I want to begin this edition by thanking my fellow UK fans for putting on a show on this weeks Monday Night Raw. The crowd were entertaining, loud, and outright excited to be there, which is something we need more of in the WWE. It shows how much passion we have as wrestling fans, and we want to see more of it.
I want to talk out about the current situation in the WWE. They promised a major announcement about the WWE World Heavyweight Championship this week on Monday Night Raw, however, the announcement was Stephanie giving Daniel Bryan an ultimatum, informing him to either relinquish the title himself, or be stripped.
It felt like they didn’t want to make the announcement overseas on a taped episode of Raw, so they needed something to prolong the major announcement. Hopefully they decide what will happen on Raw, and I hope for Bryan’s sake, that he vacates the title and takes however long it takes to heal completely. A neck injury is a serious injury, and nobody should ever be rushed back to anything which could potentially disable them for life, or worse.
Bray Wyatt has done an exceptional job at getting fans behind him, and rather ironically, the guy who has helped him the most is John Cena. The hatred for Cena from a lot of the older fans, and the fact Cena is booked to go over Wyatt over and over again, helps Bray Wyatt get noticed more than anything, and the WWE is using the hate on Cena to further his career. John Cena defeating Wyatt over and over is just pushing more fans towards Wyatt, however on the other side of the spectrum, those who love Cena are tired of Bray Wyatt messing with their hero, so they boo him.
I stated a couple of weeks ago that I would like to see Wyatt go over Cena without the use of interference, a singing child, or any other hijinks. After seeing how crazy my fellow UK fans were for Wyatt, and how much they disrespected Cena, I feel the booking is working as intended.
Paul Heyman. What a legend. The UK fans love Heyman, and he loves them too. He loves them so much that he cut a promo belittling everybody, while also getting his point across that Brock Lesnar conquered the streak. Heyman is one of only a handful guys that can make me laugh everytime he gets a microphone. Cesaro going over Sheamus made a lot of sense, push Cesaro as a dominant force with Heyman while also setting up more hints of a Sheamus heel turn.
Raw showed how far down the pecking order Ryback is. Once a main eventer fighting for the WWE title, now losing to Big E in five minutes. Someone had to make Big E look good again after his terrible run lately.
What about Summer Rae! Wow, where did that come from? That has to be the coolest thing she has done since debuting, the crowd went nuts when she attacked Layla.
Disappointed at the severe misuse of Drew McIntyre once again. Why have Heath Slater fight Rusev when they could’ve had Drew fight him and give him something to work with? I don’t know, either way … we got to see Lana again. Which was nice.
One thing I really enjoyed about Raw was the emphasis on the Intercontinental Championship. Three matches to decide the number one contender, and we all knew Bad News Barrett was coming, and we all knew he would get one of the biggest pops of the night. They used Barrett absolutely right, have him ambush and take down RVD in a typical cool heel fashion, and the crowd loved it.
Bad News Barrett is technically the most important champion in the WWE right now while the WWE World title situation continues. It’s funny how it took the death of The Ultimate Warrior to make the WWE realise they can use the Intercontinental title to get guys over,.
Evolution vs The Shield. It’s definitely the main event of the show week in week out, and it’s continuing to escalate. Even before Daniel Bryan’s injury, this war was knocking on the door of the main event slot over the World title, but with Bryan’s injury, they have had more time to build on this. Expect many huge matches between the two stables in the upcoming PPV.
Paige losing to Alicia Fox? Now if someone had told me that before then I wouldn’t have understood it, but after thinking about it for a while, it makes sense. Alicia Fox did a good job at getting noticed with her outburst (when she stole JBLs hat) and they needed to continue that to make Fox look like a threat to her title. Not only that, but the UK fans would have expected Paige to win, and with her losing, it tells us UK fans that we can’t expect our wrestlers to win on home soil, even a young 21 year old who has dominated in recent months. I also feel they didn’t want to give Paige the homecoming victory yet, it will give Paige something to hope for in the future, and will keep her motivated to do better.
I was happy to see Henry back, however the match ended up with no purpose. It was one of the worst returns for Mark Henry I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot), while also giving Dolph Ziggler something to do for the evening. It’s sad to see someone of Ziggler’s talent struggle, but they need to find something else to get him over with the fans, the show off gimmick isn’t cutting it anymore.
The UK fans may have helped the image of Adam Rose a whole lot. We like to party, we like to drink, we like to have a fun time, so we can relate to Adam Rose. He may be a big hit in the UK, but he has to go back to America now and see if he can get the kind of support he did on Raw.
The main event was average. The crowd were anti-Cena, and the match wasn’t amazing aside from Luke Harper performing a hurricanrana. The show ended as it started, and it could have ended a whole lot better. We have seen this ending one too many times lately, and it doesn’t matter how many times they ambush Cena, he will come back and defeat The Wyatt Family over and over again.
The WWE is in a transitional period, and you can see the new stars forming, but will they shine bright enough to get over on a huge scale? That remains to be seen. Daniel Bryan, the brightest new star, will be out of action for a while, and when he returns, you can bet the crowd will pop loudly, they will chant, they will want to see him back at the top where he belongs. The biggest question is, who will keep the belts warm until he returns? That is my big question for this edition.
Who will be the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion?
