BRM Reviews the 7/7/2014 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

The little hype blurb for tonight's Raw on my TV guide is "how will Triple H & Stephanie McMahon react to Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose's defiance?" Apparently the answer is "they will take a vacation."

OPENING SEGMENT-
The show opened with Roman Reigns coming out to the ring. The hashtag were are supposed to use to talk about this was "Roman is Raw." If Roman is Raw and Raw is Jericho, then therefore, according to the transitive property, Roman is Jericho.
Reigns has changed his chest-protector thing. It looks ugly as hell.
Reigns cut a good promo saying he would take out Kane, Orton, and Cena, at Battleground and win the title. Kane came out, and Reigns called him "Randy Orton's b*tch." They brawled. It was cool. Refs came out to break it up but Kane attacked them. The the road agents came out to break it up (the only two I recognized for sure were Finlay and Jamie Noble, who I popped HUGE for [they were also the two closest to the camera] and I think IRS was also there). Cole identified them as "more senior officials." I actually liked this, as it always bothered me in TNA when they would call them "agents," because, in kayfabe terms, what does that actually mean? On the other hand, I think it would have been better to identify them by name because Reigns sent Noble flying and gave Finlay a HUGE spear, and actually naming them would have made this mean more to newer fans.
Speaking of making things mean more, when was the last time we saw the agents have to come out and break up a brawl in WWE? In TNA it used to happen on a weekly basis. Because WWE never does it, this felt bigger than it otherwise would have. Reigns wound up getting the better of Kane.

THE USOS vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan)- 7/10
After ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR, Jerry Lawler finally gets around to asking how it is that the Wyatts just teleport to the middle of the ring. Of course, if there isn't going to be an answer, then bringing it up in the first place is a mistake that Lawler should know not to make.
Great match again from these two. The Usos lose clean... kind of. The Uso who didn't get pinned claimed that he was the legal man, but it just came off like he was whining. To make matters worse, the purpose of this was to build up to a tag title match, which we will get either way... so that whole legal man controversy was totally unnecessary.

KANE & ORTON BACKSTAGE- good.
They didn't exactly tease dissension because they didn't call it out but you could see that maybe Kane wanted to win the title for himself. Then Rollins showed up and was kind of a dick, while claiming that it was important for them to all stick together.

BOTH WOMEN WILL HAVE ONE ARM TIED BEHIND THEIR BACKS: Nikki Bella vs. Alicia Fox- no rating.
Nikki gets tied first. Fox jumps her, beats her up, then grabs some cans of Red Bull (or something similar) from under the ring and did Austin's beer gimmick... but not even close to as well... but that was all part of the fun. The crowd seemed to react to this well, and actually chanted "BULLSH*T" when Fox jumped Nikki.

LANA PROMO- She didn't even get more than one line out before RVD interrupted her.

ROB VAN DAM vs. ALEXANDER RUSEV (w/Lana)- 5/10
We got an in-set promo Zen on Rusev... IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS MATCH. Way to bury the match, dumbasses!
The in-set promo did announce Swagger vs. Rusev for Battleground.
Someone brought a sign for Sylverster Lefort. Or at least I assume it was for Lefort. Something starting with Le and ending in rt was written in the tri-colour pattern... but I couldn't read the middle part BECAUSE IT WAS WHITE WRITING ON A WHITE BACKGROUND!

DEAN AMBROSE vs. RANDY ORTON- 7.25/10
Ambrose is in street clothes again. Maybe Rollins stole all of his gear after the turn?
They had a great match and were given A LOT of time. Most surprisingly, we also got a clean finish.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS JOHN CENA- good Then Roman Reigns showed up and they exchanged words.

ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER- 6.75/10
This match was signed because both of these guys are in the IC Title battle royale at Battleground.
Fandango was on commentary and told us that he, too, would be in the IC Title battle royale. The match was going great until Fandango ruined it by interfering. Then Cole told us that as a result of this, Del Rio would get a shot at the US Title. Since when was that a stip for this match?
Then Fandango stood on the announce table and danced for entirely too long while nothing else was going on.

STARDUST BACKSTAGE- weird. Then Goldust showed u. I hate this. Are they TRYING to kill Cody? That's the only reason I can possibly come up with for this crap.

FANDANGO & LAYLA BACKSTAGE- Layla thinks that Fandango screwing over Dolph is related to Summer kissing Dolph and Fandango somehow being jealous. I guess she just hasn't been a heel before. They made out while Summer Rae watched them creepily while posing sexily.

BRET HART PROMO-
Bret Hart says that if he could have one more match, it would be in Montreal in front of the greatest fans in the world. You said the same thing about New York at ROH Glory By Honor VIII, and then went and had a match in Phoenix six months later, asshole! (Yes, I am irrationally sore about that).
Bret came off as kind of lame and cheesy here, but the crowd at it all up. Then Damien Sandow came out dressed as Bret. He claims that he has one major regret... and it isn't the fact that "I tapped out to my own submission hold to to my idol Shawn Michaels right here in this building" (you can imagine the reaction that got). He said "I was so embarrassed that I claimed that it was an elaborate screwjob that all of you bought into." His real regret was that he was "proud to be from a third-world country like Canada."
He then told Bret "I know that talking has never been your strong-suit." Bret cut him off by punching him in the face, then grabbed the mic and said "No. Punching was." FANTASTIC!
Then Sheamus randomly showed up to fist-bump Bret. That was weird.

Oh. Apparently Sheamus and Sandow are facing off next.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. SHEAMUS- 1/10

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE MIZ- he cuts her off before she can ask her question, and instead read a letter written by his biggest fan, talking about how "part of me died inside" when Jericho attacked Miz last week. The name of his biggest fan sounded a lot like "Jon Uso," so there must be some sort of rib going on here.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. THE MIZ- 6/10
HUGE pop for Jericho as expected. Miz is apparently now doing the "not in the face" gimmick.
Apparently the name of Miz's biggest fan is "Johnny Russo," and he is a young boy. MIZ & JOHNNY RUSSO vs. CHRIS JERICHO & ANGRY MIZ GIRL! Book it, Hunter!

After the match, Bray Wyatt showed up in his rocking chair and cut a GREAT promo. Jericho responded with a good old-fashioned "would you PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP?!" and threatened to beat Bray up. Then Rowan and Harper teleported to Bray's side. WHY NOT JUST HAVE THEM WALK OUT TO THE RING?!
We then cut a commercial, and when we came back...
Paige was coming out, with the Jericho stuff apparently forgotten.

AJ LEE & PAIGE vs. THE FUNKADACTYLS- DUD!
For some reason Paige decided to introduce AJ herself. This came off as horrendously.
Phantom bump on the first spot in. Not a good sign. The story of the match was the Cameron didn't want to tag in. Then, when she did (nowhere near the corner and clearly not holding the tag rope), she got pinned immediately. She and Naomi had a shoving match that devolved into a short hockey fight, with them grabbing each others' long hair instead of a jersey.

PAUL HEYMAN & CESARO PROMO- good heel stuff.
Paul started to do his schitk, but Cesaro interrupted him and said that you can't talk to these fans in English because they are French Candians. The crowd roared their approval. Then Cesaro puled the rug out from under them by saying that Quebecois isn't real French, and that both the rest of Canada and real French people can't stand them. He the said something in French that offended them.

KOFI KINGSTON vs. CESARO (w/Paul Heyman)- 4.25/10
Kofi's ribs are taped up as a result of last week's attack by Cesaro. Kofi tried for the same roll-up as last week, but Cesaro blocked it. Kofi managed to catch him with a different one, though. Cesaro attacked Kofi after the match again, but Big E. made the save.

CENA & ROLLINS BACKSTAGE- Rollins is a cocky dick (see what I did there?). Cena cut an okay promo on him.

BO DALLAS vs. EL TORITO (w/Diego)- no rating. Good segment. BO IS SUCH A DOUCHE!

JOHN CENA vs. SETH ROLLINS- 6.25/10
I was expecting more. Bad booking here, too. There was no reason for Cena to get the best of Rollins before doing this ambush with Kane and Orton. Reigns then came out and took out Orton and Kane, but Rollins then took him out with the MITB briefcase. Rollins tried to cash in, but Ambrose stopped him and they brawled away. Orton and Cena got up and Cena hit Orton with an AA. Kane then goozled Cena and was about to chokeslam him, but Reigns made the save by spearing Kane.
So basically HE EXACT SAME ENDING AS LAST WEEK'S SHOW

Overall, they really feel like they are in a holding pattern here, and nothing is going forward, which is pretty much what I expected for the three weeks between MITB and Battleground (and is a perfect example of why they should have moved MITB to July and cut Battleground altogether). If, for some reason, you need to be stuck like that creatively, the best thing yo can do is try to make sure that you give your wrestlers time to put on good matches and avoid BS finishes wherever possible so that you can use them in the place that you really need to stall hard, and that is what WWE did here. They made the most of a bad situation that it is entirely their fault that they are stuck in in the first place.

BEST SIGN OF THE NIGHT: "GDYJBL"

[cero2k]

Speaking of making things mean more, when was the last time we saw the agents have to come out and break up a brawl in WWE? In TNA it used to happen on a weekly basis. Because WWE never does it, this felt bigger than it otherwise would have. Reigns wound up getting the better of Kane.

maybe not lately, but they used to do it all the time a while back.

THE USOS vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan)- 7/10
After ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR, Jerry Lawler finally gets around to asking how it is that the Wyatts just teleport to the middle of the ring. Of course, if there isn't going to be an answer, then bringing it up in the first place is a mistake that Lawler should know not to make.
Great match again from these two. The Usos lose clean... kind of. The Uso who didn't get pinned claimed that he was the legal man, but it just came off like he was whining. To make matters worse, the purpose of this was to build up to a tag title match, which we will get either way... so that whole legal man controversy was totally unnecessary.

would you say the match didn't matter?

STARDUST BACKSTAGE- weird. Then Goldust showed u. I hate this. Are they TRYING to kill Cody? That's the only reason I can possibly come up with for this crap.

Ha! call the press! we agree on something!

CHRIS JERICHO vs. THE MIZ- 6/10
HUGE pop for Jericho as expected. Miz is apparently now doing the "not in the face" gimmick.
Apparently the name of Miz's biggest fan is "Johnny Russo," and he is a young boy. MIZ & JOHNNY RUSSO vs. CHRIS JERICHO & ANGRY MIZ GIRL! Book it, Hunter!

i guess we won't be getting any Breeze soon

Overall, they really feel like they are in a holding pattern here, and nothing is going forward, which is pretty much what I expected for the three weeks between MITB and Battleground (and is a perfect example of why they should have moved MITB to July and cut Battleground altogether).

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[Big Red Machine]

Speaking of making things mean more, when was the last time we saw the agents have to come out and break up a brawl in WWE? In TNA it used to happen on a weekly basis. Because WWE never does it, this felt bigger than it otherwise would have. Reigns wound up getting the better of Kane.

maybe not lately, but they used to do it all the time a while back.

Which just proves my point. They used to do it a lot. Then they stopped doing it for a while, and now that they come back and do it again ONCE, it matters so much more than it would have if they hadn't kept on doing it.

THE USOS vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan)- 7/10
After ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR, Jerry Lawler finally gets around to asking how it is that the Wyatts just teleport to the middle of the ring. Of course, if there isn't going to be an answer, then bringing it up in the first place is a mistake that Lawler should know not to make.
Great match again from these two. The Usos lose clean... kind of. The Uso who didn't get pinned claimed that he was the legal man, but it just came off like he was whining. To make matters worse, the purpose of this was to build up to a tag title match, which we will get either way... so that whole legal man controversy was totally unnecessary.

would you say the match didn't matter?

Not at all. The tag champs got pinned in a regular tag team match. It might have been exactly correct, but the Uso who got pinned also believed himself to be the legal man and couldn't kick out. Between this and last week's six man tag, Harper and Rowan should be in line for another title shot. In fact, they might even use this as a reason to make their next tag title match a Tornado match or something.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. THE MIZ- 6/10
HUGE pop for Jericho as expected. Miz is apparently now doing the "not in the face" gimmick.
Apparently the name of Miz's biggest fan is "Johnny Russo," and he is a young boy. MIZ & JOHNNY RUSSO vs. CHRIS JERICHO & ANGRY MIZ GIRL! Book it, Hunter!

i guess we won't be getting any Breeze soon

Yeah... but that's fine.