MikeRaw
Guest
Welcome to the second edition of the MikeRaw Raw Review. Feel free to also give your own thoughts on Raw after you read mine. Remember, if you don't share the exact same opinion as me, you die. :gun_rifle:
Monday Night Raw:
Shane McMahon vs Randy Orton:
Winner: No Contest
Orton comes out, does his whole pose thing in the ring, and then Shane's music hits. Instead of coming out, we see nothing. At this point, I thought he had been attacked backstage or something. Instead, he comes chanrging out through the crowd and jumps Orton. Pretty ood exchange here for a while, and then Legacy comes out. It's a beatdown for a while, until MVP of all people comes out. The brawl continues, and then Batista eventually comes out, and it's an all out brawl. Then (boooo) we get Vickie and her annoying voice coming out (worse than Jillian's, TBH). She announces a mini-tournament type thing for tonight. We get Orton vs Shane in the main event, but we get two other matches. MVP vs Rhodes and Batista vs Dibiase. The winner of each matchgets to join the main event to join their leader in a tag match.
Actually liked how this went. Match never even got started, obviously, but that's fine IMO. It just set up something bigger. We get 3 big matches for later, that allows everyone to get involved, instead of just one between Orton and Shane.
I also like how they continued to have MVP in the main event scene. Clearly they have a few plans for this guy (or at least I hoped so, until I continued to watch the show.) Anyway, pretty exciting way to start off the show IMO. Just set up bigger and hopefully better things for later…
Matt Hardy vs Kofi Kingston:
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Before the match, we get another Matt Hardy promo. He basically compies what he sai last week, but who cares. What he said last week was pretty good (for Matt Hardy). Then Kofi comes out, and we get a quick, but spirited match. Pretty much all Kofi during this one. Matt had a few flashes every once in a while, just to show he’s still in it. Kofi picks up the win about 5 minutes in with his finisher. After the match, Kofi celebrates, and out of nowhere (cause we weren’t expecting it, right) Matt charges at Kofi, and rams his cast into the back of his head.
Not a bad opening match. I know I said it last week, but I like that they’re actually keeping Matt on TV with this whole angle. They could go the route of him faking his hand injury, or just have him keep doing it until his hand heals in real life, and have him keep it on afterwards, for as long as he can. Also interested to see if the whole “wrestling under protest” thing leads anywhere…
Backstage: Santino
Santino is with Kelly, and talking about how Santina and him will be teaming this week on Superstars. I debate going to take a piss, and miss how Chavo is suddenly on my screen, but I see that he is, so decide to wait. Chavo lectures santino for a minute, talking about how now that Vickie is in charge, he shouldn’t mess with either of them. Santino does some snorting noise to mock Vickie and this apparently pisses Chavo off. But who cares…
Holy fuck. Is it just me or is he getting uglier and harder to look at each week? Damn. All I can say is, I’m glad the Santino/Santina match is on Superstars, and not Raw. I honestly don’t know where this promo is supposed to lead, considering both guys are heel, but whatever.
*We see a recap of the whole Backlash incident, with Show attaking Cena, and Cole and King play up his injuries a bit.*
Backstage; MVP:
Backstage, the Bella twins are hitting on MVP, and ask him out. He says sure, and makes it clear he has a match tonight, first.
Not much of a segment, not much to review, but whatever. They should’ve actually had Sherri Sheppard there, seeing as MVP is gonna be on The View tommorow (now today)
MVP vs Cody Rhodes
Winner: MVP
Willian Regal is on commentary complaining about how he isn’t on the Raw entrance video. As the match goes on, he rambles a bit more. The match wasn’t bad. Back and forth to start, and then MVP got a bit of the upper hand. MVP controls for a while, and we see Shane looking on from the back. After this, it’s pretty even for a little while. Bit more back and forth, neither man completely dominating, and then MVP gets Cody outside of the ring. He goes out and rolls Cody back in the ring, but then as he tries to climb back in, regal attacks his from behind, pulling him off the apron. MVP doesn’t get back in the ring.
Match wise, no complaints. Pretty good actually, and showed off both guys skills. Neither guy dominated, which was nice. It was also nice to see no interference from Legacy.
Regal however, did interfere, which pisses me off. I was hoping MVP would continue his whole main event scene stuff for a while, pissing off Orton and all that for a few more weeks. Instead, it looks like there’s a feud with Regal. If regal was still GM, I wouldn’t mind it, because it’d be a meaningful feud. But currently, Regal is nothing, and having MVP feud with him is a bit of a setback.
Jillian vs Festus Sing Off:
King is in the ring and says that we’re going to be treated (yeah, sure) to a sing off between these two. Really? No, really? Why couldn’t we get another diva-dance off (preferably not with Festus, either). Anyway, Jillian sings, kids close their ears, etc, etc, and then she’s done. Festus then, on his turn, just stares blankly for a while. Someone rings the bell, and Festus starts singing like a rockstar. He rocks out to “Tommorow” (lol) and basically, it goes on too long for my liking. A simple verse would’ve done., Either way, it’s better than Jillian. Festus is announced as the winner. Miz comes out then. He recaps what he did last week, and we go to commercial. Once it’s back, Miz continues on, and calls out Cena again. He doesn’t come, and so he orders Lilian to announce him as the winner (of what?)
Cena’s theme hits, he walks out slowly, and then finally, when I get back from getting a drink, he’s in the ring. Show then comes out, and Miz has someone disappeared. Show and Cena have a little stare down, and Show then proceeds to beat him down.
This was when it sunk in that tonight’s show was not gonna be too great. The sing off actually pissed me off, though. Really. How far we’ve fallen. I remember when that spot used to belong to pillow fights or bikini contests. Now we’ve got a half naked guy singing, who, I don’t know why was in his wrestling gear, and a hideous woman pretending to sing badly. Awful. Luckily Miz saved it. Temporarily. He cut a good promo, but it all went to shit when Cena came out. Why? If he can’t compete til Judgment Day, why have him on the show? He looked like a dumbass coming out, and then the beatdown by Show was mediocre. *Shakes head*
Mickie James vs Maryse
Winner: Mickie James
Maryse plays chicken to start the match, so Mickie chases her down, and beats her down for a bit. They go back and forth for a while, and then Mickie gaisn control, hits a DDT, and wins.
Not bad. Decent match.
Backstage Batista is doing that jumping thing he does. It reminds me of that time that random fan (or so they said) ran back and did this. It was so good, I have to post it again:
[yt]KYuPdFa7wVM[/yt]
Ok, anyways…
Ted Dibiase vs Batista:
Winner: Ted Dibiase
Classic Batista beat down to start. Turns out to be a classic Batista beatdown to end as well. He basically covers every inch of the ring with this beatdown. From corner to corner, he just makes Ted look bad. Ted MAY have had a short time on the attack, but if you blinked, you likely missed it. Batista continues the beatdown into the corner, stomping Dibiase into the mat. The ref tells him to stop, he doesn’t, he gets DQ’d.
Match wise, it was actually ok. Dibiase should’ve got more offense, but Batista at least made his beatdown of Ted look good. So match wise, I can’t complain. But I can and will complain about the outcome. Two things
1-This wouldv’e been the pefect Batista heel opportunity. Could you imagine if he won that match, and then instead of teaming with Shane, chose to team with Orton? That would’ve been a good twist. That’s the least of my complains though.
2-This accidental stuff by Batista is getting dumb. He’s going to turn heel. It’s pretty obvious. But they’re making him look pitiful in the process. He’s fucking up, and they book him to be all remorseful and sorry about it. He’s a monster. He should be like “I don’t give a fuck, do better yourself” to someone. I realise he’s not turning heel yet, but it’s pretty obvious he will at some point, and this is a lame way to do it.
Brian Kendrick vs Carlito
Winner:Carlito
Pretty solid match, and quick. Similar to the Hardy/Kingston one in length. A little more action though. I do enjoy that by sticking to the draft trades, we get to see more guys like Kingston, Kendrick, Carlito, and other midcard guys. Decent, quick match
King and Cole do a recap of tonight.
Legacy vs Shane McMahon
Winner: N/A
Probably the best match of the night. It had some length to it, and got everyone in the match involved. Cody starts the match, and Shane and him go back and forth, when Orton comes in, the beatdown tarts. He goes to town for a bit until Ted comes in. Anyway, Im not doing a compelte recap, but it was a decent match. It was a mild beatdown for the first half, with Shane getting some retaliation in, and then for the second half, a full beatdown pretty much. They start to target Shane’s leg, and do a good job. Towards the end, Shane places Orton on the announce table, and tries to dive onto Orton from the turnbuckle, but Orton moves. They take a beaten up Shane, who is laying down, and debate what to do with him. They seem to decide hitting his leg with a chair is a good idea, but don’t go through. They hit his leg with the steps, instead, and Shane rolls in pain. People rush out, and then Batista’s music hits. He runs down, and is too late as Shane is helped out.
That ends Raw…
Best Match: Legacy vs Shane
Best Promo/Segment: Opening (and it wasn’t even a real promo, which says something)
Overall, a sort of disappointing Raw. One of the better Raw's match-wise in a while, but I wasn't impressed with the promos. The only talking promos were done from midcard and lowcard guys. Only two promos/segments involved main eventers. One was good (opener) one was bad (Cena/Show)
I guess you can take the match quality as a positive, but the promos were pretty disappointing. So was the storyline build. Batista's hints at a heel turn disappoint me. The whole accidental thing is lame, with al the mistakes he keeps making. And, well, cena just looked stupid.
Mediocre Raw. Can't wait for Smackdown!
Monday Night Raw:
Shane McMahon vs Randy Orton:
Winner: No Contest
Orton comes out, does his whole pose thing in the ring, and then Shane's music hits. Instead of coming out, we see nothing. At this point, I thought he had been attacked backstage or something. Instead, he comes chanrging out through the crowd and jumps Orton. Pretty ood exchange here for a while, and then Legacy comes out. It's a beatdown for a while, until MVP of all people comes out. The brawl continues, and then Batista eventually comes out, and it's an all out brawl. Then (boooo) we get Vickie and her annoying voice coming out (worse than Jillian's, TBH). She announces a mini-tournament type thing for tonight. We get Orton vs Shane in the main event, but we get two other matches. MVP vs Rhodes and Batista vs Dibiase. The winner of each matchgets to join the main event to join their leader in a tag match.
Actually liked how this went. Match never even got started, obviously, but that's fine IMO. It just set up something bigger. We get 3 big matches for later, that allows everyone to get involved, instead of just one between Orton and Shane.
I also like how they continued to have MVP in the main event scene. Clearly they have a few plans for this guy (or at least I hoped so, until I continued to watch the show.) Anyway, pretty exciting way to start off the show IMO. Just set up bigger and hopefully better things for later…
Matt Hardy vs Kofi Kingston:
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Before the match, we get another Matt Hardy promo. He basically compies what he sai last week, but who cares. What he said last week was pretty good (for Matt Hardy). Then Kofi comes out, and we get a quick, but spirited match. Pretty much all Kofi during this one. Matt had a few flashes every once in a while, just to show he’s still in it. Kofi picks up the win about 5 minutes in with his finisher. After the match, Kofi celebrates, and out of nowhere (cause we weren’t expecting it, right) Matt charges at Kofi, and rams his cast into the back of his head.
Not a bad opening match. I know I said it last week, but I like that they’re actually keeping Matt on TV with this whole angle. They could go the route of him faking his hand injury, or just have him keep doing it until his hand heals in real life, and have him keep it on afterwards, for as long as he can. Also interested to see if the whole “wrestling under protest” thing leads anywhere…
Backstage: Santino
Santino is with Kelly, and talking about how Santina and him will be teaming this week on Superstars. I debate going to take a piss, and miss how Chavo is suddenly on my screen, but I see that he is, so decide to wait. Chavo lectures santino for a minute, talking about how now that Vickie is in charge, he shouldn’t mess with either of them. Santino does some snorting noise to mock Vickie and this apparently pisses Chavo off. But who cares…
Holy fuck. Is it just me or is he getting uglier and harder to look at each week? Damn. All I can say is, I’m glad the Santino/Santina match is on Superstars, and not Raw. I honestly don’t know where this promo is supposed to lead, considering both guys are heel, but whatever.
*We see a recap of the whole Backlash incident, with Show attaking Cena, and Cole and King play up his injuries a bit.*
Backstage; MVP:
Backstage, the Bella twins are hitting on MVP, and ask him out. He says sure, and makes it clear he has a match tonight, first.
Not much of a segment, not much to review, but whatever. They should’ve actually had Sherri Sheppard there, seeing as MVP is gonna be on The View tommorow (now today)
MVP vs Cody Rhodes
Winner: MVP
Willian Regal is on commentary complaining about how he isn’t on the Raw entrance video. As the match goes on, he rambles a bit more. The match wasn’t bad. Back and forth to start, and then MVP got a bit of the upper hand. MVP controls for a while, and we see Shane looking on from the back. After this, it’s pretty even for a little while. Bit more back and forth, neither man completely dominating, and then MVP gets Cody outside of the ring. He goes out and rolls Cody back in the ring, but then as he tries to climb back in, regal attacks his from behind, pulling him off the apron. MVP doesn’t get back in the ring.
Match wise, no complaints. Pretty good actually, and showed off both guys skills. Neither guy dominated, which was nice. It was also nice to see no interference from Legacy.
Regal however, did interfere, which pisses me off. I was hoping MVP would continue his whole main event scene stuff for a while, pissing off Orton and all that for a few more weeks. Instead, it looks like there’s a feud with Regal. If regal was still GM, I wouldn’t mind it, because it’d be a meaningful feud. But currently, Regal is nothing, and having MVP feud with him is a bit of a setback.
Jillian vs Festus Sing Off:
King is in the ring and says that we’re going to be treated (yeah, sure) to a sing off between these two. Really? No, really? Why couldn’t we get another diva-dance off (preferably not with Festus, either). Anyway, Jillian sings, kids close their ears, etc, etc, and then she’s done. Festus then, on his turn, just stares blankly for a while. Someone rings the bell, and Festus starts singing like a rockstar. He rocks out to “Tommorow” (lol) and basically, it goes on too long for my liking. A simple verse would’ve done., Either way, it’s better than Jillian. Festus is announced as the winner. Miz comes out then. He recaps what he did last week, and we go to commercial. Once it’s back, Miz continues on, and calls out Cena again. He doesn’t come, and so he orders Lilian to announce him as the winner (of what?)
Cena’s theme hits, he walks out slowly, and then finally, when I get back from getting a drink, he’s in the ring. Show then comes out, and Miz has someone disappeared. Show and Cena have a little stare down, and Show then proceeds to beat him down.
This was when it sunk in that tonight’s show was not gonna be too great. The sing off actually pissed me off, though. Really. How far we’ve fallen. I remember when that spot used to belong to pillow fights or bikini contests. Now we’ve got a half naked guy singing, who, I don’t know why was in his wrestling gear, and a hideous woman pretending to sing badly. Awful. Luckily Miz saved it. Temporarily. He cut a good promo, but it all went to shit when Cena came out. Why? If he can’t compete til Judgment Day, why have him on the show? He looked like a dumbass coming out, and then the beatdown by Show was mediocre. *Shakes head*
Mickie James vs Maryse
Winner: Mickie James
Maryse plays chicken to start the match, so Mickie chases her down, and beats her down for a bit. They go back and forth for a while, and then Mickie gaisn control, hits a DDT, and wins.
Not bad. Decent match.
Backstage Batista is doing that jumping thing he does. It reminds me of that time that random fan (or so they said) ran back and did this. It was so good, I have to post it again:
[yt]KYuPdFa7wVM[/yt]
Ok, anyways…
Ted Dibiase vs Batista:
Winner: Ted Dibiase
Classic Batista beat down to start. Turns out to be a classic Batista beatdown to end as well. He basically covers every inch of the ring with this beatdown. From corner to corner, he just makes Ted look bad. Ted MAY have had a short time on the attack, but if you blinked, you likely missed it. Batista continues the beatdown into the corner, stomping Dibiase into the mat. The ref tells him to stop, he doesn’t, he gets DQ’d.
Match wise, it was actually ok. Dibiase should’ve got more offense, but Batista at least made his beatdown of Ted look good. So match wise, I can’t complain. But I can and will complain about the outcome. Two things
1-This wouldv’e been the pefect Batista heel opportunity. Could you imagine if he won that match, and then instead of teaming with Shane, chose to team with Orton? That would’ve been a good twist. That’s the least of my complains though.
2-This accidental stuff by Batista is getting dumb. He’s going to turn heel. It’s pretty obvious. But they’re making him look pitiful in the process. He’s fucking up, and they book him to be all remorseful and sorry about it. He’s a monster. He should be like “I don’t give a fuck, do better yourself” to someone. I realise he’s not turning heel yet, but it’s pretty obvious he will at some point, and this is a lame way to do it.
Brian Kendrick vs Carlito
Winner:Carlito
Pretty solid match, and quick. Similar to the Hardy/Kingston one in length. A little more action though. I do enjoy that by sticking to the draft trades, we get to see more guys like Kingston, Kendrick, Carlito, and other midcard guys. Decent, quick match
King and Cole do a recap of tonight.
Legacy vs Shane McMahon
Winner: N/A
Probably the best match of the night. It had some length to it, and got everyone in the match involved. Cody starts the match, and Shane and him go back and forth, when Orton comes in, the beatdown tarts. He goes to town for a bit until Ted comes in. Anyway, Im not doing a compelte recap, but it was a decent match. It was a mild beatdown for the first half, with Shane getting some retaliation in, and then for the second half, a full beatdown pretty much. They start to target Shane’s leg, and do a good job. Towards the end, Shane places Orton on the announce table, and tries to dive onto Orton from the turnbuckle, but Orton moves. They take a beaten up Shane, who is laying down, and debate what to do with him. They seem to decide hitting his leg with a chair is a good idea, but don’t go through. They hit his leg with the steps, instead, and Shane rolls in pain. People rush out, and then Batista’s music hits. He runs down, and is too late as Shane is helped out.
That ends Raw…
Best Match: Legacy vs Shane
Best Promo/Segment: Opening (and it wasn’t even a real promo, which says something)
Overall, a sort of disappointing Raw. One of the better Raw's match-wise in a while, but I wasn't impressed with the promos. The only talking promos were done from midcard and lowcard guys. Only two promos/segments involved main eventers. One was good (opener) one was bad (Cena/Show)
I guess you can take the match quality as a positive, but the promos were pretty disappointing. So was the storyline build. Batista's hints at a heel turn disappoint me. The whole accidental thing is lame, with al the mistakes he keeps making. And, well, cena just looked stupid.
Mediocre Raw. Can't wait for Smackdown!
no:
