Another Raw in the books and WWE survives a rowdy group of U.K fans who were not happy they couldn’t get the WWE Network. John Cena was back with no explanation on where he was last week; Randy Orton was gone with no acknowledgement that he even exists. As much as the WWE attempts to hype up their Survivor Series main event it just is not working to any degree. A.J Lee defending her Diva’s title against Nikki Bella being second match on the under card announced tells you how weak that it will be. So, what are people talking about coming out of this Raw this morning? We take a stab at figuring out your wrestling water cooler talk for a Tuesday.
1. Luke Harper: In a couple of weeks, Luke Harper has invented a new word. Harpering is that word in reference to the creepy promos only showing Harper’s eyes. At the end of the night, we would see all of Harper as he took out Dolph Ziggler, claims to be a team player, and wants to join Team Authority. Harper literally threw a beaten Ziggler at the feet of Triple H and Stephanie kind on like how a cat brings a dead bird to its owner. Insert your grumpy cat joke here I suppose. Harper if he does in fact get booked in this main event it would be a great way to launch his singles career. Guys like the Undertaker and The Rock debuted at this event. While this is not a debut for Harper, it almost feels like one as he rarely spoke as part of Wyatt Family. Now he is cured, according to Bray Wyatt, this remains to be seen.
2. Bray Wyatt Rambles About Dean Ambrose: Bray Wyatt is treading in dangerous ground with his future. I still enjoy Bray’s work on the microphone, remaining supportive of his work, unlike many others. Despite that, there is room for improvement with his promos; they need to be tighter and more focused on a message. This feud with Dean Ambrose is a big chance to re-establish Bray as a major player. Ambrose entering this feud was the hottest babyface in this company. Wyatt needs some tweaking if it does not happen he might slide down into the murky and undefined mid-card where no one wants to be these days.
3. Big Guy Turns Heel and Babyface in the Same Show: Ryback managed to start the show as good guy turn heel, join the Authority, and by end of the show turn back to being a babyface. Seemed like an unneeded swerve but Ryback is clearly back to where he was a couple of years ago. It will be interesting to see if they can avoid messing it up like they did a couple years back. We were left to wonder if Ryback would in fact join team Cena as he laid waste to Team Authority to close out Raw. Crowd is 100 percent behind Ryback from Buffalo to Liverpool it does not matter. Fans have slipped right back to where they were in terms of Ryback in 2012.
4. Stephanie To Bad For The Good Of Everyone Else’s Own Good: It should be stated that I adore Stephanie McMahon and her character on television. I think she is the best female talker in this company by miles and miles. She also gets a reaction that no one can deny. This all stated how Stephanie recruited Rusev and intimidated Lana which I did not like at all. Stephanie also uttered a line that will live forever when she said that "there are no politics in the WWE."Aside from the lack of truth of that statement, I have a problem with how she dominated Lana and Rusev. Stephanie can’t be seen as being weak on communism I guess but she still needs to be evil. I am not sure how that works where you are an American Patriot on one hand and bad evil businesswoman on the other. The Stephanie neutering did not stop there as she called the team that will fight for her job in a sense a bunch of little children. Nothing like taking what you have claimed needs to be the greatest Survivor Series team of all-time and making them look like jokes. Steph sometimes needs to back off a little and share the spotlight with her fellow evil doers.
5. The New Day Gimmick Promos Add Another: Xavier Woods looked like James Brown last week and we thought was being rebuilt as a solo act. The WWE quickly killed an angle with Wood, Kofi and Big E that resembled a modern re-make of the Nation of Domination. Now we see Kofi appear in the same skit with the choir and all this week. It looks like these three will remain together in a re-branded faction. Will these guys be good or bad seems up in the air at this point. Maybe this is why Big E was trying to sound like a preacher months ago for something to do with this gimmick. Who really knows but this is becoming the longest build to a new faction that I can ever recall. This is all for a group that at best would be upper mid-carders? Seems like a lot of time to waste not having three talents in action that can wrestle when you have injuries piling up.
Other things of note: Adam Rose is turning heel beating up the Bunny. Peta will be notified of this and I am sure protest. Brie Bella continues to be one of the worst babyfaces in history. This angle with Nikki having control over her has garnered no sympathy from me as a fan for Brie. Zack Ryder can no longer WOO WOO WOO as he has a torn rotator cuff and is on the shelf for 6 months. Sadly, not that anyone will notice he is missing at this point. Zack Ryder is the cautionary tale about what being a John Cena friend will get you. Some faces were missing from Raw last night as they were also running a house show in another party of England that was 4 hours and 30 minutes from Liverpool.
Another Raw in the books and it was a step backwards from last week, which was one of the better Raw’s in recent memory. This is despite having a really hot crowd in Liverpool in comparison. Although WWE likely played with audio, being this show was not shown live here in North America due to the time difference.
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