WWE Monday Night Raw Review - July 7th, 2014

WWE Monday Night Raw Review - July 7th, 2014
The show opens with Roman Reigns. He delivered a really good promo and him opening the show was a nice change of pace from the usual Authority stuff. Kane came out and he got into a brawl with Reigns which resulted in security coming out to separate them. Nice opening segment with the highlight being Reigns spearing Finlay haha.

1) The Usos vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
We've seen these two teams clash several times over the past few months and they always produce great matches. In my opinion, this was their best encounter yet. The crowd was on fire and the action was non-stop. After an epic series of big moves and near falls, Luke Harper & Erick Rowan pick up the win. I think it's time for them to get the tag titles. Awesome match to start the show.

Alicia Fox and Nikki Bella were supposed to have a match with both women having one hand tied behind their back, but Alicia attacked Nikki right after she got her hand tied. Fox beat down Nikki for awhile and did her usual crazy antics. I guess you could call this entertaining because Alicia is so unpredictable, but the crowd was chanting "boring" so take it for what you will.

2) Rob Van Dam vs. Rusev
Nice little match here. I'm guessing that Swagger couldn't go to Canada for this show which is why they went with a pre-taped promo from Zeb to keep that story going. Rusev and RVD worked well together. Most entertaining Rusev match since he's debuted easily. Fun bout.

3) Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton
I was happy that this match was booked because I missed the Smackdown match and because that match ended in DQ. This was a great match, Ambrose and Orton worked well together aside from one or two botches. One of those being a major botch on Orton's part. Besides that, this was a fantastic match. Wouldn't mind seeing these two clash again in the future, but not too soon because the worst thing WWE could do is wear this match out. Great bout to keep this show going on a high pace.

4) Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler
Ah, I personally never get tired of seeing these two wrestle each other. Ziggler is great against anyone and Del Rio is a guy he's had some of his best matches with over the years. That being said, they put on a great match here. Fandango's outside interference was good for storyline progression, but nothing else. Not a big fan of his gimmick, but atleast Ziggler is being put in a decently well thought out storyline instead of jobbing. Really good match AND storyline progression here. This has been a fantastic show so far especially in the match quality department.

Bret Hart made his appearance at this point in the show only to be interrupted by Damien Sandow dressed up as him. "Damien Sandhart" is what he called himself. These series of comedy segments with Sandow have been pretty funny. It's better than him not being booked, but last year at this time he was in a great feud with Cody Rhodes and looked to be headed for a World Title. It's so sad to see how far he's fallen. Hopefully he can take on a more serious role sometime soon.

5) Chris Jericho vs. The Miz
Decent match here. Not as good as the first four bouts of the evening, but it delivered as expected. Jericho got alot of his signature moves in and it was nice seeing him back in the ring. He locked in the Walls of Jericho deep on the Miz for a submission victory. The real highlight came after the match as Bray Wyatt came out. Wyatt was his usual awesome self and Jericho cutting him off was epic. Fanatastic segment with great promos from both men. Can't wait for this feud to pick up some more steam.

6) Paige & AJ Lee vs. Naomi & Cameron
I was excited for this match because AJ, Paige, and Naomi are all great in the ring. Plus there's several good storylines in this one match which is rare for the Divas. Despite all of that, the crowd was hardly into it which hurt the match. Naomi and Cameron brawl while Paige & AJ seem to be getting along well. Odd booking for AJ & Paige and logical booking for Naomi & Cameron.

7) Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston
This match again? Guess Cesaro needs to get his victory back. He looked great here as well as Kofi. Just like their match last week it was very entertaining, but Kofi won via roll up again which is pretty annoying. On top of that, Big E ran to the ring to save Kofi from a Cesaro beat down. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Cesaro should be in feuds with more relevant characters. The only thing Big E and Kofi have done in the past two months is get squashed by Rusev. Why should the Swiss Superman be intimidated by them? Dumb booking in my opinion, but hopefully this is just stalling until Battleground where Cesaro will win the IC Title.

8) Bo Dallas vs. El Torito
Another waste. Dallas is funny and needs to get over as a heel, but this should have been and could have been saved for Smackdown. I wish this time would have been given to Rollins & Cena or something more important.

9) John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
This was fun while it lasted. Not as good as their match on Smackdown last December, but it was entertaining none the less. As soon as I saw that they only had ten minutes to work with, I knew this was gonna end in a DQ with an overbooked finish. That's exactly what happened. The expected shenanigans with Kane and Orton then an attempted Rollins cash in only for Ambrose to stop him again. Reigns and Cena stand in the ring to close the show.

Overall thoughts: The match quality was a highlight here. The first four matches of the evening are all worth checking out. After that the show slowed down a bit only to pick up during the Jericho/Wyatt segment. That was the last high point of the show until Cena & Rollins had a fun, but short encounter then came the dreaded overbooked, but predictable/logical closing moments. The Reigns/Cena staredown was a bit intriguing though. So I guess that's a plus. The bottom line here is check out the first four matches, Jericho/Wyatt segment, and Rollins/Cena if you missed the show tonight. Good show, but not as good as last week. It started hot, but started drag in the long run with some unneccesary filler. As a whole, I enjoyed it though.