You can’t please everyone. When you run a three hour show, there’s going to be some stuff you dig and there’s going to be some stuff that’s the shits. Today, we’re going to start with the latter. Let’s take a look at what sucked on the second-to-last RAW before the biggest show of the year.
The Opening Segment
RAW kicks off with Stephanie McMahon coming out and addressing some of the things that went down on last week’s show as it relates to Daniel Bryan. She informed the fans that Bryan will not be on the show tonight (more on that later).
This leads to both Randy Orton and Batista coming out. Prior to their involvement in the segment, I was enjoying it. I think Stephanie is great as an irritating heel authority figure, and if nothing else, it was enjoyable to listen to hear try and do her promo while a very passionate Brooklyn audience crapped all over her. However, when Orton and Batista were added to the mix, you had microphone issues with Batista, you had people tripping over their words and you had some issues with people cutting each other off too much. It reminded me of the show “The View,” where all those crazy broads can’t stop babbling over each other to let anyone make a point.
Oh yeah, and Batista tore the hell out of his jeans during all of this. Whoops!
The Decline Of Damien Sandow
Who did Damien Sandow piss off? My goodness! Right there is a character that could be utilized much better, and has basically been pushed so far down the card compared to where he once was that he almost doesn’t exist. He’s never part of anything meaningful these days, just a quick filler spot here or there — if that.
On Monday night, Sandow’s role was to be a guy in the ring while Scooby-Doo ran around at ringside for a couple of minutes so WWE could promote their new “Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery” animated film. Sin Cara beats Sandow within two minutes or so, and that’s the extent of his involvement this week. Ouch.
Los Matadores Over Ryback & Curtis Axel?!
So WWE pulls Ryback and Curtis Axel from the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal to instead add them to the WWE Tag-Team Championship match at WrestleMania XXX. Okay, I’m fine with that. If that’s the case, however, why are they losing to Los Matadores on television two weeks before the show?
Granted, the point of this segment seemed to be about The Shield, not “RybAxel,” but certainly there are other tag-teams that could have filled that spot.
“But Boone, they were following up the beef from SmackDown.” Yeah, I know, but again, why was that even done in the first place if you want Ryback and Curtis Axel strong as believable contenders for the tag straps?
I’m not a big fan of even-Steven booking just for the sake of even-Steven booking. If there’s a purpose, by all means, have at it. This just seemed retarded to me.
What Happened To Titus O’Neil’s Singles Run?
Didn’t Titus O’Neil turn on Darren Young and set himself up for a run as a heel singles competitor? Boy oh boy that lasted long. He might as well join Brodus Clay in the “ehh, nevermind” list of dropped heel turns.
It seems to be that Big Show just needed a victory on television to set up a pointless match with Bray Wyatt on SmackDown this week. Yawn.
It’s kind of a shame. I personally feel O’Neil has some great potential with his look, size and believe it or not, I believe the cat can cut a pretty decent little promo.
Anyone ever see the film, “A Bronx Tale?” There’s nothing worse than wasted talent.
The WWE Divas Division
Why can’t they just build a solid personal issue between two Divas to set up a traditional one-on-one title match at WrestleMania? I already know the answer. They have this show called Total Divas that’s doing pretty good for them over at E!, so that takes precedent over actual story telling for their core product. After all, last year the Divas match was dropped from WrestleMania, so there was no payoff on the Total Divas side of things. The solution this year seems to be to just jam every Diva on the roster into a big cluster-fuck of a match to ensure there’s some footage for the next season of Total Divas.
At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s a popcorn break match, which is likely what it would have been had they gone the traditional route anyways. As long as that’s the case, screw it, get something going for Total Divas.
No More Issues Between The Real Americans
Am I the only one who’s kind of bummed that they dropped their plans to break up The Real Americans and feud Cesaro and Jack Swagger against one-another? I felt that was a perfect little program for these guys heading into WrestleMania, and would serve as the launching pad for Cesaro’s singles run.
The more I think about it, however, I feel that maybe it’s best that they started-and-stopped on this one. In my opinion, it would get lost in the shuffle going into WrestleMania, which could potentially result in them giving up on Cesaro the way they have with Damien Sandow, Brodus Clay, Titus O’Neil, etc.
It’s obviously going to happen eventually anyway, so maybe’s it’s best that they save it for after WrestleMania when they aren’t guaranteed to get lost in the shuffle with so many other more important stories going on at once.
Closing Notes
What did you guys think sucked on this week’s RAW? Would some of the things I mentioned above be part of your “RAW Positives” column, if you were to write one that is, or would they also be included in your “RAW Negatives” piece? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section directly below.
Also, if anyone is interested in writing editorials here at eWrestlingNews.com, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected], or hit me up directly at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR.
I’ll be back later with my “RAW Positives” column, where I’ll break down some of the good things that came out of this week’s show. Until then, take care!
