WWE RAW Coverage: No Post-Mania Letdown Here

March 31, 2015 Patrick Hickey Jr. Professional Wrestling 0

After a great Wrestlemania, this week’s Monday Night RAW was just as special even if the finish was a bit vanilla.

After Brock Lesnar destroyed the set and went berserk, the return of Sheamus, debuts of Kalisto, Adrian Neville and pair of title matches made RAW unpredictable and for the first time in a while, fun.

Away from the monotone announce work of Byron Saxton, this week’s RAW was a blast.

Matches:

Intercontinental Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler: A surprisingly strike-heavy match that saw everything from Headbutts to Mexican Surfboards. After the two traded more offense, Bryan hit a perfect Belly-to-Back Suplex from the top rope but couldn’t put Ziggler away. After a series of near-falls and more Headbutts, Bryan got the win with the Running Knee. After the match, Wade Barrett beat on Bryan. Sheamus then made the save, but took out both Bryan with the Brogue Kick and Ziggler with The White Noise and Brogue Kick.

The Lucha Dragons Sin Cara and Kalisto and Big E. Langston and Kofi Kingston w/Xavier Woods vs. WWE Tag Team Champions Antonio Cesaro and Tyson Kidd w/Natalya and The Ascension Viktor and Konnor: Kalisto’s RAW debut was amazing. While the match was solid, Kalisto hit all of his moves crisply and the crowd totally bought in. Cesar and Kidd got their groove on though, hitting the Swing/Dropkick combo while The Ascension kept the pressure on. Although Kingston pushed the momentum back in his team’s favor, Kidd and Cesaro hit the elevated European Uppercut, but Viktor tagged himself in. After that, a slew of offense overtook the match before Kalisto got the win with the Ultimo Dragon Reverse DDT.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins w/Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury vs. Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman: After Rollins refused to fight Lesnar and ran off, Lesnar flipped over the announce table and hit Michael Cole with an F5. Before he could hit the cameraman with the F5, Stephanie McMahon tried to calm him down, but he hit the move anyway. As a result, McMahon suspended Lesnar indefinitely and ordered him out of the building. But before he left, Lesnar hit the cameraman again with the F5.

Damien Sandow vs. Stardust: Sandow got the win with the Skull-Crushing Finale, but The Miz hit the ring after the pinfall and hit the move on his former assistant.

Adrian Neville vs. Curtis Axel: Much like Kalisto, Neville made a wonderful debut, hitting the Red Arrow for the quick win.

United States Champion John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose: This was an entertaining back and forth match with a nice amount of suspense and near-falls. Ambrose even kicked out the Attitude Adjustment. After Ambrose hit the top rope Powerbomb, Cena snaked into the STF, but he couldn’t put Ambrose away. After Ambrose locked in the STF and nearly won with the Dirty Deeds, Cena fought back with another Attitude Adjustment for the win.

Divas Champion Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Natalya Neidhart vs. Paige, AJ Lee and Naomi: A buzzkill of a match that just dragged like crazy. The finish was alright though as Nikki took out Brie by accident with the Elbow, allowing Naomi to hit the Rear View for the win on Nikki.

Goldust vs. Rusev: Goldie got in some offense, but Rusev got the win with The Accolade.

Randy Orton, Ryback and Roman Reigns vs. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, Kane and The Big Show w/Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury: A lukewarm main event that saw Orton get his hands on Orton and Reigns and Ryback to get a few licks in too. From the Wave to the “CM Punk” chants, the crowd had fun during this one. After a slew of finishers from everyone in the ring, Reigns finished off Kane with the Spear after an Orton RKO.

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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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