WWE RAW Coverage: Sleep Inducing

This week’s episode of RAW dragged worse than a game of backgammon with your grandmother on a rainy day. Predictable drama ruined the quality matches and made the episode more a tease for Money in the Bank than anything entertaining.

It all started to crash in the beginning.

The opening promo for this week’s RAW started off well with Daniel Bryan, but after a few minutes, Bryan was joined by Randy Orton, Sheamus, Kane, Christian and CM Punk. It ran entirely too long and did nothing but tease the Money in the Bank ladder match. With two weeks before the pay per view, something like this was needed, but the segment’s execution was predictable and far from exciting.

Things didn’t get better as the WWE and World title montages and filler segments took away from matches that were far from stale.

Matches:

United States Champion Dean Ambrose and Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Christian, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso: The Usos and Christian had the fans buzzing after a few nice spots, but The Shield got back in the match with their signature quick tags and heel tactics. The momentum changed after a massive Super Kick from Jey on Ambrose and soon enough, Christian got the hot tag. Captain Charisma then pandered to the crowd and hit some of his signature offense. Ambrose was able to set the distraction, but Christian nearly won the with Reverse DDT. After some more fisticuffs in and around the ring, Rollins hit Christian after Ambrose countered the Killswitch, giving the United States Champion room to hit the old-school rollup for the win.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Jinder Mahal w/Heath Slater and Drew MacIntyre: Mahal was ironically in control in the early going, landing a nice chunk of strikes. Ziggler’s signature Dropkick changed the match. Less than a minute later, Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag out of nowhere for the win. After the match, he single-handedly beat 3MB and even hit MacIntyre with the Zig-Zag on the outside.

Kane vs. Randy Orton w/Daniel Bryan special guest referee: There was plenty of back and forth action in what was ultimately a solid match before Bryan’s antics. Orton got DQed after he shoved Bryan, but the referee restarted the match right after he raised Kane’s hand. Once the match restarted, the two traded blows again. Once Orton was ready to go for the RKO, Bryan allowed Kane to hit the Big Boot for the win, thanks in part to a fast count. Orton RKOed Bryan after the match.

Fandango w/Summer Rae vs. Sheamus: This match was better than you might have originally thought. Well, before the crap finish. Fueled by stiff strikes, a long-term feud between these two might not be that bad an idea. After Sheamus turned up the strikes, Fandango decided to leave the match was counted out.

The Miz vs. Ryback: Miz did everything he could to back Ryback look formidable. Stiff and fierce, Ryback destroyed The Miz in the early going. Ironically, the former WWE Champion came back with a vengeance. After he hit some of his signature offense and worked on Ryback’s legs long enough, “Cryback” asked for the match to be stopped. After the match was over, Chris Jericho nailed Ryback with the Codebreaker.

CM Punk and Curtis Axel w/Paul Heyman vs. Darren Young and Titus O’Neill: Axel didn’t want to tag Punk in early and he didn’t have to. With a slew of Clotheslines and other maneuvers, Axel was solid. O’Neill changed the momentum though and worked over Axel thanks to strikes and double-team maneuvers. Once Punk got the hot tag, it was all signature offense. After Punk hit the GTS, Axel tagged himself back in and stole the win.

Alicia Foxx vs. Kaitlyn w/Layla: Kaitlyn destroyed the former Divas Champion with the Spear. After the match, AJ Lee and Big E. Langston talked smack.

Cody Rhodes w/Damien Sandow vs. Antonio Cesaro w/Zeb Colter and Jack Swagger: Cesaro reversed the backslide into the Neutralizer in what was a rather quick match.

WWE Champion John Cena vs. World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio: A plethora of near-falls and signature offense in this closely contested Main Event. Del Rio had the upper hand for most of the encounter, but Cena was ever resilient and quick to counter. Del Rio nearly won the match with a top rope enziguri, but again, Cena wasn’t done yet. Even the distraction of Mark Henry didn’t stop Cena. But an appearance from Ziggler on the top rope got into Del Rio’s head and allowed Cena to hit the AA for the win. After the match, Henry placed the WWE title in the center of the ring and dared Cena to pick it up.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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