If you've never been to Monday Night Raw before, the first thing you should do is get there early. WWE tapes "WWE Superstars" (yes, that's still a show) half an hour prior to Raw. The fans who got there early were treated to 3 matches: Tons of Funk vs The Primetime Players, The Miz vs Heath Slater... and, in the biggest disappointment & shocker of the night: Ryback vs Brooklyn Brawler. Yes, you read that right: WWE blew using Brooklyn Brawler vs Ryback on SUPERSTARS... and it was a classic squash. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to see Brawler, but COME THE FUCK ON. How dare you blow that on Superstars, which nobody will see, and against Ryback no less. Ugh. That started out the night on a negative note.
Stop me if you've heard this one: no matter how many times you've attended a WWE TV taping, the pyro still scares the fuck out of you. *raises hand*. I won't lie: I'm 23 years old, and that first pyro going off makes me jump. It's loud. Really loud. And scary. But after the first bang, it's awesome. Brad Maddox started the show off, and got... boos? Come on Brooklyn, I thought you were smarter than that. Thankfully, the crowd smartened up when Cena's music hit. Good opening promo, and big news: John Cena would get to select his Summerslam opponent. Randy Orton & Faaaaaaaaaaaaaandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangooooooooooooooooooo interrupted, and there was much Fandangoing happening in the crowd, including from me. Unfortunately, RKO vs Fandango disappointed, and was boring as all hell. So boring in fact, a Randy Savage chant broke out. You're welcome, WWE Universe.
You all watched the show, so I won't go segment by segment. Brad Maddox announcing Y2J vs RVD got a MAJOR pop, including from me. I badly wanted to see that match. Mark Henry came out and... cut a babyface promo. He was then promptly destroyed by The Shield, which got a big pop. Henry completed his babyface turn on Smackdown, which disappoints me. Heel Mark Henry works so well, his momentum may die. R-Truth inexplicably came out for a match, and Brooklyn was very pleased to "What's Up?" him. As soon as he gets into his shtick, the lights go out, you hear the buzzards hum, and the Wyatts appear. Cue me going apeshit insane, especially when Bray picked up a mic and cut an AMAZING promo... his first in a WWE ring. Win? I think so.
RVD vs Chris Jericho was an awesome wrestling match, the crowd was dead during the boring parts (they were no "Raw is Jersey", and to be fair there were very few rest holds in this match), but overall it clearly got match of the night. John Cena ended up choosing Daniel Bryan to face him at Summerslam, which got the biggest and loudest sustained "YES!" chants I've ever heard. Awesome, awesome moment.
Oh yeah, and then there was CM Punk, Paul Heyman and *puts on Heyman voice* BRRRRRRRRRRROCK LESNARRRRRRRRRRRR. That crowd was hot for Punk, and that promo... wow. When he called Heyman a son of a bitch, we went nuts. It oozed special. Lesnar's music hit and you knew it was going down. I had chills watching it. What a beatdown, great start to the Punk-Lesnar feud. I'm sold on that match for Summerslam. That segment, to me, is what I'll remember most about Raw that night.
Overall, the show was pretty good. It was of course better being there LIVE, but not bad for a Summerslam start. I'm excited to see where things go from here, and while I had a blast... it'll be nice to sit at home and talk some wrestling with my buddies again.