WWE Raw 11/04/2013: 5 Things We Learned

With this week’s RAW telecast, we are in the beginning stages of the push towards this year’s Survivor Series PPV, which is one of the Big 4 PPV events of WWE’s calendar year. While we are not off to a hot start on the road to the Series, here are still 5 things we learned following this week’s show:

CM Punk Can Perform With Anyone
To kick off the show this week, WWE sent CM Punk out to open up the broadcast, and they immediately thrust him into his feud with the Wyatt Family. To start off, Punk had to go through Luke Harper, and he did so with great execution.

Punk’s previous years across the indy circuits have allowed him to hone his in-ring performance skills so much so that he can now literally go with any type of pro wrestling athlete. This week on RAW was a prime example of how CM Punk can pull out the best performance from even the bigger, less agile athletes, and have the entire live crowd eating out of the palm of his hand while doing so. I can’t wait to see this feud heat up and add Daniel Bryan.

A Six Man Tag Match Steals The Show
While overall we had a lackluster RAW this week, the six man tag team match that was held just over mid-way through the broadcast stole the show for the evening. Team Rhodes with John Cena against The Real Americans with Damien Sandow was a PPV quality match with very little downside, if at all.

What’s interesting here, overall, is that all 6 men, regardless of the in-ring pairings, performed excellent together. And furthermore, Sandow continues to break through his glass ceiling and is well on his way to becoming a star in his own right. GoldDust continues to show the young guys how it’s done, and Antonio Cesaro is the WWE’s diamond in the rough: it’s only a matter of time before he breaks out as well. The many near falls and out of nowhere big spots gave us a match to watch again and again.

Tyson Kidd Returns
Prior to the Divas show on E!, I will be honest with you and tell you all I had little idea who Tyson Kidd really was. The Divas show makes him look like a complete fool, so to be honest I could have really cared less about when, or even if, he returned to the WWE ring.

This week was a nice surprise, though. Kidd returned in a mixed tag match alongside his wife Natalya, and aside from stealing her finishing move (yes, it gets a decent pop from the crowd), Kidd was very impressive. He’s definitely got skill, and his flashy, fast-moving style ignites the crowd. I’m excited to see what the future holds for him.

Corporate Drama Bores Everyone
I feel like, much in the same vein as Alberto Del Rio, that the WWE is continually forcing us Big Show on the WWE Universe. All of this drama with his inability to manage his finances and whatnot is overkill, and it’s got the overall storyline going absolutely nowhere interesting. And this was never more evident than during the final segment of RAW this week.

Triple H, Steph, and Show got along for over 10 minutes in the ring, trying to talk out their drama and come to a fitting end to this entire saga. The end result was two fold: a live crowd, some of which, actually headed for the exits before the show was over, that got bored and silent, and a TV crowd that ultimately changed the channel (check those 3rd hour ratings, kids); also, Big Show somehow gets a WWE Championship match at Survivor Series. Lord help us all if they crown him champion, I can smell the ratings now. Sigh.

Live Television Production Can Go Awry
In case you didn’t notice, WWE did have a major issue last night in their lazy, slow, go-home segment of the show. It appears as though with both Triple H and Stephanie away from TV production and out in the ring, someone in the back cued The Shield’s music too soon, and out they came, way too early.

This caused the show to go to commercial, and it’s noted that Triple H immediately got on a headset at ringside to try and straighten things out. But by the time the show came back on-air live, the final segment was lost. I had lost interest, much in the same way the WWE Universe appeared to have lost interest, what with the low television ratings for the 3rd hour, and the live crowd going mute, and also going home. Things can certainly go sideways on live TV, but this was a simple error that shouldn’t have happened, and the WWE can certainly do better.

What say you, wrestling fans? Sound off below in the COMMENTS section, and find me on Twitter: @davyshrader.