OPENING SEGMENT- good (though Hunter mocking Mercury and Noble’s height was completely unnecessary). Logically this should lead to Kane costing Rollins the WWE Title at Payback to turn babyface.

HANDICAP MATCH: Dean Ambrose vs. Joey Mercury & Jamie Noble- 4.75/10
It was what it was.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. WADE BARRETT- 5/10
It will be Ziggler vs. Sheamus at Payback. So they are having another singles match at this PPV and still haven’t paid off the stip of the last one?
Anyway, Wade wins when Sheamus distracts Dolph. It feels like we’ve seen this a million times before.

Apparently something of consequence happened on Smackdown, so we are getting…
FANDANGO vs. ERICK ROWAN (w/Luke Harper)- squash
The announcers completely bury Fandango by taking turns predicting how quickly he will get his ass kicked. Definitely Not The Wyatt Family beat Fandango down afterwards.

JOHN CENA PROMO- okay. It just seemed kind of pointless to bring up how guarded the WWE Title is. The part building up the I Quit match was fine.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Neville- 8/10
F*CKING RUSEV! GRRRR! If they were smart, they’d use this to set up Neville as Cena’s next PPV challenger after Rusev, but unfortunately the evidence points against them being that smart. At least they protected the Red Arrow. I guess that angle was good enough for what it was.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. KANE- no rating. Good brawl.

TAMINA (w/Naomi) vs. BRIE BELLA (w/Nikki Bella)- 2.75/10
Tamina is now billed from “the Pacific Islands.” Yes, “islands.” Plural. How does that make any sense? You can’t be born in more than one place at once. Just choose a specific island (Samoa seems to be the most flipping obvious choice here) and bill her from there!
Naomi cut a dull in-set promo.
TAMINA SUPERKICK FOR THE WIN!

Okay… can someone please explain to me why Renee’s mouth was open for that entire pre-tape? It was really weird.

CURTIS AXEL vs. MACHO MAN-DOW- no rating. F*cking annoying segment.
Well… so much for Damien Sandow getting away from being a comedy character. Instead he’s now a goofy, large, Jay Lethal.
I never thought I’d say this, but “thank G-d the Ascension showed up!” Then they ruined all of that good will by talking.
Yeah… so Axel and Sandow are doing the Mega Powers.

TOUGH ENOUGH VIDEOS- SCARLETT BORDEAUX!

DANIEL BRYAN SPEECH- he’s vacating the title due to injury and doesn’t know how long he’ll be out. He says it is entirely possible that he’ll never wrestle again… and my brain didn’t process anything he said after that.

NEW DAY PROMO- we’re getting New Day vs. Kidd & Cesaro in a 2 out of 3 falls match! I hope they give this a good half hour!

CESARO (w/Natalya & Tyson Kidd) vs. BIG E. (w/the New Day)- 5.75/10

ELIMINATION CHAMBER ANNOUNCEMENT- yeah… I figured it was only a matter of time until they started doing Network-exclusive PPVs. I’m not thrilled about this thing coming back, but if they build it well, they could actually fill out the Chamber with guys all have some sort of issue with each other and/or established title chase: Rollins, Orton, Ambrose, Reigns, Kane, and Big Show. The problem, of course, is what finish to do at Payback. I’d have Kane help Rollins retain, pinning Ambrose after one of Kane’s chokeslams. On Raw, Seth would come out and brag that he did it all himself. This would piss Kane off, and their bickering would, in turn, piss Hunter off, so he books Ambrose vs. Rollins on Raw and this time Kane and J&J are ordered to stay out of it so Seth has to “prove himself,” leading to Dean winning when Seth intentionally gets counted out because he gets frustrated and walks off.
Hunter would then punish Seth by announcing the Elimination Chamber, putting not only Randy, Roman, and Dean in, but also having Kane and Big Show challenge so he can determine if they would make more worthy champions to be the face of the Authority and the WWE.

BRAY WYATT PROMO- yeah… he shouldn’t have cut this promo right after Daniel Bryan just announced that he is injured and might have to retire forever. Anyway, Ryback came out and beat Bray up… so why should I give a damn about their PPV match in six days?

SETH ROLLINS vs. RANDY ORTON- 6.25/10
Another f*cking DQ finish in the main event.

CLOSING SEGMENT- I get what they were going for with Kane, but the babyfaces beat down of Rollins felt like basically the same thing heel stables do in big heat segments.

Hmmm… A good show from WWE, especially as a go-home show. It really wasn’t that good in the ring, but it was very enjoyable, and I think a big part of that is that this show felt a lot shorter than normal. Probably because there really weren’t any talking segments on it. Hell… there weren’t even any backstage interviews. I don’t think Renee Young appeared at all (aside from that Sandow-Axel pre-tape).

Big Red Machine wrote:
Okay… can someone please explain to me why Renee’s mouth was open for that entire pre-tape? It was really weird.

because she's excited and marking out

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:
Okay… can someone please explain to me why Renee’s mouth was open for that entire pre-tape? It was really weird.

because she's excited and marking out

Yeah but... the whole time? It just look weird. Like she was puppet. A female Guy Smiley.

I think, as of this RAW, that since Cena has started doing his U.S. open challenges, they've consistently been the best matches on the show. I can't wait to see what other guys come forward should they keep doing this after Payback.

Serujuunin wrote:I think, as of this RAW, that since Cena has started doing his U.S. open challenges, they've consistently been the best matches on the show. I can't wait to see what other guys come forward should they keep doing this after Payback.

Agreed and I'm going on record to say right now I'm cheering for Cena to win every match he has for the forseeable future because I really want it to continue

Bulletclubfan2014 wrote:

Serujuunin wrote:I think, as of this RAW, that since Cena has started doing his U.S. open challenges, they've consistently been the best matches on the show. I can't wait to see what other guys come forward should they keep doing this after Payback.

Agreed and I'm going on record to say right now I'm cheering for Cena to win every match he has for the forseeable future because I really want it to continue

Also agreed, with the exception of last week, and that's because 1) Zayn was injured, and 2) there was an awesome Ambrose vs. Rollins match.

That being said, there is a reason why Cena's matches have been so awesome: They've been letting them do stuff and giving them time. If they gave other guys this much time and clean finishes (and not always against the same few opponents), they'd be having awesome matches, too.
And I'm actually a bit disappointed that they've had the AA kicked out of so much because I actually expected it this week. It needs to be the finish next week.

Big Red Machine wrote:

Bulletclubfan2014 wrote:

Serujuunin wrote:I think, as of this RAW, that since Cena has started doing his U.S. open challenges, they've consistently been the best matches on the show. I can't wait to see what other guys come forward should they keep doing this after Payback.

Agreed and I'm going on record to say right now I'm cheering for Cena to win every match he has for the forseeable future because I really want it to continue

Also agreed, with the exception of last week, and that's because 1) Zayn was injured, and 2) there was an awesome Ambrose vs. Rollins match.

That being said, there is a reason why Cena's matches have been so awesome: They've been letting them do stuff and giving them time. If they gave other guys this much time and clean finishes (and not always against the same few opponents), they'd be having awesome matches, too.
And I'm actually a bit disappointed that they've had the AA kicked out of so much because I actually expected it this week. It needs to be the finish next week.

I actually feel like the failure of the AA to win a match for Cena might be build up for the introduction of a new finishing move. Maybe I'm being too optimistic though!

Serujuunin wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

Bulletclubfan2014 wrote: Agreed and I'm going on record to say right now I'm cheering for Cena to win every match he has for the forseeable future because I really want it to continue

Also agreed, with the exception of last week, and that's because 1) Zayn was injured, and 2) there was an awesome Ambrose vs. Rollins match.

That being said, there is a reason why Cena's matches have been so awesome: They've been letting them do stuff and giving them time. If they gave other guys this much time and clean finishes (and not always against the same few opponents), they'd be having awesome matches, too.
And I'm actually a bit disappointed that they've had the AA kicked out of so much because I actually expected it this week. It needs to be the finish next week.

I actually feel like the failure of the AA to win a match for Cena might be build up for the introduction of a new finishing move. Maybe I'm being too optimistic though!

That would be an interesting story to tell: The move that Cena normally wins with isn't working, so he has to develop a new move... and at the same time you have him keep doing the AA as a nearfall in every match... and then you can have him get the win with the AA every once in a blue moon to still keep it viable.

Big Red Machine wrote: That would be an interesting story to tell: The move that Cena normally wins with isn't working, so he has to develop a new move... and at the same time you have him keep doing the AA as a nearfall in every match... and then you can have him get the win with the AA every once in a blue moon to still keep it viable.

that's what the Springboard Stunner is supposed to be i think

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: That would be an interesting story to tell: The move that Cena normally wins with isn't working, so he has to develop a new move... and at the same time you have him keep doing the AA as a nearfall in every match... and then you can have him get the win with the AA every once in a blue moon to still keep it viable.

that's what the Springboard Stunner is supposed to be i think

Except people always kick out after it, right? Or does he go immediately into the AA (which often gets kicked out of)? Or are you saying that it's the combo of the two that always gets it done (like Roddy's finishers tend to be)?

Big Red Machine wrote: Except people always kick out after it, right? Or does he go immediately into the AA (which often gets kicked out of)? Or are you saying that it's the combo of the two that always gets it done (like Roddy's finishers tend to be)?

i'd say more the second because it's been like his normal stuff is not getting the job done and he had to bring out new stuff.

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote: Except people always kick out after it, right? Or does he go immediately into the AA (which often gets kicked out of)? Or are you saying that it's the combo of the two that always gets it done (like Roddy's finishers tend to be)?

i'd say more the second because it's been like his normal stuff is not getting the job done and he had to bring out new stuff.

But then wouldn't it make sense to have the new move be the one getting the finish? Gabe was actually planning something similar for Tyler Black in late 2008 where he would hit G-d's Last Gift, the other guy would kick out, then Tyler would hit the Phoenix Splash for the win (and the big crazy pop it was leading to would be Nigel kicking out of the Phoenix Splash, too, in their ROH World Title match at Final Battle 2008, then they'd go on for a few more minutes and Tyler would win the belt by ducking a lariat into a backslide and it would be the first time the title had changed hands on a roll-up).

I don't honestly feel like the stunner is meant to be a new finishing move so much as a 'proof' so to speak that Cena is capable of more than his 'traditional' moveset. Kind of a foreshadowing of the introduction of new techniques. But they don't want him to start doing a bunch of new things all at the same time so they start with one until it becomes part of his regular routine, and then introduce a new one. At least, that's how I see it and how I would do it haha