WWE Monday Night Raw Review - May 12th, 2014

WWE Monday Night Raw Review - May 12th, 2014

The show opens up with a great segment from The Shield. They vow to attack Evolution when they arrive and they do just that as Evolution's limo pulls up. The Shield run backstage and attack Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton. They leave them laying as security pulls The Shield off them.

1) Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger
Zeb cut a promo on Adam Rose and told him to keep his distance only for Rose to come out and antagonize Swagger. This allows RVD to kick Swagger and hit the five star frog splash for the victory. Good storyline development. Looks like we'll be getting Rose vs. Swagger at Payback, which is fine by me. Swagger is a very underrated wrestler and if given time, he could bring out the best in Rose. I don't know much about Rose, but I've heard he's really good so hopefully we'll get a good match out of this feud and it won't just be a squash. For Rose and Swagger's sake.

2) Paige vs. Alicia Fox
Prior to the match, Alicia Fox cut a surprisingly good promo on Paige before shoving her to the ground. Paige however agrees to continue with the match and I'm glad she did. This was a solid match which saw Fox really come out and show her potential. She hit a beautiful Northern Lights Suplex which immediately impressed me. Beyond her in-ring work, she began to adopt a character afterwards when she lost. Fox went to ringside and wreaked havoc on the announce table. Spilling a drink, throwing stuff, and stealing JBL's hat. Character development is essential to a growing Diva's Division. Good to see WWE seemingly giving one of it's most underrated Divas some character. Hope to see more from Fox with this character in the future.

3) John Cena & The Usos vs. The Wyatt Family
Initially I wrote this match off because it's a rematch from Smackdown, but it turned out be even better than their match on Smackdown. Your typical great six man tag with a fast paced ending sequence. Something to note is how Rowan is always the one to take the pin when The Wyatt's lose. Shows who WWE has the most faith in when it comes to the Wyatt Family (Bray & Harper). Despite that, all three members of The Wyatt Family impressed here along with The Usos & Cena. It's almost become impossible to have a bad six man tag match on Raw. Very fun bout.

Match rating - 8/10

4) Nikki Bella vs. Natalya
After one excellent showcase for the Divas earlier, we got an even better one here. Who woulda known that two divas matches in one night on Raw could be a good thing? That turned out to be the case here as Nikki and Natalya traded various holds and submissions. It was refreshing to see and very fun to watch. Also showcased here once again was character development within the Divas Division. Very good match that I wish would have went longer.

Match rating - 6/10

5) Sheamus vs. Curtis Axel
The re-occuring theme of tonight's show has been character development and that was once again the case here. Ryback and Axel have been meshing well as a team and tonight they debuted matching beanies. Then they flipped a coin to see who would face Sheamus. I may be alone, but these two have become entertaining in the past year. I was in the minority that enjoyed their time with Heyman. Anyway, this was a decent encounter. Nothing special though. Ryback attacked Sheamus afterwards and another match was set up!

Match rating - 4/10

6) Sheamus vs. Ryback
Earlier this year Sheamus and Ryback surprised me by having a really good match on Smackdown and needless to say they did the same here. It's apparent that they have a wonderful amount of chemistry together. I wouldn't mind a feud/series of matches between these two for the US Title. They always produce quality matches together and this was no different. Very good and competitive match.

Match rating - 7.5/10

7) Dolph Ziggler vs. Fandango
What a random pairing. This match was decent, but I had no reason to care about it. No back story, no anything. I hope this leads to Summer Rae returning and siding with Ziggler. Other than that I got nothing out of this segment. So sad that a guy who works as hard as Ziggler is forced to be put in a matches like this that no one cares about each week. He deserves much better. Atleast he got the win here.

8) Cody Rhodes vs. Damien Sandow
Just like with the Ziggler/Fandango match, the only problem here was that there was really no reason for anyone to care about this match. Both guys worked hard and put together a solid match, but it's nothing anyone cared about because neither man has been booked well lately. It's really sad because both of these guys are outstanding talents.

9) Batista vs. Roman Reigns
This one didn't last too long, but it was decent while it lasted. The match broke down into a brawl between Evolution and The Shield. Stephanie sent out Jack Swagger, Ryback, and the rest of the people they've been sending after The Shield lately. The Shield overcome the odds however and stand tall over Evolution. Great way to end the show.

Overall thoughts: Well, this was a decent episode of Raw. It was better than last week's show, but I wouldn't consider it a good episode of Raw although there were some high points. One thing that took place throughout the show which I loved was character development. From Alicia Fox to Damien Sandow. It looks like WWE is finally starting to add more aspects to certain characters which is always good. Speaking of Alicia Fox, her and the other Divas were honestly one of the best parts of the show. Both Divas matches were really good. As I've been saying for six months, the divas division has really been improving and now we are starting to see some of that. The best match of the night was between Sheamus and Ryback. The two men have a great amount of chemistry together as this was the second time this year they had an outstanding match on TV. The six man tag involving Cena and The Wyatts was really good as well. The Cena/Wyatt feud continues to deliver each week. The Shield/Evolution segments were very entertaining as well. The main problem with this week's episode of Raw was the amount of filler on the show. It wasn't as much as last week, but the show started to drag around the start of hour 3 and didn't pick up again until the closing segment between The Shield and Evolution. The most negative thing about Raw though had to be the news of Daniel Bryan being injured and having to go in for neck surgery. Let's hope he recovers soon. Good luck and get well soon Daniel Bryan! So, in closing - if you missed tonight's show here's the matches/segments you should check out:

- Alicia Fox vs. Paige

- Nikki Bella vs. Natalya

- The Wyatt Family vs. The Usos & John Cena

- Sheamus vs. Ryback

- Batista vs. Roman Reigns / closing segment

Tweet me your thoughts on this week's episode of Raw @StylesClashx on Twitter!