Tuesday Raw Roundtable: Labor Day Raw, John Cena/PTP vs. New Day/Seth Rollins, Sting, HHH, Cesaro

Columns, Top Story

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

Darren Paltrowitz

Seth Rollins promos are still interesting, even if they’re repetitive. I believe people are genuinely interested in what’s going to happen with Rollins wrestling two title matches at “Night Of Champions.”

The tag team division is still intriguing. The Dudley Boyz are getting the reactions needed. The New Day were incredibly entertaining tonight, as always.

Cesaro put in a great match, and is extremely over, even if they’re still giving him awful creative to work with.

But most of the show was barely watchable…

I get that The Wyatt Family is supposed to look strong. However, their new guy shouldn’t be ragdolling top-tier talent if he’s not destined to be the top wrestler in the company. As he comes from a strongman background, and reportedly didn’t work on the indies or wrestling on-camera much for NXT, he doesn’t have the experience needed to get that sort of push.

Los Matadores heel turn? Yeah, that made sense. That were doing the “ole” chant just minutes before.

Rusev is a believable monster heel, and does not belong in a romance-driven storyline. Since his injury, WWE has slowly been killing Rusev’s believability.

The Divas division got that great reboot with the NXT call-ups, yet the Divas Champion hasn’t defended her title on television or a “special event” in over two months. Natalya shouldn’t be on the sidelines. Summer Rae would be better utilized as a wrestler.

Ryback is getting better in the ring all the time, but his Intercontinental Title reign hasn’t elevated the legacy of the title.

Big Show is an angry giant, but there is no clear direction for the character.

Dean Ambrose needs a meaningful feud

Meanwhile, missing in action: Damien Sandow, Mark Henry, Bo Dallas, Neville, The Lucha Dragons, Kevin Owens, and Zack Ryder — these folks are far more over than a lot of the people featured tonight.

2-3 more episodes like this and I’m done with Raw. Seriously. Well, maybe…

Pat Metalhead

This week’s RAW was the perfect example of why WWE booking pisses me of at times.

After a few weeks of improvement, we’re back to square one. He’s still being mocked by Steph and HHH who go out of their to make their Champ’s life difficult. If we could see this going somewhere, I could at least understand it, but knowing WWE they probably just think it’s funny. So your heel Champion is constantly faced with babyface-like odds. Yeah that makes sense…

We finally get a proper singles match out of the Diva Revolution and then it ends like that. Some will say they are perhaps keeping the full Banks/Paige match for some PPV, but what would have been so wrong in having, for example, Banks take the win cleanly here? Paige could then become obsessed with proving she’s better than Banks, leading to some tension amongst PCB. There. Storyline. And I’m not even trying.

Last week WWE introduces The Ascension as Stardust’s muscle. This weak, those muscles are squashed by Reigns and Ambrose. OK some of you will say being squashed is The Ascension’s role in life, but why introduce them as Stardust’s henchmen then? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Cosmic Wasteland squash some nobody’s this week in order to build them up a bit? How are we supposed to take them seriously next them they appear with Stardust? And, sure, it made sense to have Ambrose and Reigns win one, but any two guys would have done for that job. Why take a team you’re trying to build up for something else?

And it continues with yet another Champion vs Champion match being thrown away just like that. How are we supposed to take those titles seriously when they don’t? Ok I liked the Owens thing before the match, but the fact is World Champion Rollins vs IC Champion whomever that is could headline most PPV’s. What’s the point of throwing them away in the middle of a RAW episode?

I refuse to even talk about the Ziggler/Lana/Rusev/Summer Rae soap opera from now on. Seriously, not worth my time.

And yet another Orton Sheamus match. Jeez, how many of those are we supposed to sit trough? Even worse, Orton takes the pin. You know what that means, don’t you? It means than when Sheamus cashes in, and assuming he succeeds, guess who his first opponent will be? That means even more Orton vs Sheamus matches. I sometimes think WWE really hates us.

Orton being attacked by The Wuatt’s for being associated with Ambrose and Reigns on occasion actually makes sense, so points for that.

And, out of nowhere, they now tease a Los Matadores break-up. People don’t care. Why would they?

Miz vs Cesaro wasn’t good and Miz is too blame, the match fell apart as soon as he had to take the lead. Big Show comes out so his feud with Miz will continue. Why? After that Cesaro gets the jobber treatment by being knocked out by The Big Show. WHY??? The fact WWE is still pushing the barely mobile Big Show over the increasingly popular Cesaro says it all really. Nothing EVER changes in WWE.

Next week we’ll get the Charlotte vs Nikky Bella match so that Charlotte can prevent Nikky from breaking the record. Ok, should have been at the PPV, but as long as there is a reason, I can live with that. Nikky was awful on that mic though.

New Day’s backstage segment was one of the few highlights of this show. Their teaming up with Rollins against the challenger team of PTP and John Cena was actually a good idea I thought. Too bad there wasn’t more actual interaction between Rollins and the Tag Team Champs.

Sting trowed the Rollins statue into a trash truck. And that was your main RAW storyline. Any questions?

New Day Rocks! And that’s the only thing I got out of this week’s episode.

JT

I skipped through the opening promo, but I must admit to being slightly amused by Seth’s supposed obsession with his crappy statue.

Paige vs Sasha was one of the better Divas matches to feature on Raw recently, although I find the presence of the extended tag teams at ringside has the effect of distracting from the action in the ring.

Reigns and Ambrose vs the Ascension was pretty much a waste of time, and I’m not sure that beating jobbers is going to get Roman over with viewers.

Has Bray Wyatt slimmed down a bit or does he just look skinny in comparison with Braun Fatman?

Ryback vs Owens is an interesting prospect, although his match with Rollins wasn’t really anything to write home about. At the very least the Big Guy seems to be getting a bit better in the ring and seems less likely to injure his opponent than in previous years.

Hey, it’s Edge and Christian. You remember them, right? One is too injured to ever get back in the ring and the other is a former TNA champ… they’re still pretty funny though. And now it’s the Dudleys, for a full-on flashback and a fun new Get the Tables chant.

I haven’t cared about Rusev and Summer Rae so far, and I still don’t. Bummer about Lana getting injured in training though.

How many times do we have to sit through Orton vs Shamus? At least once more, it would seem. Wyatt beat down afterwards is already getting old.

Dudleys vs Los Matadores was essentially a squash, although the table finisher was amusing as ever. Is El Torito about to join the Dudley Boyz?

Cesaro vs Miz was the definition of wasted potential, with a Big Show ‘run in’ ruining any chance of an entertaining match. Oh, and his knockout sucker punch on a recovering Cesaro made him look like a massive pussy, not a badass.

The six-man tag was okay, with Big E doing a lot of the work for New Day and the PTP looking like hired help for Super Cena.

Overall an average episode of Raw, with a couple of decent matches and a whole lot of filler.

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