WWE RAW Recap 4/21/14: Masked Kane Destroys Daniel Bryan

DATE: 4/21/2014

LOCATION: Baltimore

RESULTS:

Bad News Barrett def. Sheamus (Advanced to Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender’s Tournament Final)
Los Matadores & El Torito def. 3MB & Hornswoggle
WWE Tag Team Champions def. Cody Rhodes & Goldust
Emma def. Layla
Rob Van Dam def. Cesaro via Count-out (Advanced to Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender’s Tournament Final)
Divas Champion Paige def. Aksana
Alexander Rusev def. Sin Cara
John Cena def. The Wyatt Family via Disqualification

HIGHLIGHTS:

The “Devil’s Favorite Demon” returns

Prior to RAW going on the air WWE.com announced that Daniel Bryan’s father had unexpectedly passed away, but that Bryan would still be appearing on RAW. With Bryan’s new real-life bride Brie Bella standing in the ring, Bryan came out to the ring to the usual “YES!” chants, before Stephanie McMahon appeared on the stage to give her “congratulations” to the newlyweds. Then Kane’s music hit, with the “Devil’s Favorite Demon” appearing from the stands, wearing his mask and flame-grilled attire for the first time in months, attacking Bryan and delivering two Tombstone Piledrivers: one on the announcers’ table, another on the steel steps.

My personal favourite bit of this segment was JBL claiming that he’d “never seen anything like that before”. Doesn’t this kind of thing happen every week in the WWE? Bryan was wheeled off on a stretcher, and wasn’t to be seen again throughout the rest of the episode.

Bryan and Kane have a lot of kayfabe history together, so a match between the two is a safe bet for Bryan’s first PPV title defense at Extreme Rules. However, I’m also a little concerned that, considering both the Evolution vs. The Shield and Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena matches have been given a lot more airtime, Daniel Bryan could wind up defending his title in a heap of midcard PPV match, a la CM Punk, before he inevitably squares off against Brock Lesnar in the future. I hope this isn’t the case, but only time will tell.

Bad News Barrett is probably going to be the next Intercontinental Champion

Sheamus and Bad News Barrett put on the match of the night in their semi-final bout in the Intercontinental #1 Contender tournament.

While Barrett still suffers from having two incomprehensibly crap finishing moves (no matter how many times he rolls up that pad, the Bullhammer is still a soft elbow to the skull), he’s my favourite performer on the WWE roster right now, and given Cesaro’s loss to RVD later in the card it seems a given that he’ll be crowned the new Intercontinental champion at Extreme Rules.

The thing that’s so appealing about Barrett is that he genuinely seems to love his Bad News gimmick, delivering his often ridiculous dialogue with palpable glee. While I like Cesaro, given his latest big push he doesn’t need the IC belt around his waist as much Barrett does at this juncture. Needless to say, I was happy with this result.

Also, there was an unexpectedly large pop for Sheamus as he made his way to the ring, which was surprising given how indifferent the crowd has been with him in recent months.

Ric Flair was apparently never in Evolution

Y’know how I said JBL’s comments on the Daniel Bryan/Kane confrontation was my favourite part of this week’s RAW? Scratch that, the Evolution promo reel which completely ignored that Ric Flair was ever a part of the stable was definitely the highlight.

Seriously, the whole Evolution introduction segment included as little of Flair’s peroxide blonde mop as possible, exclusively picking out shots of the foursome that either featured him waaaaay in the background or, as evidenced above, being completely blocked out by either Triple H, Randy Orton or Batista. Flair fans will likely be up in arms, but I found it hilarious.

So last night’s inevitable Evolution/The Shield confrontation ended in a predictable fashion: Evolution talked about themselves a lot (those who witnessed the stable in their original run will remember that this is basically their entire shtick) until The Shield came down from the rafters to confront them. Of course, this confrontation concluded with Evolution bringing out an army of RAW’s midcard heels, forcing The Shield to reconsider their actions.

I know that good ol’ J.R. went on a Twitter tirade in which he stated that all heels should be cowardly, and that WWE’s current system of having its Superstars sometimes occupy grey areas in which both good/bad guys sometimes make bad/good choices doesn’t “sell tickets”, but I personally enjoy that new aspect of the company. I like how Triple H could make crowd-pleasing decisions as COO of the company, but then could beat up Bryan and claim it was “best for business” and have fans shitting over him again. It feels much more real, and this is the “Reality Era” after all (sigh).

In summary, I found Evolution boring in their original run, and I find them boring now. I’d much rather have Triple H still working solely alongside Stephanie and not buddying up to Batista and Orton. But hey, maybe that’s just me.