SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE Raw TV News & Notes 12/28
– John Cena returned to WWE TV for the first time since the Hell in a Cell PPV in October.
Cena beat U.S. champion Alberto Del Rio in a title re-match from HIAC, but it was a DQ result due to interference from the League of Nations. Therefore, Del Rio retained the U.S. Title.
– WWE announced Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus for the WWE Title with Mr. McMahon as special referee for next Monday’s Raw kicking off 2016.
– IC champion Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens ran a show-long angle scrapping with each other throughout the show. Ambrose ended up taking a powerbomb through the announce table, ending his night by selling losing feeling in his body.
– The Divas division was spotlighted with a 16-minute match between Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, who lost to Sasha via heel tactics. Divas champion Charlotte was booked for the split-crew house show in Allentown, Pa.
– WWE ran a parade of mid-carders through Miz TV to interrupt The Miz’s attempt to recap his entire 2015 day-by-day. Cameos included Zack Ryder, Ryback, Goldust, Heath Slater, and R-Truth.
– As part of the Miz TV segment, Big Show returned to Raw to declare himself as the first entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble match.
– King Barrett kind of returned to in-ring action. Barrett was part of a six-man tag with Sheamus and Rusev against The Usos & Dean Ambrose. However, Barrett did not tag into the match and avoided physicality while recovering from an injury.
– Prior to the Del Rio vs. Cena main event, WWE ran a tribute video to Motorhead lead singer Lemmy, who reportedly died on Monday.
– Announced for Smackdown is a New Year’s Eve theme show. No matches or segments were announced.
– Announced for this week’s ESPNews SportsCenter segment is Titus O’Neil talking to Jonathan Coachman on Tuesday night.
– Tony Chimel handled ring announcing duties with Lilian Garcia losing her voice.
Vince is better at playing the heel authority figure. Maybe Triple H will stay off TV and come back at the Royal Rumble for a match with Reigns. Hopefully they can do better than Reigns/Triple H for Wrestlemania. Anything to break up the Authority angle which has been going on for entirely too long. Time to move on to something different. Maybe Vince knew it was time to do this.
Amen to that .
This shows the total lack of imagination at WWE.
Bring back stale old gimmicks when all else fails.
The Wyatts are another example. “Hey! Why not a hillbilly (or swamp person) cult figure? We haven’t done any cult figures since…”
This is all setting up HHH and Reigns down the line. Speaking of Reigns, he was almost a non factor tonight. Glad Cena is back, although he definitely has suffered some ring rust.