RAW kicks off from Liverpool, England with a hot crowd, who welcome John Cena with a shower of hate. This leads to a 20-minute talk segment where the Authority reveals Mark Henry for their team, Ryback comes out and leaves John Cena broken in the ring.
This was one of the stronger long-form segments they’ve had in the last several months. The crowd was good, but didn’t get in the way. The Authority was strong and Triple H did a perfect job establishing their dominance; the laundry list of people they’ve “buried” is a good reason for the roster to fear being on Team Cena, which was the focal point of this segment. John did a great job rallying the crowd behind him (or at least against the Authority) and, as a bonus, Ryback was made to look like a big deal. Everything clicked here.
SETH ROLLINS def. JACK SWAGGER. The goons kicked a medic out of the ring, and Rollins Curb Stomped Swagger again.
They didn’t get much going here. Swagger looked pretty “off”, maybe frustrated by the lack of consistency with his character, or just exhausted from the European tour. Most of the match happened during commercial. I would have liked to see a bit more aggression from other Authority members here, just to further emphasize that “we will **** you up” mentality.
Footage of last week’s Smackdown, where there was ACTUAL story development between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt.
Why wasn’t this segment on RAW!? The answer is that there was a live event at the same time as RAW, headlined by Ambrose, Wyatt, and Chris Jericho. That sucks for anyone not interested in the Survivor Series main event tonight, but luckily, that isn’t me.
Kane tells Ryback to have some humility and be a “kog in the Authority machine”. Ryback basically tells him to screw off.
Decent segment. I like that they’re teasing something between Kane and Ryback, which started with the line earlier where Stephanie said Ryback could be the “most dominant monster in WWE history”. This is all making him look like a star, and building up an anticipated main event.
