Tuesday Raw Roundtable: Sting, Brock Lesnar, Final Build For 2015 WWE Royal Rumble

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WWE had a big Monday Night Raw and it had the WWE Raw debut of Sting, plus Brock Lesnar apparently turning face.

What did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the event? Plus check out the first appearance by some of our new 2015 Pulse Wrestling staffers, coming on board in time for RumbleMania season!

Steven Berkman

I don’t know who Raw is “for” anymore.
It certainly isn’t for “us”( the smart fan, the type of fan looking at a site like this)
It’s not for kids because all the old guy cameos don’t entice them.
It’s not even really for the casual fan because there’s no wrestling anymore.

So I have to conclude its only for two small groups: The WWE Offices and morons.

With the possible exception of Lesnar stuff and (if it’s your bag) Sting stuff, this Raw was worthless. I’m interested in the main event of the Rumble now because the triple threat has intrigue. I’m not really interested in the Rumble, however. The only two viable winners? Reigns and Bryan. Kane is antagonizing Bryan again and this is likely to lead to them at Mania, so really it’s like they’re promising Reigns to us already.

HHH and the Kliq and the Old Guys panel in the span of two segments buried the entire roster either verbally or physically. Why does The Ascension exist at this point? Why is every NXT bring up a failure?

Everything between Lesnar and Sting was trash. Rollins makes a rare (minor) slip up in a promo and Cena IMMEDIATELY calls him on it. Rollins even gracefully recovered from it and could have just kept going but NO! Cena has to make sure he gets his stupid joke in.

Bryan/Wyatt was a perfectly fine match. But it was only fine. It was another crap finish just to further a Bryan/Kane program. Now in the microcosm of the program, this makes sense because it moves it forward. In the grand scheme however, this isn’t helping anyone. Wyatt is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with and he needs help from a suit.

Sting. Sting “the vigilante”. The man they call The Vigilante Sting. This wild, uncontrollable vigilante waited patiently in front of a WWE logo for a cue, walked through a curtain and do you know how he helped beat the Authority? He existed. Just stood there. Everyone at ringside is a schmuck and looks at him. Cena wins with a roll up. Sting disappears. Brock comes down. Schmoz ending to show.

So even when you add in Sting and Lesnar you do the exact same finishes and nothing is different? Then why bother?

HHH admitting he was ashamed while he was surrounded by the Kliq is like hearing an admission that he knows this show sucks. He doesn’t know though, guys. He doesn’t.

TJ Rutherford

Does everyone remember how Sting was referred to as “The Vigilante” Sting? I mean, NWA, WCW, TNA…”The Vigilante” Sting has been a constant. He was never referenced as “The Stinger” or “The Man Called Sting”. Thank God he has always been #TheVigilanteSting thank God, #MichaelCole thank God. #WWENetwork999month

Sebastian Howard

I thought it was awful,every match that had even a promise of being entertaining was fcked off because of commercials, the main story was “Can Cena overcome the odds,” yet again, and the segments were horrible, and seemed to go on forever.

Travis Leamons

This was my first time trying to make it through an entire episode of Raw in a long time. With it being built as “A Raw Reunion” I took it to mean a lot of cheap pops and nostalgia, and it delivered on that front.

As an about face to the show’s open with a remembrance of the Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., it was all about actions speaking louder than words. So when Paul Heyman’s client Brock Lesnar cut him off before he could opine his famous “Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name Is Paul Heyman,” you knew business was about to pick up fast. But then we got more talking in the form of John Cena, The Authority (Triple H and Stephanie McMahon) and Seth Rollins chilling in the back, after standing nearly nose to nose with Lesnar last week in a backstage stare down (before curb stomping later that night in impressive fashion).

From that segment we get to the best overall match of the evening, a rematch from last year’s Royal Rumble with Daniel Bryan squaring off against Bray Wyatt in Bryan’s first match on Raw in nearly nine months. For a guy who just came back from a severe neck injury, you would think Bryan would tone down his style a la Shawn Michaels after the injury he sustained at the 1998 Royal Rumble. Still, it was a competitive match between both WWE superstars and included a wicked lariat from Wyatt that would make Stan Hansen proud.

The best in-ring wrestling moment was Dean Ambrose favoring his leg late in his match with Bad News Barrett, selling a knee injury from a few weeks ago that he suffered at the hands of Bray Wyatt in their “Ambulance Match” and how it was made worse at the hands of Rusev. The fact that the announcers made mention of this is even better, as it shows they don’t have selective memory loss after all (either that or a “script supervisor” helped feed the information into Cole’s IFB).

The rest of the matches were ho-hum, especially seeing Cesaro relegated to jobber duty at the hands of A New Day.

As for the Raw Reunion of the Legends, here is a listing from best to worst moments.

1. Sting’s first Raw appearance as a distraction to allow John Cena get the schoolboy roll-up victory and have Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback “rehired.” Though, I still have no idea why they are going with “The Vigilante” as a nickname.

2. Damien Sandow as “Damien Pacdow.” (Sorry Miz)

3. JBL busting out of his shirt like he was Superman to reveal his “Acolytes Protection Agency” tee, and following that with a strongman lariat to one member of The Ascension, in a segment that had the New Age Outlaws and APA beat down and up-and-coming tag team/LOD retread as the NWO looked on. Sadly, no “damn” from Ron Simmons.

4. The Raw panel with Hogan, Flair, and HBK. It ran too long with Big Show’s interruption. When he said that no man would be able to eliminate him that would have made for a great Cesaro moment to give Show a history lesson from last year’s WrestleMania. Alas, it didn’t happen and Superman Reigns came down and cleared Show out of the ring – over the top rope.

Aside from the WWE World Championship match, the build-up to the Royal Rumble event has been poorly executed. The fallout from Raw means we now have the added bouts of…

The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods) squaring off against Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and Adam Rose in a six man tag team elimination match during the pre-show.

The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) facing off against The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor). – I’m thinking this won’t be like The Rockers vs. The Orient Express from Royal Rumble 1991.

Paige and Natalya taking on the Bella Twins.

At least the intrigue is in the right place with both the championship and Royal Rumble matches themselves. Lots of different scenarios in how the Road to WrestleMania will take shape.

Brian Mitarotondo

On a scale of 1-10, nostalga factor was a 9 but everything else was a 2. I thought the Cesaro/Kidd team would be more than just jobbers for the New Day, WWE creative continues to ruin the Ascension, and Super Cena strikes again. Paul Heyman saved the opening segment. And I know WWE wanted something unique to tademark, but enough with “the Vigilante” stuff. Just put it on a T-shirt and give it a rest.

CB

Solid Raw tonight. I liked the Raw reunion and Damien Sandow was so spot-on as X-Pac that I thought he was X-Pac. Sting coming back was fun, and I actually predicted an APA vs. Ascension thing in my WrestleMania predictions. I was just off by a couple of months. Bryan vs. Wyatt was a solid match, and I really don’t mind Wyatt winning here as long as Bryan wins the Rumble, perhaps by eliminating Wyatt in the process somewhere along the way.

Matthew Harrak (@mattharrak)

Typically I hate gimmicky RAWs before a big event like the Royal Rumble and tonight was no different. Not only did the WWE have to worry about promoting one of the biggest events of the year but they also had to carry the extra load of numerous legends called in for the lame “RAW Reunion”. And honestly what did they add to the show? A pointless “panel” and a gang-style burial of a new tag team. Not only were all these men completely misused but they did absolutely nothing to improve the show and in the case of The Ascension, they crushed the newest additions to the main roster. Combine this with Seth Rollins now being booked to look weak only 7 days after he stood his ground against Brock Lesnar and this entire episode of RAW did more harm in regards to the Royal Rumble than good in their go-home episode.

PK (@BaddAssPK)

Listen, I was a huge NAO fan back in the day, I even liked their mini-return for about a month last year. But com’on, enough is enough.

Justin Czerwonka (@JCWonka)

There was a lot to process there in the main event. We had Sting come out to help Cena win, and then disappear. And actually I don’t mind that. They quickly shifted the focus of the closing segment to the Royal Rumble. I don’t know if it was the goal, but Lesnar kind of came out as the face between both Cena and Rollins. Imagine if Lesnar was around more and did that all of the time? There is definitely a lot of questions going into the Rumble on Sunday. There is no clear cut winner in the WWE Title match or the Rumble. Daniel Bryan was kind of treated as an afterthought on the show. The legends were a nice touch. And I’m honestly stunned there wasn’t a Rumble like brawl to close the show. The second hour kind of dragged. The wrestling on the show wasn’t bad. I’m going to give the show a 6, and can honestly say I’m looking forward to seeing the Royal Rumble this Sunday.

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