'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Last week the WWE gave us one of those awkward moments when the NXT main event was a million times entertaining than Raw’s. And this week’s Raw came across from the home state of WWE Hall of Famer and legendary commentator Jim Ross. Though JR wasn’t in attendance, the show still managed to raise some eyebrows and make the fans go wild.
The creative team’s misery seemed to be piling up during some segments while others seemed promising to an extent. On one side of the show we had returns, new gimmick and some dizzy spinning from Antonio Cesaro while on the other the WWE showcased their fetish for handicap matches and boasted their big “unification” match with a contract singing.
So from the lot, here’s a look at the top five talking points from this week’s RAW.
5. The intercontinental mess
Burial of Ziggler
Last week Big E Langston looked like he was going to from a tag team with Mark Henry while Damien Sandow looked like he was going to put on continuous gimmicky matches with Dolph Ziggler. And this week all of a sudden, Sandow, who promised to go back to the World Heavyweight championship against John Cena, suddenly shifted his attention to the Intercontinental Championship.
And we have ourselves a pay-per-view match that is going to happen with the minimum build up as possible. But the worst part from all of this was the state of Ziggler. He has dropped so much since losing the World heavyweight championship, that the WWE sees him no more than a jobber in recent weeks.
Ziggler apart, Sandow also seems destined for the fall as he was taken so quickly from the main event scene and re inserted into the mid card for apparently no motivated reasons.
4. What to do with Alberto Del Rio?
Lost in the locker room
To be frank, Del Rio isn’t the only wrestler in the roster who doesn’t have a direction in the current setting. But considering that he is fresh from a feud with John Cena, Del Rio still holds that upper midcard status which the others don’t have. And this week he went down to Sin Cara portrayed by NXT superstar Hunico.
The match clearly showed that the creative team had no idea on what to do with either of the wrestlers. Both of them haven’t been able to stir any sort of emotions in the fans and a match featuring them produced minimal heat. Del Rio suffered more as he had to admit defeat to a wrestler who barely has an identity.
Currently the best thing WWE can do with Del Rio is to take him out of television for some time and return him by the time of WrestleMania. As for Sin Cara, he should be selling some more merchandise than matches for sake of the fans.
3. Dead pool
Top wasted talent
Ryback, Kofi Kingston, Fandango, Mark Henry, Curtis Axel and The Miz, that pretty much sums up the dead pool. Now the reason why I termed them so is because, well the reason is that the matches they appear come across deadly silent fans solely because of the lack of development WWE has given to these characters.
Miz turned heel and face in one night and again turned heel in the next, reminding us those Rollercoaster rides in Zombie land. Kingston was dragged into the same mess and his entertainment quotient seems to help him no more to hide the flaws in his character. Fandango seems to have a good future when he won his WrestleMania debut against Chris Jericho and was seen in a squash match against Mark Henry this week.
Henry, still a face, smiled with his shiny bald head and hoped to get back into something important. As far as Axel goes, he might be fitted in NXT more than wandering around Raw for no reason.
2. The end of G.O.A.T
Need some excitement killers? WWE writers at your service
The idea of pushing a heel trio by feuding them with some top stars was working out when the Wyatt Family went up against CM Punk. And the WWE decided to give a similar push to the Shield by breaking up the Beard and the Beast and giving one part to Shield and the other to Wyatts. To top it off they even made two handicap matches in which Bryan and Punk will face an uphill battle to level up the numbers game.
The team of Bryan and Punk seemed destined for big things, but as things stands the creative has put an end to the excitement as always. And the fans will be left scratching their heads when TLC approaches as they have no idea on what to expect from the handicap matches. Its either going to be a burial or a superman show from Bryan or Punk at TLC, but still breaking off the hottest team in the business didn’t seemed to be a popular idea among the fans.
1. And they signed the dotted lines
setting the stage
The WWE confirmed that they will refer the winner of Randy Orton- John Cena winner as the Unified champion but they still didn’t clear up whether the titles would be unified. However, the wrestlers signed the contract this week on Raw and as usual this contract singing also ended as the millions that happened before. Cena finally got his revenge and put Orton through a table with his Attitude Adjustment.
Surprisingly, most of the fans seemed to be digging into the robotic promo gave by Orton and the brawl which followed. But the hidden secret of the outcome was teased by Michael Cole as he said the Authority could still make changes in the plan. And this statement underlined the confused state of the writers. On the brighter side, at least the ending of the TLC main event is something we can wait for.
