WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw 7/29/13 Review (Emperor McMahon)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 7/29/13. What happens when best friends collide? Let's find out and begin.

Gooooooood gooooooood

We open up the show with Vince McMahon. Just like a week ago, Brad Maddox is pretty much repeating Vince's word by calling Daniel Bryan a troll and not worthy of a WWE Championship. You know, this Maddox/Vince pairing reminds me of something, but I can't seem to put my finger on it…

Strange thing is I can see Vince wearing that hood in real life. Daniel interrupts since he needs to speak up on his behalf. Vince pretty much agrees that he doesn't think of Bryan as a suitable champion, but tries to play it off that Cena lied to Bryan and only gave him this title match so he could embarrass him. I love how Vince said his perfect vision for SummerSlam is for Bryan and Cena to explode. Makes me wonder if WWE has a working deal with Michael Bay to make a one-time appearance. While Bryan isn't happy about this, he claims that Vince has never lied to him…

Yeah, I don't buy it either, but let's play along for the sake of wrestling logic. There was more on this subject later in the show. 

More stuff 'n between

In a decent start to the action portion of the show, Shield defeats Mark Henry and the Usos. I know most people were thinking this match would occur at SS, but it isn't surprising this would happened a few weeks early. Based on the finish, it seems that nothing got resolved since Henry still wants to get his hands on the Shield and the Usos can still be regarded as the top contenders to the tag titles. In other words, it seems like it was pointless. Hopefully, we get some more information on this rivalry in the next week. RVD defeated Fandango via countout since Fandango didn't have enough color in his pants to fight. I honestly think this was put on the show so they could play Fandango's entrance theme twice. After all, the man's gimmick is to dance while the audience pokes the sky. What did the sky ever do to you? Some people are mean.

Getting out of the friend zone is hard

In a non-title match, Kaitlyn defeated AJ with the Spear. After the match, Dolph Ziggler came out and challenged Big E to a match. Since the big guy wants to see if there's still a chance to hook up with this Arkham Asylum patient, he agrees to the match. The match was kept short since AJ needs to stick her nose in everything. Dolph laughs the night away while Big E is very upset with AJ. You can definitely tell that Big E's emotions towards AJ are getting a little mixed up. He tries to kiss her one week and this week he's rolling his eyes at her and is basically saying, 'Bitch, please!'. I think the man is just very horny and really wants to see what AJ is like. Fortunate for him, he'll be more angry at Dolph since Ziggles used this opportunity to hit the Zig Zag. Unlike the Shield/Henry situation, you can at least see where this is headed. The two will have another match and it might be along the lines of a gimmick match. I kinda like this storyline. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure since it's pretty goofy, but fun at the same time. 

The Smackdown side of things

So, Jerry Lawler wants to climb Mark Henry? Ummm… That's what he does? Anyway, Alberto Del Rio went up against Christian in a non-title match. In a good match, Christian steals it with a quick pinfall. Is it possible that Christian's gonna get that one more match? Considering that the WHC match for SS is still open, it's a definite possibility. In other news, the Barrett Barrage is down to a pea shooter after his match with Cody Rhodes. They did show the SD recap where Sandow's briefcase went underwater and I loved the music they used during it. Listening to that while seeing Sandow's reactions was priceless. You think with Sandow trying to retrieve his briefcase, you think it would've just occurred to him to talk to the GM in order to give him a new briefcase. What, there's no extras in the back? Do they only make two of them a year? You think if that's all it took, Cena would just steal Orton's briefcase and set it on fire. After the match, Damien comes out and claims he carried Rhodes Scholars and doesn't associate with carnival folk. I find that line ironic since a good chunk of the people that work on this show are people you would see as a carney.

Follow the Bryan-zzards

Earlier in the night, Kane was looking for the Wyatt family, but ran into Maddox instead. Maddox told Kane to show he's a real monster by defeating Bryan tonight, thus adding to Vince controlling Maddox's mind. You know, if Vince is gonna tell the GM what to do, why doesn't he just name himself the GM? It would solve a lot of problems, but something tells more issues would arise from that. Anyway, it's time for the Kane/DB match and… It's a bit of a letdown if I say so myself. I felt they kinda rushed this match since I would've like to see more from the former tag partners since there was plenty of stuff to work with, but I guess they didn't want to go overboard on it since you can make a whole storyline out of Team Hell No fighting each other. I will admit that the match did its job. Bryan won with a quick rollup, but Kane hit the Chokeslam out of frustration once the match had concluded. Once Bryan left, the Wyatt family arrives and the two followers attack Kane. The Big, Red, Fruit Roll-up, Mask does well for a while, but Harper and Rowan were too much to overcome. After the attack, Bray Wyatt gives Kane the kiss of death and starts to talk. Bray says Kane is no demon and needs to be careful who you say these things towards. Once again, Bray's promo is tricky to decipher. You have no idea if they are trying to recruit Kane, make Kane evil since they thrive on chaos, or want to go to war against Kane, etc, etc, etc. It's all these factors that make the Wyatt family very intriguing since it has been a while since we've seen something like this. I know there's a lot of people not enjoying the Wyatt family since they're calling it a carbon-copy of the Shield, but I don't get that all at. The only similarity between the Wyatt family and the Shield is there's three members that make up the group. Each of the groups have their own goals and motives, so I don't buy the argument that they're the same. Now that I got that out of the way, I'm really enjoying the progression of the Wyatt since I definitely want to see more. 

WWE's hidden message that isn't so hidden

Like I mentioned a week ago, I didn't watch Total Divas and I have no plans of changing that anytime soon, but are they mixing in both kayfabe and real-life issues between Natalya and the Bellas? I'm kinda torn with how I feel about this. While it gives the ladies something to do besides going after the Divas title, it just seems a little weird. Yeah, I was mostly confused with all of this. You have one of the Bellas quacking at Natalya because she's an 'ugly duckling'? What? I guess I would understand this better if I watched Total Divas, but I didn't and nor do I want to. I shouldn't have to watch a reality show in order to figure out a storyline for Raw and/or SD. It's almost like they're saying, 'You want the full storyline? Well, watch Total Divas to find out'. I shouldn't be surprised since Vince is probably swimming in a Scrooge McDuck money-bin every time somebody mentions the WWE App on the air… What, no explosion this week? I guess the show needs to be live for it to have the full effect. 

1/3 of Payback 2.0… Figure that one out…

Curtis Axel/R-Truth ended in a no contest with CM Punk went out there. Oh, there's King trying to fill in his 'walrus' quota for the night. I know he's being fed lines on a weekly basis, but it's amazing how a man can call another man a walrus when King looks like the father of the Burger King mascot. Yeah, not so funny when the shoe is on the other foot, is it? Punk continues to hunt down Heyman, but Curtis causes enough of a distraction for Heyman to escape. Meanwhile, Stephanie and Triple H are talking about giving Daniel Bryan a corporate makeover. What does that mean? Is he gonna wear a suit, tie, monocle, and a top hat? Yeah, that's an image for you. Earlier in the night, King said Ryback is despicable. Hmmm…

The final match of the night was the Tables match between Cena and Ryback. Why do I feel Ryback winning Jerk of the Month is the closest he's gonna get to a championship? Just as you would've thought, Cena wins the match. The match was okay, but it did feel similar to one of their matches at Payback. After the match, Bryan comes out and is about to give Cena the WWE Championship, but not before playing 'keep away' with the title. For some reason, this was running through my mind while watching this…

Bryan: Haha, I got your belt!

Cena: But it's MY belt! Give it baaaaaacccck!!! Stoooooop Thaaaaaaat!!! I'm gonna tell the boss if you don't give it back! It's mine!!! Miiiiiinnnne!!!

The show ends with a wave of 'Yes' chants. I like the approach they've taken with Cena/Bryan since it makes you wonder if Bryan will truly be able to dethrone the Fruity Pebble King. I also like how Randy Orton has virtually stayed out of this whole thing since I feel he's gonna play a major factor in what happens at SS. 

Overall Impression:

I might as well get this out of the way since I mentioned it earlier in the review. This was NOT a live episode as was taped around a week ago since WWE is in the middle of an overseas tour. Despite this, I thought it was a decent show. The theme of the night was to continue the underdog story of DB in making the eeeeeevil establishment making Bryan feel inferior because of his look/size. Bryan isn't intimidated by that and it shows in his character. The rest of the show is either hit and miss for you. Personally, I thought tonight's episode was pretty decent despite the fact it wasn't live and spoilers were available for the taking. I didn't read the spoilers going into this and I'm personally glad I didn't since it made things more of a surprise for me. Check out the show for yourself and see where you stand on it. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one.