DOLPH ZIGGLER def. MARK HENRY by DQ. Henry threw a chair in his face. Big Show made the save, chased off Henry, and announced himself as a member of Team Cena.
Show got a really good reaction for being on Team Cena, which was a pleasant surprise. I liked the continued tease of picking people off, with the DQ finish on Ziggler. Show making the save was a change of pace, and right on time to actually add a competitive tone to this feud. You don’t want it to feel too one-sided, despite the “John Cena is always an underdog” WWE meta-narrative.
AJ LEE def. BRIE BELLA in about a minute with the Black Widow.
I have no problem with a champion winning easy matches. In my opinion, it actually needs to happen more often. But against nameless enhancement talent, call-up NXT stars, or the half dozen women that don’t matter in WWE right now. NOT two Divas at the heart of a program they’ve been building up for the last four months.
Here’s the issue – when Brie loses clean in a minute, with NO interference from Nikki, how then are we supposed to care about a future match between the twins? They just proved Brie is nothing. So now if they lock up at TLC, and Nikki loses, what does that say about BOTH OF THEM? It’s a cycle of bad booking the WWE is almost universally guilty for. The idea is that the audience doesn’t pay attention to wins and losses. On an individual basis that’s more or less true, but over time it sinks in that nobody on the roster is valuable.
You know I’m right, because despite my unhappiness with this match outcome, it doesn’t surprise me at all. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Brie beat AJ in the same fashion, either.
TYSON KIDD def. ADAM ROSE after bunny interference. The bunny gets kicked in the bunny balls, and he leaves with the Rosebuds.
This is so dumb. Not just because it’s a nobody against a guy in a bunny costume on million dollar prime time TV, although that’s 90% of it. Why did the bunny suddenly start doing things he never did before? Is he a mentally challenged person who doesn’t understand normal social constructs? Or are we actually supposed to believe it’s a real, giant bunny? Why are the Rosebuds ignoring Rose being a douche? Why do the fans not care at all? Well…at least that part is obvious.
JOHN CENA def. RYBACK by DQ. Kane got knocked down a few times during the match, and took his revenge at the end. All hell broke loose between both teams (minus Ziggler) until Ryback destroyed the Authority and left.
Backstage, Luke Harper threw Ziggler’s body into Triple H’s office and said he was a “team player”.
The main event was slow, and for the second time tonight, ended as soon as they finally got some momentum built up under them. I wasn’t expecting much from Cena and Ryback though, so I’m not terribly disappointed.
The post-match brawl was quite good, although the crowd didn’t respond to Ryback as much as I wanted them to. I think they were just burnt out on trying to figure out what’s happening with him. The whole night was built on the Big Guy, which was nice, but I think it would have been more effective if he made a definite commitment to one side or the other. The way they did it probably creates interest in the next show, so I shouldn’t complain too much.
Luke Harper needs that 5th spot on Team Authority. It will be Ryback or Randy Orton in the 5th spot on Team Cena.
END SHOW.
Overall this was a much better show than UK pre-tapes in past years, and one of the best episodes of RAW in the last few months of really bad, really boring shows. I want to see more from this 5-on-5 Survivor Series match. I haven’t seen a single main event this heavily promoted in quite some time, which is refreshing. I’ve always liked the slow reveals of Survivor Series teams, as it adds a lot more drama and intrigue to the process, and is something WWE hasn’t done for years.
My biggest complaint is that there’s just NOTHING happening on the rest of the PPV card. I understand that half the roster was missing, but you have to question booking a live event at the same time as RAW so close to a PPV that is essentially the free trial to get people in the door on the WWE Network.
A lack of Usos, Ambrose, Wyatt, Goldust and Stardust meant the in-ring action was a bit more formulaic this week, and nothing stood out to me as something I’d want to watch twice. Ryback/Cena and Rusev/Sheamus felt like potential PPV matches given away for free, but neither was exceptional.
Thankfully, a focus on story-telling and promoting the individual characters in the Survivor Series main event kept me interested for three hours, which is something WWE has failed to do for the majority of 2014. There seemed like a lot of screwy finishes, and while normally that can be tedious and frustrating, it really worked to create a tone of chaos in favor of the Authority. Given the roster they had to work with, I have virtually no complaints about the way this RAW was written, save for a few very minor, very forgettable segments.
Pros
- Excellent build for Team Cena vs. Team Authority.
- Ryback was treated like a major star.
- Dolph Ziggler was OVER.
- The UK crowd made even bad segments marginally interesting.
Cons
- Matches were mediocre at best.
- Adam Rose and The Bunny are BAD TV.
- Lack of roster depth for RAW.
Score: 14/20
