I know this sounds crazy, but looking back on last night, I would have to say, that my headline says it all, doesn't it? First, I get that it wasn't the best episode of Raw they've ever done, but the crowd was so dead. They didn't pop for anything, with the exception of Dean Ambrose and, to some weird extent, Roman Reigns.
Opening with Steph berating the people and talking about how HHH wasn't there, not because of the beating he took last week but because he had "corporate responsibilities". BLAH. I'm sick of Authority opening promos. Anyway, half way through, out comes Reigns. He's not doing any of that smiley bullshit he had been doing. He cut a succinct and to the point promo about how he's going to beat up her husband in her arena in her ring. She goes to slap him, and bam, he stops her. We haven't seen anyone pull that move since she tried to slap Sting and it didn't work out as planned. I also kind of love how he was shushing her, shaking his head. There was no smile. There was just a bad ass Samoan standing tall. It makes him look strong and also puts Stephanie in her place. They can't hurt her anymore, but they can make her look petty and small.
So, that worked. The people didn't seem to boo him as much as they usually do. Keep booking him strong, let him speak as little as possible, and at Mania have him just go on a tear and then flip everyone off when he wins. Then Monday, turn him full fledged heel. Cuss out the audience for hating on him. It's just a short hop, skip, and jump away.
Dean Ambrose was, of course, another highlight. I love the little vignettes of him just hanging out places and then an old time hardcore legend shows up and gives him a new toy to use. I love Terry Funk telling Dean "If I had a son, I'd want him to be just like you. If I had a daughter..." and then he turned around. That was funny!
Kevin Owens is dynamite. AJ Styles is Phenomenal.
It also feels weird to like The Miz. I don't want you to make me like him. He's much better as a horrible, smarmy heel. Fix this!
I knew they were going to do a ladder match, and I guess Ziggler and Miz could be made to have a reason to be in it...???? But Ryder? Stardust? Sin Cara???? Sami Zayn will have a helluva weekend if he can stay healthy during the Nakumura match at Takeover.
Y2J vs, AJ is heating up nicely. Y2J does some excellent heeling during this match. He's just amazing as a heel. Hardly anyone around to touch him.
And let me say this, I thought this was almost over when we got to the promos from the legends about Shane and Taker. I was like, wow, this really went fast. No idea there was another hour and a half left in this show.
Vince added a stipulation to the Taker match (and cut a promo about Taker being his bitch!) that if Taker loses he won't wrestle anymore. I would be willing to say that if something funky happens with this match, like Taker backs out of it or something, Shane will put Taker in some kind of role or not allow that stipulation to stand. Anyway, I just hope there is a good place to go with this. I think we all agree that we don't want to see Taker lose again, but we certainly don't want Shane gone again. It's hard to decide who to pull for. Nostalgia says Taker, but everything else in me is screaming Shane.
And then we had the weirdest segment in the entire show: The New Day promo against the League. This might have worked if Barrett hadn't looked like he was laughing during not only the League part but also during the New Day's promo. It was kind of hilarious. And you could see that he was laughing at Rusev who decided to dump a bottle of water all over his chest and then under his arms! It was WEIRD. But Barrett was doing all he could to keep it together, only it wasn't working. And I think all of this feeds into Renee Young saying that every time she has to "interview" Barrett, he does everything he can to try and make her laugh and they hardly ever get through a segment without them both laughing. I love Barrett, and to me he was the best part of this because he was just laughing all the way through it.
I don't like the New Day as faces, though. The promos they could have had with Cas and Enzo would have been amazing. And you can't bring Cas and Enzo in and make them heels. However, if you have the League win the belts off New Day, then Cas and Enzo would be perfect foils for them.
All in all, a crap Raw, mostly. The Roman Reigns segments were the best parts. It was totally weird.
- Also, I heard that Luke Harper was injured last night during the dark match. That's terrible. Another one down. Ugh. And of the four, I like Harper the most!
- Cesaro will be back soon, so that's good!
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