Raw 22nd July Review/Thoughts

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Ryback is a bully now then. A couple of weeks ago he was being bullied and treated like a knob by Jericho. Then he was getting all emotional and quitting matches after getting kicked in the leg. I thought they were gonna go somewhere with him and Vickie. They seem desperate for something to stick with him.

 

I thought it was a decent enough show considering nobody turned up. Seeing the PTP's in two straight singles matches was weird but they were both decent in them. ADR vs Sheamus was mostly boring but I did like some of Sheamus and his leg struggle. That bruise was from RVfuckingD weren't it? Barrett got a nice little punt in the mush for his troubles too. Paul Heyman continues to be the most slimey and despicable (brilliant) fucker in wrestling. It's quite ridiculous how good he is. That Bryan bloke as well. I didn't enjoy DB vs Cesaro quite as much as him against Ryback (Smackdown) or some of the Shield stuff but still an awesome performance from him. Even though I like the team (cos more tag team innit) I hope they don't saddle Cesaro with Swagger for too long. He really isn't Just Another Jack Swagger.

 

I've a feeling they saved the Wyatts for the Raw tapings, where they can edit out the potential mongs. The Shield bit was uncharacteristically limp but I'm chuffed with the Uso's bit of shine lately.

 

Brad Maddox is great again and Renee Young is still lovely, all good.

[wh1007]

There was no way that Raw was going to be anywhere near as good as last weeks but saying that I've sat through worse episodes. Still not great mind.

 

Sheamus and Del Rio had a good physical match but one that I had no interest in at all(if that even makes sense). Del Rio seemingly has no direction at all and Sheamus has been a right bore for ages now.

 

Henry and The Usos Vs The Shield should be excellent when it happens. Mark Henry may be the greatest man of all time. He's been great with his promo delivery for ages now.

 

It's hard to know where to start with how awful the Miz TV segment was. Firstly The Miz. The Bellas came across as genuine as Nikki's tits in that clip. After introducing herself in said clip as Eva Marie, The Miz like a right goon calls her Eva Maria. Lawler follows suit and gets slapped while the others sat there looking like they'd had their souls confiscated mid segment. I hope the show tanks and they fire the lot of them.

 

I thought Christian Vs Titus was a decent enough match and Titus looked quite good. That and it was the perfect use of Christian these days.

 

I have no idea why Alex Riley was standing next to Brad Maddox but I'm on board.

 

And add me to the list of people that thought Cesaro Vs Bryan was brilliant. I've long said I can happily watch Cesaro wrestle all night but if there was one person that I'd enjoy seeing more it's Daniel Bryan. He's had a phenomenal year in the ring so far and the crowd are solidly behind him. I reckon they could blow the roof off of SummerSlam if he bags the gold there. I'd love to see it happen.

[Arch Stanton]

Gutted not to see any Wyatt stuff, but I thought that booking Bryan vs Kane for next week at the close of the show was a bit of a masterstroke. You know the Wyatt Family will show up then.

 

On the whole it was a lacklustre show, save for Bryan's heroics in the main event.

 

Couldn't give any less of a fuck about seeing Ryback and John Cena in a tables match, mind.

[METAL ON METAL]

RE: Punk's UFC reference. The way I took it to mean (perhaps wrongly) it was his biggest accolade as he went from the top in one 'sport'/profession to the top in another - sort of an "even Michael Jordan couldn't do that" intention.

 

The promo could've done without it, but I didn't find anything overly wrong with it. The commentary team big up his UFC achievements constantly.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Surprised there hasn't been a major backstage blow up about Ryback dropping Bryan on his head with that stupid ass powerbomb thing outside the ring. Bryan looked legit hurt from it, can't work out if he was supposed to go through the table first time and Ryback just lost balance or what.

 

Fandango's positioning is all over the shop too. Last week he got up way too early from the DDT and meant Orton had to readjust for the RKO (well it looked that way anyway, between not going for the pre-RKO pose and how he was acting after the match) and then going too far back and nearly letting Cody drop on his head. Just wrong place, wrong time it seems.

[Arch Stanton]

Ryback was supposed to catch Bryan and powerbomb him through the table on the first attempt, but it looked to me like it was Bryan that overshot the jump and gave Ryback a little too much to do. The resulting powerbomb onto the floor was pretty brutal, but it would be harsh if Ryback was singled out for it.

 

Stuff like this does worry me where Bryan is concerned though- he's working such an intense style and because of his size he's inevitably going to fly around a lot and take some big bumps. It would just be such a shame if he did get hurt at any point during the hottest run of his life.

[UK Kat Von D]

CM Punk said maybe about ten times before the UFC statement, as though its not his opinion but some people will have that opinion. It was a smarky thing to say sure, but that's his gimmick. (It's also his real life persona and everyone knows all good wrestling characters are amplified versions of the people playing the character.)

 

Everything Cena did this week annoying me. It's so shit when he tries to put other wrestlers over, Bryan has been doing it fine without Cena trying to do it for him. Cena always does this and it never works

[PowerButchi]

Yeah, granted, but you don't put over some of your competition's championship as the world's greatest achievement. Smarky or not. It amazed me that during such a good promo he said something so fucking stupid.

[JohnnyChimpo]

Everything Cena did this week annoying me. It's so shit when he tries to put other wrestlers over, Bryan has been doing it fine without Cena trying to do it for him. Cena always does this and it never works

I agree with this, Cena seemed really off his game this week. Really flat, or just phoning it in or something. He was incredibly wooden in that segment where he was saying to Bryan; "I just want to make sure you make it to Summerslam in once piece." Look, Cena is normally top notch, so he is entitled to be cut a little slack for an off week, but it was pretty noticeable and awkward to watch him for some reason. Hopefully, he'll be back to normal next week.

 

I also agree with maxwell on the putting over other wrestlers thing. Cena has his strong points, and just like everyone else, he has his weak points, and for me; whenever he starts to put over other wrestlers in some used car salesman 'hard-sell' mode, he comes across as phoney as fuck. I know someone else is sending him out there to say this shit, but they need to stop. He does this every now and then with a different act as they are getting over - pretty sure he did a similar style promo with Punk in the lead up to MITB in 2011. Bryan in this case, like Punk in '11, have been doing a pretty good job of getting themselves over, and almost forcing their way into the main event picture. It doesnt need Cena's hard sell routine, in fact, it almost takes me out of it altogether. I don't really know who is to blame, Cena's delivery or the guy writing it/sending him out there to say it, but that shit sucks.

 

The Shield's stock has fallen a good bit in recent months, but they still get a pretty good pop when the music hits, don't they? Hopefully they dont fall too much lower down the card.

[Duke]

Wasn't that the point? Wasn't all of Cena's performances him being all "yeah, I really like this young kid and want to give him a chance even though he's really not on my level"? I took it as him being massively patronising, and that's how D Bry is going to take it, considering his character in the past few months, surely?

[FLips]

Comes across to me as jealousy. He was obviously out there at the end to steal Bryan's heat.

[Scott Malbranque]

The Shield's stock has fallen a good bit in recent months, but they still get a pretty good pop when the music hits, don't they? Hopefully they dont fall too much lower down the card.

 

When you see them on Superstars coming out through the curtain, then they're in a spot of bother.

I reckon they're just being taken back a peg because there isn't a headline feud available for them. It's that simple.

Although Ambrose's 'Mike Sharpe/Jim Powers' entrance during MITB was disconcerting.

[LaGoosh]

Apparently Triple H gave Ryback a severe bollocking backstage for dropping Bryan on that powerbomb spot. But really it was a stupid and difficult spot in the first place that they probably shouldn't be doing on free TV. Surely someone might have thought Ryback might fuck it up? I reckon Big Show, Cena, Mark Henry, Goldberg...pretty much most big power wrestlers would have fucked that up. Triple H would never do a spot like that and I reckon he would have probably dropped Bryan too.

 

Meh, at the end of the day Ryback was fucked beforehand so it doesn't matter I suppose.

[JohnnyChimpo]

Wasn't that the point? Wasn't all of Cena's performances him being all "yeah, I really like this young kid and want to give him a chance even though he's really not on my level"? I took it as him being massively patronising, and that's how D Bry is going to take it, considering his character in the past few months, surely?

Maybe. Thats a fair enough shout. I didnt personally interpretate it like that, and just took it for bad delivery/acting. Time will tell I guess.

[King Pitcos]

[quote name='Scott Malbranque' date='Jul 24 2013, 16:57' post='2755239'

Although Ambrose's 'Mike Sharpe/Jim Powers' entrance during MITB was disconcerting.

No it wasn't. If the guys who got entrances on the pre-show did so for jobber/unimportant status, it would've been Wade Barrett or Cesaro/Swagger, not Ambrose and Fandango.