5 Stars From Last Night’s #RAW

We’re officially less than two weeks from the biggest party of the summer, and the Summerslam match card is starting to take shape. Rusev now has an enormous Bulgarian flag with his face on it, Seth Rollins is continuing to taunt John Cena and Randy Orton received another title shot. Let’s get to the five stars from last night’s Raw.

1. Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins opened up the show with a promo and defended his WWE Championship in the main event, so it’s tough not to give him some credit. While show opening promo’s aren’t the most exciting thing in the world, Rollins changed it up a bit and was genuinely entertaining. His new t-shirt will always be hilarious, and I’m never going to get sick of someone making fun of John Cena because they legitimately broke his face. For Cena not to be there for two straight Raw’s means he’s pretty messed up, and now it seems like WWE is moving some pieces around just in case John can’t fight at Summerslam. That brought out Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Orton, all of whom would like to take Cena’s place whether he can fight at Summerslam or not. The ‘Conan’ mouth gag was a nice change of pace and got a couple belly laughs, and overall the opening promo didn’t drag like it normally would. The main event was nothing special, as Orton seemed pretty fatigued for most of it, but Rollins once again proved that he can take an RKO better than anyone on the planet.

2. New Day

New Day took on (and defeated) Los Matadores, but that’s not why they’re getting a star this week. New Day backstage segments, along with anything involving Rusev (I’ll get to that later) are my favorite things on WWE TV right now. Between their backstage dunking/celebration on Smackdown and their general charm last night on Raw, I can’t get enough of them. Renee Young informs them they have a tag team title shot at Summerslam, and their positivity shines through. As Renee goes on to tell them that Los Matadores AND Lucha Dragons also have a title shot, their positivity wanes but never completely leaves, and it’s great. I knew Big E and Xavier Woods had the energy and charisma to pull off these characters, but Kofi Kingston has been a pleasant surprise. I hope New Day never breaks up.

3. The #1 Contender Triple Threat Match

The WWE could’ve put Owens and Cesaro in a triple threat match with a corpse and this would’ve been awesome, so it shouldn’t come as a shocker that this was the best match on the show. It was disappointing to see Orton win, but it was clear Rollins was going to retain so I’d rather him retain against Orton than my two beautiful boys. Plus, the WWE HAD to set up that Sheamus/Orton match at Summerslam that everyone is psyched about. Getting back to the match, it was really fun, and although I wasn’t thrilled Orton won, the finishing sequence was a thing of beauty. Owens throws Cesaro off the ropes to set up the pop up power bomb, Cesaro leaps over and Orton comes out of nowhere for the RKO. Cesaro charges towards Orton who springs up and hits another perfect RKO for the win. Assuming Owens pulls double duty Summerslam weekend, he and Cesaro’s grudge match should steal the show. That’s going to be a wonderful weekend to be a wrestling fan.

4. Rusev

Rusev took on Mark Henry, who’s back to being everyone’s favorite depressed American hero, and the match is a squash sandwich. The real fun comes after the match, as Summer Lana and Lana get into it and Summer Lana ends up applying her own Accolade. Rusev is PUMPED about this and his cheers summon the single greatest thing I’ve seen on WWE TV this year:

I need that flag like I need air to breathe. I’d honestly spend several hundred dollars for that flag and hang it in my living room so anyone who came over would be perplexed/petrified. Rusev is the god damn best.

5. Stephen Amell

Neville beat perpetual loser King Barrett in like 12 seconds, which caused Stardust to come out and attack Neville. He then went outside the ring and confronted Stephen Amell, TV’s Arrow, face palming him, which caused Arrow to hop over the barricade and over the top rope like Spiderman and spear Stardust to the ground and forearm him to death. Security came in the ring because provoked or not, a fan can’t just attack a wrestler (I’m looking at you, Canadian fans). HHH confronts Amell backstage and reads him the riot act, because again, you can’t attack the wrestlers. Amell convinces HHH to put him in the ring with Neville at Summerslam because he wants revenge, and he does a pretty good job of acting. Most of the celebrities WWE brings in aren’t even that skilled in their own profession, so it’s nice to see someone who is a legitimate wrestling fan add some emotion when it’s his turn to act. Bet the house on King Barrett taking the pin at Summerslam.

-Ryan

About ryanfoges

I want to experience as much as I can while I'm here. Come along for the ride @rfogarty7.

Posted on August 11, 2015, in Average Blog Posts and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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