OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

OO RAW RECAP
IC Title Change, and Then It's All Downhill
January 5, 2015

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

My beloved University of Dayton Flyers provided one of 2014's few highlights when they made the Elite Eight back in March. But the new season so far has been a non-stop deluge of depressing news.

I thought things had finally cratered a few weeks ago, and made my peace with the idea of UD competing the rest of the season with only 8 scholarship players... but late last week, it emerged that we're now down to 6 scholarship players.

Yes, SIX. When you usually have 13. That's less than half. We have one walk-on capable of being a marginal contributor, so our rotation is 7 deep. And none of them is over 6'6", so we're short handed and just plain short. Oy.

UD was already planning on going with 11 scholarship players from the start. We acquired one awesome transfer player who, by rule, has to sit out this year while counting against our scholarship limit. And then, the staff purposely held one scholarship back for next year to help balance the classes (we only have one graduating senior on the team this year).

Then, before the season even started, we were down to 10, when our 7-foot freshman center was only a partial academic qualifier.

Then, the real kick in the balls: a month into the season, our other two big men both got thrown out of the university (not kicked off the team, but actually kicked out of school) for going around robbing dorm rooms. I can't overstate how much these two disappointed the entire community; one of them was actually the team co-captain, and he goes and does this, letting down the school, the fans, and all his teammates. Fricking dipshits; especially after both had several strikes against them, and everybody had rallied around them to help get them pointed in the right direction. And they go and do their best to torpedo our entire season.

That left us with zero big men on the roster, but we still at least had enough warm bodies... until late last week, when our backup point guard started exhibiting concussion symptoms; he'd been concussed a few times, last in October, and had seemingly recovered. Until last week. Now, because of the symptoms and his history, he's shut down for the year. And then, a back-up forward who is only 6'6", but plays bigger and is a rebounding machine, went from "coming back soon" after a knee injury to "probably won't play all year."

And so we have six scholarship players, all doing us proud, busting their asses to follow up on last year's Elite Eight. Despite all the adversity, the Flyers are 11-2, with 4 of those wins over BCS conference teams. I simply can't let myself believe this will sustain. I'm bracing for the inevitable crash and burn.

It's just another way that 2014 sucked. And it's a suck that's gonna linger into March of 2015. Luckily, all signs point to next season being a great time to be a Flyer fan.

And even more signs point to you being fed up by this lengthy pre-ramble about issues of less-than-cosmic import. So let's get back on topic... here's what happened on tonight's RAW:

Opening Video Package for the Benefit of Those with ADD: it's a New Year, but OO still does not recap recaps.

THE AUTHORITY RETURN

And when we cut to the inside of the arena in Corpus Christie, TX, the ring is already full. Every member of the roster is either in or around the ring. They've been summoned here by the Authority... but before the new boss (same as the old boss) tell us why, John Cena wants to say something.

In short, he's sorry that he had to go back on his word and bring back the Authority. He apologizes to all his co-workers, and says he knows he's let them all down, but it was the only choice, what with Edge's very life on the line.

Then Motorhead fires up, and Triple H and Stephanie come out on the stage, where they are showered with boos. Steph says they had a great New Year, knowing they were coming back to work, because they know what's best for us fans; they know what's best for business.

Then HHH says it was barely two months ago when the fans were so happy that the Authority were banished, thanks to "that face painted goof, Sting"... but then the fans saw how WWE turned into a joke, a sinking ship, and they were begging for the AUthority to return. Oh yes, BEGGING for it. And they finally got it, all thanks to one man.

Seth Rollins. Rollins joins them on stage, and it's hugs all around. And more boos. And a "You Sold Out" chant.

HHH says the Universe owes Seth Rollins a huge debt of gratitude.... and while the Universe may not pay up, HHH wants to do what he can to settle the ledger. So as payback for his ingenious plot, the WWE Title match at the Royal Rumble is now a Triple Threat Match, and Seth Rollins is in.

Eeeeeenteresting. It's only because Orton's return has been delayed (by a deviated septum that will prevent setting up the planned Orton/Rollins one-on-one match at the Rumble), but it's a way more intriguing work-around than just tossing Rollins into the Rumble match.

Then Stephanie chimes in that as ingenious as Rollins' plan was, it would not have worked if not for the involvement of one other man. John Cena. So as a reward, tonight is "John Cena Appreciation Night." And Cena's attendance is not optional. It's mandatory.

HHH continues that trend by promising that this is gonna be a new Authority, and everybody is gonna get what they deserve. But the evil tone of voice indicates that it's more a threat than a promise.

In fact, he's gonna start by making Dolph Ziggler defend the IC Title against the man who never lost it, Wade Barrett. And that match is next.

But First: we visit the announce table, where Jerry Lawler is conspicuous by his absence. Booker T is sitting in for him (Lawler was hospitalized last week with diverticulitis). Also conspicuous: Cole's suit. Jesus, what an eyesore; I can only assume he lost a bet. But the point of our visit is to announce a few other big matches on tap. In addition to Ziggler/Barrett, we're also gonna see Roman Reigns vs. Big Show, Ryback vs. Seth Rollins, and the big Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt Ambulance Match.

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DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. WADE BARRETT (IC Title Match)

Full boxing-style ring intros by Not Lilian. Then the bell rings, and after a very perfunctory flashy start, Dolph is doing what he does best: getting his ass kicked.

All of 2 minutes into the match, Barrett decides to repeatedly work a chinlock, because even if Orton's return is delayed, Lethargy will not be denied.

And then Ziggler's powers out of the chinlock, ducks a clothesline, and then hits a crucifix takedown into a pinning combo....

And wins? Yep. Huh.

Your Winner: Dolph Ziggler, via pinfall, in 3 minutes flat. So uh, that' wasn't much of a match.

After the Match: Barrett, upset by the flash pin, loses his mind and demolishes Ziggler. After clobbering him from behind, Wade tosses Dolph out of the ring, and starts ramming him into the steps, the barricade, and everything else in sight. So much for that bizzare face turn.

The thrashing continues for a few minutes (longer than the actual match), until Cole & The Gang can't help but notice that there are no refs or officials breaking this up, because of the Authority.

That is, until Kane comes out on the stage... but he's not here to break anything up, he's here to announce that the Authority forgot to mention one little thing. This is a two out of three falls match. And the ref should ring the bell to continue it right now.

The ref grudgingly complies...

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. WADE BARRETT (Second Fall)

So Barrett hits Wastelands, and scores a pin. That took about 8 seconds.

It's tied, one fall apiece. But before he start the third fall, some trainers want to check on Ziggler. Or more accurately, it's time for a commercial break, and this gives us an excuse to watch some...

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DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. WADE BARRETT (Third Fall)

Back, and this time, the ref is refusing to start the fall until Ziggler can get to his feet. Which he finalle does. So Barrett just hits another Wastelands.

But Ziggler is able to kick out at two.

Barrett continues the onslaught, getting several more near falls before settling back in for the dreaded chinlock. Oy.

Ziggler fights out again, and ducks a clothesline again. But when he goes for a Stinger Splash, he whiffs, and Barrett goes back on the attack. And back to the chinlock.

Ziggler fights out for the third time, and this time, the Stinger Splash hits. But when he goes for the Fameasser, Barrett side steps it and catches Ziggler with a spinning sidewalk slam.

Ziggler kicks out at two. Barrett lines up for the Bullhammer Elbow, but Ziggler dodges it and hits a superkick for a near fall of his own. But he's in bad shape, and can't follow up, immediately.

When it finally appears as though Ziggler's gonna be able to set up for the Zig Zag, Kane (who had been watching from a safe distance) gets up on the ring apron. Ziggler diverts and hits him with a superkick.

But that slight distraction is all Barrett needed... Ziggler turns back around and walks right into a Bullhammer.

Your Winner, and New IC Champ: Wade Barrett, via pinfall, in about 15 minutes, total. First two falls and the ad break comprised about 8 minutes, and were just about the story, not any worthwhile action. Then the third and final fall was 6 or 7 minutes, and had a bit more in the way of in-ring work. It was still pretty basic stuff, though, and nowhere near what these two could deliver if given 15 minutes under other circumstances.

That said, I'm in no way opposed to the stories in wrestling, and this one was well done. We got us a new champ, but Ziggler didn't really lose the belt any more than Barrett did when he had to forfeit due to injury. He had it stolen from him.

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Backstage: Renee Young is standing by with Roman Reigns, to talk about his upcoming match against Big Show... Reigns basically says he's Superman (faster than a speeding bullet, etc.), and we all need to believe that. Whatever.

Freeze Frame: Bray Wyatt has a pretaped promo from his dark lair. He talks about tonight's Ambulance Match against Dean Ambrose. He says that tonight will be the end of their little dance, and that it won't end will for Dean. Because the devil is a real thing, and he (the devil) walks with him (Bray). RUN!

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THE ASCENSION vs. TWO GUYS

The Ascension preface the match with a quick promo, invoking the names of both Demolition and the Road Warriors, but calling them both jokes who pale in comparison to the Ascension. They, and they alone, are the yard stick by which all dominant monster tag teams are measured.

So, uhhh, their one week foray into babyfacedom is over. Just like Barrett's.

Then the bell rings, and I'm and adult, so I'm not gonna pretend this was something it wasn't.

Your Winners: the Ascension, via pinfall, in 30 seconds. Nothing to see here, move along.

Pretaped Promo: Rusev and Lana say that it's disgusting that America insists on policing the world and imposing their viewpoint on everybody else. There is only one world leader who has the sort of vision that should be adopted by all others, and it's Vlad Putin. Hokay. That was pointless.

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ROMAN REIGNS vs. BIG SHOW

So uhhh, I realize both these guys are gonna be in the Rumble match, so it's not like we've got a PPV singles match on the horizon, but am I the only one who would have done at least one week of hype/build before just giving this one away? Not a huge thing, just the same level of effort that they put into Ambrose/Wyatt's match... this just reeks of lastsecondery, and it takes a little sizzle away from things.

But I digress.

The match starts with Show cutting Reigns in half with a big spear, and then just focusing all his attack on Reigns ribs and midsection. We are reminded that this is his SURGICALLY REPAIRED~! midsection, because of his hernia surgery.

Predictably, this builds up to a bearhug, which OO never finds particularly thrilling, but I grant it at least makes some kind of logical sense in this context.

Reigns powers, and starts peppering Show with punches and clotheslines... but Show will not go down. Show keeps his feet until Reigns hoists him up for an impressive Samoan Drop.

But when Reigns tries to follow up with the Superman Punch, Show catches him by the throat and tosses him out of the ring. Show follows, and decides to forget about winning the match. He grabs the steel ring steps, and whaps Reigns in the skull with them.

Your Winner: Roman Reigns, via disqualification, in 6 minutes. OK, I retract my previous rant. That wasn't worth a week's worth of build up. It was a pretty blatant throwaway to intensify the feud between the two, not to even remotely settle anything. Bleh.

After the Match: Show tried to continue using the steps as a weapon inside the ring... but the time he took dragging the stairs into the ring gave Reigns time to recover, and he took Show down with a spear. So Reigns gets the moral victory, in addition to the actual victory, I guess.

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NIKKI BELLA (w/ Brie) vs. NATALYA (Non-Title)

Before the match starts, Paige comes out and makes a big fat hairy deal about going up to Nattie and hugging her, because of something that happened "last night" on That Which OO Does Not Acknowledge As Valid Entertainment. Despite the fact that it was taped months ago. Ahem.

So dumb.

Then the match starts, and after about 30 seconds, Paige and Brie start arguing outside the ring. Then Paige attacks and throws Brie into the barricade. Nikki is distracted, and Nattie gets the quick schoolgirl roll-up.

Your Winner: Natalya, via pinfall, in one minute. After the match, Nikki wasn't happy with Paige, so Paige kicked her ass, too. So, uhhhh, face turn?

Pretaped Promo: Dean Ambrose provides a rebuttal to Bray's previous comments. He says there's no point to him making New Year's resolutions, because he's a lost cause, and he knows it. So he's just gonna keep living his life his way, and that way means ending Bray's.

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ERICK ROWAN vs. LUKE HARPER

Before the former brothers-in-Wyatt face off, we are introduced to the special enforcer referees. Plural. They are Jamie and Joey, the New Stooges.

They pretty blatantly set to screwing Rowan by bumbling into his path of attack and then refusing to count a near fall for him. When Rowan wastes time arguing with them, Harper is able to hit the big lariat.

Your Winner: Luke Harper, via pinfall, in 3 minutes. As if it wasn't clear enough that the Stooges were getting a bit of revenge on yet another member of Team Cena at Survivor Series, they continued with a 3-on-1 assault after the match. They got Ziggler earlier, and obviously, "Cena Appreciation Night" will be our Main Event Angle where they get revenge on him. That leaves Ryback to get screwed between now and then, and conveniently enough, he facing Seth Rollins later on.

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Earlier Today: Naomi and Alicia Fox are chatting... Alicia is all "We're totally friends, and will always be, even though we're on opposite sides of a match tonight." It'll be the Usos and Naomi vs. Miz/Sandow/Alicia. Naomi's a bit suspicious, and sure enough, it was all just a ploy for Alicia to make some comment about happenings on TWOODNAAVE, and then bitchslap Naomi. Whee.

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DEAN AMBROSE vs. BRAY WYATT (Ambulance Match)

Match is won by putting your opponent in the ambulance and slamming the doors shut. So, also, a de facto No DQ/No Countout/Anything Goes match. And the two waste no time making use of that, by brawling out into the crowd, and eventually through them and up to where the ambulance is parked.

All of 2 minutes in, and they each get an ambulance tease (but both are easily able to counter and escape). Ambrose seems to get the better of it, and gets a stretcher and two tables (modified so they are all white with the red cross on them, for some reason) out of the ambulance. But before he can put them to use, Wyatt's able to catch him half in and half out of the ambulance, and slams one of the doors right on Ambrose's knee/lower leg.

Ambrose is hobbled, as Wyatt leads the fight back towards the ring. There, Wyatt continues working on the knee with a surgical focus. After ramming Ambrose's knee into the steel ring post, Ambrose is basically paralyzed in pain, and Wyatt just sits back to admire his handiwork. So with that break in the action, we break for....

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Back, and Ambrose is the proverbial one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. And that's not exactly working out well for him. But after taking a bit more punishment, Ambrose is able to counter out of Sister Abigail, and follows up with his rebound clothesline.

But it's only a quick 30 second hope spot, and Wyatt snuffs it out with a big hooking clothesline. Then, he chucks Ambrose out of the ring, and decides it's time to head back to the ambulance. He introduces Ambrose to the barricade a few times during the trip.

But once they get there, Ambrose has another flurry in him... and Wyatt snuffs it out with another clothesline. Bray then fetches the special (prescription-strength?) tables and sets up one of them near the side of the stage.

But as he's going for the second one, Ambrose gets a running start up on the stage, and flies off, catching Wyatt with a clothesline. Wyatt gets thrown into the ambulance. Ambrose gets one door closed, but before he gets the second one, Wyatt comes flying out and sort of bulldogs Ambrose down to the concrete.

Wyatt tries to set something up, using the stretcher/gurney thingie, but instead, Ambrose comes off the stretcher with a variation on his rebound clothesline. Then, he rearranges things so the table is next to the ambulance, instead of next to the stage.

Ambrose lays Wyatt out on the table. And then (slowly, dramatically, on one leg) makes his way on top of the ambulance. He's gonna come off with the flying elbow drop....

And he hits it. A "Holy Shit" chant gets over-chanted by a more PG-friendly "This is Awesome." Either one works for me.

Now, Ambrose just has to hoist Wyatt's limp carcass up, and get him into the ambulance... but Wyatt's playing a bit of possum, and when they get next to the ambulance, Wyatt hits a flash Sister Abigail into the ambulance. Ouch.

Wyatt gets Ambrose into the ambulance. One door closed... but Ambrose kicks his way out before the second one closes. For his troubles, Ambrose gets another Sister Abigail on the concrete floor.

Back into the ambulance for Ambrose. And this time, both doors are closed.

Your Winner: Bray Wyatt, via ambulafication, in 15 minutes. Solid brawl, as you'd expect from these two, given their history of intense singles matches over the past two months. But still nowhere near the level of the excellent TLC match.

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THE USOS & NAOMI vs. THE MIZ/DAMIEN SANDOW & ALICIA FOX (Mixed Tag Match)

Naomi wants a little revenge for earlier today, and insists on starting. She tears into Alicia for about a minute until Alicia can make a desperation tag to Miz. That requires an Uso to come in on the corresponding move.

It also requires that Sandow starts being awesome by mirroring Miz. Big cheers and laughs, per usual.

Even bigger cheers when Miz teases that he'll tag in Sandow... and this time, he actually does it. Bigger cheers, still. But before Sandow can do one move, Miz blind tags himself back into the match. BOO!

Miz's attempted backbreaker/neckbreaker combo backfires, and Jey's able to get a tag to Jimmy. A quick Pier Sixer breaks out, but then there's an awkward spot where Jimmy's whipped into the ropes, near where Naomi is standing (randomly out of position). So Jimmy slaps on the breaks, and is all discombobulated.

Miz takes advantage by hitting a cheap roll up and grabbing a handful of tights for good measure.

Your Winners: Miz, Sandow, and Alicia, via pinfall, in about 5 minutes. Nothing particularly memorable, but nothing objectionable, either. The ending was a bit off-kilter (even with a replay and Cole trying to walk us through it, it didn't really flow realistically), but it served its purpose of keeping Miz and Sandow viable and compelling as #1 contenders to the tag titles.

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RYBACK vs. SETH ROLLINS (w/ the New Stooges)

As mentioned previously, the theme tonight seems to be screwing everyone who was on Team Cena at Survivor Series. The deck's already stacked against Ryback here, with the Stooges, at ringside.

And then, before the bell rings, Kane comes out and says he's all forgetful tonight, and totally neglected to mention that this match is a handicap match...

RYBACK vs. SETH ROLLINS & KANE (w/ the New Stooges)

The heels are playing nice, to start, abiding by the must-tag-in-and-out rules, rather than just going tornado style. If you're making up rules as you go along, why bother?

So, courtesy of this gaping logic hole, Ryback actually gets in plenty of offense against Kane, in the opening minute or two. And then a bit more against Rollins when Rollins tags in.

In fact, he's able to toss Rollins out of the ring. So while he regroups with the Stooges, we break for...

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Back, and the tide has turned. Kane is working Ryback over, and for the first time, Cole has pieced things together and makes note of the recurring "Authority are getting revenge on all members of Team Cena" theme. As usual, I've done a better job presenting WWE's stories than WWE itself. Aren't I great?

Heels are still sticking to the tag rules, but are making frequent tags to maintain the offensive for an extended period.

Ryback finally gets a little breathing room after hitting a suplex on Kane. Rollins tags in, and whiffs on a corner splash, allowing Ryback to rattle off a few more moves. After a spinebuster, he knocks Kane off the apron, dispatches the New Stooges, and then hits the Meathook.

Kane makes it back into the ring to break things up, but Ryback hoists him up for the Shellshock. But Kane isn't "legal," and Ryback lost track of Rollins... so when Ryback goes for the cover, Rollins catches him with a Curb Stomp.

Then, a second Curb Stomp, and it's over.

Your Winners: Seth Rollins and Kane, via pinfall, in 10 minutes. Well, that was kinda a long way to go to get to the fairly obvious and inevitable ending, but I guess WWE's more interested in "protecting" Ryback than Ziggler or Rowan. The heels didn't even team up to decimate him, 4-on-1, after the match. They just took the win and let it be. That's not very evil of them.

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BIG E (w/ Kofi Kingston and Eggsavier Woods) vs. ADAM ROSE (w/ the Menagerie of Hipster Wangnozzles)

So I guess the not-quite-subtle heelfication of the New Day from back around TLC (when the announcers were pushing a "These guys are phonies" narrative) is off.

Match lasts about 2 minutes, and Big E is about to hit his big criss-cross splash... but then two suspiciously well-built Rosebuds (wearing masks) run in and attack Big E, including hitting the New Day's own tandem finisher against him.

Your Winner: Big E, via disqualification, in 2 minutes. I can state, with authority, that this is a thing that happened.

After the Match: Kofi and Eggsavier tried to help out, but got squashed, too. And then the Rosebuds unmasked to reveal that they were actually Cesaro and Tyson Kidd. Mick Foley's already pegged them as the Best Tag Team of 2015; myself, I'll believe that WWE will actually get behind them for an extended run when I see it. But for now, they're off to a good start.

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JOHN CENA APPRECIATION NIGHT

Triple H and Steph head to the ring, and it's already 9:58 (central), so whatever they've got in store, it's gonna happen fast. Steph, uncharacteristically, doesn't really waste too much time blathering and being awful. She just (with the right amount of insincerity) says it's time to honor the man of the hour, a legend a decade in the making... John Cena.

Cena comes on down, and doesn't seem to be believing this happy crappy for even one second. Even as HHH and Steph try to goose a big cheer out of the crowd, Cena's got a dead stare on his face.

And ahhhh, here we go: HERE is the time-wasting. They remind Cena of why they're honoring him by replaying last Monday's final segment -- where he brought back the Authority, in order to save Edge -- for the third goddamned time of the night.

Stephanie -- again, not quite sincerely -- says John Cena is often called a hero. But maybe the fans don't see him that way, because of what he did, but that's OK, because he is so totally HER hero. HHH says things have been bumpy between them in the past, but that's only because HHH always saw the greatness in Cena, and maybe he was a little threatened by it. But now, after what he did last week, HHH totally appreciates Cena every bit as much as his wife does.

And now, some more people who are going to come to appreciate Cena even more before this night is out... Ryback, Rowan, and Ziggler. The other members of Team Cena at Survivor Series. [Big Show was the fifth member of that team, but remember, he turned against them.]

HHH says they already showed their appreciation for Cena by joining him team, trusting that they'd win, and there would be no consequences, and the Authority would be gone forever. But then Cena went and brought the Authority back, and now there WILL be consequences. How they feeling about Cena now?

Well, before they answer... let HHH tell them the consequences. For Rowan, he only came into this at the very end. So how about a 30 day suspension?

Then Ryback, he actually was gonna join Team Authority, and turned against them at the last second, so he should get double that... 60 days for Ryback.

And what of Ziggler, the one who actually won the match for his team (albeit only with help from "the face painted goof, Sting")... he should face even stiffer consequences. He figures 90 days should do.

But then Steph whispers something into his ear, and the two go to stand up on the stage, after whispering back and forth the whole way. From a safe distance, they reveal that they've had a change of heart...

Instead of suspensions, Rowan/Ryback/Ziggler are all fired. And they can thank John Cena, the great, heroic, knight in shining armor, John Cena, for it. Isn't he a swell fella, so totally deserving of their appreciation?

"Stars and Stripes Forever" starts playing, and there's confetti and balloons from the rafters; Hunter and Stephanie are very much pleased with their little expose of Cena.

Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan all look frustrated, but aren't really directing it at Cena; they seem to get that this is on the Authority, not on Cena. But Cena, for his part, clearly feels the responsibility here, and is crestfallen as we fade to black.

And so ends the show. In recent history, the New Year's RAW has been a pretty huge show... but thinking back, I now realize that's because the New Year's RAW has generally coincided with the college football title game. So it was more about stunt booking a show to maintain ratings, than celebrating the holiday. And this year is the first one under the new BCS playoff format, in which the title game is next Monday.

Whether that's the reason or not, WWE sure didn't hit the ball out of the park tonight... on paper, it might have sounded like Reigns/Show and Ambrose/Wyatt were PPV-caliber matches, but they pretty much punted the former, and the latter couldn't quite live up to previous versions of the match. Throw in a main event story segment that was the opposite of riveting (honestly, nobody over the age of 7 gives a shit about these "firings," any more; that ship has sailed, and all they accomplish is getting fans to be pre-annoyed over whatever lame and silly ploy gets people unfired), and you've got a pretty forgettable show that thudded to a climax.

The amount of useless filler (video packages/earlier tonight/etc) was also an issue. It's something WWE has gotten better at in the last few months, but they backslid into the bad habit in a noticeably big way tonight. If I'd been working with a DVR time shift, I would have easily watched the value-added parts of tonight's show (the parts included in this recap) in 2 hours because of the amount of worthless material (the stuff that I just leave out of the recap) that I would have fast-forwarded in addition to the commercials.

Sometimes, WWE can mask an underwhelming/water-treading show by keeping the pace at a breakneck pace, but that didn't happen tonight. Lots of filler bogged things down.

The only real well-struck ball of the night was the IC Title story and title change. That was a compelling and creative way to do the title change without stalling the momentum that Ziggler's had since Survivor Series.

But it was pretty much downhill from there. Nothing I can really point to as being bad, but just a ton of things where things did not move anything forward in especially interesting ways. I mean, Wyatt had pretty much already won that feud, so the ambulance match didn't really provide a ton of closure... and the one thing that really is interesting (Rollins suddenly included in the Lesnar/Cena match) wasn't made an issue in any way after the announcement. Some kind of interplay between him and Cena, or (even better) between him and Heyman would have spruced things up a lot.

I assume the reason it wasn't an issue is because it was a last second decision, and even the bare minimum of thought that I just put into it in the preceding sentence wasn't possible. This lack of forethought was a recurring theme, actually, with stuff like backstracking on Barrett's face status (and the same thing with the Ascension, and the opposite thing with Paige). I'm all for spontaneity and adapting stories on the fly, but this reeks more of disjointed random chaos than "anything can happen" spontaneity.

Looking at the whole package, the IC Title stuff gets plus points, the anti-climactic ending gets minus points (and is weighted more heavily because of OO's long standing policy regarding the last taste left in its mouth), and everything else represented pretty much the very minimal acceptable level of effort, paced poorly because of more filler than usual.

I figure that's worth a final grade of C-minus.

Hopefully WWE will get back on track next Monday, and we don't have to wait till the (sure to be) big Thursday Night Returnening of SmackDown on 1/15, or the 1/19 Stunt Booking Old School RAW (which I may decide to attend in person, since it's in Dallas) before we are competently entertained.

We'll find out in 7 days. See you then.

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Bonding Exercises

RAW RECAP: The New Guy Blows It

PPV RECAP: WWE Night of Champions 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: 18 Seconds? NO! NO! NO!

RAW RECAP: The Show Must Go On

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Boot Gets the Boot

RAW RECAP: Heyman Lands an Expansion Franchise

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Losing is the new Winning

RAW RECAP: Say My Name

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Deja Vu All Over Again

RAW RECAP: Dignity Before Gold?

PPV RECAP: SummerSlam 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Backfired!

RAW RECAP: Bigger IS Better

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Hitting with Two Strikes

RAW RECAP: Heel, or Tweener?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Destiny Do-Over

RAW RECAP: CM Punk is Not a Fan of Dwayne

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Returnening

RAW RECAP: Countdown to 1000

PPV RECAP: WWE Money in the Bank 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Friday Night ZackDown

RAW RECAP: Closure's a Bitch

SMACKDOWN RECAP: In-BRO-pendence Day

RAW RECAP: Crazy Gets What Crazy Wants

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Five Surprising MitB Deposits

RAW RECAP: Weeeellll, It's a Big MitB

SMACKDOWN RECAP: #striketwo

RAW RECAP: Johnny B. Gone

PPV RECAP: WWE No Way Out 2012

RAW RECAP: Crazy Go Nuts

SMACKDOWN RECAP: You're Welcome

RAW RECAP: Be a Star, My Ass

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Needs More Kane?

RAW RECAP: You Can't See Him

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Lady Power

RAW RECAP: Big Johnny Still in Charge

PPV RECAP: WWE Over the Limit 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: One Gullible Fella

RAW RECAP: Anvil, or Red Herring?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Everybody Hates Berto

RAW RECAP: Look Who's Back

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Care to go Best of Five?

RAW RECAP: An Ace Up His Sleeve

PPV RECAP: WWE Extreme Rules 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Sh-Sh-Sheamus and the nOObs

RAW RECAP: Edge, the Motivational Speaker?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: AJ is Angry, Jilted

RAW RECAP: Maybe Cena DOES Suck?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: No! No! No!

RAW RECAP: Brock's a Jerk

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Back with a Bang

RAW RECAP: Yes! Yes! Yes!

PPV RECAP: WWE WrestleMania 28

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.