BRM Reviews the 6/27/2016 Raw (great)
Posted: Jun 28th, '16, 15:34
OPENING SEGMENT- Well… I guess this is how they are going to deal with Roman’s suspension.
Anyway, while Rollins is burying Roman for an astounding combination of hypocrisy, not caring about the fans, and a wellness policy violation, there is a big pink sign in which Gina and Jen declared their love for this man. AWWWWWWKWARD.
Dean comes out to bother Rollins because at this point that seems to be his entire raison d’etre. Dean says he think the triple threat match at the PPV should still happen. AJ Styles comes out and says that he should replace Roman in that match. Dean shoots this down so AJ says it should be a Fatal Four-way. Seth objects to this, saying it should be a one-on-one match. Then Cena comes out. Everyone to come out so far has gotten a pretty thunderous reaction. He wants in as well. He also notes that he made his WWE debut fourteen years ago to the day… and just two weeks ago WWE had been telling us that the Cena vs. Styles match was something everyone had been waiting for for fifteen years. WHOOPS.
Cena notes that the last time he and Ambrose faced off for the title, he won. I have no memory of this.
Steph comes out. Shane isn’t here yet again. Steph books Rollins vs. Cena and AJ vs. Ambrose and if AJ and Cena win their matches, they’ll be added to the match. A very effective and short (by usual WWE standards) opening segment.
WWE 2K17 COMMERCIAL STARRING BROCK LESNAR- this made it seem like the game would be a third-person adventure game where you get to play as Brock. Hell… that sounds like it’d be a totally awesome game. Someone should make that!
SASHA BANKS & PAIGE vs. DANA BROOKE & CHARLOTTE- 5.75/10
Jobber Dana loses again. Then she emphatically tosses Dana out of the ring like a boss.
TITUS O’NEIL vs. RUSEV (w/Lana)- 4/10
Titus wins via count-out, but a good count-out. Not one that feels cheap. JBL is building that this could earn Titus “that title opportunity he’s wanted for so long” and talking about how he’s never been a singles champion as if he doesn’t remember that we already gave Titus a title shot with mostly this same build last month.
STEPH & KANE BACKSTAGE- bad. This stupid “GMs from the past want to be the GM of Smackdown” gimmick is so old now that they are starting a second run-through.
Then Miz & Maryse showed up. Miz started to be Miz until Steph cut a promo killing his gimmick. Miz and Kane both plug their upcoming movies and got into an argument over it. I will admit to chuckling at Miz calling Kane “the devil’s favorite insurance agent.”
Kane brings up the Thirty Days Rule. That right there shows that he should be the one running both Raw and Smackdown. Steph says Miz will defend his IC Title tonight against a mystery person.
IF CENA WINS HE GETS ADDED TO THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH AT BATTLEGROUND: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins- 7.75/10
Well… you knew that one of two things was going to happen: either Cena would win here (meaning AJ would also win later) or Bullet Club would screw Cena, and it turned out to be the latter. Personally, I think putting both Cen and AJ in the title match would have been better because:
1. It takes the focus off of Roman both now (by creating a new development to focus on as well as putting more people to focus on so that Roman’s absence from the build-up won’t be quite as noticeable) and later by having a lot more people in the ring with Roman when he does come back.
2. It allows them to protect both AJ and Cena by putting in a match where they won’t get have to get pinned without giving us shenanigans on their finish again, and hold off on doing their second singles match until SummerSlam. More people being in the match should also give a bit more of a “Battleground” feel to main event of the show, which is always a good thing. Hell, I’d even say they should add a six person in to take the fall so that they don’t have to beat AJ, Cena, or any of the Shield guys going into SummerSlam.
(I think you have Cena beat Rollins via count-out and have AJ beat Ambrose because of Bullet Club so everyone stays protected in setting this up, but Cena still at least gets a legitimate win while heel Rollins can rightfully say that he wasn’t pinned. At the PPV I’d have Ambrose pin the sixth guy so you can keep this dynamic going into Summer Slam that Seth wants revenge on Dean, Dean has never beaten Roman, and Roman has never beaten Seth with the title on the line)
This would also free up more time for the undercard on the PPV so you can either do a second women’s match (Becky vs. Nattie) or a second tag division match to set up #1 contenders for Summer Slam).
But oh well. I guess they’re not going in that direction.
And speaking of not going in a particular direction…
COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE PROMO- Enzo cut a promo in which he asked the fans to do the wave when this match started. Maybe instead of that he could cut a promo about wanting to win the tag titles or feud with somebody or do something useful like that? Please?
COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE vs. TWO JOBBERS- squash.
I guess they didn’t want to job out the Social Outcasts for once so they finally did what they should be doing every time and brought in some real jobbers.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
F*CK!
Why do I do these things to myself?
SOCIAL OUTCASTS PROMO- they announced that they were “hard. And looking for action.” Cass almost tricked them into arguing amongst themselves as to which one of them was “hardest.” Bo eventually saw through this strategy and said that they would “get in that ring and show you how hard we really are.” Fortunately for both WWE and the USA Network, Enzo and Cass prevented them from making it into the ring so that they couldn’t expose anything that would expose WWE and USA to FCC fines.
BOB BACKLUND & DARREN YOUNG STUFF- this has been going on for almost two months now and is no closer to going anywhere than it was when it started.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS/WWE PARTNERSHIP VIDEO- oh. So that’s what Big Show has been doing for the past few months.
SUMMER RAE vs. BECKY LYNCH- no rating. Great segment.
Nattie is on commentary. When Becky comes out she immediately goes over and brawls with Nattie. This was something they rarely do with the women and it worked very well here because Becky really brought the hate. The only “concern” I have with this is that it was such a good angle that I don’t think WWE is capable of following up on it in a way that feels like an escalation to build to the PPV match, and with the amount of time between now and the PPV I think they’ll totally kill the momentum for this match by the time the PPV comes around. This angle should have been saved for the go-home show *or at least for next week’s Raw. That way you can have Nattie avoid the go-home show and do a segment where Summer calls Becky out because she is upset about being overlooked and feels disrespected so Becky just mauls her in a match and the announcers put over that Becky is “seeing Nattie” every time she punches Summer).
CHRIS JERICHO’S HIGHLIGHT REEL WITH SPECIAL GUESTS KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN- I’m kind of split on this. I loved everything that Kevin and Sami said. That was all awesome. However, after their brawl last week, I don’t like putting them right next to each other and not trying to kill each other. I also thought that Sami’s reason for why this “has to end” (that the feud had become an obsession that was hampering both of their careers) is the sort of thing that should have been explicitly shown more. I’d have taken this week’s WWE shows and had these guys in matches against other opponents where one guy showing up costs the other something big. Maybe it’s a #1 contenders match or an IC Title match or whatever, but you have one guy about to win but then the other shows up and the guy who is about to win immediately leaves the ring to go brawl with the other guy, in essence giving up a title or #1 contendership because they hate each other so much. Have the match at Battleground announced next week and then you can do this “IT MUST END” promo next week (or even on the go-home Raw) in a contract signing environment.
The other thing I didn’t like here was the presence of Jericho. I get why he was there and I get the artistic point of it all (in taking out Jericho they work together one last time before ending this forever), but I thought he took away from the segment (especially towards the end). I also don’t think that the whole “working together one last time” thing was particularly necessary, and even if it was I think this was too early to do it (next week’s Smackdown would have been better). It’s just too far away from the PPV to be doing any sort of “for the last time before the PPV” angle.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) (w/Maryse) vs. Kane- 4.25/10
They did stuff. Maryse suffered a (probably fake) injury so that Miz would have a pretext to get counted out because he had to take care of his “injured” wife.
MIZ & MARYSE BACKSTAGE- yup. I was right. Also, Maryse’s “acting” line was delivered well. I guess they’re building towards Miz vs. Kane for the IC Title at Battleground. That’s kind of random.
APOLLO CREWS & CESARO vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO & SHEAMUS- 3.75/10
Del Rio kicked Sheamus and walked out on him. Crews then kicked the steps into Sheamus, rolled him into the ring and hit his finisher for the win. There was no reason to Crews to beat Sheamus like that, especially coming off of the good angle they did on Smackdown.
JOJO INTERVIEWS DEAN AMBROSE- meh.
Dean does stupid comedy until Steph shows up and cuts a promo saying that she wants Dean to lose the title.
Miz will have Ambrose on MizTV on Smackdown. Right. THAT is what WWE books Miz to do on Smackdown. It’s not like Kane clearly deserves a rematch or anything, right? And why is Ambrose getting booked in this spot. If Steph thinks it is disgraceful for him to be the champion then why is she giving him such a major platform to speak?
NEW DAY MAKE FUN OF THE WYATT FAMILY- Maybe he’s wearing lifts in his boots, but it’s possible that just wearing Rowan’s gear is making Kofi look taller. Anyway, this stunk. Thankfully the Wyatts showed up to save us. They tried to convince us that Xavier might leave New Day and join the Wyatts. I don’t see that happening. The segment ended when Bray ended his promo, and even though there were two factions facing each other down, we cut backstage to AJ and The Club. I guess it’s lucky that the Wyatts and New Day didn’t start fighting.
RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE NEW DAY- I hope the Wyatts completely obliterate them very soon.
IF AJ WINS HE GETS ADDED TO THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH AT BATTLEGROUND: AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose- 8/10
Seth Rollins is on commentary, but they had the interesting twist of him rooting for Dean so that AJ wouldn’t get added to the title match. The Club came out to distract Ambrose but Cena came out to fight them which distracted AJ, allowing Ambrose to hit Dirty Deeds and pin him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great.
The Club beat Cena up. Meanwhile Rollins attacked Ambrose from behind. Gallows & Anderson nailed Cena with a Magic Killer on the stage. Rollins hit Ambrose with two Pedigrees and taunted him by asking “how does it feel when someone sneaks up on you from behind, huh? Not very fun, is it?”
A great episode of Raw. Much more enjoyable than usual, and some great action from the top matches.
Anyway, while Rollins is burying Roman for an astounding combination of hypocrisy, not caring about the fans, and a wellness policy violation, there is a big pink sign in which Gina and Jen declared their love for this man. AWWWWWWKWARD.
Dean comes out to bother Rollins because at this point that seems to be his entire raison d’etre. Dean says he think the triple threat match at the PPV should still happen. AJ Styles comes out and says that he should replace Roman in that match. Dean shoots this down so AJ says it should be a Fatal Four-way. Seth objects to this, saying it should be a one-on-one match. Then Cena comes out. Everyone to come out so far has gotten a pretty thunderous reaction. He wants in as well. He also notes that he made his WWE debut fourteen years ago to the day… and just two weeks ago WWE had been telling us that the Cena vs. Styles match was something everyone had been waiting for for fifteen years. WHOOPS.
Cena notes that the last time he and Ambrose faced off for the title, he won. I have no memory of this.
Steph comes out. Shane isn’t here yet again. Steph books Rollins vs. Cena and AJ vs. Ambrose and if AJ and Cena win their matches, they’ll be added to the match. A very effective and short (by usual WWE standards) opening segment.
WWE 2K17 COMMERCIAL STARRING BROCK LESNAR- this made it seem like the game would be a third-person adventure game where you get to play as Brock. Hell… that sounds like it’d be a totally awesome game. Someone should make that!
SASHA BANKS & PAIGE vs. DANA BROOKE & CHARLOTTE- 5.75/10
Jobber Dana loses again. Then she emphatically tosses Dana out of the ring like a boss.
TITUS O’NEIL vs. RUSEV (w/Lana)- 4/10
Titus wins via count-out, but a good count-out. Not one that feels cheap. JBL is building that this could earn Titus “that title opportunity he’s wanted for so long” and talking about how he’s never been a singles champion as if he doesn’t remember that we already gave Titus a title shot with mostly this same build last month.
STEPH & KANE BACKSTAGE- bad. This stupid “GMs from the past want to be the GM of Smackdown” gimmick is so old now that they are starting a second run-through.
Then Miz & Maryse showed up. Miz started to be Miz until Steph cut a promo killing his gimmick. Miz and Kane both plug their upcoming movies and got into an argument over it. I will admit to chuckling at Miz calling Kane “the devil’s favorite insurance agent.”
Kane brings up the Thirty Days Rule. That right there shows that he should be the one running both Raw and Smackdown. Steph says Miz will defend his IC Title tonight against a mystery person.
IF CENA WINS HE GETS ADDED TO THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH AT BATTLEGROUND: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins- 7.75/10
Well… you knew that one of two things was going to happen: either Cena would win here (meaning AJ would also win later) or Bullet Club would screw Cena, and it turned out to be the latter. Personally, I think putting both Cen and AJ in the title match would have been better because:
1. It takes the focus off of Roman both now (by creating a new development to focus on as well as putting more people to focus on so that Roman’s absence from the build-up won’t be quite as noticeable) and later by having a lot more people in the ring with Roman when he does come back.
2. It allows them to protect both AJ and Cena by putting in a match where they won’t get have to get pinned without giving us shenanigans on their finish again, and hold off on doing their second singles match until SummerSlam. More people being in the match should also give a bit more of a “Battleground” feel to main event of the show, which is always a good thing. Hell, I’d even say they should add a six person in to take the fall so that they don’t have to beat AJ, Cena, or any of the Shield guys going into SummerSlam.
(I think you have Cena beat Rollins via count-out and have AJ beat Ambrose because of Bullet Club so everyone stays protected in setting this up, but Cena still at least gets a legitimate win while heel Rollins can rightfully say that he wasn’t pinned. At the PPV I’d have Ambrose pin the sixth guy so you can keep this dynamic going into Summer Slam that Seth wants revenge on Dean, Dean has never beaten Roman, and Roman has never beaten Seth with the title on the line)
This would also free up more time for the undercard on the PPV so you can either do a second women’s match (Becky vs. Nattie) or a second tag division match to set up #1 contenders for Summer Slam).
But oh well. I guess they’re not going in that direction.
And speaking of not going in a particular direction…
COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE PROMO- Enzo cut a promo in which he asked the fans to do the wave when this match started. Maybe instead of that he could cut a promo about wanting to win the tag titles or feud with somebody or do something useful like that? Please?
COLIN CASSADY & ENZO AMORE vs. TWO JOBBERS- squash.
I guess they didn’t want to job out the Social Outcasts for once so they finally did what they should be doing every time and brought in some real jobbers.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
F*CK!
Why do I do these things to myself?
SOCIAL OUTCASTS PROMO- they announced that they were “hard. And looking for action.” Cass almost tricked them into arguing amongst themselves as to which one of them was “hardest.” Bo eventually saw through this strategy and said that they would “get in that ring and show you how hard we really are.” Fortunately for both WWE and the USA Network, Enzo and Cass prevented them from making it into the ring so that they couldn’t expose anything that would expose WWE and USA to FCC fines.
BOB BACKLUND & DARREN YOUNG STUFF- this has been going on for almost two months now and is no closer to going anywhere than it was when it started.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS/WWE PARTNERSHIP VIDEO- oh. So that’s what Big Show has been doing for the past few months.
SUMMER RAE vs. BECKY LYNCH- no rating. Great segment.
Nattie is on commentary. When Becky comes out she immediately goes over and brawls with Nattie. This was something they rarely do with the women and it worked very well here because Becky really brought the hate. The only “concern” I have with this is that it was such a good angle that I don’t think WWE is capable of following up on it in a way that feels like an escalation to build to the PPV match, and with the amount of time between now and the PPV I think they’ll totally kill the momentum for this match by the time the PPV comes around. This angle should have been saved for the go-home show *or at least for next week’s Raw. That way you can have Nattie avoid the go-home show and do a segment where Summer calls Becky out because she is upset about being overlooked and feels disrespected so Becky just mauls her in a match and the announcers put over that Becky is “seeing Nattie” every time she punches Summer).
CHRIS JERICHO’S HIGHLIGHT REEL WITH SPECIAL GUESTS KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN- I’m kind of split on this. I loved everything that Kevin and Sami said. That was all awesome. However, after their brawl last week, I don’t like putting them right next to each other and not trying to kill each other. I also thought that Sami’s reason for why this “has to end” (that the feud had become an obsession that was hampering both of their careers) is the sort of thing that should have been explicitly shown more. I’d have taken this week’s WWE shows and had these guys in matches against other opponents where one guy showing up costs the other something big. Maybe it’s a #1 contenders match or an IC Title match or whatever, but you have one guy about to win but then the other shows up and the guy who is about to win immediately leaves the ring to go brawl with the other guy, in essence giving up a title or #1 contendership because they hate each other so much. Have the match at Battleground announced next week and then you can do this “IT MUST END” promo next week (or even on the go-home Raw) in a contract signing environment.
The other thing I didn’t like here was the presence of Jericho. I get why he was there and I get the artistic point of it all (in taking out Jericho they work together one last time before ending this forever), but I thought he took away from the segment (especially towards the end). I also don’t think that the whole “working together one last time” thing was particularly necessary, and even if it was I think this was too early to do it (next week’s Smackdown would have been better). It’s just too far away from the PPV to be doing any sort of “for the last time before the PPV” angle.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) (w/Maryse) vs. Kane- 4.25/10
They did stuff. Maryse suffered a (probably fake) injury so that Miz would have a pretext to get counted out because he had to take care of his “injured” wife.
MIZ & MARYSE BACKSTAGE- yup. I was right. Also, Maryse’s “acting” line was delivered well. I guess they’re building towards Miz vs. Kane for the IC Title at Battleground. That’s kind of random.
APOLLO CREWS & CESARO vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO & SHEAMUS- 3.75/10
Del Rio kicked Sheamus and walked out on him. Crews then kicked the steps into Sheamus, rolled him into the ring and hit his finisher for the win. There was no reason to Crews to beat Sheamus like that, especially coming off of the good angle they did on Smackdown.
JOJO INTERVIEWS DEAN AMBROSE- meh.
Dean does stupid comedy until Steph shows up and cuts a promo saying that she wants Dean to lose the title.
Miz will have Ambrose on MizTV on Smackdown. Right. THAT is what WWE books Miz to do on Smackdown. It’s not like Kane clearly deserves a rematch or anything, right? And why is Ambrose getting booked in this spot. If Steph thinks it is disgraceful for him to be the champion then why is she giving him such a major platform to speak?
NEW DAY MAKE FUN OF THE WYATT FAMILY- Maybe he’s wearing lifts in his boots, but it’s possible that just wearing Rowan’s gear is making Kofi look taller. Anyway, this stunk. Thankfully the Wyatts showed up to save us. They tried to convince us that Xavier might leave New Day and join the Wyatts. I don’t see that happening. The segment ended when Bray ended his promo, and even though there were two factions facing each other down, we cut backstage to AJ and The Club. I guess it’s lucky that the Wyatts and New Day didn’t start fighting.
RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE NEW DAY- I hope the Wyatts completely obliterate them very soon.
IF AJ WINS HE GETS ADDED TO THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH AT BATTLEGROUND: AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose- 8/10
Seth Rollins is on commentary, but they had the interesting twist of him rooting for Dean so that AJ wouldn’t get added to the title match. The Club came out to distract Ambrose but Cena came out to fight them which distracted AJ, allowing Ambrose to hit Dirty Deeds and pin him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great.
The Club beat Cena up. Meanwhile Rollins attacked Ambrose from behind. Gallows & Anderson nailed Cena with a Magic Killer on the stage. Rollins hit Ambrose with two Pedigrees and taunted him by asking “how does it feel when someone sneaks up on you from behind, huh? Not very fun, is it?”
A great episode of Raw. Much more enjoyable than usual, and some great action from the top matches.