Pro Wrestling Review: Raw Review 6/17/13

 Welcome back to Pro Wrestling Review today I'm going to be talking about Raw 6/17/13. Now usually I don't do raw reviews here on Pro Wrestling Review but since this weeks episode was so good I've decided to do one. I'm not going to be talking about all of the matches, I'll just be hitting on the big things coming out of the show.

Opening promo Del Rio heel turn and CM Punk face turn

 The show started out with Alberto Del Rio coming out and basically completing his heel turn. The night before at Payback after he won world heavyweight championship he cut a promo saying that the last few months he had done everything for the fans and then say that he'd won the title that night for them as well. After which the cameras showed the crowd booing him because of his vicious actions in his match against Dolph Ziggler. In his promo on raw he basically said that he was done with the fans because they booed him after he'd won the title and that the fans got him nothing.

 I'm really glad they they're turning him back to being a heel. His baby face character just wasn't working and I think he's always been better as a heel. The last couple months that he was a heel last year he kind of got boring but now 6 months later he has a new start as a heel and so far I'm liking it.

 Then CM Punk came out and completed his face turn by challenging Alberto Del Rio to a match later that night. Now I'm ok with CM Punk turning face, he definitely has a big fan base but I'm hoping that he doesn't turn into what he was last year. In 2011 when he turned face he was good for a few months but after that he started really hurting his opponents credit on the mic like a lot of people complain about John Cena doing now. He also got very bland and basically turned into a tattooed version of John Cena. As long as those two things don't happen and he can keep his character original than I'm ok with this face turn.

 During the promo there was some tension between him and Paul Heyman and after the segment in the back he told Heyman that he would always be a Paul Heyman Guy but he didn't want Heyman as his manager anymore. He also kind of took a shot at Brock Lesner saying that he wasn't a client like Brock Lesner and Curtis Axel and be didn't need Paul Heyman to help him in his matches.

Christian's return

 After nearly a year Christian returned to face Wade Barrett in a match that he won. I'm very excited to see Christian back in the wwe and I'm surprised that he wasn't back sooner for wrestlemania. As glad as I am to see him back I'm kind of afraid that wwe won't know what to do with him. I kind of get that feeling with Chris Jericho sometimes too but with Christian it's a lot worse. I don't get it either, after two years of being back he finally gets a world title reign that he probably wouldn't have gotten if Edge hadn't had to retire and he does a wonderful job with it. He pulled off a wonderful heel character on smackdown but then when he returns to wwe last year they give the intercontinental title and put him in some minor stuff with Cody Rhodes and The Miz.

 I don't get it it seems like they have no idea how to use him and it's not like they didn't have room for him last year. When he was ic champion last year on smackdown they were having the endless Sheamus vs Del Rio world title feud that had about as much story line as they had characters. They could have really used him over there but they didn't. It's not like he hasn't proven himself because he has multiple times especially when he was world champion. Now I'm kind of getting the same feeling as he fighting 3MB on smackdown this week, I mean seriously can they not think of anything better for him to do. Christian is a great wrestler and can pull off a very good face or heel character. He's about 40 years old so I really hope they use him well while they have him. I wouldn't mind seeing him feud with Wade Barrett and then maybe going into the world title scene.

Antonio Cesaro (with Zeb Coulter) vs William Regal

 Next we had Zeb Coulter come out and announce that the newest member of his group is Antonio Cesaro. I'm very exited about this, I had been wishing that he would have been paired with Paul Heyman and I'm glad that he now has a manager. Now I hope that he doesn't completely switch over to the Jack Swagger gimmick just because he's with Coulter since he's Swiss that gimmick wouldn't really make since. They might need to find an issue for him and Coulter to get behind that applies more to Cesaro. I'm really glad that they gave Coulter a wrestler manage while Swagger is away because Coulter has tons of talent as manager. I'm also a big fan of Antonio Cesaro I think he has a ton of talent but my gosh his stock has really fallen in the wwe. After he lost the U.S. title he was put the dog house so to speak and I'm not sure why. He was doing things like yodeling and being a Swiss solider but I didn't see to much of it because he was mostly on main event and superstars. Now it looks like they're putting him the right track. They have a lot of work to do with him but I'm sure Coulter can manage it seeing as he's the same guy that took Jack Swagger from being someone I cared about a lot less than Cesaro to someone that's actually entertaining and relevant.

 The match that he had was against William Regal. The match very short with Cesaro handling Regal during most of it before getting the win. Now I don't get what it is with wwe and William Regal, a few weeks ago they had him in a match against Wade Barrett on smackdown in England. The crowd really wanted to see a real match between them but instead they just had Barrett beat him in less than five minutes. I don't get what it is with them, Regal is a great in ring wrestler and a 15 or 20 year veteran and they're treating him like a jobber. I know that it's not that he's getting to old to put on a match because I've seen him wrestle 20 minute matches on nxt. They didn't even give him his entrance..Seriously? We did get to see some very cool feats of strength by Antonio Cesaro but I would've also liked to see a good back and forth match between these two. It's not like they didn't have time it's a three hour show.


Mark Henry Segment

 After that we had the big Mark Henry segment. Now the announcers had been talking about how on twitter  he had been talking about retiring. So he came out to the ring during John Cena's promo and put his wrestling boots on the stage. He was wearing a suit and tie and told Cena that he could put guard down. Then he started giving his retirement speech, he was acually crying and cracking jokes about his career. Then John Cena gave him the wwe championship and held his hand up. Now I was skeptical at first and I was hoping that it was a hoax and he wasn't actually going to retire but by the end of that promo acually about two second before the big thing happened I thought to myself ok he's actually retiring. After that John Cena gave him a hug and them Henry picked Cena up gave and gave him the world's strongest slam.

 This was a very cool and surprising moment and Mark Henry did an amazing job with that promo convincing everyone that he was retiring. I'm sure he'll win a slammy at the end of the year for it but heck he should win an Oscar. I've been a big fan of Mark Henry since 2011 when his big heel turn began, He has a really good heel character and I love when he yells at his opponents during his matches it's very entertaining. He's a very good unscripted talker. I've heard nothing but good reviews of this segment from people and I'm hoping that this helped to get some of the people that weren't already on the Mark Henry train so to speak onto it. I'm really looking forward to his feud with John Cena and I'd really like to see him win the wwe championship this summer. He's about 40 years old and has one of the best heel characters in the company, John Cena can always have another world title reign but Henry might  not be wrestling in two or three more years. I think they should take advantage of Mark Henry while they have him and give him a wwe championship reign. He definitely l deserves it.

Daniel Bryon vs Randy Orton

 This match was very good, Bryon got an injury during match and I heard that it was real but nothing too serious. The referees eventually stopped the match because of it. Weather or not it was real I thought it came off very well on tv. Bryon kept fighting through it and telling the referee not to stop the match and he looked angry once it was stopped. Also afterword he apparently yelled at Triple H backstage on the wwe app. This was kind of like the same thing they did with Dolph Ziggler at payback and I think it really helped to get people behind him.

 Orton and Bryon also had a very good match on smackdown that ended in a count out win for Bryon. Tonight on raw we have a third match  between them. I'm really looking forward to that and I'm hoping that they start a big feud between Bryon and Orton, I think Orton should turn heel because with the reaction that Bryon has he should probably stay face. I'm guessing they'll both be in the money in the bank match so maybe they could have a match at summerslam.


Main Event CM Punk Vs WHC Alberto Del Rio

 This was a pretty good match and it ended with CM Punk winning via count out after Del Rio left the match. I was thinking that this was kind of a dull ending to the show but it definitely wasn't over yet. As Del Rio was walking up the stage Dolph Ziggler comes out of nowhere and starts attacking Del Rio. Earlier during the show after they said that Ziggler wasn't going to be there do to his injures I tweeted that they should have him on the show right after payback because it was the perfect time to turn him face after his performance the night before and I'm really glad they did. I also like how they're taking it slow with his face turn, it's not all at once. He still hasn't cut any face promos. So far it's very interesting and the attack on Del Rio was awesome.

Epic Ending

 That wasn't the end to the show though there was more. After Ziggler's attack they announced that CM Punk was the winner but his music didn't come on Brock Lesner's did. Lesner came out and walked around the ring, then got in the ring and grabbed a mic. It looked like he was going to say something but instead he F5ed CM Punk. This was a really awesome moment, it was one of those really exiting things when your watching it live and you know that your in the middle of a big moment.

 I'm really exited for this feud, I'm not sure if their match is going to be at money in the bank or summerslam or maybe both. It will also be very interesting with Paul Heyman being the former manager for Punk and the current manager for Lesner.

 This was the best episode of raw that we've had in a long time. We had lot's of big things on the show with Bryon and Orton's match, the wonderful Mark Henry segment, Christian's return, Ziggler's attack on Del Rio, and the start of Brock Lesner's feud with CM Punk. I've heard people call this the best episode of raw all year and I would agree with that.

 The whole landscape of wwe seems to have changed a lot after Payback and this episode of raw, there's tons of big things going on, Mark Henry's wwe championship feud, Lesner and Punk's feud, Christian being back, of course the shield which has always been good, Daniel Bryon who has been getting a huge reaction and hopefully a huge push, and Ziggler and Del Rio potential interesting character changes.

 I'm hoping that wwe can maintain all of those big things for the rest of the summer and it looks like wwe has come out of the post wrestlemania low. We also had a very good episode of smackdown this week as well.

 Be sure to tell me all of you thoughts on the latest edition of Raw on twitter: @ ENC98, Facebook: Enc Wwe, or on Instagram: ENC98. You can also follow Pro Wrestling Review's very own twitter account: @ PWReview for news on just this column. You can also check out my youtube channel: ENC98TV and my other column here on blogger: TV Movie Review. See you in the next article thanks for reading.

Pro Wrestling Review: WWE Payback 2013 Review

Welcome back to Pro Wrestling Review in this week's edition I will be giving all of my thoughts on Wwe Payback.

Pre Show: Sheamus vs Damian Sandow

I didn't see all of this match only the last part of it that they had on the wwe's YouTube page but from what I saw it seemed pretty good. I wish that Sandow would have gotten the win here, I think that that would have helped him a lot more than it did Sheamus. It looks like after seeing this weeks edition of raw that this feud is going to be continuing for the time being but since Money in the Bank is the next ppv I doubt they'll have another match together. I'm guessing this was Sandow's only chance to get a ppv win in this feud and I wish they would have given it to him, I also have no idea why it was on the pre show.

IC Title: Wade Barrett vs Curtis Axel vs The Miz

This was a really good opener to the show. Usually a match like this wouldn't have gone on very long but this one they gave plenty of time. It was a very fast paced match with lot's of false finishes. The ending came when The Miz had the figure four locked on to Barrett but Axel came and pinned Barrett while Miz was busy applying the hold. I thought this was a clever way to end the match and it looks like it's setting up for an Axel and Miz feud. It was also nice to see Axel win the IC title on fathers day.

I'm interested to see what they do with Wade Barrett now that he's not the Intercontinental champion anymore. I'd like to see him go into a feud with a main event star like Randy Orton or Sheamus kind of like they did with him in early 2012. Put him in a feud with a main eventer to get him established again.

U.S. Title: Dean Ambrose vs Kane

This was a nice match that ended in Ambrose DDTing Kane outside the ring. This led to Kane getting counted out. This was a fun match while it lasted.

Divas Championship: Katelyn vs AJ

The build up for this match basically started the week before on raw and the match went on a lot longer than I expected. In the end Katelyn hit her finisher but instead of pinning AJ she taunted her and if I remember right somehow that gave AJ enough time to get the upper hand and she hit her submission and got the win. I'm glad that AJ is Divas champ now, out of the like five divas they have on the roster she's probably my favorite. Seriously though she is very good in the ring and she had a couple pretty cool moments during the match, especially the submission hold that she used at the end, that was incredible.


WHC: Dolph Ziggler vs Alberto Del Rio

This match I wasn't looking forward to very much because it had pretty much no build up at all, so much so that I actually forgot it in my payback predictions video. That wasn't totally wwe's fault though since Ziggler was injured. I fully expected Ziggler to win and then hopefully they could build him up. The match though went a comletely different way than I expected Ziggler got a little bit of offence at the begining but then he just got dominated. Del Rio kept targeting his head and delivering vicious kicks. At first I was very surprised that it went that way and I was especially surprised when he lost the championship at the end. I thought oh no I guess they've given up on him but by the end of the match I could see where they were going with it. Del Rio after the match cut a promo saying that the last few monthes he has been doing everything for the fans and then the camera showed everyone booing him. Then you have Ziggler who is on like Shawn Micheals levels with selling and wow did he sell the heck out of that match. They had the doctors trying to end it but Ziggler wouldn't let them. I think it came off very well and it told a heck of a story. It was very surprising too I was expecting this to be just an ordinary predictable match but it was very unexpected.

I'm also very very excited to see what happens with both of these guys. I'm glad that they're turning Del Rio heel again I think he is much better as a heel than as a face. I was hoping that they would be able to restart Ziggler's heel character when he came back but turning him face I think is a much better move. I also like that they're taking it slowly, Ziggler came out and attacked Del Rio which I thought was an awsome segment and got people really excited and really behind him but so far he accually hasn't cut any face promos. I'm very excited to see smackdown this week because of these two and me looking forward to see what happens with Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio which is a success in itself.

I do want to say for the record that if the wwe had built Dolph Ziggler up right from the moment that he won the money in the bank briefcase I think they could have made a great heel main eventer out of him. I think that he can be very good as a face though. He's one of the top five wrestlers in the ring and is an amazing seller.


CM Punk vs Chris Jericho

This was the match that I really wanted to see out of this ppv. It wasn't Money in the Bank 2011 but it was still very cool having it in CM Punk's home town of Chicago. There were many rumors that CM Punk would have a new theme song but it turned out he didn't. I was definitely ok with that, I was interested to see what it would be just because it was new but his current song is very good and I think it fits him very well so there was no real reason to change it.

The match it's self was very good as expected whenever Punk and Jericho get together. Even though it was about twenty minutes long I think it should have gone on a little bit longer. I'm not sure if it's just me but I'd liked to have seen it go on about five or ten minutes longer.

I liked how CM Punk hit two GTSs at he end and overall it was the the match of the night.


WWE TT Titles: Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins vs Daniel Bryon/ Randy Orton

This was also a very good match. You had the Shield who always puts on good matches and Randy Orton and Daniel Bryon who do as well. The ending came when there was a mix up between Bryon and Orton and the Shield ended up winning.

WWE Championship: John Cena vs Ryback

This was an ok match but I really wish Punk vs Jericho would have main evented. The first stage was a lumber jack match and it did have one cool part when Ryback was outside the ring with the lumber jacks and Cena jumped off the top rope onto all of them. So Ryback eventually won the first round and Cena won the next one which was a tables match with a swift AA. The last stimulation was the ambulance match. Cena and Ryback started tearing things of the ambulance such as fenders and doors and hitting each other with them. Now I've heard some people say that this was a little corny tearing doors off a vehicle but I kind of enjoyed it.

I had actually predicted the ending when I was thinking about how the match would go a couple days before and as I suspected Cena hit the AA on Ryback through the ambulance roof. I'm not really sure about the ending of the match, the ending came pretty quick and fast without really leading up to it. Now on one hand you want to do the least damage to Ryback's character as you can but on the other hand the ending seemed to come a little bit out of nowhere.

I kind of expected this match to main event but like I said before I wish Punk and Jericho had. I think that would have helped make it a bigger moment in Chicago and Punk and Jericho had a better match.

Overall though this ppv was still very good, I would say it was better or at least as good as Extreme Rules probably better. It was also nice to see all of the wwe's titles defended on the show. Be sure to tell me what you thought of wwe Payback on Twitter: @ENC98, Facebook: EncWwe or on Instagram: ENC98. You can also subscribe to my youtube channel: ENC98TV if you would like. And lastly for specific news on just Pro Wrestling Review you can follow the columns very own twitter: @PWReview. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more Pro Wrestling Review.

Pro Wrestling Review: 2013 Wwe Extreme Rules Review

Finally, Finally my Extreme Rules review. I know it's a little late but I just got around to watching it recently and I'll say it was ok but nothing super special.

Pre Show: The Miz vs Cody Rhodes

I haven't seen this match yet but it doesn't seem like it was anything special. I wish that they would have actually had somewhat of a feud between the two leading into it.

Chris Jericho vs Fandango

This match was ok, not bad but not anything special either. There were a few cool spots the main one being when Jericho hits the codebreaker on Fandango in mid air. I'm kind of glad that this feuds over after seeing the commercial for raw advertising a dance off I'm done with it.

Corner Touching Strap Match: Sheamus vs Mark Henry

The build for this match wasn't bad but the match....very bad. I have no idea why they had this stimulation, I'm not a fan of the corner touching thing especially after this. Also because of the corner touch thing most of it was kept in the ring. I really wish this could have been a last man standing or no holds barred match, it was disappointing to see two of wwe's biggest power guys have a terrible match. I heard that Henry has an injury but I hope he'll be back soon.

U.S. Championship Match: The Shield's Dean Ambrose vs Kofi Kingston

I'm a big fan of both of these guys and I was really glad to see him get his first championship here. The match was good but I wish it would have gone on longer. I could maybe see a rematch at Payback possibly. I really liked how they had Rollins and Reigns leave the arena for the match, that really made Ambrose's win seem legit. I'm hoping that this is the first of many titles in the wwe for Dean Ambrose.

Tornado Wwe TT Match: The Shield's Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryon and Kane.

This was the match that I was most looking forward to and it didn't disappoint. One of my favorite simulations is tornado tag team matches and I'm glad that they put the stimulation in this match. It wasn't as good a the TLC one mostly because they didn't let it go on long enough. It was good while it lasted but I would have given it about ten minutes more.

Dean Ambrose wasn't at ringside which I liked for the same reason I talked about earlier and the celebration at the end was good. Hopefully that was a day that will go down in history with three of the next big stars in the wwe. It was a good day to be a Shield fan.

Randy Orton vs Big Show

I think this was like a no holds barred match and a good one at that. A lot of people were surprised that this match was good, I was hoping that if they let it go outside the ring with weapons it would be good and that's kind of what happened.

It was kind of cool to see the punt come back although it wasn't used as devastating as it used to be where it would really injure someone. It was cool to see Orton get the win in his home town.

#1 Contenders I Quit Match: Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger (with Zeb Coulter)

This match I really didn't like at all, for one with the I quit stimulation the match kept getting interrupted by the referee asking them if they wanted to quit. The main thing I didn't like though was at one point Jack Swagger had Del Rio in the patriot lock and Ricardo had a white towel and Zeb Coulter grabbed the towel and through it in the ring. The ref who apparently had no idea what was happening outside the ring thought that Ricardo had thrown it in and that Del Rio was giving up. So he ended the match and Ricardo started arguing with him, after about a minute of that another ref came down and started arguing too. Then the original ref decides to watch it on replay. So the guy by the time keeper pulls out this big monitor that he apparently has back there and gets it all set up and they watch the replay. Next the the ref instead of just restarting the match has to go over and ask if Alberto can keep going, so after talking to him for a while he finely restarts it. But first he has to explain to the ring announcer who apparently wasn't listening at all that if Alberto can continue the match will restart. Soon after it restarts Alberto is able to lock on the arm bar for the win.

So if you can't tell by me explaining that whole ordeal this match was a failure. In a match that all ready isn't able to pick up very much because of the ref asking if they want to quit all the time that interruption that took up half the match made it very bad. . I wish they wouldn't have done the false finish thing and just let the match go on during that time.

Also most of it was in the ring or around ringside, I would have liked to see them go backstage and fight all over the area instead of what we ended up getting. Overall a very bad match that didn't really heat up much at all.

WWE Championship Last Man Standing Match: John Cena vs Ryback

I actually thought this match was pretty good, they went through the arena which was a good move. I'm glad that they didn't just keep it in the ring. The ending I thought was good with Ryback ramming himself and Cena through the thing a ma gig on the stage. I thought it was a good way to set up a second match with the two.

I'm still not quite sure about Ryback as a heel, his promos need a little work but if they keep him in hardcore matches like these then I think he'll be ok for now. I'm interested to see if they keep him built up after he gets out of the title picture.


Steel Cage Match: Brock Lesnar vs Triple H

The feud going into this was ok but the match I wasn't too happy with. I didn't like the summerslam match but the wrestlemania one I did like, one of the main reasons for that was because they went outside the ring a lot and used lot's of different foreign objects. So I'm not sure why they decided to lock these two into a steel cage. Also in the match they had Brock Lesnar selling a knee injury the whole time. Now it wasn't a bad job of selling but for Brock's character I don't think that it was a good idea. He's supposed to be this big tough indestructible character and he's getting destroyed by Triple H. It was very hard to watch I felt like I was watching his great persona slip away right before my eyes. Triple H wasn't just destroying his knee it seemed like he was destroying his character. They had Lesnar get his head handed to him the whole time and then Paul Heyman had to cheat for Lesnar to win the match. The combination of both of those things hurt Brock's persona a ton.

I think that one of the reasons that wwe had this match for a third time was so to help Lesnar's character after the loss at mania, but the way this match went I think it did a lot more harm than good. Hopefully by the time Brock comes back for summerslam or wrestlemania people will have forgotten about this and they can build him back up again.

Thanks for reading this article be sure to tell me what you thought of Extreme Rules on Twitter: @ENC98, Facebook: Enc Wwe, Youtube: ENC98TV, or Instagram: ENC98. Also on those sites you can give me topics for more articles or videos. Have a great summer and remember to stay tuned for more Pro Wrestling Review.