Category: RAW Bytes

Some quick thoughts and pointers:

– Awesome, awesome match between Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler, a rematch from the Bragging Rights PPV that nobody saw. Apparently, they had another match on Smackdown and therefore, I must see that. In fact, I would probably order every PPV if they featured a match between these two. Excellent stuff.

– Miz beats R-Truth in a pretty watchable match. I mean, it wasn’t great, but it was still a nice piece of wrestling, so I can’t complain, really.

– So one day after Otunga and Cena win the tag titles, they drop the belts to Justin Gabriel and the guy who looks like Wendy… by laying down. And so we continue to watch WWE treat their tag titles like a baby treats its diapers. Also, a rematch between Barrett and Orton for the WWE Title is booked for Survivor Series, with Cena appointed the special referee. The additional stipulation pretty much guarantees a Barrett title win, but the real question is whether Miz will cash in.

– Sheamus jobs to Santino Marella… yeah, that’s right. Sheamus jobs to Santino Marella… what, did he piss off Triple H or something?

– Someone please shoot LayCool… now.

That’s all. Overall, a rather solid showing for RAW. I’m impressed.

From a pretty solid PPV to… THIS shit. Some quick notes:

– So John Cena joins the Nexus by wearing the Nexus armband (but still gets to keep his merch – bullshit) and must follow Wade Barrett’s orders or else he is FIRED. So what we have here is another Million Dollar Man/Virgil storyline. Oh yeah, Barrett’s the number one contender after winning some battle royale – so Barrett’s  facing Randy Orton at the next PPV.

– By the way, this is probably a good time to mention that John Cena is the absolute WORST actor this side of Hulk Hogan… oh wait, I’m sorry. Hogan tends to show SOME acting ability… not a whole LOT, but SOME. I can’t say the same for Cena. Seriously, he can’t convey emotion. He just stands there like a fucking idiot staring at this armband while having this really morose look on his face. And when he’s reading this statement… he’s supposed to be sad, but he doesn’t sound sad. He sounds monotone. He sounds lifeless. He sounds he doesn’t care.

– Edge is traded to Smackdown, much to his relief since he’s tired of all the stupid from the Raw GM and Michael Cole, who apparently personified stupidity since 1997. Line of the night here: “I would rather listen to a tape recorded J.R. than a live Michael Cole.”

– Speaking of stupidity, way to bury your United States Champion there, gents. Not only by having Sheamus beat the crap out of him without a shed of offense, but also with the nameplate dangling off the title belt. Jesus Christ, does anyone take into account this signs of stupidity here? For fuck’s sake, man!

– So Goldust was the one sending messages to Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Championship that means nothing. Mauro Ranallo said it best on Right After Wrestling: Do YOU care about Goldust in 2010?

Yeah, I don’t either…

QUICK SIDE-NOTE: As you can probably tell, I’m doing these RAW Bytes on Wednesdays as opposed to Monday or Tuesday. Reason being that because I’m now presently working (in the evening) and I tend to catch the replay that airs later on.

A quick note before we begin: I currently have a couple new videos up on YouTube at the moment (a game review and a random video) and I’ll be posting those here soon enough when I get the chance. And now back to our show.

Apparently, there have been conflicting reports as to what the rating for this episode was. Some say it was 2.7, others say it was 2.38 (which would make it the lowest-rated RAW in recent memory – the last time the show saw a number like that was in October 1997). In either case, I think not a whole lot of people were watching because the show was generally crap. By the way, did you know there was a PPV this Sunday? You’d never know that because very little effort was made to push for the PPV.

Quick points… and not a whole lot.

– Awesome promo by Chris Jericho, listing off all the wrestlers he beat. As for the match, it was alright. Nice way for Jericho to go out and tour with Fozzy for a bit.

– Edge beats up a computer… chances are he moves to Smackdown and if that’s the case… what a sad way to go out.

Eh… that’s it.

Presently got an evening gig, so no more live viewings of RAW. I’d stay up late to digest what I can, but sometimes it’s just not worth the bother. But in any case, here are some thoughts I had:

– So the match is made between Randy Orton & Sheamus for the WWE Championship at the PPV in two weeks. No mention of whether this will take place in Hell In A Cell (the cage, not the show… God, this is stupid.)

– From wikipedia.com:

“The Ride of the Valkyries (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren) is the popular term for the beginning of Act III of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen. The main theme of the ride, the leitmotif labelled Walkürenritt was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851. The preliminary draft for the Ride was composed in 1854 as part of the composition of the entire opera which was fully orchestrated by the end of the first quarter of 1856. Together with the Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagner’s best-known pieces.”

How dare Cole not know his classic music? Especially a piece which has been used in countless movies and shows, one of them NOT being Star Wars? Moron.

– Of course, Daniel Bryan Danielson is made to look like a punk. Obviously, no one is going to take this guy seriously if he keeps getting punked like that.

– So after several months of seeing what started as an awesome angle wither into a dead one, the Nexus will formally be buried in two weeks… yeah, as if you actually expect Cena to LOSE. Perish the thought.

That’s all I got at the moment. Will post a follow-up later or tomorrow.

This was a weird show – advertising it as RAW Roulette, but only feature the Roulette in a couple moments at most. We got wrestling matches tonight… wrestling on a wrestling show? You jest.

Continue reading “RAW (Sept. 13th, 2010) – RAW Roulette… with 75% less roulette”

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”