BRM Reviews the 5/20/2013 Raw
Posted: May 22nd, '13, 09:11
RYBACK WANTS AN AMBULANCE MATCH WITH CENA- I’m not excited for this at all. Ambulance matches suck, and so did this promo. Early on, it seemed like Ryback was actually threatening to murder fans. Even worse, this was the wrong promo. Ryback should have been complaining that he got to his feet while Cena didn't, or that he put Cena out of action as a result of their match so he deserves the the title. A promo setting up an ambulance match should wait until next week. But we got this, and it was just an ugly, horribly scripted speech. An absolutely atrocious promo.
CHRIS JERICO & THE MIZ vs. WADE BARRETT & FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- DUD!
Wade Barrett’s new theme song has someone singing “G-d Save Our Queen” at the beginning… just in case you didn’t know he was British from the accent.
Fandango decides to dance instead of wrestle, then Jericho (yes, just Jericho, no double team moves involved) squashes the Intercontinental Champion. Then Jericho tags Miz in and he makes Barrett tap immediately with the Figure 4 despite their being no previous damage to Wade’s legs. Then Fandango runs off so Jericho embarrasses Summer Rae. Summer Rae’s facials were great, but otherwise this was a steaming pile of crap.
KOFI & HELL NO BACKSTAGE- decent
SHEAMUS vs. TITUS O’NEIL (w/Darren Young)- 5/10
I was quite pleasantly surprised that they let Titus look so competitive with a guy like Sheamus.
HEYMAN REVEALS HIS NEWEST CLIENT- Wow, Paul E. is REALLY building this up. This had better be good... OH SHIT IT'S MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY (under a different name), but I'm marking out because this can only mean awesome things for such a talented wrestler. Props to Paul E. for coming up with a reason why people should be excited about a guy who has spent a long time jobbing and for coming up with a kayfabe reason for why he is no longer going by Michael McGillicutty.
STUFF WITH TRIPLE H, HEYMAN, & AXEL- Hunter came off like a bully, but otherwise, this was great.
ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. BIG E LANGSTON (w/AJ Lee)- 5/10
Please give these guys more time because there was some awesome stuff in here.
AJ LEE vs. LAYLA EL- 2/10
Cole says that AJ's octopus hold finisher is new. LOL. She's been doing it forever.
CODY RHODES vs. ZACK RYDER- 3.25/10
About as well as they could have done with only three minutes. After the match Ryback attacks Ryder to send a message to Cena because those two are best buddies, even though they haven't been shown to be such in forever.
THE SHIELD PROMO- wait... Did they attack The Rock? Did I miss this? Great promo, though.
THE SHIELD vs. KOFI KINGSTON & TEAM HELL NO- 7.75/10
The announcers did a good job of putting over the idea that Dragon's confidence has been shaken and he is trying to prove that he isn't the weak link in Team Hell No, which I assume will be their new angle. Despite the way everyone was putting this over, they managed to suck me in enough that there was a point towards the end where I actually thought the Shield was going to lose!
TRIPLE H THREATENS TO FIRE HIS DOCTOR IF HE WON'T LET HIM COMPETE- good segment.
Uh-oh. Hunter's pride is getting the better of him. Do I smell a big upset coming here tonight?
SECRET ADMIRER SEGMENT- Kaitlyn now has her admirer's phone number (apparently he has no voice mail) and he says he is still too shy to tell her who he is. Nattie offers to have Khali try to find out who it is but Kaitlyn doesn't want Khali involved. The fact that she is actively trying to decrease Khali's TV time makes Kaitlyn my new hero. Also, the secret admirer is not Cody, but Cody enjoys posting self-shots on the internet.
RANDY ORTON vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter)- 7/10
Another great match.
TRIPLE H vs. CURTIS AXEL (w/Paul Heyman)- no rating, bad segment.
The idea was good, but I hated the execution. Most importantly, for this to help Axel, HE needed to be the one to do this. He needed to give Hunter a HUGE big boot or something, and have that be the visible start of Hunter's problems. The way they did this, it looks like it is more Brock's doing than Axel's. Secondly, Hunter got in WAY too much offense. Axel should have had a major advantage. Third, they just did an angle where a big match is stopped because someone can't compete anymore LAST NIGHT.
Overall a good episode of Raw in the ring, but it had it's problems outside of it.
CHRIS JERICO & THE MIZ vs. WADE BARRETT & FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- DUD!
Wade Barrett’s new theme song has someone singing “G-d Save Our Queen” at the beginning… just in case you didn’t know he was British from the accent.
Fandango decides to dance instead of wrestle, then Jericho (yes, just Jericho, no double team moves involved) squashes the Intercontinental Champion. Then Jericho tags Miz in and he makes Barrett tap immediately with the Figure 4 despite their being no previous damage to Wade’s legs. Then Fandango runs off so Jericho embarrasses Summer Rae. Summer Rae’s facials were great, but otherwise this was a steaming pile of crap.
KOFI & HELL NO BACKSTAGE- decent
SHEAMUS vs. TITUS O’NEIL (w/Darren Young)- 5/10
I was quite pleasantly surprised that they let Titus look so competitive with a guy like Sheamus.
HEYMAN REVEALS HIS NEWEST CLIENT- Wow, Paul E. is REALLY building this up. This had better be good... OH SHIT IT'S MICHAEL MCGILLICUTTY (under a different name), but I'm marking out because this can only mean awesome things for such a talented wrestler. Props to Paul E. for coming up with a reason why people should be excited about a guy who has spent a long time jobbing and for coming up with a kayfabe reason for why he is no longer going by Michael McGillicutty.
STUFF WITH TRIPLE H, HEYMAN, & AXEL- Hunter came off like a bully, but otherwise, this was great.
ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. BIG E LANGSTON (w/AJ Lee)- 5/10
Please give these guys more time because there was some awesome stuff in here.
AJ LEE vs. LAYLA EL- 2/10
Cole says that AJ's octopus hold finisher is new. LOL. She's been doing it forever.
CODY RHODES vs. ZACK RYDER- 3.25/10
About as well as they could have done with only three minutes. After the match Ryback attacks Ryder to send a message to Cena because those two are best buddies, even though they haven't been shown to be such in forever.
THE SHIELD PROMO- wait... Did they attack The Rock? Did I miss this? Great promo, though.
THE SHIELD vs. KOFI KINGSTON & TEAM HELL NO- 7.75/10
The announcers did a good job of putting over the idea that Dragon's confidence has been shaken and he is trying to prove that he isn't the weak link in Team Hell No, which I assume will be their new angle. Despite the way everyone was putting this over, they managed to suck me in enough that there was a point towards the end where I actually thought the Shield was going to lose!
TRIPLE H THREATENS TO FIRE HIS DOCTOR IF HE WON'T LET HIM COMPETE- good segment.
Uh-oh. Hunter's pride is getting the better of him. Do I smell a big upset coming here tonight?
SECRET ADMIRER SEGMENT- Kaitlyn now has her admirer's phone number (apparently he has no voice mail) and he says he is still too shy to tell her who he is. Nattie offers to have Khali try to find out who it is but Kaitlyn doesn't want Khali involved. The fact that she is actively trying to decrease Khali's TV time makes Kaitlyn my new hero. Also, the secret admirer is not Cody, but Cody enjoys posting self-shots on the internet.
RANDY ORTON vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter)- 7/10
Another great match.
TRIPLE H vs. CURTIS AXEL (w/Paul Heyman)- no rating, bad segment.
The idea was good, but I hated the execution. Most importantly, for this to help Axel, HE needed to be the one to do this. He needed to give Hunter a HUGE big boot or something, and have that be the visible start of Hunter's problems. The way they did this, it looks like it is more Brock's doing than Axel's. Secondly, Hunter got in WAY too much offense. Axel should have had a major advantage. Third, they just did an angle where a big match is stopped because someone can't compete anymore LAST NIGHT.
Overall a good episode of Raw in the ring, but it had it's problems outside of it.