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Hits & Misses
2/16 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Cena's Promo, Bryan and Reigns, Ziggler vs. Rollins, Triple H - Ric Flair

Feb 19, 2015 - 3:36:44 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

RAW HITS

Cena's Promo: Last week, I was critical of John Cena for saying that he was going to kick Rusev's ass, but not saying that he would beat him in their match at Fastlane to win the United States Championship. This week, Cena opened the show with a very strong promo where he did just that. He said what he didn't say last week, and it was good to hear. Cena was very good on the mic in this opening segment. The physicality at the end was a bit too one sided for my tastes. I don't mind Cena getting the better of Rusev in this case to give his fans the hope that he will win on Sunday, but Rusev should have gotten in a little more offense.

Ambrose vs. Harper: This was a good match between Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper. It wasn't anything special, but it went a nice length at 11 minutes and featured solid to good wrestling action throughout. Ambrose was kept strong going into his eventual Intercontinental Championship match, though I wasn't a big fan of how that match came about (more later).

Rollins vs. Ziggler: Before their match, Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler had a pretty good promo exchange. Neither was great, but they were good enough. They both did get in some good lines on each other. The crowd gave Ziggler a very strong reaction as he has been able to remain very popular with the fans. The match itself was disappointingly short at only 5 or 6 minutes (at least what was shown on tv as the match started during the commercial break). But, it was fun to watch while it lasted. Rollins and Ziggler work very well together in the ring. I'm pretty sure I've said it before and I probably will say it again, but I can watch these two wrestle over and over again without getting tired of it. Rollins has the Money in the Bank briefcase and the backing of The Authority. Can't he afford a clean loss at this point? Also, he shouldn't be so obvious in looking towards the ramp when expecting J & J Security to run in. It was like he was watching to make sure they arrived in time to break up the pin attempt. So, that ending took away from the match as did the length. So, we will call this a very marginal Hit. I am a little surprised that WWE hasn't announced a six man tag match of Rollins, Big Show & Kane vs. Ziggler, Erick Rowan & Ryback for Fastlane. But, I assume it will happen.

Triple H - Ric Flair: This was a good segment to sell Triple H's face to face encounter with Sting at Fastlane. Ric Flair's appearance was a nice surprise. This was one of his best performances in WWE over the past few years. He and Triple H showed their good chemistry here. They did a nice job of playing off of their own history as well as Flair's history with Sting. This was a nice way to really drive home how important Sting was once upon a time to newer fans (especially those who never watched TNA). I didn't really like how Flair said he didn't expect Daniel Bryan to hang with Triple H for even 5 minutes at last year's WrestleMania. I didn't like how he basically gave Triple H an excuse for losing that match by saying that he isn't a full time wrestler any more. That whole part of the exchange was pretty weak, but the rest of it was very strong, including Triple H getting mad to the point of shoving Flair to the ground. WWE has been doing a good job of building to an eventual Sting vs. Triple H match, but I doubt the match will be any good despite the strong build. And in Sting even according to WWE we are talking about a guy who hasn't been relevant in like 14 years.

Bryan - Reigns Brawl: I was not a fan of how Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns were presented on Raw (more later). But, the physical brawl at the end was very well done. They both had good performances in the brawl showing plenty of intensity and animosity towards each other. I liked how the brawl seemed to be over and how they seemed to have calmed down and even forgave each other with the handshake, only to just turn around and start fighting again. This should make fans want to see them fight. I believe WWE has done way too much damage to both of these two wrestlers before one of them (or both maybe?) had to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. I'm not sure this brawl will help much in the long run. But in the short run, it was fun to watch and did make me want to see them wrestle each other more than I did before, though it still was not enough to overcome the damage that has been done along the way.

RAW MISSES

Dust Brothers: The live crowd was pretty much silent for Stardust beating up Goldust after their tag team loss to The New Day. I can't blame them. This has been a heel team. It has recently been a lower card filler heel team. They had gotten a good push once upon a time and had been Tag Team Champions, but that was several months ago. In general, having heel A turn on heel B (even if it is his brother) isn't a good way to get a crowd reaction. The fans already are against heel A, and they don't like heel B, so they don't care if heel B gets beat up. A babyface team breaking up works because it is an actual heel turn and the babyface who gets turned on is going to get sympathy from the fan who were cheering for him to begin with. Nobody has been cheering for Goldust. They tried to do something special with Dusty Rhodes getting involved, but it fell totally flat. WWE needs to do some rebuilding to make the fans care about seeing an eventual Goldust vs. Stardust match.

Prime Time Players Reunion: This was another angle involving a heel team that got zero crowd reaction. Darren Young is still on the roster? When was the last time he did anything on Raw or Smackdown of any importance? I guess this match was set up on the pre-show, but the vast vast VAST majority of Raw's audience doesn't watch the pre-show, so they had no idea what was happening with Darren Young and this unnamed random jobber teaming up against The Ascension. Titus O'Neal came out to his former partner's aid to no reaction. Again, he means nothing. This just screamed filler. The Prime Time Players weren't that over to begin with and WWE did nothing to make the fans care about their break up and then have done nothing since then to make the fans care about either of them individually (part of this has to do with injuries, but not all). And then they haven't had any on camera time together to even tease a reunion to set this up to make us care about them possibly getting back together. So, we were left with nothing to care about and I don't see why we will care about them moving forward.

Ambrose - Barrett: After a silly match against Damian Mizdow, Bad News Barrett was attacked by Dean Ambrose and tied up to the ring post. Ambrose used Barrett's tied up hands to force him to "sign" a contract for an IC Title match. The heel Barrett and the heel announcer John Bradshaw Layfield rightfully pointed out that this is not legal, that the contract wasn't really signed as it was forced and under duress. While the babyface announcer said "who cares?" This points to a major problem WWE has had over the past few years of being able to truly define the babyface and heel roles. Too often, babyfaces act like assholes or in heelish ways while the heels don't do anything bad to get heat. And when they do act like heels by cheating, the fans are told that it was justified as all that matters is whether they win the match. So, then they can't get heat for cheating any more. This also points to the issue with heel authority figures who won't force the IC Champion to defend his Title against someone who has earned a Title opportunity with a non-Title victory over the Champion, as well as a string of victories over other former champs. In order to get his match, Ambrose has to sink to these ridiculous levels to force a contract to be signed and despite the fact that it was rightly pointed out that this wouldn't be a legal contract, it is somehow a legal contract in the WWE bubble. And The Authority who wouldn't just give Ambrose his earned Title match are going to go along with this? It is a mess on multiple levels.

Bryan - Reigns: With the exception of the brawl, WWE did a poor job with Bryan and Reigns on the final Raw before their match at Fastlane. Reigns was better than usual during his interview with Byron Saxton. He gave a pretty good performance, but I wasn't a big fan of the scripting. The scripting over the past few weeks has made both Bryan and Reigns look bad and that was the case here. Reigns pointed out how Bryan was a jerk in forcing himself into the Title picture. But, he made himself look bad by claiming he wasn't manipulated by The Authority. He was clearly manipulated, and to me he looked ridiculous in claiming that he wasn't. During the match with Reigns taking on Kane, Bryan did get in some good lines. I liked that he said he just asked for a Title rematch since he never got one after getting the Title stripped from him last year. His line about Brock Lesnar's lack of Title defenses was interesting too. While I did like some of those lines, for the most part he was acting like a petulant child. I'm a huge fan of Brian Danielson, but it is hard to be a fan of Daniel Bryan right now. And the match certainly didn't change my mind about Reigns' lack of wrestling ability. And the fans were not doing the Yes! chants nearly as passionately as usual which says that he is losing some steam. In the main event, they made Bryan look bad again for allowing Reigns' presence at ring side to distract him after he bad mouthed Reigns for the same thing earlier in the night. The way that they have been acting doesn't make me want to root for either of them and that is the major problem.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at his NEW email address - jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.

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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