Tuesday Raw Roundtable: The Authority Returns And Invalidates Months of Storylines and Stipulations

Columns, Top Story

WWE had the first Monday Night Raw of 2015 and it was as if WWE is trying to drive off as many fans as possible.

What did the Pulse Wrestling Staff think of the show?

CB

Outside of the Ambulance Match, this was another subpar episode of Raw … and even that is an understatement. The return of The Authority was just more of the same trite garbage we had in 2014, and while I have nothing against Bad News Barrett winning back the IC belt he never lost, I didn’t really enjoy Dolph Ziggler getting screwed over for the millionth time.

Also, the storyline “firings” at the end only serve to make a depleted roster seem even thinner. Also, I’m bored by the whole John Cena thing, and no Daniel Bryan makes this Raw a 1 at best out of 10.

PK (@BaddAssPK)

The Ambulance Match was good enough, but the feud needs to end at this. The rest of the show was back to being boring, so here are some bullet points:

-So, BNB is back to being a heel after one week?
-Roman vs. Show was slow and boring.
-I want Cesaro & Kidd to work so, so, so bad…but I think we all know that it won’t.
-The New Day is boring, uninspired, and, quite frankly, annoying.
-Booker T makes me miss The King.
-My 5 year old thought The Ascension was the Road Warriors, this is not a lie or an exaggeration.
-I like Darren Young’s new look, hopefully they do something with him.
-Did I miss something, or was there no mention of Daniel Bryan’s announcement from last week?
-I guess we know 3 “surprise” entrants in the Royal Rumble this year.

Matthew Harrak (@mattharrak)

Did I miss something or did we flash back to the day after Survivor Series but this time The Authority won? That’s all they did, they wiped the result of a main event match of one of their “big 4? shows and started over like nothing happened!

I don’t know how I feel about Rollins being added to the main event of the Rumble. Of course this means we’re not getting ANOTHER rematch featuring Brock Lesnar but what’s Rollins’ goal in this match? To take the pin so both men can save face? Try to cash in MitB somewhere? It’s a mess.

And finally, FINALLY Wyatt and Ambrose are done (*knock on wood*). Their feud was dead in the water at the get-go. While it was strange that Wyatt picked up the victory, move both guys on to something else… anything else.

The Rumble can’t come soon enough.

Justin Czerwonka (@JCWonka)

I was willing to give the Authority coming back so soon a shot, but it completely backfired in their first week back. We started with the same old HHH promo to start the show, followed by the typical heel authority figure being bullies all night, then firing everyone from Team Cena. If they really wanted to do this, they could have just had Team Authority win at Survivor Series, then fire everyone, then have Sting come back and avenge the Authority and get their jobs back. But nope, we wasted the last six weeks away and they are now meaningless.

The rest of the show was nothing special. Bray Wyatt beat Dean Ambrose, and the WWE moved on like it was nothing. I guess Dean Ambrose will just never win a meaningful feud on WWE TV. But I guess Bray Wyatt has to look strong for the Undertaker or something. What’s next for Dean Ambrose? And will it even have any meaning at all? Tonight was the perfect example of the WWE’s short sighted booking and how they can’t plan ahead at all. Nothing about the show was good, and it wasn’t a good start to 2015. Show gets a 2.

Widro (@widro)

I decided to try watching the 7:30 Raw pre-show, then Raw. It was nearly four hours. It’s as if WWE is trying to run off all the fans. The Authority being back invalidates the entirety of the Survivor Series stipulation and the impact of Sting’s return. Then HHH buried the show for the last four weeks, including burying Hulk Hogan for some reason. Then HHH buried the show’s quality and ratings while they were gone. However, he went on to book a show of garbage, with heels getting advantages across the board. This type of show might have been novel 15 years ago, but it’s been done so many times, it was like watching a retread of a retread of a badly booked Vince Russo Impact. How are these shows getting on the air? Major matches with almost no build – Reigns/Show as an example. It’s hard to justify spending so much time watching a product that shows utter contempt for its viewers.

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs