WWE made quite a strong movement towards Wrestlemania. The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar are already set to face each other. Daniel Bryan set the foundation for a match with Triple H (quite disappointing) and Batista told the ‘BOOtista’s to ‘Deal with IT’ ( IT being his underwhelming performances, I suppose.)
But there is this legion of young superstars who are quite steadily and surely making the most of their appearances on the main roster. The Shield and Bray Wyatt had some great moments on Raw. You see, Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt are the performers the WWE wants you to pay more attention to than their teammates. But while the match between the two powerhouses was on, the Green Bay crowd went on a different tangent altogether. They chanted ‘Overrated’ and ‘Husky Harris’ at Wyatt and it was only when Reigns started dominating that the crowd stopped mirroring the chants the NY/NJ crowd did after WM 29.
But there was one thing made clear- the entire Shield versus the entire Wyatt family is much more compelling than any of their individual members going against each other.
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The best part of the match was not the match itself, but the action surrounding the ring. It began when eventually the lights went off and moments later the lights came back on with Harper and Rowan standing side by side and then out of nowhere Seth Rollins leapt towards the two mammoth Buzzards. Rollins got quite an incredible ovation and so well deserved. He has been the most impressive Shield performer in the ring even if the WWE hypes Reigns around. That one move at Elimination Chamber when Harper suplexed Rollins from the top rope which saw Rollins land on his feet was just the most spectacular moment of that near perfect match last night.
But as expected Rollins was outnumbered with the third member of the Shield suspected to be M.I.A. And that was expected given the amount of emphasis on Ambrose’s frustration at his teammates ‘ganging up’ on him and not understanding his side of the story regarding his Elimination Chamber performance.
BUT, to the delight of the crowd Ambrose came to the rescue of Rollins and evened things up for the Shield and even though he eventually attacked Wyatt and disqualified Reigns, the picture told a different story. Reigns actually looked thankful to Ambrose for coming through and even though it is evident that the WWE keeps tabs on the social media discussions on Shield’s break up, they seem to be not rushing into that eventual split anytime soon. And that is great. It should be acknowledged that WWE are handling all these superstars quite well. And all these superstars are doing a great job.
Ambrose is a complete package. His character thrives on his derailed deviousness and he is the most dramatic character of all. Reigns is obviously the WWE’s pick for his look and muscle. The Royal Rumble and Survivor Series performances prove that and so do the extreme close ups. And in all of that the extreme pleasure of watching Rollins fly all over and around the ring is beautiful. He is becoming the show stealer.
On the other hand, there is Bray Wyatt.
Wyatt, with his sinuous words and insidious movement around his rocking chair, introduced himself to John Cena just when Cena had made his typical point of being the guarding wall between the future and the pinnacle of the WWE success sphere.
Wyatt’s promos are creepier when they are already recorded video promos when his surroundings are totally silent but it was his promo tonight on Raw that made his potential feud with Cena more intense.
The Wyatts stamped their dominance on Cena and apparently injured him and then Bray Wyatt made his second appearance of the night against Reigns.
WWE is doing a great job at making the most of the excitement surrounding the two factions. And while the Wyatts look to have set their Wrestlemania journey with John Cena, it is still unclear what will be done with the Shield. Hopefully, something really, really special.