Category: Wrestling Television Musings

So the 901st episode of Monday Night RAW was actually pretty good and I thought it was very entertaining. Sure enough, WWE announced next week’s episode to be a “season premiere” of sorts (which makes no sense for a show that doesn’t have breaks – not to mention that the recent RAW box set counts the individual years as seasons… don’t try to make sense of it, it’s not worth it… but I digress.) And with a “special edition” of RAW comes suckiness. I think the top brass thought, “Hey, RAW was entertaining and people had a good time. Better tone that shit down a bit.”

Some thoughts:

Interestingly enough, Chris Jericho is out of the six-pack challenge due to losing a match to John Morrison. It was a pretty good match too, but I have a feeling that Jericho will squeak his way back into the title picture in the coming weeks.

Viewed in a purely entertainment context, I got a couple laughs out of the Edge/Khali contest. You’re never going to get a good match out of the Great Khali, so you have to work around that. And I think they’ve accomplished a purely entertaining sports-entertainment match here. No real complaints… see, I CAN enjoy a joke match once in a while.

Speaking of joke matches, there was a Diva’s match. Don’t care.

The Miz/Daniel Bryan segment, where Miz recaps his career and then Danielson challenges him to a US title match? Nice stuff there. I’m actually thoroughly entertained by this and am actually looking forward to this match. It was simple and effective. Can’t ask for more than that.

Randy Orton defeated Wade Barrett thanks to a distraction by Nexus outcast Darren Young, who is calling himself a “missing link” of some kind. As a result, Orton has the pleasure of jobbing to Cena next week (Justin Gabriel did the honors this week, but at least he put off a decent effort… more than I can say for John “I Can’t Sell” Cena).

So that was a rare good showing of Monday Night RAW. Does it make up for last week’s show? No, but this is the kind of effort they should have put into THAT show.

Later.

So my initial reaction to the 900th episode of RAW after watching that whole episode is as follows:

“This was a really lousy show. You know something? It’s so lousy and dull that I’d rather watch that Sharmell vs. Jenna Morasca match from Victory Road 2009.”

In hindsight, I don’t know if I’d go that far…

Regardless – and against my better judgment – I rewatched the 900th episode of RAW and have a few comments on it (most of which were going to be brought up on an upcoming Vlog, but whatever). Before I do that, I would like to share a sample of an interview done with Justin Long, co-star of the film “Going The Distance” but probably best known for his stint as the Mac guy on those Apple commercials ages ago. The snippet in particular covers his time hosting RAW some time ago:

While promoting the movie, you and co-stars Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day appeared on WWE’s Monday Night Raw, right?
[Laughs] Yeah. In no way am I being self-deprecating when I say that was a disaster. It was just not the audience to be promoting a movie like that to. We were so out of place. It was just awkward. They’re all fired up to see guys pummeling each other, not to see three nerdy comedy guys do some bits. They played the trailer for this crowd and it just silenced them — and not in a good way.

So what do you do in a situation like that? 
You just commit to it as best you can. We were in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, and the only time we really had the audience on our side was when we were praising the Lakers. And before that I think the majority of them were contemplating throwing things at us. There were a few homophobic remarks. I don’t want to generalize it, I know some wrestling fans. But it’s just not the audience. 

Wow. Just wow. I guess not everyone can say they had a good time hosting Monday Night RAW. Can’t win them all, I suppose. (2024 Update: I had a link to the interview in question, but said link no longer works. Oh well.)

I guess we should talk about RAW.

Continue reading “RAW (Aug. 30th, 2010) – The MAC Guy calls his time on RAW “a disaster”… Also, RAW 900.”

There was an episode of Monday Night RAW last night that didn’t hold my attention for long… no, seriously, half the time, I was busy converting NSF-format chip music into MP3s so that I can have a stock inventory of readily available Nintendo music for reasons I cannot fathom at the moment… mostly for the purposes of video. But anyway, here’s what I vaguely remember.

– So the remaining members of Nexus had somehow managed to impress the anonymous GM and he allows them to compete for titles. Eventually, leader Wade Barrett challenges Sheamus for the WWE title at the upcoming Night of Champions PPV, only for the dickheaded GM to make a six-pack challenge and introduce the remaining competitors so that they can all beat on Barrett some more and further bury the Nexus group. Dude, after what happened last week, anything the Nexus does will be met with pure apathy. Honestly, I don’t give a damn anymore.

– The gimmick of the episode is that Sheamus is on a throne and he gets to watch the various matches throughout the show; the idea being that he has to pick an opponent for the upcoming PPV based on. Eventually, Sheamus decides to defend the title against Zack Ryder (sneeze and you’ll miss it) before the booking of the six-pack match mentioned.

– Daniel Bryan interrupts a match between Miz and John Cena. Danielson then makes Miz tap. Cole calls it a travesty. I call it the only bright spot on a relatively nothing show.

And that’s about it. There was a tag-team match somewhere involving Samoans, Russians, and Cobras, as well as another crummy Divas match, but that’s all I remember.

Meh… it’s still better than Impact.

Okay, I’ll stop harping on Impact.

So yes… Nexus has been slain… killed by Super Cena overcoming the odds. And while the match was pretty good by all counts – what with Danielson returning as the surprise entrant and Cole’s flipping commentary – the end result kills any enjoyment I might have had for the match because… well, that’s what John Cena does.

And last night, while Nexus was in the ring recouping, John Cena came out and just completely BURIED them with his usual jokey comments. Something about Wendy’s or something.

Yeah, did you see the video I posted below? Those were my exact thoughts… only much more angry than what I had posted there.

If you needed ANY indication that Nexus is dead and buried, this is it.

Oh sure, they push the corpse a little more, but that’s all it is at this point… a corpse. They’re not a threat, anymore. It means nothing…

As for the rest of the show, each member of Nexus had individual matches with members of the Summerslam team. All of them win their matches in a futile attempt to regain their lost thunder, but it doesn’t work. Also, Darrin Young is kicked out of Nexus after he is defeated by – you guessed it – John Cena.

FUWWE.

Also, there was a Divas-match… I still don’t care. And the Hart Dynasty are now known as WWE Tag-Team Champions and get shiny new belts… and they look rather okay. Nothing fancy or anything like that, but at least it doesn’t glitter.

And that’s it. I’m done.

Shut the fucking camera off.

So in a strange move for some reason (probably some overseas tour), WWE taped two Monday Night RAWs for the price of one – the show that aired last night followed by the show that will air next week. I’m going to wait until next week’s show to comment on it, but one thing I’ll mention is that Bret Hart (the crippled guy on John Cena’s little army) is apparently “training in Calgary” according to Michael Cole and will miss both shows. Training in Calgary accurately translate to Bret getting married over the weekend and presumably having a honeymoon of sorts. All snark aside, congratulations to Bret for his recent marriage.

Won’t go through the whole show because… well, in true fashion, I only saw the parts that remotely interested me. I’ll just comment on the bits I did see.

Continue reading “RAW (July 27th, 2010) – Not Much Of A RAW Deal”

If there was a more definite definition of a sports-entertainment program serving as background noise, then you need not look further than tonight’s edition of RAW. Man, oh man, nothing of note remotely happened that caused me to pay attention. However, it wasn’t entirely and completely pointless and without merit. So without further to do, here’re some thoughts;

– So far, we have a couple matches for Summerslam. First off, your WWE Champion, Sheamus, will be defending the title against Randy Orton, who won a Triple-Threat match featuring Edge and Chris Jericho to earn the shot. So glad that we have Sheamus as champion so that we can have fresh, new and exciting main-events like him vs. Randy Orton… oh wait, they had a match? At the Royal Rumble this year? Oops, silly me.

– Secondly, as teased by the title, it’ll be a fourteen-man tag-team contest featuring the stable group Nexus against the team of John Cena, R-Truth, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Great Khali… and Bret Hart. Wow. Right there, that’s already a 6-on-7 handicap match… Didn’t Bret allegedly have insurance issues that resulted in him being “fired” or something? Wouldn’t mind seeing how this turns out… won’t necessarily make me buy the PPV or anything, but who knows?

– By the way, loving the Miz right now. Part of me almost wished that he DID cash in that MiTB and won the title. At least the title match for Summerslam would have been somewhat fresh. In any case, I’ve got a feeling Miz is gonna be champ sooner than later.

And that’s all there is to it. I was too busy playing 1941 for the rest of it.

Later.

So John Cena lost the big six-on-one handicap match in the first real sales job he’s done since this Nexus thing began… and of course, he gets up right after and is even sided by Sheamus… don’t these guys have a world title match this Sunday? I like how that’s getting no push whatsoever. I also like that no one has complained about the streak of blood down Cena’s face and resulted in his being future endeavored.

By the way, I wonder if the decision to give Justin Gabriel the pin had anything to do with the fact that he’s from South Africa? Like this is WWE’s way of saying, “Hey, lookit your hometown hero pinning John Cena.” Too bad the win means nothing.

The only person who seems to be enjoying this feud is Chris Jericho, who seems proud of Wade Barrett’s progress… worthwhile viewers will recall that Jericho was Barrett’s pro when he won the first season of NXT… that show where the prize was a WWE contract… LAME.

So Mark Henry replaces R-Truth in the Ladder Match thingie… suddenly, helping Mae Young give birth to a hand isn’t the most hardcore thing he’s done in his career. Yeah, that’s right. It’s been ten years and I still think of that when I think Mark Henry.

The Brady Bunch stuff was lame… but at least she’s aged gracefully.

Edge beats Randy Orton in a decent little match. Nothing special or anything, but pretty good stuff for the most part. Enjoyed the run-ins with the various MitB competitors.

By the way, Edge DIDN’T win MitB twice. He won the first one in 2005 and then won the 2007 briefcase from Ken Anderson (who won the actual contest, but WWE won’t let this on because he’s working for TNA). So he won the rights twice, but only won a single MitB ladder match.

There was a bunch of other stuff that took place, but I didn’t pay attention.

Two weeks ago, they had a goldmine angle in their hands. One week ago, they fucked it all up. This week, the angle is pretty much shitcanned, as all the former NXT rookies now have jobs. Great job, guys. Now no matter how much they try to recoup from this, I’m never going to get my hopes up ever again.

Now that I think about it, I’m sort of glad Bryan Danielson was fired. Saves him the embarrassment of being part of something that fell apart really fast.

Oh yeah, the NXT guys “apologize” and then beat up Vince, who’s a special enforcer in some match nobody cares about.

But on the bright side, Sheamus is still YOUR WWE Champion.

Before we dive in, I want to highlight this page at Inside Pulse Wrestling, which chronicles WWE Champion John Cena sending a series of Twits expressing his wanting Daniel Bryan Danielson back in WWE… presumably to get back for this kick he got. Whether this is legit or work, it’s nice to see Cena’s voice tossed out there and perhaps maybe… JUST maybe… he isn’t simply a corporate shill after all.

Then again, this could all be an elaborate work.

Anyway… RAW…

Continue reading “RAW (June 14th, 2010) – That didn’t take long…”