After a terrible TLC pay per view, Monday Night RAW did nothing to build momentum for Royal Rumble. Sure, the idea of Ryback and Rusev is interesting, as was the vignette for The Ascension and Roman Reigns’ RAW return, but overall, RAW was a slow-moving mess.
Chris Jericho was a solid guest GM and added humor and polish every chance he had, as did Paul Heyman, but with a crappy card and zero suspense away from a rare appearance from Brock Lesnar, RAW continues to tread in the water, rather than manipulate the currents around it.
While it’s easy to get excited about the possibility of Seth Rollins becoming a Heyman guy, it’s not enough to get us talking at the water cooler.
It’s sad that NXT R-evolution was not only better than TLC, but also better than this week’s RAW.
Matches:
Luke Harper and The Big Show vs. Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler and Erik Rowan: Show and Harper beat on Ziggler until Rowan made the save and took down Harper with a Full-Nelson Slam and Show with a Spinning Side Kick. But after Harper and Ziggler cancelled each other out on the outside, Show got the win on Rowan with the KO Punch.
Divas Champion Nikki Bella and Brie Bella vs. Alicia Fox and Natalya Neidhart W/Tyson Kidd: Neidhart got the quick win over Brie with the Sharpshooter after Neidhart disposed of Nikki. Ironically, Kidd seemed more focused on Nikki than his wife.
Big E. Langston and Xavier Woods w/ Kofi Kingston vs. Goldust and Stardust: A lengthy, pace-less match that ended after Woods and Kingston hit the Midnight Hour for the pin on Goldust.
Adam Rose w/The Bunny vs. Kane: Kane won after he Chokeslammed both Rose and Bunny- at the same time. After the match, Kane hit the Tombstone Piledriver on Bunny.
Street Fight: Chris Jericho vs. Paul Heyman: Brock Lesnar made an appearance and quickly countered the Code Breaker and hit the F-5 on Jericho.
The Miz w/Damien Sandow vs. Jimmy Uso w/ Jey Uso: Pretty standard Miz singles match w/Sandow’s antics on the outside. Uso nearly got the win with the Flying Cross Body, but it wasn’t until Jey hit Miz with a Slammy award, that Jimmy got the win with the top rope Splash.
Steel Cage: Seth Rollins w/Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury vs. John Cena: Rollins was solid and nearly won with the Blockbuster after several prior attempts to escape were thwarted by Cena. Rollins got extra marks for kicking out of the Attitude Adjustment later in the match as well. Cena could have escaped at one point, but Noble held the door closed. Cena fought back again and hit the Sicilian Slice, but was unable to get the pin. Mercury’s interference later also stopped Cena from escaping, but Rollins couldn’t hit the Curb Stomp and instead walked into the STF. After Rollins failed to escape again, Noble threw in the MITB briefcase, but Rollins got smoked with a Cena Clothesline instead. After Rollins escaped the AA however, he managed to hit Cena in the gut with the briefcase, but again, couldn’t get the pin. Rollins then tried to escape the cage, but Cena countered with an awesome AA from the top rope. With both Cena and Rollins down, Lesnar hit the ring and hit three German Suplexes on Cena before he nailed him with an F-5.
At that point, Rollins and Heyman shook hands and before Rollins nailed the Curb Stomp and exited the cage for the win.
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