The Highlight of the Night
The Top Moments from Raw
Written by Mark Adam Haggerty
The WWE's flagship broadcast is back with a somewhat preferable program to what we were force-fed last week, although the show is still plagued by many of the same problems that have made recent episodes of Monday Night Raw intolerable. The first thing anyone tuning in might notice is the electricity flowing through the crowd in New Orleans who are just as happy to see John Cena as they are to chant, "John Cena sucks!" Initially ecstatic to host the WWE product for the first time since Wrestlemania 30, the fans of New Orleans seemed to lose their passion rather early as even April of last year made more sense than January of 2015. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to another exciting edition of The Highlight of the Night; my name is Mark Adam Haggerty and I'm here every single week to present you with the Top Five Moments from the WWE's longest running series. Last week I found myself scaling and repelling along the Monday Night Raw card looking for anything that might pass as entertaining. This week wasn't as difficult, but still presented its own set of challenges—did Roman Reigns really cut a promo about a beanstalk? When you don't have time to watch a three hour television show, I'm here to let you know what Top Five Moments were worth checking out.
5. Good Old WWE Personality Tests…
Whenever the WWE has a breakout talent, the first thing Creative likes to do is script a psychiatric session between said Superstar and a fake therapist. Although I didn't find much humor in the series of skits featuring Dean and the doctor, it did manage to keep the Lunatic Fringe in the forefront of the WWE Universe's mind until his impromptu battle with Rusev. I liked the segment depicting Dean associating words with photos, especially the nod to Kane's former persona, "Isaac Yankem DDS." I like Dean Ambrose and hope he has a prosperous career, but I cringe when he attempts the comedy as it suffers greatly from overwritten dialogue and incredibly poor timing. He is not John Cena, he is not the Rock, and I'm sorry to say INTERNET—he is not "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. The finale of the skits was somewhat predictable; the roles were reversed and Dean Ambrose was now playing therapist to his doctor. What wasn't predictable however was the match with the United States champion later in the evening. While the match was decent enough, it rested heavily on Rusev's performance, leaving much to be desired as far as the Lunatic Fringe and his in-ring capabilities. I question the judgment of any keyboard warrior that may bash John Cena, all the while touting the skillset of Dean Ambrose. It's going to be a dark day when reality hits and the WWE Universe realizes Dean Ambrose is a "five-move wrestler." I don't understand the logic in booking Ambrose in such a negative way this evening when it would have seemed simple enough to keep him backstage doing the therapy gimmick. Instead he incites the ire of Rusev for no reason other than to play babyface, only for the match to end due to Ambrose's knee injury. I don't really know what the process behind promoting Ambrose is, but so far 2015 is turning out to be much the same as 2014—a year in which Dean Ambrose earn zero singles' wins on pay-per-view.
4. Daniel Bryan's Back in New Orleans
Daniel Bryan's return to television is unquestionably the most provocative element of the current storyline. Sure the main event title picture is fuzzy and fun to predict, but far more members of the WWE Universe have invested themselves in Daniel Bryan than they have in anyone else—even John Cena. After an astronomical rise in popularity, Daniel was sidelined and many of his fans were left waiting and wondering if they'd ever see their favorite Superstar again. I really like the ongoing dichotomy between Daniel Bryan and Stephanie McMahon, and I hope it's something we continue to see evolve over the next few years. Nobody ever complained about how often Vince McMahon mixed it up with Steve Austin; I think this could be a defining rivalry in the development of Stephanie McMahon as a formidable antagonist in the WWE Universe. It would seem that quite a few folks are disappointed with the decision to reignite the feud between Kane and Daniel Bryan, but I'm actually in favor of seeing the former WWE World Champion get his further comeuppance against "The Big Red Machine." Obviously Bryan Danielson's neck injury was the result of more than a decade's worth of wrestling a very stiff style—but DANIEL BRYAN's injury came at the hands of "The Devil's Favorite Demon." Speaking strictly Kayfabe, how could Bryan return to action without first getting his revenge against the man who almost ended his career? The WWE was most certainly going to pit these two against one another, so I say what better time than on Smackdown? Let's get it out of the way so we aren't faced with a wasted pay-per-view match the way we were following Wrestlemania 30. I was surprised at the tenacity with which both Bryan and Kane attacked each other on Raw, especially considering nobody seems sure how safe it is for Bryan to return to the ring. If their street fight is any indication of what to expect, then I look forward to their clash this Thursday and cautiously anticipate exciting things for Daniel Bryan as we speed toward Wrestlemania 31 here in California.
3. The Lumberjack Match
The WWE is notorious for distancing itself from the term "professional wrestling," instead choosing the far more nauseating moniker of "sports entertainment." For a company that wants to separate their product from the other �rasslin' shows on TV, implementing a Lumberjack match seems right in line with a Scaffold Match, or a Hair vs. Hair—oh wait, they do that all the time. My point is that Vince McMahon cannot have it both ways, and that is why after thirty years of attempting to coin a phrase, the majority of fans still refer to their favorite pastime as "professional wrestling." The lumberjack match has always been one of my favorite match-types because it gives the audience a unique look into the semi-casual side of their favorite superstars. It's always interesting to see how Bad News Barrett interacts with Rusev or how Justin Gabriel, "takes lumberjack matches very seriously," as he posted on Twitter. The Lumberjack stipulation may very well offer moments of team work, but can more appropriately spell dissent as the contest this evening featured the most heinous heels in the WWE locker room. I had to assume that John Cena would fail to defeat Seth Rollins, because as backwards as the booking seems to be, I couldn't very well predict three men getting fired one night, and getting rehired at the beginning of the very next show—that's stupid. I thought John Cena was really impressive in this match, which is sort of a strange sentence to type. Not that I don't find Cena impressive on a regular basis, but he's the type of wrestler I don't feel the need to highlight. He's been coming off the top rope for years it seems, but recently John Cena has been upgrading his high-risk offense game to include splashes and dives to the outside of the ring. Say what you will about the 15-time title holder, no champion in history has ever worked as hard as Cena to improve every facet of their arsenal. While I agree he has far fewer maneuvers on hand than Daniel Bryan or Antonio Cesaro, John Cena is constantly adding to his repertoire so as to meet the demand of every new challenge he faces. Seth Rollins is proving far more versatile than I think anyone might have ever guessed. While proving his capabilities in brawling with Dean Ambrose, he is able to take it to the air when soaring with Dolph Ziggler, yet still makes for an arduous opponent across from the most decorate champion in the company. I thought this match was really great despite all of the clichéd complaints there are to be made about a WWE match. The way the first promo by John Cena transitioned into the match kept the beginning of the show moving at a steady pace that would come to a crashing halt as soon as the next segment began. A highly entertaining opener that unfortunately did nothing to foreshadow the in-ring action to come.
2. "I wasn't done yet!"
For the past several weeks, the final segment of Monday Night Raw has been awarded the top spot by default. This week I've allowed for nostalgia to take over, so while the exciting conclusion may not have been number one, it was definitely worth watching. Contract signings are generally very predictable and I suppose this was as well to a degree. In the center of the ring stood a table cloaked in a black cloth which made me say, "What are the odds that table doesn't get broken? Slim to none." Of course I was correct, but the beauty in this segment wasn't in broken shards of wood, but in the words exchanged between Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins. After quite some time of hearing Heyman speak for Lesnar, I'm finally hip to the way in which Mr. Dangerously arranges his thoughts. But that doesn't mean I'm any less eager to hear them aloud via the voracious vocals of Paul Heyman. Quite often Paul is mismatched with someone that can't quite compete in his arena of verbal jibes, but this week he is surrounded by Triple H, John Cena, and Stephanie McMahon—three personalities known for their talent on the microphone. However, it was Seth Rollins who made for Paul's greatest adversary, once again leading me to wonder how many of Rollins' promos are scripted and what's coming from the brain of Colby Lopez. Cena seemed purposefully detached during this segment, opting to keep his cool rather than rely on the same jokes he's been making since 2005. Brock Lesnar surprised quite a few people including myself when he took control of the mic and referred to Rollins as, "Mr. Curb-Stomp," proceeding to tell Seth how he'd beaten Triple H, The Undertaker, and John Cena. He wasn't going to lose to Seth Rollins. By the time the confrontation escalated beyond signing any contracts, the players were in motion and rather than watching the dominant Lesnar reign supreme, Rollins made his mark on the forthcoming match by Curb-Stomping both Cena and the champion. What could we expect from this volatile situation as we are now less than two week's removed from the Royal Rumble? We'll find out next week, but until then look for my upcoming article regarding how the Triple Threat Match might turn out.
1. The First Member of the 2015 Hall of Fame
I hardly think it's a cop out to name the "Macho Man" Randy Savage induction package the number one moment of the night. Whereas the induction announcement of another superstar from yesteryear might not make this list at all, the long awaited inclusion of Randy Savage is something to celebrate. Following his exit from the WWF in 1994, Randy Savage made the jump to World Championship Wrestling. Although many of his friends and colleagues would return home to the WWE after WCW's close in 2001, Randy Savage would never be among them. This lead many to speculate on why the "Macho Man" was apparently blacklisted by Vince McMahon—did it have something to do with Randy and STEPHANIE McMahon back in the mid-90's? Was it instead Randy's decision? Perhaps the former heavyweight champion still felt in some ways disrespected by a company that took him out of the ring, only to put him behind an announce desk. Whatever the woes may have been, when the Randy Savage documentary DVD came out in 2014, those same speculators from years ago began rumbling about whether or not this was finally the year we'd see Savage in the WWE Hall of Fame. TMZ broke the news early on Monday morning which then-in-turn prompted WWE to tease the announcement, both on WWE.com and The WWE Network. Throughout the evening we were privy to really well-produced vignettes and segments involving Superstars honoring Savage by attempting their best "Macho Man" impressions. Finally the word came down from on high, and the announce team gave the official word that The Macho Man Randy Savage would be the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2015. Following the announcement was another very nice video package, although much longer and this time set to the song "The Heart" by NEEDTOBREATHE. I've always been a very emotional wrestling fan and I would be doing the WWE and this article a disservice if I failed to mention how touched I was when I saw this video. It was really intense for someone who grew up watching Randy Savage, idolizing the man behind the glasses and hoping against hope that he'd one day return to the WWE. Our collective hearts as "Macho Man" fans might have been broken that fateful May morning in 2011, but his spirit will live on and ours may now be lifted. I'm a little angry with the decision to allow Hulk Hogan the honors of inducting Randy, as I feel very strongly it should be his brother "Leaping" Lanny Poffo AKA The Genius. But that's an argument for another day—a day we aren't still celebrating the life of Randy "Macho Man" Savage.
This week's episode had twists and turns but did it have any wrestling? There were a bevy of bouts per usual but they were likely lost in the shuffle of another show devoted to promos and furthering The Authority storyline. I'm getting tired of saying, "I hope the WWE can turn things around," at the end of every single Monday Night Review, but it's the only sentiment that truly sums up my incredibly dismal perception of the current state of the WWE. Until next time, my name is Mark Adam Haggerty reminding you, if you don't have anything nice to say, you're probably reviewing Monday Night Raw.
