10 Things That Happened On Raw – 10.19.15

9. They Showed Up For That?

Well, it was nice of Undertaker and Brock to at least be present together the week before their gigantic blow-off Pay Per View grudge match inside one of the most dangerous structures in professional wrestling. That said, they didn’t really actually do anything. Undertaker made threats, Heyman made threats, Brock teased a confrontation and then walked away because hey, they’re already having a match next week and there’s no reason to take a chance at going into Hell in a Cell at less than 100%. For a match that’s all about revenge and is allegedly “thirteen years in the making” (well, if you count the decade Brock wasn’t even in wrestling, it’s technically correct, even though Brock actually won their feud back in 2002 pretty decisively), there certainly didn’t seem to be a lot of emotion coming into play last night. The match may or may not pay off everything spectacularly, but the build for what should theoretically be a climactic moment in an on-going storyline felt awfully perfunctory. For two guys who supposedly really want to hurt each other, they sure don’t seem eager to actually fight.

http://pl.wwe.com/videos Source: pl.wwe.com

8. Will The Mystery Opponent Sign In, Please?

So after spending an entire month feuding with The New Day, John Cena’s opponent at Hell in a Cell will be…undetermined at this time. Not to say that any time The New Day is on TV isn’t entertaining, but wouldn’t the last month have been better spent actually feuding with their opponents this Sunday, The Dudley Boyz, instead of taking a side trip through Cena’s US Open Challenge that none of them managed to win? You can blame the lack of credible challengers for Cena remaining, but what does that leave us for the Pay Per View? If WWE is going to advertise a mystery opponent for John Cena, especially since he’s supposed to be taking time off starting next week, they’d better deliver something special, and by “special”, we don’t mean “Chris Jericho is the mystery guy because it’s always him lately for some reason”. WWE has a chance to make someone a star in the space of a single match this Sunday. Hopefully they don’t waste the opportunity.

http://www.thesportster.com/wrestling/top-15-ways-john-cena-proved-to-you-he-doesnt-suck/ Source: thesportster.com

7. The Hierarchy Of Losers

Follow along with us, if you will. Seth Rollins is a big loser, even though he’s WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He’s been pinned a lot since he became champion, and in fact has only won one match (against Sting at Night of Champions) since SummerSlam. So, obviously, you have to at some point give him a win for some credibility. Which is fine, but why would you send out Ryback, who has an Intercontinental title match against Kevin Owens this Sunday, instead of the dozens of other wrestlers you have on the roster that aren’t actually doing anything important? WWE has so many of those guys, they’ve started throwing them all into a single match every week just to keep them on TV, even though one of them is holding a briefcase that could make him World Champion at any moment, which should theoretically make him an important guy! On one hand, Rollins finally gets a win (in fact, technically, he won both his matches last night) over a credible opponent, but now why should anyone care about Ryback’s title match this Sunday? He couldn’t beat Seth Rollins, who loses to unexpected pyrotechnic displays, how is he supposed to beat Kevin Owens? Owens, by the way, spent his evening hitting Mark Henry with a pop-up powerbomb, which is a spot so incredible that we can’t believe it exists, and further underlined that Ryback has no chance this Sunday. But when Owens beats Ryback, it doesn’t mean anything, because Ryback’s already been established as a loser.

Also, we know it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but pink is definitely not Ryback’s color.

http://www.wwe.fr/photos/2015/10/20/ryback-vs.-seth-rollins-photos Source: WWE.fr

6. Reigns/Wyatt Is No Frost/Nixon

Somehow, the message WWE got from the fan reaction to Roman Reigns’ incredibly sad promo last week was “Roman Reigns needs to talk more”. Presumably they also believe he needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine, but we’re just speculating here. Once again, an alleged blood feud between two people who really, really hate each other leads to a promo where they sit in folding chairs and talk things out. Oh, and the guy who’s entire gimmick is talking about things in mysteriously compelling ways doesn’t get to say a word. This feud initially did a lot to prop up both Reigns and Wyatt after months of poor planning, but the last couple of weeks have just been a complete reversal of that momentum. Their match at Hell in a Cell could be good, but WWE has done a lot to damage interest in both men leading up to what’s supposed to be their final confrontation (well, at least for a while, anyway). Can we just get to the fireworks factory already?

http://believeindeanambrose.tumblr.com/post/131544045232/ambreignsfans-raw-19th-october-2015-hq Source: believeindeanambrose.tumblr.com

5. Where The Heck Is Luke Harper?

The early word is that Luke Harper had to miss Raw for personal reasons, but that’s okay because his match this Sunday is off anyway, due to Randy Orton having a separated shoulder. Because he wouldn’t be Randy Orton if he didn’t hurt his shoulder once in a while (actually, he really does have a chronic condition). Fortunately, though, Erick Rowan was in the house and is apparently back in the good graces of the Wyatt Family, as he filled in for Harper last night. Apparently no one briefed the announce team, though, because they spent part of the show hyping an Ambrose and Orton vs Harper and Strowman match that was never going to happen due to Harper not being present, and then were suddenly surprised by Rowan’s presence even though he’d been standing behind Wyatt the entire time! We’re not saying Erick Rowan is a critical figure in WWE, and he, like Harper, probably never should have been taken out of the Wyatt Family, but couldn’t they have at least made his return noticeable instead of having him just walk out behind Bray again without anyone mentioning his presence?

http://wrestlingnewsco.tumblr.com/ Source: wrestlingnewsco.tumblr.com

4. Wait, So, We’re Not Supposed To Like Rusev?

Look, Rusev’s not a good guy. He’s rude, crude, and he’s been conditioned to dislike America. But damned if he wasn’t coming across somewhat sympathetically during this whole trainwreck of a story line, culminating in the shrill and unlikable Summer Rae ditching him last week and slapping him across the face. Time for a joyous reconciliation with Lana so they can live happily ever after in whichever Eastern European country they choose, right? Well, not so fast, because apparently we’re supposed to hate Rusev for figuring out that he really loved Lana all along and cheer for Summer Rae, who was more than likely sleeping with Dolph Ziggler behind his back and is currently trying to screw him out of winning matches. So, everyone’s awful, but apparently repeatedly slapping Rusev and ruining his career makes Summer Rae a “strong woman” and we’re supposed to admire her for it, if the puppets at the announce desk are to be believed. When the sane point of view, that Rusev found happiness and we should be happy for him, is coming out of JBL’s mouth, somebody has seriously messed up.

http://wrestlingnewsco.tumblr.com/post/131424752921/rusev-could-be-facing-backlash-from-wwe-creative Source: wrestlingnewsco.tumblr.com

3. All Bellas Everywhere

So, you want Sasha Banks, do you? Well, too bad, she’s going to take an elbow while standing on the apron during a tag match and disappear forever while The Bella Twins beat her partner! And then, we’re going to put the Divas Champion in a match with the other Bella, the one who can’t wrestle (but apparently has no problem stealing Natalya’s wardrobe), and let Charlotte to try and drag a good match out of that while being forced to move at half speed so Brie can keep up! Remember, even though Nikki is no longer the Divas Champion, they’re still the biggest stars of the Divas division because they’re on Total Divas, the (blatantly scripted) reality show that motivates all our booking decisions! At this point, we almost believe that Paige didn’t attack Natalya backstage on Smackdown, and it will be revealed as a master plan by Team Bella so they can continue being front and center on TV for another six months. If it makes you feel any better, the NXT Women’s division is still pretty awesome.

http://www.wwe.fr/photos/2015/10/20/nikki-bella–alicia-fox-vs.-naomi–sasha-banks-photos?r30_r1_r1:page=15 Source: WWE.fr

2. Do You Like 6-Man Tag Matches? Well, Have We Got A Show For You!

To open the show from a wrestling perspective, we’ve got John Cena and The Dudley Boyz against The New Day in a 6-man tag match! Then, later on, you’ll see six extremely talented guys that, for some inexplicable reason, have nothing better to do than fight meaningless matches with absolutely no stakes against each other, in a 6-man tag match! Also, because we suddenly had to cancel our original plans due to the Randy Orton injury, they’ll be having a rematch at the Hell in a Cell kick-off match in another 6-man tag match! And our main event of the evening is The Wyatt Family against Three Guys Who Used To Be The Shield But Aren’t Anymore (and seriously, they really gave away a Shield semi-reunion match on a random Raw in October with absolutely no promotion) in yet another 6-man tag match! Because we’ve only got three hours of Raw to fill and this is literally the laziest way possible to get everyone on TV somehow! Isn’t the title of the department in charge of writing the shows supposed to be “Creative”?

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/the-squared-circle/WWE-Monday-Night-Raw-results-observations-101915-The-big-guns-are-brought-out-in-Texas.html Source: philly.com

1. On The Bright Side, No Kane

We can’t be the only ones who saw the words “Corporate Kane Suspended” and figured that we’d be seeing Demon Kane by the end of Raw, could we? While we appreciated the break from pretending that there are two separate Kanes, and we don’t mind being proven wrong in that particular instance, it speaks a lot to how bad this feud is when the challenger for your World Title match isn’t even at the last Raw before the Pay Per View, and in fact is barely mentioned. One has to figure that WWE is already moving past Hell in the Cell in regards to the title picture (looks like Roman Reigns might be getting another shot, if last night is any indication), and they probably should because really, they’re not putting the title on Kane and this feud needs to end while Seth Rollins still has a scrap of credibility left as WWE World Champion, but boy, has this been a massive waste of time on everyone’s part. We get that Undertaker-Lesnar is the main event of Hell in a Cell, so they could get away with focusing less on the World title match, but would it have hurt to try something new, instead of going with good old, reliable Kane, who nobody bought as a serious challenger to Rollins, no matter how many personalities he has?

http://pl.wwe.com/photos/2015/05/12/triple-h-raises-the-stakes-for-kane-at-wwe-payback-photos;jsessionid=1274107354014C6D8DDADFF7A27F425E?r30_r1_r1:page=4 Source: pl.wwe.com