BRM Reviews the 7/28/2014 Raw (GREAT!)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- Very good stuff from both Cena and Heyman. Then Cesaro came out and it was very random, but he cut a promo on Cena, resulting in…

JOHN CENA vs. ANTONIO CESARO- 8/10
Well… that was pretty darn awesome.

THE AUTHORITY BACKSTAGE- Great!
Decent character stuff, plus the Authority seems to have some evil plan to do something to Brie. Then Orton angrily interrupted, saying that the original plan was for him to get the title shot at Summer Slam. Hunter said the he went with Brock because he realized that Reigns would keep screwing with Orton and wouldn’t let him win. Orton is now even more pissed at Reigns for costing him his title shot. Hunter tells him that if he wants another title shot, he’ll have to take Roman Reigns out. Orton vows to do that… but Hunter has already booked Reigns vs. Kane… so Orton is now unhappy with Hunter.

PAIGE PROMO- she comes skipping down the ramp. She says that she let her emotions get the better of her. Last week she forgot that AJ was her friend and instead saw her as just the person who “took my title away.” She says her actions were deplorable, but she promises never to act like that again. AJ came out and cut a very good promo on her. Paige was awesome here. Her sincere insincerity was amazing. AJ wasn’t going to take her sh*t and attacked her. Paige managed to escape. This rocked, but the crowd just chanted “CM PUNK!” because they’re stupid.

AUTHORITY PROMO- great segment
The fans chanted “jailbird” at Steph. Hunter was disgusted at them for laughing at Steph last week. The fans cheered. It was awesome. Steph has asked Brie to come out tonight so that they can talk things over and get the charges dropped. They asked Brie to come out and…

BREAK THE WALLS DOWN!

Jericho showed up instead, and I IMMEDIATELY got that fantastic sense of nostalgia of the great “Jericho making fun of Steph” segments of old. Jericho got the fans to sing the Cops theme song… all the while Hunter is almost-calmly telling Jericho “I am NOT in the mood for this.”
Jericho brought up the fact that Hunter waited until 1 am to go to the police station. He also called Steph a filthy dirty disgusting brutal bottom-feeding trashbag ho. Jericho also said he wanted a match with Bray, but Hunter decided to punish him by making him wait until Summer Slam. Then Rollins ambushed Jericho and hit him with the MITB briefcase while Hunter announced Jericho vs. Rollins tonight. Then Hunter’s music played and we cut to a video package. Um… what about the Brie Bella stuff? Isn’t that why they came out here in the first place?

THE MIZ & RYBAXEL vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & THE USOS- 6/10
The Imitation Nation of Domination showed up to watch at ringside. They did nothing at all… so why even have them come out. Is Miz’s new gimmick a rip-off of an NXT guy’s gimmick which, in and of itself, was a rip-off of Cody’s gimmick from a few years ago? Yes. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t doing a great job with it.

BO DALLAS vs. R-TRUTH- no rating. F*CKING PERFECT SEGMENT!
OH MY G-D! EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAS PERFECT! GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! THIS was the sort of edge that Bo needs!

LANA, RUSEV, ZEB, & SWAGGER SEGMENT- AWESOME!
Lana cut an okay promo. Then Zeb came out and cut an AWESOME promo! Then Rsev and Swagger had an awesome brawl in which Swagger got the better of him.

DAMIEN SANDOW vs. ADAM ROSE (w/the Exotic Express)-
Sandow came out dressed as an astronaut. He cut a good promo burying Rose, the Rosebuds, and the fans. The Exotic Express came out and Rose told Sandow to be a rosebud instead of a lemon. Sandow jumped him, but then Rose hit two moves and won. The sad part is that WWE doesn’t realize how much more over Sandow is than Rose.

KANE vs. ROMAN REIGNS- no rating. Great segment.
Orton jumped Reigns on his way to the ring but Orton actually got the better of him. Then Kane got involved, too, and Reign was holding them both off for a bit until the numbers game caught up to him. Kane gave Reigns a chokeslam, then just decided to walk away. Orton then beat Reigns up for a while. This ended with Orton ding an RKO on the announce table… but it didn’t break, which had to suck for Randy. The bump still looked brutal. Randy then got up and did it again, making sure that the table broke this time. Once again it looked like it had to hurt like a mother*cker.

FANDANGO vs. DIEGO (w/El Torito, Summer Rae & Layla)- 0.5/10
Layla and Summer went out of their way to get sexy matadora outfits JUST to f*ck with Fandango all the more. That’s dedication right there. Fandango gets distracted. We’ve seen this before. Then he eats a post-match gore to the balls from Torito because the supposed babyfaces are apparently jerks. Does WWE realize that all this does is make Fandango into a babyface?
Then the girls kissed Torito a lot so he passed out. JBL declared that “they molested the bull.”

STEPH & NIKKI BACKSTAGE- apparently Brie isn’t here yet. Nikki told Steph “there’s not many times that people like you get a plate of crap. I hope you like the taste of it.” AWESOME!

GOLDUST & STARDUST BACKSTAGE- Cody has been doing match on a chalkboard to find the Cosmic Key. Goldust showed up. Cody then said stuff. He started off with a Star Trek reference, which I appreciated, but I’d much rather that they not kill Cody’s career. Goldust told Cody that “they have it.” This sucks so much.

NAOMI & NATALYA vs. ALICIA FOX & CAMERON- 1.25/10
Naomi got the win, which got a bigger pop than I was expecting.

SETH ROLLINS vs. CHRIS JERICHO- 6.5/10
They were having a decent match until the Wyatts used their magic to show up and makes Rollins disappear. Then they beat up Jericho and Bray hit him with Sister Abigail. This feud is only five weeks old, and I feel like I’ve seen this a million times already.

STEPH & BRIE SEGMENT-
Steph cut a good promo about the effect being arrested has had on her and her kids. Brie showed up wearing what appeared to be a backless jacket. Brie told Steph to go to hell. Steph admitted that she has been mean to Nikki and vowed to treat her fairly and professionally. This was not enough for Brie, so Steph offered to give Nikki a raise. Brie wanted Steph to agree to her demands: specifically that she wants her job back. Steph says “I think one Bella is enough in the WWE.” Brie starts to walk off, so Steph caves in exchange for Brie dropping the charges… then Brie also throws in that she wants a match at Summer Slam. Steph offered her things, including a Divas Title match and a “Total Divas Spectacular.” Brie said that she wanted to wrestle Steph. The crowd popped huge for this. Steph refused to do, saying “I will not lower myself to get in the ring with you.” Brie said she’d see Steph in court. Steph was on the verge of tears, and finally caved.
Then she SLAPPED BRIE IN THE FACE, knocking her off the apron, and told Brie that she would “make you my b*tch.” Steph taunted the crowd, and this gave Brie time to get back up and Thesz Press her and start punching away before the road agents broke it up. This was a great segment and I like that they gave the women the main event spot.

A GREAT episode of Raw, with a lot of good set-up for Summer Slam.

[Earth Child]

So who is apart of the New Nation of Domination?

[Big Red Machine]

So who is apart of the New Nation of Domination?

So far it is Kofi, Big E, and Xavier Woods. Various rumors and speculation have both Mark Henry and R-Truth joining.

[cero2k]

BO DALLAS vs. R-TRUTH- no rating. F*CKING PERFECT SEGMENT!
OH MY G-D! EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAS PERFECT! GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! THIS was the sort of edge that Bo needs!

with the exception that THEY KILLED THE STREAK TO FUCKING R-TRUTH!! R-JOBBER-TRUTH!! EVEN BO SAID HE BEEN LOSING WAY TO MANY MATCHES! THEY COULDN'T EVEN WAIT FOR 21-BO!! GAWWWD Did WWE already rehired Lagana! GAWD!

FANDANGO vs. DIEGO (w/El Torito, Summer Rae & Layla)- 0.5/10
Then he eats a post-match gore to the balls from Torito because the supposed babyfaces are apparently jerks. Does WWE realize that all this does is make Fandango into a babyface?
.

not in the WWE, this is typical WWE making fun of a heel, didn't you hear Cole and Lawler? it's all fun! #BAStar

[Big Red Machine]

BO DALLAS vs. R-TRUTH- no rating. F*CKING PERFECT SEGMENT!
OH MY G-D! EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAS PERFECT! GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! THIS was the sort of edge that Bo needs!

with the exception that THEY KILLED THE STREAK TO FUCKING R-TRUTH!! R-JOBBER-TRUTH!! EVEN BO SAID HE BEEN LOSING WAY TO MANY MATCHES! THEY COULDN'T EVEN WAIT FOR 21-BO!! GAWWWD Did WWE already rehired Lagana! GAWD!

I agree that waiting for 21-Bo would have been better, but if this leads to something for Truth, it will be good. Even if it leads to Bo and Truth having a real feud with Bo going over, it will be better for Bo in the long run than just beating Truth in a random three minute match. Who would have been better for this spot? You can't use a young guy because Bo needs to go over in the feud. You need a veteran midcard babyface who can take a loss. The best bets they had were Truth and Kofi and Kofi has clearly been tagged for something else.

FANDANGO vs. DIEGO (w/El Torito, Summer Rae & Layla)- 0.5/10
Then he eats a post-match gore to the balls from Torito because the supposed babyfaces are apparently jerks. Does WWE realize that all this does is make Fandango into a babyface?
.

not in the WWE, this is typical WWE making fun of a heel, didn't you hear Cole and Lawler? it's all fun! #BAStar

I'm just annoyed at the way the whole thing was handled since Summer came back. Nothing about her wanting to be with Fandango makes any sense, and it spiraled out of control from there.

[cero2k]

BO DALLAS vs. R-TRUTH- no rating. F*CKING PERFECT SEGMENT!
OH MY G-D! EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS WAS PERFECT! GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW! THIS was the sort of edge that Bo needs!

with the exception that THEY KILLED THE STREAK TO FUCKING R-TRUTH!! R-JOBBER-TRUTH!! EVEN BO SAID HE BEEN LOSING WAY TO MANY MATCHES! THEY COULDN'T EVEN WAIT FOR 21-BO!! GAWWWD Did WWE already rehired Lagana! GAWD!

I agree that waiting for 21-Bo would have been better, but if this leads to something for Truth, it will be good. Even if it leads to Bo and Truth having a real feud with Bo going over, it will be better for Bo in the long run than just beating Truth in a random three minute match. Who would have been better for this spot? You can't use a young guy because Bo needs to go over in the feud. You need a veteran midcard babyface who can take a loss. The best bets they had were Truth and Kofi and Kofi has clearly been tagged for something else.

FANDANGO vs. DIEGO (w/El Torito, Summer Rae & Layla)- 0.5/10
Then he eats a post-match gore to the balls from Torito because the supposed babyfaces are apparently jerks. Does WWE realize that all this does is make Fandango into a babyface?
.

not in the WWE, this is typical WWE making fun of a heel, didn't you hear Cole and Lawler? it's all fun! #BAStar

I'm just annoyed at the way the whole thing was handled since Summer came back. Nothing about her wanting to be with Fandango makes any sense, and it spiraled out of control from there.

(1) I do understand that Bo needed to lose now because he can't go higher in the card if he revolves around a streak, he can now get into an IC/US title feud and lose some matches without hurting him. It just felt random, Truth is not doing anything, like i said, Bo even refereed how Truth doesn't win that much. I hated the execution.

(2) I couldn't agree with you more, that whole feud doesn't make sense, and if you think about it, there's really nowhere it can go unless Fandango debuts a monster diva that can also dance. i rather they just go full LayCool and focus back to the divas division or if they had run Ziggler/Rae vs Fandango/Layla for more than two weeks.