Last night’s episode of Raw took place at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York and featured a total of eight matches. John Cena, Seth Rollins and of course, Dean Ambrose were heavily promoted throughout the show and all three superstars competed in the main event.
The Today Show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford “cohosted” Raw and helped promote WWE’s partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Not only were the ring ropes white and (CM) pink, but there were quite a few surprise appearances throughout the show as well.
After enduring a month’s worth of underwhelming and uninspiring programming, could the WWE finally change things up and deliver a high quality show? Here are my overall highs, lows and random thoughts on the 8/6/2014 edition of Monday Night Raw:
*Right off the bat I’d like to apologize in advance because WWE has only uploaded three or four videos from last night’s Raw. Usually they have every single segment recap and match highlight(s) uploaded, but this week they do not. My guess is that WWE didn’t want to upload any videos that would be negative towards the product – and by negative I mean the crowd and what they were chanting during some of the matches. Hopefully this issue gets resolved soon.
BEST MATCH: WWE was packed with surprises and entertaining moments, however, there weren’t very many great matches. In fact, there was only one match that is worth mentioning and that’s the six-man tag between the team of The Usos & Dolph Ziggler vs. Gold/Stardust & Cesaro. It was the first match of the night and all six competitors performed exceptionally. The Usos are highly underrated, the Brothers Dust are unique and original and I think we can all agree that Dolph Ziggler and Cesaro are two of the best workers and entertainers in the business today.
WORST MATCH: There were two horrible matches on Raw tonight. The absolute Worst Match of the night was El Torito vs. Mini-Gator – and you can read more about that in “FAIL OF THE NIGHT” CATEGORY”. The second worst match of the night was Brie Bella vs. Summer Rae. Brie Bella had her hand tied behind her back and was still able to beat Summer Rae in about three minutes. Ridiculous gimmick matches like this must put a big smile on Vince McMahon’s face.
MOST SHOCKING MOMENT: Without a doubt, The Rock returning to Raw and confronting Rusev and Lana was the Most Shocking Moment of the night. When the Great One’s music hit, the Brooklyn crowd went absolutely insane, and rightfully so. I don’t think very many people knew that the People’s Champ was going to make an appearance. The return seemed very random considering Rocky didn’t promote a movie, TV show or the WWE Network. Perhaps he was just at the right place at the right time? Regardless, after a lackluster month of WWE programming, a one-night Rock cameo can only help the product as a whole, right?
BEST PROMO: Even though Seth Rollins, who continues to drastically improve on the mic each week, John Cena and Dean Ambrose cut fantastic promos, The Rock wins the Best Promo of the night award after laying waste to both Rusev and Lana in the middle of the ring. Of course, the Brahma Bull did his usual shtick and the promo wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but the crowd was extremely hot from start to finish and it was definitely one of the more entertaining promos/segments of the show. Also, I’d like to add that it was very intriguing to see Rusev and The Rock stand face-to-face.
