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Really(?) RAW

Thoughts about WWE Monday Night RAW for 10 September 2012:

  • Bret Hart: Nice touch to see him continue to put those demons further in the rear view mirror.
  • Bret Hart & CM Punk: Best there is, best there was and best there ever will be still stands.  Nicely played by both.  WCW mention was a bit pointless however.
  • Kofi Kingston & R-Truth -v- The Miz & Antonio Cesaro: The no interest tag team champions sticking to what they do best, playing it safe.  Cesaro is still of absolutely no interest and the sooner the WWE stop forcing people down our throats the better.  Whilst Miz is fine as the Intercontinental Champion the strap was much better sitting with Cody Rhodes.
  • Sheamus & David Otunga: Brilliant.  The comedy segments in RAW are getting better every week.  A real jewel and a must watch.
  • Layla, Kaitlyn, & Eve -v- Beth Phoenix, Natalya & Alicia Fox: This match was pointless, Eve’s gimmick is pointless, nothing more to add.
  • CM Punk & AJ Lee: Boring, not working as general manager, hopefully this will build to a “YOU’RE FIRED!” sooner or later.
  • CM Punk -v- Randy Orton: Decidedly average, lets hope when Orton gets back into championship contention (it’s inevitable) that the man holding the strap is no longer CM Punk.  Not really sure why Orton did the cheap pop for Montreal?
  • CM Punk & Dolph Ziggler -v- Randy Orton & Jerry Lawler: It’s great that once a year The King gets himself involved in the action, I’ve always wondered if this was something he insisted upon in his contract.  Watching him drop kick Ziggler square on the jaw was a sight to behold.  Nice touch to see Paul Heyman involved again especially with Vickie Guerrero providing the backing track.  Better still to hear CM Punk say that he is “a Heyman guy”.
  • Kane & Daniel Bryan segment: Nice continuation of the previous weeks segments.
  • Heath Slater -v- Ryback: Good god, why, why, why, why, why, why, why does this man keep getting to use a microphone.  Normally that’s the worst thing about a Heath Slater match, this week however it’s the opponent.  The Ryback gimmick just doesn’t work, give it up already, bin it, pretend it never happened.
  • Kane & Daniel Bryan -v- The Prime Time Players: Tucking your t-shirts into your trunks is so not a thing, neither is the “millions of dollars” bromance hug.  Still love Bryan’s entrance, this guy needs to go down in history as having shown everyone that he damn well could be WWE champion.

Oh my god, I simply cannot believe what happened to Jerry the King Lawler!  Thank god for all the medical staff in the arena in Montreal who did what was necessary to save him.  I wish him a speedy recovery.  All things said about Michael Cole’s character before show just how different he is from that persona.  To carry on with someone having a heart attack right next to you must be one of the toughest things that man has ever had to do.

  • Alberto Del Rio -v- Tyson Kidd: I don’t envy these two having to go on after what just happened but a reasonably solid match.  It’s good that Kidd hasn’t yet ended up going through the revolving door.

Michael Cole shooting about what happened to Jerry Lawler:  Again, all respect to Cole.  Having to sit there and do that not knowing what is happening to your friend must have been absolutely horrible.

  • Sheamus -v- David Otunga:  No surprises here.  WWE playing to its strengths giving Sheamus another “cross” based finisher.  Nice to see Booker T on RAW, especially when his arrival pushed AJ Lee out of shot of the camera.
  • Kane & Daniel Bryan segment: Brilliant… Daniel Bryan & Kane or Kane & Daniel Bryan… Team Frendship… NO!

Michael Cole shooting again.  Absolutely gut wrenching.

  • Cody Rhodes -v- Rey Mysterio: Great encounter between the on point Mysterio and Rhodes.  Bit weird hearing Cody constantly grunt throughout the match though because of the silence.  Did anyone else think that Rey looked like an M&M? Good to see the interaction between Rhodes and Miz hinting that the title might go back to Cody.

Michael Cole shooting once more.  It is horrible to hear Cole describe Lawler describing that again.  Every time as well the poor fellow has absolutely no extra news to deliver of any comfort and seemingly manages to recall in more detail what just happened to his friend.

  • Bret Hart & John Cena: Montreal 1 – 0 Cena.  To be fair, he can wrestle, he just cannot wrestle well.  Shows just how well CM Punk does the heel that he can make the Montreal crowd start cheering for Cena when they start with him as the bad guy.  You also have to respect the show ending on the Hitman’s music 15 years after the screw job.  Who would have seen that one coming?

Michael Cole for the final time.  Thankfully with the good news that Jerry The King Lawler has stabilised.

NB: At the time of writing the latest news on Jerry Lawler from WWE after that edition of RAW can be found here.

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Really(?) RAW

Thoughts about WWE Monday Night RAW for 03 September 2012:

  • Daniel Bryan & Kane in Therapy: Brilliant, the pyrotechnics in the bin moment was hilarious.
  • Miz replacing Jerry Lawler: If only Miz had been replacing Michael Cole, unfortunately we all know that Punk -v- Cole would never have been any good.
  • Ryback -v- Jinder Mahal: Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, piss break.
  • Everyone leaves AJ Lee: Not interested at all.
  • Daniel Bryan & Kane in Ring Therapy: Even more brilliant, every time Bryan’s character loses his temper it just cements him with the audience.  Miz inventing the “rules” for hugging it out just added to the brilliance in spades, especially when Michael Cole stated it was beyond him, which says everything about his announcing ability.
  • Daniel Bryan -v- Kane: Really strong match, played to both wrestlers strengths really well.  Unusually fast paced match for Kane as well which was an added bonus.  Hopeful that this rivalry is built for the long-term if they can keep coming up with the material.
  • Santino Marella -v- Antonio Cesaro: Really love the continued comedy from Marella but this was a total lost cause simply because WWE are entering a new territory (Switzerland) and have put the United States Championship on an overnight character creation.  What really doesn’t add up here was that they could have used the Intercontinental Championship for this purpose as that is why it exists.
  • Zack Ryder -v- Heath Slater: I’ve no idea who behind the scenes jacks off to seeing Slater on TV but they must have enough footage by now that he can be taken away from RAW… please?  Also a shame to see Ryder, the self-made superstar, now having to what management tell him to.
  • Vickie Guerrero & AJ Lee: It always amazes me that frankly anyone with the surname Guerrero is an instant win, if Vickie stays on form much longer she will have just as big a place in the WWE Hall of Fame as Eddie Guerrero (who I sorely miss).  All that was missing from this was a spear or similar from Vickie, though her skipping away from the ring was genius.  Not sure what the chair did in a past life to deserve such a beat-down though.
  • Alberto Del Rio -v- John Cena: It’s always good to see John Cena bounce face first off of a shiny car.  It’s even better to see when the driver is Paul Heyman.  Paul E on WWE is always magic!
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What's going on on RAW?

Ok, that’s it.  I can’t watch it any more… who in the living hell is Mike Adamle and what in the hell is he doing on RAW.  Somebody sort it out and fire this man!

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ECf'nW

I kinda think of this as an open letter to Vince McMahon.

Simple suggestions are as follows:

  1. ECW goes back to being hardcore, i.e. every match is extreme rules (this doesn’t mean every match needs a trashcan, it just means every match CAN have a trashcan, etc.)
  2. Stop eliminating the ECW originals. Sort out the fuckups and bring back RVD, Sabu, Sandman et al. Give Dreamer back his blog.
  3. Instantly terminate this pathetic “talent exchange” with Smackdown it’s so rubbish and transparent.
  4. Big Daddy V is an investment. You guys are good at building brutes. Shame that you only build them one at a time instead of at the same time so they can have matches amongst themselves instead of just always chasing title. Why is Snitsky suffering on RAW when he could be battling with Big Daddy V or Mark Henry???

More later.