WWE Monday Night Raw 5/12 Recap, Reactions and GIFS

Tonight’s Raw was another decent edition as we continue to build towards Payback on June 1st. Some matches that seemed to be lined up for Payback include a Shield vs. Evolution rematch, a Cena vs. Wyatt rematch, and Adam Rose vs. Jack Swagger. Unfortunately left off the card up until this point is Daniel Bryan. Bryan revealed in an in-ring promo tonight that he needs neck surgery this Thursday and I’m still not sure if this is just storyline or real because the situation of the WWE World Heavyweight Title wasn’t addressed on the show. Daniel Bryan was written off with a segment where he was attacked by Kane so time will tell. The matches themselves weren’t great, but storylines were advanced tonight.

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Quick Results:

Rob Van Dam defeated Jack Swagger with help from Adam Rose and the Exotic Express

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Paige defeated Alicia Fox

John Cena & The Usos defeated The Wyatt Family

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Nikki Bella defeated Natalya

Sheamus defeated Curtis Axel

Sheamus defeated Ryback

Dolph Ziggler defeated Fandango

Cody Rhodes defeated Damien Sandow

Roman Reigns vs. Batista ended in a no-decision when Triple H interfered

Reactions:

Shield kicking off Raw by attacking Evolution was to be expected and keeps them in the top spot as the coolest thing going in WWE.

Zeb Colter continues to entertain on the microphone. The dirtsheets seem to think there’s some concern over Adam Rose but I think he’ll be fine. I was at Raw for his debut last week and I think it was more over with the crowd than it came across on TV.

Alicia Fox cutting a promo before the match and throwing a tantrum after the match didn’t do much for me but I suppose it’s better than her getting squashed by Paige for the 100th consecutive time in this best-of-1000 series.

Like I said earlier, I’m not sure how legit Daniel Bryan’s injury is. My gut feeling is he does have an injury but they’re exaggerating the injury for storyline purposes. I’m not sure how long he’ll be out but I don’t expect it to be long considering they didn’t address the title situation.

Nikki Bella and Natalya having a match over a Total Divas storyline is absolutely awful, but it’s easy to ignore. It seems that the divas have a decision to make where they can be a total diva or be a diva who actually knows how to wrestle. We have the Nikki Bella’s and the Natalya’s of the world who have a match because of a Total Divas storyline where Natalya got Nikki Bella a stupid painting and now they’re feuding over it. On the other hand, we have the Paige’s and the AJ’s of the world who wouldn’t be caught dead on Total Divas and those are the divas who can actually wrestle and actually deserve the title.

Poor Rybaxel. Sheamus needs a heel turn and he needed it yesterday.

Fandango and Layla isn’t even worth paying attention to because I’m not sure of the outcome here.

Big E made the save when Rusev was about to attack Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I’m gonna need WWE to explain to me how Rusev is the Bulgarian Brute who is from Russia.