WWE RAW Coverage: A Slow Start on the Road to Wrestlemania

The first RAW on the final road to Wrestlemania was a tease.

While virtually every feud was introduced and mentioned this week and the card was solid, there was little “extra” fanfare.

Nothing special. Nothing to make you go, “Oh man, I can’t wait for next week.”

Just Rusev speaking Russian and a “look at Sting’s career.”

It’s sad that the coolest thing on this week’s RAW was the announcement that the Bushwackers would join the 2015 class of the WWE Hall of Fame.

In order for the WWE to truly make this year’s Wrestlemania something special, they’re going to have to do better.

Plain and simple.

Matches:

Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler: A solid match that saw Ziggler hit his normal assortment of maneuvers in another athletic effort. Selling like usual, Ziggler let Barrett take it to him for the majority of the match. Barrett surprised however with a nice Diving Powerbomb and the Winds of Change, but Ziggler wasn’t done. After Barrett missed the Wasteland, Ziggler countered with a School Boy for a near-fall, but later escaped the Big Boot and delivered the Zig-Zag for the win. After the match, Dean Ambrose hit the ring with the IC title and rubbed Barrett’s loss in his face and bumped Ziggler.

Viktor and Konnor vs. Darren Young and Titus O’Neil: Although Konnor and Viktor were in control, Young got the win with the School Boy. After the match however, The Ascension took out O’Neil and then finished off Young with the Fall of Man.

WWE Tag Team Champions Tyson Kidd and Antonio Cesaro w/Natalya Neidhart vs. Jimmy and Jey Uso w/Naomi: Another good match between the two that ended after Neidhart knocked Jimmy Uso off the top rope to get the match thrown out. But to be fair, Neidhart would have never got involved unless Naomi (who pushed Kidd’s legs off the ropes during a pinfall attempt) stayed out of the match. While the DQ finish stinks in a way, it does get the valets involved in what could be one of the better tag team feuds in the WWE in years.

Stardust vs. Jack Swagger: After Goldust hit the ring and distracted Stardust, Swagger got the win with the Ankle Lock.

Paige and Emma vs. Divas Champion Nikki Bella and Brie Bella: Brie took out Paige and then quickly finished off Emma with the Bella Buster for the win.

Ryback vs. Curtis Axel: Meathook Clothesline + Shellshocked= Win for Ryback.

Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton and Seth Rollins w/Kane, The Big Show, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble: This was a weird one as Orton played the part of a solid tag team partner until the very end when Rollins tagged himself into the match when Orton had Reigns inches from an RKO. Quickly bouncing back, Reigns hit the Superman Punch, while Bryan tagged himself in and got the win with the Knee Plus, while Orton watched in disgust on the outside. After the match, Orton hit the RKO on Jamie Noble and walked away from Rollins, who appeared petrified.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 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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