BRM Reviews the 6/30/2014 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- the Authority put over Rollins and Cena. Steph gaffes by saying that Rollins beat six guys instead of five. Surprisingly, there were no "you can't count!" chants. Cena comes out and makes sure to tell everyone that despite what the Authority wants, he will make sure that Bryan gets a title shot when he returns from his injury. Steph announces that Cena will be on the cover of this year's WWE video game. She then tries to dance to Cena's music, which was hilarious.
Cena calls them out for being insincere because they wanted Orton to win last night. Hunter tries to talk hip-hop, which was almost as good as Steph dancing. Cena threatens to kick Hunter's ass. We get a "you can do things the easy way or the hard way." Cena chooses the hard way, so Hunter books him to defend the world title in a fatal four way match at Battleground against Orton, Kane, Reigns. He also books Cena Reigns vs. Kane & Orton for tonight. Cena makes fun of Steph for getting pushed into a pool of crap. As Cena heads to the back, Hunter tells him that if he retains at Battleground, "there is always a plan B." Rollins then comes out and walks right past Cena to stand in the ring with Hunter & Steph, who raise his arms in victory.

ROB VAN DAM vs. SETH ROLLINS- 7/10
GREAT match for the time it got. Rob worked over Rollins' back and Rollins' worked on RVD's leg. Tons of great stuff here, including an AWESOME bucklebomb counter.

RENEE YOUNG TRIES TO INTERVIEW SETH ROLLINS- GREAT!
Rollins gets unhappy that Renee didn't introduce him as "Mr. Money in the Bank," so he just cuts his own promo (which was great) and doesn't let her ask any of her questions. Awesome heel stuff. He also called Renee "toots," which is the best thing a heel can ever call a female interviewer because of how insultingly dismissive it is. Dean Ambrose then appeared on the TitanTron and cut an AMAZING promo saying that he would screw Rollins over every time he tried to cash in MITB.
"I'm not even upset about what happened at Money in the Bank, because it might be more fun this way. Every time you even think about cashing in that contract, I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna haunt you. So go ahead and make all the plans you want because that briefcase you're holding doesn't have a contract inside; it's loaded with TNT... and every time you try and cash it in, it's gonna blow up in your face, Seth!"
Promo of the Year?

Okay... if Rusev is going to wave that flag, someone really needs to give him some flag-waving lessons.
LAMA PROMO- GREAT!
And then it happened. The moment we've all been waiting for: ZEB COULTER & JACK SWAGGER STEPPED UP TO DEFEND THE USA! This was totally awesome!


THE WYATT FAMILY vs. THE USOS & SHEAMUS- 7/10
GREAT tag team match.

NIKKI & STEPH BACKSTAGE- Steph is a jerk and books Nikki into a handicap match against the Funkadactyls next.

Cole informs us that tonight there will be the return of a former WWE Champion and multi-media superstar. WHY IS THIS THE FIRST WE ARE HEARING OF THIS?!

Jerry Lawler says that Bo's moment of silence to honor two injured competitors is "boring." WHAT AN ASSHOLE!

HANDICAP MATCH: Nikki Bella vs. The Funkadactyls- no rating, eh segment.
I think they got the finish wrong here. Having the Funkadactyls argue because Cameron wanted to get the pin doesn't seem like the right move for this feud. It would have been a lot better if Cameron got the pin and started with a WAY over the top celebration and Naomi yelled at her for celebrating like that when all they did was beat up their friend in an unfair fight.

IC TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT- Wade is injured so the belt will be vacated. There will be a battle royale at Battleground to crown a new champ. Paul Heyman comes out and is a jerk about it. He also says that Cesaro is the favorite in the IC TItle battle royale because he won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale.

KOFI KINGSTON vs. CESARO (w/Paul Heyman)- can't rate because I don't know the finish...
That being said, I like the idea of a match actually ending during a commercial. It just shouldn't have included guys this high on the card and it is disappointing that it was such a good match. Cesaro jumped Kofi after the match, even doing the Dragon-Nigel ringpost spot (exceptt o the shoulder, so hopefully there won't be any concussions.

SANTINO & ADAM ROSE- kill me now.
Now Adam Rose and pals are shilling beverages.

"VINCE MCMAHON SHOWS UP- It's really Sandow. He sucks at the power-walk. He drops some big names. Hogan got NO POP AT ALL. Triple H's wasn't much bigger than that. Sandow enters himself into the IC Title battle royale. Why not put your self in the world title match?
Steph shows up onthe tron and yells at him, then books him against Khali, who will also be in the battle royale. If she is so pissed at Sandow, why is she letting him be in the battle royale?

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. THE GREAT KHALI- at least it was only one move long.

WHO IS THE RETURNING CHAMPION- It's The Miz. I honestly feel trolled here. Anyway, Miz cut sa very good heel promo while also putting over WWE and the businessas a whole....
AND SPEAKING OF TROLLING!


BREAK THE WALLS DOWN!

Jericho shows up. Miz brags. Jericho gives him a Codebreaker, then starts to cut a babyface promo when he is interrupted by the Wyatts, who beat him up. Michael Cole declares that "Y2J has become Wyatt2J." I might well sue him for pain and suffering.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. FANDANGO (w/Layla El)- no rating. Bad segment.
The purpose of this was so Summer Rae could come out and make out with Dolph. This apparently made Fandango jealous, so Dolph to the opportunity to jump him from behind like a coward and get the win.

ZIGGLER VS. CESASRO ON MAIN EVENT!

GOLDUST & STARDUST vs. CURTIS AXEL & RYBACK- 4/10
The announcers accidentally start referring to Goldust and Stardust as the "Dust-busters" which is a horrible name for the team, but an awesome name for their tag team finish.

PAIGE PROMO- not the best, but it kind of fits in with her charact-

AJ'S BACK!
WAIT! WHAT THE F*CK?! Paige became a cowardly heel out of nowhere!

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. AJ Lee- 0.5/10
Yeah... they just cut Paige's lady-balls off. They might as well have just gotten her a tattoo on her forehead that says "CARETAKER CHAMPION" and made her wear a sign around her neck that says "I only ever got the title because AJ wanted to go get married."

ROMAN REIGNS & JOHN CENA vs. RANDY ORTON & KANE- 5.75/10
Was going well until the DQ. Kane gave Cena a Tombstone Piledriver. This received chants of "ONE MORE TIME!"
Lawler says "everyone knows the history of neck injuries that John Cena has had." No we don't. I remember him having a bunch of shoulder and arm surgeries, but nothing on his neck. Cena is being attended to by doctors. Rollins comes out and wants to cash in MITB. For some reason the referees are reluctant. Don't they understand how MITB works? It's not UNFAIR or anything! This stupid crap by the referees awas their way of buying time so that the bell would not have rung yet by the time Ambrose showed up and jumped Rollins, so we got no cash-in, just like we KNEW would happen between Ambrose's promo and that fact that they ALWAYS tease this thing.
Then Reigns speared Kane, saving Cena from a chair shot and had a stare-down with Hunter.

A very good Raw, although the first two hours were stronger than the end.

[Chris Everlast]

AJ Lee is now the Juan Cena of the Divas.

[Bob-O]

AJ Lee is now the Juan Cena of the Divas.

Yes, BUT - I've got a feeling we're gonna get an AWESOME AJ/Alicia Fox feud going into Summerslam!

[WrestlingJoker]

The part with Paige and AJ Lee pissed me the f**k off.

[NWK2000]

If you people don't think that the AJ thing was set up to justify AJ/Paige at Battleground I'm afraid I have some bad news.

[Big Red Machine]

If you people don't think that the AJ thing was set up to justify AJ/Paige at Battleground I'm afraid I have some bad news.

That's irrelevant. There were SO MANY BETTER WAYS TO DO IT, all of which wouldn't have made Paige look like sh*t.

[Bob-O]

TBH, I was WAY more pissed about how Paige won the title than I am about how she lost it. Its bittersweet...

[Big Red Machine]

TBH, I was WAY more pissed about how Paige won the title than I am about how she lost it. Its bittersweet...

But the two of them combine to make her look like a chump.

[Bob-O]

But the two of them combine to make her look like a chump.

Absolutely, but that's OK.

Actually, the two combined make the whole division look like shit, but what a better way to get back to square one?

Look at it from the perspective of a fan that doesn't watch NXT...

Random emo chick shows up at random and dethrones the most dominant champion the Divas have seen in a long long time in a matter of seconds, runs roughshod over the division for a few months, "Paige" as she became to be called loses the belt back to the returning dominant champion in a matter of seconds.

What's that say about the rest of the division!? At least AJ got her rub back...

[Big Red Machine]

But the two of them combine to make her look like a chump.

Absolutely, but that's OK.

Actually, the two combined make the whole division look like shit, but what a better way to get back to square one?

Look at it from the perspective of a fan that doesn't watch NXT...

Random emo chick shows up at random and dethrones the most dominant champion the Divas have seen in a long long time in a matter of seconds, runs roughshod over the division for a few months, "Paige" as she became to be called loses the belt back to the returning dominant champion in a matter of seconds.

What's that say about the rest of the division!? At least AJ got her rub back...

I think they did a good job of building Paige up as a champ. Want to know how to build a division up? You get a strong champion and have people get wins in order to chase her and earn title shots. Undercard feuds help, too, and they have that now in Layla vs. Summer and the emerging Funkadactyls split.

What they did doesn't help anyone at all because AJ has already run through everyone. The only fresh matches AJ has are Emma and Tamina.

[cero2k]

OPENING SEGMENT- the Authority put over Rollins and Cena. Steph gaffes by saying that Rollins beat six guys instead of five. Surprisingly, there were no "you can't count!" chants. Cena comes out and makes sure to tell everyone that despite what the Authority wants, he will make sure that Bryan gets a title shot when he returns from his injury. Steph announces that Cena will be on the cover of this year's WWE video game. She then tries to dance to Cena's music, which was hilarious.
Cena calls them out for being insincere because they wanted Orton to win last night. Hunter tries to talk hip-hop, which was almost as good as Steph dancing. Cena threatens to kick Hunter's ass. We get a "you can do things the easy way or the hard way." Cena chooses the hard way, so Hunter books him to defend the world title in a fatal four way match at Battleground against Orton, Kane, Reigns. He also books Cena Reigns vs. Kane & Orton for tonight. Cena makes fun of Steph for getting pushed into a pool of crap. As Cena heads to the back, Hunter tells him that if he retains at Battleground, "there is always a plan B." Rollins then comes out and walks right past Cena to stand in the ring with Hunter & Steph, who raise his arms in victory.

so you're ok with the Authority giving Reigns a title shot? why would they give him a title shot if (1) they hate him (2) they didn't even wanted him in the MITB match (3) wasn't even close to winning last night

Okay... if Rusev is going to wave that flag, someone really needs to give him some flag-waving lessons.
LAMA PROMO- GREAT!
And then it happened. The moment we've all been waiting for: ZEB COULTER & JACK SWAGGER STEPPED UP TO DEFEND THE USA! This was totally awesome!

I was marking out until they came out, that was terrible executed, their music was cut, the promos while great, where not what we needed, there was some awkward silence between Colter coming out until they got to the ring. it was all weird.

Cole informs us that tonight there will be the return of a former WWE Champion and multi-media superstar. WHY IS THIS THE FIRST WE ARE HEARING OF THIS?!

it's not, it was announced since saturday or sunday, at least that's when i saw the tweet first.

Jerry Lawler says that Bo's moment of silence to honor two injured competitors is "boring." WHAT AN ASSHOLE!

i think they're building up for Bo vs Dragon when he returns

Steph shows up onthe tron and yells at him, then books him against Khali, who will also be in the battle royale. If she is so pissed at Sandow, why is she letting him be in the battle royale?

now you care? DOUBLE STANDARDS!! DOUBLE STANDARDS!!!

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. FANDANGO (w/Layla El)- no rating. Bad segment.
The purpose of this was so Summer Rae could come out and make out with Dolph. This apparently made Fandango jealous, so Dolph to the opportunity to jump him from behind like a coward and get the win.

attacking from behind is not a coward thing! it's a smart thing!

GOLDUST & STARDUST vs. CURTIS AXEL & RYBACK- 4/10
The announcers accidentally start referring to Goldust and Stardust as the "Dust-busters" which is a horrible name for the team, but an awesome name for their tag team finish.

so it's the perfect name for that tag team, cuz they're a horrible team.

PAIGE PROMO- not the best, but it kind of fits in with her charact-

AJ'S BACK!
WAIT! WHAT THE F*CK?! Paige became a cowardly heel out of nowhere!

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. AJ Lee- 0.5/10
Yeah... they just cut Paige's lady-balls off. They might as well have just gotten her a tattoo on her forehead that says "CARETAKER CHAMPION" and made her wear a sign around her neck that says "I only ever got the title because AJ wanted to go get married."

i think you got this wrong. AJ wasn't a cowardly heel, she was luring Paige in. And it was a double turn, this was one of the only segments in the show that i felt was done OK. And maybe it does seem like Paige was a placeholder, but she still won the Divas title on her debut, she still cemented herself as a strong contender against the rest of the divas, and most importantly, after how terribly she had been booked, losing the title is the best thing that can happen for her right now.

A very good Raw, although the first two hours were stronger than the end.

[/quote]
they had good plans, but terrible terrible execution of their ideas

[cero2k]

TBH, I was WAY more pissed about how Paige won the title than I am about how she lost it. Its bittersweet...

But the two of them combine to make her look like a chump.

how!? they're one upping each other! AJ lost because of a false sense of security, Paige lost to a roll up! they're 1-1

[Big Red Machine]

TBH, I was WAY more pissed about how Paige won the title than I am about how she lost it. Its bittersweet...

But the two of them combine to make her look like a chump.

how!? they're one upping each other! AJ lost because of a false sense of security, Paige lost to a roll up! they're 1-1

Paige shows up out of nowhere gets her kicked the whole match. Then she only wins because AJ underestimated her. AJ immediately disappears from TV. Then, the first thing that AJ does when she comes back is challenge Paige to a match right now, with no build at all. Paige is all of a sudden afraid to face her, and when she gives in and does it anyway, AJ beats her clean. Paige didn't underestimate AJ at all. She just got beaten clean.
The whole things just screams that Paige could only beat AJ by a fluke, and only got the title because AJ was going away. Now that AJ is back, Paige serves no purise, and thus they took the belt off of her.

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- the Authority put over Rollins and Cena. Steph gaffes by saying that Rollins beat six guys instead of five. Surprisingly, there were no "you can't count!" chants. Cena comes out and makes sure to tell everyone that despite what the Authority wants, he will make sure that Bryan gets a title shot when he returns from his injury. Steph announces that Cena will be on the cover of this year's WWE video game. She then tries to dance to Cena's music, which was hilarious.
Cena calls them out for being insincere because they wanted Orton to win last night. Hunter tries to talk hip-hop, which was almost as good as Steph dancing. Cena threatens to kick Hunter's ass. We get a "you can do things the easy way or the hard way." Cena chooses the hard way, so Hunter books him to defend the world title in a fatal four way match at Battleground against Orton, Kane, Reigns. He also books Cena Reigns vs. Kane & Orton for tonight. Cena makes fun of Steph for getting pushed into a pool of crap. As Cena heads to the back, Hunter tells him that if he retains at Battleground, "there is always a plan B." Rollins then comes out and walks right past Cena to stand in the ring with Hunter & Steph, who raise his arms in victory.

so you're ok with the Authority giving Reigns a title shot? why would they give him a title shot if (1) they hate him (2) they didn't even wanted him in the MITB match (3) wasn't even close to winning last night

This one, I will admit, just plain slipped by me. The only way it makes sense if they take him out of the match this week, and reveal that this whole thing was just a ruse to create dissension between Cena and Reigns for this match in order to make it easier to take them both out, but I don't see that happening.

Okay... if Rusev is going to wave that flag, someone really needs to give him some flag-waving lessons.
LAMA PROMO- GREAT!
And then it happened. The moment we've all been waiting for: ZEB COULTER & JACK SWAGGER STEPPED UP TO DEFEND THE USA! This was totally awesome!

I was marking out until they came out, that was terrible executed, their music was cut, the promos while great, where not what we needed, there was some awkward silence between Colter coming out until they got to the ring. it was all weird.

I didn't feel that at all.

Cole informs us that tonight there will be the return of a former WWE Champion and multi-media superstar. WHY IS THIS THE FIRST WE ARE HEARING OF THIS?!

it's not, it was announced since saturday or sunday, at least that's when i saw the tweet first.

Okay... but it should have been mentioned on the PPV... or a some point at the beginning of tonight's show for those of us without Twitters).

Jerry Lawler says that Bo's moment of silence to honor two injured competitors is "boring." WHAT AN ASSHOLE!

i think they're building up for Bo vs Dragon when he returns

It's not a bad first TV match back.

Steph shows up onthe tron and yells at him, then books him against Khali, who will also be in the battle royale. If she is so pissed at Sandow, why is she letting him be in the battle royale?

now you care? DOUBLE STANDARDS!! DOUBLE STANDARDS!!!

Same as above: I somehow just plain missed the Reigns things.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. FANDANGO (w/Layla El)- no rating. Bad segment.
The purpose of this was so Summer Rae could come out and make out with Dolph. This apparently made Fandango jealous, so Dolph to the opportunity to jump him from behind like a coward and get the win.

attacking from behind is not a coward thing! it's a smart thing!
It is cowardly when all factors are even, and either way, it is a heelish thing to do, and Dolph is a babyface.

GOLDUST & STARDUST vs. CURTIS AXEL & RYBACK- 4/10
The announcers accidentally start referring to Goldust and Stardust as the "Dust-busters" which is a horrible name for the team, but an awesome name for their tag team finish.

so it's the perfect name for that tag team, cuz they're a horrible team.

The team is fine. The idea is stupid.

PAIGE PROMO- not the best, but it kind of fits in with her charact-

AJ'S BACK!
WAIT! WHAT THE F*CK?! Paige became a cowardly heel out of nowhere!

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. AJ Lee- 0.5/10
Yeah... they just cut Paige's lady-balls off. They might as well have just gotten her a tattoo on her forehead that says "CARETAKER CHAMPION" and made her wear a sign around her neck that says "I only ever got the title because AJ wanted to go get married."

i think you got this wrong. AJ wasn't a cowardly heel, she was luring Paige in. And it was a double turn, this was one of the only segments in the show that i felt was done OK. And maybe it does seem like Paige was a placeholder, but she still won the Divas title on her debut, she still cemented herself as a strong contender against the rest of the divas, and most importantly, after how terribly she had been booked, losing the title is the best thing that can happen for her right now.

It wasn't AJ who was being cowardly. It was Paige who was being the cowardly heel. It was a double-turn that came out of nowhere. All of a sudden AJ was a babyface again (at least she admitted to her previous wrongdoings), and Paige, the young champion whose whole deal has been that she wants to prove that she belongs on the main roster and deserve to be Divas Champion... is all of a sudden trying to get out of a match? Where the hell did that come from?
Paige's title win i her debut sucked because she got her ass kicked all match and only won because AJ didn't take her seriously. Paige looked lke a fluke who got lucky and hit her big move. Since the she has been booked progressively stronger. The best thing for her would have been to build up to a title match with AJ at Battleground and then BEAT HER CLEAN and earn the newly-babyface AJ's respect.

[cero2k]

The whole things just screams that Paige could only beat AJ by a fluke, and only got the title because AJ was going away. Now that AJ is back, Paige serves no purise, and thus they took the belt off of her.

well, that's just backstage stuff, and by how Paige's run has been, it's probably the best thing to do.

It wasn't AJ who was being cowardly. It was Paige who was being the cowardly heel. It was a double-turn that came out of nowhere. All of a sudden AJ was a babyface again (at least she admitted to her previous wrongdoings), and Paige, the young champion whose whole deal has been that she wants to prove that she belongs on the main roster and deserve to be Divas Champion... is all of a sudden trying to get out of a match? Where the hell did that come from?

no, Paige didn't win because of a fluke, and AJ didn't win because she was better. Both their wins was because they're taking advantage of the situation, that's why both title changes were exactly the same, with the same promo, same match pretty much, they're both taking a chance of the situation, the only difference is that Paige wasn't looking for that match and AJ kinda did.

i didn't see it as the full double turn, and even if it was, it's cool, turns can happen out of nowhere too, and AJ said it best, the attitude came because she defeated everyone and it got to her head, exactly what Paige was starting to show with her short promo. And maybe Paige knows deep inside that her win was a fluke (again, nothing wrong with that, that's how heels win sometimes) and so she didn't want to face AJ right there.

The best thing for her would have been to build up to a title match with AJ at Battleground and then BEAT HER CLEAN and earn the newly-babyface AJ's respect.

that would be terrible, you would completely kill anywhere that the divas title could go. if AJ accepts that paige is better (1) your two top divas are now babyface and thus won't feud, and so there's no more contenders (2) makes AJ look weak as fuck, like just one of the other divas out there since she can't beat paige

[cero2k]

OPENING SEGMENT- the Authority put over Rollins and Cena. Steph gaffes by saying that Rollins beat six guys instead of five. Surprisingly, there were no "you can't count!" chants. Cena comes out and makes sure to tell everyone that despite what the Authority wants, he will make sure that Bryan gets a title shot when he returns from his injury. Steph announces that Cena will be on the cover of this year's WWE video game. She then tries to dance to Cena's music, which was hilarious.
Cena calls them out for being insincere because they wanted Orton to win last night. Hunter tries to talk hip-hop, which was almost as good as Steph dancing. Cena threatens to kick Hunter's ass. We get a "you can do things the easy way or the hard way." Cena chooses the hard way, so Hunter books him to defend the world title in a fatal four way match at Battleground against Orton, Kane, Reigns. He also books Cena Reigns vs. Kane & Orton for tonight. Cena makes fun of Steph for getting pushed into a pool of crap. As Cena heads to the back, Hunter tells him that if he retains at Battleground, "there is always a plan B." Rollins then comes out and walks right past Cena to stand in the ring with Hunter & Steph, who raise his arms in victory.

so you're ok with the Authority giving Reigns a title shot? why would they give him a title shot if (1) they hate him (2) they didn't even wanted him in the MITB match (3) wasn't even close to winning last night

This one, I will admit, just plain slipped by me. The only way it makes sense if they take him out of the match this week, and reveal that this whole thing was just a ruse to create dissension between Cena and Reigns for this match in order to make it easier to take them both out, but I don't see that happening.
.

WWE just covered their asses. 1:50 mark

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