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The 1/20/14 edition of Monday Night Raw was meant to be the go-home show for the Royal Rumble PPV and the triumphant return of Batista to the company, but even with all that to load up the show, when it was over, it felt like a show that lacked logic and even emotion.
On paper, the goal of the show should have been to drive people towards buying the Rumble PPV and to see the follow-up of the major storylines leading into the show - Lesnar vs. Show, Orton vs. Cena, Bray vs. Bryan and Batista in the Rumble and in many cases, WWE didn't really make things coagulate in a way that built fan anticipation.
What did they accomplish? What didn't click? Read on:
What Worked:
*The Martin Luther King videos. Just awesome, classy stuff.
*Randy Orton in the opening segment. A more fired up and angry Randy Orton then usual. I really enjoyed his fire during the segment, although a lot of the rest of it didn't really click (see below).
*Big Show facing off with Brock Lesnar. The entire build to this match at the PPV has been far better than it had any right to be. Big Show's Paul Heyman impersonation was great. Lesnar and Show's face-off was great and the visual of Show throwing Lesnar backwards over the top to the floor was awesome. Lesnar has done an amazing job of making Show looking like a physical threat to him in the last few weeks. Lesnar destroying the ringside area in outrage and anger over Show manhandling him was just awesome. Lesnar is the modern day Bruiser Brody in that people believe in him as a force of nature and as a legitimately dangerous competitor.
*The Shield vs. The Rhodes Boys & Langston. Easily the best in-ring match on the broadcast, this was just a dynamite match from bell to bell. I can question why they Langston lose the fall, but the reality is that everyone looked just awesome here to the point who lost didn't matter. The spot where Roman Reigns drilled Cody Rhodes with the Superman Punch was just beautiful - one of those spots that you'll see replayed forever and a day. Go out of your way to see this one.
*Naomi and Cameron vs. AJ and Tamina. The cake stuff was completely silly but the actual match was pitch-perfect as a way to build Naomi as a challenger for the Divas championship. Naomi whipped out some really good, flashy offense and really, the entire Divas roster should be commended for their hard work in recent weeks.
*The Royal Rumble videos. These videos did more to excite a viewer about watching the PPV then anything else on the show.
*The Usos vs. The Wyatt Family. A good tag match and a nice angle with Bryan Danielson attacking Bray Wyatt. The Danielson-Wyatt physicality was far more entertaining and meaningful then the Orton-Cena stuff at the end of the show.
*Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio. Another good match in their recent series of matches designed to build to Del Rio vs. Batista in defense of his little buddy. The post-match between Batista and ADR, however....
*Fandango vs. Xavier Woods. It just designed to be a match in the background as the announcers discussed other topics but the work was fine and Summer Rae looked great in her role, as always. Too short to be anything beyond a short segment.
What Didn't:
*Randy Orton vs. John Cena to close the show. Despite the goofy aspect of WWE having a camera waiting to capture when John Cena would arrive and the goofy idea that Cena, dressed in his ring gear, would arrive two minutes before the show ended and know exactly where the run where Randy Orton would be. WWE had the chance to follow up on what was a good angle last week where Orton attacked Cena's father. They needed this to be an angry, emotionally charged segment where Cena either beat the holy hell out of Orton or just-missed getting his hands on Orton before cutting the promo of all promos promising that he would pretty much murder Orton to avenge his father. Instead, we had a pretty pedestrian wrestling brawl that looked like a tribute to Jeff Jarrett in the old TNA Asylum as they wandered through the crowd before Orton escaped into the waiting mini-van, perhaps driven off by a soccer mom in heat. For a scene that was designed to be the great cliffhanger before the Rumble showdown between the two men, this was anything but a segment that took your breath away as you counted the moments for the match. It was just, well, there.
*Batista's return. Batista received a massive pop for his return, but once that was fizzled, you didn't feel like you were watching this magical return segment the way you did for say, the return of the Rock or Brock Lesnar. His mic work was fine and Batista kissing the ring was as genuine a moment as anything in professional wrestling today but his physical interaction with Alberto Del Rio looked completely weird as he botched his signature move. Perhaps it was ring rust, but the verdict isn't yet in on this return. The idea that WWE gave it away in the first segment was amazing as one would have expected, based on past patterns, to have it teased and teased and teased until the end of the show.
*Daniel Bryan's explanation as to why he joined the Wyatt Family. Let's face it, WWE wants to forget this storyline as quickly as possible, so it's going to be a clunky explanation just to dig out of the hole. WWE really put themselves in a no win situation here - but that's their own fault. The idea that Bryan went undercover to destroy someone with a "Messiah" complex is fine on the surface. The problem is really that Wyatts had not yet been established enough in the company for this idea to really work, plus Bryan by his own choice had chosen to give up the fight, etc. But, the fans have already forgiven and forgotten, so if Bryan vs. Wyatt is a strong singles match, all will be fine in the end. However, the idea that the other Wyatts can't help Bray because they will be working the Rumble match makes NO sense at all - it's not like they can't handle both tasks.
*Kane vs. CM Punk. When one authority figure is being told by another Authority figure to apologize for being a villain and then a third one comes out and makes a match, why does anyone care about any of this? Kane and Punk were fine on the mic but this entire scenario is "eh" to say the least.
*Billy Gunn in a singles match in 2014. With all these talents on the roster, WWE needs to book someone who peaked well over a decade ago? I have no issue with veterans being used on TV as I've loved the usage of Goldust but in that case, he's helping to get Cody Rhodes into a stronger role and having good to great matches every week. In comparison, this match did nothing for Punk to build momentum leading into the Royal Rumble match.
*Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston. Even though this was a main event match, the audience really didn't care to see it. This did nothing for Kingston and then the idea that Orton, the killer WWE World Heavyweight champion - THE VIPER- didn't get his comeuppance by beating the holy hell out of Kingston. The idea that Orton was going to "fix" things was completely dropped as we all waited for John Cena to make his grand, late entrance. What we had to sit through was, unfortunately, a flat match, followed by Kingston pretty much giving up his match against the CHAMPION OF THE WORLD so John Cena can beat him up. This just didn't work on any level. Had Orton dropped Kingston with the RKO and beat the living piss out of him to the point Cena had to prevent what happened to his father from now happening to Kingston, the scenario would have made a lot more sense. Instead, Orton lost a meaningless match and Kofi's win will lead to nothing for anyone.
*Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in the opening segment. How many times are we going to see The Authority not on the same page with their hand-picked champion going into a PPV? Enough is enough with that direction, especially since it was really a hard push for how important the WWE Network was more then anything else.
*Emma in the crowd. After several appearances, this needs to go somewhere or she's going to get lost in the Wrestlemania build shuffle. It's probably time for some vignettes or something.
What We Learned:
*It's all about Batista. He's the man going forward. Everything else is secondary.
*The Rumble is coming, The one thing WWE did right was push the importance of the Rumble.
*WWE loved Mae Young. That video tribute was heartfelt and awesome.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com and can be followed at @MikePWInsider.
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