For the first time in I don't know how long, we get a match in the first ten minutes of Raw. John Cena came out and did his weekly promo about how hot the crowd was before offering his open challenge. The UK crowd popped incredibly hard for the arrival of Bad News Barrett. Man, I was really hoping it would be Adrian Neville but damn good. The fans treat Barrett like he's a mega star, which of course he isn't. The top contender for the Intercontinental Title put up a good fight here but took the loss. I get that he wasn't going to win but this should have ended via DQ or at least been against someone else. Barrett, with a title shot on the horizon, should not be losing. He lost a ton as champion so I guess they figured he should lose a bunch while challenger too. The other gripe I had with this was that Barrett kicked out of the AA. That has become the least effective finisher in wrestling. It always brings a near fall, making the false finishes less impressive. Rusev appeared post match and took out Cena with a chain, making their match at Extreme Rules a Russian Chain match.
Next, we have the Number One Contender's Battle Royal for the Divas Championship. This was typical Divas battle royal fare as not much happened and the eliminations were sloppy. Throw in the fact that Rosa Mendes actually eliminated two girls and this gets a poor rating from me. It comes down to Paige and Naomi, and the crowd celebrates hard for Paige's win. They stay with her after the commercial for an interview, only for Naomi to attack. It was a good looking beatdown and I hope that heel Naomi is better than face Naomi. I assume we get a Triple Threat at Extreme Rules, especially with Paige going to film a movie. Moving on, Bray Wyatt cuts a promo about being the new Face of Fear. But dude...you lost at WrestleMania. How can you be the new Face of Fear? I'm sure he'll lose his next feud too. Tag team wrestling follows as the Lucha Dragons defeat the Ascension. It was decent and I liked the booking since they've worked together before and know how to work each other. The Ascension get the jobber entrance because fuck them apparently. Now we go to the worst segment of the show so far as it is time for Roman Reigns interview time. The crowd is pretty anti-Reigns, chanting "Thank you Big Show" and "Suplex City". Big Show talks smack from the titantron before appearing on stage as Reigns goes to leave. He beats up Roman and chokeslams him onto a car that set up by the entrance. We have to see this shit match again?
To find out the stipulation for the WWE Title match at Extreme Rules we have two matches. First, Randy Orton takes on Cesaro. Here is what should be wise booking. Cesaro can be counted on for a great match an Orton can beat him since he's a tag guy now. That's fine, easy and simple booking. So of course, that doesn't happen. Instead, we get a false disqualification so Kane makes it a handicap match and Orton goes over the Tag Team Champions. Clean. By himself. Seriously? You could have just kept it as Orton/Cesaro and it would have made sense. Why should anyone care for the tag division if one man can beat the top team? This was fucking stupid. In the following segment, Dean Ambrose returned from Luke Harper attacks and beat Adam Rose. Not much to see here.
We're about to move through things in rapid fire. Stardust faces Fandango for no reason. Total filler match. Stardust wins, and then Fandango dumps Rosa Mendes...I think. His old theme plays and he dances for the fans. As much as I prefer old Fandango...he won more like this. Seth Rollins was supposed to face Dolph Ziggler for his stipulation choice but is facing Kane instead so Kane can lay down and do the job. Daniel Bryan appears backstage to tell Kane that it's a bad move. So the match happens and Kane doesn't want to job so he chokeslams Rollins and drapes his arm over him for the win. Awful booking again. Fuck Kane at this point. Why not have him not want to get pinned, then have J&J hit Seth and cause the DQ? Instead you make your champ look like a bitch. Damien Mizdow beats Miz with a rollup in like a minute. Whatever. Sandow had Summer Rae with him. In another very short match, Ryback beats Luke Harper via DQ leading into Harper and Ambrose getting into a big fight. The Prime Time Players also dissed Los Matadores backstage. Naomi cuts a heel promo backstage too. Told you this was rapid fire. Finally, something good comes as Ziggler came out to call Kane a bitch and issue an open challenge. Neville answered and this about to be good. It wasn't "must see" as people claimed but it was really good. Neville busted out a fucking 450 splash from the guardrail. Ziggler won, which I didn't mind but I think Neville needed just a bit more. He's now lost two relatively high profile matches but can beat Curtis Axel. At least he's not just working jobbers and has already main evented a Raw. Sheamus attacks post match because he's kind of a dick.
Our closing segment focused on the WWE World Heavyweight Title which is always good. Seth Rollins came out and sat in a chair, even having little chairs for J&J Security. They go back and forth before Seth chooses his stipulation as having the RKO banned. Orton combats that with a Steel Cage match to cut off the Authority. the WWE hasn't had a great Steel Cage match in a long time, so I really hope that this one takes it to the next level. i have faith in these two. With the show over, I realize that the WWE is hit or miss with their UK shows. A few years ago they had the Shield/Undertaker stuff that was great but tonight wasn't very good. The opener and Neville/Ziggler match were both good but having the Tag Champions lose and the top contender for the IC Title lose was strange booking. Add in the WWE Champion looking like a bitch and the ridiculous amounts of fluff and filler and this wasn't a very good episode. 3/10.
