WWE Raw Review 12/26/16

CM PUNK
I understand why everyone is getting tired of the CM Punk chants. He’s all but disowned the wrestling industry, and that kind of hurts. So why continue to chant for him. Personally I think there’s a undertone to anarchy to it, sort of like the Daniel Bryan chants. I don’t think the chants are just for CM Punk himself, but the chants represent what CM Punk represented. I think it’s beautiful. Stephanie had a nice little comeback but I’m sure the writers came up with that a while ago. The segment as a whole was a little fun, thankfully the Shield is more over than all the members, and the Commissioner was able to successfully troll the crowd. Still the best moment was probably when Roman Reigns was booed so loud, he could barely talk. That’s why we love Chicago.

Gettin’ Even
Seth Rollins’ just wanted to kick Strowman’s ass after last week. Whether it was with Roman, or by himself, you got to love the vigor. During the match Seth was thrown all over the ring, but he’s still big enough to be a threat. That’s a missed opportunity to me, but it’s ok. Seth sold well, and Braun looked great. Sami Zayn came out to get even with Braun Strowman. He got a bit of offense in before running out of the arena.

Chris Jericho coming out to pick up the pieces made sense, but it feels like Seth is taking a step backwards and fighting Jericho again. Are they going with ANOTHER rematch at the Rumble?

Here’s a Title Shot
Reigns put the US title on the line, not that he cares. This was a bad idea for so many reasons. When the champion has no real interest in the title, it doesn’t mean anything when they put it on the line. I don’t even think Kevin Owens really cared, the audience sure as hell didn’t. Plus, it was just obvious that Reigns wouldn’t lose, no matter what. Also, it’s not wise to give away yet another one on one match between Reigns and Owens when they have a match at the PPV. The match itself was pretty much a retread of all their matches. Rollins came out to beat up Jericho too, and he and Reigns did a DX type thing. It was just ok. The crotch chops were awesome though.

Another Title Shot
I completely forgot there was a title match at the beginning of the show for the tag titles. The champs won and it looks like they just want to get the New Day’s rematch out of the way so they can prepare hopefully for The Club. Cesaro and Sheamus are looking better together week after week. They have to stop acting like children begging for attention though.

Connections
Since Charlotte has so much clout she used her lawyer to remove the match last week from the records and she challenged Bayley to a rematch with Dana Brooke as the special guest ref (I didn’t know they were still friends). I loved that Bayley was not going to take any crap and suplex Brooke. It got really confusing after that though because they kept switching refs.

Too Far
Every now and then WWE takes advantage of a death to try to advance an angle. They did with Eddie Guerro and Randy Orton, or most recently with Ric Flair’s son whom died of a overdose. None of these have been received well, last night was no exception. What’s worse is that it wasn’t a big angle, it was just a throw away match for the Club to go over. Cody Rhodes tweeted his displeasure, if there’s not enough evidence that it’s not worth it.

Not gonna’ say something mean or blow a whistle. All I can say…is that whoever produced that, I hope they never know what this feels like

— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) December 27, 2016

Neville Gone Wild
Neville looked great tonight. He went against TJ Perkins and won with a roll up while barely getting any offense in. Then he beat the hell out of the champ after he had a solid win against Davari. His first segment didn’t quite mesh because he barely beat TJP, then he talked about being dominant over the division like he just squashed Perkins. Maybe it was done on purpose. Heels get away with everything.

The Boss is My Hero
Nia Jax squashed another local competitor but this time she was inspired by Sasha Banks, so it was relevant. This is probably the best way to go considering Sasha is selling her injuries.

Last night was indicative of what we’ve been getting all year and that’s mediocrity. This show was very skippable, but hey Smackdown should be awesome.

My grade: an invisible C-