John Cena Not Competing At WrestleMania? Raw Review

Miss. Bray Wyatt promo: The fact that The WWE thinks a cryptic promo and little fire carries a segment, is very troubling to me. I know Wyatt can cut great promos. He’s proven that time and time again, but The WWE needs The Undertaker to respond to keep this feud going, or it just starts to look one sided. Even if The WWE can’t get The Undertaker on Raw physically, it wouldn’t kill them to have Undertaker do a prerecorded promo on the titan tron, or even just a cryptic message of his own, like Sting did with Triple H. The fact that websites were touting the return of The Undertaker on Monday night Raw, made this segment particularly underwhelming. On another note. Wyatt setting the casket on fire, was a great foreshadow for how The WWE should choose to end The Undertaker’s career. Despite being unable to carry the segment on his own, Wyatt’s words were immensely chilling to hear.

 

Hit keeping John Cena out of WrestleMania 31 Segment: Keeping John Cena’s WrestleMania 31 status up in the air has to be one of the most brilliant moves by The WWE in a long time. The WWE Universe went wild Monday night at the thought of Cena sitting out at The Show of Shows. The fact that Curtis Axel interrupted the segment with Cena and Stephanie McMahon and got a positive reaction from fans that were anti cena, made this segment just that much better. The WWE struck a great storyline chord here, and the next few weeks will be even more interesting now to see if and how Cena gets a match at WrestleMania 31. The only problem I had with the segment, was having Cena and Axel compete in a match after promo. Axel got great pops from the crowd, and a loss to Cena only worked to ruin that. The fact that it was a submission victory, made Axel’s stock plummet just that much more. Stephanie McMahon making the match between Rusev and Cena was kind of let down as well. I was hoping for Cena to be forced to prove himself to get into the match, but it looks like he’ll have to force Rusev’s hand with sabotage

Hit Erectile Dysfunction commercial: Any fan that misses the attitude era, had to be cheering with glee during the Miz and Mizdow’s segment on Raw Monday Night. Mizdow repeatedly tried to warn Miz that the commercial that Miz was in wasn’t what he thought it was. When the Erectile Dysfunction commercial finally aired, it was one of the funniest segments in a long time. Miz using references to his below the belt area just made the segment awesome. As the WWE roster looked on, Miz went on a tirade, ultimately hitting Mizdow in the face and causing him to get back in Miz’s face. I wish Mizdow would have went off on Miz right then and there, but I guess The WWE needs a few more weeks of buildup, before they officially break up this team and give them their match at WrestleMania 31. Mizdow needs to gain more back bone sooner rather than later, or the storyline is going to start looking one sided Mizdow has the fan support behind him and its time he uses it to get out of Miz’s shadow.

Miss Paige versus Nikki Bella for The Divas Title: It was great to see The WWE actually give the divas time to go out and have a great match. What wasn’t so great, was the predictability at the end of the match.  It was obvious from the moment Paige attacked Brie on the ring apron that this match would end prematurely in disqualification. Paige locking in The PTO for a few seconds on Nikki gave me hope for a new Divas Champion, but of course The WWE wouldn’t want The Divas title to change hands before WrestleMania 31. I guess a new champion was just wishful thinking on my part.

Miss. AJ Lee’s return to Raw:  I know Raw was live from New Jersey, but Lee’s return came completely out of left field. Although it was nice to Paige and Lee clean house of The Bella Twins, this adds a confusing and largely unnecessary twist to the title picture at WrestleMania 31. One has to wonder where AJ Lee will fit into the title picture, now that she has returned to the squared circle. Hopefully the answer to this question is, as far away from it as possible. A WrestleMania moment will only help to further Paige’s career in The WWE, a win at Mania for AJ would do next to nothing. She already defeated every diva on the roster in last year’s WrestleMania to retain her title. She doesn’t need another moment like that. Its Paige’s turn, and Lee’s return Monday night, just complicates that.

Miss. Seth Rollins host The Daily Show: Despite a few cheap jokes about New Jersey, and a few nice jabs at Seth Rollins character, this segment fell completely flat with me. I know this was great from a promotional perspective, but I doubt that half the kids watching Monday Night Raw, knew who the hell John Stewart was. Stewart hitting a low blow on Rollins before high tailing it was a pretty good moment, but it seems like the segment was just a plot device to further Orton and Rollins feud at WrestleMania 31. A poorly done one at that. It would have been better if Orton and Rollins would have interacted more, or if Rollins showed a little bit more discontent with Orton, but instead Orton came and went without even getting on the mic to address why he was out there. I think that hurt the segment the most.

Miss. Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins. Authority at Ringside: Brilliantly paced match. Roman Reigns had so many news tricks up his sleeve, it had to be impossible for anyone to take their eyes off of the screen during this contest. The only thing that makes this match a miss, is the how it ended. Reigns had things firmly in his control, when Orton distracted Reigns, giving Rollins time for the roll up and the win. Orton leaving ringside after the match was a nice touch, to show that he and The Authority are close to butting heads again, and the way Reigns cleaned house at the end of Raw was even more spectacular. If The WWE continues to build up Reign’s athleticism, this five moves of doom internet crap will eventually die down in The WWE Universe. Reigns is getting better and better every time he goes out there, and that more then makes him deserving of his spot at WrestleMania 31.