“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>Foam Fest</strong></h3>
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<p>Oh my oh my oh my oh my… The more things change, the more they stay the same…Vince McMahon was still the selfish, egocentric old *sshole we (loved to hate), and Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out to cause carnage was something we could never got tired of. He barely spoke a word – IT DOESN’T MATTER. His charisma was still there, so was his menacing look. And then he did what he did best – dishing out Stunners to the McMahons and smashing beer cans on the second rope to celebrate. You really have to appreciate those nostalgia segments when done right. The pop created by 15990 fans in the Barclays Center tonight must be one of the biggest in the entire year.</p>
<h3><strong>Every Woman for Herself</strong></h3>
<p>So the next segment was a 4-on-4 tag team match between the good girls (Bayley, Sasha Banks, Asuka, and Mickie James) and the baddies (Nia Jax, Alicia Fox, Sonya Deville, and Mandy Rose). Seeing Paige out at ringside but not wrestling broke our collective hearts. Anyways, after a nondescript match, Banks put Alicia in the Bank Statement to get the victory to her team. Nothing special, at least until the post-match celebration when the victors were posing along one side of the ring, and Asuka tossed the other 3 over the top rope!</p>
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<p>We absolutely loved the fact that Asuka showed her aggressiveness even towards her teammates. Through this segment, The Empress of Tomorrow was further positioned as the favorite to win the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble Match, and made the match much more anticipated. Super short interactions, many goals achieved. Absolutely nothing to complain about so far.</p>
<h3><strong>Truly. Rest. In. Peace.</strong></h3>
<p>We fail to see the confusion on the part of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler regarding the last words of The Undertaker. The last sentence meant that The Phenom had officially retired. Since he would not be around anymore, his opponents could now truly live without fear of being destroyed by The Undertaker. In other words, they could “Truly. Rest. In. Peace.” Not so good commentary by the duo so far. Might just be mic rust, for all we know. Even The Undertaker’s point in his promo was not too valid. Why said “all had failed” when Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns are still living, breathing, and literally would be appearing on the very same show?</p>
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<p>Anyways, we were just nitpicking a bit. The atmosphere at the Hammerstein Ballroom was surreal, and the stage was replicated very close to the classic set of ’93. Despite our slight criticism about ‘Taker’s segment, we still very much enjoyed and cherished his presence on Monday Night RAW.</p>
<p></p>
<h3><strong>Awesome 8<sup>th</sup></strong></h3>
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<p>The show kept its momentum and even elevated further with an excellent, must-see Intercontinental Championship match between The Miz and the defending champion Roman Reigns. The hot crowd, even though they booed Roman and cheered for Miz, only helped elevate the intensity of the match further. This was all you could expect from a Miz match – almost every trick of the book was used: legs on rope when pinning, distractions from cronies, handful of tights, etc. But it was an AWESOME twist to the exposed turnbuckle trick that led to Miz winning his 8<sup>th</sup> Intercontinental Championship. Reigns was barely a presence in the match – in this match, Miz was the star. And he deserved every bit of it. Mizanin Jr., you have a father to be proud of.</p>
<h3><strong>Sneak Peep</strong></h3>
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<p>Captain Charisma was back with the intention to host his signature Christian Peep Show with his guests Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan to talk about their upcoming title defense at Royal Rumble, but he could not do much. Most of the talking and the action were from the RAW Tag Team Champions and The Bar. And that was a good thing – you had an established talk show format to play out your segment, and the active talents were the ones doing most of the work. Plus, you got the nostalgia moments with Christian.</p>
<p>Essentially, best of all worlds. Even better, the segment added more complexity to the storyline. Jason Jordan came out tonight, he wanted to thank the legends of RAW (especially the tag division), but he was denied the chance to do so and was ridiculed by The Bar. The one time Jason seemed humble, he got treated like dirt, by both his adversaries and the fans. That could be an interesting fold in the development of the Jason Jordan character. Plus he played to the crowd like a maestro tonight. Good job, buddy. You kept impressing us every single week.</p>
<h3><strong>WOOOOOOOOOOOmen</strong></h3>
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<p>Alexa Bliss encountered Charlotte Flair (and his dad), and this made us salivate to the possibility between a champion vs champion match at WrestleMania, or Summerslam. Either way, that would make for a good PPV showing. The short, little segment served to highlight both women’s personality, and Ric Flair’s part at the end enhanced Charlotte’s legitimacy even more. Vince, we know you are still dizzy from Austin’s Stunner, but try to remember to write down “Alexa Bliss vs Charlotte” on the script-writers’ dashboard. Here is a little formula to help you: Alexa Bliss + Charlotte = $$$.</p>
<p></p>
<h3><strong>WOOOOOOOOOOOken. And Broken</strong></h3>
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<p>How fast can the show halt its momentum? The first 6-7 segments had been nothing short of awesomeness, and it seemed like we were heading to an A+ show. But now, Bray Wyatt had a clean win over WOKEN Matt Hardy? Ladies and gentlemen, that was how you totally destroyed a character’s credibility. DAMN, even TNA booked this character better. At least he was better protected. Sure, sure, it was good Bray Wyatt got a big win on a grand stage. But this was not the right time. When you resurrect a hugely OVAH gimmick, you were supposed to protect it. And now, in WOKEN Matt’s first match against someone who was not a jobber, he lost. Clean. He may still have some degree of support from the fans that knew about Matt Hardy outside of WWE, but to those who did not, WOKEN Matt came across as merely another quirky gimmick, hastily built during Jeff Hardy’s recovery so that Bray could have something to feed on. And why was this match even put on this show? Was it not supposed to happen at the Rumble?</p>
<p>So many things wrong with this segment…</p>
<h3><strong>Walking Straight to WrestleMania</strong></h3>
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<p>After the Elias – John Cena segment, one thing became very clear: Cena vs Elias had been set for WrestleMania 34. Elias had an above-average “song” tonight, making fun of many legends (including The Undertaker), as well as Jimmy Fallon. John Cena came in and defended Brooklyn even though he was from Boston, so there you have it. But still, the brawl that ensued cemented the roles for this feud heading towards the April supercard. Let us hope that there will be more complexity added to this rivalry, though.</p>
<h3><strong>Was Heath Slater Tough Enough?</strong></h3>
<p>We love the progression of the little story of Rhyno wanting to toughen up Heath Slater shown tonight. They had a match with Titus Worldwide (they debuted a cool taunt tonight, and Dana still looked amazing in the secretary outfit), but right after commercial, The Dudley Boyz interrupted. So, seizing the opportunity, Rhyno and Titus Worldwide tossed the hapless Slater into the ring to go through a table. A little more nostalgia from The Dudley Boyz never hurt, too.</p>
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<p>But damn, D-Von put on some weight, yo.</p>
<h3><strong>Stop. Saying. Kami.</strong></h3>
<p>AJ Styles’ interview with Mean Gene Okerlund was slightly fierier than your average backstage segment, plus we got some flashbacks to the good ol’ days when commentators actually had characters. Charlie, Renee, and everyone else, take notes. But we downgraded the segment as soon as we heard the word “Kami”, since it reminded us of the ridicule that was the WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble. 2-on-1? What the hell was that? You crafted all these matches to find 1 SINGLE winner – Money in the Bank, Elimination Chamber, and ironically, THE VERY MATCH THAT CAME TO NAME THE PPV THIS SUNDAY, and here we are, facing a very real possibility of having a duo WWE champion in 8 days. You know what, we ran out of things to say.</p>
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<p>Let us just pray that “Kami” will not pull a Lay-Cool this Sunday.</p>
<p></p>
<h3><strong>Too Fricking Sweet</strong></h3>
<p>It was a slight mess – pretty much characteristic of anything that involved The Kliq. Gallows and Anderson all of a sudden quickly disposed of The Revival, and this destroyed more credibility in Dash and Dawson than it built in Gallows and Anderson. The Revival had just returned from a long hiatus, and needed to re-establish themselves in the tag division. This quick loss pretty much sent The Revival back to square 1. Now they had to prove themselves to mainstream fans all over again. Or else they would just turn into jobbers and become one of NXT’s derailed hype train.</p>
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<p>Or maybe, we could just have taken this with a grain of salt, and seen this as a fun little match that served as background to the DX reunion (and Razor Ramon) nostalgia fest. No, we cannot take this with a grain of salt. You know why? Because it was…TOO SWEET! *Ba-dum-tss*</p>
<h3><strong>Broken Record</strong></h3>
<p>About 5 minutes was all Braun Strowman needed to once again demonstrate his dominance against Brock Lesnar, and this time, he had the chance to showcase it to more than just Kurt Angle, but also the assortment of wrestlers from both brands and some returnees. Compared to what happened the previous two weeks, Lesnar being slammed through the announcement table seemed little more than a flashback to the Summerslam Fatal 4-Way Match. Nonetheless, the fun little brawl was enough to show everyone the pecking order heading into this Sunday’s clash: Kane &lt; Brock Lesnar &lt; BRAUUUUN Strowman.</p>
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<p>A surprisingly mundane way to end the special episode of Monday Night RAW.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Overall Review:</strong></h3>
<p>RAW’s 25<sup>th</sup> Anniversary show had a great first hour, or even first half, with segments, story-line progressions, and the Reigns-Miz match that kept us on our feet. But then the show slowed down and failed to regain its momentum. Even a Braun Strowman smashing segment at the end failed to rivet up an audience that was rather fatigued from all the nostalgia shot at them for the previous three hours (To be honest, that Strowman – Lesnar – Kane segment did not offer any fascinating interactions).</p>
<p>Special praise must be given for the women’s division, however, as finally we had someone to keep a close eye on come the Women’s Rumble. Besides that, another WrestleMania feud seemed to be moving to another gear, and there were little redundant segments throughout the show. This was a well-organized, decently-booked show, and the legends were surely sent home happy.</p>

WWE RAW 25th Anniversary Review & Results: January 22nd, 2018

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