The January 19th edition of Monday Night Raw gave us something to talk about, that is for sure. This edition of Raw gave us the face turn (or tweener turn at least) of Brock Lesnar, showing us how good of a heel Seth Rollins really is, and of course the Raw debut of Sting.
The opening segment featured Brock Lesnar opening the show with Paul Heyman as usual, Brock cut a pretty bad promo while managing to say the word "baby" 3 times in 20 seconds. Brock was then interrupted by Seth Rollins on the TitanTron. Their verbal scuffle brought out The Authority to the ring, and after that John Cena joined the party. After a decently long bickering back and forth between all parties, a decision was made to vote on the WWE app whether John Cena has to put his WWE World Heavyweight Title match on the line to face a mystery opponent. If he lost, he lost his title shot. If Cena won, Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan would all get their respective jobs back. Overall a pretty decent opening segment with a lot to be excited for in the main event.
Next we saw Daniel Bryan's Raw return against his old rival Bray Wyatt. This turned into a very physical match which saw Bryan get thrown around onto his shoulder. Bryan sold the attack perfectly and made the crowd gasp and worry about his neck injury. Kane would eventually interfere in the match, costing Bryan the victory. Wyatt won via Pinfall. Again, pretty decent match, I believe if Kane wouldn't have interfered, we could have seen a barnburner, but hey, they needed to set up Kane and Bryan on Smackdown with something.
Next segment was the legends panel, featuring Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, and Hulk Hogan. They all shared some of their memories on the various Rumbles they competed in and all gave their picks for this years winner. Big Show interfered and was pretty effective at talking trash to the trio of legends. Ric Flair took offense to this and hilariously knife edge chopped the hell out of Big Show, which resulted in Ric getting knocked unconscious. With Ric down on the mat, Roman Reigns music hit to a loud crowd reaction. He came down, punched Show a good 4 or 5 times, and threw him over the top rope, ending Big Shows argument that no one could throw him over. Pretty entertaining segment overall, and Flair is just damn hilarious.
Next up we have Dean Ambrose vs. Bad News Barrett in a non title match. Dean came out to a incredibly loud pop, and looked intense. Their match was the typical non-title match you would expect on Raw, it passes the time effectively, but it was nothing special. Ok match overall. Dean wins via Pinfall.
Next match was The New Day vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. Not a showstealer by any means, but a good solid match. The New Day came out to alarming crickets, but by the time they were in the ring they were able to work the crowd over a bit. Tyson and Cesaro also have a great new move where Cesaro will spin his opponent, only for Kidd to running dropkick the spinning opponent in the head. Pretty cool move. The New Day wins via Pinfall.
Next segement featured the NWO reunion. Pretty awesome to see all 3 guys (Hall, Nash, Pac) in all good shape again, and looking healthy. The Ascension would decide to interfere with the legends, getting in the ring and cutting a cringe worthy promo. The APA then returned along with the New Age Outlaws to demolish the Ascension. This set up The Ascension vs. The Outlaws for the Rumble. Very entertaining segment to see all of our old favorites return one more time.
Paige and Natalya defeated Summer Rae and Alicia Fox in a pretty crappy wrestling match. What else do you expect when you get 5 minutes to have a tag match? This set up Paige and Natalya vs. The Bellas at the Rumble.
Next match had Rusev with Lana defeating R-Truth in a common squash match. Nothing to crazy here. Just building up the monster heel with some easy opponents.
After that we had The Usos vs Miz and Mizdow in a decent match. This match has happened so many times in the past month or so, I'm not sure why anyone would want to see it anymore. Match was ok, nothing special. This of course sets up the rematch for the titles at the Rumble.
Time for the main event. The WWE app vote was that Cena should fight the mystery opponent to get the 3 mens jobs back. It turned out to be a trap. The match quickly turned into a massive handicap match seeing Cena vs. Rollins, Kane, and Big Show. The match was a huge beat down on Cena and all looked grim until Sting debuted on Monday Night Raw with a bang, causing Rollins to lose his concentration, and lose to Cena via Pinfall. The crowd popped HARD for Sting and it is pretty clear at this point that we will soon be seeing Sting vs. HHH at WrestleMania 31. After the match ended, Cena disappeared into the crowd and Lesnar came out to finish unsettled business with Seth Rollins. Brock speared Rollins but the numbers game caught up when Kane and Big Show both started attacking the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Brock ended up giving the F5 to both Kane, and Big Show. Still surprised he can lift Show up that easily when they are both getting old. Great segment, and great to go in the Royal Rumble with. Will we see the title change hands this weekend in Philly? Or does Brock Lesnar go on to live another day with the Championship?
Overall, it was a pretty good show. Much better than anything i've seen Raw produce in awhile. 8/10.
Stay tuned for my NXT Review coming 1/22, and my Royal Rumble Review coming the day after the PPV airs live.
I don't watch the E anymore but I have to say this I absolutely can't stand the fact that they're doing Sting vs HHH your, I don't care if you have to roll out three bank trucks full of money and open a custom bike division to get undertaker back FUCKING DO IT. We haven't been waiting almost twenty years to see Sting vs Jean Paul Levesque.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you on the fact that Taker v. Sting is a much better match over all than HHH v. Sting. But I honestly would be excited to see both.
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