ThunderStruck: WWE Raw Analysis 06/03/13

Stephanie McMahon opens Raw to announce that Triple H will not compete tonight. Vince McMahon comes out and backs her up. The Shield comes out for their match and we go to commercial.

^I’m not a huge fan of the McMahons being on TV, but they’re going to do what they want and the crowd seemed to enjoy the segment. I was hoping the Shield would go after Vince, but we weren’t so lucky.

The Shield takes on Team Hell No and Randy Orton in a six man tag. Ambrose pins Dbry to win the match.

^The first match of the night will easily be the best. This one was loaded with nonstop action(no pun intended) and kept me glued to my screen. The booking of the Shield has been so impressive; I hope that WWE doesn’t fail with this group in the long run(it doesn’t seem possible, but WWE is notorious for ruining even the biggest things).

Randy Orton argues with Dbry backstage as Kane watches them. Dbry accuses Orton of thinking he’s the weak link also. Dbry says he’s going to have a match with somebody else and maybe then people will finally respect him.

^Great promo work here by Dbry and interesting to see Randy Orton apologizing to someone while Kane says he respects someone. You know it must be the year 2013 when both of those things happen.

Triple H is shown arriving and he is looking for Vince. He sees his wife and father and law and says he is wrestling tonight. Stephanie says no. Vince tries to talk him out of it and tells him take his ego out of this. Hunter says he will be wrestling tonight because he’s cleared, but Vince says no. Triple H asks who is going to stop him. Vince tells Hunter not to do something that he will regret.

^I really don’t care about any of these three and seeing them on tv tonight. The storyline is somewhat interesting involving the concussion and how long Hunter should stay out of the ring but I just wish WWE would use it with somebody else other than Triple H.

The Usos are in action against the Prime Time Players. The Usos win with the superfly splash.

^Solid tag team action here. I liked seeing the Usos in their yellow face paint. It’s really too bad that both of these teams have been overshadowed and made almost irrelevant in the tag team division.

Alberto Del rio goes one on one with Big E. Langston in their apparent best of five series. Del Rio wins the match when he rolls up Langston from the cross armbreaker into a pinfall.

^Another good match from these two, but I’m very hopeful this will be the last one on one encounter for awhile. I liked the rollup pinfall ending for Del Rio. It shows Del Rio has the vet wit to win the match using his head rather than trying to beat down Langston who obviously possesses more strength.

Sheamus defeats Cody Rhodes with the brogue kick while Damien Sandow is on commentary. Sheamus knocks Sandow down with a fist after the match.

^This would’ve been better if Rhodes had been booked to get the win with Sandow’s help. What happened to people costing each other matches to enhance rivalries? Sheamus looking so strong does nothing for Sandow and will do nothing for Sandow if he doesn’t take a pinfall at some point during this feud.

Triple H is shown arguing with Stephanie McMahon as he leaves the arena. Hunter says he will face Curtis Axel next week on Raw.

^So Hunter is leaving after all. I guess that means Axel will have to face somebody else. I liked Hunter’s line about kicking his children’s grandfather’s ass on TV.

Daniel Bryan is shown kicking a cart over backstage. Ryback confronts Bryan. Bryan mouths off to Ryback and he challenges Dbry to a match tonight. Dbry accepts.

^So Daniel Bryan will wrestle twice in one night? You won’t hear any complaints from me! Ryback was actually pretty decent in this exchange of words with Dbry; I’m mildly impressed.

Vince McMahon approaches Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman. McMahon books Axel in a no DQ match tonight with John Cena.

^Cena and Axel for a second time is certainly nothing to complain about. McMahon telling Axel he had a bright future with huge potential feels like the kiss of death when you think about his prior endorsement of Drew McIntyre. We all know this won’t turn out that way, but it makes you wonder what might have been for the chosen one.

Fandango loses to Khali by countout. Miz comes out to stop Fandango from taking the countout but Wade Barrett comes out and delivers the bullhammer elbow to the Miz.

^Can I just say how much I love that the Intercontinental title is being incorporated into this three way rivalry? The relevancy of the IC Title hasn’t been this good in some time, and I wonder how many people are actually taking note of this.

Wade Barrett goes one on one with the Miz. Fandango comes out to dance in the middle of the match. Miz takes advantage of Barrett being distracted and wins the match using the figure four leglock.

^So the IC Champ loses easily once again? Good logic, WWE. I still can’t wait for the potential triple threat match coming at Payback with these guys. All three of them could be easily be inserted into the main event scene right now and booked for World Title runs.

Jerry Lawler brings out Chris Jericho and then Paul Heyman for the contract signing for Jericho’s match with CM Punk at Payback. Heyman and Y2J exchange words and both men sign the contract. Jericho makes Heyman stand up and tucks the contract into Heyman’s pant.

^Great exchange again this week between Y2J and Heyman. While we wait for Punk’s return, it makes sense to put two good talkers into a bickering segment. I can’t wait to see Punk and Jericho go at it again!

AJ Lee and the Bellas take on Kaitlyn and the Funkadactyls. Kaitlyn spears and pins one of the Bellas to get the win as AJ walks away from the match.

^Solid divas match. I can’t complain about the booking of this seeing as it went over two minutes.

Backstage, Dbry tells Kane he wants to defeat Ryback alone. Kane leaves and tells Dbry to call him when he finds his mind because he’s obviously lost it.

^And now you know Dbry will be destroyed by Ryback while Kane is the voice of reason. Great night of segments for Kane talking.

A new Bray Wyatt vignette is shown.

^I really hope that WWE doesn’t turn this gimmick into a joke. With WWE having pg programming, you wonder how far they’ll actually take the cult gimmick.

Dbry goes one on one with Ryback. Ryback gets DQed when he slams Daniel Bryan through a table. Ryback goes to set up another table but John Cena comes out for the save.

^This was a great physical match and Daniel Bryan was awesome. Ryback looked really good as well. I wanted to see Dbry pull off an upset pinfall or submission, but obviously the number one contender needed to be booked strong as well. Great match!

Curtis Axel goes one on one with John Cena in a no DQ match. Ryback gets involved and puts Cena through a table. Axel wins the match by countout.

^The match made Axel look dominant, and the finish made Cena and Ryback’s rivalry that much more important. Good ending to a very good Raw!

Lots of good-great wrestling mixed with too many backstage segments. It’s still an above average Raw because of both matches that Daniel Bryan participated in. No major complaints from me for the majority. I’ll be back with the Rundown this weekend with Jee-S. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!

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