WWE Monday Night Raw Review: Sting Makes An Appearance, Or Does He?
By: Tim Grzecki
@tjetski971
I can't believe I'm writing this, but Roman Reigns was good on the mic Monday night. Raw opened with Reigns talking about how he won the Royal Rumble and his journey to WrestleMania and I didn't want to change the channel. For as much as I've criticized Reigns' mic work (justifiably so) tonight he was money. Daniel Bryan would follow and cut a nice promo of his own…and then "The Authority" ruined any momentum the opening segment had. Between Stephanie's promoting of the WWE Network and Triple H talking about his upcoming feud with Sting for no apparent reason, what was a good start to the show fell flat on its face.
The main focus of Raw fell flat for me as well. Why did The Authority want to cause tension between Bryan and Reigns by putting them first in a regular tag match, then a 5 on 2 handicap match? Bryan and Reigns aren't friends. They're not teaming up to face off against The Authority at the upcoming Fast Lane PPV. They're opponents. They're facing each other in the main event. So what does The Authority gain by trying to create tension between them? The logic just fell short.
Meanwhile the matches surrounding the main story line didn't contain much logic either. Big Show and Kane get disqualified in the first match because Big Show pulled Bryan out of the ring and threw him into the barricade…uh…hasn't that happened thousands of times without a dq? Where is the quality control here? Then in the 5 on 2 match Reigns gets taken out by a double choke slam for the duration of the match until the time comes for him to make the pin? How is your bad ass, powerhouse, next face of the company knocked out that long without a weapon being involved? I would get it if he went through a table or something. It was however a nice way to keep the guy (Bryan) that is a better worker in the ring and the guy who isn't (Reigns) out.
Quick thoughts:
- I'm done with Big Show and Kane, and until they do something to make J&J Security look like a threat in any way I'm done with them too.
- Remember when the Divas had time to develop their characters on-screen? How much better would the Divas division be if they still had that?
- Nice to see Rusev and Cena get physical, but each of their slams of the other onto the ramp were WEAK. Nice heel move by Rusev going after Cena's injured eye. But that segment should have ended with Cena in the Accolade (camel clutch) and the referees pulling Rusev off, not with Rusev walking away when the refs appeared.
- Another great Wyatt vs Ziggler match. Love how good their finally making Wyatt look, hate that it's at the expense of Ziggler.
- Wyatt is rumored to be taking on Undertaker at WrestleMania, his promo tonight referencing death was the first clear sign that could be in the works.
- I like the pairing of Cesaro and Kidd but at some point they need to have time to talk. In fact the entire tag division needs time to talk. Much like the Divas there just hasn't been any time devoted to developing the characters of these teams.
- Ambrose looked jacked…well jacked for Ambrose. He should be cutting longer promos though.
- The BNZ is stupid. I've never been impressed with Bad News Barrett but if his character is going to have any future he deserves better.
- The production for Sting's acceptance of Triple H's challenge was done very well. It was obviously a body double though. Which makes me wonder why they didn't use a body double sooner to really capitalize on Sting's first appearance at Survivor Series? A wide shot of a body double in the rafters overlooking the arena from time to time would have gone a long way and added some weight to this feud.
