Five Good, Bad, & Ugly Things About WWE Raw (7/6/2014)

So, I’m hoping this is a new thing. I was gonna make this thing a list but there are so many things that Raw gives you, it’s like a giant wrestling smoothie with all these components that work in tandem.

My aim isn’t to repeat the review that’s already posted because that would be both extraneous and pointless. It’s not meant to bash WWE Raw or the product…I think, with the bad, there’s some good to be found.

Rather, I wanted to share some of the things I noticed on the show and, perhaps, point out some of the winners, losers, and overall thoughts.

Kinda like the Oscars only intentionally funny and there are no boring speeches where I thank my cousin for inspiring me.

Let’s begin.

The Good

• Roman Reigns. Dude is a five-tool player for the WWE. Yes, that’s usually a baseball term. No, I have no idea how one would equate that to pro-wrestling, but it is what is. You’re either in or you’re out here. Reigns survived the break with The Shield, has already challenged for the big title, beating Rusev (of all people) to get there…and he occasionally hits on Renee Young who’s either too turned on (or frightened – let’s be honest here) to do anything about it. Kane standing there, glaring? No biggie. Reigns calls him names. Kane angry from the name-calling, making a bee-line to the ring? Reigns is on that. In face, he gets OUT of the ring and walks TOWARD Kane.

• Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose was the match of the night and much better than what I had expected. Their match on Smackdown was blah, at best, so maybe it’s the fact that anything looks good next to that match (and the fact that Ambrose lost — clean — was baffling and a bit of a disappointment) but it was clear both men gave it their all.

• Chris Jericho just gets better with age. The guy hasn’t lost a step since returning.

• Cameron and Naomi break up after the big Divas tag match with AJ Lee and Paige. Personally, that’s really a non-issue for me. I DID love JBL’s remark as they were all over each other and both fell out of the ring, continuing to fight on the floor: “Looks like funk is on a ROLL, huh?” Somewhere, Brodus Clay is smiling.

• Paige looked 110% better just being tag partners with AJ Lee. AJ lends some legitimacy to her run as a Diva. With AJ as the title-holder, there’s little ego there. Paige seems to be a lot happier and not so pent-up in the ring.

The Bad

• The Usos have GOT to be booked to win more than they lose. They’re an incredible team. One of the best WWE has. Watching them reminds me of a Rocker-Superfly hybrid…yet, they’re booked like crap. The Wyatts come in, night after night, kick them all over the ring and look like they should be the tag team champs. Even the New Age Outlaws didn’t lose this much when they were given the tag belts.

• Alicia Fox is terrible. Her “psycho girl” angle is too little, too late. Nobody cares about it because WWE spent so much time making her uninteresting to the fans. It’s even worse when she’s paired with a Diva the WWE is treating like a Daniel Bryan proxy in Nikki Bella in a spot where Fox is supposed to thrash her and ends up…modestly kicking her a few times and dumping soda on her. Nikki walked away relatively unscathed and more annoyed than angry…and that’s supposed to make fans want to see Nikki get back at Steph?

• Dolph Ziggler. After winning a couple matches and having a good showing at MITB. Losing a match. To Alberto Del Rio. Who really couldn’t care less about much of anything right now. On a distraction. By Fandango. The poor man’s Rick Rude.

• Bret Hart’s pointless segment which, I guess, was an attempt to make amends with fans who really don’t care about The Montreal Screwjob anymore. What’s worse? Being quickly upstaged by Damien Sandow, the new Santino Marella, AFTER he had already been upstaged once by Jerry Lawler.

• The Miz. Wearing Cody Rhodes’ old jacket and acting like a Jericho/Batista hybrid. In any incarnation, it’s still The Miz and I still don’t care.

The Ugly

• Rusev has crushed everyone. You sued him because he scared you. He crushed your lawyer, his lawyer, the judge and then destroyed The Avengers when they were dispatched to help. Then he was set up to fight Swagger ‘cuz ‘Murica! And then Swagger was absent ‘cuz he would have been a ‘Murican in Canada and Canadians don’t like that. So, Rusev was put in a glorified squash against RVD who’s supposed to be in the IC Title Battle Royal in a spot that did nobody any good.

• Unless Cesaro’s two-match losing streak is leading to a much-needed face turn, what’s the point of jobbing him to Kofi? Then having a severely reduced Big E come save him from the requisite post-match beatdown?

• Bo Dallas is being fed Rusev’s table scraps. ‘Cept Rusev has really eaten anyone lately and WWE couldn’t be bothered to find a storyline for him. Their solution? Well, you can’t feed him Diego again…so, why not El Torito, the very, very BOTTOM of the Jobber Barrel. I’d say it doesn’t get worse than that, but this is WWE and they’ve proved me wrong several times with Sandow’s hijinks.

• No Adam Rose this week. Another sign that WWE Creative has invented (and would like to forget) the next Seven. Remember Seven? Yeah, nobody else does either.

• Jerry Lawler’s odd pre-introduction segment of Bret Hart, in which he felt the need to pull a “Mick Foley” and draw a cheap pop by thanking the fans for their prayers when he had his heart attack and was taken to a hospital…RIGHT HERE IN MONTREAL!

…the HELL?!

• Canadian crowds are awesome and very vocal. The WWE has a bit of a “reputation” there due to the aforementioned “Montreal Screwjob”. But the past is the past and WWE has made amends with those fans. With that little stunt out of the way, there’s probably nothing more WWE could do to give the finger to the fans. Except maybe forget which province Montreal is in.

“I don’t live in San Jose, United States — just sayin’…”

(To be perfectly fair, WWE did make up for the mistake with several nice shots of the city — including Olympic Stadium — and Cole made sure to say they were in “Montreal, QUEBEC, Canada” with lots of emphasis on the middle name…so, I think they noticed their mistake.)

Best Forum Comment from the InterWebz

“No Adam Rose tonight. Honestly, I’m looking forward to an ‘Adam Rose Jobbing-Out Tour.’ Each week, he loses, and every time he loses, one of the Rosebud turns on him. Loss after loss, Rosebud after Rosebud spitting in his face and leaving afterward. The only one who faithfully sticks around is the bunny, which Rose appreciates…but, then, Adam Rose loses AGAIN, and the bunny gets in the ring and powerbombs Rose. Bunny takes off mask and reveals he was Sycho Sid the whole time. ‪#‎RUSSOSWERVE‬“

Er…that’s it.