It was the now annual Old School Raw. And for a lot of it, it was old school fun. But it was also new school head scratchingly illogical too.
Roman Reigns pins CM Punk.
Rowdy Roddy Piper did a fantastic Piper’s Pit where he tried to pit the Shield against one another. He told Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins that they couldn’t beat Punk one on one. But it was Reigns’ turn. Reigns didn’t buy it and they were about to attack Piper when Punk and the New Age Outlaws came down to clean house.
This set up the main event later in the show where Reigns beat Punk. There were a lot of near-falls, though I thought the match built a little slowly. You could tell that Reigns still needs a lot of work, but having matches with Punk should get him up to speed quickly. Finally, Ambrose caused a distraction and Punk ate a spear and Reigns got the 1, 2, 3.
Which led to…
Jake The Snake is back!
Punk and the New Age Outlaws cleaned house, Punk hit the GTS on Ambrose and out came Jake The Snake Roberts. He looked like he was in pretty darn good shape and unleashed the new Damien on a smiling Ambrose who was “knocked out”.
But not all was well in Old School Raw land.
Brock Lesnar is now a pussy?
The segment I was looking most forward to started off fantastically. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman came out and Heyman cut a long promo about how Brock was the self-proclaimed number one contender. They are really letting us down if there’s no Orton vs. Lesnar match after Royal Rumble.
Heyman put over the single unified championship in five minutes better than Stephanie, Triple H, John Cena, or Randy Orton have done in a month. He talked about Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Stone Cold Steve Austin as old school single champions. Lesnar wore a shirt that had the words Eat, Sleep, Conquer, Repeat on it in vertical fashion, similar to Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Arrive, Raise Hell, Leave shirt. Heyman repeated the saying on his shirt many times. Mark Henry came out and Brock was waiting for him. Henry got a few shots in, but Brock quickly put him in the kimura and “broke” his arm, even though it’s a shoulder lock.
Brock also made the best face of all-time when he wrenched the kimura.
Lesnar and Heyman were about to go to the back but the angry Big Show came out. We aren’t too far away from the cry baby, sniveling Big Show whose wife was divorcing him and taking him for all he’s worth. This is the same Big Show who was punted by Randy Orton and then relegated to smiley Big Show in a tag team with Rey Mysterio. All of a sudden, he put on a beanie and Brock Lesnar decided to take a powder. He then tried to jump Show, but Show tossed him like Ronda Rousey threw Miesha Tate.
I actually don’t mind someone getting heat on Lesnar. But not the sniveling cry baby from two months ago.
Other tidbits
– Stephanie and Triple H were no where to be seen.
– Ric Flair cut a promo to start the show which set up Randy Orton to come out and pick on him and John Cena to defend them. That was the first segment and Cena and Orton were gone from the show.
– Daniel Wyatt debuted in a 6-man tag with Luke Harper and Rowan and they lost to Rey Mysterio and the Usos.
– Batista will be in the Royal Rumble.
– DDP was able to do showcase DDP Yoga.
– Too Cool was back! And they tagged with Rikishi to beat 3MB. And of course, they danced.
Raw rating
Because of all the old school stuff, it was a fun show. But it also showed how little their day-to-day acts are over. There is a special announcement from Vegas on Wednesday and who is on the marquee? Well, it’s Vince, Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and John Cena. Cena’s the only one who wrestles. I guess their network announcement will also be old school.
It gets: 4 JRs (out of 5)
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