It’s the go-home RAW for the MITB PPV and the card appears to be set for once, yet questions still abound. After weeks of hype, how will the Wyatt Family handle expectations? Will they show up with those creepy sheep masks? Will Vickie still be in charge at the end of the night? Is Cena beating Henry on Sunday as much of a foregone conclusion as Puig winning the NL Final Vote? How will Ziggler continue his face turn? Will AJ be at his side when he faces Del Rio for the WHC? Will the Brock Ness Monster show up to mess with Punk? Most importantly, why can’t Punk and Heyman just be friends?
Best
Warm Ups: Having MITB participants face each other in singles matches before the big day is a cherished WWE tradition. However, Bryan-Sheamus, Christian-Kane and Punk-Orton all continued the recent trend of long, quality matches. Sheamus countering the Yes Lock into a Cloverleaf only to have Bryan counter it for the pin was an excellent finish to their match. Even Christian-Kane, the least ‘money’ of the three, was decent. They rightfully saved Punk-Orton for the main event of the night and they totally delivered. Punk winning was a bit of revenge for losing to Orton at Mania a few years ago, which the announcers surprisingly did not mention at all.
Wyatt Family: The fact that RAW last week ended not with Cena standing tall, but with the announcers throwing to a Wyatt Family vignette tells you all you need to know about how much stock Creative is putting into this faction. Showing up after Kane beat Christian and attacking The Big Red Monster was about what was expected. With MITB on Sunday, it couldn’t be anything that really messed with current storylines and it was either an attack or a promo. There will probably be those who say their debut failed to live up to expectations or wasn’t innovative enough, but let’s wait and see how this plays out. The crowd starting a ‘Husky Harris’ chant at the end of it was fantastic.
Time Warp: The McMahons are becoming more prominent on TV, so is this 1999 again with the New McMahon-Helmsley Regime? All we need is for Edge to come back so he can and Christian can argue over whether to call it ‘regime’ or ‘faction’ for it to be perfect. This whole job evaluation could’ve been sub par but it was actually done fairly well. With Vince, Stephanie and Hunter forming a panel in the ring, the whole thing predictably devolved into the two alpha males disingenuously being cordial with each other. It ended with Vickie getting fired and Vince shockingly appointing Brad Maddox as the new GM! The most entertaining part might have been Vickie flipping out on Brad after that.
JBL Quote of The Week: Welcome to a hopefully recurring segment where a great and/or hilarious quote from JBL is highlighted. This week: ‘Daniel Bryan will lose that beard as soon as Sheamus gets a suntan.’
Worst
Too Soon: So during the Shield-Tons of Funk tag match, Cole yells ‘it’s over’ when Tensai hits Rollins with a pretty basic move. Obviously Rollins is going kick out, so why ruin it? It’s understandable that they’re trying to build tension for the television audience, but they overdo it so much that it loses its impact. It’s just not realistic or good timing, like when Jericho started to turn Axel over for The Walls and Cole kept talking about something else. So you knew Curtis was going to roll out of it.
Cena: It wasn’t more corny jokes or the usual rah-rah speech from Cena that lands him here this week. It’s the fact that he brought back his yellow and blue Never Give Up shirt. Those colors are way too similar to the colors of my beloved Michigan Wolverines. You may laugh, but what happens when his next shirt is the colors of your alma mater?
Sin Cara: Man how much of a bust has the Sin Cara signing been? His signing was greeted with much fanfare and hype due to the massive success he had in Mexico as Mistico. Aside from the imposter angle, he hasn’t done much that was memorable. Now he’s just a jobber who has his own match lighting scheme.
