First of all, props to WWE, what a great show. I've been saying for weeks now that the product is starting to get stale again but this week I've been (again) proved wrong. Money in the Bank wasn't an awful show, in fact I quite enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of the MITB ladder matches, regardless of who is in them and who wins them, I just think it's a great concept and usually a great match. The end result of the PPV was Cena winning the titles, and to be honest I'm not as butthurt as most fans, yes they could have made one of three potential huge stars tonight (Reigns, Cesaro or Bray Wyatt) but they took the safe way out and gave it to Cena. I'm not disappointed, I'd rather Cena than Orton, Sheamus, or Del Rio (who hasn't been relevant since 2011, why was he even in the match?), I know Cena's only holding it until Lesnar comes back, which is fine. In fact that makes me glad they didn't give it to one of three future stars, because they'd immediately be fed to Lesnar really early in their reign, which would be a shame.
Anyway, coming off a strong PPV, WWE delivered a really entertaining Raw. It opened with the reveal of the WWE 2K15 cover star, which was (unsurprisingly) John Cena. The promos cut by both Cena and the Authority were pretty weak, especially Triple H attempting a Boston "bro" accent. I'm not gonna lie, Cena will sell the game better than someone like Bryan or Cesaro, because people know his face, he's the mainstream star, and he pretty much epitomizes professional wrestling in the 21st century. The Authority then reveals that Cena will face Randy Orton, "The Demon" Kane (which seems to be his full name now..) and Roman Reigns for the World Title at Battleground. I think it'll be a decent match, Cena will obviously retain, Reigns will be screwed by Triple H, and most likely a bit of a confrontation between Orton and Kane will cost them both the title. Afterwards came a solid match between the new "Mr Money in the Bank", Seth Rollins and Rob Van Dam, the match cut to break mid way through so they weren't given much of an opportunity to tell a great story. But they are two very strong workers, RVD can still go with the best, he had a fantastic match with NXT champion Adrian Neville on NXT, nothing standout but basically what you'd expect. The promo afterwards by Dean Ambrose, however, was incredible. He has really been on his game since The Shield parted ways, he's been a breath of fresh air lately and is definitely giving Bray Wyatt a run for his money.
Then came a rather forgettable match with The Wyatt Family taking on The Uso's and Sheamus, I think WWE made a mistake not putting the tag titles on Harper and Rowan at MITB, it seems as if they're beating the champions week in, week out but somehow can't beat them at the PPV... #WWElogic. Then a Divas match involving the Bella's and the Funkadactyles. The less said about that one the better.
Ok, Cesaro went in to a match with Kofi Kingston, Cesaro apparently took a blow to the eye resulting in an injury and the match ending during the break, which is damn unfortunate because if the injury is serious that's another star with great momentum and potential added to the injury list, along with Wade Barrett. As much as I like Cesaro I didn't pay much attention to the match, but the fact that it ended during a break caught my attention, the post match beatdown was actually quite brutal, and honestly more interesting. I just hope Cesaro recovers quickly because he's due a big push really soon. The Great Khali then returned (he was gone?) and beat down Damien Sandow, who was dressed as Vince McMahon, in about 8 seconds.
On Twitter hours before Raw Triple H revealed that a former WWE champion would return to Raw tonight, of course much speculation started with CM Punk, Flair, Hogan etc. but the almost universal reaction was "Triple H is trolling us with the Miz", and they were right...sort of. The Miz was the former champion returning...but then out came the guy that some fans were muttering the name of when Triple H tweeted his message; Y2J Chris Jericho. The crowd popped massively, Jericho's only been gone a year, but it seems that whenever Jericho returns he always gets the biggest reaction of the night. Jericho is just so universally admired and respected, he's just a cool dude. He delivered a Codebreaker to the Miz and was about to cut a promo when the Wyatt's static hit. Another great moment, just Jericho standing in the ring surrounded by the Wyatt Family was incredible, they beat him down as you'd expect and then crashed to commercial in typical WWE style. Personally I'm looking forward to Jericho vs Wyatt feud, they had a brilliant match together on NXT last year so I think it'll really deliver at Battleground. Ziggler then faced Fandango in one of the most bizarre endings to a match I've ever seen. It was a fairly short match, again I didn't pay much attention. Summer Rae ran in during the match and made out with Ziggler for some reason, then Fandango got mad, Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag and won the match, and both Summer and Ziggler seemed to enjoy the kiss...I'm not sure what to make of this but whatever.
Next up is a tag match between Rybaxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel, not some kind of hemorrhoid cream or something) vs Goldust and Stardust. Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a Cody Rhodes fan, he's brilliant and Stardust is a testament to Cody Rhodes' talents. He can really make anything work, if this is building to a feud between the two I think Goldust vs Stardust will be a much more interesting feud than Cody vs Goldust. However I think once that feud is done with, Cody needs to go back to being Cody, otherwise this gimmick becomes pointless.
Verdict: 8/10
A very strong Raw, plenty of talking points but no contenders for Match of the Year, hopefully WWE keep on this form and we see plenty more surprises down the line in the near future.
I'm hoping to start reviewing Raw every week so stay tuned, thanks for reading.
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