After the first couple post-WrestleMania Raws made WWE feel like it started anew, the last two Raws made it seem like the same old stuff.
Ric Flair on Raw
In the main event segment, Evolution and the Shield came out as Randy Orton was set to face Roman Reigns one-on-one. Ric Flair came out and talked about his Evolution days, but then said he’s seen greatness come full circle and put over the Shield. Evolution was appalled and he winked at them before leaving the ring. It was a little weird.
The match between Reigns and Orton ended in a double disqualification. Evolution took the Shield apart and did so with Triple H and Batista in suits. Triple H was about to pedigree Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins hit the spring board flying knee. They cleared the ring and triple teamed Triple H. Reigns speared him and they set up the triple power bomb, but Evolution saved him.
I’m not exactly sure why Flair was on the show other than to help Evolution win on Sunday.
Bray Wyatt is creepy.
The show kicked off with John Cena in a cage talking about how the fans put him in a three-on-one. He continued to ask why. It was an interesting and nearly effective promo except, he should’ve also blamed the company for putting him into the situation to where the fans could do that. Oh well.
Then, a choir of children started singing, “He’s got the whole world.” The Wyatt’s started walking down the ring with Bray leading the singing and the choir of children walking behind him. When they made it to ringside, they were wearing sheep masks. It was pretty creative and Cena plays that weirded out/scared character well.
It was a great visual and while I’m not so sure there’s even a need for the cage match on Sunday since Cena already won round one, at the very least, Bray will be extremely over.
Kane stalks Brie and Daniel Bryan.
After Daniel Bryan was given three tombstones last week, he was back on the show in a neck brace. Stephanie McMahon wanted to apologize for what happened to Bryan last week. She apologized to Brie for putting her into that position, saying she had to take hospital rides with Triple H many times. Bryan didn’t buy it and kept calling her a liar.
To show how genuine she was, Stephanie offered Brie a Diva’s title match against Paige. The match happened until masked Kane interfered. Stephanie had promised that Kane’s mask was locked in her office. It wasn’t. Kane came up through the bottom of the ring Undertaker style and tried to pull Brie under the ring. Brie was the slowest moving scared person ever. Bryan tried to save her but Kane pushed him and Bryan took a bump that hurt his neck. He did it again. It was lame. And I’m bothered Bryan, the company’s best wrestler has to be stuck in a cartoon-like program that wasn’t fresh after 1998.
The thing that bothers me most about this is that after finally winning the title, his next program should’ve been a fresh match-up with a newly made guy like Antonio Cesaro. Or, use someone like Batista to get him over even more. Realistically, they could’ve made the Evolution vs. Shield program just a tag and had Batista go after Bryan. Wouldn’t Evolution also want the gold?
Other tidbits
– The Usos beat Rybaxel in a fun match. Let’s face it, the Usos have nothing but fun matches.
– Titus O’Neil attacked Sheamus before their match started and I thought maybe we’d see a new Titus. Nope, he ate a Brogue kick and lost.
– Dolph Ziggler and Hugh Jackman beat up poor Damien Sandow who was dressed as Magneto. No, it wasn’t entertaining.
– Cesaro beat Jack Swagger in a short, fun match. They just need to let these guys go for 15 hard minutes.
– Alberto Del Rio beat Cody Rhodes with his Cross Arm Breaker. For some reason, this made Cody mad at Goldust.
– Rusev and Xavier Woods barely got started when R-Truth interfered causing a DQ. The heel will face the two babyfaces in a handicap match on Sunday.
– Hornswaggle vs. El Torito are scheduled for a weeLC match on the pre-show match. I hope Miz interferes since he’s the king of the pre-show match.
– Bad News Barrett is your number one contender to the Intercontinental Title as he beat RVD with the Bull Hammer. Cesaro tried to interfere setting up a three-way with RVD and Swagger on Sunday.
Final thoughts
They’re lucky they have a built-in 700,000 subscribers for this show. Otherwise, it wouldn’t do a whole lot of business on PPV unless this Shield vs. Evolution feud is clicking in a way with others that it’s not with me.