JUST A LITTLE RAW…An Abridged and Belated Overview of Monday Night (Sept. 29th, 2014)

Just because I had to move, doesn’t mean I can’t still watch my wrassling. Some people have Game of Thrones, others have The Real Housewives of Wherever and I have RAW and SmackDown.  It pained me to miss it this past Monday but, I had to unpack and honestly, I’m glad I did.  Don’t have it hanging over my head.  Anyway, since I’m all late, I was able to peruse the interwebs to see what were the most interesting matches and then took a gander on the Youtubes.  They weren’t bad but there were some glimmers of hope so…I’ll say progress can certainly be made.

The first match I watched was the Dean Ambrose/John Cena mayhem but, naturally, I’ll close with that so we’ll begin with the match between Mark Henry and Bo Dallas.  Now, I think the beauty of Mark Henry is that he’s so convincing, it doesn’t really matter if he’s a Heel or a Face.  Rumor has it that he’s being set up for a Heel-turn but, given what’s going on, it may not matter.  He’s entertaining to watch either way and ultimately, I think that’s how a wrestler ought to be.  One should be able to play either side with equal conviction.  Do we not all have these sides of ourselves?

In any case, Mark Henry started off strong, as you all saw, but in somewhat quick fashion, Bo Dallas simply waited for him to do himself in.  A good tactic actually because when you’re outmatched all you have left are your wits. Well, not too surprisingly, Mark Henry could've done without this and roughs Dallas up backstage.  I had to give it to Dallas, though.  He was quite convincing, even throwing in a body twitch or 2 after getting tossed around.  It was effective and Henry is intimidating by default so all he had to do was, be menacing which he definitely knows how to do.  Thumbs up, guys!

Next, I had a look at the Rusev vs. Big Show match, which turned out to be another well-executed outing by the 2 of them.  Rusev shows that he speaks the King’s English [Whaat?! (^_-)] and that he is leery of those who have kicked his ass.  And Big Show, the veteran that he is, played along brilliantly.  Even though nothing happened, it was nice to see the spirited back and forth.  You see, little glimmers of hope.

Then it was to the precursor and the actual main showdown.  This was actually fun.  So, Ambrose got himself the Money in the Bank briefcase and Seth Rollins is all steamed up about it.  Ambrose did a great job of teasing everybody in the segment and I liked how he led Rollins right to his “surprise” of getting jizzed in the face with some green slime.  Hi-larious!  Good ole fashioned hijinks, it’s always nice to see some humor thrown into this stuff.  Personally, I think they should try to be funnier…less in a corny way but just straight up funny.  I know one step at a time but that’s kinda why I think they should get back to more off-the-cuff trash/shit talk.  That sort of thing gets the juices flowing and allows us to get a feel for who’s out there and not so much what the writers drum up.   Ambrose is great at this and Rollins is great at being a punk-ass. I don’t know how he doesn’t get sick of himself but, the fact that he can authentically conjure that sentiment means something. 

To go off topic a bit, that’s what I have come to respect about Triple H in my old age.  Back in the day, I hated him.

Him and D-Generation X all that shit, I hated!  Couldn’t stand him and in retrospect, it cracks me up because even though I knew it was all staged, he did a great job of making me sick.  He was and still is able to evoke these strong, visceral reactions to something that for all intensive purposes can be classified as bullshit.  I bought it and was eager for more.  That sort of thing is what made the Attitude Era great.  People were really selling it, back then.  Now, you can see the writing on the page.

But back to RAW.  So, we were set up for later with some cat and mouse and mousetrap along with John Cena getting involved.  He still wants a piece 'cause of Night of Champions and Ambrose is all like, “not ‘til I’m done” which we all know will be never.  Not to mention, The Authority trying to get Dad (Korporate Kane) and Randy Orton somewhat excited about earning back their street-cred with a Tag Team match with John Cena and Dean Ambrose…again.  Well, tit for tat is what this business is about and so they go for it.  And it wasn’t a bad match.   The Heels did their Heel work and put the Faces in their so-called place but it all leads to payback so we’ll see where they go.  This stuff isn’t fun if the win is too easy, now is it. All in all, don’t think I missed much but glad to be all caught up.

See You Friday…

-Nicole Alexis.