WWE RAW: Results & Review (16.02.15)

The go-home show on the lead up to WWE’s February PPV, Fast Lane, should be a show that offers plenty of incentive to watch the main special event. This RAW should leave fans with every intention to watch Fast Lane and continue on the Road to WrestleMania. Of course, these go-home shows are hit and miss nowadays, so it’s up in the air where this one will fall. Let’s see.

Opening with John Cena’s music playing, and the face of WWE heading to the ring, this was a less-than-exciting opening to RAW for me, and for the fans it seems, because the reaction was muted and not very loud. Cena talked about Fast Lane on the WWE Network, he talked about his opponent, Rusev which brought out Rusev and Lana. Lana mocked Cena. Cena fired back with claims that he will “kick” Rusev’s “ass” at Fast Lane. Lana and Rusev do the “you can’t see me” taunt to Cena, who proceeds to run down Rusev and beat him up, tossing him into the RAW set and showing an “angry” side to his character that is seldom seen these days.

Match results:

• Dean Ambrose pinned Luke Harper
• The New Day beat Stardust & Goldust
• Roman Reigns beat Kane via count-out
• Paige beat Summer Rae
• Dolph Ziggler beat Seth Rollins by DQ
• Bad News Barrett beat Damien Sandow
• Jimmy Uso and Naomi beat Tyson Kidd and Natalya
• Big Show beat Daniel Bryan via DQ

There were a number of Bray Wyatt promo segments throughout the show, all of which saw Bray speak in riddles about darkness and such, promoting his eventual match with The Undertaker. I wonder how long they will keep the promos up for, and how long we will have to wait for an in-ring Bray promo that actual mentions ‘Taker by name. Hopefully soon.

Stardust and Goldust had a backstage segment involving their father, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. Dusty told Cody that family means everything, and he seemed to get through to Cody, who went to the ring with Goldie for a tag team match against Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston from the bland New Day. The match was ok, though short, and ended with Goldust being pinned. After the match Stardust helped Goldust to his feet before laying him out with the Cross Rhodes finisher. The fans gave Cody/Stardusts’ heel turn a mixed response. There was a segment backstage following this which saw Stardust claim that “Cody Rhodes is dead” before telling Dusty “just like my father”. I wonder if this means the Stardust character will continue for a while, or if we’ll see Cody return as himself in time for WrestleMania. I’m hoping that this storyline will end with the match that the Brothers’ Rhodes have been wanting for years, a one-on-one match at WrestleMania.

Roman Reigns continued to confuse me as a viewer with his heel-like facials and dialogue and babyface like push. It’s like Roman is following orders from a creative team who don’t know where they’re going. I hope they do. Reigns had a match with Kane and Daniel Bryan had a match with Big Show, both of which involved behaviour that hyped the match between Reigns and Bryan at Fast Lane. Reigns continues to get booed by fans, though his promo work was better tonight than previous weeks, mostly due to the fact that they kept his script short and to the point.

Triple H had a segment in the ring in which he spoke about Sting, and how WCW would be facing off with WWE at Fast Lane when he calls Sting out. He spoke about being the “Cerebral Assassin” and not the CEO at Fast Lane. Ric Flair returned to RAW and came to the ring to speak to Trips about Sting. He put Sting over whilst also being friendly with Triple H, saying he respects both men. Flair says that Trips is the best wrestler in the world, but says that he needs to be “The Game” and not an executive. Triple H said that Sting made his name off Ric Flair’s hard work. Flair mocks Triple H a little which leads to Trips pushing Flair to the mat and standing over him, saying that Sting won’t show his face again after Fast Lane.

After a match involving The Ascension, we saw Darren Young and Titus O’Neil reunite, possibly permanently, bringing their old Prime Time Players team back. It makes sense, these two were doing very little otherwise and it gives The Ascension another team to feud with. Following his victory over Damien Sandow, Bad News Barrett was attacked by Dean Ambrose who cuffed Barrett to a ringpost and forced him to sign a contract which gave Ambrose a shot at the Intercontinental Title against Barrett at Fast Lane.

The main event of the show was a long match between Daniel Bryan and The Big Show. It’s no secret that Big Show’s best in-ring work in the last few years has been against Daniel Bryan, and this was no different. It was a good match (especially for a Big Show match, which are normally one-sided and slow) and Daniel Bryan pulled out all the stops to make it interesting to watch. Roman Reigns hovered around ringside throughout the match, signing autographs for fans and drawing attention to himself as a way to show disrespect to Bryan to hype their encounter at Fast Lane. The end of the match saw Daniel Bryan about to defeat Big Show, with Reigns hitting the ring and causing Bryan to be disqualified. After the match, as fans loudly booed Reigns and cheered for Bryan, the two men brawled as the announcers put over their upcoming PPV match and the animosity between the two. The show went off the air with referees pulling Bryan and Reigns away from one another, with the two continuing to brawl. Reigns gets a bust lip during this brawl, which involved chair shot and the two men throwing each other into the announce tables and ringside barriers. A solid way to end RAW and promote the Reigns/Bryan match at Fast Lane, but otherwise a go-home show that did very little to promote the PPV. They put a lot of energy into the final brawl, but the remainder of this RAW left much to be desired.

RAW: Best Match: Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show

RAW: Best Talker: Triple H

RAW: Worst Match: The Ascension vs. Darren Young & a Jobber

 RAW: Surprise of the Night: John Cena shows intensity and acts seriously in his brawl with Rusev