[2013-11-18-WWE-Raw] The Shield & The Wyatt Family vs CM Punk & Daniel Bryan & Cody Rhodes & Goldust & Jimmy & Jey Uso

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[supersonic]

Another excellent multi-man match from WWE in 2013. I don't believe most die-hards like me would love this as much as me, as it was more focused on a story, but it's a story that got me excited for what would come down the line. The babyfaces were largely just bodies in this match, as the first third-to-half of this match was the heel trios' egos getting in the way of them being a cohesive unit for the night.

I'm not kidding. The Shield just kept tagging each other in for the first several minutes, not allowing the Wyatt Family to have a chance to put in any work. But eventually the trios put their egos to the side and worked together, which was a surreal sight to behold. Seriously, who actually thought a few years ago that Raw would be headlined by a match featuring Jon Moxley, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Brodie Lee, Husky Harris, and Tyler Black, with no signs of John Cena or Randy Orton? You're lying to yourself if you say yes.

The finishing stretch is when the babyfaces came into the focus, doing a great job of standing up to the temporarily aligned juggernaut heel group. There was good storytelling and psychology, plus an incredible pace. The Usos did their highspot thing to bring more spectacle to this contest, getting the crowd even more engaged in the process. And once again, what was most impressive is that because this is WWE and tag team rules matter, this 12 man tag match, despite how wild it got, came down to the legal men. Rey Mysterio also made his return after his millionth injury during the post-match melee. Tremendous Raw main event that IMO should at least be in the conversation with the DX/Radicalz vs. Rock/Sock/Rikishi/Cool tag from February 2000. ****

[ShittyLittleBoots]

What a stacked line-up on paper. WWE delivered so many terrific multi-man tag matches in 2013, and this was no different. Just super fun action from bell-to-bell w/ THE highlight, for me, being Daniel Bryan's superb hot tag -- he was the best hot tag in all of wrestling in 2013, and this was a good reminder of that. Loved Rollins trying to come n' save Harper from his frenzy there, only for him to eat a German Suplex -- I also loved how that gave Harper a bit too much time to recover, resulting in him countering Bryan's running dropkick counter into a hellacious powerbomb. Definitely the best stretch of the match. Punk's hot tag later on was very good too, and so were the last few minutes with everyone getting their signature moves in. FUN! ***3/4