The Power of Bolief

Bo Dallas's motivational speaker gimmick is similar to the archetypal televangelist. For whatever reason WWE seem unwilling to fully embrace this¹ and instead keep Bo doing the same trite promos that end in his "Bolieve!" catchphrase. Yeah, it's a damn nice pun but Bo could be doing more as a character and livening up the lower card as he does it.

Do you.. Bolieve?

Here's an idea. Have Bo come out dressed in an all white suit, including a white tie and white shoes. They should go full televangelist with it and have him look like he's trying to resemble an actual angel. The New Day lads have honed the televangelist promo style but they're not using the look. That's still wide open and Bo would fit it well.

With this new look could come a new focus in promos. Instead of just setting himself up for his punchline catchphrase Bo could spend a few weeks or a month talking about how he wants to help WWE Superstars™ who are floundering and struggling. Interrupting random matches on SmackDown and getting segments on Main Event would be enough to get this new approach across, with it being made clear that Bo's looking to help lower card lads.

After a few weeks Bo could reveal the guys he wants to help, interrupting a match involving them or simply calling them to the ring during SmackDown (this clearly isn't high profile enough to get air time on RAW). There are a few options for this. Bo could tell Cutis Axel and Damien Sandow that they're better than imitating people from decades ago. He could tell Fandango and Adam Rose that they're both great athletes not being taken seriously because of their silly gimmicks. He could tell Zack Ryder that management aren't interested in him despite his hard work and that he hasn't been relevant for years.

Bolievers?

They're all middle or lower card guys (whether they deserve to be or not). The diea should be that Dallas recruits them to be Bolievers and becomes their manager. Let him manage two guys, give them new all-white ring gear (maybe have their names in black on them or something) and use them as a tag team. You'd have a new team, a new use for Bo Dallas that plays to his strength of being both irritating and ridiculous, and something for guys who are currently directionless.

You would also have the option to imply that Bo is some sort of sinister cult leader who's brainwashed guys into being Bolievers. That may not sound like anything particularly novel in and of itself and it wouldn't be. But it's worth noting that Bo's real life brother is Bray Wyatt, a man well established within WWE canon as a cult leader. Doing something similar with Bo would create the option to play the cult leader thing up in a future storyline. It's an idea that does things short and long term.

But it won't happen. Obviously. Nobody in WWE writes for the mid-card anymore.

***

¹ It's possible they're concerned about upsetting big Christianity fans in their own locker room or religious groups outside the company. But that argument doesn't really tally with them referring to Brock Lesnar as the Devil or the continued depiction of The Undertaker as a demon and-or zombie.

The Top Prize

WWE is currently wasting an opportunity to elevate the status of the Intercontinental championship. With the WWE title currently sitting on Brock Lesnar’s mantelpiece and not appearing on RAW Dolph Ziggler is the highest ranked champion in the promotion. The WWE champ’s continued absence is an opportunity to raise the significance of the IC strap, but it’s not being taken.

Obviously Randy Orton and John Cena are not going to suddenly show an interest in a second string championship. Nor should they. Doing so would send the message that the IC gold is something world champions go for when they’ve nothing else to do, which would devalue it. My feeling is that once a wrestler has been world champion, the best of the best, no other singles championship should satisfy them.

The man who would be king.

But WWE has an entire roster of guys who could express an interest in the Intercontinental hardware. Since Dolph Ziggler won it the only significant challengers he’s had have been The Miz and Cesaro. Both are the sort of guy who should be challenging for the title but to have only two people (plus the not exactly high profile Bo Dallas) being the only people to express an interest in the title doesn’t make it seem like a particularly valued prize.

It also devalues the title if everyone who mentions wanting to win it gets the chance to, as has happened since ‘The Show Off’ won it. It means more if shots at it are earned. The easiest way around that is to have mid-card guys mentioning the championship in interviews and promos even if they’re not involved, or about to be involved, in a feud for it. That way it seems like something people are constantly striving to win, making it feel more valued.

Seth Rollins would be an ideal guy to express interest in it. He’s just main evented a pay-per-view and is perfectly happy to refer to hismelf as the future. He’s even gone so far as to dub himself ‘The Undisputed Future of WWE’. He is ideally placed to challenge Ziggler: he’s a major name who hasn’t yet won a world championship.

The IC title is something commonly associated with rising stars, guys who are on their way to the main event. Holding it would not harm Rollins, but it would boost the status of the belt. That status would be further enhanced when Rollins, having lost the IC title, cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to become WWE champion: the Intercontinental title would have just come off a guy who went on to quickly become the WWE champion. It would demonstrate that the IC title is the gateway to the main event.

You may be wondering why it’s so important that the Intercontinental title is seen in this way. Put simply, it’s because the more important it seems the more useful it becomes as a star-building tool. If a wrestler wins a belt that doesn’t mean much they’ve accomplished little, if anything. If they win a title that’s seen as only a smidge beneath the world strap, and a title that has recently come off a man who went on to capture a world title, they’ve done something considerable and will be viewed as a bigger star.

There’s still time for WWE to get their act together on this. Lesnar isn’t expected to make regular contributions again until the build for his Royal Rumble defence against Cena begins in late December or early January. That gives WWE at least two more months to script some guys to express an interest in the championship and make it seem like something that’s desired by the roster.

Bad Bad Guys

Where’s the heat in WWE?

Look at any Randy Orton appearance over the last six months. The crowd will boo as soon as his music hits but there’s no passion to it. It’s done out of a sense of habit or because the audience knows that’s what’s expected of them. ‘The Viper’ is WWE’s lead bad guy and so he needs to be booed.

No wrestler should be getting booed just because they’re a baddie. They should be getting booed because the audience dislikes them and wants to see them receive their comeuppance. The wrestler should be genuinely disliked. And that’s not the case with Orton. He’s booed because he’s boring and because people feel they should play along.

And it’s not just Orton. Very few wrestlers in WWE seem to understand how to turn crowds against themselves or why it’s an important part of their job. That or they’re concerned about being genuinely hated by fans. While the latter is a worry it’s also part of the territory for a pro wrestler at the WWE level: people should be willing to make themselves hated so that their good guy counterparts can become more appreciated by contrast. Everyone in wrestling benefits from having heels people want to see beaten on a roster.

A leading theory is that cool heels like the nWo ruined the business. Now every bad guy wants to take that route. That, people say, allows you to act in a heelish manner, with all the creative freedom that entails, while still receiving a healthy royalty cheque for T-shirt sales at the end of the month. That’s a simplification of the argument, but it’s accurate enough.

The easy to hate Randy Orton.

I don’t agree with the theory. While I imagine it’s desirable for a lot of wrestlers to be the cool bad guy it won’t be for all of them. As I’ve already stated I think the bigger problem is that too many people just don’t want to be full-on bad guys because of the possible repercussions. That and WWE’s approach doesn’t allow for much variety. For the most part every bad guy acts like every other bad guy. Every good guy acts like every other good guy. It’s an approach which makes riling crowds up, or forming positive bonds with them, hard.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the good guys the company has on offer are limp and fairly uninteresting. With bland guys like Kofi Kingston and the Usos being the norm people gravitate towards the heels because, by their nature, they get to show a bit more personality and character. Look at Bad News Barrett earlier this year. He was set up as a heel for months on end but people took to cheering him because he exhibited more personality than the stock WWE babyface. Bray Wyatt has become a mesmeric tweener. Fandango, Cesaro and Bo Dallas have experienced it too, getting cheers when they are, apparently, supposed to be the bad guys.

It shouldn’t be hard for the writing team, and the wrestlers themselves, to come up with reasons for fans to cheer and boo with passion at the appropriate times. Although an inability to do so would explain the woeful lack of interesting storylines outside of the main event.

Streaking Dallas

The July 28 RAW saw the undefeated streak of Bo Dallas end. He’d racked up seventeen victories since his reintroduction to the WWE roster. No earthshattering but a significant enough accomplishment in modern WWE. Who was selected to hand Dallas his first non-NXT defeat in 2014? That would be R-Truth.

That's a winning smile, right there.

Truth being the man to halt Bo’s streak is a perfect example of WWE ineptitude. Bo could have kept racking up unimpressive victories against the jobbers of the roster while challenging a major star (let’s say Cena, for example) to a match. Like Jericho and Goldberg in WCW, basically. Bo could have been ignored for a bit while Cena busied himself with having a proper feud, causing him to interfere in a match and cost Cena a win.

Cena could come out the next week and agreed to face Bo. Pleased at getting his match Bo could celebrate with a victory lap before announcing he’ll face Cena on pay-per-viw. Cue several weeks of backstage training skits from Bo and a continuation of the streak on SmackDown and Main Event. The PPV meeting itself could go one of two ways: Bo could be jobbed out or, preferably, he could look competitive before getting beaten clean.

I should, at this point, mention that Cena’s not actually the ideal person for this scenario. As much as it would help Bo being the a programme, any programme, with the company’s number one guy, the negatives are pretty obvious. Cena is not generally inclined towards star-making performances at the best of times so placing him in a situation where the appeal lies in him facing someone vastly inferior is probably not advisable. Realistically someone like Dolph Ziggler or Mark Henry-if-he-were-on-TV-and-doing-something would have been a good option, although it’s worth noting that it’s the kind of storyline that a babyface Batista would thrive on.

Anyway, whichever finish they went with (and whichever bigger-than-Bo star they selected) in the pay-per-view bout the winning streak would have ended in a memorable fashion (and it needed to end because he's not the sort of character who goes without losing for long) and Bo's elevated by working with someone higher up the card than him. It would also have set him up for a programme with someone on his level too. A mid-card face could have mocked Bo the night after his loss, setting up a new programme with a clear, easy-to-understand starting point. No it’s not exactly ideal babyface behaviour but it wouldn’t be at all out of place in the WWE of 2014.

Irish Intercontinental

WWE currently has a great opportunity to declutter their title scene a little bit. Knowing the way the company works I don’t think they’ll have realised it or that they’ll care about it if they have. But the opportunity’s there regardless.

The Intercontinental championship was vacated a few weeks ago after champion Bad News Barrett suffered an arm injury. A new champion will be crowned at the Battleground pay-per-view in a thirty man battle royal. Yeah, thirty. That number seems a bit high considering how few legitimately over wrestlers are on the roster and that (apparently) nobody involved will wrestle in a second match on the show. But that’s what they’re going for.

One of the thirty men in the match is current United States champion Sheamus. That’s a championship that means even less than the Intercontinental title. If either the IC or the US belt was dropped then the remaining one would mean more. The fewer prizes there are on offer the greater an accomplishment it is to win one.

Give Sheamus the Intercontinental championship.

I’m not a fan of former world champions winning mid-card titles. Nor am I a fan of Sheamus. But even so I wouldn’t mind seeing ‘The Celtic Warrior’ leave Battleground as a double champion. It would allow him to appear on RAW the next night and officially combine the two titles, quietly dropping the US belt after a few weeks (or then and there on RAW). Or he could knock the US strap and the country it represents and cast it aside, providing the spark for a heel turn.

Naturally I’d much rather see the uber-talented Cesaro or Dolph Ziggler win the Intercontinental title. Or the recently revived Fandango. Or the slowly catching on Bo Dallas. Any of them would be a great choice to construct meaningful mid-card storylines around. But in Sheamus WWE has the option to finish the tidy-up started last December with the world title unification, and that’s something I’ve wanted to see them do for years.

Of course for the Intercontinental championship to truly become the star-making tool it used to be more needs to be done than unifying it with or keeping it in favour of the United States championship. It needs to be presented as a title worth winning and wrestled for in lively matches featuring performers people care about. But getting rid of the US title isn’t a bad first step.

SmackTalk 20.06.14

SmackDown’s generally a one match show. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can lead to good matches ad interesting matches and good interesting matches. This week’s show featured the latter. The seven participants in the WWE championship ladder match at Money in the Bank were placed in a four-on-three handicap match. It was well booked and made the more important match the seven are to be involved in seem more interesting.

It’s an approach I think WWE should use more often. Getting a number of guys together who don’t usually interact is a good way of starting fresh issues. With that seeming to be something WWE has a problem with (so much so that they rarely bother doing it outside of the main event) it’s odd that they’ve not realised this themselves.

Anyway, just for fun, here’s a tweeting session I did.

Seth Rollins v Kofi Kingston

Tweet 1: Let's tweet some Smack.

Tweet 2: First guy out is Seth Rollins, meaning I have to make the obligatory Agents of SHIELD comment.

Seth Rollins, agent of SHIELD.

Tweet 3: Rollins was wearing trainers when Ambrose attacked him on Main Event. Can't imagine image conscious Triple H approved of that.
Tweet 4: He's facing perma-disappointment Kofi Kingston who's decked out like The Flash.
Tweet 5: "Dean Ambrose belongs in a rubber room" - JBL, perhaps hinting at plans for WWE to steal the Samuel Shaw story
Tweet 6: Kofi lost surprisingly quickly. I don't think it'll hurt his chances of being added to Money in the Bank though.
Tweet 7: Uh-oh, Seth's got a mic...
Tweet 8: Is Kane's new ring name Demon Kane? Everyone seems to be calling him that. It's like he's a DBZ villain who's reached his second power level

John Cena promo, featuring interruptions from Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Cesaro, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton

Tweet 9: Michael Cole's welcoming us to the show after the first match and a recap vid. Weirdo.

Tweet 10: John Cena on SmackDown? SAYWHAAAAAAT?!
Tweet 11: Cole's introducing himself AGAIN. This is getting out of hand.
Tweet 12: Cena's jokes falling flat there.
Tweet 13: Rough cut to the crowd chanting "Yes!" It's almost like they didn't take Cena's original cue and had to be prompted a couple more times.
Tweet 14: Hahahaha interrupted by Del Rio of all people.
Tweet 15: Remember when ADR first debuted and he feuded with Rey about three separate times in his first year?
Tweet 16: Sheamus came out. I wanted him to say that he was going to unify the US title with the WWE and World titles to make the WWE triple crown.
Tweet 17: He didn’t. Poor.
Tweet 18: Heyman getting the most heat of the entire show by mentioning Lesnar ending The Streak there.
Tweet 19: Reigns and Cena could be something one day.

Wouldn't surprise me if this was a WrestleMania main event one day, to be honest.

Tweet 20: And I don't mean slash fic.
Tweet 21: Randy Orton. Go to guy for exciting promo segments.
Tweet 22: That promo segment ended with all the guys fighting. Didn't see that comin'...

Dolph Ziggler v Bad News Barrett

Tweet 23: Dolph putting the moves on Lilian Garcia there.

Tweet 24: Bad News Cape Klaxon!!
Tweet 25: Leave it to Barrett to drop in a football reference. Helping to stereotype all Brits as football lovers.
Tweet 26: Could've done with that being longer. Still good though. I want Ziggler v Barrett on the next three PPVs. I'll take them in MITB together.
Tweet 27: Bad News hit Ziggler so hard that his music stopped. Impressive.

Titus O’Neil v Adam Rose

Tweet 28: They're idiots for not saving Titus v Rose for a pay-per-view.

Tweet 29: Love the fact that Rose's entourage are the most excited people in the arena. Most people in the crowd aren't bothered.

The most excited people in the building.

Tweet 30: Can't wait for that bunny heel turn.
Tweet 31: Titus loses. Demands a rematch. Loses again. I'm sure someone, somewhere finds that hilarious.

Kane v Dean Ambrose

Tweet 32: #DemonKane

Tweet 33: Nice to see Rollins has put some effort in for his spot as a guest commentator. So few wrestlers care these days.
Tweet 34: Look at Lawler. He sits there in naff T-shirts every week.
Tweet 35: Once again I feel compelled to comment on Dean Ambrose being really, really surprisingly over as a singles babyface.
Tweet 36: Rollins didn't cost Ambrose the match. mbrose cost Ambrose the match. #BretscrewedBret

Jack Swagger v Big E

Tweet 37: BIG HOSS.

Tweet 38: It's the grudge match we've all been waiting for: Big E v Jack Swagger!
Tweet 39: These two had a cracking match at Elimination Chamber. My hopes are raised for this.
Tweet 40: Lasted about a minute so nowhere near as good as the match at Chamber. Gonna pin my hopes on Big E v Rusev.

Fandango, Summer Rae and Layla backstage

Tweet 41: Fandango not using his gimmick voice is the most kayfabe-breaking thing I've seen in years.

Tweet 42: Summer mouth rapes Fanners and Layla sees. Nothing is said. Their eyes do the talking.
Tweet 43: Yep. Really hyped for that Layla v Summer Rae match.

Bo Dallas v Fandango

Tweet 44: Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo!Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo!

Tweet 45: The obvious finisher for Bo Dallas is the bow and arrow. Why is this not happening?
Tweet 46: 'Dirty' Curty going back to his old ways, basically.
Tweet 47: Not pleased with Layla and Summer trying to overshadow Bo Dallas.

"Are you a... Boliever?"

Tweet 48: Is part of Bo's gimmick that he becomes a bystander in other people's storylines and gets wins out of it? If not it should be.
Tweet 49: Anyone who says Bo's not getting over is wrong. There are signs in the crowd for him and his victory is being booed.

Bray Wyatt backstage promo

Tweet 50: Wyatt Family screen thing going off with Bo in the ring made me think they were going to acknowledge them as brothers.

Tweet 51: 'The Designer of Chaos' is another great moniker for Bray.
Tweet 52: Nice that WWE are savvy enough to have Bray say that he's only siding with the other heels briefly.

Randy Orton, Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio, and Bray Wyatt v John Cena, Sheamus and Roman Reigns

Tweet 53: Instead of a four-on-three match they could have done Sheamus, Reigns and Cena v ADR, Orton and Cesaro v The Wyatt Family.

Tweet 54: Could've been interesting. Maybe they'll do it next week. But they won't.
Tweet 55: The question that everyone wants answered is: are there Mexican flags on the ring posts?
Tweet 56: Awkward shot from the cheap seats there. It was so they didn't have to show a bunch of tarped seats I expect.
Tweet 57: Bray Wyatt foregoing a musical entrance and instead choosing to teleport to the ring there.
Tweet 58: Love Cole making out Reigns is untrustworthy because he said nobody could stop him from winning the world title.
Tweet 59: This match perfectly illustrates how WWE could use six man tags to start new feuds every few months.
Tweet 60: It's not actually a six man tag, but still...
Tweet 61: "Sheamus loves to fight, don't he?" - Michael 'I Can't Think Of Anything To Say' Cole
Tweet 62: The announcers are pushing a lack of trust towards Reigns but Cena teamed with him and Ambrose the week after Rollins turned. Ridiculous.
Tweet 63: Cena and Orton tag in at the same time. The audience immediately begins booing.
Tweet 64: Needlessly sexual cover from Orton there.
Tweet 65: For those playing along at home it was the one he went for after he pointed at Reigns.
Tweet 66: "It's his first big chance at the title!" - Michael Cole on Cesaro, who also wrestled for the title in the main event of Elimination Chamber
Tweet 67: The Crowd Noise Machine is going into overdrive now that Reigns has tagged in.

Bray Wyatt's about to get Lex Luthored.

Tweet 68: Pretty good finish to that. All of Reigns' spots were used and then he went over. Works for me.

Tweet 69: I wish JBL would stop talking about watching Reigns erupt though. #filth

Payback 2014 review

With two rematches heading things up, not much going on on the undercard and no WWE championship match Payback did not look like a strong show. Could WWE pull off a minor wrestling miracle and fashion the second ever Payback event into something worthwhile? Read on and see.

The show started with a video package. The focus was on the top two feuds between Wyatt and Cena and Evolution and The Shield. It was not WWE's greatest effort. There have been far more interesting video packages, but it did at least do what it was supposed to and was well put together.

Michael Cole welcomed us the "the historic" All Stare Arena as United States champion Sheamus bounded out to the ring for the opener. The reaction to him was mostly positive although I'm sure I heard some boos. Perhaps that was just wishful thinking on my part. Clips were shown of his recent interactions with Cesaro and the problems they've had following the Code of Honor.

Cesaro's entrance was preceded by a Paul Heyman promo. He told the audience CM Punk was watching the Blackhawks get their streak broken (cheap heat there)... just like Brock Lesnar had done to The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Even that couldn't turn the crowd fully against Heyman. His accomplishments in wrestling are too easy to respect.

Sheamus is taken for a Big Swing.

Cesaro and Sheamus started tearing into each other immediately and had a match filled with hoss sweat and hoss adrenalin. Shaymo gained an early advantage and heard a smattering boos. The longer the match went the more prominent they became. 'Great White' showed signs of going full-on heel when he dropped three knees on 'The King of Swing', a sequence which was accompanied by an amusing sneer. A "Sheamus sucks!" chant kicked up when he survived a Swiss death pop up uppercut. Boos rained down on him as he signalled for the Brogue kick. Cesaro absorbed a White Noise and a cloverleaf before coming back with a Cesaro Swing. When he tried to pulls Sheamus up for a Neutralizer he got caught with a small package to end a good, lively opener.

The hour that followed that was tough going. It began with a match pitting Goldust and Cody Rhodes against RybAxel. It was irritatingly clear that it was taking place just to further the split between the brothers. It was no better than a standard TV match, something not helped by the fact that the audience took a while to warm up to it. The mighty Ryback got the pin after catching a Disaster kick and turning it into a Shellshock. Afterwards Cody told 'The Bizarre One' that he should get a better tag partner then walked out.

Lana came out to remind us that Vladimir Putin exists and then tottered to the ring behind Rusev. He was waving a flag like a madman just as he had a few days earlier at NXT Takeover. Big E came out with a US flag. At this point I was hoping they'd agree to an impromptu flag match. It wasn't to be.

The two found it tough to win the crowd over, suffering through a "We want Ziggler!" chant and, perhaps worse, indifference. Things picked up when E did his ever impressive spear through the ropes. From there it was still the basic power exchange you'd expect but the audience was making more noise. They didn't get long. Rusev slapped on the Accolade fairly quickly and Big E tapped out. 'The Bulgarian Brute' celebrated by shaking the flag like a lunatic again.

A second random filler match between Kofi Kingston and 'The Inspirational' Bo Dallas didn't take place. After Bo had done his Bruce Forsyth pose and given the fans a pep talk Kane walked to the ring. Kingston attacked 'The Big Red Machine' as he got into the ring, making him a heel in my book. Kane defended himself with a choke slam and a Tombstone then wandered off. Bo got back into the ring and told Kofi he'd back on his feet in no time if he Bo-lieved. The entire sequence was pointless, although WWE deserves credit for getting Dallas onto the show in some form.

Rob Van Dam's challenge for the Intercontinental championship was next. Defending champ Bad News Barrett got another mostly positive reaction. His bad news for the night was that RVD wouldn't be winning the title. It was a little unimaginative but his delivery was spot on. In a nice touch there are now three lions on Bad News's trunks. That's a football reference, in case you don't know.

Van Dam's not the only one who can kick.

The audience was split on who to cheer for in the opening moments, the air being filled with duelling chants. The match was fine but didn't feel like anything special. Nor did it feel as though it was as good as it could have been. RVD did his usual spots and Bad News did some kicks to the gut. The, ahem, good news for Barrett was that his Winds of Change and Bullhammer moves were both greeted warmly by the crowd. Van Dam went down to the elbow after a failed split legged moonsault.

A video reminded us of what's been happening with Daniel Bryan recently. The short version is that after winning the WWE title at WrestleMania he got a neck injury and Stephanie McMahon wanted him to vacate the title, having threatened to sac his wife Brie if he failed to do so. Ms McHelmsley made the video pointless when she recapped the same stuff live in the ring.

D-Bry said Stephanie had a chance to change people's perception of her. She said, in response to a Punk chant, the people wanted him to quit like Punk. Brie called Steph a bitch. That got a huge pop and a yes chant. Steph demanded the championship. Bryan went to hand it over but Brie stopped him and quit. Steph's response was to laugh which earned her a slap. That sent her running to the back as the Bryans led a yes chant in the ring. A replay aired during which Michael Cole called it "the slap heard round the world." I bet he doesn't even know what that's a reference to. Anyway, the upshot was that Bryan kept the WWE championship and the fans were happy. This presumably means he'll be back in action either at Money in the Bank or Battleground.

Bray Wyatt spent a minute or so interacting with fans at ringside after he'd walked to the ring for the Last Man Standing match. That included him staring at Jerry 'The King' Lawler (who WWE seem convinced every fan sees as a cuddly old gentleman instead of a cliché-spouting embarrassment) and laughing. Cena went through his usual pre-match routine while JBL surprised me by referencing his LSM match opposite Umaga from Royal Rumble 2007. That still stands as one of the greatest matches of Cena's career.

This was not he end of John Cena.

Before the Wyatt Family could gang up on Cena the Usos dashed to the ring to provide some backup. Rowan and Harper backed off and the four settled in at ringside. Wyatt controlled the early stretch of the encounter as Cena absorbed punishment to make his later comebacks appear that little bit more impressive. After an AA to 'The Eater of Worlds' Erick Rowan involved himself in the match, prompting the Usos to leap into the ring. A brawl erupted between the seconds that saw Harper do a dive and an Uso jump off the top rope (after which they all disappeared to the back). This caused a distraction that allowed Bray to grab a chair to whack Cena with. That put Cena down for a six count before he grabbed the chair for himself and delicately tapped Wyatt on the back with it. Amazingly Michael Cole bothered to reference the internal conflict Cena had experienced over using weapons at WrestleMania. I hadn't expected that. It was rationalised that at 'Mania Cena was in a regular match where weapon shots were illegal. There were no such restrictions here.

Cena introduced a table. That backfired on him when Wyatt suplexed him through it. Cena was back on his feet by eight but was met with a set of steel steps to the head. Cena naturally made it back to his feet and gave Wyatt a steps shot of his own. Wyatt rolled to the outside of the ring and stood dazed at ringside, perfectly placed for Cena to lob the steps right at his head in the match's most impressive moment.

Wyatt was back up at seven and walloped Cena with a Sister Abigail into the crowd barrier. Wyatt was back dropped onto another set of steel steps. Moments later he leapt off them and landed a senton drop on Cena. 'The Franchise' blocked a chair shot and blasted Wyatt with an AA. At this point Harper and Rowan returned, double teaming Cena and helping Wyatt back to his feet to save him from losing. Jimmy and Jey were back out seconds later, saving Cena before getting wiped out by Harper and Rowan. The Wyatt boys then set up a pair of tables and then had a brawl with the recovered tag champs. Rowan was eliminated with a body block through a table while Harper took himself and Jimmy out with a suplex from the top rope through the tables at ringside.

Cena and Wyatt resumed their battle outside, Cena ducking a clothesline before getting body blocked through the crowd barrier. Both men were back up at seven. They brawled over to the tech area where Wyatt threw Cena into a stack of machinery, triggering a pyro explosion in the entranceway that nobody except the announcers reacted to. He came back from that immediately and back dropped Wyatt into a suspiciously empty box. He placed another box on top and stood on it, ensuring 'The Necessary Evil' couldn't return to his feet and earning himself a victory in the match of the night.

Cole talked about the performance as though it were a feud ender. I hope it was. I can't imagine it being bettered. Having the rivalry end here would allow it to end on a high with the match it's needed from the beginning.

The awkward job of following Cena v Wyatt went to Alicia Fox and Paige. They had a good match. The audience appeared to disagree, amusing themselves by singing Adam Rose's entrance music instead of getting into the action. The champion retained with the Scorpion cross lock, which is now being called the PTO, which stands for Paige's Tap Out.

A brief chat between Booker T and Alex Riley preceded the main event. They said nothing of consequence but it was nice to see Booker. Batista was rocking some new bright blue gear when Evolution entered (#Bluetista would trend on Twitter a few minutes into the match). I'd been hoping for a new weird outfit from him for a while. The blue garb hit the spot. Also, an Instagram picture was shown that illustrated Triple H has continued to stay in shape instead of going back to the Stan Hansen physique he was sporting in 2011.

'Bluetista' takes a boot but still manages to look good. What a pro.

After starting off with everyone pairing up and touring the arena the match settled down into a traditional six man tag match. There was a no disqualification stipulation so they didn't technically need to tag in and out. I suppose they opted for it so as to better pace the bout. As was the case at Extreme Rules the first half was a little slow, eschewing overly flashy sequences in favour of a methodical pace that didn't burn the crowd out and told the story of Evolution being well prepared for 'The Hounds of Justice'.

Things picked up at around the fifteen minute mark when Triple H smashed a monitor into Rollins's head after they'd brawls into the crowd again. Back at ringside Reigns found himself triple power bombed through the Spanish announce desk. Up in the entranceway Rollins took more punishment with a Pedigree on to a chair. Back in the ring all three Evolution members took it in turns to hold Reigns down over a set of steel steps (the steps certainly earned their keep on this show) as the other members caned him. Back up at the entranceway Orton hit a draping DDT on Ambrose before Rollins leapt off the entrance structure on to Tripper, Orty and 'Bootista'.

I wonder if Triple H believes in The Shield yet...

Batista was the first man to fall to elimination, getting pinned after a spear from Reigns. Rollins was saved from an RKO by Reigns, who was in turn saved from a draping DDT by Ambrose. He then eliminated 'The Viper' with the Dirty Deeds headlock driver onto a chair. That left Triple H alone with The Shield. He tried for a Pedigree on 'The Lunatic Fringe' but Reigns made the save with a Superman punch. Batista, who'd stayed hanging about at ringside, then slipped into the ring and flattened him with a spear. Orton, who also hadn't left, retrieved 'The Game's' sledgehammer from under the ring and passed it to his teammate. Ambrose got smashed with it before Rollins stunned H3 with a springboard knee, setting him up for a spear from Reigns to end a solid match. The show ended with The Shield doing their fist bump pose over Triple H.

So was Payback worthwhile? Well Cena versus Wyatt and The Shield versus Evolution certainly were. Sheamus and Cesaro’s US title battle was a surprisingly satisfying offering. The rest of the show was nothing special. Nothing was especially bad but, three previously mentioned matches aside, nothing was especially good. The show seemed designed to fill a gap in the WWE schedule before the more important Money in the Bank. Hopefully that will get WWE’s pay-per-view offerings back on track. Because Payback never really stood a chance.

The 2014 Debut Season

The April 7 episode of RAW saw the introduction of three NXT performers to WWE’s main roster, two via vignette and one live in New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center. The men who received the vignette treatment were Adam Rose and Bo Dallas. It was Paige who appeared in front of crowds and wrestled her first match as an official WWE Diva™.

Fresh blood was to be expected. It’s what WWE does every year after WrestleMania. TV time that had been dedicated to part-timers and video packages in the build-up to WrestleMania is given over to a new batch of wrestlers, the hope being that some or all of them will connect with viewers and become a significant star. Traditionally the next really big show after ‘Mania is SumemrSlam, which gives WWE a few months where it can be a bit experimental and give viewers some new people to invest in.

The Adam Rose videos showed him partying on his Erotic Express tour bus. It’s an approach that had been used a little over a month earlier when introducing him to NXT (repackaging him after his time as Leo Kruger). It succeeded in interesting people in the character there so I imagine the same will be achieved a second time around. A word of warning here: Rose’s entrance music is catchy.

The idea is that Rose is a party animal turned wrestler. In NXT he has been accompanied to the ring by a large entourage of quirkily dressed individuals that has included a Spartan, a pirate, a dude in a bowler hat and suit, a human silhouette, and a variety of men and women kitted out in a decidedly sixties motif. His matches there have been nothing special but they weren’t intended to be. As seen in NXT Rose is a fun character whose job is to give people an entrance they can get into, wrestle disposable matches and be popular.

There’s nothing that makes me think the move to the main roster will change that. I expect Rose will continue to work short matches for the foreseeable future. The appeal of the character is the entourage and the party entrance, not lengthy, hard fought matches (although Rose is capable of them, as demonstrated by his time as Kruger).

While the Adam Rose videos made their subject the star by placing him at the centre of them the Bo Dallas videos took a different approach. They featured shots of various outdoor activities as Dallas provided a motivational voiceover, the highlight of which was when he said people misread the word “impossible” as something negative, saying it should actually be read “I’m possible”. He was only briefly seen at the end of the videos.

Bo Dallas in a Shawn Michaels-inspired pose after winning the NXT championship.

Recasting him with a faux motivational speaker vibe makes perfect sense. Since returning to NXT after his brief foray on to the main roster early last year the Dallas character has developed into an egomaniac convinced that he’s adored by fans, turning every negative thing sent his way into a positive. “No!” chants have become “Bo!” chants and boos have become long shouts of the same. It’s not dissimilar to the early work of Kurt Angle, only in place of intensity, integrity and intelligence Dallas has the “Bolief!” of every fan in the building (and he’s said to be particularly popular in Bolivia).

I suspect the Angle model will provide a framework for Bo’s call-up. Overly emotional celebrations of minor matches and halting performances midway through would both fit well with the Bo character. But he’s not just an Angle clone. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him motivating crowds, promising to be a hero if they “Bolieve” in him. Basically he’s a ridiculous, misguided buffoon.

Paige, of course, made the biggest impact on RAW. She defeated AJ Lee in an impromptu match to win the WWE Divas championship. As she was already the NXT women’s championship this indicates that WWE has an awful lot of faith in her as a performer. And they should. She has been the most consistent in-ring performer in the developmental women’s division, and her work in SHIMMER shows that she’s had this talent for a while. In particular see her final outing for the promotion opposite (her mother) Saraya Knight.

There was some shrieking going on when this was taken.

With Paige having ended AJ Lee’s record setting 295 day reign as Divas champion a programme between the two seems inevitable. Which is about the best news possible for anyone who wants WWE to having a women’s division worth watching: Lee and Paige are probably the two best female wrestlers the company has.

I’m expecting a story in which Paige is told she’s out of her depth and a fluke champion by an aggressive AJ desperate to regain the gold. A rematch at Extreme Rules is seemingly inevitable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw them clash at Payback and Money in the Bank. Longer term there are quality opponents waiting for her in Natalya, Emma, Brie Bella and her peers in NXT when they got promoted.

It’s good to see that WWE aren’t hanging about with adding names to the roster now that WrestleMania XXX’s in the books. And that the NXT system is working. Paige has been consistently good as both a character and an in-ring performer in NXT, while Dallas and Rose have both taken different paths to create characters that can work on the bigger stage. All three now have the chance to strut their stuff.

That RAW Recap 07.04.14

WrestleMania weekend ends not with WrestleMania but with the RAW after it. ‘Mania provides the hype, spectacle and closure while RAW sets things up for the future. It’s just as important, perhaps more important, than ‘The Granddaddy of Them All’ because it’s used as a tool to prepare new things as opposed to revelling in its own grandiose existence. It has developed into being amongst WWE’s most important annual shows by virtue of exploring the fallout from ‘Mania.

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 Shield surrounded a prone Triple H in the ring. He slowly got to his feet, trying to talk his way out of a hiding and then turned around into Bryan’s running knee. Kane quickly grabbed the boss and pulled him out of the ring, leaving The Shield and Daniel Bryan standing tall as the show went off the air.

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.