A review and the five biggest takeaways from the March 14 episode of WWE RAW
WWE RAW was live from Pittsburgh on Monday, March 14 with only three episodes remaining until WrestleMania 32. With so little time to make sure things are properly built for Mania, there was a lot that had to happen in the wake of Roadblock. And, ultimately, a lot did happen—for better or worse—on WWE RAW from Pittsburgh.
Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar got turned up a notch, Roman Reigns returned after a several week absence to viciously attack Triple H, AJ Styles got a bit of retribution on Chris Jericho, Shane McMahon and The Undertaker stood toe-to-toe, and much more happened on WWE RAW.
All in all, though, it was a lot of sizzle with no steak on Monday night. The angles WWE was clearly hoping were going to be heavy hitters were soft jabs in their execution. That’s not to say that there weren’t some enjoyable parts, but just that they had to do more than they did in the end with such a short window to build things for WrestleMania.
For the full results from WWE RAW, click here to take a look at the live tracker for the full highlights and results.
Now let’s get on to the five biggest takeaways including the best and worst matches, the biggest winners and losers, and the best moment from WWE RAW on March 14.
Best Match of the Night
Dolph Ziggler vs. Triple H
It was a bit of a shock to hear Dolph Ziggler come out to confront Triple H and Stephanie McMahon when they were out running down Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and the WWE fans, but it resulted and Ziggler and Triple H having a spotlight match later in the show. And that match was absolutely incredible.
Not only did this match make Dolph look stronger than he has in what feels like well over a year at this point, but Triple H was great in this match as well. It’s lost in the shuffle right now with the Roman build, but Hunter is doing some of his best work in a long time right now. These two men put on an incredible match when it was all said and done and it was certainly one of the few moments on the show that hit their mark.
Worst Match of the Night
The Usos vs Social Outcasts
As for moments that didn’t hit their mark, I’m not even sure what mark this match was supposed to hit. What was the point of this match at all? To make sure that the fans know that The Usos and Dudley Boyz don’t like one another? Why did we need a two-minute squash match against the faction of jobbers to make that happen?
This match really just felt like a wasted segment on this show and is one of the reasons why the show wound up feeling far too busy. There were multiple segments in this same light, but this was by far the worst example of wasting fans’ time on Monday night.
Biggest Winner
Dolph Ziggler
We’ve already touched on Ziggler a bit, but this was a night on WWE RAW when he was given the opportunity to shine and he delivered. It started with his attire as he came out in a suit instead of being decked out in denim or 80s throwback clothes, which is a far better look for him. Dolph then delivered an impassioned promo that seemed to have his heart behind it and was some of his most inspired mic-work in a long time.
Then he came out later and put on the match of the night by a wide margin in his bout with Triple H. Not only was he great with his signature ability to sell, but he was great at building hope that he could pull off the upset and he seemed engaged with his in-ring work for the first time in a while as well. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for a really talented performer, but Dolph Ziggler shined brightest on WWE RAW.
Biggest Loser
Roman Reigns
Oh man. This was bad. Roman Reigns returned after Triple H’s victory over Ziggler and proceeded to beat down the WWE World Heavyweight Champion for a solid five minutes, even taking the brawl backstage where he hit Hunter over the back with a TV. However, almost no one in the crowd gave a single damn about it.
You can see WWE’s thought process with this segment from a mile away—they thought he would be the returning hero beating down the Big Bad of the company. Instead, he was still either getting booed or not getting a reaction at all. This is problematic in so many ways.
WWE is really in a tough spot right now (it’s by their own doing, but still). They are planning on Roman Reigns going into Mania as the face in the main event, but he can’t even get over attacking one of the top heels in the company on RAW in a traditionally solid city for wrestling crowds like Pittsburgh. Something has to change if WWE doesn’t want things to go terribly wrong at WrestleMania 32.
Best Moment
Mick Foley Gives Dean Ambrose a Present
I love this segment with all my heart. There were reports going into the show that Mick Foley was booked for WWE RAW, but no one knew what his role was going to be. As it turned out, they used him perfectly to help make Dean Ambrose even more beloved going into his match with Brock Lesnar.
Between the inference that these two are just like one another in their willingness to take punishment and the gift of the bat wrapped in barbed wire, this backstage segment hit home on every level and was just plain awesome in its execution. Long live the Foley-Ambrose partnership.
That’s the rundown from WWE RAW on March 14. What did you think of the show? Let us know below in the comments.