Official Raw/Smackdown Aftermath, Ratings and Review Thread

Grade tonight's RAW.

  • A

  • B

  • C

  • D

  • F

Results are only viewable after voting.
Well that was just a pretty weird show that saw the crowd mostly entertain themselves with endless chanting, often about stuff that had nothing to do with what was actually going on.

Cena's opening promo was pretty good, he trolled the crowd and the "heel turn " comment was pretty funny as they chanted "boring" and "same old shit", then out came big Mark Henry to answer Cena's open challenge for a title match only to be scuppered by Booker T.

Apparently Rock is the #1 contender as he has a rematch clause (That got booed as well) but couldn't be there because he tore his abdomen from the bone through sucking wind so hard last night, Lawler and Cole added another couple of injuries to the list later on in the night to pad it out. Booker makes Cena vs Henry as a non title match but Mark will get a shot if he wins.

Daniel Bryan came out to a huge pop to face Urkle on roids, it was a limp match with Urkle going over with his silly looking finisher.

Miz vs Barrett and Del Rio vs Swagger happened but I wasn't paying any attention, although I was amused to see Barrett take the IC belt back.

Then Ziggler's music hit and the crowd erupted, Ziggler cashed in and won the WHC in the best thing to happen in WWE since Lesnar returned. His cocky post-win promo was short but on point, Cole and Lawler didn't really call it like a heel win which was odd. The emotion from Dolph and AJ felt real and the crowd response to his win was electric.

After this the show pretty much offered nothing and the crowd went into business for themselves, although amidst all the insanity Taker came out and The Shield interrupted him to follow through on their promise from twitter to make a huge statement on Raw, however before they can attack Taker Team Hell No make the save and The Shield retreat. I figured Taker would get beaten down so he could leave for the rest of the year, so the outcome of the segment was interesting.

The zenith of the crowd insanity came when Sheamus and Orton came out to argue over who should face Big Show, it was put to the vote as WWE's active match, Orton won with 73% of the votes, only Booker and Vickie decided to simply ignore the vote and book Orton vs Sheamus with the winner to face Show, very stupid as it made WWE's interactive concept seem pointless.

The crowd then proceeded to take a giant shit on Orton and Sheamus, I wasn't actually watching the match as I was replying to some e mails, but I could hear the chants, they chanted boring, Ole!, RVD, JBL, Jerry, HBK, Randy Savage and even Michael Cole, I've never heard two top guys utterly mocked like that before, and to top it off; when Show came out the crowd started chanting "Thank you Big Show" and he proceeded to destroy Orton as the crowd cheered and chanted for more chairs.

There was some other filler and a brief promo from Heyman who masterfully twisted the whole stupid booking of Lesnar losing into a moral victory for the beast, apparently he was gonna start an angle with Rock tonight, can't say I'd have given a shit about that. Heyman informs everyone that Punk will talk about his match with Taker next week.

Cena vs Henry was up last and was disappointing, Cena works great with monsters and Mark is a great monster but it ended in a Cena count out win after only a few minutes. Henry attacked Cena after the match and then Ryback ran out to a mediocre response, but after he beasted Henry he got the crowd doing his goofy chant and Cena looked perplexed as Ryback helped him up.

For a minute I thought Cena was gonna AA Ryback for stealing his spotlight but predictably Ryback took Cena's head off with the meat-hook clothesline and then Shellshocked him and held the WWE title up and gave Cena a visual "fuck you" arm gesture. The crowd popped huge for Ryback as he decapitated Cena and Cena being the pro he is took that hit much harder than anyone has in months in order to get the angle over. I guess it was a heel turn for Ryback but he actually got the biggest face pop of the night and the show went off air to loud "Feed me More!" chants.

Overall bar Cena's two segments, Ziggler's cash-in and the Taker/Shield segment it was a pretty lackluster show that was taken over by a crowd that took smarkdom to new heights/depths.
 
So the thread about the crowd gets moved into the Raw aftermath thread. Right. I swear these mods make coming to this message board not even fun anymore. They either move everything when there is about 4 pages already about it, or delete things they feel should not be there. No wonder other wrestling forums are so much better. Damn. Probably going to get a strike for the post.

Anyway, Raw was great tonight. I really enjoyed it and hope more crowds act the way the ones tonight did. Did not even miss Punk or Taker. Completely forgot all about the Rock situation also.

The ZIG cash in was INSANE. I marked out more then I have in a long long time.

Great great raw.
 
Those are the kind of reactions you get from foreign fans that get bored and have a lot to drink. A vast majority of them were also "smart" fans so that wasn't going to help anything moronic or simplistic WWE was going to do tonight. But they are absolutely entertaining. More American crowds need to be like that. Moreover, more wrestling fans need to speak up and be heard when you have their attention like that.

It used to be that they'd listen to the fans to determine what worked and what didn't, now they've conditioned everyone to accept what they write and train you to mark out at the designated times. That's not how it works. It's the fans that cut the paychecks, smarks or not.

And you just know, instead of running with everything that happened tonight, they'll spin their web over the next week with Tweets and website articles to twist it back around to their desired outcome. I'm not saying everything is a guaranteed goldmine but just think if they hadn't listen to the fans when "Austin 3:16" caught on the way it did. Would have been a vastly different company landscape back then.
 
ITALIAN NYC said:
So the thread about the crowd gets moved into the Raw aftermath thread. Right. I swear these mods make coming to this message board not even fun anymore. They either move everything when there is about 4 pages already about it, or delete things they feel should not be there. No wonder other wrestling forums are so much better. Damn. Probably going to get a strike for the post.
Click to expand...

Years ago, before the site crashed and had a relaunch with the hardworking staff and new(er) ownership that is here now, I was the admin. The only reason I bring that otherwise irrelevant info up here is to point out that I can vouch for how difficult it is for the staff at this specific forum to manage the constant threads that are being made about any given topic. Organizing things makes it difficult for posters to find what they are looking for but also makes it easier to keep things in order. My assumption about the mods merging of the threads is that the crowd's reaction to what happened on Raw is based on them reacting to a series of events from Raw as opposed to one specific event. One specific event would get it's own thread. Something about the show as a whole apparently was considered worthy of being here. The people who do the modding here can give their own input though, I just wanted to share that I get where they're coming from, as annoying as it may be.

Anyway, I really enjoyed tonight's Raw. I am pleastantly surprised to see that The Undertaker will possibly be part of a match at Extreme Rules when I expected just the WM match til next year. I also am looking forward to seeing what hjappens with Ziggler's reign and seeing what sort of (hopefully) new opponents Cena has for title matches. There already were two people shown as possible opponents tonight.
The crowd was obviously a big factor in adding the tone of the night. I hope that Smackdown is a good followup to this week's Raw.
 
robinkom said:
And you just know, instead of running with everything that happened tonight, they'll spin their web over the next week with Tweets and website articles to twist it back around to their desired outcome..
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right. And it makes me frustrated. Lawler, JBL and Cole will ignore the "RVD" and "Randy Savage" but will gladly say that they're names were mentioned, and yes I know this makes sense. But it does make me long for the days of ECW when they didn't shortcome the fan's intelligence and were honest with them about situations. Michael Cole will tell you this is Raw and and we're having a party for the fact of the matter a lot of the people at Raw were bored, tired of certain things being shoved down their throats and took it upon themselves to hijack the show.

WWE offered a package so that would go to the Hall of Fame show, go to the Mania event and the next's night's Raw so there were probably a lot of foreigners in the crowd, which did make it feel like there were in an alternative universe. I think a lot of people had this huge Supercard in Mania 29 build in their minds and didn't quite deliver and tonight was the backlash of that. I hate to bring politics into this but I do wish WWE would do what the Republican party is doing, taking a long look at themselves in the mirror, noticing there are out of touch with the people in this day and age, and adapt. But I don't think WWE will take the hint. I'm suprised they took the hint when Punk dropped that intial pipebomb in that summer night in 2011.

That being said Raw ended very strong with Ryback standing over John Cena.
 
robinkom said:
Those are the kind of reactions you get from foreign fans that get bored and have a lot to drink. A vast majority of them were also "smart" fans so that wasn't going to help anything moronic or simplistic WWE was going to do tonight. But they are absolutely entertaining. More American crowds need to be like that. Moreover, more wrestling fans need to speak up and be heard when you have their attention like that.
Click to expand...

That show tonight is the way a wrestling crowd should be. The crowd was having fun with the show and enjoying themselves. When you watch a show like that you can't help but want to see more of it, you want to be there live. We need more crowds like that. We need crowds who don't just sit on their hands but who get into it and engage the show. Maybe they were mocking some of the dumber elements of the show, either way it was a lot more entertaining than an audience who just sits on their hands.
 
Tonight simply shows that RAW can have an amazing card, amazing matches, amazing promos and so on, but the only way it comes off as entertaining is crowd reactions. That pop the crowd delivered for Ziggler was the loudest I've heard in years outside of the Rock's return.

I believe it all boils down to this..it wasn't a PG crowd. It wasn't kid-friendly environment. Most of those fans were international, meaning they flew outside of the country (or at least came in from different states) to see WM and followed up with that show. They were real fans that knew history.

It was simply amazing. WWE depends on it's fans. Now, sadly it won't be like this all the time. But if you look back at the attitude era..the crowd is what made those shows so awesome. Same with tonight. If you could go back in time and put a normal "WWE Universe" crowd in the mix of one of the attitude era's best shows, it would probably come off shitty.

And really, it all boils down to the kid-friendly environments. WWE can keep the program PG, I don't really care..but they should market towards older audiences.


That being said, one could look at it as WWE is trying to "refresh" their fan base. Maybe Vince is thinking most people from the 90s have moved on, and he is grabbing the attention of younger people (Hell, I started watching wrestling when I was 8..I'm pretty sure all of us started young) and to grow the product into a more mature program with them. Who knows. Just my take.


But as a kid growing up, the first thing I actually remember is seeing is Sable with nipple tassels on. That's what caught my eye and made me start watching. (I was a horny mo fo, lol)
 
I like hot crowds as much as anybody but c'mon, you're giving them FAR too much credit for Raw. Look at everything that happened on Raw last night and if you simply weren't into the major happenings that went down, then you might as well stop watching altogether. Last night's show would have been a hot show in front of any audience. Granted, it's probably the hottest audience I've seen any wrestling program get in a very, very long time. But c'mon, stop trying to make it sound like that WWE's audiences are people who just sit on their hands and you can hear crickets chirping. It's kind of ridiculous.

The live crowd was great but, in my opinion, they got a little annoying at times. There are ups & downs to having a crowd that's packed with smarks, especially when some of them have had too much to drink.

A lot happened on the show last night. There were three strong matches on the card. I don't know why they took the IC title off Barrett at the WM pre-show just to give it back last night. Still, a great effort and one can only hope that the mid-card champs jobbing out to the top stars is over with as WM is finished.

Del Rio vs. Swagger as also a strong match and Ziggler cashing in his MITB briefcase was a great moment. Now, I just hope that Ziggler is booked much stronger since WM is over, as he was frequently jobbed out as well.

The Shield interrupting Taker and Team Hell No coming to his aid was an interesting development. Is another six man tag match, this one featuring Taker, coming up soon? Possibly at Extreme Rules?

Sheamus & Orton had a strong back & forth match. Big Show interrupting and taking both of them out made sense as it sets things up properly for a three-way feud. It also, potentially, sets up Orton's heel turn, which is said to be happening at some point this year.

The Rock being out injured, in all honesty, didn't bother me. If the guy really is hurt badly, such as having a couple of muscle tears, then he has to get it looked out. That's part of the downside to a crowd full of smarks. They ignore the fact that wrestlers are people too and that they can get hurt just as badly as the rest of us. Giving Cena vs. Rock a rest might be the best thing at this point.

Ryback taking out Cena after his brief match with Mark Henry was a fun moment. I don't know if this is a full blown heel turn for Ryback or if he's gone tweener. It also looks as though Mark Henry is still in the mix, so Cena having to fend off these two monsters who are after his title could be entertaining. It'll be interesting to see how they pull this off and how long they can keep it going.

All in all, a strong show in front of an insanely hot crowd that delivered a couple of fun surprises and generated a lot of buzz for next week. I give the show an A-. People have come to expect a lot out of the post WM Raw and last night's show delivered.
 
I don't think it was a heel turn at all for Ryback. They were simply adding more to his character and trying to keep him interesting. I don't, for one bit, think his feud with Henry is over first of all. Secondly, he's a monster. Him destroying Cena is just a way of asserting his dominance and telling everyone that he's still going to gun for the championship. I don't think they should job him out to Cena quite so soon though.
 
It would so strange if Ryback is suddenly in the WWE title hunt. He's lost for like 6 PPV's in a row. Maybe we'll have Ryback, Cena and Rock triple threat at Extreme Rules or Fatal four way if you add Henry.
 
I don't think that was a heel turn last night!

I think it's pretty clear that WWE se Ryback as a potential big time player and this was a way of putting him up there with the big boys!

For me, this was 'I've had some crappy results at the ppvs and I am not happy about it, so I'm gonna prove I can still kick some serious ass!'

I think if they are planning Henry & Ryback chasing the title as Cena's first feud after the rock it will be very good.

These two beasts will come a cross as a legitimate threat to the title!

But, we'll see...
 
I cant see how it was a Heel turn when the crowd was cheering for it. it could just be because it was Cena or because the crowd was a typical NY/NJ crowd that would normally cheer Heels.

But because of the positive reaction it got i cant see how it was a Heel turn
 
Jack-Hammer said:
I like hot crowds as much as anybody but c'mon, you're giving them FAR too much credit for Raw. Look at everything that happened on Raw last night and if you simply weren't into the major happenings that went down, then you might as well stop watching altogether. Last night's show would have been a hot show in front of any audience. Granted, it's probably the hottest audience I've seen any wrestling program get in a very, very long time. But c'mon, stop trying to make it sound like that WWE's audiences are people who just sit on their hands and you can hear crickets chirping. It's kind of ridiculous.

The live crowd was great but, in my opinion, they got a little annoying at times. There are ups & downs to having a crowd that's packed with smarks, especially when some of them have had too much to drink.

A lot happened on the show last night. There were three strong matches on the card. I don't know why they took the IC title off Barrett at the WM pre-show just to give it back last night. Still, a great effort and one can only hope that the mid-card champs jobbing out to the top stars is over with as WM is finished.

Del Rio vs. Swagger as also a strong match and Ziggler cashing in his MITB briefcase was a great moment. Now, I just hope that Ziggler is booked much stronger since WM is over, as he was frequently jobbed out as well.

The Shield interrupting Taker and Team Hell No coming to his aid was an interesting development. Is another six man tag match, this one featuring Taker, coming up soon? Possibly at Extreme Rules?

Sheamus & Orton had a strong back & forth match. Big Show interrupting and taking both of them out made sense as it sets things up properly for a three-way feud. It also, potentially, sets up Orton's heel turn, which is said to be happening at some point this year.

The Rock being out injured, in all honesty, didn't bother me. If the guy really is hurt badly, such as having a couple of muscle tears, then he has to get it looked out. That's part of the downside to a crowd full of smarks. They ignore the fact that wrestlers are people too and that they can get hurt just as badly as the rest of us. Giving Cena vs. Rock a rest might be the best thing at this point.

Ryback taking out Cena after his brief match with Mark Henry was a fun moment. I don't know if this is a full blown heel turn for Ryback or if he's gone tweener. It also looks as though Mark Henry is still in the mix, so Cena having to fend off these two monsters who are after his title could be entertaining. It'll be interesting to see how they pull this off and how long they can keep it going.

All in all, a strong show in front of an insanely hot crowd that delivered a couple of fun surprises and generated a lot of buzz for next week. I give the show an A-. People have come to expect a lot out of the post WM Raw and last night's show delivered.
Click to expand...

The problem is, none of those "moments" would have been anywhere near as epic in your typical "WWE Universe" crowd. And yes, most of the time the fans do sit with their hands on their asses. Only a few people get responses..John Cena gets booed, Daniel Bryan gets YES chants..and a few other people.

That crowd made the show last night IMO. Other than the Ziggler cash it, it was a fairly boring RAW from a technical standpoint I thought.
 
Sweep The Leg said:
I don't think it was a heel turn at all for Ryback. They were simply adding more to his character and trying to keep him interesting.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Now that Ryback lost his first WM match, it could be that Creative is going to find something new for him to do, but it doesn't necessarily involve a heel/'tweener turn. Hard to tell at this point. I don't really care, anyway.

No, the heel turn belongs to John Cena. His entire countenance was different last night; he seems to be turning on the fans even as they turn on him. The thing is, it's not going to be an overnight turn, as they did with Alberto Del Rio.

ADR went good instantly....no rhyme, no reason. With John Cena, it must be recognized that the guy has been the #1 guy.....as well as the #1 good guy .....for so long that it's better theater to take some time in changing him. He's got a damn good reason to turn bad; his fans have turned on him. Although the booing has been going on for some time, and the jeers are probably spontaneous, if for no other reason than because fans follow the trends and boo a performer if that's what everyone else is doing, I think the "boring" chants were most likely planted by "loudmouths-for-hire" sprinkled in the audience. The company wants to generate a response from Cena that amounts to a G-rated version of: "Fuck me? Well, fuck you, too!"

All that takes a little time to build and we'll be watching as it takes shape. I look forward to the journey.

Cena as a bad guy is going to be huge. Huge. People wonder whether his merchandise sales will be hurt? Hell, they'll be higher than ever. This is going to inject new life into the company.
 
LSN's Raw Hits and Misses for 4/9/13​

Raw Hits:​

Dolph Ziggler cashes in: A huge moment, made even moreso special by the pro-Ziggler crowd. They were bizarre, to say the least, but this was as intense and dramatic a two minute match as one will find because of the crowd, which made this huge moment even bigger. Ziggler having to earn the win by kicking out of the top rope enzeguri and breaking the cross-armbreaker was extremely well executed also. Ziggler may have been overshadowed had he cashed in at Wrestlemania, so having him do so at Raw made the moment bigger. If their brief encounter was a sign of anything, it could breathe life back into the World Title after Del Rio failed to click as babyface champion. A really fun moment.

The Miz vs Wade Barrett: Another surprising moment. I expected Miz to defeat Barrett again, but it seems his win was simply to give the Wrestlemania crowd a feel-good moment to start the show. I'm not sure how this is beneficial to either man, but Chris Jericho and Edge had one-day IC reigns as well, and have done ok for themselves. Both men seemed intent on delivering a better match being given more time after their short affair at Wrestlemania, and they did so. ***

Undertaker appears: Could we be seeing Undertaker at Extreme Rules? The question has been as to who can stop the Shield, and perhaps the team of 'Taker, Kane, and Bryan are the ones to do so. Either way, giving him promo time only to be interrupted by the Shield was a nice move that surely could build anticipation for Undertaker to wrestle again soon, especially if JBL's comments of wanting to see the six "get it on" are any indication. If so, The Shield loses nothing in losing to that team, but a win would boost their stock even higher. The anticipation for follow-up is exciting.

Ryback attacks: It seemed to be somewhat deja-vu from last year with Lesnar attacking Cena to close the show following Wrestlemania, but it makes sense. Ryback had unfinished business with Henry after their match at Wrestlemania, but made a statement to insert himself into the WWE Title picture as well. People forget that Cena eliminated him to win the Rumble, costing him a shot at headlining Wrestlemania. The argument is there as to whether this was a heel turn, which I'm inclined to believe it was not. Rather, Ryback was simply making a statement, and it looks like we're headed for a triple threat soon between Ryback, Henry, and Cena. The way he manhandled both Cena and Henry last night hopefully will lead to him regaining some credibility, which he has lost much of.

Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Big Show: While the crowd gave Orton and Sheamus no chance of success with their reaction to their match, the post-match interactions between Show, Sheamus, and Orton were well-done. Orton took a step towards a heel turn at Wrestlemania by tagging himself in, and did again last night by going to Booker to override Vickie to get what he wanted. But Big Show made this storyline successful last night, as his destruction of Orton and Sheamus truly asserted himself as still being a monster heel and a force to be reckoned with, as someone his size should.

Chris Jericho attacks Fandango: I've enjoyed Jericho's jokes at Fandango's expense as much as the next guy, but it was to see him be serious after being beaten down week after week and then losing to Fandango at 'Mania. A simple, effective beatdown that continued to help Fandango's stock, keeping him involved with a big-time player like Jericho after beating him. His insistance on pronouncing his name correctly while lying on his back in pain made for a funny moment.

Jack Swagger and Zeb Coulter vs Alberto Del Rio: Essentially a Wrestlemania re-match, as Coulter was never tagged into the match. It was well-wrestled and set the stage for Ziggler's cash-in with Swagger looking very strong in dominating Del Rio for much of the match, and simply getting caught. Swagger's act isn't a main event level one, and this should effectively transition him out of that picture with back to back submission losses to Del Rio and Ziggler's cash-in. Still, well wrestled and longer then their Wrestlemania encounter. **3/4.

Big E Langston vs Daniel Bryan: A total squash for Langston, and the right opponent in Daniel Bryan. A lot of hardcore fans will be upset to see Bryan lose so quickly, but it gives Langston instant credibility in dominating a champion and winning his Raw debut in such quick fashion. A good night for Ziggler and co.

Overall Show: This was as bizarre a crowd as Ive ever seen in all my time watching wrestling, and I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing. They were tough on Orton and Sheamus, who are generally well-received, but they made the show fun overall. It was a noteworthy show with the Ziggler cash-in, Undertaker appearing and interacting with the Shield, and the set-up of numerous possibilities for John Cena going forward. The show wasn't flawless, but it was entertaining. B.

Raw Misses:​

John Cena opening promo: I'm not a huge advocate of a Cena heel turn, but I'd be fine with it if it happened. And if he does turn, I'll eat my words, but his comedy-sprinkled promo and interaction with Henry was very bad. He didn't put over the Rock or their match much, and seemed like he was toying with the crowd. He gave the all-too-familiar brushing off of an opponent by making fun of Henry, someone he should be taking seriously given Henry's gimmick. It was a poor promo to kick off his 13th championship reign, and this is coming from a Cena mark.

John Cena vs Mark Henry: This match makes me abhor the idea of a general manager. If the champion wants to put the title on the line, one of the good moments of Cena's promo, why deny him that? Either way, Henry lost, and in quick fashion as well. They gave him an out with his attempts to hurt Cena causing him to be over aggressive and lose via count-out, and he looked badass in destroying Cena after the match.

Tons of Funk and The Funkadactyls vs The Bellas and Rhodes Scholars: It's easy to see how this was bumped from the Wrestlemania card, and it's not only due to time constraints. Rhodes Scholars deserve better to be jobbed out in 3 minutes to a comedy team, and hopefully this feud is at its end. The tag team division is in shambles right now, and feuds like this, especially with the outcome, do it no favors.

Santino, Zach Ryder, and R-Truth vs 3MB: Pure filler at its worst. No advancement of storylines, as a jobber team loses to a team of jobbers. These are the matches built for Superstars, not Raw. Unless there's an injury, why isn't this time used on Antonio Cesaro, the US Champ? His stock has fallen greatly over the past month for no discernable reason.
 
Here is my only issue with Ziggler cashing in. How many times have we seen the heel get almost cashed in on and then it not workout because they were "hurt". I just want some consistency is all.

I think it was obvious that we all have been wanting this for a long time just because it was almost a full year but I just feel like the consistency factor gets overlooked.
 
This was a fairly bland Raw with a couple of good segments. The handicap match that kicked things off was ok I guess, to me booking faces 2 on 1 against a heel, no matter how big, is odd, but maybe that's just because I'm old.

3MB came out next to challenge The Shield for stealing their thunder, instead Brock Lesnar's music hit and he came out and murderlized them, his freakish speed and brute force is one of the sights to behold in pro wrestling IMO.

Heyman then arrives and tries to calm his monster as the crowd bays for more carnage. Brock smirks as they chant "One more time" in reference to him F-5'ing Slater onto the guard rail. When they get into the ring Heyman cuts another masterful promo that ends with a challenge to Triple H to face Brock in a Steel Cage at Extreme Rules.

Kofi vs Cesaro for the US title was next, it was a good match (MOTN) with a neat finishing sequence, but I don't see the point in ending Cesaro's fairly long reign in such a throwaway fashion, it wasn't even built up to and truth is Kofi will never be more than a transitional mid-card filler act.

A taped promo from Ryback is shown where he explains why he turned on Cena. It was well delivered and well laid out with clips supporting Ryback's views even if they are a bit slanted, the meat for a good angle is here.

I can't remember a lot of the rest of the show, Ziggler cut a decent promo and got interrupted again, this wasn't a smarky crowd so his eventual match with Swagger was dead air. The new WHC losing his first Raw match cleanly just so WWE can book the obvious triple threat match really is lazy.

The same thing happened later when Barrett lost clean to R-Truth in a none title match which will surely lead to an IC title match, there are better ways to get a guy a #1 contender spot.

Then it happened again with one of the Bella's pinning Kaitlyn in a non title match. Hilariously the finish used the "Twin magic" spot that isn't feasible since the one dating Cena got a set of bolt-ons.

CM Punk comes out to a big pop, he's there to address his loss at Mania, now just minutes before there's a shot of him in the corridor joking with Heyman but as he cuts the promo he is more solemn, he goes over how he didn't enjoy being champion as he was looking for the next challenge, the crowd start chanting his name, he talks a bit more about The Rock and isn't derisory about him as he usually is, then he gets to Taker and the streak, some of the crowd start chanting for Taker and this is countered by a loud CM Punk chant, Punk just looks out at the crowd with a sort of sad look on his face, the dueling chant continues and Punk stands for a bit before hugging Heyman and walking out.

I'm not sure where this is going but as usual Punk created a talking point with his segment.

Cena was up last and called out Ryback, this was the most pro-Cena crowd in some time.

Cena cut a standard Cena promo, it was solid and thankfully without lame jokes. He basically dressed Ryback down and Ryback just stood there glowering at him. He challenged Ryback to come at him face to face but Ryback leaves and then The Shield's music hits, they come out and there's a spot of smell the fart acting as they decide who to attack first, they attack Cena and, given the earlier promo, to no surprise Ryback just watches and then after The Shield have finished he walks to the top of the ramp and stares back at the ring. It was an ok end to the show.

Punk and Ryback were both good and Cena was ok tonight, Kofi vs Cesaro was the best of the in-ring action and Lesnar being his beastly self was fun, otherwise there was a lot of dull stuff on the show tonight.
 
I really was disappointed in this crowd, smarky or not they cheered for damn near nobody but Del Rio, Cena, Punk, and Brock Lesnar. Ziggler had people cheer when cutting his promo and had small "Let's Go Ziggler" chants. Ryback's "heel promo" got no reaction and noone else got any reaction whatsoever.....weird crowd imo

Overall:

Kofi vs Cesaro - great match but horrible build up

R-truth vs Barrett - They could do something good but this match was stupid

Ziggler vs Swagger - Pretty good wrestling from both these guys but once again making the champ lose a clean loss so early is stupid.

Handicap match against Big Show - decent

Team Hell No match - Too short

Less said about the diva match the better.

Anyway, the Raw had some good points but wasnt all that and this rather nonchalant pro Cena and Punk crowd did nothing to help it. I hardly see a crowd that cheer for damn neer nobody. Bring on the England crowd next week.
 
WWE Raw
Greenville, South Carolina
Bi Lo Center
April 15, 2013

1. Randy Orton & Sheamus vs. Big Show in a Handicap Match - Pretty solid match overall in my opinion. It's unusual to see two babyfaces take on a heel in a handicap match, it's typically the other way around. However, since Show's return from hiatus more than a year ago, he's been portrayed as a near unstoppable monster who has cleanly beaten both Sheamus & Orton in multiple singles matches. So putting the two of them together to take on Show works I think. The match had good energy and flowed along at a good pace. The crowd was into it as well. I kept expecting Show to walk out like he did when they had this match on SD! this past Friday. Show beats Sheamus down for a while before Sheamus is able to rally back and hits an impressive electric chair spot on the 400 pounder before making the hot tag to Orton. Orton came in and did his thing with the crowd going nuts for damn near everything he did. After going for the RKO, Show pushes him off and goes for the chokeslam. Sheamus comes out of the corner and catches Show with the Brogue Kick, knocking him into the ropes. Show bounces off and Orton hits an RKO for the clean win at the 7 minute mark. **1/2

3MB and Brock Lesnar - Prior to commercial, 3MB is backstage with Josh Matthews and stated that they were going to call out The Shield. Slater was in serious mode backstage and it had me thinking that this MIGHT be a turning point for this group into something more serious. However, once they got out in front of the crowd after coming back from commercial, they were doing their air guitar routine and all that stuff. They called out The Shield but Brock Lesnar's music hits. Lesnar comes out to a good pop and decimates the group. He initially tosses Slater out over the top before clotheslining McIntyre and delivering a belly to belly throw on Jinder. He takes McIntyre out permanently after delivering the F5. Slater is about to hop in the ring but Lesnar sees him, so he tries to beat a hasty retreat. Lesnar slips out of the ring and nails him with a clothesline before delivering a couple of F5s to Slater on the outside, with Slater being tossed against the security barrier while the crowd chanted "one more time". Slater most definitely earned his pay as those shots looked pretty damn stiff. As Lesnar was smiling and about to oblige, Paul Heyman runs out and calms the beast down before going into the ring with him. Heyman does his thing on the mic and, on behalf of Lesnar, challenges Triple H to another match at Extreme Rules. They challenge Triple H to a steel cage match. The announcement got a fairly decent response but I think people were expecting something more "extreme" than a steel cage match. I'm holding out hope that Trips will accept the challenge but up the ante by saying that he'll face Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match at the ppv. All in all, however, a good showing of dominance for Lesnar. I enjoyed his match with Triple H at WM, they worked their asses off and deserved a much better response from the smarky crowd. The idea of a rubber match between them makes sense and given that it'll take place at Extreme Rules, this match might be violent along the lines of Cena vs. Lesnar last year. Thumbs Up

2. Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston for the WWE United States Championship - I'm kind of mixed on this whole situation. The match in and of itself was very, very good with both men working their asses off. The live crowd certainly appreciated the effort as the match was filled with great action, especially the last couple of minutes. Cesaro is someone that's demonstrated great chemistry with just about everybody he's wrestled with since coming to WWE, so it's just a shame to have seen him put on the backburner for the past few months. Cesaro's more ground based, "throwback" style complimented Kingston's agility & quickness nicely. Probably the most impressive spot of the night involved Kofi going for the high cross body off the top with Cesaro catching him on his shoulder effortlessly and spinning him into a backbreaker. It was a great looking spot and really shows off how genuinely strong Cesaro is. The ending sequence of the match was great with the two of them trading roll ups & near falls until Kofi catches Cesaro and swings his leg backward, sort of rolling him to his feet while simultaneously going for Trouble in Paradise. The timing was perfect as Kofi's foot connected with the top of Cesaro's head the instant Cesaro got to his feet. Kofi makes the cover and gets the clean win at the 10.5 minute mark. Kofi Kingston is the new WWE United States Champion. Where I'm mixed is that it's hard to get excited about Kofi having yet another mid-card title run and with a title that WWE has done nothing but bury for the past couple of months. Cesaro is tied for the 7th longest run with the title in its history and, frankly, deserved better than being buried during WM season. I guess we can only wait & see if something ultimately comes out of this or if this is just another example of Kofi holding onto a mid-card strap for a while. The build for this match was basically Kofi scoring a win over Cesaro this past Friday on SD! to earn a title shot tonight. Both WWE & TNA have really given shitty builds to either one or both of their secondary titles over the past several months. The match itself was great and highly entertaining. Both guys looked like stars and, personally, I appreciated the effort. ***1/2

Dolph Ziggler - Ziggler came out with Big E. & AJ in tow to address Raw as World Heavyweight Champion. Dolph does good work on the mic here and delivers a promo that combined the cocky, show off attitude of his heel character with a good deal of passion. Ziggler stating that showing off whenever someone accomplishes something major, or is simply showing that they're "better than everyone else", fits with his character nicely. It's also kinda sorta true when you think on it. As Ziggler is getting in on his deal, Alberto Del Rio's music hits. Del Rio comes out limping, selling the effects of his attack from Jack Swagger and invokes his rematch clause, stating that he wanted it right now. Vickie comes out and announces that, injured or not, if Del Rio wants his rematch, he gets it. Just as they're about to start the match, Jack Swagger's music hits. Colter comes out with Swagger and does a nice job, I really like listening to ol' Dirty Dutch on the mic as he's a great mouthpiece. He says that Ziggler doesn't deserve to be World Champion as it was Swagger who softened Del Rio up and that Del Rio doesn't deserve his rematch. As Swagger gets into the ring, Del Rio attacks and ultimately clotheslines him over the top rope. Big E. comes in and stands between Del Rio & Dolph as Swagger recovers. He pulls Del Rio's legs out from under him and rams his "injured" left leg into the steel ring post. He then pulls him out of the ring and puts him in the Patriot Lock, doing even further damage to him while the refs try to pull Swagger off him. It looks like they're setting up a triple threat, probably as a means of protecting Ziggler while, at least for now, giving Del Rio an out for not being able to take back the title. WWE usually does a very good job in triple threat situations, so this one could be interesting. Thumbs Up

3. Team Hell No vs. The Prime Time Players - Pretty standard match between these two teams. It was pretty much along the same lines as we saw with them this past Friday on SmackDown!. Ultimately, I think this was just a reason to put Bryan & Kane on television. The crowd was eating up everything that Bryan did, which is pretty much normal wherever WWE goes. Kane & Bryan pick up the win after Kane hits Young with a chokeslam and Bryan performs the Flying Goat off the top. It was announced after the match that, next week in London, Team Hell No would team with The Undertaker to take on The Shield in a six man tag match. That could be very interesting. I was surprised they didn't have The Shield come out and do something, maybe they're just going to save that for SmackDown!. *1/2

Ryback - Ryback did a promo backstage, one I'm assuming was pre-recorded. Ryback showed believable intensity here, nothing over the top really aside from his heavy breathing at times. Ryback's logic for attacking Cena is genuinely believable. From Ryback's perspective, Cena claims to have wanted to be his "friend" but always seemed to leave him high & dry whenever The Shield handed him his ass, whereas he saved Cena more than once. At the same time, the perspective of things is skewed enough so that Cena's fans will rally behind him. This was the most I've ever heard Ryback speak and I'm hoping that this is ultimately a step in the character's evolution. He did well here, so now we have to see how he ultimately does in front of a crowd in the middle of the ring. Thumbs Up

4. Wade Barrett vs. R-Truth - The match was kinda meh. I'm guessing that the point of this whole thing was to make Wade Barrett look vulnerable. It was announced that there'd be a 10 man battle royal on Main Event this Wednesday, with the winner getting a shot at Barrett's IC title. The only problem with this logic is that WWE has made Barrett look plenty vulnerable since just after the Royal Rumble as he's lost as many matches as he's won, if not more. Truth picks up the win with his finisher at the 3.5 minute mark. *

5. The Great Khali & Santino Marella vs. Team Rhodes Scholars - An okay match for what it was. It was better than I expected really. While it wasn't going to make anyone's highlight reel, it wasn't the farce I expected it to be. Khali got his shots in as the big man while Santino did some of his comedy stuff, again not nearly as much as I expected. I visibly groaned when Santino hit Sandow with the Cobra. Rhodes tried to interfere and left the ring, only for Hornswoggle to hit Cody in the stomach with his own version of the Cobra. He no sold it and had Hornswggle by the shirt before Khali comes up behind and nails him. As Santino looks on, Sandow rolls him up and scores the win at the 3.5 minute mark. I'm glad they didn't have Sandow & Rhodes job out to these two goofs, only I have a feeling there might be a return match between them. *1/4

Fandango - Jerry Lawler is in the ring and sort of gives people a little bit of a pep talk, explaining how the unexpected fad of Fandangoing has pretty much swept up everyone as of late, including that Fandango's theme music is among the most downloaded song on iTunes both here and in the UK. Lawler introduces Fandango and he comes out and does his thing. Some of the people are into it, but not nearly as many as will be into it next week in London. Fandango gets a good response from the crowd and whether you like the character or not, Johnny Curtis is really putting his all into it. He leads the crowd in a pronunciation of his name and leaves when they're unable to pronounce it to his satisfaction. I like that they're not trying to turn Fandango into a babyface in light of the recent success & mainstream media attention his character has garnered. The segment was okay overall, though I do expect the London crowd to ultimately eat up everything he does and says next week. Thumbs in the Middle

6. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger - As with the US title match, I'm kind of mixed on this. On one hand, Ziggler & Swagger put on a really good match that the crowd was really invested in. Both wrestlers looked good and, again like the US title match earlier in the night, they have different styles that they're able to weave together very nicely. Much of the match was pretty back & forth with neither guy really gaining the overall advantage. The end comes with Ziggler trying to go for the Fameasser but Swagger counters, having Ziggler straddle his shoulders in a powerbomb position, which I figured Swagger would deliver. Swagger pushes Ziggler up over the top of him causing him to strike the top rope in a Hot Shot style move. Swagger quickly rolls Ziggler up and picks up the win at the 10.5 minute mark. On one hand, I'm not crazy about Ziggler losing his first match on Raw as World Heavyweight Champion. On the other, it can be argued that Swagger needed a win here after losing two straight matches to Del Rio, one at WrestleMania and one the next night on Raw. It can also be argued that WWE is simply laying more of the groundwork for a triple threat feud over the title and want to make Swagger look strong. At the same time, they could have done that by not having either man win the match, such as Del Rio coming out to interfere. Again, however, people often complain about the lack of unpredictability in wrestling today, so having Del Rio come out to cause the match to result in a no contest rather than an actual winner was the far more predictable outcome. Del Rio's post match attack on Swagger was well done and it now seems that both Del Rio & Swagger will be "injured" going into this WHC picture with Ziggler, as Del Rio put Swagger in the armbar submission hold up on the stage. ***1/4

CM Punk - This was an interesting segment that ultimately did what it set out to accomplish: leave people with a lot of questions as to what's next for Punk. When Punk came out, his facial expressions told a great story. This was a man who looked like he'd been humbled as the cocky swagger and arrogant smirk that's become synonymous with his heel character was nowhere to be seen. He briefly addressed his title run & feud with The Rock, how much the title meant to him and how he's someone who can't enjoy the moment. He stated that he's always looking to the next challenge. He didn't say it in a smarmy sort of way, he just said it in a way like a normal person might explain a potential flaw with themselves. There was a great dueling Undertaker/CM Punk chant among the crowd. Eventually, Punk hands the mic back to Paul Heyman and gives him a hug before slowly & silently walking out of the ring and out of the arena. It'll have people wondering what's what. When's Punk coming back? Will he pick up his feud with Taker to seek redemption for his WM loss? Will Punk be coming back as a babyface? Will he work himself back into the WWE Championship picture? All interesting questions and WWE did a good job here of ultimately furthering those questions. Thumbs Up

7. Kaitlyn vs. Nikki Bella - Call me crazy but, for the most part, I actually enjoyed this match. There were still plenty of flaws here, such as the Bellas doing the tired ass "Twin Magic" crap and the ending of the match was very anti-climactic. However, believe it or not, the match actually told a pretty decent story. There was also some pretty decent wrestling going in in a match that actually went to about the 6 minute mark. I can't remember the last time a Divas match on Raw or SD! went that long. Nikki Bella looks to have actually improved in her in-ring abilities since she & her sister left WWE. She's no Sara Del Rey, but she's head & shoulders above where she used to be. The ending comes with Kaitlyn hitting her big gut buster move. Nikki grabs onto the ropes while Kaitlyn tries to pull her off. The ref pushes Kaitlyn back, allowing Brie to roll in and pretend to be Nikki. She reaches up and grabs Kaitlyn and pulls her down into the second rope for a weak looking Hot Shot, picking up the win. A flawed match certainly but, in all honesty, far better than what we usually get. *3/4

John Cena & Ryback - The closing segment of the show was well done and, again, raised a couple of questions. Cena did a good job out there in my opinion. He stayed in serious mode with Ryback and didn't try to crack some sort of lame jokes. Cena berated Ryback for generally being too much of a coward to step up and take his shot when he put out an open challenge last week to anyone in the back. Ryback didn't say anything and had this stoic, yet intense look. Eventually, Ryback simply turns his back on Cena and walks out of the ring. As he gets close to the ramp leading up to the stage, The Shield's music hits. They slowly make their way down to ringside as they keep looking over to Ryback. They sell curiosity & apprehension as to whether or not Ryback will attack them while they slowly move themselves into position, careful to keep both men in their sights. Eventually, The Shield enters the ring and bring Cena down. They beat Cena down for a bit while Ryback stands and stoically looks on. The Shield eventually gives Cena the triple powerbomb and stand over him while Ryback looks on to close the show. While it's pretty certain that Ryback is going to be heel, at least in the eyes of Cena fans, it leaves you wondering if Ryback might be in league with The Shield. Ryback's point of Cena not being there to help him out against The Shield and not returning the favor this time around is logical. However, it makes me wonder if Ryback maybe "paid" The Shield off like Punk & Heyman did. Might he be in league with them? In some ways, it wouldn't make sense and the smarks would be all over it with ridicule. However, in TNA, Bully Ray was revealed as the leader of Aces & Eights despite all the many times he was shown being beaten down and the smarky dirtsheet writers don't say boo about it. Thumbs Up

Final Thoughts - I really enjoyed Raw last night. There was a mix of good wrestling and good storyline progression. There was some filler on the show, such as Khali & Santino taking on Team Rhodes Scholars. Some are no doubt whining about another Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar match. The sound of a steel cage match doesn't exactly thrill me, so I'm hoping there'll be more added to it in the coming weeks. There was also some strange booking that will have some people frothing at the mouth. The handicap match was better than I expected and it looks like all involved could be moving on, since Sheamus looks to be heading into a feud with Mark Henry. The US title match was a very good outing with Kofi winning. At the same time, it's hard to get excited as we've seen Kofi in this position so many times. Ryback's backstage promo was well done and made sense and Ziggler did well on the mic as well. His match with Swagger was also really well wrestled, even though I'm mixed on the overall ending. I do like the idea of a threeway feud with Ziggler, Swagger & Del Rio. Wade Barrett losing to R-Truth just didn't work for me as he's been made to look vulnerable enough. Punk's promo was well done and really interesting in my opinion. The Diva match was surprisingly good, all things considered, and the final segment with Cena & Ryback was also well done. It raised a few questions, at least to me, if WWE might go with Ryback sort of purchasing the services of The Shield against Cena in the way that Punk & Heyman did with him.

Grade: B+
 
Raw was decent last night and was highlighted by the Brock Lesnar promo, Ryback promo and Cesaro/Kofi match.

Even though its taped, I am looking forward to next weeks Raw in England. With the way the English fans made the Raw after Mania I can't wait to see how fun they make next weeks Raw.
 
Jack-Hammer - I started posting here, only because of your incredible insight and posts across the forum. But a B+ - really???

Anyone else with me on the fact that Raw seemed so rudderless. After months and months of part-timers stealing valuable TV time, thrusting the likes of Fandango (love him btw), Ziggler, Ryback into the high stakes seemed so forced, and IMO felt flat.

I was genuinely only looking for CM Punk's return which was an ok segment. Lesner (part-timer) was the only other piece which sprung out as a genuine surprise and a thoroughly enjoyable segment.

Its a shame, but Raw in my opinion was quite terrible - absolute polar opposite from last week.
 
WWE Raw
April 22, 2013
Q2 Arena
London, England

Opening Segment - I thought the opener of the show was pretty solid all in all. As with Raw being taped due to the time difference, I didn't read any spoilers of the show. If I had, I probably would have been disappointed in the segment as a whole. Heyman did a good job in making it seem like Triple H really wasn't going to be there. The London crowd is hot, though not packed with hostile smarks like the post WM Raw crowd. Triple H's music hits and he comes out to a big pop. He poses for the audience for a few moments before turning his attention to Heyman. Prior to Trips' music hitting, Heyman had read an e-mail allegedly sent from Triple H stating that he couldn't be in London due to the injuries he suffered from Lesnar. Triple H tells Heyman that he accepts the challenge before delivering the Pedigree to the delight of the live audience. As there's still a lot of time before Extreme Rules, I'm still hoping that they up the ante from it being a standard cage match to, perhaps, Hell in a Cell. All in all, a short segment that didn't drag on. Given that Lesnar wasn't on the show tonight, there was no need for it to be long. Thumbs Up

1. R-Truth vs. Antonio Cesaro - Meh, can't say this did anything for me. The complete return of the one dimensional R-Truth babyface character plus the lousy treatment of Cesaro just doesn't work. The match was short and the action was decent while it lasted, but there's just nothing here. It looks as though WWE is building Truth back up into a solid mid-card player with a win over the IC champ last week and the former US champ this week. Truth gets the win at the 3 minute mark after hitting his finisher. *1/4

The Shield - This was a very short segment in which The Shield are shown getting out of a helicopter landing somewhere. They're in full ring gear and head towards a Range Rover style limo. I just thought it was a cool, dramatic sort of effect personally. I can't recall the last time they showed someone arriving via helicopter. Thumbs Up

2. Brodus Clay vs. Damien Sandow - This match was actually better than I expected. Not an all time classic or anything, but it was good to finally see Sandow pick up a victory. The live crowd was also into the match more than I expected. They were pretty much behind Sandow while breaking out with a couple of loud "Cody's mustache" chants. The match was pretty even with both getting in a good amount of offense. Again, I was surprised that they showed Sandow essentially going toe to toe and giving as good as he got to the 350 pound Brodus Clay. The end comes after a brief distraction from Rhodes. He jumps up on the apron to get Brodus' attention and Sandow yanks Brodus across the top rope, stunning him for a bit. He comes up behind with a schoolboy roll up and gets the win with a handful of tights at the 4 minute mark. Not an all time classic or anything like that, so I'm not trying to say it was great. I'm just surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. **

Backstage Segment - There's a brief segment backstage with Ziggler staring at his World Heavyweight Championship. AJ pops in and teasingly asks if she should be jealous of the title before they start to make out a bit. AJ points out that Big E. Langston is standing over in the corner and Ziggler kind of dismisses Langston by saying that they wanted a little private time. As Dolph turned his attention back to AJ, Langston looked as if he didn't care for being dismissed in this way. He stared at them for a moment before stomping off. The obvious question is if they're setting up for a splitting of their association over Langston being frustrated with Ziggler's treatment and lack of appreciation for his services. After Big E. leaves, Vickie & Brad Maddox interrupt and Vickie is all happy & smiling. She tells Ziggler that his match against Chris Jericho had a little stipulation. If Ziggler loses, Jericho will be added to the WHC match at Extreme Rules, making it a Fatal Fourway instead of a Triple Threat match. This is interesting because there's genuinely a good chance that Ziggler loses. He lost to Jericho a few weeks ago and he lost to Swagger last Monday. Thumbs Up

The Shield - I really like these handheld camera promos The Shield give. Ambrose is someone who definitely has that it factor when it comes to promos. His facial expressions are gold and he's able to tell a story with them alone. Rollins, while not as good, is certainly holding his own. Roman Reigns doesn't say much, but he says just enough and his delivery is great for the role of the muscle of the group. I like the confidence the group showed here, especially the line where Rollins told Taker that The Shield are the big dogs who run this yard now. Thumbs Up

3. Chris Jericho vs. Dolph Ziggler - Excellent outing from Jericho & Ziggler. I was hoping for a strong match from them and they delivered. The crowd was very much behind both guys at various times and there was a lot of back & forth action that told a good story. As I mentioned earlier, there was legit reason to think this match could be made into a fourway. There's still lots of time for Jericho to be added to the mix of this feud and make his presence felt, plus Ziggler's loss to Swagger last week definitely gave Ziggler a sense of vulnerability going in. Both worked hard and got in a lot of offense. Ziggler's abilities in the ring, including his ability to sell & really make those near falls look credible, are going to make his title matches a lot of fun to watch. The only major interference came from Big E. Langston about midway through the match when Jericho is going for the Lionsault but eats a right hand. The pace really picked up in the second half of the match with both wrestlers getting several near falls, including Ziggler taking a superplex and a Codebreaker from Jericho. The end comes with Jericho putting Ziggler in the Walls of Jericho. Fandango's music suddenly hits, which causes the live crowd to pop and they start to chant along to his music. Jericho is distracted by the music and Ziggler is able to reach the ropes. Jericho turns his attention back to Ziggler, only for Ziggler to kick him in the knee. He then pops up to deliver the ZigZag and gets the win at the 17 minute mark. ***1/2

Backstage Segment - Josh Matthews is backstage and conducts an interview with Mick Foley, after they showed a recap of Ryback watching Cena get taken out by The Shield last week. Foley plugs his DVD for a moment before turning his attention to Ryback. Foley makes comments about Ryback and says that he has all the tools needed to be one of the greats. He doesn't really put Ryback down, but says that it's human nature to not want to admit when you make mistakes or to accept your own faults. Later in the night, it would be revealed via an interview with Ryback that he would confront Foley in the ring later on in the night. NA

4. Sweet T vs. Cody Rhodes - As with Brodus vs. Sandow, I enjoyed this match FAR more than I was expecting. I thought it was the better of the two matches and, in my opinion, Tensi & Cody showed surprisingly good chemistry. Tensai was even able to get the London crowd behind him pretty solidly. Also, as with Brodus vs. Sandow, both wrestlers got in a lot of offense. It was also good to see that this wasn't a case of the big guy just obliterating & flat out dominating the smaller guy. Sandow tries to run interference late in the match for as Cody did for him, but Brodus takes out Sandow on the outside. Rhodes goes for the Beautiful Disaster kick, which he hit earlier to the back of Tensai's head, only to get caught and given a chokebomb before Tensai hits him with the back splash for the win a little past the 5 minute mark. Some will probably hate on these two matches but, I liked them, especially this one. Maybe it's the atmosphere of London or that the matches were both pretty even or something, but I thought all four guys put out a genuinely good effort. [B]**1/4[/B]

Team Hell No - Kane & Daniel Bryan are backstage and waiting impatiently. Bryan asks where Taker is with Kane saying that he'll be here. Bryan has papers in his hands and insists that they need him here so they can go over the strategy. I cracked up at the "I brought diagrams" line from Bryan. He delivered it with such believable sincerity that I just couldn't help it. Kane looks at him as if he's grown another head and says that Taker will not look at diagrams. Bryan reminds Kane that it's not the Brothers of Destruction & Daniel Bryan going out there, but that it's Team Hell No & The Undertaker. He says something to the effect of Kane seeming to be hostile and asks if it's because they haven't hugged in a while. Kane gets upset and then tells Bryan not to try to hug Taker. I'd pay money to see that. Bryan holds up his hand after a few moments and sais that he promises, only for them to be attacked. The camera is knocked to the ground and we see Bryan & Kane having been taken out. We can see the booted feet of who can only be The Shield. This automatically raises speculation as to whether or not the match will happen or if Taker is on his own. Thumbs Up

5. Zack Ryder vs. Big E. Langston - Pretty basic squash match with the purpose of making Big E. look like a monster. All in all, a pretty good job. Big E., while a legit powerhouse, isn't some awkward, slow big guy in the ring. He's actually pretty damn fast. He scores the win after decimating Ryder in about 2 minutes. NA

6. The Undertaker & Team Hell No vs. The Shield - Great, great six man tag match in my opinion. Before the match started, The Shield came out and ganged up on Taker, with no THN in sight. As they gain the advantage, Kane & Bryan run out to the ring and even the odds, eventually clearing the ring. Once the match officially started, it was a lot of fun. The crowd was really, really behind Taker & Daniel Bryan and popped big time for anything they did. Taker looked good in the ring. While it's obvious he's not in the sort of shape he was a few years back, he looked strong and held his own. The crowd delivered a loud "you've still got it" chant to him during the match and I thought it was just a great moment. The pace was a little slow at times, though that was to be expected, especially with Kane as he's just not as fast as the other wrestlers involved. Taker was in the match a couple of times and was protected well, even delivering Old School to Dean Ambrose. Not long after, Taker made a tag to Kane and he was grimacing as if he'd hurt himself, though he may simply have jarred himself a bit. Bryan & Kane handled most of the action and did a good job with both getting hot tags during the match and both taking the brunt of the offense from The Shield. At one point, Rollins looks over at Taker and smiles mockingly. I don't know if Rollins did or said anything before that as the camera panned to him while he was looking and smiling at Taker. Taker's response was great as he looked flat out pissed, did the throat cut thing and paced the apron muttering angrily like he couldn't wait to get in. For some reason, it reminded me of the time when I was 15 when my old man found me after discovering his secret stash of nudie books, that Mom didn't know he had. The action eventually breaks down after Taker eats a spear from Roman Reigns as he's about to double chokeslam Ambrose & Rollins. He & Kane get into it on the outside with Reigns & Rollins while Bryan & Ambrose are left in the ring. Bryan goes to the top, going for the Flying Goat, only for Reigns to pull his feet out from under him, causing him to straddle the turnbuckle. Kane & Taker resume going after Rollins & Reigns on the outside as Ambrose prepares for a superplex. Bryan knocks him off and goes for the Flying Goat. Ambrose moves and Bryan smacks into the mat. Ambrose quickly rolls Bryan up and scores the clean win for The Shield at the 20 minute mark. The commentators put over the victory as a major feat for The Shield. Bryan sold dismay & anger at having taken the loss while Kane ruffles his hair a bit. I would have loved to have seen him try to hug Taker. It would have been nice to see the faces get a win here but there's still several Raws before ER, so there's still time for Team Hell No to get some major momentum heading into a probable match. ***3/4

7. William Regal vs. Fandango - The crowd pops as Fandango comes out, the whole crowd stars to Fandango as he makes his way down to the ring with a long legged blonde dancer this week. It was great to see Regal make a brief appearance. He got a strong response from the live crowd, as expected. I would have liked to have seen this match go longer, but I didn't really expect it to. Fandango picks up the win about the 2.5 minute mark. As he & the dancer make their way up onto the stage, they dance for a moment or two before Jericho comes out and jumps him from behind. He tosses Fandango off the stage before dancing a little with the blonde while Fandango's music played. NA

8. Divas Battle Royal - This was a battle royal to determine the #1 contender for the Divas Championship. While not something to write home about, it was a lot better than most Diva battle royals. Early on, Tamina dominates the other Divas before turning her attention to AJ. AJ smiles happily and in a friendly way before jumping onto Tamina and wrapping her legs around her waist, which got a big response from the crowd. Tamina sets her back on the mat and delivers a vicious super kick that pops the crowd big time. AJ sells it like a champ and is out. The other Divas go at it for a while until it's only Layla left in the ring. AJ has been "out cold" the whole time and Layla has to try to eliminate her. AJ is dead weight as Layla tugs & pulls her over to the ropes so she can be eliminated. She props her up on the middle ropes for a moment so she can catch her breath, only for AJ to pop up and deliver a swift kick to the gut. Layla is bent over and AJ pushes her out of the ring and onto the floor. AJ Lee is the #1 contender for the Divas Championship. Nice, heelish way for AJ to pick up a win. *1/2

Ryback & Mick Foley - I really enjoyed this segment overall. It started off a bit slow but Foley soon got into his groove. His interaction with Ryback worked in my opinion and Ryback played off him very well. Ryback did the best mic work of his career thus far and delivered it with believable intensity. The crowd was giving Foley the "What?" treatment early on but they got behind things once Foley revved up the passion. Ryback's response to Foley worked. He didn't whine or complain and I dug the fact that he brought up the idea of who Foley was to lecture him on anything? His insult of Foley only being out here so WWE could sell more DVDs was a nice touch. Ryback is never going to be The Rock on the mic, but he did really well. He definitely generated some heat when he called Foley a "fat, pathetic, lazy bastard" and actually referring to John Cena as Super Cena was also a nice little touch. Ryback stating that he simply didn't care about what Foley thought or what Super Cena thought or these "stupid people" think was also done well. I was genuinely surprised by Ryback, though I shouldn't have been. If anybody is able to help pull out a strong performance from a heel on the mic, it's a babyface Mick Foley. As Foley & Ryback are about to get into it, Cena's music hits and he rushes down to make the save. He & Ryback look as though they're about to go at it when The Shield's music hits. Cena steps out of the ring and waits to watch Ryback get beaten down as he did last week. Eventually, The Shield does attack Ryback only for Cena to hit the ring a little bit later with a chair and sends them packing. Cena & Ryback have another staredown as Cena tosses the chair onto the mat. Ryback takes his eyes off Cena for a second, allowing Cena to scoop him up on his shoulders and deliver an AA. The show closes with Cena mocking Ryback on the ramp. Thumbs Up

Final Thoughts - While there were some slow moments on Raw last night, I enjoyed the show quite a bit. The highlights of the show were Ziggler vs. Jericho, the six man tag match and the Ryback/Foley confrontation. There was a limited roster on Raw last night as, for some reason, WWE was running a SmackDown! house show at the same time. While the Tons of Funk vs. Team Rhodes Scholars feud might not be all that appealing, I thought all four guys put up some surprisingly decent singles matches on the card. Truth vs. Cesaro was nothing, just a disappointment in how Cesaro is being used right now. Fandango was a big hit with the London crowd and I'm glad to see that he's still feuding with Jericho. It's good use of Jericho to put him in a feud with a young, up & coming guy. AJ becoming #1 contender for the Divas Championship makes perfect sense and I expect her to win the title before too long. As I said earlier, the Ziggler vs. Jericho & six man tag matches were both excellent matches. Also, as I said earlier, I don't read spoilers so I went into both matches with no real clue as to who would come out the winner. Ziggler came into his match vulnerable with a stip that Jericho would be in the WHC at the ppv if he won and The Shield was against a team that had The Undertaker on it, plus they're still undefeated. I thought Ryback delivered a strong showing on the mic with Foley. This was his first real, legit promo in front of a big crowd of fans and I thought he held up well. His exchange with Foley was fun to watch & listen to.

Grade: B+
 
You would think that with a three hour show having as much talent at your disposal as possible would be a good thing, but...

Last night Raw was missing Orton, Sheamus, Del Rio, Swagger, Big Show, Miz, Kofi, Barrett, etc. and I may be in the minority but I thought that it was a better show as a result.

The show just seemed to have more focus, and even though there were the prerequisite throwaway matches that always happen on these three hour broadcasts most of the important segments felt like they got a chance to breathe and have impact. Hell, even some of the "pointless" matches weren't too bad, with "Sweet Tensai" for example working a much better short match than the ones he was working back when his single's push was floundering.

Heyman, Foley, and even Ryback cut some very nice promos. The backstage segment with Team Hell No was funnier than their recent material. Jericho and Ziggler worked a fun little 3.25 star match. And most importantly The Team Hell No/Undertaker versus The Shield was a formula six man tag, but it was about as perfectly executed as a formula six man can be, with Taker on his A-game, Kane looking motivated, and Shield's team dynamic and Bryan's work both being sharp as usual producing a stellar 3.75 star contest.

The crowd, while not quite as much a part of the show as the post-Mania gathering, also added to the atmosphere. It was a very nice effort by the WWE for a taped Raw with a limited roster.
 
I'm late doing this and can't remember everything so I'm just gonna go with what stood out on a solid Raw.

Everything involving the big six man tag was great, The Shield's arrival via chopper, their hand-held promo, Team Hell No's "I have diagrams" promo and then the fantastic match itself all made it feel big and the end result was The shield looked even bigger stars.

The match was the second best Raw match this year, everyone worked their ass off, Taker looked fired up when he got in, Rollins bumped around like a young Shawn Michaels, and The Shield got a huge win over a trio that included the biggest icon left in WWE.

Ziggler vs Y2J was a decent match, I don't think any of their recent TV matches have been as good as their Summerslam match, but this was a solid outing for the new WHC who at least looked capable of capitalizing on a situation even if he can't get a clean win.

I hate what they are doing with Cesaro, Fandango vs Regal was ugly, and I'm bored of Sandow and Rhodes being wasted in this feud with Tonnes of fun.

I like Big E, he looks like Urkle on roids and kind of like a giant baby with that singlet on, but he moves well and his power stuff looks crisp.

I dug the way AJ won the Divas battle royale, it was a good fit for her crafty loon character.

Heyman's promo was good, Triple H thankfully didn't say much and just whispered his acceptance and pedigreed the sleazy one.

Foley's mic work in the closing segment was strong as always and I thought Ryback did pretty well getting his points over. His "SuperCena" comment made me think they are aiming to get the smarky element behind him to generate the traditional dueling chants that come with most of Cena's feuds. I love Foley but it was hard to take him seriously squaring up to Ryback. I wish the show had just ended with Cena leaving Ryback to The Shield as opposed to him using a chair to drive all 3 off, AA'ing Ryback and then giving that smug smirk, a little ambiguity would have been nice.
 
WWE SmackDown!
April 26, 2013
O2 Arena
London, England

1. Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger in a No DQ match - This was another strong showing for Del Rio & Swagger and a great follow up to their match last week. They put on a good match without ultimately going crazy with the use of weapons. The dominant weapon was the Kendo stick, which works as that loud slap it makes once it hits just really got the crowd going. I also enjoyed that the interference from Ricardo & Coulter was at a minimum last night. All Zeb really did the whole match was hand Swagger the Kendo stick after Del Rio had finally managed to lock in the Cross Armbar. The ending felt a little anti-climactic with Swagger initially just slamming a ladder down on Del Rio before hitting him with the gut-wrench powerbomb. I think people were hoping that Swagger would do the move & slam Del Rio into the ladder. Swagger scores the win a little after the 14 minute mark. It was a good and needed win for Swagger over Del Rio. Now in the coming weeks, they need to add Ziggler more into the mix and allow him to gain the needed momentum so that things are on a level playing field. ***1/4

2. Layla vs. Aksana - Pretty damn good, as far as Diva matches go. Layla is someone who has really worked hard to improve herself in the ring over the past few years. Her kicks still look a little on the weak side, but she's definitely come a long way. Aksana isn't as polished as she could be, but she's head and shoulders above where she was at this time last year. A lot of Divas could honestly have very good matches if they were simply given a good amount of time. The end comes with Layla by initially rolling up Aksana in what's become one of Layla's signature moves as she comes off the ropes. Layla adds a new twist to it, however, by floating over and looking as though she was about to put Aksana in a crossface. But she floats back over and spins Aksana back and up onto her shoulders for the win at the 3.5 minute mark. Filler at the most, but decently wrestled filler for the time they had. *3/4

The Shield - Another nice handheld cam interview from The Shield in which they put over their victory in the six man tag match this past Monday on Raw. They also used this time to hype Dean Ambrose's one on one match against Taker later on in the night. Generally typical stuff all in all, but the group continues to gain momentum. Thumbs Up

3. Justin Gabriel vs. Fandango - An okay match for what it was, which was basically just so Fandango would be on television. He gets a strong response from the London crowd, as expected, and does his thing for a bit. He & Gabriel put on a decent 3 minute match with Fandango ultimately getting the win via the leg drop off the top. I read that some dirtsheet writers were a little put off that WWE didn't have Fandango try to do anything to get the crowd to not cheer for him. Personally, I'm not sure what they could have done aside from bringing a puppy into the ring and have him stomp it to death. *1/4

4. Sheamus vs. Big Show - Good match from Sheamus & Show. It wasn't as good as the matches they had late last year for the WHC, but they still worked hard and put on an entertaining outing. Big Show got in a lot of offense and they're generally booking & portraying Show in a way that I think they should have been for much of the past decade or so: namely as a savage giant that it's almost impossible to do anything with even if you're a top star. It was a good physical match that generally kept a pretty good pace, though it did get a little slow at times, that you'd expect out of these two. I ultimately liked how the ending was set up as it seemed that neither guy was really in control at that point. Sheamus was on the offensive, yet he didn't look like he was close to putting Big Show away or vice versa. Sheamus is perched on the top rope, I'm assuming he's going for the Battering Ram again, as Show is staggering around the ring recovering from Sheamus' offense. Mark Henry wanders down to the ring and tips over the ring steps, making a lot of noise and distracting Sheamus. Sheamus takes his attention from Show for a few seconds and as he turns back to face him, Sheamus eats the WMD and falls from the top, allowing Show to score the win at 12.5 minutes. Show going over is the right call, in my opinion, as both he & Henry add competent & legit adversity to Sheamus. ***

5. William Regal vs. Wade Barrett - Just an excuse to get Regal on the show. Barrett obliterates him with the Bull Hammer about 90 seconds into the match. NA

6. Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry - An okay match, though I thought it dragged more than a little. Henry does have an extremely slow pace at times, sometimes to a fault. He & Orton put on decent effort and all, but this match never really got out of first gear to me. I do like how it ended, ultimately, as both wrestlers were protected. Henry looks as though he's in control and the crowd starts to cheer. Henry turns and Sheamus pops up and delivers a Brogue Kick. Henry taken down and manages to stagger over to the ropes only to eat an RKO afterward. Henry gets the win via DQ. Personally, at least for the time being, I'd like to see these four guys be part of the tag team division. They'd definitely add star power to things and seeing as how they seem to be bosom buddies for the time being, they've got nothing better on their plate. **

7. The Undertaker vs. Dean Ambrose - While I would have liked to have seen this match go longer, Taker & Ambrose put on a very nice 6 minute match. Ambrose looked good against Taker and Taker doesn't look as though he's lost a step. You could tell that they were being careful in some ways so as to protect Taker, but Taker looked good throughout. Interference from Rollins & Reigns amounted to nothing more than jumping up on the apron and getting knocked off by Taker, after he'd hit Ambrose with a chokeslam. Afterward, Ambrose gains the upper hand and delivers a DDT for a good near fall. Ambrose starts to go for another pin before Taker quickly locks him into Hell's Gate, ultimately forcing Ambrose to tap out. Taker gets the win and is immediately attacked by the other members of The Shield. Rollins & Reigns go after Taker while Ambrose recovers. Taker has the upper hand for a while and bats Reigns & Rollins all over ringside. Taker then beats down Ambrose after he wanders outside if the ring, but The Shield gain the upper hand when Reigns comes running at Taker, hits him with the spear and drives him through the security railing. They beat Taker down for a bit before clearing the announce table and ultimately putting taker through it with the triple powerbomb. Taker lies on the ground, selling the effects of the attack while The Shield, especially Rollins, gloat over taking him out. Prior to the match, Cole did a simple but good thing in explaining that Team Hell No wasn't at the arena that night as they were on part of the Raw European Tour that night. Put things into context as to why nobody came out to help Taker. **3/4

Final Thoughts - SmackDown! was very solid from top to bottom last night. There were a few recaps but nothing like what we typically see on the show during WrestleMania season. I would have preferred that they had left the recaps off altogether and given a few of the matches more time. Aside from that, the show featured some really strong action. Del Rio vs. Swagger was another great match with the right guy going over. As I said earlier, they need to put Ziggler more into the mix going forward so he can gain momentum against them so that things will be on a more even kilter. Sheamus vs. Big Show was also another strong outing with, again in my opinion, the right guy winning. The Diva match was a good effort considering how generally irrelevant they are & how little time they usually get. Orton vs. Henry was okay but it didn't really take off in my eyes. Maybe it was the fact that Taker was going to be wrestling & I wanted them to move on so it'd happen. I would have liked to have seen Taker vs. Ambrose go longer, but the match was very solid and both looked good. Ambrose doesn't lose any steam losing a singles match to Taker in my opinion. If he did, he quickly gained it back after he, Rollins & Reigns took out Taker in the post match beatdown.

Grade: B+
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Live Discussion: RAW 29/10/07
24 25 26
Replies
632
Views
35K
EtherBoo
E
A
  • Locked
Live Discussion: RAW 22/10/07
14 15 16
Replies
382
Views
24K
BooCocky
B
A
[OFFICIAL] NXT Aftermath, Review, and Ratings Thread
15 16 17
Replies
418
Views
111K
The People's Peep
T
M
Next RAW Brand Champions
Replies
4
Views
812
Banes
B
J
Official Main Event Aftermath, Ratings & Review Thread
2
Replies
35
Views
13K
Radical
R

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 384 (members: 0, guests: 384)

Forum statistics

Threads
174,837
Messages
3,300,747
Members
21,726
Latest member
chrisxenforo

Share this page

Back
Top