Tuesday Raw Roundtable: Two Divas Matches, Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton, Cena Breaks Nose vs. Seth Rollins

Columns, Top Story

WWE had another new Raw on Monday, what did the Pulse Wrestling crew think of the show?

Darren Paltrowitz

Admittedly, I DVR-ed all the way through this episode. It was too long.

New Day’s cameo during the Lucha/Matadores match was fantastic.

John Cena admittedly gave it his all in his match with Seth Rollins.

Cesaro looked strong as the post-match attacker. Kevin Owens, unfortunately, may have peaked in the WWE with his first main roster match.

I’ve been a long-time Divas supporter, but two long matches was too much due to it being the same feud without there being any true heat.

The Intercontinental Title picture is entirely a waste at this point.

The Wyatts are still talking jibberish without any real heat.

Dean Ambrose is still without a meaningful feud.

The Rusev feud is killing any believability of that character being a tough heel.

That Stardust promo via video was horrific — and I’m a big fan of both Cody and Stardust.

Fandango is a jobber, which is sad, yet Damien Sandow, Curtis Axel and Heath Slater haven’t been getting any “Raw” TV time lately.

At least I still have “NXT,” “Tough Enough” and “Total Divas” to entertain me. And maybe “Swerved.”

Brittney Soban

United States Championship Match, John Cena (c) v. Seth Rollins: This was main event worthy. The two men put on a great match and it showed just how great each man can be when given the chance to shine and when given a partner to battle that has such amazing chemistry. Rollins looked strong and confident, even without his lackeys (character development in progress!) but the greatest part of the match was probably Cena’s worst. With Rollins kneeing Cena in the face and (apparently although, can you really doubt it,) breaking Cena’s nose it looked like Cena was done for. However, Cena battled on, nose off-center and all, to keep fighting Rollins. Cena would eventually pull out the win, leaving both men battered, Cena bloody and both men looking stronger and more solid than anyone probably could have hoped for.

10 Thoughts on Raw for my full thoughts!

John Turnbull

Welcome to Raw is Talk! We get almost a full half hour into the broadcast before we see any actual wrestling, and it’s the damn Big Show. No matter how hard Ambrose works as the underdog, he can’t make me care about this goofball.

Neville vs Famdango wasn’t a bad squash match, although I’m not convinced the superhero gimmick is going to get the man that gravity forgot over. Does anyone remember the Hurricane? At least a feud with Stardust should produce some good matches.

While I was initially excited about the NXT divas move to the main roster, the trios approach means that talented workers look like they’re not strong enough to succeed on their own. Paige vs Sasha was a good match with a surprisingly clean finish, but I can’t help thinking Banks would be better off without Tamina and Naomi.
What the hell was going on with that Rusev segment? Poor puppy.

Hey, maybe if we show enough clips of Brock and Taker, nobody will notice that they’re not on the show this week!

Lucha Dragons vs Los Matadores showed why it’s a bad idea to do a headstand on the turnbuckle, but was otherwise fairly unremarkable. Maybe these guys can watch some Lucha Underground to see how luchadores are supposed to work…

Remember when Bray Wyatt was legitimately creepy? Now he’s a Scooby Doo bad guy. Wouldn’t it be nice if he pulled off the mask and Jake the Snake was underneath?
The Divas tag match suffered from the same distractions as earlier, taking away from the skills displayed in the ring with constant cutaways. Memo to WWE – people watching a monitor out the back is never interesting.

Owens vs Orton had some nice spots (I liked the fallaway slam into the barricade) but once again made KO look weak against one of the laziest workers since Kevin Nash. The Cesaro run in at the end was entertaining, though.

Cena vs Rollins was notable for Cena’s broken nose, but wasn’t really a great match. Credit to Cena for working through the injury, but someone needs to tell Seth that injuring your opponent is not really the point of this ‘sport’. Nice going, skinny Goldberg.

Was it just me, or was the crowd chanting ‘this is awful?’ I concur.

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