By Sean Ross Sapp (@SeanRossSapp)
–Sheamus needs to be a heel. There’s really not much else worth saying, or any other way to put it, his stand-up comedy routine just doesn’t work. Move along.
–Christian is such a fantastic technical and psychological worker. Everything he does makes sense—well, except that weird uppercut that involves him jumping over the top rope. I truly hope he gets a final run worthy of the work he’s put in. Having Daniel Bryan in the ring with him doesn’t hurt, either.
– #HardFartVictory
–Kane wrestled a match on Raw for the first time in months, looking like the lost brother of Deuce and Domino. As I noted following the Royal Rumble, Kane is in fantastic shape, and I believe he and Bryan can pull an excellent match off, but tonight wasn’t that.
Bryan was in his second consecutive match, and the crowd wasn’t as into this as the previous bout. It’s really hard to complain about Daniel Bryan being featured in the first 40 minutes of the show, but I’m sure someone will find a reason to do it.
I’d like to see Kane and Daniel Bryan have a big match on next week’s even bigger Raw. The show is already going to have a pay-per-view feel, and these two deserve to have their situation blown off on a big-time show.
– I still feel as if Fandango could be this generation’s Goldust with some mic time, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening any time soon. Santino’s shtick is wearing thin, but luckily it didn’t last very long, as Fandango disposed of him. This match also served as a vehicle to help get Emma over, as she performed an airplane spin on Summer Rae, which always puts butts in the seats. I fully believe Emma will get over, though.
– I feel really lame that I haven’t seen the Shield‘s entrance live, especially now that they’re about to split. That entrance has captivated the crowd and viewers for 15 months, with no signs of slowing down.
The future of the WWE is healthy with The Shield. Together or split, there are three guys who can fit three different roles, and excel at it. Roman Reigns seems to be the next breakout star, and his one-sided win over Mark Henry put him over huge.
The Wyatts and The Shield have had the crowd in the palm of their hands with each encounter, and it’s a real shame that this will be a short-term feud.
– There was a hilarious backstage segment between Cody Rhodes, Goldust, and Bad News Barrett to promote a new toy set the WWE has coming out. A pointless segment outside of that, but served to entertain me. As with Fandango, I feel like just a minute or two of mic time every couple of weeks can go a long way in getting a character over.
– The horrible reffing job of the week goes to the same guy (his name eludes me) for the third straight week, this time during the Kofi Kingston/Jack Swagger match. Really, this guy is bad—noticeably bad—on a weekly basis.
However, the pinnacle of bad has been WWE’s production team of late,. The epilepsy-inducing camera zooms are bad enough, but now producers are cutting away from signature moves, and even worse, pinfall attempts. This seems really counterproductive to making someone want to keep watching the show.
The lone bright spot in the Swagger/Big E/Kofi/3MB segment was Zeb Coulter harassing the crowd and Big E on the mic during a handicap match. The aforementioned handicap match was a damn train wreck, and shouldn’t have happened, but Zeb Coulter was gold on the mic.
– I don’t typically do post-Smackdown pieces (something that will change if the show goes live), but Antonio Cesaro going over Randy Orton was huge. It wasn’t just a victory over the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but a clean win, with his finish, in the middle of the ring. In a time when people cry about burials, this was a big moment. Smackdown has become progressively more important as WWE enters rights negotiations for their programs, as well.
Cesaro took on John Cena on Raw, and while it was cool to see them in the ring together, the crowd chanting “Let’s go Cena/Cena sucks”, is still really indicative of how over John Cena still is in relation to other people on the roster. I would have preferred to hear “Let’s go Cena/ We the People,” but hey.. I didn’t pay for a ticket.
This match felt like a PPV match. The competitors, the wild crowd, everything made it feel special. Another thing I really enjoyed were Swagger and Coulter’s awesome facial expressions on the outside that added to the match. This was one of the best matches in recent memory on Raw. Also, Cesaro’s superplex is a feat that has to be seen. One of the few things I ask of a wrestling show is to let me see something I’ve not seen before. This match accomplished that.
I get it, some indy hipsters have seen the superplex Cesaro did. COOL, MAN. COOL. Good for you, you watched ZWF 43: Inferno. But that’s not my thing. By all means, more power to you if it’s yours. Entertainment is subjective.
Anyone who says Cena can’t wrestle is misguided at this point. Is he a technical, mat work master? No. But he does his job, and does it as well as anyone can. Cena winning here was not bad—everyone gained something from it, from the wrestlers inside, to the characters outside. Fantastic moment in Raw history.
– Does Batista look like he’s shrunk? He seemed like he was four inches shorter than Randy Orton on Raw. I know Batista is getting up there in years, but osteoporosis is no joke, y’all.
– Titus O’Neil vs. Darren Young being on the pay-per-view is a good move. So often, tag team breakups are settled on Raw or Smackdown and set aside. With no clear direction for either guy after this feud, I like that it’s being drawn out.
– The Wyatt Family won a squash match over Los Matadores and Sin Cara on the show. Matches of this nature are underutilized, and I really liked it. It’s worth noting that Primo, Epico and Hunico’s profiles are all still listed on WWE.com….hmmm.
– With Raw becoming even more important than before after these rights fees, I’d like to see a “Raw Rumble” mid-year. Not likely, I know. Just a thought.
– Usos vs. New Age Outlaws for the tag team titles has been set for Elimination Chamber. I think the Outlaws will retain, but then lose the titles the next night on Raw. It’s going to be a loaded show, and a tag title switch would be a cool moment for the show.
– There wasn’t a whole lot to mention about the Randy Orton/Sheamus main event. I don’t know if it was a good all to put two of the more bland main eventers at the end of the show, but their match was good. I appreciated the crowd’s enthusiasm, but their table spot wasn’t as cool as they drew it up.
As one of my followers said, this match was a bit of a redemption, as they at least were able to get the crowd into the match at points, as opposed to the past when the crowd wanted nothing to do with either of them.
The ending sequence was good stuff, as Cena, Bryan, Cesaro, the Shield and the Wyatts all got involved, with the Wyatts and Shield finally coming to blows. I’m admittedly intrigued and excited for Elimination Chamber and Raw next week. Both should be really interesting.
The post The Ultimate Writer’s WWE Raw Thoughts- February 17 appeared first on Cage Passion.