I haven't watched Raw in over a month, but tonight was in Chicago so I had to watch to see what WWE would do to respond to the Chicago crowd without Punk.
And I don't regret it.
First hour opens up with a fantastic promo by Paul HeyMANNNNNNNNNNN.
Then you get a fun but short BaROCK LEZZZZNARRRRRRRRRRR and Mark Henry match. Okay, that wasn't a bad opener.
We got a Big E and Cesaro match.
Then we get New Age Outlaws vs The Usos and the Usos FINALLY win the belts.
After that, the big one. The Shield vs The Wyatt's, 6 man tag. Amazing match top to bottom. They told is so well it didn't feel formulaic or rehearsed and I forgot wrestling was fake because I was so absorbed into what was going on screen. Every single member of both factions got some good work in and looked AWESOME. The Shield especially looked amazing. Seth Rollins is going to be the next Jeff Hardy. Dude did this about three or four over the top jumps in about thirty seconds; it was crazy. Reigns looked his good usual self. Ambrose showed promise as a top heel because his pummels and technical wrestling. His figure four is beautiful. Not only that, but it had a turn. The storytelling in this match was fantastic. When it's up on youtube, I'm gong to link it because you guys HAVE TO SEE THIS MATCH AND IT'S REAL TO ME DAMMIT.
It's almost hour three, and they've done match after match after match. Almost nothing but matches, very few promos, and whatever promos they do have are brief (30 seconds at most) outside of intro promo. Almost all storytelling tonight is told through matches. What promos they do have aren't in-ring promos but oldschool backstage interviews. Classic I'm going to kick your ass, no I'M going to kick your ass shit.
Wow, it's like they took the NXT formula and applied it to Raw. It's heavily action-based and extremely focused tonight.
If only Raw were like this every week.
Holy shit, ANOTHER MATCH. How many matches are we up to now?