The WWE, for some reason, seems to think that fans want to see more tag team wrestling. That could be the only reason six of the seven matches on RAW this week were tag or six-man tag bouts. While the action in the ring was solid for the most part, there was little in terms of engaging storyline development.
Who cares about Tons of Funk and a flavorless WWE Tag Team title defense?
Luckily, the drama between The Authority and Daniel Bryan, John Cena and CM Punk made for more than interesting post-PPV storyline. How it’ll affect the landscape of the title scenes moving towards Royal Rumble is uncertain, but at least there’s bit more to think about this PPV cycle.
Matches:
WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs. Rey Mysterio and The Big Show: Mysterio was full of high-flying antics, but Rhodes was solid as usual and Goldust continues to prove he’s more than capable. Show was barely in the match, until he got a hot tag and began to wail on Rhodes. Lets just say the slobber-filled slaps were nearly deafening, but Show couldn’t put Rhodes away. After Show missed a second rope elbow, Goldust tried to get his team going, but a Show Chokeslam and WMD, followed by Mysterio dropping the dime while on Show’s shoulders, gave the challengers the surprising win.
Fandango w/Summer Rae vs. Dolph Ziggler: A high-energy singles battle that featured plenty of offense, counters and pin opportunities. Ziggler earned the win after he countered a Fandango knee strike into a Rollup.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E. Langston and Mark Henry vs. Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro w/Zeb Colter: An excellent tag team match that was jam-packed with power moves. While Cesaro and Swagger sold much more, it was still an old-school back and forth encounter that the fans enjoyed. Langston ended up as the hero, saving Henry from the Giant Swing from Cesaro and connecting with a massive Shoulder Block and The Big Ending to earn the win.
Brodus Clay and Tensai w/ Naomi and Cameron vs. Curtis Axel and Ryback: Clay refused to accept Tensai’s tag and Ryback won via the Shellshock. After the match, Clay Splashed Tensai twice and Naomi and Cameron danced with R-Truth and
CM Punk, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. WWE United States Champion Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins: Another high quality tag match that saw The Shield work over the Usos for the majority of the match. However, once Punk got in the match, the intensity picked up and the bodies started flying. Despite the Usos resilience, after a Punk GTS on Ambrose, Reigns was able to nail the former WWE Champion with a Spear for the win.
Alicia Fox, WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee and Tamina Snuka vs. Natalya Neidhart, Brie Bella and Nikki Bella: Snuka nailed a Super Kick on Nikki Bella that will be remembered for quite some time. After that, Lee followed up with a Shining Wizard for the win.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan: The new WWE World Heavyweight Champion had his hands full with the feisty and submission specialist early on, but Orton worked on Bryan’s arm with some strikes of his own. Orton later added more strikes and a picture-perfect Superplex, but he couldn’t keep Bryan down. Bryan countered a RKO with a nasty kick and followed it up with a Diving Headbutt from the top rope, but he too couldn’t steal the win. After a failed Rollup, Orton was put in the Crossface, but escaped. The action then skipped to the outside for a bit until Bryan hit the Front Dropkick from the top and added more kicks. Then, before Bryan could hit the final kick, Orton countered with a blatant Low Blow to get the match thrown out.
After the bell, Cena came to help Bryan, but after Cena hit Orton a few times, Orton nailed Cena with the RKO and ended the show the same way he started, with both titles held high.
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