WWE RAW Coverage: Nothing Special Before Mania

Although there was a ton of filler, both in the ring and in the form of promo, the teases were perhaps the best that they could be.

For better or for worse, the Wrestlemania 31 card is set and there are no more surprises.

Thanks to a waste of time face-to-face encounter between Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman (who, again saved the show with wonderful promo) and Roman Reigns, this week’s RAW was anything but special.

It was more like above average.

While the intrigue for several matches are solid, with the angles between Seth Rollins/Randy Orton, John Cena/Rusev, Sting/Triple H and the Main Event of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns all getting serious airtime this week, you have to wonder why so little was done to bolster the feud between Bray Wyatt and the Undertaker, as well as the Divas and Tag Team divisions.

All in all, while it was a decent show, it was far from what you expected in the RAW before Wrestlemania.

Matches:

Stardust and Luke Harper vs. R-Truth and Dean Ambrose: This was an offensive showcase that saw R-Truth get the win with the jumping Little Jimmy on Stardust after Ambrose took out Harper with the Suicide Dive on the outside.

Titus O’Neil, Darren Young, Ryback, Erick Rowan and Zack Ryder vs. The Miz, Damien Sandow, Viktor, Konnor and Adam Rose: Although Sandow got some offense in, Ryback stole the show and got the win with the Shell Shocked on The Miz.

Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury: Thanks to cunning from Rollins, Noble and Mercury got in their share of licks against Orton, but after an RKO to Noble, Orton got the win.

Paige w/ AJ Lee vs. Divas Champion Nikki Bella w/Brie Bella: Nikki kicked out of the Rampage and proved for perhaps the first time in her career that she’s Divas Champion material. But after Lee accidentally hit Paige on the outside, Bella got the win with the Rack Attack.

Los Matadores and El Torito vs. WWE Tag Team Champions Tyson Kidd, Antonio Cesaro and Natalya Neidhart: A waste of time after Torito countered Neidhart’s Powerbomb into a Rollup for the win.

United States Champion Alexander Rusev vs. Jack Swagger: Rusev got the win with the Accolade, but after John Cena hit the ring and two beat on each other in and out of the ring, with Rusev getting the last laugh.

Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler, Special Guest Referee Dean Ambrose: Another solid match, but a puzzling one that saw Ziggler get another clean win over Bryan. After the match, Ambrose hit Ziggler with the Dirty Deeds and all of the competitors in the Intercontinental Title ladder match got involved.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 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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