LIVE Raw thoughts - July 15, 2013

11:09 - I have to hand it to WWE, they were pretty smart about how they handled that.  They kept Daniel Bryan off television all night, so the fans were truly hankering to see him.  And they kept CM Punk off of the stage, as he was the guy most likely to compete with Bryan's popularity.  It really went as well as they could have hoped.  Now I just beg for them not to overthink things.  Avoid an official heel turn and any involvement with the Bellas.

I do have to wonder, though, how Zack Ryder feels.  His supposed storyline best friend, John Cena, didn't even ask the fans if they wanted to see him get a shot.  And worse off, the fans didn't even fight for it.

11:00 - How sweet of Chris Jericho and Ryback to comfortably stand next to each other just one night after a fierce fight against each other.

10:54 - Really fun and competitive match.  Great stuff.

10:41 - Considering all of the major things that WWE ignores, I find it funny/strange that they continue to mention RVD's relationship with the King during the original ECW Raw invasion.

10:25 - Am I hearing Triple H and Stephanie telling Brad Maddox that he should have asked Vince McMahon permission to make the decision to allow others to decide something for themselves?  I hate this McMahon drama.

10:15 - Really fun segment.  Nothing earth shattering as far as heel motivations or babyface threats, but the execution was phenomenal.  I especially enjoyed the brawl between Punk and Lesnar.  Punk looked like a scrappy fighter who wasn't out of his league, yet Brock still managed to look like a dominant beast.  I don't think Lesnar should have plowed through the entire roster like some others have suggested, but I do have to admit that his less than stellar win/loss record is sorta impacting the epic-ness of this match.

10:01 - Curious decision to take away the element of surprise for one of Brock's rare appearances (assuming he is actually there).

9:50 - I cannot tell you how much I am NOT looking forward to Total Divas.

9:41 - Pet peeve:  When faces get a sneaky win and immediately roll out of the ring.  It makes them look cowardly.  LOVED Cody's surprise attack.  And the fact that the fans chanted his name.

9:37 - I think we're all happy to see that Christian won't miss 6 months of action due to his chipped tooth.

9:30 - Glad that the Usos aren't going into obscurity, but I would've preferred to see Swagger eat the pin there.

9:18 - Great touch having Bray Wyatt kiss R-Truth before hitting his finisher.

9:13 - I love Bray Wyatt's theme music.

9:03 - Fun match but everybody looked like an idiot with that ending.  Why would the ref be THAT distracted by the fact that the bell rang?  And -- again, like last night -- why was Dolph THAT bothered by AJ's presence?

8:48 - There is little I hate more than when the extremely wealthy Mexican aristocrat Alberto Del Rio wears a cheap WWE Authentic t-shirt for his entrance.  Terrible.

Bonus points to Dolph Ziggler, though, for wearing YET ANOTHER specialty t-shirt.

8:42 - By the way, I'm going to have to agree with Lance Storm's tweet:  Ziggler probably shouldn't have broken up with AJ until AFTER his match with Alberto Del Rio.  He has nobody to blame but himself if she screws him again.

8:40 - I'll be honest, following the rumors that the Shield are in the dog house, I was a little concerned that they'd have Mark Henry overcome them single handedly.  I'm glad that didn't happen.  Interested what this means, though.

8:31 - Like I said last night, I wish they had drawn out the break up between AJ Lee and Dolph Ziggler further.  I agree that it was right to have Dolph dump her (opposed to revealing that she was having an affair with Langston), but right now he kinda comes across as a jerk.  There's no reason to believe that AJ purposely screwed him out of the title.  She just made an error in judgment, and arguably was looking out for his best interests.  And after one time, he dumps her?  When things, seemingly, were going fine otherwise?

8:12 - Acceptable opening segment.  While it didn't set the world on fire, it did set things up properly for the rest of the night and the overall build to SummerSlam.  However, I'm hoping the rumors aren't true about the Bellas getting involved in the possible Cena/Daniel Bryan match.  Why overly complicate things?  Isn't Daniel Bryan's obsessive desire to prove that he's the best a good enough reason for him to want to compete against the WWE Champion?  The dude wants the top prize.  The story is already written.

7:57 - We're just a few minutes away from Raw and I'm hoping for a good show.  Money in the Bank is one of my favorite shows because, in my view, there's a new level of excitement that exists following the event.  Will the new briefcase holders cash in?  And what impact will this have on their characters?  In the past, we've seen it result in heel turns (CM Punk, Daniel Bryan).  I'm eager to see what will happen next.