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TUCKER'S INSTANT REACTION - Raw 3/10: A satisfying night, plus who delivered memorable performances?

Mar 11, 2014 - 1:07:13 AM
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Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 3/10
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist


Overall Score - 8.0

After months of whining and complaining, followed up by more whining and complaining, Daniel Bryan finally has his WrestleMania main event (well, sorta). And it feels good. Hey, it only took the butchering of two main event level feuds (Bryan-Wyatt and Batista-Orton) to get here. Not bad. And the moment of Bryan (and the fans) getting what they want wasn't the only highlight of the best Raw of the year so far.

Freed from the shackles of speculation (with all of the returns rumored for two weeks ago and the hijack Raw movement taking place in C.M. Punk's home the week after), Raw tonight was the first in several weeks that can be judged solely on its own merits. Despite a lull here and there, the program held up well with excellent pacing and a nice serving of wrestling on the side. Raw tonight was one of those shows that you'll be seeing in recap videos for the next month.

- Hulk Hogan announcing a battle royal at WrestleMania didn't do much for me, mainly for the reason that there's nothing of importance at stake. We see battle royals all the time; what makes this one different? Especially when we're passively told on a regular basis how pointless non-title matches are. Still, the segment was saved by John Cena and the Wyatt Family, who continue to verbally bounce off one another well. The Wyatt segment later in the show was a great follow-up to the opening as well, and while Bray Wyatt's family may be getting fed to Cena, he's being portrayed wonderfully as an equal to him.

Verdict: Watch it!

- It's great and all that the Usos are tag champs, but winning squash matches isn't going to do anyone any favors. They need promo time, as opposed to the sorta-face kinda-heel New Age Outlaws, who are inadvertently sucking all of the heat away from their feud with the champs due to their desire to seem "too cool to be heel." It's not working.

Verdict: Skip.

- Another day, another Big E. beating to set up the Real Americans split. I'm digging this slow burn approach that they're taking, but it can only go so much longer before I'll want to see someone else pick on the world's bustiest Intercontinental champion.

Verdict: Skip.

- Paul Heyman is doing everything he can to make Brock Lesnar's match with The Undertaker feel like the showdown it would have been three years ago. Whether that's working or not is up for debate, but his performance tonight was undeniably amazing. The tactic he took in his promo to compare the Mania streaks of the best in the business to Taker's was genius, highlighting how special the feat is. Undertaker, while brief, maintained his aura as well as he always does. The key here is to make Lesnar seem as unstoppable as he did before he got beat by John Cena. And Triple H. And almost Triple H again...

Verdict: Watch it!

- The Shield and the Brotherhood have a bevy of chemistry together, and once again they had a great tag team match with each other. The fact that The Shield are pseudo-faces and the Brotherhood have been defined down so much hurt the match's heat, but it still served its purpose well and made everyone involved look great. Dean Ambrose's over-reactions at ringside were a personal highlight.

Verdict: Watch it!

- I swear A.J. just lost to one of the Bellas in a tag team match some time in the last month. The Divas division has been telling the exact same story on repeat since September and it's becoming unbearable. Why even employ these Divas if WWE won't try to use them well? Oh yeah, there's a reality show on E! starting up again Sunday.

Verdict: Skip.

- The Occupy Raw segment started out hokey and (oddly) corporate feeling by inviting fan plants into the ring. However, after the commercial break it picked up fantastically due to great work by Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Stephanie especially showed a great resurgence of her jezebel persona from the Attitude Era, and it made for a memorable segment when combined with the visual of the fans in the ring. Bryan finishing the segment before adding the WWE Title match stipulation was another great idea, giving Bryan's fans a surprise burst of enjoyment when all hope seemed to be lost. And, hey, WWE even got to this point without anyone hijacking Raw!

Verdict: Watch it!

- Sheamus vs. Christian was a lot better than I expected it to be. Both men fought out of the shackles their stale characters have held them down with and produced a quality street fight that had plenty of nice (and sometimes brutal) looking spots. This was the match of the night, but still hopefully the last time I'll see these two wrestle each other for a while. Hey, they're still stale.

Verdict: Watch it!

- The main event tag team match picked up towards the end, but wasn't much beforehand. Batista is still incredibly rusty in the ring, delivering the consistently worst looking spear I've ever seen. Seriously, it's just lazy. The clean win from Bryan was a nice way to cap off the first satisfying night for Bryan fans since January. Which feels like January 2013 after everything his character has been through.

Verdict: Watch it!

In other words, this was a fun Raw to watch, and a story-heavy one at that. It wasn't a consistently great show, but the edited Hulu version should get rid of all of the fluff for you.

Any questions or comments? Message me on Twitter @BTuckertorch!


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