OPENING SEGMENT- GREAT!
Dragon’s promo was nice quick, humorous exposition, and the way Orton’s presence suddenly changed the mood of everything was perfect! They then had a match which quickly ended in a double DQ when they spent too long brawling on the floor and totally ignored the ref. They kept going at it, though, and had to be separated by referees.

DRAGON & BRICKIE BACKSTAGE- eh. I thought Vickie and Maddox didn’t like each other. Shouldn’t Vickie have wanted Dragon to kick Maddox’s ass? Well… at least we’ll be getting Dragon and Orton again.

VINCE & BRICKIE BACKSTAGE- pointless.

SHEAMUS & CHRISTIAN vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS- DUD!
Christian is the babyface in peril until he makes the tag to Sheamus. Cody and Sandow then bump into each other while getting in/out of the ring after a tag (though it looked a lot more like Cody just shoved Sandow down), which makes them look dumb. Then Cody eats a Brogue Kick and gets pinned. Say what you will about the way they book Cena, but at least they don’t have him make up-and-coming talent look like chumps.

PUNK & VICKIE BACKSTAGE- good. Punk yelling “EXCUSE ME!” at Vickie got a great pop.

AKSANA vs. KAITLYN (w/Layla El)- DUD!
Layla is at ringside with Kaitlyn because she is apparently Kaitlyn’s new best friend and thus shows up in every segment with her (you know, like Nattie used to last month). AJ comes out in a goofy muscle suit dressed as Kaitlyn, but the distraction only gets Aksana a nearfall before Kaitlyn spears her.
After the match AJ and Big E. were horribly mean to Kaitlyn after the match (they were pretty funny, too). Kaitlyn wants to attack them, but Layla holds her back. Why? Why not let your friend go beat up her tormentor? Or even better… why not go help your friend beat up her tormentor?!
Anyway, I have no idea why they even wasted time with this match. All it did was make Aksana look weak (though with the way she has been booked her whole career, that’s par for the course). Why not just have AJ come out in costume and have her and Big E. mock Kaitlyn as a segment?

CHRIS JERICHO vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO (w/Ricardo Rodriguez)- 7/10
SON OF A B*TCH! That f*cking Ricardo Rodriguez ruined an awesome match! Then Ziggler jumps Del Rio and Jericho gives Ricardo what he deserves by feeding him a Codebreaker! Then Ziggler attacks Jericho as revenge for last week! LOVING IT!

HUNTER & BRICKIE BACKSTAGE- Oh. Okay. The purpose of Vince showing up before was so Triple H could show up and disagree with him. I will be very unhappy if every week on Raw we get four segments like last week to get this “McMahons are fighting” crap over.

VICKIE ASKS THE FANS WHAT TYPE OF MATCH THEY WANT TO SEE- I have to agree with JBL here. Vickie is asking the fans what type of match they want to see, and all they do is boo her? Come on!

THE ROCK WILL BE ON THE COVER OF WWE 2K14- how about someone who is actually on the active roster?

RYBACK vs. THE GREAT KHALI (w/Hornswoggle & Natalya)- 2/10

CENA PROMO- didn’t like it. I get what Cena is saying about Henry disrespecting the concept of a retirement speech, but I didn’t come across well to me.

WINNER BECOMES #1 CONTENDERS TO THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: The Usos vs. Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre (w/Heath Slater) vs. Tons of Funk (w/the Funkadactyls)- 3/10
How the hell did 3MB get this opportunity? When have they ever won a tag match (apparently the answer to that question is at the April 26th Saturday Morning Slam tapings. The last one before that was back in DECEMBER!)

PAUL HEYMAN & CM PUNK SEGMENT- GREAT!

CM PUNK vs. DARREN YOUNG (w/Titus O’Neil)- 4/10
Not sure why they waited the entire commercial break to start this match… but I didn’t think this match would go anywhere near as long as it did. Young even got a nearfall in!

AFTERMATCH- PTP jump CM Punk after the match… and Curtis Axel (w/Paul Heyman) comes out to make the save! Very interesting.

STEPH & VICKIE BACKSTAGE- Drat. I was right.
Steph shows up and criticizes Vickie for not having announced the participants for the WWE Title MITB match yet. So what? There are two and a half weeks before the PPV. That’s EIGHTEEN HOURS OF WWE PROGRAMMING (not counting NXT or Saturday Morning Slam, if Slam is even still on) to announce the participants in. How about having people compete in matches to earn this very important chance at what is practically a guaranteed WWE Title reign, rather than just announcing people.

STEPH ANNOUNCES THE PARTICPANTS IN THE WWE TITLE MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH-
Steph pulled a Hogan here. She forgot the all-important “Money in the Bank” part of the phrase “WWE Title Money in the Bank Ladder Match.” So Steph has actually just announced a seven way ladder match for the WWE Title. Makes her criticism of Vickie seem pretty silly, doesn’t it.

RYBACK, JERICHO, & BRICKIE BACKSTAGE- this started off with more of this lame “dissension between the GM and the assistant GM” that they had been doing on Smackdown before Booker’s surgery with no payoff at all. Then Ryback shows up and whines that a win over a giant jobber like Khali entitles him to a rematch against Cena. Jericho then airs his legitimate grievance that his recent performances against Del Rio (two DQ wins at times when it seemed like he would have won legitimately) deserve something, so Vickie throws them into a match with each other at MITB. I’m not sure how this solves any problems. There are still two and half weeks between now and then in which these two can just start complaining again because their demands haven’t been addressed in any way.

HEYMAN & PUNK BACKSTAGE- GREAT!
Punk is unhappy that Heyman sent Curtis Axel out to help him. Heyman then tells us that he went to Vickie and got her book PTP vs. Punk & Axel for next week (so Heyman can be at ringside for Punk’s match). Love it!

STREET FIGHT: Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan- 8.25/10
Awesome match!

Overall, the angles with Dragon, the World Heavyweight Title picture, and Punk were great, but everything else stunk hard.

SHEAMUS & CHRISTIAN vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS- DUD!
Christian is the babyface in peril until he makes the tag to Sheamus. Cody and Sandow then bump into each other while getting in/out of the ring after a tag (though it looked a lot more like Cody just shoved Sandow down), which makes them look dumb. Then Cody eats a Brogue Kick and gets pinned. Say what you will about the way they book Cena, but at least they don’t have him make up-and-coming talent look like chumps.

ya know, I think this will be the start of a Cody/Sandow feud; the two of them DEF HAVE to be in the SD! MITB match and this was a good way to further the dissension. I think a face Cody Rhodes is in order.

I don't think Sheamus has made Sandow look like a chump; and Cody Rhodes isn't an "up-and-coming" talent, he was there YEARS before Sheamus. I think this was much more about the miscommunication between Team Rhodes Scholars, than putting Sheamus over. I'm prepared to give WWE the benefit of the doubt at this point; they've actually used subtle things to begin feuds/splits/etc over the past two or three years. I have some faith in them....

badnewzxl wrote:

SHEAMUS & CHRISTIAN vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS- DUD!
Christian is the babyface in peril until he makes the tag to Sheamus. Cody and Sandow then bump into each other while getting in/out of the ring after a tag (though it looked a lot more like Cody just shoved Sandow down), which makes them look dumb. Then Cody eats a Brogue Kick and gets pinned. Say what you will about the way they book Cena, but at least they don’t have him make up-and-coming talent look like chumps.

ya know, I think this will be the start of a Cody/Sandow feud; the two of them DEF HAVE to be in the SD! MITB match and this was a good way to further the dissension. I think a face Cody Rhodes is in order.

I don't think Sheamus has made Sandow look like a chump; and Cody Rhodes isn't an "up-and-coming" talent, he was there YEARS before Sheamus. I think this was much more about the miscommunication between Team Rhodes Scholars, than putting Sheamus over. I'm prepared to give WWE the benefit of the doubt at this point; they've actually used subtle things to begin feuds/splits/etc over the past two or three years. I have some faith in them....

Sheamus has regularly been beating both guys constantly for the past month and a half. This just felt like more of the same to me.

And why does there need to be dissension between them going into MITB

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:

SHEAMUS & CHRISTIAN vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS- DUD!
Christian is the babyface in peril until he makes the tag to Sheamus. Cody and Sandow then bump into each other while getting in/out of the ring after a tag (though it looked a lot more like Cody just shoved Sandow down), which makes them look dumb. Then Cody eats a Brogue Kick and gets pinned. Say what you will about the way they book Cena, but at least they don’t have him make up-and-coming talent look like chumps.

ya know, I think this will be the start of a Cody/Sandow feud; the two of them DEF HAVE to be in the SD! MITB match and this was a good way to further the dissension. I think a face Cody Rhodes is in order.

I don't think Sheamus has made Sandow look like a chump; and Cody Rhodes isn't an "up-and-coming" talent, he was there YEARS before Sheamus. I think this was much more about the miscommunication between Team Rhodes Scholars, than putting Sheamus over. I'm prepared to give WWE the benefit of the doubt at this point; they've actually used subtle things to begin feuds/splits/etc over the past two or three years. I have some faith in them....

Sheamus has regularly been beating both guys constantly for the past month and a half. This just felt like more of the same to me.

And why does there need to be dissension between them going into MITB

It doesn't HAVE to be; I just feel like it's coming. It'll def make things more interesting in a match that potential has zero drawing power. ALL the main event guys are in the RAW match and other matches, plus the WWE spent the last year building a lot of mid level guys to the top and bringing guys in strong; a lot of the guys who were in the middle last year are still there now. Dean Ambrose and Curtis Axel would be great choices bc they're hot young talent with momentum; Kofi, Wade, Cody and others don't really have any momentum. Obviously, you've gotta have them in the match, so why not play off their lack of success and communication? The dynamic of a tag team in a multi-person singles match is always a good idea (imo) bc they don't really have to break up, ppl would just be interested to see it. Without much star power, the SD! MITB needs to rely on action and intrigue and I think conflict between tag partners (esp Cody & Sandow) is intriguing....

Big Red Machine wrote:
HUNTER & BRICKIE BACKSTAGE- Oh. Okay. The purpose of Vince showing up before was so Triple H could show up and disagree with him. I will be very unhappy if every week on Raw we get four segments like last week to get this “McMahons are fighting” crap over.

don't worry, i have a feeling that Vickie will soon quit her managers job because of the problems between hunter, vince, and steph

Big Red Machine wrote: STREET FIGHT: Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan- 8.25/10
Awesome match!

i will admit, i marked out at Randy tapping out to Dragon and just the fact that Dragon winning was the end of the show and nothing else followed

badnewzxl wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:
ya know, I think this will be the start of a Cody/Sandow feud; the two of them DEF HAVE to be in the SD! MITB match and this was a good way to further the dissension. I think a face Cody Rhodes is in order.

I don't think Sheamus has made Sandow look like a chump; and Cody Rhodes isn't an "up-and-coming" talent, he was there YEARS before Sheamus. I think this was much more about the miscommunication between Team Rhodes Scholars, than putting Sheamus over. I'm prepared to give WWE the benefit of the doubt at this point; they've actually used subtle things to begin feuds/splits/etc over the past two or three years. I have some faith in them....

Sheamus has regularly been beating both guys constantly for the past month and a half. This just felt like more of the same to me.

And why does there need to be dissension between them going into MITB

It doesn't HAVE to be; I just feel like it's coming. It'll def make things more interesting in a match that potential has zero drawing power. ALL the main event guys are in the RAW match and other matches, plus the WWE spent the last year building a lot of mid level guys to the top and bringing guys in strong; a lot of the guys who were in the middle last year are still there now. Dean Ambrose and Curtis Axel would be great choices bc they're hot young talent with momentum; Kofi, Wade, Cody and others don't really have any momentum. Obviously, you've gotta have them in the match, so why not play off their lack of success and communication? The dynamic of a tag team in a multi-person singles match is always a good idea (imo) bc they don't really have to break up, ppl would just be interested to see it. Without much star power, the SD! MITB needs to rely on action and intrigue and I think conflict between tag partners (esp Cody & Sandow) is intriguing....

Got to disagree with you about the WHC MITB having zero drawing power. It is an big multi-man ladder match. WWE has done such a great job with the MITB matches since the creation of the idea that people are always excited for them regardless of who is in them.
And even if this match had no drawling potential that would be fine because it doesn't really have to. Let the fantastically awesome-looking WWE MITB match and the two top title matches do the drawing.
I feel like (in WWE) dissension almost always lead to a break-up and I really don't want to see Rhodes Scholars break up.

I think WWE missed the boat with Team Rhodes Scholars around the end of last year; they should have won the titles. As far as the SD! MITB match goes: