entourage.
The evening’s third match was the tag team title match.
Orton and ‘The Animal’ got their own separate entrances. I was disappointed
they didn’t wander out to the Evolution theme. For two guys who’d hated one
another the night before they looked very chummy as they huddled in a corner
chatting as the Usos shimmied their way down to ringside. Maybe they were
griping about WWE’s recent ban on baby oil.
 |
| Poor Jimmy (that's Jimmy). |
The match went to a double count out within a few
minutes. Batista and ‘The Viper’ battered Jimmy and Jey at ringside, Orty
hitting his draping DDT off a barrier and Batista hitting a Batista bomb onto
some steel steps. The point was clearly to show how dangerous Orton and Batista
are when working together and to hint at a permanent union as part of a
reformed Evolution.
That match was followed by the return of Rob Van Dam. He
faced Damien Sandow in what is best described as a typical RVD match. He did
some of his popular spots. The crowd popped for them and chanted his name. It
didn’t take long for ‘Mr Monday Night’ to hit a Five Star frog splash for the
win. I’ve no idea what they’re going to do with him now he’s back. No obvious
storylines present themselves. At least not featuring performers WWE wants us
to care about.
After another break Rey Mysterio came to the ring. He got
a polite reaction. At this point it’s pretty clear the memories of Mysterio’s
good work have been erased by years of bad knee related subpar performers and
lengthy layoffs. I still think he should conserve his energy for one short and
final meaningful run culminating in a match at SummerSlam or WrestleMania. In
2014 throwaway matches on RAW do nothing for him, WWE, or fans.
Mysterio was wrestling Bad News Barrett, who entered
wearing a luxurious cape. For the record this was the first televised match
Barrett has wrestled under the Bad News moniker. He started by grabbing a
microphone and telling Rey he had some bad news. The fans loved that but were
less keen on Rey peppering him with punches before said news could be delivered.
 |
| Barrett's bad news was that Rey's knees are knackered. |
Bad News soon regained control and worked the match as a
babyface, a decision at least partly made because there were so many English
fans in the crowd. They joined in with his “BOOM!” shouts and chanted both for
Bad News Barrett himself and for Eng-ur-land. All of Rey’s moves were met with
boos. Bad News got the massively popular win with a Bullhammer elbow. After the
match he celebrated by shouting “BOOM!” and doing the overhead double clap that
Scotty Riggs used to do. So that’s something.
Another break was followed by Lana coming out to the
stage where she introduced Alexander Rusev for his debut. They’re very clearly
doing a Cold War thing with these two, and an aspect of it that’s been
overlooked is that Rusev’s name graphic is not just written in Cyrillic but has
a grey, understated background and off centre placing on-screens. It’s a small
touch but a great one.
 |
| Lana's legs. That is all. |
‘The Bulgarian Brute’ beat Zack Ryder in a basic match
with the camel clutch. Here the move was called the Accolade. The shoulders
over the knees application variant Rusev used here used to be known as the
Steiner Recliner.
The final hour kicked off with The Ultimate Warrior. He walked out wearing a suit with a gimmicked jacket over it (which had a painting of him on the back) and started by saying “Speak to me, war-yerrrrrrrrrrs!” and snorting. TThe fans ate his act up, bursting into an enthusiastic “Warrior!” chant. He said it was hard for him to find the words to speak so he pulled out a string Warrior mask and put it on. The crowd were less into that, regarding it as the strange act that it was.
“Well then, you shut up Warrior and let meeeeee do the
talking,” were the next words out of Warrior’s mouth. Yes, WWE booked a
schizophrenic breakdown for the RAW after WrestleMania. He talked, in a
roundabout, Warrior-esque way, about the fans helping to make WWE stars what
they are. The audience didn't seem to follow all the ins and outs of what Warrior said, but they got the gist and gave Warrior a rousing ovation as he left the arena.
Out next was AJ Lee. She continued her CM Punk tribute
act by talking about having held the Divas championship for 295 days and
referring to herself as the best Divas in the world. Yeah, AJ trolled the RAW
crowd into giving her a CM Punk chant. Once that had died down some new music
hit and Paige walked out, in her ring gear natch, and stepped into the ring.
The audience chanted her name (I was a bit disappointed they didn’t go with a “Zebra Kid!” chant), demonstrating why
WWE had chosen to have debut on this episode: she was a known quantity to the
diehard fans in attendance and was ensured a good reaction. That made her RAW
debut feel like an event.
Paige said she was just there to congratulate AJ on her
win at WrestleMania. AJ told her she didn’t need congratulations and ordered
her back to NXT. Then she challenged Paige to a match but Paige said she wasn’t
ready. The champ gave her a slap and told her they were having a match and that
as a “WrestleMania gift” she’d make it a title match. The crowd exploded at
that. They could sense what was coming.
The match was short. AJ immediately attacked Paige,
skipped around the ring, and applied the Black Widow. There was an awkward
moment where it looked as though Paige was tapping out but in actuality she was
just shifting AJ’s weight so she could reverse out of the move and perform her
Paige Turner finisher. That got her the three count and the title.
 |
| The shot in the arm the Divas division needed. |
The audience exploded again. AJ was left to seethe and
shriek in the ring as Paige dashed up the aisle looking shocked. I think this
was the closest thing on the show to Ziggler’s cash-in last year.
The penultimate segment of the evening saw Hulk Hogan hit
the ring to formally present the Andre the Giant memorial trophy to battle
royal winner Cesaro. ‘The Hulkster’ started off with a Superdome reference and
then briefly chatted about his memories of Andre the Giant. The amount Hogan
talks about Andre you’d think they’d been married.
The crowd gave Cesaro a huge reaction when Hogan
introduced him, and he was treated to his (Real Americans) entrance theme being
hummed. Zeb Colter was with him, which made sense: Cesaro’s association with
The Real Americans faction needed to be addressed and Zeb needed to be there
for that. In the ring Cesaro (who was sporting a natty black jacket from the Chris
Jericho range) posed with the trophy and got congratulated by Hogan.
Before Cesaro could speak Zeb took the microphone and told
him he’d take care of things. That got some heat, as did his “Let’s let a real American talk here” comment. Zeb said
he’d hand the microphone back to Cesaro after he’d finished so Cesaro could
tell the world what kind of guy he is. Then he talked about bringing Cesaro
into the fold as a real American, even though he’s a foreigner, and making him
a Zeb Colter guy.
Having heard enough Cesaro took the microphone and told
him he wasn’t a Zeb Colter guy… he was a Paul
Heyman guy. Heyman strode out to “Yes!” chants and proclaimed himself the
new advocate for the ‘King of Swing’ Cesaro. Heyman informed Zeb that his
services were no longer required and then headed to the commentary table to
brief Cole and his crew on how he wanted Cesaro discussed. It took seconds for
a ‘King of Swing’ chant to break out and a hashtag to trend on Twitter.
The inevitable Jack Swagger attack wasn't far behind. He
not only knocked Cesaro out of the ring but also lobbed the (coveted) trophy to
the floor, smashing it into pieces. A break followed and when we returned there
was a match in progress between the two former teammates. After a few minutes
of back and forth Cesaro went for a Swing on Swagger but Swagger slid under the
bottom rope and took a count out loss.
The entire sequence was excellent. Cesaro received a
great face reaction that only improved when he was paired up with Heyman. The
split of The Real Americans was made to mean something and a match was teased,
which is exactly what should happen when a double act splits. Any concerns of a
babyface Cesaro being managed by a heel Heyman should be forgotten. WWE have
been moving away from such clearly defined terms for a while now (as you can read here). Besides which Heyman is fully capable of
working as a heel and a face in different segments of the same show, as he
proved here. I already much prefer him with Cesaro than with Lesnar. The latter
pairing stems from necessity, Lesnar being unable to articulate his own
storylines. The Cesaro pairing comes from WWE actively trying to turn Cesaro
into a name player.
Between the final two breaks of the night we saw The
Shield backstage with Stephanie McMuffcakes. The Authority were still keen to
make use of The Shield even though they’d officially turned face several weeks
before and come to blows on various occasions with Director of Operations
Corporate Kane. Speaking of Kane he was there too, arguing with ‘The Hounds of
Justice’ and insisting that Steph couldn’t trust them. It all ended when Steph
got everyone to agree that their goal was to see Triple H leave New Orleans as
WWE champion.
Daniel Bryan entered first for the main event, to an
explosion of “Yes!” chants. Before Triple H could appear Batista and Orton
rocked up and attacked Bryan. Kane strode out and called them off. Bizarrely
the commentary team acted as though Kane was going to be the voice of reason call
Batista and Orton off in the name of sportsmanship and fair play. The backstage
segment we’d just seen, plus the fact
that he’s very clearly been allied to The Authority for months and shown no
signs of turning on them, told us, and should’ve told Cole, that was not going
to be the case. Anyway… ‘The Big Red Machine’ choke slammed Bryan and then
Triple H came out for his scheduled match.
‘The Game’ smirked at the crowd when the match began. What he should have done was go for a cover while things were obviously going his way and Bryan was prone, but he’s a heel and heels don’t do that kind of thing. They gloat. At this point I was expecting Tripper to go to pick Bryan up and get caught with a small package for a swift Bryan victory, triggering a brawl in which The Shield would make the save. What we got was better.
 |
| The standoff. |
Before H3 made a move against Bryan The Shield’s music
hit and the trio stormed to the ring through the crowd. They lined up outside
the ring on the commentary table side with Batista, Kane and Orton lined up on
the aisle side. Triple H looked at the two opposing factions with concern,
which only grew when The Shield stepped up on to the ring apron. On the
opposite side of the ring The Authority boys responded in kind. Triple H barked
for nobody to get into the ring so naturally that happened too, with the two
sides staring one another down and Triple H caught in the middle.
Triple H told Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns to stand down
and then backed up Kane, Orton and Batista, telling them he didn’t want a war.
When he turned around to address The Shield again he got speared by Roman
Reigns, triggering a fight between the two factions. Orton and Batista were
sent tumbling to the floor then took a pair of dives from Rollins and Ambrose.
Back in the ring Reigns powered out of a choke slam attempt and dropped Kane with
a Superman punch.
 |
| Bryan and The Shield versus The Authority? Sounds good to me. |
The ending was great. It sets up potentially interesting
singles and tag matches involving Orton, Batista, Kane, Ambrose, Rollins and
Reigns, as well as the obvious six man tag match. It kept the Bryan versus
Triple H issue alive for another match there too. Longer term it keeps Orton
and Batista around as challengers for Bryan (and potentially makes the tag
division more interesting if they go for the belts again) and lines Triple H up
for singles matches with each member of The Shield. Reigns versus Triple H
could be big if teased long enough and held on a larger show. SummerSlam for
example.
The rest of the show was great too. Yes there were some
throwaway matches but there was nothing actively bad. Crucially even the
throwaway material always featured someone over or new. It felt like a fresh
start.
The absence of The Undertaker, CM Punk and Sting, all of
whom had been talked of as potential surprises for the show, didn’t stop my
enjoyment at all. In fact it probably added to it. The only return I would have
liked to see was Vince McMahon, and the quality of the show we got without him
made his involvement completely unnecessary. WWE was unconcerned with kisses to
its past during this RAW. They were all about building for the future. And it
looked bright.
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