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Hits & Misses
3/17 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Bryan vs. Orton, Cena - Wyatt, The Shield Turn, Triple H Beats Down Bryan

Mar 19, 2014 - 2:29:12 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: It is interesting to see a long talking segment with all heels. This week, Raw opened with Triple H cutting a promo about his match against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania which was then interrupted first by Batista and then by Randy Orton. The mic work was pretty strong from all three and the dynamic between the former Evolution members was interesting. Triple H did a nice job of trying to stay calm, but then blowing up and adding the stipulation to his match against Bryan that if we wins he will add himself into the WWE World Title main event, so we will get a triple threat no matter what. While I didn't love the opening, it was newsworthy in terms of that big announcement, and it hyped a man to man confrontation between Triple H and Bryan as well as Bryan vs. Orton in a no DQ match for later in the show.

The Usos vs. The Real Americans: I have said many times that I don't like seeing non-Title matches like this. They make the Champions look weak, because they almost always lose non-Title matches. If WWE wants to build to The Real Americans becoming the #1 contender for the Tag Team Championship, then have them earn that right in a way other than beating The Usos in a non-Title match. Now, this was a good match. I enjoyed the wrestling action and the chemistry between these two teams is strong. So, it was a Hit. The ending sequence was particularly strong with Cesaro countering a flying Uso with that great European Uppercut to set up the Neutralizer for the win. I assume WWE is setting up some sort of fatal fourway Tag Title match for WM, since The New Age Outlaws still should get a Title rematch, and they could throw in The Rhodes Bros too. But, if they go for The Usos vs. The Real Americans, while it should be a good match, we just saw it on Raw. I will say that regardless of what the match is, when Swagger costs the team and Cesaro does the big swing on him for 20+ revolutions, that will make a great WM moment.

Cena - Wyatt: John Cena gave a good promo about Bray Wyatt. It was interesting to hear how he differentiated Wyatt from all of his other opponents over the years. I'm not a fan of how much Cena talks about the reaction he gets from the live crowd. We've had our ups and downs. Blah blah blah. At least that part of the promo was kept short. They are positioning this match as Cena defending his legacy against Wyatt. That doesn't interest me much, but the presentation has been strong. Wyatt was also good from the video screen in his interruption. I liked how he was wearing a John Cena t-shirt. His recent promos about super heroes have been strong. This one was no different.

Orton vs. Bryan: This was a good no DQ match between Orton and Bryan. I liked how Orton taunted the fans at ringside as he beat on Bryan with a kendo stick that the match was no DQ. We've seen these two way too often, so the match wasn't going to mean much, but it was still entertaining. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. I am fine with Batista coming back after pretending to walk out earlier in the show and get revenge on Orton for the RKO which ended the opening segment. However, one Batista spear didn't seem like enough to end this match. However, it was good until that point and was a nice tease of what could potentially happen in the WM main event where Batista could do the damage, but Bryan could get the win in the triple threat format (not that I want to see that ending as Bryan should win in a stronger fashion).

Triple H Destroys Bryan: Raw had a very memorable ending with the huge beat down that Triple H gave Daniel Bryan with the help of Stephanie McMahon and a group of phony cops. The mic work from Triple H at the start of the segment was fine. It went on too long meaning the overrun and the show in general went on too long. I thought it was terrible that cops in San Antonio would have the jurisdiction to arrest someone for an infraction that occurred in Memphis, so I was relieved when it was all a big set up. The beating with Bryan being handcuffed was very well done. It was vicious. It was intense. Triple H and Stephanie were great in taunting Bryan and the fans throughout the beating. The chair shot to Bryan's head against the ring post made me cringe a little, but I think it was actually well done in terms of protecting Bryan while making it look real. That's the magic of wrestling. It sets up Bryan as being vulnerable at WM, while also making the fans want to see him get his revenge.

RAW MISSES

Lesnar - Undertaker Video: This is a video that could have been a great way to promote Brock Lesnar as the man who will end The Streak at WM. But, it didn't work for me. I like the idea of the theme of the video being Lesnar destroying The Undertaker's recent WM opponents who had all given Undertaker a major challenge. The idea is that if Taker could barely beat Triple H, how can he beat Lesnar who destroyed Triple H? Taker could barely beat Shawn Michaels, but Lesnar broke Michaels' arm. That works. Part of the problem though is that Undertaker's most recent opponent whom Lesnar defeated at SummerSlam last year is CM Punk who is persona non grata on WWE tv, so they didn't even include him in the video. That would have added some punch. The inclusion of Mark Henry didn't work very well, as Henry was not one of those recent Taker opponents. He didn't seem to fit. And, Lesnar lost to Triple H last year at WM. I'm not forgetting that. So, how is Lesnar better than Undertaker? So, the real reason this video fell flat is that Lesnar hasn't been presented over the last few years as the monster heel threat to the Streak that he should have been if this is where WWE wanted to ultimately go.

Goldust vs. Fandango: I liked some of the antics with Goldust and Cody Rhodes mocking Fandango and Summer Rae. However, the match wasn't very good. Obviously, Goldust got hurt at some point which affected the match quality. I'm not totally sure what happened, but Goldust's top rope hurricanrana was quite awkward looking. Was that when the injury occurred? There was another botched move when Fandango had trouble lifting Goldust for a suplex, but maybe Goldust wasn't helping because of the injury. It just looked bad. Goldust really struggled to hit the curtain call too. I don't want to be down too much on it as the problems in the match were likely caused by a real life injury. But, I have to react to what I saw in the ring which was ugly to watch.

The Shield Turns on Kane: Last week, I commented on the fact that Michael Cole was defending some of the actions of Dean Ambrose. That seemed to be setting the tone for a Shield babyface turn. They also teased a turn on Smackdown when they refused to do Kaen's bidding and attacked him in the end. That was definitely a babyface move, though they had done Triple H's bidding earlier in the show by beating up Damian Sandow (even though he is a heel). Now, this is an interesting twist to their storyline and I think has potential to be a good role for the team before they ultimately break up somewhere down the line. I think this could have been a great moment when they turned on Kane instead of attacking Jerry 'the King' Lawler. Instead, it fell flat. The fans sort of popped for it, but it wasn't the big reaction that I'm sure WWE was hoping for. I think fans don't really know what to think about The Shield at this point. They want to cheer for Roman Reigns, but haven't been given much reason to cheer for the other two, particularly Dean Ambrose. Plus, Kane hasn't been presented in a good way recently, so there wasn't great anticipation for someone to stand up to him. If his character had been better written lately, the fans would have been waiting for anyone to stand up to him, and they would have popped more for The Shield in that moment. I am curious to see what happens at WM. Does The Shield face Kane and two partners? That seems likely, but who?

The Divas: The Divas division continues to be a mess. I wish WWE would pick one Diva challenger to AJ Lee and build a strong one-on-one program around those two Divas to have a Title match at WM. Instead, they want everything to be convoluted, so that they can get a multi-Divas match which won't be as good. So, Nikki Bella was making a case for herself being the #1 contender during guest commentary, while Naomi who had already earned that spot was getting another non-title tag team win over AJ, and then afterwards Tamina and AJ apparently split up as Tamina shoved AJ down after AJ got in her face and blamed her for the loss. Tamina shoving AJ should have been a big moment, but it was sort of lost in the shuffle of everything else going on. I assume we will get AJ vs. Nikki (with Brie in her corner) vs. Naomi (with Cameron in her corner) vs. Tamina at WM. I'm just not looking forward to that.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.


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