OPENING SEGMENT- I LOVED Brad Maddox giving himself a drum roll! Those are the sort of little touches that make things great. Props to the writers for having Cena point out why the GM giving a wrestler complete and total free reign to chose an opponent is a stupid idea. If only they will actually remember this point in the future. Orton comes out and warns Cena that when he cashes it in, no one will see it coming. Obvious? Yes. Bad? No.
Then, of all people, Fandango comes out (yes, you read that right: Fandango) and says that Orton will not be cashing in on Cena. He says that Orton will be cashing in on him instead, and despite how utterly ridiculous this idea is, some people actually pop for it. On the bright side, one of the people who popped for this was Summer Rae, and her excited jumping up and down and clapping has quickly made her one of my favorite valets of all time.
Orton jumps Fandango… and Fandango actually wins the brawl to the point of knocking Randy out of the ring! Randy gets back into the ring and knocks Fandango down after that, but I didn’t expect for Fandango to come out of this looking strong at any point.

RANDY ORTON vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 4.75/10
Randy got in about 80% of the offense here, but at least they didn’t make Fandango look like a chump by having him lose in five minutes.

ZIGGLER DUMPS AJ- yeah… this didn’t feel very natural at all, and it felt like there hasn’t been anywhere near enough build. Last night’s finish as good start to the break up, but it seems like they skipped over some steps.

MARK HENRY PROMO- okay. Then the Shield attacks him. That was random. No Usos to make the save? Oh… and who the hell thought a Mark Henry face turn was a good idea? The man is an outstanding heel (as he just spent the last month reminding everyone), but has never worked out well as a babyface… SO WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TURN HIM FACE?

BRAD MADDOX & CHRIS JERICHO BACKSTAGE- Maddox puts over the “Cena gets to choose his challenger” angle and makes Jericho vs. RVD for later tonight.

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Alberto Del Rio(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler- 6.75/10
Good finish, but they need to end AJ vs. Dolph before we get a clean finish to Del Rio vs. Ziggler, but I’m not quite sure how they will be able to do that well if they want Ziggler vs. Del Rio to blow off at Summer Slam (because Dolph vs. Big E. probably deserves a PPV.

THE WYATT FAMILY SEGMENT- first they assault R-Truth, then Husky Harris cuts an awesome promo, then he beats up R-Truth some more. Then he says “Kane, follow the buzzards,” which hopefully means there is some master booking plan they have here, rather than something generic.

THE USOS vs. THE REAL AMERICANS (w/Zeb Coulter)- 3/10
Zeb Coulter opens his promo with the exact same promo he cut a Wrestlemania (complete with the same joke about Yiddish). The match itself was very short, but it but the Usos over, which was good.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. CHRISTIAN- 4/10
So they give Sandow the MITB win… then job him out in a few minutes. Um… sure. Then Cody attacks Sandow, which was good, but why the hell would you not give Sandow the win here?

1-800-FELLA COMMERCIAL- Sheamus scaring the guy to get rid of his hiccups was funny. Everything after that was just stupid.

BRIE BELLA (w/Nikki Bella) vs. NAOMI (w/Cameron)- 2.75/10
Naomi was good, but she would have put on a much better match with a better opponent.

PUNK & HEYMAN SEGMENT- FAN-F*CKING-TASTIC!
I was actually waiting for Brock to jump Punk from behind while he was distracted by Heyman’s speech, but this was even better. Fantastic promos from the two best guys on the roster at cutting promos, and a beatdown that made Punk look tough and made Brock look like a monster again.

JOHN CENA & THE GREAT KHALI BACKSTAGE- apparently John Cena speaks… PunjabI? Hindi? Whatever it is that Khali speaks. That’s great for John and Khali, but as a viewer, I had no idea what the hell they were saying, and was thus bored as hell.

STEPH, HUNTER, & BRAD MADDOX BACKSTAGE- okay. Now I’m annoyed. The McMahons spent most of 2012 and 2013 not really bothering with how the show was run… and all of a sudden over the past month and a half they have decided to become the world’s most obnoxious busybodies about it. LET THE GM DO THE JOB YOU HIRED THE GM TO DO AND RUN THE F*CKING THE SHOW!
Even more frustrating, is that they said Vince doesn’t like it when people let others make their decisions for them... while simultaneously saying that he should have run that same f*cking decision past Vince first before making it himself! GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

ROB VAN DAM vs. CHRIS JERICHO- 7.75/10
Loved it! A great first match back on Raw for RVD, and Jericho continues to put people over on his way out (for now).

WHO WILL CENA PICK TO CHALLENGE FOR THE WWE TITLE AT SUMMER SLAM?- eh.
Cena did his schtik well, but it got annoying pretty quickly. At least they made the right choice of challenger, and the place went nuts. The real question is… will they put Dragon over? And I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility. One thing I do have to gripe about, though, is Lawler. Dragon gets this HUGE push of being in the main event at Summer Slam for the WWE Title… and the first thing Lawler does is make a goat-face joke. GRRR.

Overall, a decent episode of Raw, but mostly because of RVD vs. Jericho and Punk-Heyman stuff.


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Lawler- “I’ve got a feeling that’s gonna be the last time AJ is going to get involved in any of Dolph’s matches”
Yeah. Because AJ has never attempted to screw over any of her ex-boyfriends before. I swear, Lawler can be almost as bad as Mike Tenay when it comes to not remembering important facts.

Big Red Machine wrote:
ZIGGLER DUMPS AJ- yeah… this didn’t feel very natural at all, and it felt like there hasn’t been anywhere near enough build. Last night’s finish as good start to the break up, but it seems like they skipped over some steps.

I hate it that WWE can't look past the idea of a heel chick dating a face guy.

Big Red Machine wrote: MARK HENRY PROMO- okay. Then the Shield attacks him. That was random. No Usos to make the save? Oh… and who the hell thought a Mark Henry face turn was a good idea? The man is an outstanding heel (as he just spent the last month reminding everyone), but has never worked out well as a babyface… SO WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TURN HIM FACE?

why does he have to turn face?

Big Red Machine wrote: WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Alberto Del Rio(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler- 6.75/10
Good finish, but they need to end AJ vs. Dolph before we get a clean finish to Del Rio vs. Ziggler, but I’m not quite sure how they will be able to do that well if they want Ziggler vs. Del Rio to blow off at Summer Slam (because Dolph vs. Big E. probably deserves a PPV.

I heard they just wanna do Big vs Ziggler at Summerslam, and with no clean finish, Ziggler can always come back against Del Rio

Big Red Machine wrote: THE WYATT FAMILY SEGMENT- first they assault R-Truth, then Husky Harris cuts an awesome promo, then he beats up R-Truth some more. Then he says “Kane, follow the buzzards,” which hopefully means there is some master booking plan they have here, rather than something generic.

Now go check out this promo again, but hear it as he is only addressing Kane, it has a whole new level of awesome

Big Red Machine wrote: PUNK & HEYMAN SEGMENT- FAN-F*CKING-TASTIC!
I was actually waiting for Brock to jump Punk from behind while he was distracted by Heyman’s speech, but this was even better. Fantastic promos from the two best guys on the roster at cutting promos, and a beatdown that made Punk look tough and made Brock look like a monster again.

I was hoping Axel would also come out and for Dragon to take him out so Punk could take on Brock, but I guess they can't get him involved if we're getting Dragon vs Cena in short weeks.

Big Red Machine wrote: WHO WILL CENA PICK TO CHALLENGE FOR THE WWE TITLE AT SUMMER SLAM?- eh.
Cena did his schtik well, but it got annoying pretty quickly. At least they made the right choice of challenger, and the place went nuts. The real question is… will they put Dragon over? And I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility. One thing I do have to gripe about, though, is Lawler. Dragon gets this HUGE push of being in the main event at Summer Slam for the WWE Title… and the first thing Lawler does is make a goat-face joke. GRRR.

I didn't like the execution of how Cena selected Dragon, it made me feel like Cena is giving him a pity title shot. His last two feuds were about having to earn the title (and the shot) and now he simply gives out a title shot just because the fans chanted his name. They should have waited a bit more to choose Dragon and just have a bunch of guys pushing Cena during this show and the next show trying to get a title shot out of him, then Dragon comes out to help him for some reason and that's when he gives him the shot.

Also, i've heard that this shot may cross over to the divas show, and i really really don't want the bellas to get involved in this in any sort, becuase, you know, they're heels and these guys are faces, WWE can't have that.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: MARK HENRY PROMO- okay. Then the Shield attacks him. That was random. No Usos to make the save? Oh… and who the hell thought a Mark Henry face turn was a good idea? The man is an outstanding heel (as he just spent the last month reminding everyone), but has never worked out well as a babyface… SO WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TURN HIM FACE?

why does he have to turn face?

Because he just got beaten up by a top heel faction. He becomes a face by default.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Alberto Del Rio(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler- 6.75/10
Good finish, but they need to end AJ vs. Dolph before we get a clean finish to Del Rio vs. Ziggler, but I’m not quite sure how they will be able to do that well if they want Ziggler vs. Del Rio to blow off at Summer Slam (because Dolph vs. Big E. probably deserves a PPV.

I heard they just wanna do Big vs Ziggler at Summerslam, and with no clean finish, Ziggler can always come back against Del Rio

The more I think about it, if Dragon goes over at Summer Slam, it's not the best idea for Ziggler to get his big win on the same show, so doing this lets Ziggler go over Big E. and Del Rio go over someone else at Summer Slam, then you can have Dolph get his big win at Night of Champions

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: WHO WILL CENA PICK TO CHALLENGE FOR THE WWE TITLE AT SUMMER SLAM?- eh.
Cena did his schtik well, but it got annoying pretty quickly. At least they made the right choice of challenger, and the place went nuts. The real question is… will they put Dragon over? And I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility. One thing I do have to gripe about, though, is Lawler. Dragon gets this HUGE push of being in the main event at Summer Slam for the WWE Title… and the first thing Lawler does is make a goat-face joke. GRRR.

I didn't like the execution of how Cena selected Dragon, it made me feel like Cena is giving him a pity title shot. His last two feuds were about having to earn the title (and the shot) and now he simply gives out a title shot just because the fans chanted his name. They should have waited a bit more to choose Dragon and just have a bunch of guys pushing Cena during this show and the next show trying to get a title shot out of him, then Dragon comes out to help him for some reason and that's when he gives him the shot.

Meanwhile Dragon gets some big clean wins (Jericho, RVD, Punk). Yeah. That would have been a lot better.

cero2k wrote: Also, i've heard that this shot may cross over to the divas show, and i really really don't want the bellas to get involved in this in any sort, becuase, you know, they're heels and these guys are faces, WWE can't have that.

Winner gets the WWE Title and the other guy's Bella Twin.

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: MARK HENRY PROMO- okay. Then the Shield attacks him. That was random. No Usos to make the save? Oh… and who the hell thought a Mark Henry face turn was a good idea? The man is an outstanding heel (as he just spent the last month reminding everyone), but has never worked out well as a babyface… SO WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TURN HIM FACE?

why does he have to turn face?

Because he just got beaten up by a top heel faction. He becomes a face by default.

no no, that's not how wrestling should work. and even if that were the case, by the reason why Shield attacked him, and considering that Henry is a bigger heel than Shield then Shield would be the ones turning face.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:

why does he have to turn face?

Because he just got beaten up by a top heel faction. He becomes a face by default.

no no, that's not how wrestling should work. and even if that were the case, by the reason why Shield attacked him, and considering that Henry is a bigger heel than Shield then Shield would be the ones turning face.

Why isn't that how wrestling should work? Yeah, heels can attack heels, but if the attacked heel doesn't continue to do heelish things, he becomes a babyface by default. When he was attacked, Henry was busy putting Cena over for being the better man at Money in the Bank. Of course this is a turn.

Big Red Machine wrote:ZIGGLER DUMPS AJ- yeah… this didn’t feel very natural at all, and it felt like there hasn’t been anywhere near enough build.

How much of a build were you looking for? They set it up last week with Ziggler's "Power Couple" talk, and I think he was irate enough at MITB that what happened the next night was the next logical step. In the big picture, I like what it says about his character compared to Dragon, Cena, Punk, and Kane who put up with that shit for waaaaaay too long.

Big Red Machine wrote:Cena did his schtik well, but it got annoying pretty quickly.

It did. But what annoyed me most was how there was NO MENTION by Cena or the announcers of the Brooklyn Brawler standing on the stage as a candidate. I marked a little when I saw him...

It also bugged me when Cena slipped and implied he could pick "Dutch Mantell"... c'mon John, you're better than that

Big Red Machine wrote:The real question is… will they put Dragon over? And I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility.

I think it's very possible after the Maddox/Helmslies segment. All of the burying DB's been getting from McMahon and the way Hunter and Steph implied "...we don't think Vince will be very happy about it if Cena picks if he picks who we think he might pick..." Dragon going under doesn't really advance the angle at all...

Bob-O wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:ZIGGLER DUMPS AJ- yeah… this didn’t feel very natural at all, and it felt like there hasn’t been anywhere near enough build.

How much of a build were you looking for? They set it up last week with Ziggler's "Power Couple" talk, and I think he was irate enough at MITB that what happened the next night was the next logical step. In the big picture, I like what it says about his character compared to Dragon, Cena, Punk, and Kane who put up with that s**t for waaaaaay too long.

Have Ziggler ask AJ to stay in the back this week, then have her come out anyway and have that distract Dolph. Then have them argue backstage again. Then have another match where Dolph tells her to come to the back and she doesn't so they have another fight and Dolph dumps her. Then have her and Big E. screw Dolph the next week.

Bob-O wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:The real question is… will they put Dragon over? And I don’t think it is outside the realm of possibility.

I think it's very possible after the Maddox/Helmslies segment. All of the burying DB's been getting from McMahon and the way Hunter and Steph implied "...we don't think Vince will be very happy about it if Cena picks if he picks who we think he might pick..." Dragon going under doesn't really advance the angle at all...

Great point!