What a difference a week makes eh? Last week was your typical awesome post-mania Raw with a lot of new guys getting the spotlight and what felt like the dawning of a new age. And while this week continued that trend somewhat, it was still average at best. I don’t have a lot of time to write about it this week as well which works out because my doctor says I need to be careful about getting the rage all the time!
In Tribute To Warrior
This was necessary and the absolute right thing to do. Everyone was shocked last week when the Ultimate Warrior suddenly passed away. All of us here at SLTD Wrestling paid tribute to Warrior by each giving our thoughts on the man in a column you can read here. The fact that Vince was in the center of everyone made it even better as Vince only really appears on TV when it’s of the utmost importance, and this above all else, qualifies.
Making The IC Belt Matter
A number one contenders tournament for the Intercontinental championship you say? Sign me up! This is the kind of stuff that restores some relevance, and dare I say prestige to the IC title. You have a tournament filled with guys who will fight tooth and nail to get a shot at the belt. You have those guys be former world champions and future world champions which makes it seem more important again. This was just great to see. By the looks of it, it’s gonna either be used to give Cesaro the belt, or get him to the finals and have Swagger cost him the match. Either way, this was important and we should be doing more stuff like this.
Where’s The Actual Paige?
Last week I was super excited to see Paige debut, but it was a bit fast, and she was very timid, as I mentioned. This week, nothing really changed. She was pretty much dominated by Alicia Fox the entire time until she got in a little bit of offence and locked in the AMAZING scorpion cross lock for the win. I’m a huge fan of Paige’s from NXT, and she should be that Paige instead of this one. She has the tools, lets let her use them please!
Tag Champs? More Like Tag Chumps, Am I Right?!
For the second week in a row, The Usos had to face Randy Orton and Batista, and for the second week in a row, they were made to look like weak chumps. I know this was done just so that The Shield could come down and brawl with Orton and Batista, but why couldn’t we have it be against Los Matadores or something instead of the TAG CHAMPS!
Let Them FIGHT!
Its a crying shame that this match didn’t get to go on for longer because it was amazing. Cesaro and Henry are a match made in heaven. Cesaro is freakishly strong, but Mark Henry is the worlds strongest man. When the two meet, Cesaro needs to rely more on his speed than his power and that makes him both a Hoss and an underdog at the same time. A couple of things that bothered me about this whole segment though:
- No music for Cesaro? Bring back the French rapping!
- Heyman is amazing and there is noone better, but is Cesaro a good guy or a bad guy here? He is getting cheered in the ring, but his association with Heyman will lead to boos. The line is blurred, and not in a good way.
- Why no giant swing on Henry?
Apart from that, great showing by both men.
Hoss Fight Round 2
The third qualifying match of the night saw Sheamus go up against Jack Swagger. This was another physical match with a lot of great offence by both men, but unfortunately, a very obvious win. A lot of people thought it would end up being Swagger getting the win so that we would see a Cesaro vs Swagger final but Sheamus never really loses a match unless its on PPV or to a top tier guy, so I knew what was coming.
This Bray Wyatt / John Cena Segment
Ugh. I hate John Cena so much sometimes. He just doesn’t realise how much his childish comeback and non-funny photoshop jokes de-value his opponents. Bray Wyatt recovered from this beautifully but still, this was unnecessary and uncalled for. If Wyatt doesn’t beat Cena in the cage match at Extreme Rules, this will be more enraging.
This Was Awesome
Bad News Barrett should have really been wrestling more over the past year, but that’s a seperate issue. Barrett and Ziggler put on a hell of a show on Raw and I wish we could see them wrestle more often. Ziggler, as he often does with his opponents, made Barrett look like the greatest wrestler in the world. Not that he’s far off, as he is incredibly talented, but he was elevated by Ziggler’s immense selling of his offence.
I also really liked Barrett screaming “every bloody time” when Ziggler kicked out of the Winds of Change. A subtle character thing that a lot of wrestlers overlook.
Evolution: Past, Past and Past
So, Evolution is back. But it’s not the whole of Evolution, Flair is missing, but we’re not supposed to notice so shhhhh. The original premise of Evolution was past, present and future. Flair was the past, HHH was the present(ish) and Batista and Orton were the future. The re-formed evolution is basically all past. You could make a very thin excuse that Orton is still present as he is still young and relevant, but hes a 10 time champion, so he’s past.
I’m concerned about this feud with The Shield. If it is being done to elevate The Shield even further, then great. But if its as I suspect and HHH, Orton and Batista need to get a win back after all losing at WrestleMania then The Shield will just be fed to them and probably win a rematch on Raw the next night or something like that.
When you put that many ego’s in one group, it becomes equal parts predictable and unpredictable in all the worst ways.
That’s gonna do it for Raw Revisited for this week. Be sure to check out my new column NXT Revisited (debut column here) every Saturday @ 6PM right here on SLTD Wrestling.
Peace.
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