Appearances from The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and John Cena ensured RAW had ample star power to carry the show in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the final destination on WWE's road to the "most epic SummerSlam in history". The show began with HHH and Stephanie putting aside their authoritarian personae in order to proceed into a desperate 15 minute advert for SummerSlam. For some reason, WWE believes that a longer show equates to a better quality programme. Evidently, HHH is a big fan of the movie Ben Hur. In other segments, Ryback defeated one of the men involved in the Intercontinental championship triple threat match, all of the tag division engaged in an insipid eight man tag match that lasted a whole two minutes and, once again, a tag match shoe horned two rivalries together. The show concluded after The Undertaker, post a 15 minute promo detailing how beloved 'Taker is, interrupted a Paul Heyman promo to perform yet another sneak attack/ low blow on Brock Lesnar which was rightfully booed by the crowd.
All in all, many inexplicable events occurred on RAW ranging from the mildly irritating to the wildly infuriating in a show that unenthusiastically chugged on towards SummerSlam.
Here is my three point RAW review.
The Diva's Revolution: a hypocritical fallacy
Revolution: A forcible overthrow of a social order, in favour of a new system
OED
Since beginning this blog, I have dedicated very few lines to women's wrestling. But El Specifico, I hear you cry, you started the blog the same time as the "Diva's Revolution". Yes, whilst that is true, I have very little interest in women's wrestling. Actually, I have very little interest in women's wrestling in the WWE and that has not changed since the "revolution" in women, sorry, diva's wrestling.
Lots of issues still remain in the presentation of women's wresting that are unresolved despite continual reminder that this is a revolution.
- For a start, diva is not a good word and may as well be used as a synonym for spoilt bitch. Why the title is not named the Women's Championship is beyond my powers of comprehension.
- Characters need motivations for their actions. As things stand, the Bella's flip flop between heel and face without any motivations for doing so. In fact, this is a much broader point that extends well beyond the Women's division (see HHH, Stephanie McMahon, Big Show, Mark Henry).
- The women wrestlers rarely get time on the mic- for so long, WWE has driven home the point of the importance of connecting with the audience (see Vince McMahon's comments on Cesaro, HHH's comments to CM Punk) and extended time on the mic is the way to achieve this. Yet the women are barely given a chance to connect with the fans outside their matches.
- The character of Lana reeks of double standards; the revolution line states that the female performers should be taken seriously due to their ability. This is not the case for Lana, she can tweet/instagram about her "legacy" as much as she likes but the fact remains she is only their due to her appearance and it stinks of hypocricy to concurrently push women for their atheltic prowess yet push Lana solely on her appearance.
- The commentary team only appears to be hyping how they are impressive because they are female. If a true revolution were to take place, the athletes should be hyped on their athletic ability regardless of their gender. There is a big difference between the two.
- Another point regarding commentary: Jerry 'the King' Lawler either needs to stop with the perverted comments or stop doing commentary. If WWE wants to re-brand how their female athletes are considered, which they evidently do, The King can not sit on commentary passing comments like "you know what makes these Diva's matches better, I pretend they are fighting over me".
Despite the endless talk of revolution, the fact remains; WWE's attitude towards women's wrestling remains remarkably similar to a past they are desperately attempting to separate themselves from.
WWE Word Heavyweight Championship and United States Championship Contract Signing
WWE refrained from using the traditional contract signing tropes wrestling fans are so accustomed to; this time, no one was sent crashing though the table and, quite frankly, the segment was better for it.
HHH and Stephanie McMahon returned to their role as The Authority to introduce the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins. Rollins first offered congratulations to HHH and Stephanie for assembling an "epic" four hour SummerSlam before congratulating the fans who will witness history being made as Rollins becomes the first person ever to hold both WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the United States Championship. Rollins proceeded to quote Bob Dylan to inform fans that the times are a changing and the WWE Universe will no longer be held hostage by John Cena.
John Cena arrives after missing the previous two weeks of RAW with a broken nose. Despite the injury, his nose still doesn't look as crooked as HHH's. John Cena, sarcastically, joked how Rollins is so original in his t-shirts/actions in mocking him before claiming Rollins is an imitation of himself... Before leaving, Cena stated that he will be getting payback on Seth Rollins not by injuring him but by defeating him to become a 16 time World Champion.
Cena has a real chance to elevate Rollins and his title without actually winning it. No one gets a reaction out of every single person in the crowd like John Cena and by having him in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture once again does re-establish the title's importance that, lets be honest, has been considered an after thought for the past five weeks. With Cena's presence, the stakes are certainly raised. However, I'm surprised that the winner will take both titles. Considering the match is not scheduled as the main event, to me, that suggests that their won't be a winner in this match. Instead, i expect something especially funky in all likelihood involving Sheamus and his briefcase.
Brothers in Arms
Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns are brothers. Brothers that go out and drink beer together. Family that sticks together, through thick and thin. Brothers that would take a bullet for one another. Brothers that stick together through the tough times.Brothers that will ALWAYS (Hint hint, wink wink) have each other's backs.
Do you get the point?
Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns are brothers- so much so, in fact, that Dean Ambrose continued to fulfil his role of personal cheer leader to Roman Reigns during his match with Luke Harper on Monday night Raw.
Dean Ambrose took up a position on commentary to watch a solid match between Roman Reigns and Luke Harper. Harper is one of the few people on the roster that has good chemistry with Reigns and whenever these two meet they usually produce a hard hitting encounter and this one was further improved by Ambrose's commentary. Roman Reigns picked up the win after connecting with a spear. After the match, Wyatt pensively looked on from ringside whilst Reigns and Ambrose celebrated in the ring.
With foreshadowing as subtle as John Cena's new Gatorade t shirt, at this stage it would be more surprising if Dean Ambrose or Roman Reigns didn't turn on their former Shield brethren on Sunday. My money is on Dean Ambrose to do the dirty on Roman due to WWE's unwavering desire to push Roman Reigns as the next top babyface regardless of how fans continue to gravitate towards other wrestlers. A turn either way would be a good move as it would finally dissolve the Shield for good thus allowing the triple threat match between Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins to finally take place. Will WWE have the cojones to execute the turn in front of a hostile Brooklyn crowd that will, in all likely hood, produce cheers from the smarky crowd? That remains to be seen.
I don't know if it is testament to how much Roman Reigns has improved other the past eight months or testament to how underwhelming the final RAW before SummerSlam was but this was the best segment of the night despite retaining the same old Roman Reigns match formula.
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