GIVING IT TO YOU RAW…What Happened Last Night (Oct. 13th, 2014)

With the Fall Season of 2014 in full swing, it’s interesting to see how RAW develops as the year presses on.  Last night’s episode was a bit of grab-bag in my opinion.  You’re glad you’re getting it for free but at the same time, half of what’s in it you could do without.  Nevertheless, I was somewhat intrigued by what transpired.  Nothing left my jaw on the floor but, I found it interesting how some of our old standards are evolving, even impressing.  It’s always nice to see what others can do, especially when you didn’t expect much from them at all. Quite frankly, there were plenty of pleasant surprises amongst the usual slag this time around.

We open with the “Lunatic Fringe”, Dean Ambrose coming out to the ring with a few things on his mind.  This is somewhat understandable because there’s a lot going on both in the context of the storyline and in the WWE Universe reality.  We’ve got Hell in a Cell coming up, John Cena’s getting in the way of him kicking Seth Rollins’ ass which, as we all know, is Ambrose’s job and all that aside, he’s got this great opportunity, to establish himself as a top contender in these upcoming matches.  To drive that final point home, Cena comes out and let’s Ambrose know that he’s ready and willing to party and that Ambrose, from here on out, better have his game-face on.  Now of course, before anything too interesting happens, The Authority in Triple H and Stephanie McMahon strut out and playfully debate whether the 2 gentlemen before us can make nice for any amount of time.  To test, our BabyFace duo is set for a Triple Threat Tag Team Match, starting........now. They can have at Gold & Stardust and The Usos.  So, it’s another “let’s get a bunch of people in the ring” but the catch is everyone is kinda against each other. This opening wasn’t so much about the match but the set-up.  We’ve got all this potential juiciness with the Ambrose/Cena tension and though there’s the rivalry between the true tag-teams, it’s really all about how Ambrose and Cena play together or if they can.  Can this company contain 2 main Faces?  *shrug* After some solid back and forth, Cena and Ambrose get the win and are then set for the Main Event at the end of the night in a no-holds-barred, Contract on a Pole Match.  Winner gets Rollins at Hell in a Cell.  Fine by me.

We then go to a Diva’s match where AJ Lee comes out loosely paired up with Layla against Paige and Alicia Fox.  This had the makings to be interesting since all the ladies actually can do something in the ring opposed to squeal and flail yet, it just boiled down to a segment of “Nobody Likes AJ”.  Towards the end of the row, AJ goes to tag Layla and Layla goes “Psych!” and leaves AJ hanging.  Well, this doesn’t stop AJ from getting the win by throwing herself at Alicia Fox but as payback for ditching her, she trounces Layla as well.  The execution was fair enough in the match but again, I have a hard time believing that “crazy” is what enables AJ to win.  I don’t doubt she has quite an arsenal of athleticism and moves at her disposal, but she’s still 10lbs.  How is she throwing anyone around?  I’m just saying, these Divas shouldn’t be afraid to rough AJ up and AJ should be nuts enough to take a beating.  I think if they just added a spoonful of edginess to these mashups, AJ would come off less like a spoiled brat and more like a wrestling diva, as would everyone else she faces.  Just an idea.

Next we have a surprise of a match in Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton.  Given their characters, you’d think Orton wouldn’t want to waste his time with this match and in his preceding promo, he voices how the match should be cake but, wouldn’t you know it, Orton may have to make some room at the bar over at The Happy Ending ‘cause Ziggler went full out.  It was actually a great match to watch.  Ziggler was gutsily insubordinate in the ring, doing all he could to counter and execute moves.  And Orton, the good performer he is, was flustered and visibly didn’t expect such a showing from Ziggler.   It was one of the keepers of the evening, for sure.  Just looking at Ziggler, it’s hard to take him seriously and sometimes, it’s hard to take Orton seriously too but last night, both did a great job of giving their characters what could almost be called a third dimension.  I’m actually slowly beginning to like Ziggler and Orton, though a heel, he is great at emulating “The Viper” persona so, you kinda like hating him but at the same time, I respect how he’s playing/blurring the lines.   I don’t know if I’d dig him in person, he does come-off like he’s a bit of a D regardless of him being a Heel or Face but I do respect his work in the ring.  I like to play along on Twitter but in the blog, I don’t mind giving either one of them their due and they both earned or at least reinforced it last night.  It didn’t even matter that Orton got the win, you kinda expected that, but it was hard-fought and Ziggler was able to display that he may just be good enough to box with the big boys.  He just might want to work on his image if he’s really serious, though.

Then we have a sort of Heel Match with Seth Rollins and Jack Swagger.  This too was a good, well executed match but, it didn’t quite have the pull that Ziggler’s and Orton’s did.  It did display that Rollins and Swagger do have some skill out there, though.  Personally, I thought the match could go either way but since Rollins is the heel everyone wants a piece of, the momentum was kept in his favor though, Randy Orton decided to slide in and pick up the save by RKO’ing Swagger after the fact.  Rollins and Orton then had some barely audible words and some suggest this is the beginning of Orton’s Face-turn but, I’m not sure if it’s gonna go quite like that.   Rollins is a little shit but Orton is a major douche.   Orton’s also got clout so, I don’t know if I’d buy a full Face-turn but I can certainly buy a “Who the hell do you think you are!” sort of exchange.  I expect Rollins to get a lot of that in the next couple of years.

Our next chapter involves the on-going New Cold War with Lana and Rusev continuing to promote themselves and Russia as being awesome and America as being so-so at best.  Well, now all "sensitivity trained", Big Show comes out to illustrate how he feels about all that.  Again, this was another solid match/performance by both Big Show and Rusev.  It’s a big guy match up so it was full of loud smacks, thuds and shakes of the arena.  Big Show definitely towered over Rusev, as he would most, and threw him around mercilessly.  Rusev was great at taking the hits and showed he’s more spry than you might have given him credit for.  For added depth, even Mark Henry comes out for patriotic support even though it all came to end in a disqualification that afforded Rusev the win.  Yet, as is often the case in WWE, a win is merely a technicality and Big Show opts for justice and lays Rusev out anyway.  Sometimes you just gotta do, what you gotta do.

Moving along, we have another match featuring The Miz with Damien Sandow continuing his role as “Stunt Double” and Sheamus.  It cracks me up that commentary even refers to The Miz as an A-lister when he’s C-List at best but whatever, it completes the Hollywood, pompous-ass persona, which he emulates quite well, probably more than he should.  In any case, the match wasn’t bad but the point of it appeared to focus more on the hijinks that ensued within and around it.  Sandow did a great job of doing his job by mimicking The Miz’s every move ringside. Sheamus came out as mostly business, with his sights definitely set on Brogue Kick-ing Miz’s ass but in his determination, The Miz managed to scamper under the ring as Sandow played the distraction card and the Miz crawled back into the ring on the other side to invoke the win via count-out.  Sheamus was left looking purposely dumb and The Miz came off fit for an ass-beating but it will have to be on another night? Smackdown maybe?  (^_~)

The next match was a Total Divas match that was basically Team Brie vs. Team Nikki in a 6-Woman Tag Team Match.  Well, I didn’t really see the need to pay too much attention to this.  I’m not a big Real Housewives of anything fan and so, the appeal of NeNe Leakes didn’t curb my inclination towards a bathroom break.  Yet, upon my return it looked as if Brie and team came out victorious so, yay!

Then, we come to the main event!  Who’s gonna get to kick Rollins’ ass?  Oh, I don’t know.  We’ll see.  The Authority finds this a match worth watching, with a contract on a pole and all so, they and cronies take to various spots around the ring.  This was again, more of a match to move along the “plot” then be really exciting.  Cena and Ambrose trade their shots, nothing really different from what we’ve been seeing from them.  Towards the end, Dad/Kane and Rollins start to circle.   Dad attempts to throw a wrench in the works but Cena isn’t having it and adjusts his attitude.  Ambrose looks like he’s about to go for his usual bait but opts for the contract instead and with Cena too focused on whomever else may want a piece, Ambrose walks away with the prize.   How’s about that? Well, if anyone’s gonna kick Rollins’ ass, it should be Ambrose.  Yeah, Rollins mucked up Cena’s Night of Champions but Cena's been there, done that.  Besides, it doesn’t trump betrayal.  Payback should be quite the bitch.

See You Friday,

-Nicole Alexis.