WWE returned to the USA network for Monday Night Raw last night (June 29, 2015) from Washington D.C. with all the latest build to the upcoming Battleground pay-per-view (PPV) next month in St. Louis. That included The Authority once again asserting its dominance over everyone and everything, even without Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
Click here to get full results with the live blog. Let's get to reacting to all the night's events.
______________________________________
Follow the leader
WWE pulled a bait and switch here, teasing that Kevin Owens would be the guy answering John Cena's US title open challenge before he backed off and made room for Cesaro.
So, essentially, they were telling us to strap in for a good match between two guys who have good matches every time they work together while Owens sat in on commentary to keep JBL, Michael Cole, and especially Byron Saxton, honest. Sure enough, that's what they delivered, with Cena once again giving just enough to convince you his opponent actually had a chance to win the title when you absolutely knew otherwise.
There were some issues, of course, like that Springboard Stunner. Really liked the idea behind Cena countering a catapult into the ropes with it but his accuracy on that move is spotty at best and he was way off here.
But overall, this was fantastically fun, yet another PPV main event quality match from Cena with {insert literally whatever opponent you want here}. And, for once, the disqualification via interfernce made sense. In fact, it worked best for the match and all parties involved.
Except maybe Cena.
Cesaro, having thrown the kitchen sink at Cena, had just locked on his second Sharpshooter of the match and it sure as hell looked like Cena was about to tap to lose the title. So Owens, having decided only he can take that championship from Cena, rushes in to force the DQ. This after spending the entire match putting over how great Cesaro is.
This should serve as a launching pad for Cesaro's new singles run now that Tyson Kidd is out injured while getting more heat on Owens and putting Cena over as the expert at putting guys over without actually putting them over. And I don't even mean that as an insult. He's made it an artform. It's amazing to watch.
After a few hiccups, we're right back on track with everyone involved here. Let's hope they keep it rolling.
_______________________________________
More than friends
My god, this Dolph Ziggler/Lana/Rusev love triangle story went to hell in a hurry. It was always on shaky legs, but Rusev's consistently outstanding performances have saved it for some time.
But now we're getting entire segments dedicated to Ziggler and Lana -- who have zero chemistry together -- declaring their love for each other while the latter makes outrageous claims like "Rusev controlled me during our relationship" when the exact opposite has been true since they came on the scene in WWE.
Then we get Rusev limping his way out and Ziggler rubbing it in his face that Lana is now his girlfriend and threatening to break Rusev's other leg. Look, Rusev is still a major dick here for the way he was treating Lana and she is still right for getting out while she did but this segment sure as hell played out way too much like Rusev was the babyface. Getting out of an abusive relationship is strong; using another dude to get back at your ex drops you to that level. The idea is they're supposed to avoid that by keeping her above that lest she become it.
And what sucks is it could work so well to have Summer Rae as the new woman buying into Rusev's bull if he was ever really spewing bull to begin with -- remember, it was Lana who controlled him before the retconning -- and creating a feud with Lana off that. But even that falls flat because I bought Summer's promo far more than I bought anything Lana was saying, especially because we know Lana outright told a lie based on everything we've seen of Rusev and Lana's on screen relationship.
There was very real potential here and it's just been completely squandered.
_______________________________________
All the best to all the rest
Apple watches and cars: They opened this show by spending 15 minutes on Seth Rollins giving Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury Apple watches, then giving Kane a vacation to Hawaii, and finally delivering J&J Security a new car to make towns in. I presume they were supposed to ham it up to such a degree it would come across comedic but it fell totally flat. There may be wrestlers in this world who can make a segment like this work, but I don't want my pro wrestling program to spend its opening 15 minutes on one guy giving his friends gifts. It's acceptable only in the event that it's paid off immediately. It's obnoxious as hell to waste our time like this, and we needed a babyface hero to come in and wreck shop to live vicariously through. We didn't get that.
Big Show vs. Mark Henry: After that painfully long opening segment, we were treated to a Big Show match against a completely emasculated Mark Henry, who was emasculated even further by a quick pinfall defeat. The best thing about this was The Miz on commentary explaining all the reasons he'll avoid Show's big knockout punch -- "stick and move, baby!" -- while getting way too hyped about Ryback running in after Show pinned Henry. The surprise head kick and bail he pulled on THE BIG GUY was also masterful. Granted, this came after one of the worst Raw segments in recorded history so anything good would look better compartively but Miz was AWESOME here (I'm so sorry).
Ryback vs. The Miz: And then they had a match and they actually worked a spot where Big Hungry picked Miz up for a suplex and held him there for a count of around 30 seconds. Miz had his hand on Ryback's thigh to balance himself for the duration of it, which just stretches the boundaries of credibility too far even for pro wrestling. Miz couldn't wiggle around a bit to make it hard on Ryback? At least try not to make it so obvious that they're actually working together when they're supposed to be trying to hurt each other. The work was fine the rest of the way, then they went with a count out finish. So Miz was the only bright spot in the first 35 minutes of this show and by the time he was off screen, he looked like a total doofus.
Paige vs. Alicia Fox: The Bella Twins are building an army for no other reason than Paige was trying to put together a resistance group to rage against the Bella machine. And, somehow, despite their booking over the past forever, they've gained a follower in Fox, probably just to push the new "Bella Army" merch they recently released. Still, Fox gladly did their bidding here by hitting that gorgeous Northern Lights Suplex after Paige worked some throws and holds. She was actually really great here wearing Paige out before bumping and feeding for the big babyface comeback, and Paige showed just the right fire and aggression. They booked the roll up finish, sure, but at least this was a put together well and the wrestling was solid.
Anyone but you: Bray Wyatt has revealed his true motive behind attacking Roman Reigns -- jealousy. He gave us some family backstory, that he's always been upset that his father never chose him to be his favorite, and tied that in to the fact that Reigns is clearly the WWE favorite. So as long as Bray is still around, he will not allow Roman to reach his fullest potential due to that fact. It's a nice little co-opting of a portion of the fan base and their feelings on Reigns once it became clear he was the favorite. It's a good angle, too, if it existed in a vacuum. The problem continues to be Wyatt's past booking and, if we're looking ahead, his future prospects once he loses again here.
New Day & Bo Dallas vs. Prime Time Players & Lucha Dragons: There is no better pairing of wrestlers than Bo Dallas, Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods. They are, quite literally, the perfect team. It was way too fun watching them overwhelm Darren Young with smart tag team wrestling before the hot tag to Titus O'Neil. The chaotic finish was reminiscent of those fun six-man tags we used to get when The Shield were tearing the house down every week and the finish was strong. This was really good.
Sheamus vs. Neville: I liked that Sheamus worked as the big bully just throwing Neville around. A significant size advantage should always be a focal point for a heel, especially one who works stiff like Sheamus. The cool thing about Neville is that he can actually match most guy's power he just has to strategically use his speed to put himself in the right position to do so before finishing the job with his aerial offense. They did a great job with all of that but too many live crowds have a hard time getting into Sheamus. His shouting "are you not entertained" should be reserved for matches that are actually getting the proper reaction. But hey, at least he's a Money in the Bank winner who isn't being booked to do repeated jobs no matter what it might do to him, right? Wait, we want Neville here, don't we? Eh.
King Barrett vs. Jack Swagger: It's alarming how quickly Barrett became a guy we have no reason to care about, what with his having been Intercontinental champion just a few months ago and having won King of the Ring this year. He's just a guy with a dumb gimmick who never wins. So, really, he's Swagger. Hence the dead silence while this match was happening.
Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins & Kane: This was a no disqualification match so of course they worked like it was a straight up tag team match in the middle of it. That is until Reigns went all "LET'S RAGE" and started killing everyone with a kendo stick before the inevitable run in from Wyatt, which, for some reason, was stopped by referees. Again, this was a NO DQ match, folks. Ultimately, Ambrose did another job because he's the job guy and everything that made you cringe when this match was announced last Friday came to fruition. Then, for reasons I cannot comprehend, Reigns put up more of a fight against The Authority than Brock Lesnar did last week. Sure, he met the same fate, but Roman was booked stronger here, coming back from a surprise attack from Wyatt and continusously getting back up for more. I don't get it.
Some amazing highs -- Cena vs. Cesaro -- and some awful lows -- Apple watches.
Grade: C-
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below with all your thoughts on last night's show. How did you like it, if you liked it at all?