WWE: The Week in Review (January 26 - February 1, 2014)

WWE: The Week in Review (January 26 - February 1)

by Ethan Lewis

What a week it's been in WWE! From the crowd nearly rioting at the Royal Rumble to CM Punk leaving the company, it's been an action and drama filled week.

The week started off with the Royal Rumble PPV. Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt undoubtedly stole the show. After that match, the show slowly went down hill. The crowd completely trashed the Cena/Orton match with chants for Daniel Bryan. The Royal Rumble itself featured a predictable and unpopuler ending as Batista won the match. What's most notable though was the crowd reaction. The crowd heavily booed pretty much anyone who wasn't Daniel Bryan except for Roman Reigns and CM Punk. When the 30th entrant Rey Mysterio made his way to the ring, he was met with heavy boos. The winner, Batista faced even heavier boos after winning. Because of this, Batista got the chance to showcase how classy he is by flipping off fans and mocking Daniel Bryan's "Yes" chant.

Twitter exploded with disapproval of what took place at the Royal Rumble. This made for alot of interest going into Monday Night Raw. The show opened with Daniel Bryan confronting Triple H about what the fans wanted. They seemingly decided to bring the crowd's reaction into play as it was heavily mentioned in the opening promo. Overall, Monday Night Raw was very good. There were a few great matches (Kofi/Del Rio & 6 Man Main Event) as well as some outstanding segments. Be sure to check out my full review of the show if you missed it.

On Wednesday, news broke that CM Punk had left WWE. Punk reportedly walked out 30 minutes before Raw went on the air, telling Vince he was "going home". The web has been buzzing ever since about this topic. It's been said that Punk has been sick for months as well as plagued with nagging injuries. This along with built up frustration about his creative direction in the company is said to be the reason for his walk out. Is this a work? Is this real? Who knows - I personally think it's real, check out my article on the topic to see why. It can be viewed here: http://theprowrestlingtruth.blogspot.com/2014/01/thoughts-on-cm-punk-reportedly-leaving.html

Friday Night Smackdown was actually pretty good this week. It featured two qualifying matches for the Elimination Chamber pitting Antonio Cesaro against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger against Christian. Both of those matches were great. However, the main event stole the show as Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, and Rey Mysterio took on The Shield in an action packed match up.

Surprisingly, it's been a pretty decent week as far as match quality goes for WWE. Raw and Smackdown both had atleast two great matches. Hell, Main Event even had a match I enjoyed (Usos & Langston/3MB). Now comes the time to see which matches made it onto my match of the week list. Here are the Top 5 Matches of the Week.

Matches of the Week:

5) Jack Swagger vs. Christian - Smackdown

As they have in the past, Swagger and Christian delivered an outstanding contest. The two have great chemistry together and it was showcased here. A very good back and forth match that was extremely fun to watch.

4) Daniel Bryan, Sheamus & Rey Mysterio vs. The Shield - Smackdown

Just like The Shield's six man match on Raw, this was a great encounter. It comes to no surprise though as they always produce awesome matches. Every man from both teams were hitting on all cylinders in this match. Match of the night for Smackdown this week.

3) Kofi Kingston vs. Alberto Del Rio - RAW

Say what you will about how many times we've seen this - I enjoyed it. Many people have a mental block towards Kingston and Del Rio. What I mean is, they have engrained in their brain that Kofi is a worthless midcarder and that Del Rio is boring so they ignore their matches thus they can't enjoy them. This match was great and I give alot of credit to these guys for bringing the crowd back into it.

2) Daniel Bryan, Sheamus & John Cena vs. The Shield - RAW

The Shield have become known for delivering outstanding six man tag matches and this was no exception. Solid wrestling at a good pace for the first half and complete chaos and nonstop action during the second half of the match. Everybody delivered in this match and it's definitely worth checking out if you missed it.

1) Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt - Royal Rumble

Outstanding opening match to the PPV. Honestly the only outstanding match on the card - period. The crowd was heavily into it which made it even more great. Bryan and Wyatt give me hope for the future of WWE, let's hope WWE will see the talent in both men. But back to the match, it's a hard hitting contest that I would recommend checking out if you didn't see it. Thus why it is the match of the week for this week!

That's it for this week's WWE Week In Review. Comment or Tweet me your thoughts on the topics discussed as well as my choices for Matches of the Week!