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Your Raw Roundup at The Philly Voice: The Wyatts Stand Tall Heading into the Royal Rumble

 

 

The final Monday Night Raw before the 2016 Royal Rumble took place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. It felt like the show, being a go-home Raw to a pay-per-view fell flat, and the audience didn’t really help matters any. They were quiet for most of the night, which translated into many flat segments when they really needed the fire of the crowd to come through on television.

And it didn’t. I actually felt bad for a lot of the talent going out there and receiving little to no reaction, especially heading into the Royal Rumble on Sunday. However, how Raw ended may have already answered a few questions we had going into Sunday all the way to WrestleMania.

 

Click here to read my Raw roundup exclusively at The Philly Voice.

Your WWE SmackDown Rundown at The Philly Voice: Ambrose and Owens Headline the USA Network Debut

The first edition of SmackDown on its permanent new network featured two heavyweight championship matches Thursday night. 8:00 p.m. was the time and Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, T.X. was the place for the hopeful beginning of the turnaround for a toiling brand for WWE, as SmackDown ratings have suffered since being broadcast on the SyFy channel the last few years.

But WWE came out swinging on their official debut of SmackDown on the USA Network, with the Divas Championship and Intercontinental Championship both on the line in some pretty good matches. But there was really nothing earth-shattering that happened on Thursday night – though I was thoroughly excited to find out that the Stone Cold Podcast with Ric Flair will air on the WWE Network on Monday night after Raw goes off the air. That ought to be good.

 

Click here to read my SmackDown rundown exclusively at The Philly Voice.

Your WWE Raw Roundup at The Philly Voice: Vince McMahon Spending the Holidays in Jail?

 

The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., hosted the last Raw of 2015 on Monday night, and it was highlighted by the return of John Cena to in-ring competition as he took on the United States Champion, Alberto Del Rio. We also saw the return of the CEO of WWE, Vince McMahon, two weeks after getting hit with Roman Reigns’ Superman punch in Philly. And we got to see the dark side of Kevin Owens, which is always a good thing.

Despite filling out half the roster for Raw, as there was a live event in Allentown, PA going on at the same time, the show was enjoyable for the most part. In between the holidays, it’s a bit much to expect a great show, but this show was exactly what WWE needed – something to hook the audience to tune into next week’s show.

 

Read my Raw roundup exclusively at The Philly Voice.