RAW Retort – RVD And Y2J have still got it

After Money In The Bank,it was pretty much guaranteed that RAW was going to be a fantastic show, and it was.

I was a bit worried with Maddox starting the show, then Cena cutting him off, but then Orton turned things up a notch, and Fandango was a hugely unexpected addition – as he was in the MITBLM. I wouldn’t have thought that Orton would lower himself to work the ring with Fandango, but then the match was set and they proved that while unexpected, the match was stellar.

I’ve been saying all along, especially since I interviewed Fandango’s very first trainer, that Fandango’s ring work is strong, he just hasn’t had the chance to prove it. Well, he was able to prove his ring prowess last night in the MITBLM, and even more so in his match with Orton to start RAW.

Orton has more than stepped up his ring work the past couple months, especially in the ring with Bryan, but it was great to see that Orton can work a seriously strong match against someone other than Bryan, especially against someone who hasn’t been able to show his ring work since coming up from developmental.

Orton is finally putting out the work he’s capable of, and Fandango is finally getting the chance to show what he can do. The fans are just the ones lucky enough to be tuning in to see this growth each week. I might not have picked Orton to win the All Stars MITBLM, but he sure is going to be a great carrier of the case.

I think it’s been pretty much guaranteed that Ziggy and AJ would be breaking up, and that Ziggler would be feuding with Big E, but the way they went about it was so much better than I expected. Of course AJ was going to try to apologise and get into Ziggler’s good graces, but we all knew that wasn’t going to work. That she did so much to mess with Ziggler’s match showed a serious evil streak. If she’s able to keep her crazy in some sort of check, she’s going to be a force to be reckoned with, but I don’t see that happening.

So after a while, after Big E has managed to work Ziggler over, as he did after Ziggler was almost able to beat ADR on his own merits, Ziggler will be coming back to take out both Big E and AJ, as he should.

Henry has made so many changes and swerves since he joined the WWE, but I think this is way too soon for him to turn face. Henry pulled off one of the biggest swerves in WWE’s history less than a month ago, really showed his heel, and now he’s turning face because he’s seen that Cena can beat him? That’s lame and bad writing all the way around. I’m not impressed, and it’s creative who’s looking low on this one.

Normally I’m great at blaming Henry, but not this time, he actually sold his segment quite well. I also have to say that the ring work between him and The Shield was solid! That triple powerbomb was sick!

I really don’t know why R-Truth was the next victim of The Wyatt Family, but using his name the way Bray did was really great. Last week we got a tiny taste of The Wyatt Family and what they could do, but this week we got a better feel for Bray and what he can do on mic.

That man is a master as turning a phrase, and delivering it. I cannot wait to see what that man has in store for us, though I have to admit I’m more than a bit annoyed at Dusty Rhodes for all the changes he made in some of these young wrestlers years ago, making them into characters that were not at all interesting or creative.

It’s Dusty’s fault that Ryback was Skip Sheffield, Curtis Axel was Michael McGillicutty, Bray Wyatt was Husky Harris, and Johnny Curtis was only interesting enough to spill milk. These four men have stepped out of those horrid characters and are really proving that they’re a lot more than the crappy hands they were dealt by Dusty, but it’s taken them years to do that.

It looks as though the Usos could be in for a huge push, and I’m excited for it. Reigns might be big and imposing, but he’s not the only member of that family who can work the ring. No, I’m not talking about Rosey, The Rock, Tamina, or even Rikishi, I’m talking about Rikishi’s boys, and it’s about time they’ve been given the chance.

I think it’s terrible that they had to step in the ring with a loose cannon like Swagger, but he didn’t seem to injure either of the boys, so they lucked out. Though I will say Cesaro looked great in the ring, as he always does, and the Usos looked that much better for him. The Usos have been growing in fantastic ways, and it seems the sky is still the limit for the Uso twins.

I also didn’t pick Sandow to win the other MITBLM, but now that he has, I’m ecstatic! That man is great on mic, solid in the ring, and has such charisma that no one can dare ignore him. His work with Christian was really strong in this match, though few can look bad in the ring with the likes of Christian. Sandow really sold the heat that is growing on him for how he won the MITBLM, and he did great with it in his match, but also how he fled through the fans to get away from Cody.

The Divas match actually lasted longer than Christian’s match, and I have to admit that shocks me because one of the Divas in that match was a Bella – known for not having much in the way of ring skills. I will say Nikki made it look great that she was leaning against the apron of the ring to keep her balance due to the fact that she’s still on crutches, but the star of this match was Naomi. I hope she gets recognised for just how great her ring work is.

King and JBL were talking about how Naomi is one of the best and most athletic Divas in the locker room, and I think she is. That young woman is a star, could be the next Trish Stratus if given the chance, and it looks as though that might be happening. Fingers crossed because she is just great, and the Divas Division needs someone like her.

Punk and Heyman were the best of the mic work for the night. Most of the best matches, storylines and feuds are between people who are the best of friends. Look at how HBK and Triple H worked together – as allies and foes. The same can be said for Owen and Bret Hart. Punk and Heyman work so well because they are so close. They bring up emotions, throw in real moments that just don’t exist when opponents don’t have a true history together. Punk and Heyman are the best of friends, so their feud is something that feels real.

As if their friendship wasn’t enough, these are two of the best talkers in the business. They make every moment something you can touch or taste; you can smell the blood as it flows. Despite Brock Lesnar‘s presence, the true feud is between Heyman and Punk, and they are the key to making everything between Punk and Brock more than just a fight between two top guys. I just hope Punk doesn’t get hurt in the process because Brock only cares about three things – himself, his money and Sable, possibly in that order.

Triple H and Steph are already starting to pull Maddox in a number of directions, and make comments about McMahon behind his back, or at least Triple H has. They’re going to drive that poor boy as crazy as they drove Vickie, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. Maddox is handling himself so much better than he did even a month ago. He’s able to remember his lines, and peoples’ names these days, always a step in the right direction. I can’t say I don’t laugh at him rather than with him, but he’s fun to laugh at.

The last two segments of RAW stole the show, but in very different ways.

I’m going to start with Cena, and though it’s out of order, the old guys deserve the main event of this write up.

Cena really worked the crowd well. He played dumb where needed, and gave guys props where deserved. I was a little annoyed that he didn’t mention that Brooklyn Brawler was on stage with the rest of the Superstars. Brawler, otherwise known as Steve Lombardi, works as a road agent for the WWE, so he was already backstage for the show.

Since RAW was actually in Brooklyn, it made perfect sense for the Brawler to be out there with the Superstars, but he just stood there with Khali and Ryder. Cena should have said something about Brawler being out there when he was playing dumb and going through a list of who he should face. Only a few of the chosen names made a lot of sense for Cena to face, but the fans knew who they wanted – even if WWE’s official website hadn’t screwed up by accidentally putting the chosen one up on the page briefly during RAW.

The fans were all about Bryan, and there was no way Cena was going to be allowed to choose anyone else. Furthermore, Bryan sold every moment after being named. The fans love that man, and for good reason. But the way Bryan handled himself after being named had to bring in even more fans. There’s no question that Cena will be the heel in their match at SummerSlam, and the fans will be disgusted if Bryan doesn’t win the WWE Championship – myself included.

The real show stealer of the night for me were the old guys.

RVD vs Jericho

Both of them debuted in the ring before some WWE Superstars were even born. They’ve been wrestling for over 23 years, each, and were able to put on the match of the night, by far. After it was over I thought the match had lasted twelve to fifteen minutes, not almost twenty-five minutes. It was so great that it didn’t feel as though it had lasted as long as it had.

The WWE has stepped things up recently and returned to outstanding wrestling as well as solid storylines and great mic work, something we’ve not seen in a number of years. Punk, Bryan, Rollins, Ambrose, and so many others have been able to show their serious skills in the ring recently, and because of that RVD is back and he was able to have such a match with Jericho.

Those two have always been great in the ring, and RVD is one of the few who’s been able to show it all along, but even Jericho was reduced to hitting and kicking more between his lionsaults and walls of Jericho. Now that the tides have turned back, the fans are getting matches like this one between these two veteran wrestlers. They might be older than many who have been giving us matches that leave us on the edges of our seats, but they can still go with the best of them, and better than the rest.

I’m thrilled with the WWE for giving us matches like this, and allowing these two men to prove how much they still have in the tank, and that two faces can tell such a story in the ring.

It seems to me that Triple H and Steph are doing so much for the WWE and the industry as a whole. The WWE Performance Center in Florida is something the industry has never seen before, because it was nothing the industry could carry. But now with the size of the WWE, and the leadership of Triple H and Steph, big changes are afoot.

The wrestling and mic work can only get better from here with this facility, and after what we’ve been seeing week in and week out on RAW, Smackdown, MainEvent, Saturday Morning Slam, NXT, and PPVs, there’s so much more to come.

Looking back, many of us feel lucky to have lived through and enjoyed watching ECW, ECW, WWF and the Monday Night War, but looking forward, I think we’re going into a whole new level of talent and excitement. Sports entertainment is getting better and better recently, and we should feel lucky that we’re getting to watch it grow and change as it will.