WWE: RAW Review for 15th July

Christian defeated Damien Sandow

It was obvious that Christian took a blow to his teeth. The match went for four minutes, and saw Christian and Sandow exchange blows. The end came when Sandow went for the elbow of disdain, but Christian countered and covered him for the pinfall victory. They could have done so much more if they received more air time, but I’m okay with it. Post match, Cody attacked Sandow before Sandow escaped through the crowd. This is the beginning of their feud, and I’m happy that WWE is finally acknowledging their talent.

Rating: * ½

Naomi (With Cameron) defeated Brie Bella (With Nikki)

A five minute match that saw Naomi exhibiting her athleticism, and picked up the victory after a huge cross body. I have the same question as every week; where is Natalya?

Rating: ½ *

Time for a promo by Punk. He called Heyman out, and Heyman obliged. Heyman talked about how Heyman made Punk. Heyman said Punk and Heyman did things together, but Punk threw it all away when he thought he was better than Heyman. Heyman said he took away the one thing that Punk wanted, the chance to win the WWE title. Punk said he’d take everything away from Heyman, till he got his hands on him. Heyman said Punk can never beat Lesnar, and this brought out the beast. Heyman blindsided Punk and Lesnar took advantage of this, and threw Punk around the ring like a ragdoll. Punk tried to make a comeback but Lesnar cut him off. Lesnar drilled Punk spine first to the ring post, and then threw him over the announcer’s desk to end the segment. Punk tried to get up on his own feet and managed to walk away with the trainers. As I always say, anything involving Punk and Heyman is gold! You involve Lesnar and you get one of the best segments of RAW in the past decade! Absolutely brilliant promo by Heyman and Punk. Loved every minute of it.

Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho

You put two of the best workers in the industry together and you come out with an amazing TV match, and that’s what happened with Y2J and RVD. The crowd was hot for the entire match, and started ‘This is awesome’ chants multiple times during the bout. It went on for 22 minutes, and the end saw RVD giving Jericho the 5 star frog splash to pick up the victory. These two performers are on the wrong side of 40, but can still deliver better matches than most of the performers backstage. Simply amazing!

Rating: ****

All the superstars assembled on the ramp which led to the WWE champ coming out. He played with the fans and asked if Slater should face him at Summerslam, to which the crowd booed. Cena then said ‘Don’t hinder Jinder’ which I popped big for. He asked the fans about Orton, Sheamus, Khali and the rest of 3 MB, and the crowd booed. He asked about Y2J and the crowd popped, and then he asked about RVD and that received a bigger pop. The fans then started the ‘Yes’ and ‘Daniel Bryan’ chants, and then Cena picked Daniel Bryan, which almost blew the roof off! Bryan came down chanting ‘Yes’ and the whole arena followed him. That might just be the biggest reaction on RAW in the past decade! RAW faded with Bryan yelling ‘Yes’ in Cena’s face. That was an amazing end to this week’s episode! As I said, I love the NY–NJ fans!

RAW Rating: ****

I loved this week’s show. WWE finally listened to the fans and put Bryan in the main event scene. Will he be successful in winning the WWE title? I hope so, but my gut feeling says otherwise. Either way, the second biggest PPV of the year will see Daniel Bryan headlining it. Is this the rise of Daniel Bryan as a legitimate main eventer in the WWE? I suppose so. What an amazing episode of RAW! I can’t wait for the next episode to see how things play out, as we head on to Summerslam in a month’s time.