All posts and musings relating to episodes of WWE’s flagship Monday Night RAW program.
So because of Edge’s sudden retirement, we get the WWE Draft a couple months early. In a rare occassion, I am posting comments and results of tonight’s draft as I watch them.
Just as an aside; RAW airs fifteen minutes later in Canada than it does on USA, so please excuse the delay in this regards.
Continue reading “RAW (Apr. 25th, 2011) – The Impromptu WWE Draft That Came Too Soon”
No more insta-videos here. Time for some quick RAW notes:
– The opening promo with Rock and Cena was excellent. I wonder how John Cena will respond… oh wait, I know how he will respond – with another nursery rhyme. In the war of words, Rock is dominating this ten times over. And on top of that, he treats Miz like a viable threat as opposed to a joke. Nice rub.
– So wait, John Cena gets Alberto Del Rio… and the Miz gets the Great Khali? Really? What, is Giant Gonzales unavailable?
– Sheamus is YOUR new US Champion so, maybe he won’t be treated as a joke… maybe I should change the Juan Cena episodes… nah, I’m not gonna bother. Regardless, these two had a great match and I was impressed, even if the stipulation made the end result a dead giveaway.
– Wow, they’re really bringing back all the old-timers, aren’t they? Last week, it was JBL. This week, it’s Brian Christopher… and man, does he look… not good… I mean, what? They couldn’t get Miss Kitty on the show? Just… WOW. I feel old.
– Oh yeah, JR is back to get his ass kicked. What a surprise.
– So Randy Orton managed to do what John Cena couldn’t; kill the Nexus. Actually, that’d be stretching it. Nexus was already dead by this point; all Orton did was cut off the life support. It just seems sad and unfortunate that what started off as a surefire winner in 2010 became an absolute joke and non-entity on the mangled, broken road to Wrestlemania.
– Miz dressed up as the Rock? Not bad, missing darker skin and the huge-ass tribal tattoo. Miz beatdown on Cena, however? Excellent stuff. If this doesn’t sell Miz as a threat, I don’t know what will. In fact, I’m amazed by Miz’s dominance over Cena in the build-up. This is how we push a champion, folks.
And another thing…
So yeah… RAW was actually entertaining. Good episode, in fact. So that’s nice.
As posted several days ago, on this very blog;
“Triple H has to be pissing himself right now. At this point, his potential big comeback to face off against Undertaker (also making the big comeback 2-21-11) with special ref Shawn Michaels means NOTHING. The reaction is basically going to be:
“‘Yeah, okay, those guys are coming back. That’s nice. Career vs. Streak, Inferno Death Match. Nice. Nice. But THE ROCK’S COMING BACK!!!!'”
I mean… seriously, who gives a shit at this point? They’re gonna have a match… so what? They had a match ten years ago, who cares? THE ROCK’S COMING BACK!
Oh, by the way, Cena’s return to Thuganomics in his comeback against the Rock? Oh boy. Judging from that comeback, the Brooklyn Brawler has a better grasp on Thuganomics than Barney’s turd does at this point.
Anyway, here’s some thoughts on the rest of the show;
About last night… something magical happened. The most electrifying man in entertainment appeared in a WWE ring and cut a promo for the ages… and for the first time in what seems like a long time, I find myself not only entertained and attentive to this final cutting closing promo, but I also find myself actually looking forward to Wrestlemania this year… a show that might actually gain that aura of grand spectacle that the previous iterations have been lacking.
The fact that the host of ‘Mania was going to be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (known from hereon as The Rock) is no big surprise. The fact that he would cut a promo that makes EVERYONE on the current WWE roster look beneath bush league in comparison is no big surprise. The fact that he took a pot shot on Michael Cole is no big surprise and actually quite entertaining. The fact that he took a pot shot on the Miz and Justin Bieber… not surprising in the slightest. However, the fact that he took a pot shot on John Cena and proceeded to masterfully BURY the man that had been the WWE franchise player for the past five or six years… that WAS a surprise. And that, more than anything, piqued my interest.
With that one promo, The Rock had done three things;
Yes, John Cena said ass… because CM Punk’s ass is grass. And of course, for showing a mere SECOND of potential badassery after another one of his trademark stupid promos, he apologizes for it and jokes about it on Twitter. Apparently, John Cena’s testicles have risen and need to drop again.
Not much to say, other than that. Morrison and Sheamus had another solid match, Jerry Lawler is getting more active in matches these days, the Miz is still feuding with Randy Orton for some reason, the new Nexus initiations did nothing for me, and the Bella Twins still haven’t been future endeavored.
HBK in the Hall of Fame? I mean, come on. Who didn’t see that coming?
So yeah, RAW was actually pretty good. No complaints or quibbles
So yeah… John Cena’s off my TV this week due to an injury. That’s the best belated Christmas gift I’ve ever got. Unfortunately, he might return next week to sell more merch. Because that’s all the fucker could sell.
Other RAW thoughts:
– So the whole story is that Wade Barrett has been usurped from Nexus by new arrival CM Punk. Does this mean Barrett goes away for a while or is this the beginning of a face turn of some kind? I’m probably reading too much into this, because Nexus’ relevance died in 2010 and I have very little faith that CM Punk’s inclusion into the group is going to revive it. Yeah, CM Punk is a solid talent and a great talker, but even he can’t save Nexus from being a footnote.
– The Miz retains his WWE title in a match against John Morrison, defeating his former partner in an pretty awesome match (Did I say it was okay? I was stupid). Strange that a title match would open the card, but whatever… Watching the match again, I have to tip my hat off both guys for opening up with a phenomenal match. This should have been the main event – this was good enough to close out the show – but instead we’ve got a lethargic cage match between Orton, Sheamus, and Wade Barrett… that Orton won.
– So anyone willing to fork money over for the Royal Rumble will get yet another Miz/Randy Orton main event. Some people might get upset over this because Orton’s been in one too many title matches (last one he had was LAST MONTH), but as long as it’s not John Cena in the title match, I’m very happy either way. That fucker needs to go away and get new material.
– Nice job by the tag-team champions. Those will really boost the credibility of those titles… wait, Santino and Koslov are still the champions? Never mind.
– Alberto Del Rio defeated R-Truth in the only real sour spot of the night. It wasn’t a bad match per se, but nothing that kept me from fast-forwarding.
– So they’re bringing back Tough Enough, huh? Hopefully they’ll play it straight and make good use of whoever wins the competition… oh, who am I kidding? This is going to be a complete waste of time. I have very little faith in these people’s ability to run a credible show.
– Why do the Bella Twins still have jobs? And where’s Daniel Bryan Danielson? I want a good wrestling match to my wrestling show, not more plastic.
But, yeah this was actually a good show. A rare one that included a lot of wrestling. John Cena should suffer more injuries more often if it means giving the WWE Universe quality sports-entertainment programs such as this one. Top-notch effort.
I initially stated that I hadn’t caught the TLC PPV live… well, that’s a bit of a fib, isn’t it?
You can check out my quick TLC thoughts if you’d like, but after seeing John Cena’s attempt to murder Wade Barrett and subsequently bury him both figuratively and literally, it was nice to see CM Punk return the favor tonight on RAW. If someone had to do it, it may as well be Punk because that guy is awesome.
Yeah, that’s right, Mizzles. Punk is awesome and you’re not. What Punk did to Cena was awesome. Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, we have not awesome in the form of the Miz – your reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion, by the way – getting pinned by a 60-year-old man and then I’m supposed to take this guy seriously as a top draw? Isn’t the World Champion supposed to be someone with some level of credibility? The guy is a total tool. He makes JBL seem like Hulk Hogan in comparison… never thought I’d see the day where I’d be complimentary towards either JBL or Hogan.
(Though to be fair, JBL is a better talker and color commentator than he was an active wrestler, so I’ll give him that much.)
Oh, and Michael Coleslaw? Jerry Lawler earning a victory with an assist from Randy Orton is less cringe-inducing than the Miz retaining his WWE title in a later match with an assist from a scrawny little commentator, you fucking moron. No matter how hard you try, you will never be as good as The Coach.
So, I guess with the apparent killing of Wade Barrett, does that mean Nexus is over and done with? If that’s the case, then it’s probably for the best that this failed experiment was buried in a dozen folding chairs with very little fanfare and circumstance. I guess I have to update that funeral video, don’t I?
Dug the William Regal/Daniel Bryan match – great stuff. I also dug the match Bryan had with Dolph Ziggler on RAW a couple months back. Can’t say the same for the match Dolph had with John Cena. In fact, the only good thing was the aforementioned returning of the favor by CM Punk.
That’s all I got. The show wasn’t really anything special save for the Punk attack. I’d expect things to pick up steam now that Cena is done burying rookies for a change.
So… um, yeah. A rare night off means I got to watch RAW live… and I wasn’t too particularly impressed. In fact, the show didn’t really hold my interest for the interim and I ended up playing Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game for Playstation. I did catch most of it, so I guess I’ll drop a couple quick thoughts;
– In what was probably the smart thing that was done, the tension between Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler was quickly resolved with an RKO on Cole, thus preventing things from going back to the way they were as if nothing ever happened. Of course, I fully expect that to happen next week, but at least they didn’t jump the gun THIS WEEK.
– Speaking of gun jumping, John Cena is rehired next week. Of course, you wouldn’t know that he was fired because they still play his music during . Also, nobody arrested him for assault and property damage… because ticket-holders are allowed to do that sort of thing. Gee, I did not know that.
– Santino Marella and Vladimir Koslov are YOUR new WWE Tag-Team Champions after John Cena (who’s fired, remember) interfered in a bleh match… although to be honesty, I only saw the tail end of this match. (My game was done, anyway).
– Not enough Daniel Bryan… and why do the Bella Twins still have jobs?
Maybe I’ll watch the replay later on, see if I missed anything… but man, this show was bad. Really bad.
In a rare occurrence, I did catch the three-hour RAW replay and the King of the Ring tournament. And it was alright. Just a couple quick thoughts:
– Sheamus is king. Good for him, he deserved it. In fact, I didn’t think anyone was more qualified to win this tournament than the Celtic Warrior… or do we call him the Celtic King now?
– The main event between Miz and Lawler… good stuff. Props to the King who looked great and was able to keep up with the younger Miz. However, I didn’t like that Miz needed Michael Cole’s help in retaining his title. That wasn’t awesome, man. Other than that, a solid main event with an end result you saw coming, but at least it was entertaining.
– On a related note, nice work on the Lawler video montage. WWE production crews do some nice work with these things.
– Remember when Shawn Michaels retired and gave that heartfelt speech early in 2010? Remember not seeing him ever again on WWE TV (for the foreseeable future) outside of montages? Yeah, somebody better send that tape to John Cena, because being FIRED means YOU DON’T SHOW UP. ASSHOLE. (Sorry, Ken.)
That’s about it, really.
Wasn’t able to catch the full show (although I did managed to catch up by watching the rest of it on YouTube), but for the most part, I thought the show was a nice concept. The show itself wasn’t all that special, but the whole attempt to recreate the atmosphere of a 1980s WWF show (old sets, old ring set-ups, Wrestling Challenge-esque interview boxes during matches, old ref shirts with little bowties, MEAN GENE OKERLUND, HOWARD FINKEL, JIM ROSS) gave it a nice little atmosphere and overall, I enjoyed the show more on that merit than on the content itself. I’d be open to another one if they decide to go for it… it’s certainly better than a lot of their other 3-hour RAWs.
Some random thoughts that might or might not be related to the actual content of the show:
– Feels totally weird to see all the original WWF block logos all over the place but they can’t actually MENTION the initials or even the old name unless they want to be bitchslapped by the pandas again. Would have been nice if they’d gone the whole way and reverted to the old name, but at least they didn’t use the butchered WWE Legends logo that appears on merchandise. (2015 Update: Subsequent “old-school” themed shows would use said WWE Legends logo and feel even more half-assed than this initial effort.)
– Hey, why isn’t Jerry Lawler wearing the old cape he had really early on? And what’s with the bland beige jackets? What about the canary blue jackets?
– Nice to see Daniel Bryan and Jack Swagger have a great match with enough time to do their thing. Also nice to see Jim Ross call a match one more time… even if Coleslaw had to ruin it.
That’s all I can really say. Show was okay, but I just like to look at the old-school set-pieces.
dtm666 