In what can only be described as a befuddling move, Wade Barrett won the Intercontinental Championship last night on Monday Night Raw. He defeated Dolph Ziggler, who has been see-sawing up and down the card for awhile. While Wade Barrett's moniker has been "Bad News Barrett," Ziggler's moniker isn't too far from being "Bad Luck Dolph." Sorry, I couldn't come up with anything catchier. It almost appears like the WWE is just screwing around with Ziggler now. For someone who had been fighting his heart out in the last few months, and even came all the way back to defeat The Authority at Survivor Series, WWE has shown us that Ziggler is just a bottom of the barrel job guy. For a company that wants its performers to "reach up and grab those brass rings," it seems that they keep pull back those rings just as their guys extend their hands.
This is no knock on Barrett, who had been out for some months with an injury and just barely came back a few weeks ago. He is a fine performer, even though he needs to stop infringing on Diamond Dallas Page when he comes out and says "It's me, it's me, it's BNB." Barrett has held the Intercontinental Championship before, and he did nothing of substance with it. For awhile it seemed like Ziggler was bringing some shine back to the title. Then he lost it to Luke Harper and then won it back from him almost immediately in another move that made no sense. Barrett's claim to the title was that he never lost it, and it was taken from him after an injury. Okay, if that's the story you want to tell, save it for a pay-per-view, because it seems like something that might have some legs.
What happens instead is that Ziggler pins Barrett in under three minutes on Monday Night Raw, and then Corporate Kane comes out and announces that the match is actually 2 out of 3 falls, something straight out of Vince McMahon's 1998 playbook. Barrett pounds on Ziggler for awhile, then gives him his Wasteland finisher, and then pins him. The same happens in the third fall, even though Ziggler does actually put up a bit of a fight. In the end Wade Barrett walked away the champion, and I let out a groan.
Most of last night's Raw card was very underwhelming, The Internet threw a fit when The Ascension cut a promo burying the Road Warriors. While I was a fan of Hawk & Animal, I do see this as a way for Connor & Victor to get some heel heat. They're still going down the wrong path with this stupid knockoff gimmick, and I'm sure by the middle of the year they'll be forgotten and we'll all have moved on. This is why I tell people not to put all their hopes and dreams into NXT, because then this happens.
We also got a decent foreshadowing of Naomi's heel turn when she cost her team their mixed tag team match. After having to put up with boring Uso vs Miz & Mizdow matches for weeks, at least they mixed it up by adding Alicia Fox and Naomi. It still wasn't that great of a match, but I enjoyed the Naomi/Jimmy ring apron spot where Jimmy didn't want to run into his wife, causing a distraction.
The ambulance match between Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose was a really good pay-per-view quality match. Those two guys beat the holy hell out of each other, and even used tables, and stage dives. I didn't care for the outcome because once again, Dean Ambrose cannot win the big one. Go back and watch, since separating from The Shield Dean Ambrose has not won a singles match on pay-per-view, nor has he won a big TV match. I guess this ends the Wyatt-Ambrose feud, which started at Hell in a Cell in October. I'm glad the feud is over, but I'm going to reference this moment if someone were to ask why Ambrose can't get over.
As for Team Cena being fired, it's utterly ridiculous since I highly doubt they're going to keep any of them out for very long. There is no way on God's green earth that any of them are going to miss the Royal Rumble. This is why none of these storylines mean anything anymore. You already saw that they couldn't even keep to their Survivor Series stipulation. The Authority was back in power after only four weeks of being off television. The best part of the night was the streamers and balloons raining down on the ring as the fired Team Cena guys were dismissed. That was comedy gold!
This is no knock on Barrett, who had been out for some months with an injury and just barely came back a few weeks ago. He is a fine performer, even though he needs to stop infringing on Diamond Dallas Page when he comes out and says "It's me, it's me, it's BNB." Barrett has held the Intercontinental Championship before, and he did nothing of substance with it. For awhile it seemed like Ziggler was bringing some shine back to the title. Then he lost it to Luke Harper and then won it back from him almost immediately in another move that made no sense. Barrett's claim to the title was that he never lost it, and it was taken from him after an injury. Okay, if that's the story you want to tell, save it for a pay-per-view, because it seems like something that might have some legs.
What happens instead is that Ziggler pins Barrett in under three minutes on Monday Night Raw, and then Corporate Kane comes out and announces that the match is actually 2 out of 3 falls, something straight out of Vince McMahon's 1998 playbook. Barrett pounds on Ziggler for awhile, then gives him his Wasteland finisher, and then pins him. The same happens in the third fall, even though Ziggler does actually put up a bit of a fight. In the end Wade Barrett walked away the champion, and I let out a groan.
Most of last night's Raw card was very underwhelming, The Internet threw a fit when The Ascension cut a promo burying the Road Warriors. While I was a fan of Hawk & Animal, I do see this as a way for Connor & Victor to get some heel heat. They're still going down the wrong path with this stupid knockoff gimmick, and I'm sure by the middle of the year they'll be forgotten and we'll all have moved on. This is why I tell people not to put all their hopes and dreams into NXT, because then this happens.
We also got a decent foreshadowing of Naomi's heel turn when she cost her team their mixed tag team match. After having to put up with boring Uso vs Miz & Mizdow matches for weeks, at least they mixed it up by adding Alicia Fox and Naomi. It still wasn't that great of a match, but I enjoyed the Naomi/Jimmy ring apron spot where Jimmy didn't want to run into his wife, causing a distraction.
The ambulance match between Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose was a really good pay-per-view quality match. Those two guys beat the holy hell out of each other, and even used tables, and stage dives. I didn't care for the outcome because once again, Dean Ambrose cannot win the big one. Go back and watch, since separating from The Shield Dean Ambrose has not won a singles match on pay-per-view, nor has he won a big TV match. I guess this ends the Wyatt-Ambrose feud, which started at Hell in a Cell in October. I'm glad the feud is over, but I'm going to reference this moment if someone were to ask why Ambrose can't get over.
As for Team Cena being fired, it's utterly ridiculous since I highly doubt they're going to keep any of them out for very long. There is no way on God's green earth that any of them are going to miss the Royal Rumble. This is why none of these storylines mean anything anymore. You already saw that they couldn't even keep to their Survivor Series stipulation. The Authority was back in power after only four weeks of being off television. The best part of the night was the streamers and balloons raining down on the ring as the fired Team Cena guys were dismissed. That was comedy gold!