Raw was dragging along with no end in sight when out of the blue hell came The Rock. He came out and interrupted a Rusev Promo. In reality it was much of the same stuff we are used to from over the years. In the previous two hours aside from some nice Dean Ambrose stuff this was a train wreck horrible show in the making. The pure surprise that The Rock was there stunned everyone. This was one appearance that no one seemed to have caught wind of prior too it happening. Post-facto people say The Rock had legitimate business aside from the WWE in New York. If it was a last minute thing it was a brilliant call. It isn’t that anything the Rock did was all that unique. It was just the presence of The Rock that seemed to excite everyone. Rock threw some punches and cleared the Ring of Rusev after about 10 minutes of promo ripping on both Rusev and Lana in classic Rock fashion.
Dean Ambose meantime distanced himself from John Cena in this episode by the end of it leaving him lying in the ring after a DDT. This was after it was announced at the end of the show that he would be facing John Cena in a one on one match for the right to face Seth Rollins in a Hell in the Cell match at the pay-per-view earlier on that pay-per-view. Night started with the two being booked in a handicap match after a failed attempt by both to get their hands on Seth Rollins. Later on Ambrose would call Cena out to the ring to attempt to clear the air between the two. Instead Ambrose would bail for Coney Island to get a hotdog. He would through the magic of television return with a hot dog cart and attack Kane, Orton and Rollins. Before being informed by The Authority that he would have to face Cena and this led to him taking out Cena to close the show.
Aside from a rare appearance by Tyson Kidd in a match on Raw against Jack Swagger there was not much to remember in a positive way. Lots of forgettable stuff was a part of this show, which included a match with bull taking on a gator. Well people dressed as a bull and a gator it wasn’t like an animal planet special. We saw two old women make fools of themselves. Kathie Lee was one of those old women and earlier in the day tweeted about being happy to be on Smackdown later tonight. Worse yet she slammed the product in her book talking bad of the Bushwackers and Rick Rude as the folks at Wrestlezone dug up from her 1992 book. Next week we are getting some woman from the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Never heard of her and this is the type of stars the WWE is booking these days. The Rock who is a Hollywood “A-list” celebrity is on a show that is now offering guests that would be lucky to be on the “C-list” in Hollywood.
We had pointless tag matches that mean nothing, the Bella feud that never ends and a tag-team match that followed the theme of the night to walk out on your partner. A.J Lee who teamed with Emma thought better of it during the match and decided to bail.
Dean Ambrose and The Rock were the only things worth watching on this three hour show and if you add up the time they were on the screen that adds up to maybe at best 30 minutes of entertainment for your 3 hour investment of time.
Oh and that big Roman Reigns interview to update us on his status lasted less than a minute. Sam Roberts provided a longer and more insightful interview with Reigns on YouTube. As a life long fan of the product these are some dark times for Monday Night Raw. You had two segments that easily qualify for worst of the year and make a strong case to be on the list of all-time worst segments in history.
I am not sure as entertaining as Dean Ambrose and The Rock can be that makes up for that. WWE is in a horrible state at the moment and nothing seems to be able to save it other than band-aid solutions like bringing back stars from when wrestling was entertaining and people were invested in the product. That might pop a rating for the show to boost the overall rating, but it isn’t solving the ultimate issue with the show as a whole. While Raw was happening Daniel Bryan the guy this company was so afraid to get behind was getting a crowd full of Giants fans to chant YES! It didn’t help the Giants who lost to the Nationals but it shows just how much the WWE needs someone like Bryan back in fold to some degree.
Yes there have been injuries and a lot of curve balls thrown the WWE’s way but there is a fundamental disconnect with WWE and its audience on what they find entertaining. The Rock who I imagine had no script at all basically ad-libed a segment better than stuff the WWE creative team has come up with in years. Ambrose at least gives the appearance that he is one that goes off the script as well and people love him right now. Perhaps it is time to give some freedom to talent and let them have a try at being entertaining. Clearly what is making the final script of Raw isn’t cutting the mustard, relish or whatever else Dean Ambrose was throwing on people.
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