The WWE crowned a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the TLC pay-per-view when WWE champion Randy Orton beat world champion John Cena to unify the two major titles. Tonight was the first WWE Monday Night Raw of the new era and here is the WWE Monday Night Raw recap.
The Breakdown
The show opens with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in the ring and all the superstars at the top of the stage. They then call out the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton. After Orton came to the ring, he started talking about how great he is and how no one is better than him. John Cena then took a mic and said that if Orton was really the greatest, he would defend his title tonight against Daniel Bryan. Orton said he doesn’t have to listen to anyone, but Stephanie McMahon said they had to listen to The Authority and they booked the title match.
The first match on the card saw Cody Rhodes and Goldust fight a fan voted team in a non-title tag team match. The fans voted for The Big Show and Rey Mysterio over The Real Americans and Ryback & Curtis Axel. The end came when Big Show knocked out Goldust and then Rey hit the splash from Show’s shoulders for the win.
Bad New Barrett is out next for more of his new bad gimmick.
Backstage, Randy Orton cries about having to fight Daniel Bryan tonight and The Authority say they have his back.
The next match, Fandango took on Dolph Ziggler in a rematch from the WWE TLC pre-show match where Fandango beat Ziggler. In this match, Ziggler got revenge and beat Fandango with a surprise roll up.
The Real Americans took on Mark Henry and Intercontinental Champion Big E Langston in the next match. The match was a longer, solid match, with the end coming after Big E broke up the Antonio Cesaro Big Swing attempt on Henry and then hitting the Big Ending to pick up the win. Fantastic match.
Another tag team match was next, which makes three tag team matches in the first four, as Tons of Funk took on Curtis Axel and Ryback. The Brodus Clay heel turn continued as he refused a tag from Tensai and Ryback won the match with the Shell Shock. After the match, Clay splashed Tensai twice and then walked off when R-Truth and Xavier Woods came to the rescue. After the match, R-Truth and Xavier Woods danced with the Funkadactyls as Brodus Clay watched in anger.
CM Punk came out next for a promo. He talked about beating The Shield last night, but said that it was not The Shield he was mad at because he knows Triple H is behind everything. He called out Triple H or said he would use the mic to make an example of Triple H. Shawn Michaels came out instead. Punk said that whenever Triple H wanted to come out and say what Stephanie told him to, he would be waiting.
Shawn then said that CM Punk should be mad at him and not Triple H because he is the one who kicked Punk in the face last week. Punk said he respects the hell out of Shawn Michaels and said the 15-year-old CM Punk was happy to get kicked by HBK. However, Punk said if Shawn kicked him again, he would kick him back. Shawn then called out The Shield to be CM Punk’s opponents in the next match.
The fans got to vote for CM Punk’s partners in the match and they chose The Usos. The Shield got their win back after last night’s loss when they won the match after Roman Reigns speared CM Punk to get the pin.
The Wyatt Family cut a promo next.
In the next match, AJ Lee, Tamina and Alicia Fox beat The Bella Twins and Natalya when it looked like Tamina legitimately kicked a Bella in the face and then AJ Lee got a quick pin.
The main event was next as Randy Orton wrestled Daniel Bryan in a non-title match. That was a disappointment. However, the match was a great one that lasted around 20 minutes. Bryan looked like a million bucks in the match and just when it looked like he was going to pick up the win, Orton hit a low blow for a intentional disqualification. This means that Orton is 0-1 since winning the title, and that loss came to Daniel Bryan.
John Cena ran in and attacked Orton at the end, but when he went to check on Bryan, Orton hit the RKO from behind and then celebrated with his titles as the show went off the air.
The Analysis
It was interesting that the WWE had a title unification match and promised one unified champion, but didn’t have a new belt prepared, as Orton was still carrying both titles. It was nice to see John Cena challenge Orton to battle Daniel Bryan in his first match as champion, but it was disappointing that it was a non-title match. However, as a whole, this episode of WWE Monday Night Raw had some fantastic matches. This was actually a really good Raw when it came to in-ring action, but did little to further any storylines, seeming more like a rehash of the WWE TLC PPV from the night before.
