WWE RAW Power Rankings: Three-Hours of Slow-Paced Hell

The last RAW before this Sunday’s Hell in a Cell was an absolute stinker. Meaningless matches and lazy mic worked fueled a show that was supposed to set up what actually appears to be a decent pay-per-view card. For the most part, it didn’t. While Hell in a Cell might turn out OK, this RAW did nothing to ensure a higher buy rate.

Check out our weekly RAW Power Rankings to see who are the faces to watch this Sunday at Hell in a Hell.

Honorable Mention: Paul Heyman: His promo work this week was the best on the show. It was one of the few instances where someone did a decent job of selling their match at the pay-per-view.

5:The Big Show: His interruption of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon’s opening segment was an emotional one. Despite not being in a match in a while, Big Show’s stock continues to grow. At this point, Show needs a match with Triple H. That’s the only thing that’s going to delegitimize his character. Regardless, his journey the last few months has been one of the most interesting elements of RAW.

4: Shawn Michaels: “The Showstopper” added some much-needed comedy and common sense to this week’s show. His comments that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have “grown up” and don’t take Daniel Bryan seriously the same way the WWE didn’t take them seriously, those were well-crafted. Make no mistake, HBK will play a role in Hell in a Cell.

3: Randy Orton: Much like Bryan, WWE Creative wasted Orton in a meaningless, but solid match with Dolph Ziggler. How this builds hype for Hell in a Cell is a mystery. Orton needed more time on the microphone over the last few weeks and despite the fact that he’s been dominant in the ring, he needed to make a bigger statement.

2: CM Punk: “The plan is to put Ryback to sleep.” It’s wasn’t Punk’s best promo ever, especially when he said that his legacy would be carved by what occurs at Hell in the Cell (A bit ridiculous, eh?), but he was full of energy and proves “The Best in the World” wants to destroy Paul Heyman at this weekend’s pay per view. The only question is , where does Punk go after this? His tag match with Big E. Langston points to bigger things for the rookie, while Punk’s future remains cloudy as a London morning.

1: Daniel Bryan: A solid opening match between Bryan and Dean Ambrose killed about 20 minutes of the show, but you can’t blame Bryan for it. It’s sad that WWE Creative put him in a match that meant nothing and chose later to waste him in a silly contract signing segment later in the show.

mm
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.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*