RAW Retort - Big Show's big return

The WWE started RAW off with a huge bang again this week. Coming off last week when RAW was so fantastic, and Smackdown was also great, the WWE had a lot to live up to this week,and there was a huge possibility that the WWE would fall flat on their faces. The WWE routinely takes things in a great direction, but then lets them fall flat when things are getting really great, all you have to do is look at WrestleMania last year to see what I’m talking about.

The Road to WrestleMania was really strong, but when they got to the actual show everything fell apart and in a huge way. They messed things up so badly that they had to scrap an entire match from the show. I don’t know as that has ever happened at any Wrestlemania, let alone a Wrestlemania in the past fifteen years. Yet I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt with the direction they are going right now, and they are living up to their greatest potential.

The Wyatt Family doesn’t win!

I was thrilled when the WWE announced that Punk would be facing Harper to start RAW. The two of them threw a fantastic match, while playing to the fans, and working their characters to the fullest. Harper is following in the footsteps of Bray Wyatt, and playing his character to the fullest.

The man playing Harper, absolutely is Harper when he’s in front of the fans. That is something that many of the younger wrestlers still need to learn, but it is obvious that Harper has been watching Bray, and some of the best characters through the years, and becoming Harper for the fans.

It does not hurt that Harper can throw a serious big boot, a jaw-dropping clothesline, and that gator roll is more than perfect for his character. I also have to say that the blank, almost deranged stare Harper gives just seals the deal that he is the member of a cult. Add him in with Bray and Rowan, and those three are going to be quite the formidable team for Bryan and Punk to feud with.

Cole and JBL feud

Sometimes the WWE spends way too much time on one thing in one episode of RAW. For this episode, it was JBL and Cole arguing about whether Big Show should be banned from the WWE forever. The first couple segments were not that bad, in fact the first time they showed the video with all the legal lingo, it flowed really well, but then it just got annoying and boring.

It was more of JBL and Cole inarticulately arguing, in trying to yell over each other. That does not work well for politics, and it is even worse for wrestling announcers you cannot see. I hope the WWE learned from these segments and never try to sidle us with this type of thing again.

Battle of the bad wrestlers

Actually, I cannot say that, because Khali looked at her in this match than Ryback did. Khali seemed to be working the match stiffer than I have ever seen. Khali’s chops looked more vicious and stronger than I have ever seen. I wonder if it is because of Ryback’s ego and his standing with the other wrestlers backstage.

Khali seems like the nicest guy in the world, and because of the language barrier, it seems as though he must miss a lot backstage, but it seems as though he knows he is actually the type of guy Ryback is, and chopped away him for that reason.

Kofi and ADR botch

It seems though Kofi and ADR had some serious troubles in the ring this week. They had two very obvious botches. One of them was obviously ADR’s fault, and well JBL called it a textbook German suplex, to me it looked sloppy, and the like Kofi could have been seriously hurt.

The second botch could have been either of their fault, but ADR covered for it beautifully. Kofi hit head scissors that should have sent ADR into the corner face first, but ADR was well away from the corner. It seems to me that he was channeling Trip with springs in his toes. Like Triple H, ADR bounced off the tips of his toes and flew at that corner!

To me that shows a wrestler who does care, and shocks me because that’s not who ADR has been for most of his WWE career. After his work with Cena, maybe ADR is turning a corner? Only time will tell.