WWE Raw Review - February 24th, 2014

WWE Raw Review - February 24th, 2014

Hulk Hogan opens the show with a bang. He says a few words and announces that he's hosting WrestleMania 30. Short, but sweet segment. Good way to start the show and get the crowd fired up.

1) Batista vs. Alberto Del Rio

To be completely honest, this was better than their match last night at Elimination Chamber. It flowed much better. This still wasn't that great of a match though. The crowd was completely behind Alberto Del Rio mainly because they hate Batista so much. Orton comes out and distracts Batista allowing Del Rio to pick up the victory.

Match rating - 5/10

2) Big E vs. Cesaro

Wonderful match here between two young outstanding atheletes. Big E had a great match with Swagger last night and did the same here with Swagger's partner, Cesaro. It was a very physical back and forth contest. It went around 15 minutes and was quite enjoyable. The ending is the only thing that kinda ruined it for me because I don't like when matches this great end in a DQ, but it made sense storyline wise so I'll let it side. Really good match.


Match rating - 7.75/10

3) Sheamus vs. Christian

Another hard hitting match here. These two have good chemistry together and put on a solid match up. I've become more fond of Sheamus lately, I think it's because he hasn't been on the mic much. He's honestly a good in-ring competitor. And we all know what Christian can do, so this was a good match as expected.

Match rating - 6.5/10

4) Daniel Bryan vs. Kane

This match was much better than I expected. What was I thinking having mediocre expectations for a match involving Daniel Bryan? I forgot the great chemistry that Bryan and Kane have together to be the complete opposites that they are. Bryan continues to show why he's the best wrestler on the WWE roster. Great match.

Match rating - 8/10

5) Emma vs. Summer Rae

I was very excited for this as I've heard alot about both women's outstanding in-ring abilities. Although it didn't last that long, it was better than most Divas matches nowadays. It wasn't great by any means, but I could tell these two could do much better if given more time and the opportunity. Emma's submission finisher, the Emma lock, particularly impressed me as it's not often you see a diva do a move like that.

Match rating - 5/10

6) New Age Outlaws vs. The Usos

This didn't last but like a minute. Usos pick up a quick victory.

7) Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt

Wyatt and Reigns got the main event match slot and they put on a solid match. It wasn't great, but it was pretty good. The crowd pissed me off during this match as they chanted for the commentators, Punk, and several other things. The biggest thing they did to piss me off was to chant "Husky Harris". Really? What a bunch of smarks. Anyway, this was a decent match, but not anything special. Expected more out of this match to be honest, but it wasn't a complete buzzkill as it furthered storylines very well. Rollins stole the show here as he ran in and springboarded off the top rope and cut a backflip onto Harper and Rowan.

Match rating - 6/10

To end the show, Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman came to the ring to discuss who Brock would face at Mania. He says Brock wants to make history, which brings out The Undertaker. Lesnar signs the contract and then gets chokeslammed through the table by Undertaker! Great ending to Raw!

Overall thoughts: It was a pretty good show, but it began losing steam towards the end in my opinion. Lesnar & Taker got the crowd pumped back up though. There were some good matches tonight, but to be honest, I'm not excited about WrestleMania going forward from this episode of Raw. WWE didn't do a bad job of building it, we've just seen the majority of this before. I'll elaborate more on this tomorrow. To end on a positive note, I'm loving The Shield and The Wyatt/Cena stuff. That's about all I'm looking forward to.