WNS Column: Raw is Plan C, Jail and Ryder - 21/07/14

Coming off of the disappointing Battleground Pay-Per-View, Raw would need to have a strong episode to bounce back. According to the Pre-Show, John Cena and his WWE World Heavyweight Championship would not be in attendance but Triple H has a "decision" to make. He will announce the number one contender to Cena's title for SummerSlam. Is this how all future SummerSlam title matches will be planned? The Champion or the Boss just hand picks someone? Anyway, Triple H kicks off the show and says that he wants the roster to show what they've got tonight to try and earn that spot. Randy Orton complains that he never got a one on one rematch since losing the belt, which is true. He blames Kane for losing last  night so they have a beef. Roman Reigns interrupts and things get physical. Triple H turns it into a handicap match.

The handicap match to open was pretty good. Randy Orton and Kane, of course, played the role of a team that wasn't on the same page, which allowed Roman Reigns to get in his offense. Their issues led to things getting physical, which led to Reigns taking out Kane. Kane wanted the tag but Orton is all like "Nuh-uh, I don't wanna tag." Kane gets mad and chokes him, leading to a Superman Punch and Reigns gets the win while Orton doesn't really care. Surprisingly strong handicap match.

It's that time of the show where Stephanie McMahon sends worthless heel Divas in bunches at Nikki Bella. Well, Alicia Fox isn't worthless. But Cameron, Eva Marie and especially Rosa Mendes are. Nikki has a surprise as Brie Bella is in the crowd. Stephanie McMahon comes out to badmouth her of course. Brie, in her awful, grating voice, calls her a bitch. Stephanie wants her ejected but she is a paying customer. Steph is pissed and slaps Brie. The Bella with the bearded husband tries to retaliate but is now ejected. Then, Nikki Bella loses to the four Divas. Seriously though, the very best part of this segment was the guy sitting next to Brie as he reacted to her calling Stephanie a bitch.

Damien Sandow, dressed as Lebron James is up next. His Miami Heat jersey has the word Miami crossed out. He smack talks the crowd until his opponent, Bo Dallas shows up. The fact that we didn't get to really hear Bo talk is a shame. It's my favorite part of his segments. Mainly because his matches are only average at best. Also, the BoDog finisher is pretty lame. However, it doesn't take much to defeat Sandow these days and it did the job.

Next, we were supposed to get the Highlight Reel with Bray Wyatt as the guest. But, Chris Jericho was attacked backstage by the Wyatt Family. Bray cuts one of his great promos, saying that while he lost the battle last night at Battleground, he promises that he will win the war. I assume by the "war" he means SummerSlam, or a third rubber match at the Pay-Per-View after it. Regardless, it was a really good promo and I hope that their next match or matches are better than their effort at Battleground. Good segment.

The new Intercontinental Champion, The Miz, is out to face the man he stole victory from at Battleground, Dolph Ziggler. I would've been all for a run with Ziggler as Champion as I could see him putting on great matches and defending the belt constantly. I wonder if Miz will hold the belt until Bad News Barrett returns. Maybe a Barrett face turn? Anyway, us viewers were treated to a really good match between these two. I saw them wrestle live on Raw in Cleveland back in January, but this was far better. Ziggler picked up the win as Miz's title reign was not off to a good start. They again played off the whole "Miz doesn't want to get hit in the face" thing, which was cool.

Backstage, Triple H talks to Seth Rollins, who admits there is no point in him trying to face John Cena at SummerSlam because Dean Ambrose will be there to ruin it. Cesaro shows up, saying that he's not a Paul Heyman guy anymore, but he'd like to be a Triple H guy. Rollins gets jealous and HHH finds this whole thing weird. As weird as just dropping the Cesaro/Heyman stuff probably. Anyway, he books Cesaro/Ambrose for later, which should be excellent. Time for Divas tag action as the Frenemies, AJ Lee and Paige, team up to face the Divas version of International Airstrike, Emma and Natalya. After AJ gets her team the win, Paige is done with her shit and finally makes the heel turn. THE MOTHERFUCKIN ANTI-DIVA! She tosses AJ around and then skips up the ramp. Hopefully, we get the rivalry/matches that I hope for with these two.

Fandango continued his losing streak against guys that have the power of Summer Rae and Layla with them. Honestly, they can be a distraction. This is a new low for Fandango though as he lost to Zack Ryder. Yes, the Zack Ryder who hasn't won a match on Raw in over a year. After doing some research, it was his first win on Raw in 580 days! Wow. He made sure to enjoy it.

RENEE YOUNG is backstage with Flo-Rida and she's all I can see on the screen honestly. Until the ONE MAN BAND BABAY shows up and gets shoved down by Flo-Rida, continuing their feud that started at WrestleMania 28. So, Flo-Rida vs. Heath Slater at WrestleMania 31? Once in a Lifetime folks. I can only hope. Flo-Rida performs. After that, detectives arrive to arrest Stephanie McMahon! Brie Bella shows up as Stephanie is being arrested for assault. Fun little segment that adds to the projected Stephanie/Brie match at SummerSlam. Triple H is not happy, but realizes that she has to go through processing and such so he has time to make his decision.

Rybaxel is out next and continue to entertain me. They have a decent little match with Big E and Kofi Kingston, who are the WWE's newest thrown together token black guy tag team. Things get interesting after the match though. Xavier Woods walks down to the ring in a white suit. He tells Kofi and Big E that they can no longer get by being good guys who kiss babies. They need to take what they want. The internet exploded as Nation of Domination theories start and we can only wait for Titus O'Neil and Mark Henry to be added to this.

In a match where there's not much to discuss, Rusev beat the Great Khali. No Jack Swagger involvement or anything which was weird. Then we cut to yet another Goldust/Stardust backstage promo. This one might have been the strangest. I like these, but I want my Dust Brothers in the ring dammit. They were the best tag team in 2013 and I want more of that. 

Main Event time as Dean Ambrose goes one on one with Cesaro, in what I believe is a first time ever match in WWE. Both guys held nothing back and we were treated to a great match from two of the best guys on the roster. Dean Ambrose continued his lunatic streak as he attacked Cesaro with a steel chair, resulting in the disqualification finish. Ambrose's Raw Fallout interview was pretty great as he continues to get the biggest pops and be the most interesting and must see member of the Shield, post-breakup.

Time for Triple H to make his decision. He announces that John Cena's SummerSlam opponent will be Randy Orton. Yawn. It was fresh at the 2007 SummerSlam, but ever since then it's been driven into the dirt. Of course, that's not the real opponent. Roman Reigns shows up and attacks Orton to the back, most likely leading to a match between them at SummerSlam. Paul Heyman shows up and we all know what's coming. Plan A of Randy Orton or Kane is awful. Plan B of Seth Rollins keeps getting interrupted by Dean Ambrose. So it's time for Plan C, which is the 1 behind 21-1. Brock Lesnar comes out and the match is made as he shakes the hand of an arm that he broke twice before. Anyway, Triple H leaves and Heyman hypes up Lesnar. They show a video of him beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania before saying that he will conquer John Cena at SummerSlam.

A very good bounce back Raw after a disappointing Pay-Per-View. So far, SummerSlam is shaping up nicely. Honestly, if Brock Lesnar fails to beat John Cena, it's a dumb decision. I get that he's a part-timer, but if the Rock won the WWE Title, why can't Brock? It's pointless to beat the Streak if you're just going to lose to John Cena. But yea, good episode of Raw.

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