Anyone who read my expectations column that preceded this one knows that I set a very low bar for Raw this week. Last week was so poor I kind of figured it would be rather easy for Raw to be better. I also had some reservations that with a National Championship Game as competition the WWE might hold off a week and save it for the go home Raw into the Rumble next week. In my opinion this was a terrible show that just on star power was better than last week, but otherwise this did very little to help the cause.
This week I'm not going to do a blow by blow because that would require me to put effort into breaking down segments where very little effort was put in the first place. Take the Divas match where Paige lost to Brie by distraction roll up. Tyson Kidd came on to the apron, for no apparent reason, and Paige was incensed so much by this she allowed herself to get rolled up. This distraction roll up finish is becoming the laughing stock of WWE. It's more dangerous than an RKO at this point.
Paige is a star. She's got a unique look, can work the mic, is really good in ring, but WWE apparently is ignoring all this and treating her just a little better than they do every other Diva. Brie has enough talent to put on a good five minute match with her. So why not work a better finish, but the WWE writing crew refuses to work hard. So why should the fans bother to watch any of these matches and get invested.
A great example of not allowing the fans to get invested is the Kidd Cesaro New Day feud. Last week Kidd and Cesaro surprise attacked the New Day. This didn't get a huge crowd reaction, but it was fresh and interesting and to those who believe Cesaro and Kidd have never been given a fair shake it was promising. I would even argue that it gave the New Day something to do other than clap and look happy.
This week they had a match, which didn't surprise, but I knew was wrong. The tag match between these two teams is the blow off of this feud. That's how you finish it. That's at least worthy of an under card PPV spot or at worst a few weeks of hype. I would have expected to see a one on one perhaps, but not the big tag match. To make matters worse the New Day just straight up won. Fans had no chance to build some love for them or get excited about them getting revenge on Kidd and Cesaro. They just went out and beat them clean.
How can we be asked to care about Kidd and Cesaro if they just got beat? I fully expect WWE to have a return match where Kidd and Cesaro get a win or some singles spots to continue this, but the damage has largely been done. So if WWE wonders why more and more fans are just fast forwarding through there shows let it be noted it's not just because of the main storyline. It's the complete lack of care and effort to anything beyond the Authority and John Cena.
One more great example of this occurred on Smackdown. Bad News Barrett lost clean in just a few minutes to Sin Cara. That's right Sin Cara. He's currently one half of the NXT tag team champions and basically a part time performer for WWE. They used to him famously bury Alberto Del Rio on Raw this past year and for some reason they decided that they needed to put him over their newly crowned IC champion.
What sense does that make? Let me tell you none! The WWE is starved for top heels right now. Lesnar is two matches away from probably leaving the company. Rollins is really the only full time top heel. He's being forced on us despite not doing all that much. Then there's a big fall off to Rusev. Wade Barrett should have officially became a 100% Authority underling last week. He's the IC title holder. He beat Ziggler who the Authority hate with a passion. Instead he's losing to Sin Cara and if my memory serves me right he was just a lumberjack on the show last night.
Take the IC belt and just throw it in the garbage because it clearly means nothing. Then start booking Barrett on NXT because following these bookings people don't and won't care about him. I say that full well knowing that his Bad News gimmick was getting over. He's a great heel and probably should be given a push. I'm just not sure what he's lacking that WWE wouldn't do this. There's a tailor made feud that can culminate at Mania with him and Ziggler. I'm of the belief that Ziggler doesn't have and won't get a top match at Mania. This would be the next best thing. They had a chance to build for that by having Barrett get built up. Literally just have him win every match he has over average competition for a few weeks until Ziggler is back. How hard is this?
That's how WWE is choosing to handle pretty much all it's non main event business. They are continually putting good in ring performers into really short matches with poorly booked finishes where they are often trading wins and not getting in their move set. That formula is awful and again is a big reason why the show is drawing so much additional hate. It's also why you have no one able to grab the brass ring. These guys don't book themselves. It's near impossible to get over with the crowed when you are winning about half your matches. Americans don't like .500 teams they want winners.
WWE also doesn't give you the logic you have to have to get fully behind an angle and this factor was on display again last night. John Cena came out one week after being left with hat in hand and being blamed for the termination of three somewhat popular superstars. So did Cena come out angry and wanting to do something about it? No, he came out happy and played to the crowd and then he got to his plan for getting these guys rehired. If I was one of those three guys logically I would be super pissed at Cena.
Even more important is that I would have not booked Cena to cut a promo like that and to take that attitude or to have the weird attitude he had when the Authority confronted him. Why would he put up with all this? The logic just doesn't work and it doesn't help the story. It also didn't help that HHH wasn't upset that Cena was going to win and take the title home. It's probably not a bad plan, but HHH behaved like he didn't care. It's almost like two different people were writing this. HHH should have cared. It's logically he would just like Vince cared when CM Punk threatened to do it. That's what gets the crowd behind it.
So your asking the fans to care about this angle, but HHH doesn't so why would they? It's a lack of logic that WWE consistently puts out there. Seth Rollins heel turn was shocking, but his logic for doing it and the timing was so off that it didn't go over as well as it could. Rollins should have went over like a million bucks finally being the guy to quit on the Shield and then slowly drifting under the spell of the Authority and the lust for power. Instead he went from breaking up Evolution the night before to joining them 24 hours later. This was a WCW/TNA quality heel turn. When Rollins finally was challenged to explain himself the best he could do was say he did it to be selfish.
It defied logic and when you do that people are less likely to care. WWE has had to put a ton of effort into Rollins every since and many people feel like he is making it big. I feel he has definitely been elevated, but it's taken a nuclear strength rocket behind him. If he would have simply said that HHH came to him the night after their match and said that he realized after the beating Rollins gave Evolution that he was a special talent and he promised him money and title shots then hey we've got something here. Instead they just copped out.
So let's just get to the only part of the show worth talking about and that was the contract signing. It was good to see Heyman acknowledge that Seth Rollins being added to the match was not a good thing, and Rollins held his own. HHH looked beyond uncomfortable allowing the other talent to tell the story. Like they were stealing his spotlight. He wasn't selling for anyone at all. I think he honestly wasn't happy with the booking of ending and it showed.
The unfortunate part about this ending was it did nothing to help Cena. I know many people would say they are beyond tired of him and I get that, but there's no reason to make him look like a lost little boy standing off to the side. It was awkward just like his opening promo. I also thought Lesnar needed to impose his will a little more here and be the guy. I realize that they are trying to test the waters with Rollins and gauge fan reaction to him being the guy. I'm not sure what they will think and I wouldn't try to, but I can understand if he does get the belt. At least we would have a Champion that will likely be on the show again.
The downside is Rollins has lost so many times to Cena I don't think he has the ability to draw big money unless his dance partner is over. He couldn't headline the next PPV against Ziggler and sell out the arena on his own. That's not because Rollins won't ever be able to do that it's just because they have booked him so poorly the last few months and his whole stick hasn't been as logically as it could be. Fans find him beatable and he's already been beaten by Cena and lost the big match at Survivor Series.
I also felt like the exchanges here were dumb. Cena feel right into an awful curb stomp. Lensar sold his better. I would have just had the entire Authority help Rollins to top both guys. I think that made more sense than the I'll do my move you do your move BS we got. I have to say it helped Rollins though, but I'm not anymore invested in this PPV or match than I was at the start of the night. Heyman's story telling was decent enough to make the segment watchable as well.
Some other notes would be the Daniel Bryan Stephanie segment. This was another example of WWE trying to shill product to people in a really bad way. Steph tried to put over her DVD. I'm not sure how in the world they thought this was a good idea. Bryan mildly made fun of it, but in previous years that DVD would have ended up being smashed into a 1,000 pieces. A good way to make Stephanie more upset with Bryan and build some heat. Now you just have people saying I'm not buying that and supporting a heel character. That's bad marketing people.
We find out that Kane will be Bryan's opponent on Smackdown. What a load of horse shit. That's such a limited stale match. We've seen it already too much. I'm not sure why WWE thought that was good booking. I would have rather seen him in their against anyone that can actually work. Yet, WWE rarely books by observing what would make a good match quality.
Roman Reigns needs to get beat up badly on the next Raw by the entire Authority. Then he needs to go out into the Rumble and get screwed over by them and lose the match. Then he needs to come out on the Raw after the Rumble as a no nonsense non-talking character that destroys the Authority one member at a time. I mean this like when he beats you we don't see you for a few months on TV. Then after Mania he can be pushed into a conflict with the Champion. I could get behind that.
The promo's Reigns has been doing are beyond awful. If WWE thinks that a Rumble win and slapping the belt on him will be well received after seeing how strong Bryan is with the crowd then they are sadly mistaken. For Reigns sake he needs to be held back a little bit. He can do a Lesnar and win the title at Summerslam then lose it somewhere along the way and then have a crowning match at WM 32 if he has earned the spot. Again it's just common sense booking based on what I'm seeing.
Lastly the Macho Man stuff. A couple of things that really bugged me about this was again WWE was trying to capitalize on this beyond being the big moment than what it is, but a way to sell more DVD's. They turned his announcement into a promo for their recently released Macho Man DVD. They also plugged the network by acting like they had just recently added the first 30 minutes of this DVD for subscribers to watch when it's been out there for a few months already.
I'm happy for Macho, but I think this could have been done in a more respectful way.
Next week WWE finally is free of any football competition. Typically the show before a PPV is not very good. It just fans the flames of all the feuds. This week needs to be a little better. I will say that Heyman needs to do something to show that he's got a plan to help Brock Lesnar at the Rumble. If not then the last 9 months of pushing Lesnar has been a big waste. Heyman also is presented as being devious, but if he's just going to stand by while Lesnar gets screwed then yet again I'm forced to ask where's the logic.
Until next time.
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