WWE Raw Reaction (6/29/15)
WWE Raw Reaction: Quick Results & Segment Highlights
Rollins kicks off the show, gives Kane a Hawaiian vacation, and rewards J&J with Apple Watches and a Cadillac CTS. The main event of Kane/Rollins vs Ambrose/Reigns in a No DQ match is booked.
Big Show defeats Mark Henry via KO-Punch. Ryback attacks Show, and Miz attacks Ryback, which prompts them to have a match. Ryback defeats The Miz via Count-Out after The Miz walks out of the match.
Paige defeats Alicia Fox via Roll-Up. The Bella Twins were there.
United States Championship Open Challenge: John Cena defeats Cesaro via DQ. Kevin Owens initially answers the challenge, but sits on commentary instead. As Cesaro locks in the Sharpshooter, Owens attacks both of them and powerbombs them. Match of the Year candidate.
The Lucha Dragons and The Prime Time Players defeat The New Day and Bo Dallas.
Dolph Ziggler and Lana cut an awful promo about their newly established romance. Rusev interrupts with Summer Rae, culminating in Rae slapping Lana. A skirmish ensues, until Rusev and Rae flee. Worst segment of the night.
Dean Ambrose talks to a Terminator statue.
Sheamus defeats Neville via Brogue Kick.
King Barrett defeats Jack Swagger via Bullhammer.
Kane and Seth Rollins defeat Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, after Bray Wyatt attacks Reigns on the outside. Rollins and J&J triple powerbomb Reigns through a table, and Wyatt hits Reigns with a Sister Abigail.
Reactions and Grades
This week’s Raw was only somewhat better than last week, if you can believe that. Even without Brock Lesnar making any appearances, the show had fewer shortcomings and more high-quality matches than last week’s show.
One of the biggest things to happen on Raw was the United States Championship Open Challenge between Cena and Cesaro. The match is a bona-fide Match of the Year candidate, a sentiment many agree with, including this writer. Whilst the long-term plans for Cesaro may be eternally in question, he can without a doubt put on a great match when called upon to do so.
However, on the other side of the coin, we had the garbage segment that was Ziggler and Lana “going public” with their relationship status. Andy likes to think that Bray Wyatt’s character is insulting to his intelligence, so I can only imagine what he would say about this segment. Any mouth-breathing idiot with a double-digit IQ could understand that Lana and Ziggler were in a relationship.
The way Ziggler stumbled through the promo made it all seem about as convincing as a parlor trick, and the crowd randomly deciding to chant “what?” after Lana paused between sentences practically ruined anything they could have said. Call me crazy, but if she’s supposed to be adored and loved by the fans, they wouldn’t be doing that in the first place, even if the crowd this week was terrible throughout the night.
The only somewhat decent thing coming out of this segment was Summer Rae, in a shocking twist. Her natural ability on the mic beats both of the Bella Twins’ mic ability, combined, which is the last thing I was expecting. Seeing how Rae has been inexplicably nerf’d since being called up from NXT, I never thought I’d say that she was the best part about any segment. But, the ensuing “catfight” that happened after Rae slapped Lana brought it back down. Way to turn the whole segment into a joke.
Other than that, the opening segment and main-event angle with The Authority, whilst entertaining to begin with, were a little bit dragged out. When combined with a dead crowd, that’s disastrous. And the whole angle is beginning to merge and absorb other angles, such as the Reigns/Wyatt feud. Whatever makes up for Lesnar’s absence in the run-up to his match at Battleground, I suppose. All in all, Raw wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t great either.
Overall Grade: B-
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