Continuing the trend from last week, this week’s Monday Night Raw featured some solid matches and even some good story telling. Nevertheless, there were several moments that were stagnant that hurt the overall quality of the show.
For one, seeing the finish of the Daniel Bryan/Bella Twins tag match with Ted DiBiase/Maryse/Alicia Fox was impossible if you sneezed. Wasting a guy like Bryan’s talent on such of a waste of a match is a slap in the face to the people who tuned in to see real wrestling action. DiBiase has good in-ring skills and would be able to put on a good match with Bryan. Let the fans see a 15-minute match between the two. Maryse and Fox can be solid top-tier acts in the Diva division, which pales in comparison to TNA’s Knockouts. Putting all of these people in a situation like this is just a waste of fans’ time.
The same thing goes for the ridiculous angle between LayCool and Nattie Niedhart. Why would the WWE waste a match up between Melina and Niedhart and develop heat between the two, to only bring in a new feud a week before the Royal Rumble?
Things like this hampered Raw this week, but there were positives as well.
Seeing the Corre meet up with the New Nexus was interesting. While the match between Wade Barrett and CM Punk was more of a tease, Punk is beginning to hit his stride creatively. Having more time to develop his role as a sadistic cult leader, Punk has been better, mainly because the bizarre antics are over and he can sell the angle through his mic ability, which is easily one of his strong points.
Continuing to push the group, the tag match Nexus had with tag champs Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella was a showcase of Husky Harris. Reminding us of his father Mike Rotunda at times, Harris is still green and needs to work on his conditioning more. Nevertheless, there’s some promise with him and his finishing move, reminiscent of Frank Kazarian’s swinging Complete Shot. Overall, even if you hated what Nexus brought to the table, Harris has a unique style worth watching.
The other big matches, especially between Edge and The Miz were mostly teases for the Rumble, but were entertaining. Edge got a pop from the fans and it’s obvious that Raw needs more stars like him. Adding extra faces from Smackdown has spiced things up some as well, but has eroded the whole branding differences between the two shows.
But that’s what bad ratings eventually do to professional wrestling, as the WWE continues to mix and match with as many different combinations as they can. Will they eventually be able to?
At this point who knows, but at least the overall quality of the matches has been stepped up some.
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