Raw Review: 12/8/14
The most recent episode of WWE Raw was the Slammy Awards special. Though the awards carry very little prestige and have almost no weight with the IWC, it's still fun to look back at the entire year and highlight the best of the best. In this recap, we're not going to look at the Slammy Awards themselves, but rather the rest of Raw. The Slammys don't really serve any purpose going forward so we're just going to skip right past them.
One guy who did good work all night long: Seth Rollins. He had a good match with Dolph Ziggler and did some great mic work and talking. When he was with The Shield he was a good talker, but was always overshadowed by Dean Ambrose. In recent months, Rollins has really come into his own as a talker, only helping the case that he deserves to be a top star. Also, we need to see a real feud with Rollins and Ziggler. They have great chemistry and are both among the best workers in the WWE. Give them a Falls Count Anywhere match next year at Extreme Rules, it'll be one of the best matches of the year.
The New Day made its second appearance on Raw. Last week, they lost in the Tag Team Turmoil match, ending their undefeated streak at an incredible 1-0. Yeah, I think it's stupid too. What was the point of having them lose so quickly? At least build them up a little bit. On this episode of Raw, we saw Kofi Kingston take on Stardust. It was a good match, but nothing special. The New Day will clash with Gold & Stardust at TLC, where it's all but guaranteed they will win. Another note: the new trio is pretty over with the crowd, but it probably won't take long until that changes. Give the fans a reason to care and cheer for these guys. Yeah, we know they're talented and underused, but they need more than that. They're not going to care otherwise.
The next match after the Kingston/Stardust match was the Raw debut of Charlotte. She's still on the NXT roster; this was just a way of getting people excited for the upcoming NXT special. It's like the tag match we had before the last special (which got people very excited for the special and Adrian Neville). This one however, fell flat. For one, Charlotte lost. Why? What was the point in that? How does that promote NXT in any way? It's not like Nattie (who didn't even have a TV entrance) is receiving a big push. Another thing: this match was pretty short and left a lot to be desired.
Erick Rowan took on Luke Harper in a match to promote TLC. Again, this was just stupid booking. This could be a money feud. Two talented big guys (Harper is a top-notch wrestler) who used to be tag team partners? That feud just writes itself. Throw in the fact that Harper is the IC Champion and you have the makings of a great feud. Instead, the WWE just booked them for a match on Raw. By their actions in that match, and at the end of the night, it seemed as if they were facing each other at the PPV, not Big Show and Ziggler. Have some future vision WWE, it's not that hard.
All in all, it was an okay episode of Raw. Bray Wyatt had a great promo, Dean Ambrose had a nice return, and Damien Mizdow was extremely entertaining. The Slammy Awards were fun and served their purpose of entertaining us for the night and recapping the year. However, this episode did nothing to push TLC. If I was on the fence about watching the PPV, this Raw should have convinced me to. Instead, I'm still ambivalent about it.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back soon for my PPV predictions for TLC.
One guy who did good work all night long: Seth Rollins. He had a good match with Dolph Ziggler and did some great mic work and talking. When he was with The Shield he was a good talker, but was always overshadowed by Dean Ambrose. In recent months, Rollins has really come into his own as a talker, only helping the case that he deserves to be a top star. Also, we need to see a real feud with Rollins and Ziggler. They have great chemistry and are both among the best workers in the WWE. Give them a Falls Count Anywhere match next year at Extreme Rules, it'll be one of the best matches of the year.
The New Day made its second appearance on Raw. Last week, they lost in the Tag Team Turmoil match, ending their undefeated streak at an incredible 1-0. Yeah, I think it's stupid too. What was the point of having them lose so quickly? At least build them up a little bit. On this episode of Raw, we saw Kofi Kingston take on Stardust. It was a good match, but nothing special. The New Day will clash with Gold & Stardust at TLC, where it's all but guaranteed they will win. Another note: the new trio is pretty over with the crowd, but it probably won't take long until that changes. Give the fans a reason to care and cheer for these guys. Yeah, we know they're talented and underused, but they need more than that. They're not going to care otherwise.
The next match after the Kingston/Stardust match was the Raw debut of Charlotte. She's still on the NXT roster; this was just a way of getting people excited for the upcoming NXT special. It's like the tag match we had before the last special (which got people very excited for the special and Adrian Neville). This one however, fell flat. For one, Charlotte lost. Why? What was the point in that? How does that promote NXT in any way? It's not like Nattie (who didn't even have a TV entrance) is receiving a big push. Another thing: this match was pretty short and left a lot to be desired.
Erick Rowan took on Luke Harper in a match to promote TLC. Again, this was just stupid booking. This could be a money feud. Two talented big guys (Harper is a top-notch wrestler) who used to be tag team partners? That feud just writes itself. Throw in the fact that Harper is the IC Champion and you have the makings of a great feud. Instead, the WWE just booked them for a match on Raw. By their actions in that match, and at the end of the night, it seemed as if they were facing each other at the PPV, not Big Show and Ziggler. Have some future vision WWE, it's not that hard.
All in all, it was an okay episode of Raw. Bray Wyatt had a great promo, Dean Ambrose had a nice return, and Damien Mizdow was extremely entertaining. The Slammy Awards were fun and served their purpose of entertaining us for the night and recapping the year. However, this episode did nothing to push TLC. If I was on the fence about watching the PPV, this Raw should have convinced me to. Instead, I'm still ambivalent about it.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back soon for my PPV predictions for TLC.
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