WWE Raw 10-14-13

[JRGoldman]

I only saw the main event, so I'll make sure to just post negative thoughts about the rest of the show instead of talking about how unreal awesome the last five minutes were. The Shield gets a rematch. We get at least one more of these guys. Wrestling is so awesome sometimes.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

 

 

Reigns sells like a video game wrestler. So he sold the chair shot for about a minute then popped up like nothing happened. That is worse than no selling. Otherwise a great main event. 

Reigns is a part of the Anoa'i family and a former defensive linebacker, he's an hard cunt.

 

Great main-event, chairs, spears through barricades, super-hot tags, perfect use of the enforcers, new champions, Brilliant.

 

"A hard cunt" not "An hard cunt", we pronounce the H in hard, so you don't need the N.

You facking wot?

[jstout]

From the moment Golddust started swinging that chair like Tito Ortiz, that match restored my faith in wrestling. I marked out SO hard when Reigns speared Golddust through the barrier (and Cody took a hard fall, too, when he got thrown into the barricade), and marked harder when Big Show came out and cleaned house. Whatever they're doing with these guys, it's working.

[Hoffman]

I was at the show.  Apart from the in-ring festivities, my favorite part was the kids in the row behind me:They had absolutely no idea what "WWE" stands for;

they weren't sure whether Tamina Snuka is The Rock's sister or his cousin;

but they were 100% certain that Curtis Axel is the son of former wrestler "Mr. Handsome."

 

Sadly for them, their Moms decided they had to leave right after the Bryan-Del Rio match because it's a school night.  The time was only 9:30.  That's just poor parenting.

[GodzillaPerez]

My dad's not a fan of wrestling but if it's on whenever I visit home, he'll watch it with me. He loved the main and was laughing at JBL's "SOMEBODY ARREST THAT MAN!". Goldust is killing it in this run.

[Greggulator]

Man, that main event ruled. That's now my MOTY. That match had so much awesome. It tied in together every storyline in one beautiful, amazing match.

 

I loved the final sequence after the match ends. Cody and Dustin celebrate after their second epic, dramatic win over the young bucks who ran through everyone else. Big Show continues to regain his dignity. And he does it with Daniel Bryan's "YES!" chant as HHH freaks out in the ring. That's just so amazing. This whole thing started because HHH doesn't want Daniel Bryan as champion. He made The Shield his enforces and tried to make Show his indentured servant. He then tried to humiliate the Rhodes Family. All of that came back to bite in the ass in a major way as his hand-picked mercenaries get defeated. Bryan started all of this. But he's still the one who has to beat the final boss.Everyone always complains about a lack of long-term storytelling from the WWE. That is what they've just given us. It is awesome.And you don't get the reaction of a crowd without having an incredibly structured, brilliant match. So many amazing things. Dustin rules. Cody Rules. The Shield rules. I want to watch them ever week for the rest of my natural life.

[Greggulator]

I'm still giddy and I didn't watch any of the rest of what seems like a pretty eh (at best) Raw. But thinking about it -- that's on the short list of greatest matches of all time. That's not a lie. The only other match I can think of that was able to tie in so many stories like that in one match was Raven/Richards vs. The Pitbulls in ECW and that was the best match in ECW history and one of the best of the 90s. This was an updated version of that match but with more talented people putting on an absolute clinic of a match that had not one wasted punch or move or anything. Everything built to have that climax. And it was also done with so many cliffhangers -- The Shield are more than deserving of a rematch, The Big Show's regaining his dignity, and as pissed as HHH is, Daniel still doesn't have the belt.This is some amazing, amazing work. Wrestling rules. I didn't know if anything could top Cena/Bryan for me since that was an insanely great match that led to the best few months the WWE has had in probably a decade. But this was the fruit of that labor. We're far from done, yet. The hero's journey isn't completed. But this was absolutely amazing and why I watch grown men pretend to fight each other in tiny pants.

[kafkonia]

I'm really impressed with how things stand right now.

 

You've got the Punk/Heyman Family feud, keeping one of the top faces believably preoccupied enough to not get involved in the main storyline.

 

Then you've got the multilayered "best for business" story: Orton and Bryan feuding over the WWE title, the Rhodes brothers feuding with the Shield over the tag titles thanks to HHH and Stephanie's power trip, and Big Show working out his frustration on the entire HHH/Stephanie power structure. I saw some people saying that Bryan should've been in Show's position at the end of this Raw, but I disagree: Bryan's focused on the the title, his fiancee, and Orton, not HHH or the Shield; Show's issue is more directly with Hunter, and by extension his cronies. They're doing an excellent job of building the face roster up as a whole to carry the weight while Cena's gone, rather than putting all their eggs in one basket.

 

And a lot of the matches are damn good, too.

[ultimoDANK]

Echoing all the positive thoughts on the main event. Blows the Battlegroud match away. The finish with Reigns ducking the disaster kick only to get KO'd by the Big Show was so creative. Dustin was unbelievable, some time machine shit.

The Bryan vs Del Rio match was also really good and going to be overlooked due to that main event. Could've done without the implied rape finish but they couldn't really beat other guy there. JBL also seemed to really be killing the annoying Cole/Lawler nonsense. He's so good.

[DreamBroken]

Amazing main event. When they announced it, I figured there wasn't gonna be a title change but once they got going and in the main event spot it seemed possible. Match built greatly throughout. Lots of great spots, loved Rollins powerbombing Cody into the rail, plus diving into Goldust's snap powerslam. Thought Cody looked very good coming off the hot tag 2 late in the match. Crowd went nuts for Big Show, awesome finish and a perfect moment. Kind of surprised they didn't wait til HIAC but glad they did it tonight and gave Raw a special ending/moment. the Shield ended up losing the titles in the same city they won them in. Crazy that Goldust is a WWE champ again in 2013 but it rules.

[Brian Fowler]

GOLDUST MOTHERFUCKERS!!!

[SirFozzie]

alright, I have to admit, it's going so well.. what's going to go wrong at Hell in a Cell. They seem to be setting up something like a HBK screwjob... or a Big Show "Shocking" turn.

[Death From Above]

That main event was fucking great. They actually had people in the crowd shoutin' Mid South style and everything.

 

That's sort of what it reminded me of anyway.

 

Big Show as the World's Largest Ninja rules.

 

Didn't give two shits about the rest of the show really, though the beat the clock stuff was fine now that I think about it. Are Alberto Del Rio's kicks some sort of bizarre Stoker Ichikawa tribute to completely ineffective offense that I'm just not in on or does the company just not realize how shitty they look? I haven't watched this show in years so I actually have to ask.

[Big Fresh]

I really shoulda went to Raw....

[The Comedian]

I'm really impressed with how things stand right now.

 

You've got the Punk/Heyman Family feud, keeping one of the top faces believably preoccupied enough to not get involved in the main storyline.

 

I've also been very impressed with their restraint in keeping Punk on an island.

 

Yeah, if Punk does a run-in to save Team Bryan the place will go nuclear, and the McMahons teaming with Heyman would fit right in with the "best for business" theme, but beyond that there'd be nothing good from it. As is you have a really hot B plot to go with your A plot, allowing Bryan and Punk to simultaneously look like #1 guys. And having a strong B plot also gives fans a greater willingness to bite on other things outside of the A plot, which gives stuff like AJ vs. Divas and the Wyatt Family and such better opportunity to succeed.

[Dank]

Is the IC belt the only long time title that has always looked pretty much the same?

 

The Big Gold Belt has been the same since 1986.

 

The IC belt had a shittier design from 1998-2011.

[Swift]

 

 

Reigns sells like a video game wrestler. So he sold the chair shot for about a minute then popped up like nothing happened. That is worse than no selling. 

Otherwise a great main event. 

Reigns is a part of the Anoa'i family and a former defensive linebacker, he's an hard cunt.

 

Great main-event, chairs, spears through barricades, super-hot tags, perfect use of the enforcers, new champions, Brilliant.

 

"A hard cunt" not "An hard cunt", we pronounce the H in hard, so you don't need the N.

 

That main event was so much fun.  I was pretty sure they were moving the titles along, but I wasn't sure if it would've been by Bionic Elbow or Falcon Punch. Show mauling people with his fist is everything that's right with America.

 

My main problem with this whole storyline remains Stephanie.  I think at this point it's clear that IF she gets her's (and that's a massive if), it will come at the hands of a Diva.  But after a couple of months of semi-feuding with AJ, she's all of the sudden doing her favors by tossing her opponents to the wolves?  Her lack of focus is killing me. 

 

 

I don't always correct a person's grammar, but when I do, I like to make sure I do it right after they've criticized somebody else's.

 

There is no such word as "her's". It's "hers". Likewise, there is no such phrase as "all of the sudden". There is no particular "sudden". The correct idiom is "all of a sudden". And besides, as already pointed out, he was being a Cockney.

 

Anyway, on to Raw. This was my first time watching WWE since Wrestlemania, and I've barely kept up with what's been going on. Some random thoughts...

 

1. Jack Swagger looks a lot bulkier up top, but not necessarily muscular. Also, are those guys in danger of becoming faces? Their "we the people" bit was somewhat over with the crowd, and Cesaro's swing definitely was.

 

2. Why was Daniel Bryan upset that his wrestling fiancee was put in a wrestling match?

 

3. Why was the fiancee screaming behind the closed door even though it appeared that Randy Orton wasn't even in the room when Bryan entered?

 

4. How does Shawn Michaels figure into the upcoming match? Has he been established as overwhelmingly favouring Orton over Bryan, or are we just supposed to suspect that he might because HHH is his buddy?

 

5. Is there a better (in terms of safety) hardcore spot than the spear through the barricade? There never looks to be a risk of injury to anybody (except maybe the poor timekeeper) and yet it always gets a "Holy Shit" chant.

 

6. Yes, the last five minutes of the show were great, but everything else seemed solid to me. Maybe it's because being out for a while, I'm not particularly jaded right now. As somebody pointed out, the lack of recaps throughout the night helped things move along nicely too.

[Dog]

"All of a sudden" shouldn't really exist, either.  I know I remember being criticized for using either form back in college.  "Suddenly" is right there.

[JonnyLaw]

My main problem with this whole storyline remains Stephanie.  I think at this point it's clear that IF she gets her's (and that's a massive if), it will come at the hands of a Diva.  But after a couple of months of semi-feuding with AJ, she's all of the sudden doing her favors by tossing her opponents to the wolves?  Her lack of focus is killing me. 

 

 

Her lack of focus on the Divas is one of the most realistic parts of this angle.

 

3. Why was the fiancee screaming behind the closed door even though it appeared that Randy Orton wasn't even in the room when Bryan entered?

 

4. How does Shawn Michaels figure into the upcoming match? Has he been established as overwhelmingly favouring Orton over Bryan, or are we just supposed to suspect that he might because HHH is his buddy?

 

I noticed #3 too.  Bryan bursts through the door, Brie is screaming, Bryan asks "Where is he?!?" and she's all like "Eh, I dunno..."

 

As for #4, I get the impression we're supposed to be shocked when HBK turns on Bryan, just like we were supposed to be shocked each time Dusty turned on someone to help Cody after lecturing Cody about his evil ways.

[MORELOCK]

Are Alberto Del Rio's kicks some sort of bizarre Stoker Ichikawa tribute to completely ineffective offense that I'm just not in on or does the company just not realize how shitty they look?

I was noticing right after Orton popped up on the Tron that ADR's punches that were supposed to keep Bryan from saving his fiancé were Shane McMahonesque in how awful they were. Weak looking and not even close to the mark.Do the Del Rio defenders let things like that pass because he works the arm?

[ultimoDANK]

2 small things I noticed last night.

So I see the little Mexican flags in a corner during Del Rio vs Bryan and think that's an odd touch. Then I see they are in all 4 corners.

What's with the new up and down arm taunt thing Punk was doing? They cut to the crowd and people are doing the Yes! thing. That's kinda leaching on Bryan's heat...

[Swift]

And what a dick Del Rio is. "Oh shit, your fiancee is about to get raped! Well, let me get the three count first..."

[Dog]

Did anyone else feel bad that Claudio couldn't properly swing Tensai?  Apparently he is mortal.

[MarcosLoura]

I'm with the "Del Rio is pretty meh" crowd. His matches are heatless and his offense is mediocre at the best, but those punches last night were just ridiculously bad.

 

Unless someone, other than Jae, says so I'll continue to avoid his RVD match on Battleground like the plague.

[cool arrow]

Did anyone else feel bad that Claudio couldn't properly swing Tensai?  Apparently he is mortal.

 

That was odd, particularly since he had no problem swinging the larger Brodus on Main Event the other day.

 

"Swinging the larger Brodus" sounds so very dirty.