GIVING IT TO YOU RAW…What Happened Last Night (Feb. 2nd, 2015)

The Royal Rumble aftermath clean-up continues, Enthusiasts and I’m not sure how long it’ll take.  Yet, we did see that the WWE is trying to meet us half-way and I suppose the attempt at compromise should be welcome.  It’s better than pressing forward with what clearly doesn’t work but, will the new incarnation fall just as flat?  I have no idea, Enthusiasts.  I wouldn’t say last night was promising, though there were some great matches, there was a lot of chatter and the bulk of the chatter just wasn’t necessary.  I understand the WWE needing to set the record straight but the point shouldn't be missed as to why We’re all met.  We want good wrestling, and more importantly we want to be reassured that the WWE can provide it.  It is the biggest in the business for a reason, isn't it?  It should focus on displaying what got it there and prove why it should remain on top.

We open in Denver, Colorado and we await this “announcement” that Triple H is slated to give that’s supposed to shake the WWE to “its core”.  To begin, The Authority greet us and Triple H sticks to his Heel roots and does what one would expect someone fronting a corporation would do to explain a recent mishap and/or failure.  He passes blame.  In this case, Triple H could blame a lot people, note how none of whom come from within the WWE Ranks.  It’s The Rock's fault for interfering.  It was Dad (Kane) and Big Show for doing sloppy jobs.  And you know who really pissed me off…fucking Sting!  Who the hell does that guy think he is!  Hasn’t even really been in a match yet and he’s causing all kinds of trouble.  Well, fuck that guy.  Let’s get to the real issue at hand.  This year’s Royal Rumble.  A lot of you are upset and I understand that.  Hell, I’m upset.  If it wasn’t for The Rock, we’d probably have a different outcome here but, it is what it is.  Yet, though what’s done is done.  Should this really be our set up going into WrestleMania?  Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar?  We the Audience let it be known that We’d prefer it to be just about anything else when, what’s this? Reigns' music announces his presence and he appears with a look of consternation upon his face.  He makes his way down and to the ring and for once, clearly and succinctly expresses his chagrin.  Hey!  I won that damn match and now you’re gonna take it from me!  This is bullshit!  I won and I’m going to WrestleMania.  I don’t give a fuck about what you gotta say.  Triple H is great here and stares him down. With the mic nowhere near his face, he has some words.  Oh, I know you’re not talking to me like that.  Have you lost your damn mind?  I will pick you up and set you down right now and fire you after!  Acting like I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, I should kick your goddamn ass… But before Triple H could settle into a flashback, Stephanie McMahon steps in and tells the boys to settle down.  She looks to Reigns, basically saying that this dispute isn’t a good look.  Do you want this to be a part of your family’s legacy?  Your father, your uncles, your cousins all have great reputations with the WWE.  Do you want yours blighted?  Family is a huge factor for our Samoan faction and this backs Reigns down.  But hold on.  Someone else has something to say about this supposed WrestleMania booking and that someone is Daniel Bryan.  Bryan strolls out and he remembers something about a rematch clause since he’s had his Heavyweight title stripped from him as he recovered from surgery.  Well, if Bryan has something to say, Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins does as well.  He along with J&J Security storm down the ramp and stomp around saying he deserves a chance at the top spot too.  This is a pickle…how’s about this? Triple H begins.  Why don’t we have a match tonight, Bryan vs. Rollins?  Winner of that takes on Reigns at Fast Lane and whoever wins that match, takes on Lesnar at WrestleMania.  How’s that sound?   Bryan looks to Reigns; you know we’d kill it, right.  Rollins then looks to Reigns; what are you some little bitch?  You not gonna take that?  Reigns actually does a great job of trying not to kick Rollins’ ass right there. Though, I would hope he would in the future when it comes to these types of confrontations but, one thing at a time.  Without much deliberation, Reigns accepts the challenge.   And there you have it, a sort of do-over starting with the night’s main event.  But first, Reigns go at Big Show again.

This set up was a bit long-winded, even for RAW standards but it does set a decent tone.  It allows Reigns to handle some of this controversy on his own and show us what he’s got and if he’s made of the right stuff.  It also gives 2 other great wrestlers a chance to entertain Us and perhaps get their due, which is really all We’re asking for.  Though there are plenty of haters, I don’t really think Reigns has lost too much of the crowd.  Who’s with him, is with him be it for the right reasons or not.  All he has to do is concentrate on not sucking and more than likely he’ll win Us over.  Personally, I like Reigns.  I see his potential and only hope that it’s properly encouraged.  I want him to go over but I want him to do so honestly and organically.  He hasn’t had his “moment” yet.  Bryan had one and it was tremendous and epic when We the Audience embraced the YES! Movement with great zeal.  Dolph Ziggler had his recently in that great match he had with Cesaro where we all realized he can actually put on a great fucking match.  I haven’t seen that moment with Reigns yet.  I get the feeling WWE Management wants that to happen ASAP but, these things happen when they do.  Creative can help (hopefully) but, it’s up to Reigns in the end.  When it happens, I just hope it’s amazing.

In any case, Big Show lumbers out to the ring and they have a better match than usual and I think it mostly has to do with it playing to one of Reigns' strengths, getting his ass kicked.  Like I keep saying, he takes hits like a champ and tonight was another fine display of him just getting beat.  This game is certainly rigged with Seth Rollins and J&J Security circling the ring, taking whatever cheapshots they can get.  Big Show, seeing how his movement is not so good, makes with the power moves to sit Reigns down as quickly as possible.  Reigns does what he can to stay on his feet but Rollins sees an opening and clocks him with the Money in the Bank briefcase.  Then, Big Show Chokeslams Reigns for the win.  I liked this.  He needs to “lose” more often because he should be human, because he obviously is seeing how the bulk of Us have yet to be fully sold on him.  The rumors about the internets suggest a Heel-turn for Reigns but as I said on the Twitters, I’m pretty sure he’ll go more the way of Randy Orton.  He’s got a bad boy look and jock attitude so him being “bad” works.  That will probably get us to come around to him on the back end regardless of how long this “push” takes (^_~)

Up next, We try not to laugh as Curtis Axel makes his way out to contend how the Royal Rumble went for him.  He didn’t even get to compete!  And if he did, he’d be the one going to WrestleMania.  We hear Dean Ambrose’s music and out comes our “Lunatic Fringe” to promptly “eliminate” Axel so we can scratch that off the “To-Do” List.  He then takes the mic.  You know what, since we’re all taking about titles and championships, I want one too.  So, I’m gunning for the Intercontinental Championship.  BNB…I’m coming for you!  I think this will work well for Ambrose.  The Intercontinental Championship revolves around the top of the mid-card field which are actually solid wrestlers.  I think this will only help Ambrose’s game.  He’ll be challenging for the top spot in the years to come and it will be glorious!

To follow, we have some tag team action with the Brothers Dust up against The Ascension.  I have to admit, Commentary overshadowed the actual match.  I don’t really remember what they were bickering about but it felt like they forgot all about us and just went at each other for a little bit.  When they come back to the match, The Ascension have taken advantage of Dust Miscommunication and pull off their Fall of Man for the win.  The brothers leave the ring fighting about the match and backstage, Goldust tries to get his brother’s, Cody Rhodes’, attention.  Stardust hisses back to never call him “Cody” again…

We then arrive at our weekly taste of John Cena who comes out to officially welcome our previously dismissed heroes back to the fray. Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan make their way out to be pulled back into the bosom of the WWE Universe.  It’s good to have you guys back!  Cena gives a shout out to Sting for helping him fight the Good Fight and thanks his fellow heroes for having his back during Survivor Series.  Before we can get too chummy though, Stephanie McMahon comes out to break up the party.  Yeah, it’s great to have you guys back.  So great in fact, I missed seeing your asses get kicked on a nightly basis.  Why don’t we get you guys back into the swing of things, huh?  Ziggler!  How ya doing there, buddy?  Why don’t you have a match with Bray Wyatt.  Rowan honey, why don’t you see what Rusev is about.   And The Big Guy, Ryback, how ya doin’?  You can start things off with Luke Harper right…now.

Well, this bout was the loud clash that you’d expect.  Both behemoths went at each other, full tilt and it was fun to watch.  Ryback showed off his strength by candle-sticking Harper before a bodyslam and Harper made sure that Ryback tasted the business end of his shoe.  Yet, after a full-bodied MeatHook to Harper, Ryback takes the win.

That takes us to the next match between Jimmy Uso with Jey and Naomi on the sidelines for support and Cesaro with Tyson Kidd and Natalya backing him up.  This was a solid match.  If someone was just channel surfing, I would have liked them to land on a match like this.  It’s what solid wrestling fare should look like.  It’s a good standard example of the quality that should separate the professionals from the amateurs and Cesaro has a lot to do with that.  Jimmy does execute a sweet Superkick to Cesaro at one point but, Cesaro capitalizes upon an opportunity when Jimmy misses a “Splash” and he counters with an uppercut.  With Jimmy laid out, Cesaro takes the win.

The next match is absolutely phenomenal with Dolph Ziggler and Bray Wyatt just going for it.  This match also exemplifies one of my basic blog points.  It doesn’t matter who “wins” or “loses”.  It’s all predetermined so all wrestlers need to do is focus on execution and sell this shit.   Wyatt and Ziggler do this brilliantly.  Wyatt was devious with Ziggler, choking him with the ropes, pounding him with fists, slamming him into turnbuckles, just doing whatever he can to run Ziggler into the ground.  But you know “Scrappy McScapperton”.  Nothing keeps our peroxided hero down and he keeps getting up to do whatever he can to return Wyatt’s favor.  Yet, after Ziggler works up some speed, Wyatt counters by leading Ziggler into a Sister Abigail and earns himself the win.

We then have some Divas action with Paige taking a shot at Alicia Fox.  The Bella Twins do us the “favor” of sitting in on Commentary, doing their best Kardashian impressions.  The match goes quickly and I was fairly distracted by the Bellas actually so, I didn’t really get into the match but after a brief back and forth, Paige gets the win.  As for the Bellas, didn’t really care for them.  Granted that’s the point right now but, like I said before, if they’re gonna be bitches, they either have to be fucking B’s which is what they kinda are when they “spray tan” Paige backstage or at least funny while they’re being bitches.  Right now, they just come off as bitches.  Though not the most appropriate suggestion, I’d say they go a little Greek Myth with this shit and take a few pages out of Hera’s book.  She’s the biggest bitch of them all (next to Cinderella's Step-Mother), just rain on Divas’ parades inside the ring and out.  Should work well for Total Divas too.

Afterwards, The Miz and Sin Cara have themselves a match to further sell the melodrama between Miz and Damien Mizdow.  Apparently, their break-up is nigh and that is illustrated with a backstage tantrum from The Miz.  The match itself comes off staged ‘cause it is and with The Miz generally distracted, Sin Cara is able to keep those in favor of Lucha Underground somewhat still interested.

We take to our playbills to see that Rowan’s match with Rusev is next.  Well, Rusev doesn’t even let Rowan get to ring.  He sticks to his fiendish ways and ambushes our special hero.  John Cena warned Rowan about Rusev when we got to see a little of Rowan’s character in a backstage promo.  He seems like he’s just been misguided and hard-done. This match with Rusev appears to confirm that when he settles Rowan into The Accolade until Rowan passes out.  He stands in triumph only to have the Russian Flag get caught in its mechanics.  Rusev promptly flies off the handle to remind us that we are always at war with Eurasia…for now.

Finally, we make it to the main event and it is stellar.   It really is great to see wrestlers who have great chemistry and Rollins and Bryan demonstrate why.  And seeing how they are more or less in the same weight class, they go for it relentlessly.  Bryan comes out with kicks and armbars.  And Rollins does what he can to be Heel Supreme by going for Bryan’s known weak spots with J&J helping with the cheapshots.  There is one nearly cinematic moment when Bryan is on the ground, up against a turnbuckle seemingly out of steam.  He decides to go to Us for support and points his fingers upwards and We chant YES!  The energy We give charges his Health Meter and he’s back into the fray.  Big Show eventually comes out to lend Heel support and to possibly interfere when the time comes but that plan gets wholly interrupted by Reigns taking Big Show out with a spear in front of the ramp, allowing Bryan to nail Rollins with a Flying Knee for the win.  Bryan dedicates this one to Us and things like that, keep us rooting for him.

Now, it’s to Smackdown to clean up the rest of this mess.

See You Thursday,

-Nicole Alexis.