The final Raw before Fastlane was a quality show that was built around the impending match between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, and it ended with a wild brawl between the two.
The final match of the night was Bryan facing The Big Show, with Roman Reigns at ringside. Reigns was playing to the crowd, trying to distract Bryan and get in his head. This was an answer to Bryan doing the same thing earlier when Reigns beat Kane.
Eventually, the match spilled to the outside, and Reigns was inadvertently speared by Big Show as the match got close to where he was. The match moved back to the ring, and it looked like Bryan would pick up the win. However, Reigns got back up and went after Big Show, drawing a disqualification.
Bryan confronted Reigns, and a few seconds later a brawl started. The fight moved to the outside, through the crowd, back to the announce area, and back in the ring, where the punches kept flying until the show went off the air.
A brawl is such a simple way to get a crowd into a feud. Two guys just throwing haymakers, no-selling to a degree and just beating each other adds legitimacy to a feud, and it makes it so someone doesn't have to go over. It's somewhat sparingly used by the WWE, particularly in a high-profile feud, but when it's pulled out, the crowd almost always gets into it.
It's understandable that it's not used that often. It's much easier to tell a story when someone stands tall. It sets a favorite and an underdog and gives someone motivation for revenge later. However, when appropriate, the brawl can serve to draw people into a feud who may not have been into it before, as we saw on Monday.
The feud, so far, has worked, despite a shaky start. There are questions as to whether this will be the best thing long-term for both wrestlers -- as Reigns going against one of the more popular wrestlers while he's still establishing his face credentials could have a negative effect, as could Bryan getting more smarmy with his character.
However, for the past two weeks the feud has been compelling. And sometimes it's more important to stay in the present and appreciate what we're seeing, as opposed to looking to the future.
The Rest of Raw:
** Triple H came out to address what happened last week with Sting. While Sting wasn't there to build upon his acceptance of Triple H's challenge to appear at Fastlane, Ric Flair showed up instead.
Flair showed concern that Triple H was taking Sting too lightly, as Triple H continued to insist that he would run Sting out of the WWE at Fastlane. Triple H talked about how important the WWE was to him and set up the confrontation as the WWE against WCW. Flair continued to say that he thought Triple H was taking Sting too lightly, which caused Triple H to shove Flair and say the three most important things in his life were his wife, kids and WWE, and Sting would find that out on Sunday.
This was an effective segment, and the best part about it was that they acknowledged the history between Flair and Sting. So often, the WWE refuses to acknowledge past history between wrestlers when that history didn't happen in the WWE. So for Flair, and Triple H, to talk about the past is a step in the right direction. It made the segment that much better and built the anticipation for their confrontation, even if people know it will just be a prelude to WrestleMania.
** While it came in a midcard match, the best work of the night might have belonged to Stardust. Dusty Rhodes came to Raw to mediate the dissension between his sons. It seemed like he had gotten through to them, as the family shared a hug before their match.
Once again, though, they would lose, as Goldust took the fall in their match against The New Day. Stardust looked on in disgust as Goldust tried to get up, but did eventually help him up. He looked annoyed when Goldust fell again, but instead of turning on him, as expected, he helped him up again. It wasn't until Goldust regained his bearings and started to leave the ring that Stardust finally completed the breakup, and hit the CrossRhodes on his brother.
After the match, backstage, Dusty confronted Stardust. In what was the best work to date since Cody transformed into Stardust, he went off on his father, explaining that the pressures of living up to his father and his brother caused him to transform into Stardust. It was simple and completely logical, even while delivering it in his Stardust persona. It was fantastic storyline and ended up being a series of brutally effective segments.
** Speaking of effective storytelling, the saga between Miz and Damien Sandow continued, and they added a nice historical homage to it. Sandow had a match with Bad News Barrett. During the match, Miz sat at ringside and rang a bell when he wanted Sandow to do something for him. Every time Sandow got the advantage, Miz would ring the bell and ask Sandow to shine his shoes, or wipe off his glasses. Finally he distracted Sandow enough for Barrett to get the win.
This segment was really a throwback to when Virgil finally started to break away from Ted DiBiase. The crowd was desperate for Sandow to do something to defy Miz and hated the Miz every time that bell rang.
With how Virgil flopped after he broke away from DiBiase, people tend to forget just how badly people wanted Virgil to beat DiBiase when he first broke away. He was getting huge cheers, and Sandow is going that same way. When he does eventually break away, the reception should be epic, and with Sandow's charisma, he should be able to carry that farther than Virgil (or Alex Riley, if we're looking at the last time a lackey broke away from Miz) did.
** Dean Ambrose wrestled a great match with Luke Harper, which somewhat shockingly ended cleanly, with Ambrose picking up the win. Ambrose spent the night trying to get Barrett to sign a contract for an Intercontinental title match at Fastlane.
After Barrett beat Sandow, Ambrose came out, attacked Barrett and ziptied his hands to the ringposts. Ambrose then put a pen in Barrett's hand, and forced him to sign the contract. It will be interesting to see if they do anything on SmackDown regarding this -- it would truly get the crowd into it if they could somehow stall the match til Mania -- but it looks like we'll have the match at Fastlane.
** Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler had a good match. It looked like Ziggler would pick up a clean win after his series of losses, but when Ziggler was about to get the pin, J&J Security (who were ejected from ringside earlier) broke it up and the ref called for the bell. Ryback and Erick Rowan came out to even the odds, and the faces stood tall at the end of the segment.
** The show opened with John Cena cutting a promo on Rusev. Rusev and Lana came out to respond and focused on Cena never tapping out (which isn't technically true, but it's been so long since he's tapped out that it's accepted). It seems like that will be the storyline going into the Fastlane match. Rusev has become incredibly competent at promo work, and he has fantastic timing on the mic. The segment ended with the two fighting on the ramp again, and Cena ended standing tall.
** Bray Wyatt continued his series of promos against the Undertaker. He had three separate promos through the night, building towards his final promo, where he said that if the person didn't come to find Bray, that Bray would find him. So it seems that if it is Undertaker that he's addressing, and there's almost no way that it isn't, that he should be making his return soon.
** Darren Young made his return to television, as he and a local wrestler were slated to face The Ascension. The Ascension jumped the two before the match, and started a beatdown. Titus O'Neil ran out to make the save, and he and Young cleared the ring and stood tall. So it looks like we'll get a Prime Time Players reunion, which is good, because neither have been the same since the team split up.
** Paige beat Summer Rae. Before the match, the Bellas had stolen Paige's ring gear, so Paige wrestled in a fairy outfit she had borrowed from a Rose Bud. The Bellas tried to come out after the match to continue their bullying, but Paige turned it around on them, and said she'd be wearing something even better, the Divas title.
** Jey Uso and Naomi beat Tyson Kidd and Natalya after Naomi caught Natalya for the pin. Earlier in the match, Natalya tried to tag out, but Kidd wanted Natalya to continue instead. Kidd showed his displeasure after the match, as he told Natalya what she did wrong to cost them the match. Natalya looked upset as Kidd and Cesaro walked to the back in front of her.
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