Raw Recap 4-12-2016 - Start of the Roman Heelpire?

So many things happened in this show, that I'm going to go through them the best I can with only having had one view.

Shane announces that there will be a tag team tournament to see who the new number one contender will be for the New Day to face off against.  Also announced that Sami Zayn would have a match against AJ Styles where if Sami won the match at Payback would be a triple threat.  Then Kevin Owen's music hits.

Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens was stellar.  Both of those guys know how to go on the mic and they both looked strong here.  It didn't make any sense how JBL kept saying that Kevin Owens wasn't ready to fight when Kevin Owens said out of his own mouth that he was ready for his rematch.
I would just like to state that I like the idea of

The Cesaro vs. KO match was amazing.  Man, I've missed Cesaro!  My favorite part of this match, though, was when Owens put on JBL's hat, pointed at him, then gave Cesaro a close line from hell and gave the hat back.  Cesaro gets the win and he's the new #1 contender for the IC belt.  He got an actual win on KO.  What I can't understand is why they put the belt back on Miz?  Why not Ryder?  Why not let him have it for a little while?  But if they put it on Cesaro then I won't complain.  Dude deserves a huge push, especially seeing the reaction to him being back.

New Day cuts a promo about the tag team tournament and then Xavier Woods molests the rope, Big E swivels his hips in a way that makes me deeply uncomfortable for some reason, and Kofi is doing that weird jump clap that he does which doesn't really seem to go with the sex that Xavier and Big E are selling.  Lucha Dragons come out for their match in the first round of the tag team tournament against the Dudley Boys.  The part that sticks out about this is that the New Day basically steal the spotlight of the Lucha Dragons as they are standing ring side doing the "Lucha" chant while Big E wears JBLs hat.  That hat got a lot of action tonight.

Lucha Dragon's are competing against the Dudley Boys, who seem to be calling EVERYONE on their shit, lately.  First it was the ref in the match the other night and now it was the ref for calling the wrong person the legal man.  I'm not sure who the legal man was, and it doesn't matter, since the Dudley's won, Kalisto might be actually hurt, and ENZO AND CAS showed up to again put the Duds in their place.

It was a good back and forth and my favorite part was "The reason I'm here is because my mom and dad got it on.  How you doin?"  Is it just me or does Enzo look like a hyper/surrealistic future version of Howard Walowitz?  Don't know why, that's just what he reminds me of.  The Dudleys are a great first rival for Enzo and Cas.

Got a promo between Dr. Phil, Charlotte, and Ric Flair in which Dr. Phil just cut Charlotte down for cheating and going down the same path with her father.  I have to admit, as far as promos go, Dr. Phil nailed it!  Good for him!  The WOOOOing I could have done without, but the rest of that segment was pretty good.

We got some backstage between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon where Kevin threatened Sami Zayn and Shane wasn't having it so he had him removed from the premises.

Roman Reigns comes out and cuts a promo in which he repeats his new catchphrase, apparently.  "I'm not a bad guy.  I'm not a good guy.  I'm the guy."  It's a good heel move.  But then, the baffling part of this to me is that they have Sheamus, Del Rio, and Rusev come out and cut a promo against him.  It doesn't lessen the boos for Reigns, it only makes the boos in the arena louder, period.  Although, Rusev's line that he's better looking than Roman was funny.  Everyone laughed.  Even Sheamus.  We all know Roman is dreamy.  It's part of his appeal.  Which I would like to talk about now.  I understand that there is a hatred for Roman.  I think a lot of it comes from people resent the push he's received while people like Ambrose languish in tired feuds with the likes of Jericho.  However, I feel like it's a little naive of us to expect him not to take the ball and run with it.  He's doing what he's told.  You can't fault him for that.  Maybe you resent what he's being told to do, but he's selling it the best he can, and honestly, when he's not the smirking or smiling good guy and is just a Samoan bad ass it works.  I feel like, sometimes, Roman is given a bad wrap.  He's vastly improved in the ring.  Yes, he still has a few stupid moves (I just get tired of watching him cock his hand and I find the man sexy, I can't imagine what people who despise him think of it), but he's come a long way.  Is he there yet?  No.  But I think people keep expecting him to be the Rock or Stone Cold or HBK.  The truth is, when those guys came up, there was a period where they were really able to do what they wanted to do because Vince was taking any and all ideas.  It's not like that anymore.  Everything is so scripted.  They're trying to make the hero they think we want.

However, he's been showing shades of heel, here and there.  There is less smiling.  There is less smirking.  He even brushed off Sami Zayn and AJ Styles when they came out last week.  He's different as Seth as a heel because Seth was constantly running from a fight because that's just his strength as a heel.  But you could see Roman as being the heel that starts shit and then beats people down for it.  And he could have a faction, but his faction I feel like would be more of a DX faction in that they don't run away from fights, but they start and end them.

Which brings me back to what happened Monday.  Roman challenges the three members of the Lads and suddenly Bray's shit interrupts.  It was BIZARRE to see Wyatt and Roman on the same side, but rather refreshing.  They clear the ring and face off against each other.  Roman looked as confused as I was excited.  And I was excited.  We'd never seen Bray and Roman on the same side.  Apparently, Shane agreed as he interrupted and said "I'd like to see more of that!"  and scheduled the main event as Roman and Bray vs. two members of the Lads.  It was certainly different.  And Solomonster has said before that Heel Roman vs. Face Bray would be different and probably awesome, and I tend to agree with him.  The set up between them was nice.  I enjoyed this part of the show.

Natayla vs. Charlotte was a good match.  I keep expecting Bret Hart to come out, but I'm not sure how his health is, but then Flair is 900 years old and he's still out there.  Natty looked strong and she won but by disqualification of Charlotte.  So, I guess this is set up for Road Block.

We get the Usos against...I don't remember.  I really don't remember.  Usos won, but the important part of this was that Gallows and Anderson debuted, much like the Outsiders back in the 90's.  They beat down the Usos, the crowd was into it and confused at the same time.  You could see the people that knew who they were and the people that didn't.  This all leads to an interesting road.  You have a potential for Gallows and Anderson to team up with AJ and stomp the holy hell out of Roman.  It would just make AJ more over, but it would make for an interesting dynamic when Balor finally gets the call up.

I'm going to end up skipping some stuff because by this time I had taken my meds.  I did manage to stop what I was doing and watch Sami Zayn vs. AJ Styles, which to me was the match of the night.  These two guys delivered everything you could want in a match.  It was well paced, it had some high flying action.  The crowd was into BOTH guys.  AJ got the win, which means that the match between Roman and AJ stays between Roman and AJ.  But Sami put on a helluva show.

Ambrose vs. Jericho.  We've known it was coming since SummerSlam last year, but I like this.  Ambrose vs. Jericho on the mic will be awesome and the two guys can go.  I really wish the Ambrose Asylum stuff would end.  Do we really need to be reminded that people think he's crazy?

The last match, Roman and Bray vs. The Lads, I don't remember much of.  I do remember that I was surprised that the Wyatt Family took so long to come out there in the first place.  Bray and Roman get the win and then I don't remember what happened.  Sorry.  Anyway, over all I would say a pretty decent Raw.  We got some matches we haven't seen before and it was enjoyable.  

Wrestlemania Review

I realize I'm waaaay behind, but I use the excuse that I've been sick and moved and so I haven't had the time to devote to this the way I want.

First, let me start off talking about the Raw before Wrestlemania.

Boring.

Alright, and now on to Wrestlemania itself.

Pre-show matches you had Kalisto vs. Ryback (which I didn't see because it was advertised that the first two hours of the pre-show would be on USA.  Only the last of the two hours was on there and I missed the Ryback vs. Kalisto match (which when I went back and watched it, I didn't miss much).  Kalisto won, as he should have.  I would be nice to see someone like Baron Corbin (I'll get to him in a bit) go after the U.S. title.

The first match I actually watched was Team Diva (Natayla, Paige, Eva Marie, Brie Bella, and Alica Fox) against team B.A.D. and Blond (Lana, Naomi, Tamina, Summer Rae, and Emma).  Personally, I never thought team B.A.D stood a chance, but it would have been nice to see Emma and even Lana get a win here.  But no, they're promoting their horrible show that I wouldn't watch if you paid me.  And you don't have the kind of money to pay me.  Anyway, I just want to go on record and say that Lana's kick that she landed on I think Brie was flawless.  I want her legs.  Like, who did she sell her soul to in order to get legs like that.  She looked gorgeous.  They all looked gorgeous.  But team Bella went over.

The Dudley's vs. the Uso's was boring.  Don't really care about either team.  Uso's won, got a beat down, then put the Dudley's through the table.

One of my favorite matches of the night was the first up on the actual card and that was the ladder match for the intercontinental title.  Zack Ryder, Stardust, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Sin Cara, and the Miz.  Some of the guys in this match took some hard bumps that hurt me to even watch.  I'll admit that I was pretty sure that Sami Zayn was going to win that belt.  I just thought it was the logical conclusion to having him take it from Kevin.  However, they got me.  Zack Ryder?  And then his dad ran into the ring for a really beautiful moment.  Good for Zack.  But it only makes sense that they took it off him the next night and gave it back to Kevin Owens.  Wait.  That's not what happened.  The Miz won it.  What?  Why?  Ugh!

Then there was AJ vs. Y2J.  Again, I just knew that AJ was going to win, and lo and behold, HE DID NOT?  But it all goes back to what Scott Hall said about Sting:  Vince will never get behind someone he didn't create.  And they kind of owed Jericho one after the "Fandango Incident".  I think this was crap, however, AJ did win the following night to become the number 1 contender for the world title.  If they're going to turn Reigns heel, it's best to turn him against AJ than Dean.

I'm going to get the order mixed up, but I'm calling them as I remember them.

The Women's Belt was changed!  (YAY!)  It looks more in line with the man's championship belt but it's red (could be pink but it looked red).  Anything is better than the fucking butterfly.  Anyway, Sasha comes to the ring with her uncle Snoop.  Becky comes out...by herself.  And Charlotte has the Nature Boy.  Snoop should have at least stood ringside and tried to foil some of Flair's shenanigans.  I hated how this match ended because it felt like it should have been Sasha's moment.  But Flair is real tight with HHH and I could see him pitching this.  Especially after the stuff with Reid Flair last year.  It would have been a way to make nice.  I don't think she keeps it until Summer Slam, though.  I would also be ok with Becky taking it between now and then.  A transitional champ, but I think once you get it on Sasha it will be hard to get it off of her until Bayley shows up.

New Day vs. The Lads.  When I saw Xavier I immediately thought of Guku from Dragon Ball Z.  His hair was amazing.  But the Lads going over the New Day was eh.  And they didn't even defend the titles!  But the highlight of this was after the match.  When HBK's music hit, I jumped up from my seat.  Then Foley, and then the glass broke for the Rattlesnake Stone Cold.  I felt like I was in my teens again and the greatest thing to ever happened had just happened.  It was amazing.  Shawn can still deliver sweet chin music better than anyone (Dolph).  But when Austin started dancing I knew Xavier was getting a Stunner.  Nothing good comes from Austin dancing.

Battle Royal - why was Shaq there.  Was that really a match we needed?  However, I do love that Baron Corbin won.  He's the perfect person for that as it builds him up.  Feed him some jobbers and then let him take on someone like Kalisto for the U.S. belt.

Then we had the Rock's segment with the Wyatt's where he had a 6 second match with Rowan and Cena returned to break it up.  I love the Rock, but I feel like the Wyatt's could have done with an actual match.

The first of the three main events, Brock vs. Ambrose was a let down.  I don't know why this match was so short, but it looked like it could have gone longer.  Ambrose sold the beating.  But it was unrealistic that no one was bleeding.  Otherwise they would have interrupted it every ten seconds like they did Samoa Joe and Finn Balor -- which pissed me the fuck off.  I feel like this match could have been more violent.  As it was, Shane vs. Undertaker was more violent.

And speaking of Shane vs. Taker - the match was slow, but once it got outside the ring, those guys delivered.  Especially Shane.  What you give to this company that belongs to your family is amazing and I only hope that they appreciate it.  I love the little pat on the cheek that Taker gave to Shane before he tombstoned him in the middle of the ring.  It was like "Good job, kid."

Then there was the main event.  I really thought that the Rock was going to interfere, but that didn't happen.  Instead, we got a pretty basic match, the crowd booed Roman (and I feel bad for him at this point.  He delivers. He puts on good matches.  I just don't really understand why people dislike him so much).  When he speared Stephanie, they cheered him a little because people like seeing her suffer.  But he pinned HHH in the center of the ring clean.