Bryan proving his popularity with the fans. Photo credit: WWE.com
Vince McMahon, accompanied by Raw GM Brad Maddox, kicked off the show by admitting that Maddox might've been onto something last week when he referred to Bryan as a "troll." Daniel Bryan himself then came out and accused Maddox of simply following orders from McMahon and repeating his own words. The COO retorted by claiming that Cena only chose to face Bryan at SummerSlam because he saw him as an easy challenger to the WWE Title, and that he'd manipulated him and all the fans.
McMahon went on to state that there was no way he could dethrone Cena and that it would be an embarrassment to the company if he did, but he'd also had enough of the champ who he felt walked around like he owned the place. Bryan responded by using McMahon's own words and telling him that it didn't matter what he thought but instead what the fans thought, who he received a resounding "Yes!" chant from when he asked if they wanted to see a new WWE Champion. It was an entertaining segment to open Raw.
The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) defeated The Usos and Mark Henry in an enjoyable enough six-man tag contest. Like the majority of Shield matches it was worth a watch (although far from their best) with fair displays from all involved. Afterwards Henry continued to assault his new foes and threw the trio out of the ring.
We witnessed footage from earlier in the day where Ryback began picking on an unknown member of staff as they were grabbing some food, claiming that they looked like they were about to say something and slapping some food into their face. Ryback eventually put them through a table, hyping up his Tables Match with Cena later on.
Rob Van Dam won via count out versus Fandango in a fun outing. RVD was on good form once again, and Fandango hit a few nicely executed moves himself too. The count out occurred after Fandango had enough and decided the match wasn't worth it and walked off with Summer Rae.
Kaitlyn pinned AJ Lee in a pretty average bout that went on a bit longer than necessary. Most of the match was fine, if unremarkable, but unfortunately the final third of it began to drag, with the fans pretty indifferent to the whole thing. Kaitlyn gained the one-two-three after applying an uncharacteristically clumsy spear. Dolph Ziggler then joined them, congratulating AJ on her loss and challenging Big E Langston to a match right there and then.
Dolph Ziggler won via disqualification versus Big E Langston in a rather forgettable affair. Both men looked all right, nothing special to be fair. Unfortunately the match up just never engaged me. The DQ happened when AJ ran into the ring and began viciously clawing at her ex Ziggler.
Christian bested Alberto Del Rio in a stellar contest for the most part. There were a few slight hiccups that let it down a bit but not enough to really spoil it for me. These two talents as usual delivered worthy displays in-between the ropes, with Christian finally catching the World Champion out with a quick roll up for the winning pinfall.
Cody Rhodes beat Wade Barrett in a largely lacklustre outing. Neither wrestler gave a bad performance, but the match up never gave us much excitement until the final few minutes when Cody struck with a moonsault and nicely reversed a pumphandle slam attempt into a Cross Rhodes for the victory.
Damien Sandow then stormed out and berated Rhodes for chucking his Money in the Bank briefcase into the Gulf of Mexico on last week's SmackDown, and went on to call his former tag partner's family a bunch of clowns, saying that "carnie folk are beneath my constitution."
Daniel Bryan defeated Kane in a decent back and fourth effort. It's worth a watch, just don't expect anything too incredible here. Bryan managed to reverse a Chokeslam to catch Kane in the winning small package. A furious Kane Chokeslammed Bryan after, and was shortly joined by Bray Wyatt and his 'family' Luke Harper and Erick Rowan who once again took him out.
Brie Bella pinned Natalya in a mediocre and unmemorable bout. Natalya did quite well considering what she had to work with. During the match Nikki Bella came out and distracted Natalya by making duck noises (backstage earlier they'd referred to her as an "ugly duckling") which of course cost her the match as Brie managed to grab the win with a roll up.
Curtis Axel versus R-Truth ended in a no contest after CM Punk came racing down and began attacking the IC Champion. Punk then turned his attention to his real target Paul Heyman, who managed to make a getaway after his client held off Punk long enough. The match itself was short, but was enjoyable enough while it lasted.
John Cena beat Ryback in a Tables Match. It was an entertaining main event. As standard when these two meet it was fun, just don't expect anything technically amazing. Cena managed to AA Ryback through a table propped up in the corner for the win. Bryan then came down and was about to hand over the WWE Title belt but instead teased him with it until an angry Cena snatched it back. There was a nice intense moment between the two, and I'm still just as excited about their title match next month.
Overall it was a pretty average Raw, with most matches failing to be anything more than fair. The opening segment, RVD versus Fandango, Christian versus Del Rio, Bryan versus Kane and the main event were my highlights. Unfortunately there were also no more matches announced for SummerSlam, I can only presume that McMahon and Triple will have some kind of match (or representatives) with their positions on the line or something like that.
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