The Drifter vs. Dean Ambrose
Elias Samson had his first match on WWE RAW, facing off against Dean Ambrose while The Miz was on commentary. Samson held his own in a very basic scripted match. He was able to showcase his strength and agility, combining some athletic knee strikes with a combination of clotheslines and suplexes. The end of the match saw The Miz hit Samson, giving him a disqualification win. Samson would attack Ambrose and leave him laying.
Even though Elias is used as a small pawn in a much bigger story with Dean and Miz, I thought this made sense. I like how they are going to keep adding pieces to his feud and Samson immediately feels somewhat important in this. Even if he is used for a week or two, having him involved with this feud can give him many options to succeed and go from here. I do think The Miz NEEDS to win the title back at Extreme Rules. He does much more with that strap than Ambrose does.
A Weak Night in the Cruiserweight Division
Two matches took place on WWE RAW that featured the Cruiserweight Division. Neither of the matches did anything for me or made me care about seeing them. Akira Tozawa is a talented wrestler, but his gimmick is awful and his screaming in the world is the most annoying thing I have heard on WWE RAW in quite some time. He can get over by his in-ring ability, not by his ridiculous sounds and grunts in the ring.
Tony Nese, the premiere athlete, was no match for Austin Aries tonight. The number one contender continued to put away his lesser competition en route to facing off against Neville at Extreme Rules. The added stipulation of a Submission Match intrigues me. I want to see what creativity these guys can pull out against one another and see how Neville trumps Last Chancery. With the high flying abilities of each guy, let us not forget that their technical prowess is also really good.
The problem with these two segments tonight is that it does NOTHING to further the feud for the Cruiserweight Championship. Yes, Neville locked the Rings of Saturn on Nese, but is that really enough to make us have to tune in to see the purple ropes twice in one night?
