WWE: RAW Review for July 1st

With a lot of anticipation in the air regarding the implications of last week, WWE RAW came to us live from Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. Going into the show, the big buzz was about the tag team match between the Paul Heyman guys and the Prime Time Players, and everyone wanted to see if Paul Heyman shows his true colors by turning on Punk.

Also, merely hours before the show, Vickie Guerrero announced on Twitter that the WWE champion, John Cena will take on the World Heavyweight champion, Alberto Del Rio in the main event of the show. Let us now see how the events unfolded.

To kick things off, Daniel Bryan made his way to the ring as the crowd cheered him on. He cut a promo about how he defeated Orton last week, and how he will win the RAW Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank PPV. This brought Sheamus out, who reminded Bryan that he beat him at WrestleMania under 18 seconds. This brought out Orton, Kane, Christian and finally, CM Punk, as they each claimed that they would win the Money in the Bank briefcase.

The segment ended when Orton tried to attack Bryan, but Kane came in the middle, which offended Bryan and Orton took advantage of it and dropped Kane with an RKO. An interesting way to kick off RAW, and it emphasizes the importance of the ladder match at the MITB PPV.

The Shield vs Christian and the Usos in a 6 man tag team match

The Shield took on the team of Christian and The Usos. Last week on Smackdown, The Shield suffered its second pin fall loss as a trio when Christian pinned Dean Ambrose. This week, they got their revenge as they picked up the victory over their opponents, but it was far from impressive, and nothing like The Shield we’ve seen in the past 8 months.

When the members of the faction won the titles, I hoped that WWE wouldn’t make them lose TV matches like all the other mid card title holders do, but I guess WWE’s logic continues to be the same.

Winner(s): The Shield

Rating: **

Backstage, Bryan apologized to Kane, and told him he got him a rematch against Orton. But only this time, Bryan will be the special guest referee.

Dolph Ziggler vs Jinder Mahal (With Slater and Drew McIntyre)

Ziggler came out alone without Big E or AJ by his side, which can imply that WWE is planning to dissolve the faction. He faced Mahal and defeated him after a short match. Post match, he fended off the other members of 3MB. I hope Ziggler will have an eventful run in the main event; he deserves all the praise in the world for being the work horse in the WWE for the past 3 years, but was overlooked time and again.

Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Rating: *

WWE kept airing the previous era’s WWE and World Heavyweight champions. Here is an idea if you’re trying to kill 40 minutes of a 3 hour show with non-sensical highlights, put Natalya in a match, or put 2 solid TV matches. How hard can it be?

Backstage segment with Vickie and Triple H. They did the usual ‘I’m the boss’ shtick that no one cares about. I guess we are on route to the McMahon-Triple H feud. Am I interested? No.

Randy Orton vs Kane with Daniel Bryan as the special guest referee

I have to be honest here; I am interested in everything that involves Daniel Bryan. On the mic, in the ring or even as a third person in a match, he makes me invest my time, and that is what professional wrestling is about. He tried to do everything he could to help his ‘friend’ Kane win against Orton, even going as far as disqualifying Orton, only to restart the match, and then distracted Orton so that Kane could take advantage of it and ended it with a fast count. Post match, Kane argued with Bryan, saying he didn’t want to win that way and Orton dropped Bryan with an RKO. A good segment which underlines the problems and tensions between the trio.

Winner: Kane

Rating: **

Backstage, Punk argued with Heyman, saying he trusted Heyman but not Axel. Heyman calmed him down and asked him to trust his judgment. Their feud has garnered the most buzz from the fans, and so it will be interesting to see where this leads to.

Fandango (With Summer Rae) vs Sheamus

Fandango made his in-ring return after suffering a concussion which put him out of the Payback PPV couple of weeks ago, as he took on Sheamus. Why does WWE book their heels to lose the match in the same way again and again? I don’t know. First it was Alberto Del Rio, then Ryback and now, Fandango refused to wrestle Sheamus, as he walked away with Summer. Fandango was supposed to win the WWE Intercontinental title, so it will be interesting to see how he will be booked from now.

Winner: Via count out – Sheamus

Rating: ¼*

Ryback vs The Miz

Ryback’s stock in the WWE has plummeted, and WWE continues to show interest in The Miz even after failing to improve in the ring? No one cares about Miz anymore, yet he was given the ‘protégé’ storyline of Ric Flair. Ryback walked away from the match (Surprise?) to give Miz the count out victory.

I am not even remotely invested in these two performers, and Miz faces Axel for the WWE Intercontinental title at Money in the Bank PPV. What’s wrong with Cody Rhodes or Sandow? Guess they’re too talented to be in Miz’s spot. Post match, Jericho gave Ryback a codebreaker.

Winner: The Miz

Rating: ¼*

Mark Henry then came out and cut a promo about how he achieved nothing when he performed for the fans, and that he will win the title that eluded him throughout his career, the WWE championship at Money in the Bank PPV. A good promo which drove the point home, something Henry was always good at.

Backstage, we had to witness yet another Vickie-Vince segment. Aren’t people honestly tired with this? I might be out of my mind for preferring Big Johnny as a replacement for these awful segments. Yes, they are that bad.

CM Punk and Curtis Axel (With Paul Heyman) vs The Prime Time Players

Punk and Axel had issues while starting the match, as Axel refused to tag Punk. Titus and Young worked over Axel for the majority of the match, and Punk finally got the hot tag as the crowd erupted. Punk took care of both the superstars, but Axel tagged himself in and pinned Young for the win.

Post match, Punk got upset and left as Heyman tried to straighten things out. There is still a lot of time for Heyman to turn on Punk, as the rumored match between Lesnar and Punk will happen at Summerslam. I for one am excited to see how this feud plays out.

Winner (s): Curtis Axel and CM Punk

Rating: ** ¼

Alicia Fox vs Kaitlyn (With Layla)

Fox took on Kaitlyn in a basic divas match, and Kaitlyn picked up the victory after a spear. Post match, AJ and Big E came out to pick on Kaitlyn, as AJ showed a couple of morphed photos of Kaitlyn being obese. Didn’t they do the same thing with Mickie James couple of years ago? Oh WWE, Be A Star!

Winner: Kaitlyn

Rating: ¼*

Backstage, it was Stephanie’s turn to meet Vickie. She informed Vickie that next week would be her job evaluation, to see if she can be the permanent RAW GM or if she was under-performing. Yes, that keeps happening now and again with heel authorities. Remember Vince’s job evaluation? Oh, that’s right, we shouldn’t remember that.

Cody Rhodes vs Antonio Cesaro (With Zeb Colter and Jack Swagger)

This week saw the return of Jack Swagger after his injury/problem with the law. Cesaro picked up an easy victory against Cody. I feel bad for Rhodes, as he’s one of the most talented performers on the roster. I don’t know how Swagger will be used from now, although he doesn’t deserve another chance as a main eventer in my opinion.

Winner: Antonio Cesaro

Rating: ½*

Next week will be the official RAW debut of the Wyatt Family. I’m excited about it, as it will bring some fresh faces and storylines into the WWE.

John Cena vs Alberto Del Rio

Your basic main event with Cena. The match saw back and forth action between the two competitors, and Henry came down to distract Cena near the end, but Ziggler also came running down to distract Alberto Del Rio, as Cena capitalized on it with an AA on Del Rio for the victory. Post match, Henry attacked Cena and left the ring. Is Cena really that gullible to have believed Henry? I guess we’re supposed to think that Cena never learns. RAW faded off with Cena staring at Henry.

Winner: John Cena

Rating: **

RAW Rating: ** ¾

This was just an average episode of RAW, as the plug-ins of the titles and the McMahon-Helmsley drama took away all the momentum from the show. 13 years after the McMahon-Triple H saga started, they’re still going on with the program. Are we supposed to be interested anymore? Daniel Bryan and Punk were the stars of the show as always, and the main event wasn’t anywhere as good as last week’s. We have to wait and see where things lead to next week on Monday Night RAW.