Kester's WWE Raw Rundown: John Cena and Ryback finally find a good rhythm, Triple H and Vince McMahon hug, and The Shield have three singles matches

By Ryan Kester

John Cena and Ryback

It's about time. This feud needed the fired up John Cena we got at the end of Raw and Ryback did better on the mic Monday than he has throughout their entire feud. It was a hard sell that the match very much needed.

Now it's up to WWE to decide what they want out of Ryback for the long term. It's going to be difficult to get him out of the Ambulance stage of the match without severely damaging any heat he currently has. He's lost far too consistently at PPVs at this point, and I don't expect that to change this Sunday. He can always be rebuilt later, but if he just demolished on Sunday, WWE will have their work ahead of him with a previously strong character.

Triple H and Vince McMahon

This story was just odd. It took up so much of Raw's screen time and really didn't go anywhere for the PPV. Worse yet, it was completely disjointed from last week with Stephanie being treated as the sympathetic figure when last week she was being a complete heel.

Still, there were some solid segments that came out of this story, and I am willing to give it a bit of a birth as it develops further. That doesn't mean it should have taken up so much of the time on one of WWE's go home shows, but otherwise it was inoffensive.

Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, Kane, and The Shield

The Shield has been consistently involved in high quality matches for weeks, and Monday night was no exception. Each man had a single's contest, and they each came out looking great. WWE has really landed on something with this group, and I feel that the heat The Shield have been generating has played no small part in the reactions Orton and Bryan have been receiving as of late.

Speaking of those reactions, the pops that Daniel Bryan received Monday were amazing. The live crowd was frantic for almost everything Bryan did in his match, and it convinced me all the more that WWE should be allowing his character to stay a babyface.

Overall Show

Monday's show was solid. There was very little wasted space on the show, and WWE focused on selling the hell out of the PPV this Sunday.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.