Welcome to the first of my weekly RAW reviews during my time at What Culture and thank goodness it was a fairly good showing from WWE. What you will find in my reactions is not a recap of what happened on RAW but more an analysis of the performance and where potentially things can go. Lets face it, its likely you as a WWE fan have watched RAW and this site gives a great run down of the show itself if you missed it. I will be the smarky guy trying to rate people who are much greater than myself and hopefully providing means for people to talk about the show with friends. So on to it
Opening Segment
To kick off the first RAW of 2013 we welcome the golden boy John Cena (not sure if it was just in the UK but also without commentary just yet) who has somehow become the introduction act to the current TV programme. Giving a run-down of what will be coming up over the three hours of RAW much like a presenter would do during a live sport programme. What I found most odd, apart from his seemingly new role is that he hyped up The Rocks return. Totally forgetting that he lost to The Rock at the last WrestleMania. Also forgetting that surely, in storyline terms, he must still hold a grudge. He came across as a bit of a sell-out! With the introduction of AJ/Ziggy/Big E came a more serious tone and they managed to move the feud with Cena forward slightly. However Cena insisted on taking the serious tone and dismissing it byt messing about with crowd pops, Mexican waves and penis jokes. This segment made it feel like Cena has become a warm up comedy act and really drained the momentum from the newly formed threesome who actually work well together and provide an interesting, and rarely seen lately, mini-stable. I didnt understand why Big E vouched for Ziggler to take on Cena unless in the end there was going to be a big game plan but that didnt really pan out. I also dont see why Cena had to face Ziggler in the first place with a PPV coming up in 3 weeks. Is this the end of the feud or will it continues even though Cena got the clean win over Dolph? Granted both men have now been added to the Rumble match and we will likely see some back and forth between the two in that match but wouldnt it have made more sense if Big E stood up and decided to take on Cena? What bothered me most was how this match took all the momentum Ziggler created after his ladder match win over Cena and threw it out the window. Ziggler hit Johnny boy with everything he had, all his signatures, all the distractions and even a Big E Langston finisher but still had no answer for a single Attitude Adjustment. It was a wasted segment that has valued no-one. Yes the match was good but we have come to expect that seeing as how often these two work together but adding more fuel to the fire in a feuding capacity surely would make more sense.
WWE Divas Championship Match
Kaitlyn Vs Eve
Is it me or are these two actually doing the best with what they are given? Im really coming round to Eves abilities and Kaitlyn is very intense and hard hitting which is a breath of fresh air with the current roster. The match itself was actually quite enjoyable and given the time limit and ending, it really seems that we may have some story progression in the Divas division. My only concern is that there are no other Divas who are at this level at the moment regarding all round ability. The work Kaitlyn has put in since becoming involved in the title picture purely by accident has been stellar and I think she has a great look to carry the division along with Eve. They just need more recognisable faces to further this area otherwise we will see the Divas become insignificant once again. But nice work from both ladies.
Santino, Steamboat and Barrett Segment
The first of our jobbers gets some camera time alongside a true legend in Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. Nice little segment to lead to the match with Wade Barrett. I always enjoy Santino in a backstage segment as it is simple, old fashioned comedy shtick that brings a smile to the face. The wordplay from Wade was fresh and Steamboat sold the segment nicely. The boys kept it simple and it worked. Click "next" below to part 2...