LOOKING AT A 'GOOD WRESTLING, LOUSY STORYLINES' EDITION OF WWE RAW
By
Mike Johnson on 2011-08-30 14:23:56
Last night's Raw episode should have been subtitled "A Tale of Two Shows" because it was like watching a schizophrenic version of professional wrestling. On one hand, there was good wrestling up and down the broadcast. On the other, the storylines were working in fast forward and were sometimes contrived, to boot. I wrote last week that CM Punk needed to show up this week either destroying someone or nearly getting to Kevin Nash before Nash made his last minute escape.
Instead, Punk shows up making jokes (and hey, I loved the click click click joke as much as anyone) but at the end of the day, Punk has now been bettered three or four times by Nash, who he isn't even going to wrestle at the next PPV. This is hardly the recipe for keeping someone at the top of the card and honestly, its painful to watch WWE chisel away at an asset that pretty much was self created. For all the talk of guys having to make the most of their opportunity, Punk did and now that he's signed and back in the loving arms of WWE, it's like they need to bring him down a notch. That's really saddening.
Also saddening was the storyline build to get to Punk vs. HHH, which originally was set for much later in the year. HHH wants Nash to apologize but out comes Punk who rips HHH to his face once again. This leads to Nash admitting that he worked HHH last week to get to Punk, but then Nash tosses out that he didn't lie about the text message. In the end, Nash powerbombs Punk into oblivion and now HHH, who just a few weeks ago, said that he wasn't going to get physically involved, is instead wrestling Punk. Contrived and weak.
Speaking of contrive, WWE intends to headline Super Smackdown tonight with Christian challenging Randy Orton. The apparent best way they could come up with as a venue to build fans' interest in this is to have Christian lose cleanly to John Cena after being drilled with two finishers. HUH? This is supposed to make the average fan want to watch Christian in a cage? Christian get his clock cleaned? How? They've just booked the edge off of him as a heel and he just got his ass kicked, so why do we want to see this again?
Equally mind boggling, but to a lesser degree was watching Mark Henry, who has decimated EVERYONE of late, including two of the company's monsters in Big Show and Kane, stands there with nothing to say as Cena insults his breath. I get that this was to set up a tag match but to have Henry stand there like a buffoon when he's supposed to be a monster that kicks your ass and eats your children severely undercut him. The entire talking sequence with Cena and friends was grating, since we had JUST opened Raw with such a sequence.
Sheamus hitting the ring was the best part of the entire segment, although him coming out to theme music again throws all realism out the window.
In many ways, there was a severe lack of logic to Raw. Thankfully, there was not a severe lack of good wrestling.
The highlight of the show, by far, was Randy Orton defeating Dolph Ziggler. Orton has been totally "on" of late and has continued to grow and evolve as a performer. While the result of the match was never in doubt, Ziggler stepped up and there were several moments, including his superkick out of nowhere that provided some nice drama. Ziggler could use a few more months of matches like this if WWE wants him to be taken seriously as a top name, but this was a BIG step up from the Jack Swagger silliness of late. Kudos to both men.
CM Punk vs. Miz was another good match, although when you are giving away a potential attraction for free on TV with no build, I can't help but to shake my head at it. I thought it was telling that Punk received no ring entrance and was already in the ring when Miz came out for his promo. Can you ever imagine such a thing for John Cena or Randy Orton? I think not. Miz' promo and the match itself were both very good, but you could have predicted the DQ coming a mile away. Seeing Punk getting so much offense on Miz and Truth was strange after they pretty much were set up as a badass duo the week before but Mike Epsenhart pointed out during the Raw post game show that it wasn't uncommon for a babyface to get the better of the Horsemen before being mauled by the odds. In this case, the odds were Kevin Nash, who ended up powerbombing Punk. How many weeks in a row has this been that Punk has been laid out now?
Sin Cara II vs. Jack Swagger had me worried when they came to the ring given their recent penchant for missed moves individually but this was fine beyond one miscue during a head scissors. Cara came off fine and I really, truly believe that for most of the WWE audience, it won't matter who's behind the mask. The entrance, the look and a few high flying moves will be all that the majority cares about. Cara II looked solid here and the finishing sequence was fun. Ziggler getting involved at the end didn't really inspire me - and why the hell are they fighting over Vickie Guerrero anyway?
Air Boom? Really? OK. Their match against Otunga and McGuillicuty was much better than the bout that we saw last week. I'm not enamoured by the thought of Otunga vs. Jerry Lawler, but we'll have to see how it goes. Love the idea of Kofi and Evan as the babyface team though.
Brie Bella beats Kelly Kelly after some Twin Magic. Did we really see WWE show a replay of a spot where Eve Torres was badly out of position? Wow. The backstage promo with Beth Phoenix and Natalya was interesting in that they are supposed to be the anti-Divas and now Beth was all dolled up. She looked great but one of the things I loved about the Glamazon persona was that she stood out as a wrestler on a roster of Barbie Dolls. We'll have to see where this goes.
The closing tag match with Mark Henry & Christian losing to Cena & Sheamus was a solid, WWE style back and forth tag match. I have no complaints about it beyond the idea that Christian losing in the manner that he does provides no purpose when he's supposed to taken seriously walking into a CAGE MATCH tonight.
Another positive was the Alex Riley video package. They did more to rehab him and get him back on track post-Miz feud in one minute than the last few weeks of his storyline against Swagger and Zigger accomplished. Keep them coming.
Bottom line: Watch the wrestling, ignore the logic and the talking segments on this one.
http://pwinsider.com/article/61236/...-lousy-storylines-edition-of-wwe-raw.html?p=1
let the speculation begin.
