Daniel Bryan opens Raw with a promo. Randy Orton interrupts him and tells him to shut up and fight. They go one on one to kick off Raw. They brawl and the ref stops the match after he gets knocked to the ground.
^Thanks for wasting my time, WWE. I wanted to see a solid match open the show! I’m not a happy camper at this point in time.
Daniel Bryan yells at Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox backstage for giving the double DQ finish. Dbry says this ends tonight. Maddox says no. Dbry says he wants a match with Orton or a match with Brad Maddox. Vickie says he’s got his match with Randy Orton. Vince McMahon comes into the scene and talks about Daniel Bryan being an embarrassment to some people. Vickie asks what Vince thinks and he says she can figure that out.
^The segment was alright right up until Vince McMahon walked into the scene. Dbry and Orton are fighting later on, and now we know it.
Christian and Sheamus face Team Rhodes Scholars. Sheamus pins Rhodes after a brogue kick.
^Not sure what the point of Christian being here was, but something tells me it’s the most creative change the writing team could come up with to keep this Sandow/Sheamus food continuing. Nothing special of a match here. I’d like to see Cody Rhodes become a face in the near future, and perhaps change his name so he can advance his career.
Vickie Guerrero approaches CM Punk. He asks if Paul Heyman or Brock Lesnar are here yet. Vickie says she’s putting him in a match tonight. He ignores her and she says excuse me. He yells excuse me in her face and tells her to let him know if either man shows up.
^Nice to see someone scream in Vickie’s face for once. I wonder who Punk will meet one on one later.
Kaitlyn goes one on one with Aksana. Layla is in Kaitlyn’s corner. Kaitlyn’s music hits during the match and AJ Lee comes out dressed as Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn spears Aksana after the distraction and pins her for the three count. AJ gets on the mic and mocks Kaitlyn. Big E. comes out and reenacts the scene from Raw where he fooled her. AJ continues to make fun of her before posing with Big E.
^Great segment here. Awesome work by WWE to make the divas relevant. Big E. was hilarious and AJ was gold on the mic. I loved it! Best segment of the night so far.
Another Bray Wyatt promo is shown. I’m hoping his debut comes in the next couple weeks.
Chris Jericho goes one on one with Alberto Del Rio. Ricardo attacks Jericho when he applies the walls and causes the DQ. Dolph Ziggler comes out and attacks Del Rio. He faces off with Jericho and then nails him with the zig zag when Jericho goes to walk away.
^There wasn’t a lot of chemistry here, and it was an oddly worked match, but somehow none of it mattered with a great segment coming at the end and Dolph Ziggler standing tall.
Vickie tells Brad she wants to cancel the match with Dbry and Orton. Triple H comes into the scene and says he heard Vickie was thinking about cancelling the match tonight. Triple H doesn’t agree with the theories about Daniel Bryan and says the WWE Universe wants to see the match tonight. Hunter wants the WWE Universe to vote on which type of match Orton and Dbry have tonight.
^More of the Vince/HHH power struggle here. I’m glad the match is going to happen with Dbry and Orton.
The WWE 2K14 cover is going to be revealed with Jerry Lawler, Vickie Guerrero, and Brad Maddox in the ring. Vickie says she is letting the audience pick from three stipulations for Orton and Dbry’s match tonight. She says it can be a street fight, lumberjack match, or falls count anywhere match. Vickie shows her own cover that she designed for the 2K14 video games. It’s the McMahon family on the cover and Brad Maddox shows his own cover with himself, John Cena and CM Punk on the cover. Lawler reveals the real cover with the Rock on it.
^I almost think the first covers shown were better than the Rock’s cover. Why oh why does WWE do stuff like this when the Rock isn’t even around? Things like this just baffle me.
Ryback goes one on one with the Great Khali. Ryback wins the match with shell shocked.
^Awful match overall, but great feat of strength shown by Ryback. I don’t understand Ryback’s booking, but clearly he needs more time to be developed as one of WWE’s top stars.
John Cena comes out and cut a promo about the meaning of the WWE Championship. Cena talks about knocking Henry’s teeth down his throat and whoop ass season before saying the champ is here and ending the segment.
^We’ve heard similar words like this from Cena a hundred times, and the only difference here was some of the name drops of past WWE Champions. I would’ve rather watched Cena in an actual wrestling match.
Tons of Funk come out with a dancing fan who won some contest. They’re in a number one contender’s match against the 3MB and the Usos(triple threat). The Usos win the match after a splash on Sweet T. The Shield comes down after the match and stares at the Usos from the crowd.
^Usos and Shield for the tag titles at MITB? Sounds good to me! I don’t legitimately see the Usos as any sort of threat to win the gold, but it’s nice to know a good tag team match is about to go down on July 14th.
Paul Heyman does his “Paul Heyman walk” as he comes to the ring. Heyman says Punk will get all the answers he wants tonight. Punk asks Heyman if he really wants to do this in public. Punk explains why he is a Paul Heyman guy. Punk tells Heyman to tell Lesnar that he’s coming for him, and Lesnar is not better than him. Punk asks if Lesnar attacked him on his own, or did he do it on Heyman’s orders? Heyman said he never wanted it to be this way between them, and he says he deserves the truth. Heyman says on his children, he did not know that Brock Lesnar would be here last week. He says Punk picked a fight with Brock Lesnar the moment he said Lesnar needed Heyman’s help. Heyman says he will walk down the aisle again with Punk one day when he is challenging for the WWE Championship. Heyman says he loves Punk and he is his best friend in the world. He says he will never represent anyone against CM Punk, even Brock Lesnar. Punk says he’s sorry he doubted him and hugs him to end the segment.
^Magic promo work here from both men. Now THIS was by far the most entertaining segment of the show. Great stuff. Punk forgiving Heyman means it’s only a matter of time before Heyman really does turn his back on the best in the world.
Punk goes one on one with Darren Young. Punk wins with the GTS. The PTP attack Punk and Curtis Axel comes out for the save. Heyman says to Punk they’ll talk about it and that it was two on one.
^Decent match with Punk and Young. I wish the Prime Time Players would be treated better but it’s useless to keep wanting a push that’s never going to happen. Axel helping Punk was interesting to me; I don’t expect Punk to become Axel’s “buddy” anytime soon.
Vickie is shown looking for Brad Maddox(she says she’s called him ten times). Stephanie McMahon comes into the scene and says she will announce the participants for the WWE Title MITB Ladder match.
^Finally, we get a mention of Money in the Bank! Did I mention that I’m getting annoyed by the members of the McMahon family randomly popping up on the show?
Stephanie announces the MITB participants: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Kane, Christian, Rob Van Dam, and Randy Orton.
^I’m intrigued by this combination of competitors. I would’ve bet money that Christian and Sheamus would be in the World Title match and not be in the WWE Title ladder match.
Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox are talking. Brad says he helped Stephanie make the list. Ryback and Jericho both complain about not being booked(Ryback wants Cena and Jericho wants MITB) so they book Jericho against Ryback at Money In The Bank.
^I like the booking of Ryback against Jericho. The match they had on Smackdown a couple months ago wasn’t all that bad. I’m expecting this to be Ryback’s big “get over” match after all the burying WWE has done to him since last October.
Paul Heyman is shown backstage with CM Punk. Punk is still angry about Axel helping him. Heyman calls Punk stubborn and says he fixed this. He says next week it will be the Prime Time Players against CM Punk and Curtis Axel. Punk says he will do this on his own and he will win Money In The Bank before going after Brock Lesnar.
^This just reaffirms my belief that Punk will get screwed over by Heyman sooner rather than later.
Mark Henry comes out. He’s in a black suit this week. Henry says he’s been reached out to by big name movie producers and that he’s been nominated for an academy award. He says he’ll be coming home as the WWE Champion.
^Well, Henry’s promo was better than Cena’s, and honestly I’m glad he kept it so short. Sometimes less is more, even in the case of Mark Henry. Good work by the world’s strongest man.
ANOTHER Bray Wyatt promo is shown. Can he please just debut already?
Randy Orton goes one on one with Daniel Bryan in a street fight. Orton taps out to a modified no-lock when Dbry holds the Kendo stick in Orton’s face. Orton shakes Dbry’s hand after the match and leaves the ring. Dbry celebrates to end the show.
^Good back and forth brawl to end the show. I’m surprised they risked the chair shot to Dbry’s head on the suicide dive, but there you have it. Orton thinks he can get away with almost anything apparently. I really enjoyed this match; I’d like to see these guys go straight up one on one with technical action sometime in the future. Great momentum for Daniel Bryan’s build towards the WWE Championship!
So we had a solid main event, a decent Punk/Young match, and two good promo segments(AJ/Kaitlyn/Big E. and Punk/Heyman) and an interesting match between Jericho and Del Rio with a good rivalry building feud. Everything else was just mediocre. I guess I’ll call the show a hair below average to just on the average mark depending on my mood. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
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