RAW Retort - The authority falls

WWE COO Triple H and WWE Superstar The Big Show.

I was not expecting Steph to be alone in the ring facing Big Show, nor did I expect her to physically attack him, then fire him. I also didn’t expect Steph to be wearing so much makeup that she looked like an orange. I didn’t think that firing Big Show would matter in any way, and the end of the show confirmed that for me. It was a solid way to set up

Battleground replay

I missed Ziggler and Sandow facing off prior to Battleground, but from everything the announcers said, this match was so much better than their first one. Sandow was brutal in the ring, relentless. Ziggler handled himself better than ever and did a great job of shutting down the Money In The Bank case holder. While I don’t agree with the case holder jobbing to every wrestler he faces, I am all for Ziggler looking as solid as he can in the ring and getting the push he so deserves.

Happy Birthday Mr. Sammartino

It wasn’t that long ago that Bruno Sammartino wouldn’t have anything to do with the WWE, and now he’s not only in the Hall of Fame, but he’s stepping out on stage for his birthday. Triple H has mastered some huge feats in the past year, and really proving that he’s going to be great at the helm of the WWE with his wife by his side.

New Divas in the ring

I have to admit that I was dealing with a terrible rain storm and missed much of this match, but what I saw of it was downright terrible. Nattie, of course, looked solid, and when Aksana worked against Nattie, she looked strong as well, but Eva Marie looked sloppy and clueless.

I understand that this was Eva Marie’s first televised match on WWE TV, but I expected her to either take it easy, or hit moves that she had proven herself on. Instead she flopped around on the mat, looked as though she was going to fall out of her ring gear, and I worried about the state of her belly button ring with the way she couldn’t keep hold of Aksana.

I’m mortified that the WWE put Eva Marie in the ring on RAW, and think that they were smart not having JoJo tag in. Honestly, I don’t know if JoJo is better or worse in the ring, but after the mess Eva Marie made of things, keeping JoJo out kept the match from looking that much worse.

Legends with political aspirations

I missed Booker T on the mic, again due to bad weather taking out my DISH feed, but I was able to witness the absurdity that is Bob Backlund. I was never a fan of his when he was regularly with the WWF, nor when he was a local worker, but he managed to get over better than I’d have thought possible. Then there’s HBK, the obvious choice for Special Guest Ref between Bryan and Orton at Hell In A Cell.

HBK is very much his own man, but he’s also Triple H’s best friend, and trained Bryan, so he will be pulled in both directions. I find it interesting that the fans love HBK so much, but rallied on social media and pushed the voting for Backlund, just to see if they could cause problems with the WWE storyline. That Backlund was able to get 32% of the voting, pushing Booker T’s voting to only 7% shows just what pull the fans and social media can have.

I expect the fans to push more votes in various directions, just to see if the WWE will actually go with the fan vote, or if they will alter it to continue with the planned storylines. I’m sure HBK received enough votes this time around, but what about next time? Will the fans be able to change the direction of the WWE from the outside?