“I’m Better Than You, And You Know It”

"Every Man Has A Price For The Million Dollar Man"

"The Best There Is, The Best There Was, And The Best There Ever Will Be"

"Whatcha Gonna Do, When Hulkamania Runs Wild On You"

"And That's The Bottom Line Because Stone Cold Said So"

<h3><strong>A WrestleMania Main Event Rematch</strong></h3>
<p>John Cena came out and did an expectedly good promo, whipping up the San Jose crowd and also announcing his motives entering the Elimination Chamber – he wanted to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Two birds with one stone – a good opening segment for WWE RAW.</p>
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<p>What followed was a good Cena vs Miz match, much better than the one a certain Dwayne Johnson interfered in. Bo and Curtis were banned from ringside, which was a blessing – it is so hard to watch a Miz match without his cronies nowadays. But fortunately, Miz did not get treated as if he were Baron Corbin from last year’s Summerslam. The Awesome One actually put up a good fight against The Face That Runs the Place. He even kicked out of Cena’s Attitude Adjustment and successfully delivered his Stone Crushing Finale! But then again, this match re-ignited the fuel for our little nuisance – finisher kick-outs. We never like the trope being used on any other show than WrestleMania.</p>
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<p>Overall, this show was off to an auspicious start.</p>
<p><strong>A side note:</strong> The Elimination Chamber logo looked Ug. Ly. But the Nerd-o-Meter thing was cool.</p>
<h3><strong>When The Nerds Got Mad</strong></h3>
<p>Gallows and Anderson, you see what happens when you call The Revival nerds? They will chop your legs off from behind, and then kick your ass in a tag team match. You know, since they are actual nerds in team-fighting.</p>
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<p>The Revival got a decisive victory against two-thirds of Balor Club tonight, and to us, it was a solid step on the road to redesign and rebuild Wilder and Dawson. Seth, we need two of those T-shirts, pronto.</p>
<p>The coda from this? Never, EVER, call The Revival nerds.</p>
<h3><strong>Back To Where He Belongs</strong></h3>
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<p>The promo segment between Seth Rollins and Kurt Angle had a huge take-away: Seth Rollins is back in the main event picture. And it was about time he did, too. From the rarely-appearing Brock Lesnar, to the likes of Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, John Cena, and a (sadly) currently injured Samoa Joe, and some stand-out upper midcarders such as Finn Balor and The Miz, the WWE Universal Championship scene is busier and more exciting than ever. We felt excited about the inclusion of Seth Rollins to the second-chance Fatal-4-Way later on in the night, since it meant something much, much more substantial. Welcome back to the fold, Seth.</p>
<p></p>
<h3><strong>Friendly Competition Is Good</strong></h3>
<p>That was Kurt Angle’s reasoning when announcing the match on Twitter, and tonight, he was proven right. It was a quality PPV-level battle between two women who knew each other more than we know our right hands. WWE did not pull the “losing in hometown” move tonight, allowing Bayley to dowse herself in a little bit of that hometown glory.</p>
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<p>We also enjoyed what transpired following the match. Banks was still hesitant in hugging out with Bayley when both were pummeled by Nia Jax. Again, this was a stone that killed two birds. The sneak attack kept us on a cliffhanger about the Banks-Bayley situation, while re-establishing Nia as a dominant monster of a woman. Now that her man is gone, she can focus on the women’s division with undivided attention.</p>
<h3><strong>Team Fight Mentality</strong></h3>
<p>We were pretty sure that Alexa had turned face, and we had more reasons to back up our claim that just the plain obvious. First, Alexa was not wearing her merch T-shirt when fighting. Nope, put your giggities away – if you look back at what Alexa was wearing during her heel days, especially the later stretch, it was only at big PPVs like Survivor Series did she wrestle in just the two-piece attire. Second, Alexa was using more aesthetically-pleasing moves, such as the double knees. Too bad the Bliss-James reunion did not go so well.</p>
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<p>But we liked this match, especially the part when Sonya pulled Alexa’s legs from underneath when Mickie was about to make the tag. It showed the (on-screen) improvement of Absolution and their team mentality – Rose and Deville were starting to become a unit to be reckoned with.</p>
<h3><strong>Top-Notch Music Show</strong></h3>
<p>We all thought it was going to be just another slightly-better-than-usual promo from Elias, but boy were we wrong. This was, by a far margin, the most entertaining segment WWE has produced in a long time. Braun Strowman was strumming A FREAKING BASS. And after a bit of brawling, the result of which we should all know by now, Braun proceeded to smash said bass squarely on Elias’ back, leaving him down and out cold.</p>
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<p>Fantastic stuff.</p>
<p></p>
<h3><strong>The Big Dog Prevails</strong></h3>
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<p>Roman Reigns took on Sheamus after the latter made fun of how the former’s buddy could not challenge for The Bar’s championship as long as they still had it. Of course, Reigns won, even after Cesaro tried to interfere. The match had a reason, the right man won, and the bout itself was a good power-based affair, so we are not complaining.</p>
<h3><strong>A Tie?</strong></h3>
<p>And no, it was not the one on Dana’s top. It was the result of the almost-great Fatal-5-Way match that ended the show. Finn Balor and Seth Rollins both pinned Bray Wyatt after a Tower of Doom spot, and the referee could not decide on a single victor. We thoroughly enjoy this match, and not just because of the intriguing outcome that led to must-see television next week. Apollo Crews, the one we all thought was going to job the entire match, actually looked quite strong. At one point, he was going toe-to-toe with Seth Rollins, giving all a glimmer of hope that he might actually win the final slot to the Elimination Chamber. Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt’s interactions were peppered throughout the match, with the highlight being Matt Hardy applauding when Bray was doing the back-bending pose.</p>
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<p>Nice touch of creativity, WWE. You guys are going in the right direction. We know this was something that you do not do often anymore, but we have patience, so take it easy. One week at a time, one storyline at a time. To top it all off, the double-winner situation is surely going to play into the full-fledged Balor vs Rollins rivalry down the line, and we are all too ready for it to happen.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> When this review was being written, there was a new development: Kurt Angle had decided to make the Elimination Chamber match a SEVEN-MAN AFFAIR! He did not specify whether a 5<sup>th</sup> pod would be built into the Chamber or would the match start with 3 people. But just take a look at that line-up! The Miz vs John Cena vs Braun Strowman vs Elias vs Roman Reigns vs Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins – we still cannot believe this will only be a #1 Contender match. WWE, you guys must be really going all-out on this. Great work building up hype heading to WrestleMania.</p>
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<h3><strong>Overall Review:</strong></h3>
<p>Unbelievable. We did not have any significant segments we did not like at all tonight! Except for the blasphemy that was finisher kick-outs, as well as the ugly Elimination Chamber logo and a letdown from Dana Brooke’s upperwear, there was really nothing to complain about. The most delightful part of the night (and in months) was definitely Braun and Elias’ musical performances, but other segments such as the main event confusion and the show-opener match between The Miz and John Cena delivered, too. Even the women’s division, a frequent source of nuisance of ours, had proper character developments, especially Bayley and Banks. We thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s offering from the red brand, and it is safe to say that this has overthrown the show back in mid-January to become the best WWE RAW of 2018 so far.</p>

WWE Monday Night RAW Review & Results: February 12th, 2018

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