AJ Lee's "Pipebombshell" had fans buzzing.
On this past Monday's RAW the feud of the year continued as CM Punk took his personal war against Paul Heyman even further when he beat Heyman's newest protégé Curtis Axel for a chance to go one on one with his former mentor. AJ Lee cut what is possibly, the promo of the year and Daniel Bryan's quest for the WWE title saw him come face to face with the McMahon brand of justice. Here are the highlights from the 1057th edition of Monday Night Raw live from the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, AZ:-Over the past month, Triple H & Co. have made every attempt to thwart Daniel Bryan from becoming the WWE Champion and in the process, the new face of the promotion. For the most part, they have been very successful. And usually, when anointing new main event stars/challengers for the title, the power of choice is placed solely in the hands of the heart & soul of the WWE, it's fans. As of late, The Game has assumed control of the WWE Championship and the direction of the entire company as a whole. His choice of champion is none other than The Viper, Randy Orton, a man possessed by greed and anxious to reclaim the throne that he was once declared the heir to by his mentor over a decade ago.
The current state of the WWE can be compared to the magnificent Game Of Thrones series in many ways. With Orton playing the role of the spoiled, entitled & ruthless King Joffrey and doing whatever possible to state his dominance. All who stand against him shall suffer and those who speak out, will be punished severely. It's this sort of dictator's mindstate that makes me wonder if the WWE title will ever again be placed in the beloved arms of everybody's favorite goat bearded dwarf.
That's right, keep on talking Internet....you're next.
With the Orton-HHH regime opening the show, we all had to suffer the sight of Triple H rewarding his bratty prodigal son Orton with a brand new Cadillac Escalade. As if this fucktard did anything to even deserve the WWE Championship! The nerve of these assholes. As much as I'm a fan of Orton's work, it's nice to able to hate him again. Heels have been too cool for too long and it's refreshing to have villains who thrive in the role of consummate dickhead.
-For my money, the match & segment involving CM Punk, Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel was one of the top two or three bits of WWE TV the entire year! Hell, this was as good as anything else I saw on TV this week in general (including this past Sunday's fantastic episode of Breaking Bad). Punk would end up overwhelmed by the combined deviousness Heyman and Axel and once again, Punk's pride got the best of him, leaving him handcuffed and left in the hands of the two men who despise him most. Heyman's emotion here was just brilliant. You could really feel the heartbreak and you could tell that in Heyman's eyes, he believes he's doing what must be done even though it kills him. His visceral cries were that of a father forced to punish his own son for an unforgivable act of betrayal. And while we all know that it's Punk who's in the right here, it's this dynamic that makes this feud the year's best. Hands down. This is a story that could tell itself. But with two masters of their craft like Heyman and Punk writing the script, the WWE may very well be onto something Emmy worthy. That wasn't a joke. This was fucking captivating.
In spite of it's brutal nature, this was still a terrific piece of performance art.
-There was a Divas match between Natalya and Brie Bella that on any other week, would have been the most forgettable part of the show. On this week however, it led to AJ Lee throwing out some harsh truths to all of the women involved in the WWE's current foray into reality TV, E!'s Total Divas. This was the best mic work of Lee's young career and it set her even further apart from the rest of the women on the roster. She's now become the standard for which all the other divas should be measured. And she let that be known tonight. In all honesty, aside from Nattie, there's not one diva on RAW that can challenge her claim and it's proof that perhaps women like the Bellas, have now overstayed their welcome. With talented women like Lee, the endlessly watchable Summer Rae, the charismatic Paige and the very likable Emma on the horizon, the next wave looks to wipe the current one clean out. This wasn't just the best diva promo of all time, it was a foreshadowing rally cry to the division's next golden age.
-There was also some fantastic wrestling to go along with the unbelievable segments presented tonight. Randy Orton defeated Christian in another great bout between the two and Daniel Bryan took on The Shield in gauntlet match that was also amazing. Bryan has to be the only man in history to compete in two gauntlet matches in just over a month's time. That's not a coincidence, the man goes out there every week and lays claim to the Tanahashi title with each passing performance. Seth Rollins is another man who is on the cusp of becoming something truly special. And what can really be said about that top rope German Suplex!?
I have no words for how awesome this is...
It made sense that the following matches Bryan would have with Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns were relatively short because neither of them would have been able to follow the work Rollins put in here. Spectacular stuff.
The rest of the WWE locker room was forced to watch as Bryan would more than meet the challenge the Hounds Of Justice put forth. And even though Bryan gave a hell of an effort, it didn't stop the trio from assaulting him after the gauntlet had ended. And with the looming threat of unemployment over their heads, superstars such as Dolph Ziggler, The Miz and Big Show were all forced to turn the other cheek. Just an epic finale to yet another classic episode of MNR. And even though there were a few segments that fell by the wayside, there were three grand slam segs to keep this episode fresh in everyone's memory for a long while. I'm over the moon with glee with the fact that I'm again finally able to say I can't wait to see where this goes next week.
Overall Episode Score: 9/10
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