WWE RAW Coverage: Viper Strikes, Cena Strong

The first hour and 15 minutes of this week’s Monday Night Raw featured just two matches and a heck of a lot of storyline.

But damn was it good, well except for the ending. While the thought of a Stephanie McMahon/Brie Bella match at Summerslam is cool, it shouldn’t have closed out the show.

It all started early. WWE Champion John Cena’s promo to begin the show sets the scene for an epic war between him and Brock Lesnar, while Cesaro’s fortitude puts him in a prime situation to challenge for the Intercontinental title.

With all of the promo out of the way, the last half of RAW was all about wrasslin’ and just like the first part of the show, the in-ring work was solid too.

Add in the return of the devious and destructive Randy Orton and there’s plenty going on creatively in the WWE right now.

Make no mistake, Summerslam is going to have a stacked card and with two more weeks of RAW to go, there’s plenty of time to build up the hype.

Matches:

Antonio Cesaro vs. WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena: In a rare technical showcase from Cena, the Champion held his own with the much more technically-polished Cesaro. Although Cesaro was the aggressor, showcasing his ring-savvy and strength, Cena was just as solid, reversing the Swing and Powerbombing Cesaro with relative ease. Cesaro fought back with his Swing and a new Ankle submission finisher, but Cena fought back with the Five-Knuckle Shuffle. After Cesaro countered the Attitude Adjustment into his European Uppercut, Cena kicked out and the match continued. Cena then countered the Neutralizer and the two traded Boots before Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment from the top rope for the win.

Intercontinental Champion The Miz, Ryback and Curtis Axel vs. Dolph Ziggler, and WWE Tag Team Champion Jimmy and Jey Uso: Mainly filler as this bout served mainly as a prelude for the upcoming Miz/Ziggler battle and with Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E. Langston ringside, a possible match for the Tag Team titles. After the Usos and The Miz and Axel cancelled themselves out on the outside, Ziggler got the win with the Zig-Zag on Ryback.

R-Truth vs. Bo Dallas: Whoa. Dallas got rolled up by Truth in under a minute after the rookie ran around the ring in celebration right after the bell. After the match however, Dallas beat on Truth and hit him with the Double Arm DDT.

Adam Rose vs. Damien Sandow: Rose won with the Party Foul in less than 15 seconds.

Roman Reigns vs. Kane: This quickly got thrown out and turned into a brawl after Randy or ton interfered. After Kane hit Reigns with a Chokeslam, Orton beat on Reigns on the inside and outside, finishing him off the DDT off the barricade and two RKOs on the announce table.

Fandango vs. Diego w/El Torito, Summer Rae and Layla: Distractions from Layla, Summer Rae and El Torito allowed Diego to stack up Fandango with the Sunset Flip for the win.

Natalya Neidhart and Naomi Knight vs. Alicia Fox and Cameron: Fox almost got the in with the Scissors Kick, but Cameron wanted the tag. Although the bumbling Cameron got in a few moves, Naomi got the win with a modified Koji Clutch/Leg Scissors combination.

Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho: A solid back and forth with plenty of athletic counters and strikes. In need of a few more matches to break off some ring rust, Jericho looked much better than he did against Bray Wyatt at Battleground. But just when it appeared Jericho had Rollins number after the Code-Breaker, Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan hit the ring and destroyed the former Undisputed Heavyweight Champion.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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