THE RAGER! Forklifts And Bad News (Daniel Bryan, Shield, Bad News Barrett)

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I apologize for my RAGER scarcity as of late. I wish I had a better excuse other than laziness and life happening and getting in the way. Also, I’ve noticed writing a weekly Raw 10 Thoughts column tends to kill any material I may have for RAGER seeing as how I usually talk about Raw stuff on here. So for a while, I might just be posting Pay Per View RAGERs or whenever I actually have something to say, haven’t quite figured it out yet. I just don’t want have you guys have to deal with me simply repeating myself on a weekly basis. I will guarantee that there will be a new RAGER’S 10 Thoughts every single week, I have a lot of fun with those.

But enough of that, let’s get extreme.

El Torito vs Hornswaggle
You know what? I wasn’t sure how they could find a way to make match commentary worse than what we get on a weekly basis but WWE continues to surprise me. Aside from the special commentary, this was a fun and ridiculous match to watch with some legitimate good spots. I honestly believed this would only be a showcase of Torito but I’ll give Swaggle his do, he had his moments. Now let’s not make this sort of match a habit, let’s not lose the novelty of it (aka end the feud now before you’ve beaten us over the head with it and become sick at the sight of both guys). It happened a few times, it was terrible when it easily could’ve been so let’s leave “well enough” alone.

Cesaro vs Jack Swagger vs RVD
It’s usually not a great sign when even the commentators didn’t know this was an elimination match so I’m assuming it just wasn’t clearly defined or that 3 count was a botch, either is a very likely scenario. This did feel like WWE just insert RVD wherever they could find room just to make sure he was on the card but he was a good addition. It was a fun match even before Swaggz was eliminated. Cesaro and Heyman are a perfect combination and it forces one to realize how much of a failure the Curtis Axel experiment was.

Alexander Rusev vs R-Truth and Xavier Woods
I’ve decided to use the “just focus on Lana” strategies some of my readers have used and I must say that I’m enjoyed Rusev matches a lot more now. Thanks, folks! Maybe I’ll start paying attention once Rusev ditches the Camel Clutch (this message is Kue approved). Oh yeah, “Rusev crush” can go bye-bye, too. I know it’s simply an excuse for the camera to be on Lana and I’m all aboard that bandwagon but still, enough is enough.

Bad News Barrett vs Big E
Barrett has extended his streak of me actually enjoying his ring work and Big E was no slouch either. I’m still not saying that Barrett is getting this huge push considering this is his 4th IC reign and was literally the holder of the white belt exactly a year ago. He’s successfully been pushed back to where he used to be but the only different is that he has a gimmick that’s seemingly working with the crowd and people give a crap. I do wish the IC reign of Big E would’ve been a bigger deal because I still think very highly of him and his potential but I suppose they it’s a good thing they took the belt off of him seeing as how the only thing he’s been doing with it is gently stroking it (the belt) while staring at a monitor.

The Shield vs Evolution
What a match, am I right? Just another moment that I’m glad WWE didn’t pull the trigger on the Shield breakup a few months ago. Of course the balcony spot is the one that fans will remember the most but I thought it was a nice touch with it coming down to the two final participants of this past Royal Rumble but with Roman getting the upper hand this time around. Seriously, as long as Shield still has something to do, never break them up. Oh yeah, Evolution was alright, I guess.

Bray Wyatt vs John Cena
I know there’s probably still a debate going about the ending of this match on whether it was horribly hokey or if it was brilliant. Personally, I’m still kind of end the middle because I don’t really think Bray needed it to win a cage match against Cena BUT it does add fuel to the fire to continue the feud into the next PPV. Personally, I would’ve liked if they held off on the choir from a couple weeks ago and used that for the end of their cage match but I do realize having children get in their places in the dark is one thing but them doing so to all be around the ring is another. The voice of Little Johnny is fine, I guess but I still think the sound of a singing child is way creepier (still making it obvious that I don’t have kids). If you really think about it, we all kind of figured Wyatt would have some sort of creepy way to win this match and what they actually ended up doing seemed about on par with what I would expect. But seriously, can we move onto a different song now?

Paige vs Tamina
*shrug* Paige looked alright but I really don’t care for Tamina and it looks like neither did the live audience.

Daniel Bryan vs Kane
I feel like this is where I would give the obligatory respectful nod to Kane for doing what he’s doing at his age and doing it well and he deserves that however, this really needed to be a one time thing because I really don’t like this story at all especially if they’re not really gonna touch on Team Friendship at all. It’s too reminiscent of embrace the hate mixed with Brie’s horrible acting (not that everybody else is great at it) and it all feels thrown together which is probably accurate considering that’s what the case is. Batista is apparently refusing to be in a program against DB because he doesn’t want to lose cleanly to him (even though Batista tapped at WM30 to DB and was pinned cleanly by Reigns…so maybe the dirtsheets are full of crap) and so WWE has to come up with a viable option for the next PPV. But all that aside, this match enjoyable and the forklift was a good addition, especially for the diving headbutt.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

The Answer

Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. He's the co-creator of Irrelevant But Awesome Productions which produces podcasts you all know and love like Classy Ring Attire, Trashy Ring Attire and The Disney Magic Podcast. You can keep up with everything on twitter by following @IBAStudios and @CWSanders39