WWE RAW Report (September 22, 2014): Dean Ambrose in a box part two

Before we dive too deep into this episode of WWE Monday Night RAW, let’s take a trip down memory lane to yesterday’s Night of Champions Report:

"However, there is one caveat: the fear of WWE retreating back into known territory and giving John Cena yet another title shot at Hell in a Cell despite the fact that Lesnar quite frankly beat the hell out of him again.It is that fear that gives this finish such a sour taste in people’s mouths instead of excitement for potential of where we go from here. Too often, we as fans have put faith in the WWE, tried desperately to see the fun and new exciting directions they could go only to see the WWE fall back on the safe path known as the John Cena title shot."

If I replaced “John Cena” with “the same thing the WWE has been doing every week”. I would’ve basically had tonight’s RAW script. This episode was a night of rematches, repeats, and recycled gags because Monday Night Football apparently stifles all possible creativity.

Here was the card for this episode:

Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz for the Intercontinental Title – complete with the same rollup finish as last night at Night of Champions, except this time Ziggler rolls up the roll up (and we saw everyone’s butt)!
Bo Dallas vs. Jack Swagger – yes, Swagger won just like he did last week.
Natalya vs. Summer Rae – kind of new, but it’s another “Total Divas promo” match that has been run out week after week.
Dean Ambrose vs. Kane – something fairly new(ish)!
Sheamus/The Usos vs. Cesaro/GoldStar – yep, also seen on last week’s go-home episode.
Rusev vs. Mark Henry – rematch from Night of Champions and, in this case, it was the same match.
Adam Rose & Bunny vs. Slater Gator – Bunny’s first official match, so I’ll call it new (hilariously enough, this angle saw the most progression all night).
A.J. Lee vs. Nikki Bella – somewhat of a rematch from Night of Champions, but can probably get away with saying it isn’t.
John Cena vs. Randy Orton – a match we’ve seen a thousand times.

Over 50% of the card was a re-run or, in the case of Ziggler and the Miz a re-run with an alternate ending. Even the big surprise of the night, Dean Ambrose ambushing The Authority in the main event was done before. From the August 11 RAW Report:

"It’s my Dean in a box girl… Photo credit: WWE.comMoment of the Night: It’s my Dean in a box!1) Put a box on the stage.2) Put your Dean in that box.3) Just bust out of the box.And that’s the way you do it!"

Replace “stage” with “by the announce table” and you have the same gag. To make matters worse, Jerry Lawler made sure you were going to notice that big box of “cinder blocks” right next to him. No, seriously, there are freakin’ cinder blocks right next to me, I swear. Yep, how ’bout them cinder blocks sitting over there! Can’t possibly be anything else!

The King might as well have stood over the prop with a huge neon sign that reads “Dean Ambrose is in here!” as much as he telegraphed it.

I simply can’t understand why the WWE has gotten so increasingly repetitive as of late. After ending a show like Night of Champions with a whole world of possibilities, they basically just took out some older scripts, made a couple of edits, and called it a day.

To be frank, I really am not asking for much, just change up some of the players week after week. There’s a whole roster full of talent that isn’t being used. Remind people that Big E exists and run him out against The Miz while Ziggler tries to claw his way back into another title shot, forced to take on jobbers for a couple of weeks to regain heat. Or perhaps you have a Ziggler/Sheamus tag against Miz/Cesaro just to prevent the trios repeat from last week and use the rarely seen roster for The Usos and/or GoldStar.

At some point, these matches need to be special. Nothing will make an audience feel more ripped off by a PPV than by immediately invalidating the result no less than 24 hours later or even giving the same match away for free. For example, Mark Henry did some incredibly character work, but its completely wasted after its been witnessed already and the impact of the emotion from Sunday night is lessened.

Someone mentioned on my timeline (~~and I forget who, so apologies~~ Edit: That would be Brandon Stroud of With Spandex and he included that on his Best and Worst of RAW which is always worth a read), that John Cena and Randy Orton should be a “Super Bowl level” match. And you know what, that’s completely correct. Those are two huge stars in this era, but instead of it feeling like a main event, it feels like mid-card fodder because we’ve seen it so much. To be frank, that’s a huge disservice to both of them.

Despite this, Dean Ambrose still managed to rise above this repetitive mess. He is one of the few superstars around right now that can seriously move the needle and genuinely make the WWE Universe pop without even trying. He has that “it” factor that keeps people glued to their TV, even if they know what’s coming because Dean Ambrose is must-see TV.

Yes, I knew Dean was in the box well before he emerged, but dammit, I want to see him beat the hell out of Rollins as much as I wanted to watch Stone Cold Steve Austin give someone a Stunner and chug beer week after week. I knew Daniel Bryan emerging victorious at Wrestlemania was the most obvious result ever, but it didn’t matter, I wanted to see it happen.