Raw 7-28-14

[Go2Sleep]

Truth ending Bo's streak is terrible. Bo was totally getting over as an ironic face and a long, fluky streak gimmick was a perfect complement to that. Bo trying to act "tough" is going to be boring as fuck, as it has always been. It's obviously not as egrigous as say, what they did to Cesaro post-Mania, but it's just another example of the writers trying to force the square peg into the round hole and generally not being good at reading the audience.

 

Zeb's promo was one of the worst of the year too. Even ignoring "gathering around a football," the scripted material was beyond atrocious."A mother and daughter learning to cook together..." "A family being thankful they survived another year..." Who wrote that shit?

 

Other than those two things, this was a pretty good show, though. Cena and Cesaro topped their match from February, imo. Felt like a lot more Cena offense, which is always a good way to freshen up his matches, and their counter sequences were really sharp. Rollins/Jericho was really good until the finish. Rollins eating the codebreaker at the end undid it somewhat, but they did a great "cocky, athletic youngster vs. feisty veteran" match. Rollins bumped well and did a great job working in his flashy counter spots as a heel, and most of Jericho's offense was emotional bursts at the beginning and whenever Rollins starting taunting him. Couple of really strong matches there.

 

The Steph/Brie angle is panning out really well too. Good way to stop all the Nikki shit and move things forward. It'll be interesting if Brie can channel some real fire for their match, because Steph nails all her character stuff and seems to have a lot of "way better than expected" matches, so I think there's some potential for something special if Brie can muster the performance of her life.

[ebbie]

Was I the only one bothered by the Cesaro promo? He actually went and said the World Champion couldn't wrestle. And then he went and lost a wrestling match to the guy who can't wrestle.

Look on the bright side. At least fucking Matt Striker wasn't calling the match. Christ fucking a monkey with a banana, I would've thrown a hammer at the tv if that happened.

[HumanChessgame]

I thought Cesaro came off great both on the mic and in the ring tonight.  That giant swing into a Kondo Clutch was a nice move.  Whomever said Cena's promo sounded like Rocky fan fiction was pretty spot on.

 

For the most part I'm pretty indifferent to Bo, but he actually showed a decent amount of character work in the aftermath of the match.  The way his artificially optimistic and cherry demeanor slipped for a split second and he appeared a bit deranged and angry, then slipped back into his normal character was a nice touch.

 

This is also the first time in forever I actually paid attention to the diva's segments in the Paige/AJ and Steph segments.

[piranesi]

 

 

Zeb's promo was one of the worst of the year too. Even ignoring "gathering around a football," the scripted material was beyond atrocious."A mother and daughter learning to cook together..." "A family being thankful they survived another year..." Who wrote that shit?

 

 

Mother, go teach Daughter to make me a sammich while we menfolk gather 'round the football.

You all made it another year!  Not like MY SHINS WHAT GOT BLOWED OFF BY A JAPANEE!

[APO]

Cena and Heyman were on fire for the opening segment. Too bad Cesaro kinda dropped the ball a bit by doing the lame ass "You can't wrestle" bullshit during his promo. Thankfully, he made up for it with another fantastic match with Cena. Miz is kinda growing on me with his "Don't hit the moneymaker" chickenshit heel character. They should try and convince Maryse to come back as his manager and carry a make-up case around to touch his face up when he runs away to keep from getting hit.

 

Did Randy land on the monitor again after they re-did the RKO spot on the table?

[piranesi]

Cena and Heyman were on fire for the opening segment. Too bad Cesaro kinda dropped the ball a bit by doing the lame ass "You can't wrestle" bullshit during his promo.

 

I'm fine with Cesaro playing the snobby "real wrestler" but it does suck hard that they still see him as a guy who can only play the heel who's all talk but can't actually beat anyone.  Like everything else with him, it would work fine if they would just fucking let him win already.

 

Now, if they wanted to give that line to Ambrose it would work in a different way, thoughit might be suited to a different venue.  Which brings us to:

 

DEAN AMBROSE PROMOTIONAL TOUR: NIGHT 1

 

"You can't fuck.  You can't drink. 

 

...and you can't fight.

 

 

Oh, and don't forget to subscribe to the WWE Network!!!!"

 

Results so far:

 

New subscribers to the network: 0

shots of whiskey licked off the top of the bar: 1/2

fights won against Frank Stallone: 1 (out of 2)

hours spent stroking Fay Dunaway's legs before passing out: 1/4

 

All in all, it's going as well as they could have expected

[Curt McGirt]

Forget y'alls little TNA excursion into comedy (or mine in this thread), piranesi is still the master.

[Jimmy Trump]

 

 

I could only assume this "Cosmic Key" thing leads to the Dust Brothers vs. Julie Winston & Kevin Coorigan at Summerslam.

 

Okay...this is a really low-percentage shot to take reference-wise, but fuck it.

 

Obviously the cosmic key only leads you toward one guy:

 

 

NIDUS, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

 

 

 

I'm reminded only of this guy...

[Cristobal]

As far as Dubya in Houston goes, I guess I'll take your word for it Meanie. That airport he's named after says otherwise though.

 

 

To be fair, it's named after daddy Bush, not Dubya. Very few Houstonians will call it that, though. It's still Intercontinental to the most of us.

 

Any truth to the rumors that they may rename it "Michael Mizanin Intercontinental Championship Airport?" He is a big star, you know.

Speaking of big stars, here's a fun fact: On the day the Houston City Council voted to stop calling it "Intercontinental", the IC Champ was one Rocky Maivia.

[Phantom Lord]

Man this RAW was book ended by two really good matches and about two and a half hours of stuff that was boring as hell in between. I love when John Cena trys to be SRS BUSINESS CENA. Man, Cesaro calling him a walking K-Mart ad was just so great. Look at Cena, you can tell that legit got to him. See, if they had Cesaro and Heyman doing this sort of stuff oooh I don't know FROM THE START, it would have worked out a lot better for Cesaro.

 

The match between them was great in your usual "can John Cena overcome the odds and defeat a real wrestler" format. I agree with the comment mentioned somewhere above that Cena looks slow trying to do his "wrestling" stuff.

 

Skipping forward, I loved the AJ/Paige segment. I think they're gonna have a real fun match if they are allowed to at Summerslam. Paige really does have the mean girl act down pat.

 

Bo losing pissed me the hell off. They seriously threw away a huge money making moment for someone. I probably wouldn't have even cared if it wasn't R-Truth. talk about an act that just needs to go away all ready. But the post match beat down was great though. Still pissed he lost though.

 

Orton vs. Reigns has all ready made my do not care list. Anything Orton is involved in lately is a channel changer and Reigns is closely following him.

 

Jericho vs. Rollins was a good match. I'm sad by the lack of Ambrose though. But hey at least hes on Main Event. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE.

 

I can't believe Stephanie/Brie got the main event. Between her and Nikki, Brie is by far the hotter and better skilled Bella. But its amazing to think of all the things that could have gotten this build its gone to Brie and Stephanie McMahon. I guess the Nikki heel turn is coming at Summerslam. Ah well I hope Stephanie still has some of her old fake leather wrestling outfits. Those always made her matches tollerable.

[DreamBroken]

Loved the opening. Thought Cena's promo was awesome and Cena/Cesaro was another great match like their last one. Crazy that Truth is the one to beat Bo and does it in 30 seconds out of nowhere. Swagger/Rusev feud continues to rule. Jericho interrupting HHH/Steph was cool as it felt like something different. Jericho/Rollins was pretty good, loved the springboard into the Codebreaker and would've bought that as the finish for sure. Enjoyed the ending segment, the build for Brie/Steph has been great so far, looking forward to that at SummerSlam.

 

Forgot to mention the Orton/Reigns segment. Really made Orton look like a killer again for the first time in awhile. Hope their match ends up a good one. Also cool to see Cesaro bust out the dreaded banned Swing

[Guest meowput]

WWE's killing a potential cash cow with Reigns. They're playing to his weaknesses by putting him with Orton and Kane. Reigns has got two things going for him: a good look and the ability to get the crowd excited (which I think is due to his big moves than anything else). Orton and Kane plod their way through their matches and are tedious on the mic. Being a rookie, however, probably means he has to let them take the lead and work at their level. This makes him look more boring than he really is. He's had interesting matches on Smackdown against ADR and Barrett and that's where he should be at right now.

[MGFanJay]

It's a shame there isn't a modern-day Noble (well, beyond Noble) who could soar around for Roman's offense...oh yeah, there's Seth for that. Ah well.

[The Z]

It's really hard to stay opimistic about the WWE, when they put on a show like this.

 

I guess Dean Ambrose just became a little bit too popular for their liking, so they decided to not even put him on the show. Can't have people getting popular on their own terms.

 

And John Cena really is going to beat Lesnar a second time, isn't he?

 

Can't believe some people are actually looking forward to a Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon match.

[Jenalysis]

I have to agree on Reigns.  I think the best thing that could happen to him right now is to do Summerslam and get it over with, then the next night- Miz pops up like mad, does an open challenge, and Reigns destroys him for the title on RAW and holds it until Elimination Chamber, working matches against guys like Cesaro/ADR to get him better at long matches.   The last thing Reigns needs right now is to be dragged down to Orton/Kane levels of boring.  Feed midcarders to those two or a while or make them feuding tag champs or something.

 

 

(My long-term goal would be Reigns wins the belt at EC, Ambrose wins the Rumble against all odds, and Rollins cashes in MITB at WM- leading to a Shield WM Main Event 3-way)

[HumanChessgame]

They really need some veteran, or at least someone very technically sound that knows how to lead an opponent through a match and bump a lot, to work Reigns on the house show circuit.  He's got potential but really hasn't been paired up in singles matches with someone that can help him learn.  Just look at how much better Rowan got by working with Bryan in tag matches on a regular basis.  The thing is most of the guys who would excel at such a thing are either dead, retired, injured, on the wrong end of the face/heel spectrum or otherwise not around.  ADR would probably do good in that spot and Cesaro definitely would, but he is (or at least should be) too high up on the card or otherwise engaged.

[Curt McGirt]

Oh snap, Gwildor! Totally kills my puny Emperor reference. 

 

 

Yeah, I wanna see this guy help out the Dusted Ones in their quest.

[odessasteps]

Theres always Christian (if healthy)

[Pete]

So did I miss Bryan getting mentioned at all during the show? They didn't even mention him during the angle at the end- you'd think they'd be going pants-free for one of their guys making national headlines for something other than offing his family.

[Sublime]

WWE is wasting Reigns so bad right now. I had a lot of driving to do this weekend and when I'm driving my mind will wander to wrestling and I realized that Reigns is quickly becoming just a guy and a large part of that is they put him in a feud with two of the most boring never want to see them again guys on the roster. I was going to make a list of wrestlers I'd rather see in prominent roles but realized the list of those I'd want Kane or Orton to be featured instead of would be shorter. The list of wrestlers currently in the WWE I want to see less than Orton or Kane: Great Khali, Adam Rose and the Miz. They have their possible next GUY feuding with two guys who are so stale and boring I would rather watch Curtis Axel or Zach Ryder than them.

[MORELOCK]

The Cesaro "You can't wrestle" stuff didn't bother me because kayfabe-wise he was just trying to get in Cena's head by bringing up something the crowd used to chant at him. I don't remember the last time I heard a crowd actually chanting that at Cena, because nobody that pays attention could possibly still think that Cena isn't a great wrestler.

 

Man Cena really needs a break, he's working at half-speed trying to do monkey flips and ranas and it just looks like shit. Cesaro is visibly slowing to keep him from completely gassing and this is like 1/3rd of the match they had earlier this year.

 

Oh

[kiguchi]

I guess Dean Ambrose just became a little bit too popular for their liking, so they decided to not even put him on the show. Can't have people getting popular on their own terms.

 

Really? Every booking for Dean since the breakup (and even before the breakup) has been designed to make him the most popular sympathetic character on the roster. 

[The Z]

 

I guess Dean Ambrose just became a little bit too popular for their liking, so they decided to not even put him on the show. Can't have people getting popular on their own terms.

 

Really? Every booking for Dean since the breakup (and even before the breakup) has been designed to make him the most popular sympathetic character on the roster. 

 

 

Oh yeah? Like two weeks ago when he was taken out of the Six Man Tag Main Event by getting beat up by Orton, Kane and Rollins and then didn't come out in the Main Event to save the day?

[odessasteps]

FWIW, Dave crapped all over the cena/cesaro match.

And followed, naturally, by saying he had seen a dozen better matches during the G1 so far.

[Cristobal]

Reigns' weaknesses are getting exposed because they're so prominent. The man is not a main event singles wrestler. He is far too green, and some of us were saying that throughout his Shield run. The way the Shield wrestled protected the hell out of him, allowing the better workers he was paired with to handle things, saving him for hitting a few big spots.