WWE Raw Review: Did Monday Night Have More Punch Than Battleground?

wwe-raw-logo Coming into this Monday's Raw, there was a lot of ill will from a lot of fans. After a what felt like a lazy finish surrounding the Big Show coming out of Battleground, WWE had a lot to make up for on this weeks episode. Did they deliver? Let's talk about it. The show begins with the woman now announced as "a principal owner" of the WWE Stephanie McMahon making her way to the ring. The better half of the COO says that she understands the frustration on the ending of the pay-per-view. She says that there's one man to blame for all this, the Big Show. Stephanie calls out the giant and begins verbally abusing him. McMahon brings up his personal and professional pressures but Show doesn't seem fazed by this at all. The world largest athlete says he's done with all this, he says he punched Randy Orton because he wanted to and he punched Daniel Bryan because she told him to. Stephanie denies the later statement saying the authority was not at the building that it was all Brad Maddox. Show calls Maddox a puppet. This escalates to something more physical with Stephanie poking the giant in the chest, then slapping Show over and over again. She then fires the big man and he exits the arena. Overall, a really good opening segment, not without plot problems. I understand the giant snapping under the pressure€ I get that. But that said, if he has been sacrificing his personal feelings for his family, why all of a sudden does he throw it away? After the opening segment we get our traditional after the pay-per-view repeat as Damien Sandow battles Dolph Ziggler. It felt like such a better match than the previous night. Overall, Dolph wins not with the Zigzag with a Famouser. Sandow's briefcase curse seems to continue. And there was no real sign of the Intellectual Savior, nursing his knee. So it looks like the injury was used to tell fans there was no cash in. Although, no one in the arena seem to realize that was the case. During the commercial, WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino appeared in front of his hometown crowd and celebrated his 78th birthday with a song. This is the stuff I would love to do more of with their mobile application. Make the second screen experience a little more special. We go backstage and Maddox is being read the riot act by Stephanie, who says Hunter is off cleaning up his mess from last night. McMahon blames Brad for everything including the Buffalo blackout. She then says that Maddox will make it up to the WWE universe right now. Back in the ring, a six woman tag match happens with Aksana, a newly blonde Rosa Mendes and Alicia Fox against Natalya and her Total Divas costars JoJo and Eva Marie. Not the best match, JoJo does not make it even in the ring. Eva Marie still looks very green as Natalya get the victory. After the match, Brad Maddox appears on stage and says he wants to apologize for his actions last night and promises at Hell in a Cell there will be a new WWE champion crowned. He announces that there will be a special guest referee in the match that will take place in the satanic structure. Maddox announces that three Hall of Fame candidates will be voted on by the fans. The first of which was Booker T. Book comes out and politics for the job. Basically saying he was going to do what's best for business. So you know he's not getting chosen. The other two candidates were Bob Backlund who had a great promo, who says he was going to do what was best for the match and Shawn Michaels, who says he doesn't care what best for business. The self-professed HBK promises he will not be influenced by the personal relationship he has with Hunter and he won't be swayed by his past with Daniel Bryan. The Showstopper says he's going to do what's best for the WWE universe. You want to guess who won? Shawn won with a overwhelming margin. This should lead to some interesting television both with Triple H and others going forward, leading into the pay-per-view in Miami. Shawn was having real fun with the crowd. Then we get 3MB against Los Matadors again with the bullfighters getting the win. El Torito is definitely the most over thing of that gimmick. The miniature bull got more physical after the match performing some highflying on 3MB's Heath Slater. Paul Heyman, Ryback and Axel make their way to the ring. Paul says that he beat CM Punk at Night of Champions, and Punk got the win at Battleground but he cheats hitting a low blow on Ryback. Punk interrupts saying he doesn't apologize for what he did he had to check if Ryback had any balls. They go back-and-forth leading to a tag team match between Axel and Ryback against R Truth and CM Punk. The match told the story of Truth being destroyed and Punk was the super hero who vanquished their foes basically by himself but gave Truth the win. I have some problems with that. I understand what they're going for with R Truth but he hasn't technically been on that much of a losing streak to have that emotional effectiveness. Plus, it doesn't really make Truth look strong going forward . But it looks like it worked, as Killings has another Intercontinental Title shot this Friday. Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston have one hell of a match. Very physical encounter. These two have great chemistry together in the ring. In the end, Randy Orton destroys Kingston hitting the RKO for the win after a DDT off the barrier. If you have a chance check it out. They did about three commercial breaks. After the match, Daniel Bryan attacks Randy Orton following the match hitting him with a barrage of punches and kicks to the outside. I love the aggression shown by Daniel after weeks of the bearded B+ player getting humiliated. Vickie Guerrero is backstage (who says she is the boss?) and runs into Alberto Del Rio. Vickie says she's got a special announcement tonight. Alberto says he should be named the face of the WWE and then begins to hit on Vickie who says she will name his opponent later tonight for Hell in a Cell and he has a match up next and she will name the opponent. When Alberto walks away Vickie looks very disgusted. Back from commercial Alberto is in the ring when Vickie names his opponent as Ricardo Rodriguez. The matches relatively short as after the match began Guerrero announced that John Cena will face ADR at Hell in a Cell. This shocks the World Heavyweight Champion causing Ricardo Rodriguez to get the victory with a very sloppy cover. After the match Rodriguez celebrates and Alberto attacks his arm doing a cross arm breaker in a steel chair. Fans chant for Rob Van Dam but he's not there it's mentioned on commentary that he is taking a break to get it into alignment. So this was a way to get Ricardo off TV again until he has a new friend to fight Alberto. Fandango beats Zack Ryder with a leg drop from the top to the back of the head in a decent little match. The Real Americans defeat Santino and Khali again. Cesaro does the big swing again to the Punjabi Playboy causing him to be dizzy, giving them the victory. Then we get goofiness with Hornswoggle (who Michael Cole calls by his real name Dylan) getting the big swing. Antonio did a few rotations after pretending that leprechaun was too heavy to pick up. Santino comes to the rescue with the Cobra so looks like were going to get more of that going forward. We then hear heartfelt words from Titus O'Neill on his grandmother with breast cancer. Next is a weird Miz TV segment with its host in the Wyatt family, in which the former WWE champion escapes an attack and Bray Wyatt does his spider walk. So I guess we know his next victim. Backstage Brad Maddox is looking for approval for Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie says he still got a long way to go. Hunter arrives. The COO says been cleaning up Maddox mess from last night and says he'll be by the ring for the main event to make sure what's best for business The main event which saw Cody Rhodes, his brother Dustin and Daniel Bryan against The Shield. Solid match. Daniel Bryan is on fire once again. Cody and Dustin did their part. The match ends when Dean Ambrose brings in a chair and causes a DQ win for the Daniel Bryan crew. Triple H says it will not have another inconclusive finish like the night before and restarts the match with no disqualification. Daniel battles Seth Rollins all the way to the outside. Randy Orton comes out of the crowd hitting an RKO out of nowhere Rollins rolls Daniel into the ring getting the victory with the pin. Triple H goes up the ramp, he gives the high sign to The Shield to attack Bryan and company. Big Show shows up with music and entrance after being fired (I hate when they do this). Triple H backtracks and gets behind The Shield who attacks the giant. The COO tells them to finish him while beating him down. They tried to Triple Power Bomb, the World's Largest Athlete but the giant breaks free knocking out the COO and leaving the ring. Daniel Bryan comes back in and stands over Triple H triumphant as the show goes off the air. While I enjoyed the show, for the aggression and a little bit more fire going into Hell in a Cell. There are definitely some problems with what they've done. Now, Big Show is the focus not Daniel Bryan. I don't know if that's a good idea going forward. I cannot wait to see the interaction between now special guest referee Shawn Michaels and his best friend COO Triple H. That should be interesting, but I have a nagging feeling that the new WWE champion may end up being Big Show instead. There's not anything truly terrible on the show except for the Divas match. Overall, it's a bunch of rehash. Definitely check out the Kofi Orton match are some good wrestlling and the ending angle to learn the new status quo. Until next week everyone..
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Paul Jordan is a handycapable source for all things entertainment. Whether he is watching the guys who go bump in the night with the world of professional wrestling or the latest small or big screen feature you will receive the blunt and honest truth on everything