The Miz def. Wade Barrett by DQ in a decent match. Barrett has the trench coat back for his entrance, which is awesome. Fandango came off the top turnbuckle with a diving leg drop while Miz had Barrett in the Figure Four. I'm glad to see they didn't just immediately throw Miz and Fandango together to play off SummerSlam. Instead they did it naturally, allowing for time to build – we'll likely get the actual match at Night of Champions, but I would be shocked if WWE was patient enough to wait until then.
Grade: B-
.jpg)
-Brad Maddox informs Stephanie McMahon that Daniel Bryan is back in the building, before she walks into Vince McMahon's office. How good is Brad Maddox? He's like a poor man's Eric Bischoff circa Raw post-Attitude Era, but he plays the corporate puppet so well. Glad they finally found a place for him on Raw.
-Vince and Stephanie McMahon are in the ring to start our final segment of the night, and Triple H comes down with the entire active roster (minus Orton, Bryan, Punk and Cena) waiting on the stage. Vince is happy that his son-in-law finally came around to his way of thinking. Hunter insults the fans, calling them "short sighted" and says he screwed Daniel Bryan to ensure the future of the WWE. He introduces the new WWE Champion – the coal that has become a diamond – "The Viper" Randy Orton.
-Orton makes his way down past the entire locker room. The coal/diamond quote is important, because ten years ago in 2003, Triple H formed Evolution and called Randy Orton "the coal that would be squeezed into a diamond." Looks like things really have come full circle. Orton shakes hands with Hunter and Vince, and hugs Stephanie to prove they've buried their history. They invite Daniel Bryan down to the ring, but he is attacked by The Shield. Triple H tells the Shield to let Bryan into the ring, and he slowly crawls through the ropes while Triple H taunts him, but Orton nails him with an RKO. Raw ends with the McMahon Family and the WWE Champion celebrating in the middle of the ring.
This is the kind of episode that proves fans don't care about hours of great wrestling, so long as WWE knows how to put on a good story. To be fair, SummerSlam took its toll on a lot of people, and it was absolutely necessary to use some of the enhancement talent like 3MB, and to keep matches short for everyone who worked the PPV. This is most likely why Miz and Wade Barrett worked the "main event" match.
Triple H and Randy Orton were made to be heels. The McMahon family were always best when ruling the WWE with an iron first; none of this "we love the WWE Universe" garbage. Daniel Bryan has been made into the top babyface over the course of the summer. Following close behind is CM Punk. How nice is to actually LIKE your two top babyfaces, and hate the two top heels again? (For all intents and purposes, we're going to say heel #1 is the McMahon camp, and heel #2 is whatever Paul Heyman is doing)
Not that I don't like John Cena, but it will be a nice change of pace to have a Cena-free Raw for the next four to six months. Again, he deserve that time off, and I'll be anticipating his return like crazy come January. When Shawn Michaels won the WWF Championship for the first time, Bret Hart took time off to give him space. Hulk Hogan did the same thing for both Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior. When making new babyfaces, you have to give the poster boy some time away. I don't think we've seen the end of the Cena Era by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not sure he'll ever be the dedicated focal point of professional wrestling; times are changing, and I think we see a different Cena in 2014.
Raw was great, albeit a little light on the wrestling. What they did have wasn't altogether that impressive. From a storyline perspective though, they need to keep this momentum going. They have one of the best storylines in years going with the McMahon family and Randy Orton as the corporate champion. Daniel Bryan is over as hell, and can be the Stone Cold to this equation.
Raw Grade: B+
