BRM Reviews the 3/25/2013 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- not good. Punk’s promo was great… but as great as it was, it didn’t do anything to make me think he has a shot at breaking The Streak, and Taker showing up and getting the best of Punk did nothing to help that either.

JERICHO JUMPS FANDANGO- yeah, if you going are going to have a match scheduled, it’s a good idea to have a referee in the vicinity of the ring when the match is supposed to start. Otherwise, we got the nobody getting his butt kicked by Jericho. This does nothing to make me think Fandango has a chance of winning at Wrestlemania (where we will later learn he will face Jericho).

CHRIS JERICHO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/AJ Lee & Big E Langston)- 5/10
Who the hell is booking this show? Jericho already beat up the complete and total nobody he is facing at Wrestlemania! Why the hell would you have him beat the guy who will be challenging for the tag team titles? We don’t need Big E to jump someone after a match to tell us that he is a threat.

FANDANGO JUMPS JERICHO- well, at least we know that Fandango can beat up someone who has already been beaten up in the past ninety seconds, so there’s that. Seriously. Which idiot thought this feud was a good idea? That person should be flogged.

THE SHIELD JUMPS SHEAMUS, BIG SHOW MAKES THE SAVE (also, Randy Orton was there)- good stuff. This is the only feud that is being booked competently.

HANDICAP MATCH: Mark Henry vs. The Usos- DUD!
The Usos got WAY too much offense in here. The purpose of doing a handicap match is to have Henry prove that he can also do the thing that Ryback is known for doing, but Henry took a lot more offense than Ryback ever did, making Henry look weaker.

ANTONIO CESARO vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 4/10
Cesaro is such an afterthought in WWE’s booking process right now that it is ridiculous. Even when they give him a win (even though it is by count-out and he didn’t do anything to earn it), they still have him get his ass kicked afterwards. Why have him keep the belt if he is just going to keep losing? The stuff with Swagger attacking Ricardo and Del Rio brawling with him was good build to Mania, though.

TEAM HELL NO vs. THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS- 4/10
Dolph, Big E, & AJ watched the match from the stage.

TRIPLE H PROMO- okay. If the thing with Barrett leads to something then it will be good, but I doubt it will, in which case it is just pointless.

THE MIZ vs. WADE BARRETT- 6.5/10
GRR! I hate it when people try to sell an Inverted Atomic Drop as a low blow! It isn’t!
The match was very good, but Miz should have worked over Barrett’s leg more.

DRAGON, KANE, & KAITLYN BACKSTAGE- Kane & Dragon arguing was just stupid, but I liked Kaitlyn’s role a lot. She would be a great choice to put at ringside with the babyfaces to prevent AJ from getting involved. The stuff with AJ & Kaitlyn was good (although Kane & Dragon just standing there watching the beatdown in the beginning was awkward), and I think that Kaitlyn may have legitimately hit her head on that water fountain. That looked like it hurt!

THE SHIELD vs. ZACK RYDER, JUSTIN GABRIEL, & THE GREAT KHALI- pointless squash. Taking Khali down was supposed to make the Shield look like badasses, but Khali has pretty much been relegated to jobber status and we have already seen the Shield dismantle Ryback. The stuff with Orton, Sheamus, and Big Show was good, but I would have saved it for Smackdown or for next week’s Raw.

CHRIS JERICHO PROMO- good

TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS (w/the Bella Twins) vs. BRODUS CLAY & TENSAI (w/the Funkadactyls)- 3/10
The whole point of this match was to have another completely forced-looking fight between the Bellas and the Funkadactyls.

HANDICAP MATCH: 3 Man Band vs. Ryback- eh segment.

AJ LEE vs. KAITLYN- DUD!
This was entirely pointless. You already had these two get physically involved this week. All you need to do is have a singles match between either Big E. or Ziggler and Kane or Dragon next week, and, after AJ trips one of the babyfaces up, have Kaitlyn come out to ringside and brawl with AJ. If they have a match now, there is no point in doing this.


ROCK, CENA, & WWE LEGENDS SEGMENT- This was a monstrous waste of time, and it is quite clear to everyone that the only reason they are doing this is because Rocky is too lazy to wrestle a match, so instead, the only build-up we get to the big WWE Title match between The Rock and John Cena at Wrestlemania is redundant promo segments.
Cena was great here. Rock was okay (until he started quoting Flair, and then he got good). I did think that Rock laying Cena out was the right way to go here, but I’m not exactly sure why.

Overall, a bad episode of Raw. The booking to build towards this PPV has just been horrendous.

[cero2k]

ROCK, CENA, & WWE LEGENDS SEGMENT- This was a monstrous waste of time, and it is quite clear to everyone that the only reason they are doing this is because Rocky is too lazy to wrestle a match, so instead, the only build-up we get to the big WWE Title match between The Rock and John Cena at Wrestlemania is redundant promo segments.
Cena was great here. Rock was okay (until he started quoting Flair, and then he got good). I did think that Rock laying Cena out was the right way to go here, but I’m not exactly sure why.
.

for the first time since WM28 i am interested in the cena/rock match, and it was because of this segment.

I loved the stuff with Jericho and Fandango, i wasn't sure what to think of that feud, but now i'm really interested in watching that WM match