First of all apologies if this is a bit long to read. My first attempt after all at reviewing a full show. Trying to be concise when you have 3 hours of content to talk about isn’t easy. Anyway lets talk about Raw shall we?

Roman vs Bray first then. Winner is in the chamber. For a match where 95% of people knew the finish going in they did OK. Roman isn’t a bad wrestler and neither is Bray… still makes me sad to think a year ago where Bray was mind. Roman won but you knew that before reading this lbh.

Oh and after the match after being shown throughout it watching backstage the WOKEN one attempted to DELETE Bray. I like these 2 greatly, I was one who for a few months actually fought the pain barrier to watch TNA in order to follow the original BROKEN universe. I paid money to see him perform in the flesh too.

I think we are heading towards a gimmick Final Deletion/House of horros mash up at Mania, which considering is likely to last (all in all) around the 7 hour mark, those of us watching it live I’m sure will be very much greatful for some lighter entertainment.

Jason Jordan and hometown boy Seth Rollins doing a backstage promo next. If you knew the full extent of Jason Jordan’s health issues rn you’d understand whilst I really hope Jordan takes ZERO bumps in the match, they lose and he’s then written off tv for the foreseeable…

Gallows and Anderson closely followed by Finn Balor out next to the ring. The match was against The Revival. Yes sadly no Luke Gallows in this one as he had to sit it out. Although there’s not much substace to this Balor club – Revival feud I have always thought it better for someone to be doing ‘something’ on TV than nothing so lets see where it goes… Balor club won. Obviously.

Backstage next with Sasha and Bayley. Sasha again teasing the much awaited main roster heel turn. I’m so ready for this! It’d do wonders for Bayley and Sasha. Because heel/nxt Sasha Banks was awesome. And it’d give Bayley the boost she needs too if Sasha turns on her.

The cruiserweights next. I won’t say too much because tbh I don’t care. I feel something good is coming though. Having Rockstar Spud (another ex TNA star) … sorry Drake Maverick (?) as gm is something I guess and the tournament for the title ending at Mania makes it a big deal. I guess it’ll be on the pre show but still. For the record Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali beat Drew Gulak and Tony Nese with Cedric pinning Gulak. Drake Maverick was a guest on commentary.

Kurt Angle then came out to announce the participants for the Women’s Elimination Chamber match. He stuttered his way through this promo, albeit he had a lot to remember but as the gm he should know his lines better for me. The big shock here was Mickie James is in the match and not Nia Jax. Angle then explains she will instead face Asuka at the ppv and if she wins it’ll be a triple threat at Wrestlemania.

I dont mind Asuka vs Nia. Keeps Nia out the chamber if you don’t want to go that way and the stipulation makes it worthwhile. It does make me change my mania card predictions, seems now maybe Alexa vs Asuka on Raw and maybe Charlotte vs Becky on Smackdown? Still plenty of time to go and things could change but yes a suprise to me.

Alexa Bliss eventually comes out and has a real fun back and forth on the mic with Angle, Bliss basically playing the whiney, heel card and Angle cleverly using the crowd to help back up his points. I enjoyed it. It did it’s job well.

After this was… oh good…another iphone promo, Cena this time… just stop with these PLEASE! ZZZZZzzzzz….

Next up was Bayley vs Asuka. I saw thse 2 have a great series of matches in NXT and this match was pretty good also. Bayley got a lot of offence in and was on top throughout. I should point out btw (if you don’t know already) I ADORE Asuka. She can do no wrong to me.

Also I wanted to mention that during this match Jonathan Coachman on commentary made a comment which he basically, in reponse to Cole talking about what the 2 participants did in NXT, said that ‘this is different to NXT. The lights are a little brighter here… etc..’ I just felt in was really unnecessary to go out of his way to belittle NXT. NXT is in fact a far better product all round than Raw and Smackdown. The big shows they do are better than those of the main roster for sure. Not cool Coach, not cool.

Anyhow Asuka eventually overcame a Bayley comeback to lock in the submission (which was an exquisitely executed jumping armbar) for the win. The 2 had a handshake after, 2 faces so it made sense. For where it was in the show it was good stuff all round.

An iPhone promo from The Bar followed… just stop…

Miz vs Apollo Crews. Miz did a typically great heel promo before the match. Apollo accompanied by his Titus Worldwide teammates (… good lord… where do I start…). What you’d expect from this. Above average match, Apollo got some cool looking moves in. Miz won. He’s in the chamber.

So Seth and Jason Jordan are backstage and turns out Jordan isn’t medically fit… no suprise to me (for those of you who don’t know Jordan has really serious neck issues and needs surgery. Similar issues to what Edge had. He had to retire after multiple neck issues.). [SEE END OF BLOG FOR UPDATE]. Seth isn’t happy… but I guess they had to write Jordan out the match somehow and this only adds fuel to the story. Seth now needs a new partner… enter… “THE BIG DOG” (Cole, 2017).

So the match is set then… god how awful are Rollins’ trunks btw? His “Iowa’s down” tee was much better. Good hometown pop for Seth too. Roman doing double duty tonight then, he really is the big dog eh? …

This match was 4 talented guys putting on a decent match. No big suprises in terms of moves and tactics particularly from The Bar but it was entertaining enough. Eventually Roman and Sheamus are down in the ring and Cesaro and Rollins are OOA… out comes Jason Jordan. He helps Seth to his feet allowing Reigns to make the hot tag which naturally gets a big pop.

Jordan eventually trips Cesaro which leads to a near fall for Rollins. The Bar then decide they’ve had enough and attempt to take their belts and take the count out. But Jordan stops them… he then strikes Sheamus who had goaded him into it. Sheamus and Cesaro are delighted they’ve got out of jail again, Roman and Seth look on bemused, Jordan looks devastated at realising the consequences of his actions.

Afterwards Seth is backstage fuming with Jordan. Angle then comes in to try and defend his son (his son… ffs…). This leads to Kurt telling his son to go home til he is medically cleared. So we’ll see Jason Jordan next in 2019 then? I don’t mind all this… intrigued to see where it all leads… if Ambrose isn’t fit in time for Mania I’m half expecting Angle to face Seth or Jordan’s behalf… which as long as Angle can walk (unlike at Survivor Series) I’m sure Seth could carry him to a good outing.

Nia Jax vs Jobber next. No explanation needed. You know how this went. After she did an in-ring interview with Renee… my how god awful is the dialogue Nia Jax is given? No way she actually talks like that. Perfect example of someone who doesn’t need a script for her promos. Just let her speak for short, sharp bursts. Much better for monster heels. Long, drawn out dialogues are not.

Another iphone promo… Braun Strowman… STOP THE IPHONE PROMOS!!! End of.

Next match was Sonya Deville vs Mickie James. Sonya accompanied by her absolution teammates Mandy Rose (wow… just wow…) and Paige (who fyi is as good as retired. WWE just unsure what to do with her and apparently Paige hasn’t taken the news she’s got to retire too well. Another neck issue. Wrestling since you’re 14 taking it’s toll eventually I guess. Sad stuff.).

This was decent for what it was. Crowd didn’t care too much but putting the experienced James in this role makes sense. Although I’d have thought the match would’ve been better for Mandy Rose, saying that Deville has a win over Sasha Banks a few weeks back so they clearly like her a lot. Mickie eventually won with a roll up, which I thought was the wrong result but the Absolution beat down on Mickie afterwards made up for it.

Real suprise that Alexa Bliss then came down to drag Mickie James out of trouble. I presume they will play on this over the next few weeks as Bliss tries to gain allies going in to the chamber.

Main event up next. Commentary selling all night that half the winners of previous Chamber matches have entered last or second last so going hard on the prize for the winner of this match entering last.

Also next week there will be a 2nd chance match to enter the Elimination Chamber. Balor vs Wyatt vs Hardy vs Crews. Has to be Finn surely? Interesting to note that no mention of Kane who also lost a chamber qualifying match, I’d presume Glenn Jacobs is back doing politics for a bit now. Rollins was also scheduled to be in this match so I’d expect his absence to tie into whatever he does going into Wrestlemania. He missed the Royal Rumble match last year as a by-product of his Mania story so not unusual for him.

Should be a fun one this triple threat, 3 great talents. Elias does his usual thing with the crowd; Spotlight, playing a guitar, sat on his stool. Man… he’s soooooo over! Such a big surprise just how well he has done on Raw. Particularly to those of us who saw him in NXT. Triple H himself has previously said Elias all along in NXT was simply perfecting his gimmick in preparation for the main roster. A complete reverse in his fortunes really as usually a gimmick that is hugely over in NXT often for one reason or another falls flat on the main roster (Tyler Breeze, Bo Dallas, The Ascension come to mind).

Back to Elias. Typically loud response from the crowd. Always delights me how Elias sticks to the heel character by responding to crowd cheers by slagging off the crowd/town he is in. Great stuff.

Cena out next. Usual reaction for him for the last decade. “Doo doo doo doo… JOHN CENA SUCKS… etc. Etc.”. And then the star of the show… BRAAAAAAUUUUUNNNNN!!!

Anyone who has watched Raw for the last 18 months or so, and has no knowledge of any reports outside of what is shown on TV, would assume that the main man in WWE is Braun Strowman. You’d assume it is he who will win the Elimination Chamber. He who will face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. Right? Well… we know that wont happen but it should! Definitely! His transformation from Wyatt family enforcer who was as green as garden peas to being the star of the flagship show has been extraordinary. All credit to him.

The match itself wasn’t the longest, 2 ad breaks during it didn’t help. Elias begun doing the classic heel tactic of shying away from Braun as much as he can. Cena tried to use his power on Braun but to no evail. I really like the dynamic between these 3. A good mix. Eventually Cena and Elias worked together to try and take out Braun; Cena used steel steps (yes, JOHN CENA used steel steps on a fellow good guy!) on Braun, Elias smashed his guitar over him and then Cena did the AA to Strowman onto the steps. So Braun was taken out… but obviously he’ll be back… this is WWE after all…

So Cena and Elias exchange offence in the ring with Strowman laid out on the outside. Eventually in culminates in Cena going for a 5 knuckle shuffle but he runs into a Braun running powerslam (who saw that coming… not me… not at all…). Braun goes to do the same to Elias but he manages to make Braun fall to the outside and with Cena still down Elias capitalises to pin the downed Cena for the win. Yes indeed ELIAS PINNED JOHN CENA! Immediately afterwards Braun deliveres his slam to Elias. Then one to Cena, then one to Elias. Then another to Elias.

I don’t mind this at all. Neither Cena nor Braun needed this win or (as commentary would have you believe it) the ‘coveted’ final entrant spot. Elias needed this a great deal more and it more than gives him worth of a spot in the chamber. And Braun ending the segment strong solidifies him as the ‘favourite’ going into the match. Or at least WWE want you to think Braun is the favourite, we all know he’s not in reality sadly. Braun ends the show standing tall.

And that was Raw. Good show. No huge suprises but an entertaining enough show. Lots of time still to build to Elimination Chamber. Fascinated now more by the Women’s Chamber than the men’s. The dynamics in the men’s should be fun but the likely result of the big dog earning his 4th consecutive Mania main event makes it already fighting a tough battle to be a good and compelling match. We shall see.

Key points to take home:

– Roman is getting a push… apparently……

– The cruiserweights still don’t fill me with any excitement

– The Women’s Elimination Chamber match is wide open now result wise. You’d presume Bliss retains but should be fun

– The IC champion going after the world title is something which I don’t like. But The Miz is world title level so I’ll accept it… for now…

– Raw is still the Braun show. And needs to be forever and ever.

Conclusion:

Lets see what the build to Elimination Chamber in the coming weeks brings. Lots of interesting potential results for a few different storylines, lets hope WWE do them justice. We can only hope.

Josh.

UPDATE: Early this evening UK time (Tuesday 6th February) reports have circulated that Jason Jordan’s wife has put a Facebook status out stating his injury isn’t as serious as some are saying, and that he will be out only for a short period of time. Remains to be seen if this is genuinely from his wife and also if it’s true. Only time will tell.