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Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 1.29.10: Raw and ECW Reviewed!
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.29.2010



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    By: Jeremy Thomas


    Raw 01.25.10:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    D-Generation X d. Priceless [**]
    The Big Show d. MVP [1/2*]
    Maryse d. Eve [DUD]
    Kofi Kingston d. The Miz [** 1/4]
    Gail Kim d. Alicia Fox [- * 1/2]
    Sheamus d. John Cena by DQ [***]


  • THE RIGHT:

    IT'S TOO MUCH TO ASK: Raw kicked off from the Nationwide Arena with D-Generation X coming down to the ring and Lawler and Cole talked about what had happened last week with 'H tossing Shawn and announcing that he would be winning the Rumble. Nonetheless, Shawn and Hunter seemed in good spirits until the entrance ended. After that we went back into continuity mode, as the H-Man began the D-X catch phrases before asking Shawn where Hornswoggle was. Shawn announced that he'd sent the leprechaun home, and the boo from the crowd made my heart weep. Shawn and 'H bickered over understanding each other's positions and how they couldn't step aside and help each other. Both of the two were playing more heelish roles and the crowd was responding in kind to both of them. They both put over the importance of winning the Rumble—nice to see 'H putting something over on the mic other than himself—and talked about how they could work together until the end but it was going to come down to the two of them. I appreciated this promo because it was Shawn and 'H being serious characters for once and they're always great on the mic together. Some people may consider them to be hogging the opening spotlight a bit but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

    CENA STICKS UP FOR THE LEGENDS: Midway through the show, Vince McMahon came down to the ring to speak on the mic. We got a recap of Taker coming out to call Vince out for screwing Bret and being a coward, but present-day Vince didn't seem too perturbed. He was being the big man with the Dead Man not present on Raw, taking about how he'd dare Taker to say it again. Vince was apparently out to clarify the Bret Hart situation…which is funny, 'cause I thought he'd already done so by saying Bret was banned from the 'E for life. He certainly got the crowd behind Bret though by talking about how he sold Bret down the river, and then really pissed them off by teasing Bret's appearance and then saying he'd never show up in the WWE. Which, again, was exactly what he said already. He then came down to the ringside area and asked fans why he should bring Bret back and if he's afraid of Bret. You know, I will definitely give Vince credit for this because he's never been one to interact directly with the crowd and he played it pretty nicely. But damn, how I wish someone had said "Because your WrestleMania buy rate will be through the roof, jackass!" Vince then made to leave, but down came the Champ to the crowd's glee. He said he wasn't out there to change his mind, then ran down the ways that Vince has trashed the legends.

    I kind of liked the way that Cena ran Vince down here; while it's a bit weird to see him standing up for legends who had left the full-time business before he started wrestling, but I liked the way he tied it into the current generation as his motive. Cena has a good viewpoint there that if Vince will do that to Bret, he'd do it for Cena himself too. Make your own potential worked shoot jokes here. Cena called Vince pathetic and drew a line in the sand and told him that he WOULD invite Bret to Raw next week. The threat he laid out to Vince was nice, and it got the Chairman's ego in a twist so Bret was coming to Raw next week and Cena was going to be facing Sheamus. This was a great segment that nicely furthered the Bret/Vince angle; I won't even quibble about the fact that we were seeing Cena/Sheamus again because of it. Well, not in this segment anyway.

    SHEAMUS vs. JOHN CENA: This was our main event of the evening, and you know what? I could bitch about how we've seen this match too many times recently, but I'm not going to. The reason I'm not going to is because I think it was obvious that this was going to be used to further the Sheamus/Orton feud, and I was okay with that. The WWE Title match hasn't gotten a lot of focus for the Rumble and it needed something to push it a bit higher in giving people's a reason to care about it. Besides, these two work fairly well together. I thought the opening where they basically pushed against each other back and forth around the ring was a bit overdone, but it picked up into a pretty solid brawl that helped make Sheamus look more like a star than he's been made to look so far. I have to give it to the 'E, they're really sticking with this Sheamus push and he's looking like he fully deserves to hang with Cena and the other main eventers. The announcers did a good job of putting the champion over as he controlled Cena in the first several minutes; this was a slowed-down part of the match but it made sense as Sheamus basically picked Cena apart. I was completely okay with Sheamus waiting for Cena to get into the ring, because it's the Celtic Warrior playing things smart. You don't exert yourself in kayfabe the week before your Title match, and that's what game Sheamus was playing here. When it picked up at the end the crowd popped nicely, and yet Sheamus was able to counter out of the Attitude Adjustment more than once. Cena's counter of the kick into the STF was actually pretty sweet also. Then down came Orton at the last moment and instead of a countout win, Sheamus got a DQ win. I enjoyed the way that this played out and it added some heat to the main event, as well as putting Cena over as the guy standing tall and a threat to win the Rumble. It was a good way to end the show and did the hard sell nicely.


  • PURGATORY:

    D-GENERATION X vs. PRICELESS: After their opening show promo, D-X took on Cody and Ted in what seemed to be a warm-up for their tag team title match against Punk and Gallows on SmackDown. Things didn't start off very swimmingly for Priceless as Cody ended up in Pedigree position in just a few moments and Ted had to bail him out. In fact, Cody was pretty much playing the beating post for Shawn and 'H for a good portion of the opening part of the match. But Cody quickly turned it around thanks to DiBiase's distraction and did a pretty decent job in control of HBK. I've enjoyed the way Ted and Cody work together when they're allowed to and this had one or two positive moments of team chemistry. The whole point to this match was to tease dissention D-X and they did it well enough thanks to some miscommunication and battling egos. Unfortunately it was really done at Priceless's expense as the last few moments pretty much squashed the heels. Ted ate a superkick, Cody got punched hard enough to roll out of the ring and bam, it was over. There was some decent work here, but not enough for me to get completely behind this match. A couple of sketchy moves, such as a semi-botched kick from Shawn late in the match, didn't help.

    THE MIZ vs. KOFI KINGSTON: Miz came out for his punishment match, and his opponent turned out to be none other than Kofi Kingston. Kofi popped the crowd decently enough on his way down to the ring, and Miz looked none too happy. They had a pretty decent match here and got some good things going; I particularly liked Miz stopping Kofi's cross body with a kick right to the gut. The crowd was into this match and Miz's heel antics were solid, while Kofi did pretty well on his offense. He wasn't as on his game as he has been for the last couple of months and his splash looked ugly, though that did appear to be more Miz falling early than Kofi doing anything wrong. The match was going along nicely and Miz was looking very good against a guy who's hung with a main eventer for months until MVP's distraction allowed Kofi to hit the Trouble in Paradise for the win. This was a flawed match but still decent, and pushed the US Title feud more than MVP's match for sure.


  • THE WRONG:

    MVP vs. THE BIG SHOW: Pop quiz, hot shots. What's the best way to put over a feud for the US Title? Apparently if you're the Raw creative team, you book the challenger to lose to a guy who doesn't have much of anything to do with the feud. MVP gave a tolerable promo before the match about how the Miz wasn't going to be able to hide forever and all that. I will say that it wasn't a great promo, but it wasn't terrible or stumbled through either. That of course brought the Miz out to mock Montel and his "Ballin'" catch phrase. The Miz pointed out Montel's incarceration once again and bitched about how he's an outcast while MVP is loved. My main problem with this was that there was nothing new talked about in this promo duel. Oh, unless you want to count Montel bringing up jokes about Miz being prison raped. Ha ha, yeah, he's reformed. MVP challenged Miz to a title match then and there, but instead Miz let Big Show make his statement. And what was his statement? About a minute-long squash match. And one that pretty much sucked to boot. Montel hit a couple punches, then Show took control and brutalized Montel until a brief comeback was stopped with a choke slam and a pin. It was a dumb-ass match that did nothing for the title feud or the in-ring wrestling quotient for the show. Basically, this was more or less a waste of time.

    LEGACY TENSION…AGAIN Backstage, Cody was trying to make up to Ted for saving him from the kick in the opening match and Ted didn't seem to be ready to play nice. That brought in Orton who berated the two for arguing in the back while Sheamus kicked his head in. Orton talked about how he's waited an excruciating amount of time for Cena to lose the title so he could get a shot. That's sort of funny, because I thought the number of times they battled for the title was the excruciating part…but then again, what do I know? They're REALLY slow-burning the Legacy dissention and they need to have some actual developments to this thing, because it's been teased so long that pretty much no one cares. If it goes past the Rumble than you can take the "pretty much" out of that statement. This was serviceable promo work, but it didn't really mean anything in the long run because we've seen these kinds of segments so much now that we can pretty much recite them by heart. That's not a good sign.

    THE GUEST HOSTS OF THE WEEK: So call me a nitpicker, but I was really not a fan of the way they did the guest host thing this week. Listen, I absolutely understand that James Roday had to cancel at the last moment and that it's not the 'E's fault. But why act like Roday was going to be there at the opening of the show and then seem totally shocked by the sudden revelation ten minutes later that he's not going to? They're bait and switching the guest hosts these days, and that's not a good sign. We then got Cena and Dule Hill backstage and they played the whole thing for laughs, but the problem was it wasn't all that funny. They pimped the upcoming Psyche episode with Cena and the Champ psyched Hill up in return. Hill then proceeded to interact with Miz and got put down like he wasn't important. Listen, I get that Hill's not Bret Hart or Steve Austin, but no need to go down that route. Then he went into the production truck with Carlito and ended up booking a match between Triple K and Carlito. Yeah, 'cause that was hilarious. He then was backstage with Cena and they pimped Psyche some more, then had Roday in speaker phone so that they could technically say that they'd co-hosted Raw. This led to Roday making some cheesy jokes before Alicia came in to ask Hill to be a psychic. Yes, because we should totally portray the Divas as airheads, that'll help. Hill was completely underwhelming as Raw guest host, but at least he was mostly kept to the sidelines. Bring on Shatner, at least that'll be an entertaining car wreck.


  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don't care.

    MARYSE vs. EVE TORRES: This was the first of the two semifinal matches for the Butterfly Title on the show, and was kicked off with a Maryse promo about how the Divas were wasting their time dreaming about the title, merci beaucoup, je ne sais quoi, joie de vivre and all that. She was interrupted however by Dule Hill being a buffoon. Maryse lost her mind before Eve's music hit and the lady herself came out to play. You know, I argue vehemently with people who say Maryse gets no reaction…but when Eve came out, there's NO denying that the crowd sat on their hands and didn't give a rat's ass. This was the lady's match I had the most hope for out of the two and…well, there's no getting around it. This was an atrocious match. I guess it started off all right, but things went quickly downhill when Eve about crushed Maryse with a bad landing on a senton and then about killed herself with a bad moonsault. Hey…psst. Hey, Eve. You got better while you were on SmackDown, and showed a lot of potential. But you are not Rey Mysterio! Stop acting like it! And then Maryse looked to nearly hurt Eve on the French Kiss. Yeah, this just sucked and looked like neither girl was in control. They're lucky neither of them got injured.

    CARLITO vs. TRIPLE K SANTINO MARELLA vs. CARLITO WHATEVER THE *&%! THIS WAS: Okay, so let's just start with the idea that even pretending we were getting a Triple K/Carlito match was stupid. The only good part about it was that Santino came out to call her Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly. That's right, it was Quadruple K. Santino then pimped the Best of Raw 2009 DVD, and then came down after Carlito before Swagger came down and beat the hell out of Santino. Yes, because doing that and yelling incoherently while beating on your chest (I've never liked that whole thing for Swagger by the way) is TOTALLY making up for getting buried for the last few weeks. This was the very definition of pointless as it didn't do Swagger any good and no one in the crowd cared, and we had a record number of bait and switches in such a short amount of time to the point that the audience didn't give a crap and frankly, neither did I. Thanks for wasting our time with this one guys.


  • THE RI-GOD-DAMN-DICULOUS:

    GAIL KIM vs. ALICIA FOX: You know, the 'E got it wrong this week. The loser is supposed to be the one who comes out to no music, not the winner. But then again, I guess you could say there were no winners in this match, as Hill sat at commentary and talked about Psyche more while the two ladies made Eve vs. Maryse look like a classic match by comparison. Alicia nearly took her first bump on the shoulder which could have been seriously bad; after that things got even worse. There was a reverse rana that was basically excruciating to watch and the backbreaker to Gail didn't look properly executed either. She missed a boot in the corner and her knee bent badly, then Gail hit a kick to the back that landed badly. This wasn't just awkward, it was cringe-worthy. I was pretty damned sure someone was walking away from this with an injury but luckily that wasn't the case. Afterward we had Hill try to make up with Alicia and get smacked to the ground. This whole thing was an abomination and an automatic early contender for worst match of the year.


    The 411


    This was basically a vacuum of quality, with only a few spots of shining brilliance. The opening promo and the Vince/Cena promos were great and the main event was very solid as well. Anything else was problematic at best and a downright abortion at worst. Those Diva's Title tournament matches were awful and something the 'E should be ashamed of; I'm not making any jokes here, they were some of the worst women's wrestling we've seen in the 'E since Jackie Gayda. The Carlito/Kelly/Santino/Swagger bit served no purpose (or at least didn't succeed at any) and everything else was forgettable. I offer no excuses for this Raw and neither should the WWE, they should just pretend it didn't exist out of the few Rights.

    SHOW RATING: 4.0




    From DiamondStandard:
    I never realized how many mistakes Todd Grisham makes until this week. He is not very good.


    T-Grish makes mistakes, but I don't think he's terrible. He understands his job and sure as hell does a better job than Cole. Give him some time and he'll become quite serviceable, though probably never great.


    From rick goodwin:
    what the hell....you give roh, a show nobody watches an 8 but impact 3.5. Impact wasnt bad. it made sense. your scale is way off, sir.


    You mean sirs. Hubbard does ROH, Nevett does Impact. And their opinions of each other's shows may be quite different. Just sayin'!


    From Tommy the OG Poster:
    I don't agree with your feelings on that Jeremy. I think it was a good segment and would like to see more of that in the future.


    Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Might help if I knew WHICH segment you meant though...


    From The Great Capt. Smooth:
    I totally agree about what happened with Beth. To quote RKO, "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!". What I did love about it was Beth's "struggle" before joining in.


    I did love that with Beth, yes. As usual, she takes a bad booking decision and makes it as good as it can possibly be.


    From Guest#7755:
    When we came back from commercial, Team Lay-Cool was in the ring for a "Piggie James Good-Bye Party." Oh my GOD, have they gotten annoying as hell.

    Jeremy, I'm pretty sure those are called "heels."

    From Guest#2965:
    I think he meant legitimately annoying. "Change the channel" heat instead of heel heat.


    A little of both, really. Please not I didn't mean "annoying" in an entirely bad way. They're being annoying in order to be heels and I appreciate that, but I think they're going a bit over the top with it and it does approach channel-changing time.


    From fanboi13:
    Damn it! they ruined what could be a great tweener role for Beth in exchange for cheap heat. I am hoping that Beth will turn around and kick Layla and Mccool's asses to get her tweener heat back,but the E creative being what it is I doubt it.


    We'll see how it goes, and I do hope for that as well. What we saw here didn't lead me to believe that, but hey the 'E has proven me wrong before.


    From Guest#7693:
    Maria became very good on the microphone during her run as a ditzy interviewer and just hasn't had the chance to show it since she dropped that character to become just another face in the crowd.

    I can't believe that every reviewer seems to have missed this but it seems obvious that Michelle is bribing Beth to help her against Mickie, probably with a one-on-one shot at the women's title. I fully expect this to be revealed in a promo next week as the way Beth acted it didn't seem like she was picking a side, it seemed like she knew what she had to do but wasn't happy about it because she doesn't like helping Michelle even if it's for a title opportunity. This way part of the equation in the women's match is whether or not Beth turns on Michelle, and if she does does she do it before or after the match, and are they going to do the classic ending of Layla distracting the referee only for Beth to hit Michelle by accident when Mickie ducks. It just seems like the logical step of this storyline, especially if it's supposed to continue to WM, which would make sense at this point.

    I do agree with the segment being in purgatory though, not because Beth 'turned heel' but because it came so close to fixing this storyline only to make it offensive all over again. After weeks of not being allowed to respond Mickie finally got to say what she should have said months ago, that being Michelle and Layla are shallow and deluded bitches who's opinions don't matter in the slightest. That was great but all that character repair was then destroyed when Mickie was forced to cry at the end as it made it look like she was a liar and Michelle's and Layla's words did matter. Shallow heels like TNA's Beautiful People talk about their opponent's appearances all the time but it's ok because their opponents just shrug it off, call them bitches and then try to kick the crap out of them. At best the WWE is saying Mickie is oversensitive, at worst they are saying everyone who is not our definition of perfection are insecure and unattractive, which is a retarded and offensive message to send out. The story line can be fixed with Mickie realising she's been letting Michelle's and Layla's words get to her and promises it will never happen again, and most importantly have it not happen again, or the taunting could make Mickie go psycho again and completely destroy Michelle and Layla emotionally (by showing them just how ugly they are on the inside) and physically (by beating the crap out of them). Either way Mickie needs to be the one to take the title away from Michelle, either at the Royal Rumble or even possibly at Wrestlemania.


    THIS. Seriously, this is pretty much exactly what bugs me the most. However, I think that it's going to result in Mickie going over at the Rumble, so I was willing to not rant my ass off about this part, especially when the Beth thing bugged me more. Now, to be honest I don't see that bribery thing happening. I don't know why but I just don't. I guess we'll see how it pans out. And that's true about Maria, but even when she was in the Dolph relationship she didn't have that level of mic skills. Only thing I can guess is that Celebrity Apprentice has been good for her.


    From Random:
    Undertaker's nipple was visible for the second straight show...that deserves to be on the Wrong


    You pay far more attention to Taker's pecs than I do, clearly. But hey, if it was showing then I'll give that a wRong; why not?


    From Guest#9274:
    Gotta disagree on the Batista runin being in Purg. If anything it would be bad if they just forgot about it. It shows that Batista holds a grudge and hasn't forgotten that he would be #1 contender if not for Rey's very heelish tactics of pulling the ref out of the ring when Batista was about to win the Beat the Clock challenge.


    I wouldn't have interpreted it as "forgotten about." Just that Batista didn't decide to come out here. Sometimes storyline continuity DOES have to take a backseat to putting your challenger over. I know, I always preach about continuity but it can be a bit fluid without being a sieve. I would have rather had him not come out, myself


    From Chungles:
    And that McCool-Mickie segment was the most entertaining part of the show. Creative should be applauded for working on this story to the point that they can devote so much time to *divas on mics* without getting shit all over by the crowd - in fact *finally* building some character to their female talent beyond having them dance like morons with C-list celebs.


    Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate this a lot. This was why it got puRgatoRy instead of wRong. I love that they've developed an in-depth angle, even if I don't personally like the angle. I just felt that the way it was booked sold Beth short for her tweener potential. We'll see how it goes though.


    From Ryushinku:
    I really think that Beth hasn't turned to the 'dark side', certainly not for good anyway. I think they'll still be playing her as conflicting, this is an ongoing thing and not the end of that angle for her I reckon.


    This is my hope; I just don't know if it will work out that way, and I can't grade on my hopes; I grade on what I see and where I think it's going. I certainly want Beth to stay tweener, but I think this was too heelish for her to be walking both sides. Tweeners should generally just walk their own path; she fully allied with Lay-Cool here, even if for just a moment.





    By: Michael Bauer


    ECW 01.26.10:

    QUICK RESULTS:
    William Regal and Ezekiel Jackson defeat Christian and Kane [***1/4]
    The Hurricane, Goldust, and Yoshi Tatsu defeat Zack Ryder, Trent Barreta, and Caylen Croft [**1/4]

  • THE RIGHT:

    THE ENTIRE FIRST HALF HOUR OF ECW: Yes, I can easily lump this into that one statement, because it is the absolute truth. From the very beginning with Regal in the ring bringing out the Number One Contender to that same man pinning Christian, everything was spot on perfection. Yes, even when I expected Regal to do the talking, he gave Jackson the microphone and Big Zeke wasn't as bad I thought he would have been. Jackson's mic skills are decent for a big man and his quoting of the book of Ezekiel is a very nice touch, as it always has been. To quote Ryan Byers from this week's 2 Fast, 2 Furious: "Who is writing this promo and why aren't they writing the show this way every week?" It's the same for DX on Raw as it is for ECW this week. So, this brings out the champion and Christian was once again pure gold on the stick. I mean, Christian knows how to speak a promo perfectly and he did again here as he did more to benefit Jackson than himself with his words. Sure, he put over himself with talking about every type of person he has beaten, but he also put over Jackson as the type of guy he hasn't defended the belt against yet. And in its own way, calling someone the biggest and strongest freak of nature in whole WWE does justice here. But of course, Christian has to remind Jackson it was two on one last week and he has the equalizer this week. So out comes Kane and it looks like the main event is first. Normally, this wouldn't work for me, but tonight was different. And sure, the match started in progress, but that is becoming sort of common place for ECW as of late. Now, when this happened, I expected this to be over before the next commercial. Heck, we know I was wrong. Also, when it would come to Kane and Big Zeke, you had to be sure the match would slow and fall apart. Hell, that didn't happen either. You couldn't have asked for a better tag match on ECW and you're sure as hell could not have asked for a better ending. Regal and Christian being the legal men and Big Zeke taking Kane out on the floor in time to make a blind tag. So after Regal gets planted with the Killswitch, Big Zeke just strolls in and plants Christian to pin the ECW Champion five days before the Rumble. What makes it better is that this was no shenanigans, no bullshit, and no cheap ending. It was Zeke pinning the champ clean in the middle of the ring. Add in that the match went twenty minutes, including commercials, and I don't think I have enjoyed something on ECW that much in ages.


  • PURGATORY:

    SIX MAN TAG MAIN EVENT: The main event for this show was a six man tag that was your normal combine two rivalries into one match method that is very rarely able to be used on ECW. We have seen a budding feud between The Hurricane and Zack Ryder, over Ryder taking down the veterans of ECW. Likewise, we have seen Barreta and Croft feuding with Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu, though I have no real idea as to why they are feuding. Anyway, much like the opening match, the time of when everything starts gave me an idea about what I was going to get and with it starting early enough, I had to expect a decent match, despite my reservations about certain people. Ryder was first to come this week, being the only one before a commercial and they played into the tension with Ryder/Rosa and Savannah from last week, which was a nice touch I thought would be overlooked. The main thing I didn't like about the entrances was that it was clearly rushed after the break. You had the two dudes with Guitar Hero attitudes in the ring already and every face had the entrance cut before they hit the ring. Still, it gave us a slightly longer match and I can't argue that. The match itself was pretty good, but it didn't feel like everything was clicking. Once again, Barreta and Croft did nothing to really impress me when they were in the ring, even with one shining moment they normally get. Still, the hot tag happened to Tatsu, as it should have been and ends up cleaning house on Barreta and Croft, but doesn't really get his chance at Ryder, which was smart. At least for once, his buzz saw kick wasn't out of the clear blue to make his win look like a fluke. But like I said, the match was decent and better than I thought, but something just didn't sit right with me on this one.

    SHELTON HYPES THE RUMBLE: The only time we were backstage all night was to have Shelton talk about the Rumble and how important it is to springboard a career. This leads to Vance Archer coming in and blasting Shelton before talking about fantasy and reality. Now, I understand this type of promo being done with Shelton and Vance to continue their feud, but it just didn't fit to me. I mean, let's face it, Shelton isn't exactly the type of person who has ever had huge success in the WWE, so talking about how the Rumble has helped careers in the past felt a little weird. Still, if anyone in ECW was going to give that promo, it would have to be Shelton. So, it was okay, but shaky to me.


  • THE WRONG:

    NOTHING


  • THE RIDICULOUS:

    NOTHING


    The 411


    This was a very simple show by ECW this week and it worked to absolute perfection. The main event being first was a little bit of a surprise, but it was played very well by everyone and was easily the best match on ECW in sometime. Even the six man tag wasn't just a thrown together mess and did everything it should have. If ECW can do more shows like this, then maybe it can dig itself out of the ground before being cancelled.

    SHOW RATING: 9.0


    Until Monday, keep on kickin' it!


    ~441~


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    Comments (34)

     
    Cena vs Sheamus on RAW tells me Sheamus is walking into Mania as champion to battle Triple H...

    Posted By: Marky Mark (Guest)  on January 28, 2010 at 11:04 PM

     
     
    i heard this was the 'ecw change' that was coming....2 long ass matches with a few videos thrown in the middle.

    Posted By: reports (Guest)  on January 28, 2010 at 11:04 PM

     
     
    I thought RAW and ECW were great shows to build to the Rumble this weekend!!!!

    Posted By: Kenny!!!! (Guest)  on January 28, 2010 at 11:17 PM

     
     
    Um the show is called PSYCH...

    Posted By: Guest#0860 (Guest)  on January 28, 2010 at 11:24 PM

     
     
    "And then Maryse looked to nearly hurt Eve on the French Kiss."

    Botched/dangerous-looking: Alicia Fox getting DDT'd by Mickie James at Hell in a Cell and looking like she snapped her neck like a twig.

    Hokey and fake: Kelly taking Maryse's DDT. Kelly makes sure her head comes nowhere near the mat and makes the move look like a suplex rather than a DDT.

    LOOKS brutal but done safely: Eve taking the DDT from Maryse last year and in this match.


    Posted By: Guest#5419 (Guest)  on January 28, 2010 at 11:42 PM

     
     
    Regal v Christian was the best ECW match in 6 months last week...how quickly we forget...

    ECW was solid. I'd give it a 7 though.
    It was a nothing RAW...5


    Posted By: ROH Commish (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 12:28 AM

     
     
    I gotta agree with you that the Alicia/Gail Kim match was beyond awful. I am a big Gail Kim fan and I gotta say she did not look good. It may be a lack of chemistry with Fox or she just had a really,really bad night,but Gail did not look good. To be fair Alicia did not exactly look like Misty Blue Simms in her prime either. It is just that I expect so much more from Gail and she definitely did not deliver it this week.

    Posted By: fanboi13 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 12:47 AM

     
     
    I liked Dule. Sure, his bits were overwrought, but he was funny. You guys are too hard on the guests. Considering most of them, to my knowledge, hadn't hosted a live show before, much less a wrestling show, I think they do fairly well.

    The Miz/MVP stuff is top-notch, IMO. Their characters clash wonderfully and they could have a great, long feud if done right. I think a lot of people undersell MVP and Miz, but both are blossoming (bad word choice) into great workers. Miz is definitely nearing a another level in his career. IMO.


    Posted By: ThePants (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:26 AM

     
     
    Can somebody answer what Miz was being 'punished' for in his match with Kofi? I'm confused.

    Posted By: Dynamo (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:26 AM

     
     
    I completely agree about the Gail vs. Alicia match.

    However, it seems like you rated Maryse vs. Eve on the idea that there's no possible way they could hit hard or take convincing bumps without getting hurt for real.


    Posted By: Guest#5317 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:34 AM

     
     
    "And then Maryse looked to nearly hurt Eve on the French Kiss."

    Botched/dangerous-looking: Alicia Fox getting DDT'd by Mickie James at Hell in a Cell and looking like she snapped her neck like a twig.

    Hokey and fake: Kelly taking Maryse's DDT. Kelly makes sure her head comes nowhere near the mat and makes the move look like a suplex rather than a DDT.

    LOOKS brutal but done safely: Eve taking the DDT from Maryse last year and in this match.

    Posted By: Guest#5419 (Guest) on January 28, 2010 at 11:42 PM

    Agreed! Alicia was bent in half at HIAC in October.

    Plus the RAW review was pitiful, from not knowing the title of the show WWE and USA promoted about 50 times during the show and saying we have seen Cena vs. Sheamus too mauch recently - saw it once on PPV (you and others likely didn't actually pay to see) and once from the last RAW of December.....


    Posted By: Nice! (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:40 AM

     
     
    Solid ECW this week, I only caught the Cena/Sheamus part of RAW, which I thought was pretty solid. The Rumble build seems going well, but if the rest of RAW was as bad as described above, I'm glad I missed that.

    Still think WWE storylines are a lot better than what TNA is doing.


    Posted By: B.Mo. (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:56 AM

     
     
    I think Dule Hill was a great host. I expected Roday to be good but wasn't looking forward to Hill and when I read earlier in the day that Roday was not able to host that night I was disappointed. Hill more than made up for it and I have no resistance in saying so far he is the best celebrity host they have had.

    Also on Psych this week they referenced Kamala and Monday Night RAW. Plus James Roday in the WWE magazine this month. I hope that if the host thing continues they can try and get Hill and Roday to have another go around as host.


    Posted By: Strong Machine (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 02:04 AM

     
     
    what if outback jack had been watching the show from australia when he herd Cena say his name??? I wonder if he knows he was mentioned on RAW, and do you think if Jack called Vince just to talk, do you think Vince wold talk with him lol

    Posted By: nWoMikey (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 04:38 AM

     
     
    Wasn't this only about the third match Cena and Sheamus have had together...?

    Posted By: Ryushinku (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 06:39 AM

     
     
    From a creative perspective, starting off a show by announcing 'Hey, so one of the guys booked to host the show hasn't turned up' doesn't seem like the best way to go about hooking in an audience. Not in the regard that it will upset the two Psych fans who tuned in specifically to see both the guys, but the announcement itself puts WWE in a bad light, as if they'd be kicking off the show saying 'The white one is too big for us'. Can't say it bothered me, to be honest.

    As far as Dule Hill goes, I thought he was great. I'm not going to bitch about this guest host situation because I completely understand the business and marketing benefits for the WWE in doing such a thing; that it takes away time for maybe an Evan Bourne squash isn't really of much concern to me. So long as the guest host seems into the concept and doesn't appear to see the product as completely beneath them, I'm cool with it.

    Dule Hill was exactly that. The guy, like Heder the week before, seemed to enjoy himself and admirably was even willing to get in on the action. The comedy wasn't bad, and Hill's natural charisma shone through in a way even many wrestlers fail to convey.

    We're setting the bar too high if we expect Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of humour here. You go back to the shows hosted by people who have been praised, the comedy *wasn't that great*.

    On a side point, how much does awareness of who the guest host actually *is* play a part in people's perceptions of their performance? Seems to me a rather silly way to approach making judgments, but one many on this site are prone to applying.


    Posted By: Chungles (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 07:24 AM

     
     
    Anyone else think they should put the Divas who can't wrestle on RAW and use them as valets, and keep the ones that can wrestle on Smackdown? Call me crazy, but I don't think a scantily clad woman looks as sexy after she's been Christopher Reeve'd. Just sayin.

    Posted By: Jason King (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 07:47 AM

     
     
    "It was Shawn and 'H being serious characters for once"

    HBK is fantastic, but DX HBK is awful -it's like Trips taints him. Anytime Serious Shawn appears, we have good times.

    "Bring on Shatner, at least that'll be an entertaining car wreck."
    I'd love to see him back in the King's Court.

    As for the women's matches - at least Jackie had an excue (first match ever).
    Gail Kim's ability seems to fade the further the gets from Orlando.

    Speaking of TNA, if WWE do secure Kong, hunting down McCool for her superficial views would be a great way to debut her.


    Posted By: Loki (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 08:04 AM

     
     
    The main problem with this new generation of WWE womens wrestlers is they try to go overboard to stand out, you have Eve, Alicia Fox and Kelly botching a snapmare or not being able to run the ropes properly then in the same match they'll attempt a moonsault or some other acrobatic stunt, it's laughable.

    There's a reason Maryse is arguably the only one with a long term future, you don't see her trying to do shit beyond her means and she gets more of a reaction simply by flipping her hair, doing a DDT and showing some personality. Nobody wants to see these girls get hurt, but Alicia and Eve in particular look like a disaster waiting to happen.


    Posted By: RedIsAmazing (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 09:04 AM

     
     
    THE RI-GOD-DAMN-DICULOUS:
    GAIL KIM vs. ALICIA FOX:

    K lets be clear here. The match itself and the work done by the two Divas wasn't that bad. The treatment of the match (ie bad comintary, no music for the winner, focus on the looser instead of the one going to the finals) is why it deserves to be here. The Kim and Fox themselves were actually better than Maryse and Eve


    Posted By: Nicole (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 09:26 AM

     
     
    The Kim-Fox match was INFINITELY better than Maryse-Eve when viewed as a fan and not as an analyst.

    Maryse appears to have four moves: Elbow smash, slap, kick, French Kiss. This week was a repeat of last week: Maryse gets dominated (with competent selling, but not extrodinary) until the VERY end at which point she hits the French Kiss "out of nowhere".

    Conversely, Gail Kim had some botches, with the bottom-rope hurricarana being the biggest... but what impressed me was the fact that they recovered as well as they did. "Yeah... we MEANT to roll into the ring ropes... so we can set up this between the ropes from the outside spot. YEAH... that's it!". I'm not even going to go into how much better the Eat Defeat win came off.

    If you could take Alicia's selling, Maryse's personality and intangibles, and Eve's range of offense with an huge injection of psychology (which is really Eve's problem, IMO), you'd have a really good women's wrestler.


    Posted By: J. Alexander Mitchell (Registered)  on January 29, 2010 at 12:02 PM

     
     
    "The Kim-Fox match was INFINITELY better than Maryse-Eve when viewed as a fan and not as an analyst."

    Maybe, if how many moves were attempted is your criteria. If how many moves were done correctly means anything, Maryse vs. Eve was much better.


    Posted By: Guest#9357 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 01:45 PM

     
     
    "There's a reason Maryse is arguably the only one with a long term future, you don't see her trying to do shit beyond her means and she gets more of a reaction simply by flipping her hair, doing a DDT and showing some personality."

    Exactly.

    Showing charisma while doing a handful of moves correctly and safely will get her a lot farther than the other divas, who do 100 sloppy, dangerous moves that might be cool if they could actually do them correctly. They can't, though, so they're more likely to get hurt than get over with the crowd.


    Posted By: Guest#8671 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 02:01 PM

     
     
    "Can somebody answer what Miz was being 'punished' for in his match with Kofi? I'm confused."

    I think he meant Kayfabe punishment, as that was Dule Hill's way of punishing him for being rude


    Posted By: Guest#5998 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 02:03 PM

     
     
    Jeremy. Your becoming to hard on the guests hosts. From last week and this week. Your banter on Psyc was hillarious. And i am meaning in a bad way. Hill was great as the guest host. And at least he was involved in almost every segmant. I also enjoyed Heder last week too. Your reviews are getting pitiful. I thought the past two raws were better then what you scored.

    Posted By: Guest#0967 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 03:22 PM

     
     
    WTF has happened to Gail Kim? I hope she's enjoying all this WWE money. Hopefully she proves she's worth the money and puts on better matches like she is actually capable of and not this half dangerous BS. Shift her to SD where there's more talented Divas.

    And WWE must market her more around that whole trite yet appealing Asian Persuasion thing. Will get her over with those with yellow fever. I'm not personally into Asian chicks but Gail is pretty hot.


    Posted By: Guest#0465 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 03:47 PM

     
     
    I have to agree about the Cena promo. It fits his reputation outside the ring. The part that got me was him name dropping Outback Jack. With that, Cena really comes across as a guy that grew up a fan, not just some poser.

    Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 08:10 PM

     
     
    "I have to give it to the 'E, they're really sticking with this Sheamus push and he's looking like he fully deserves to hang with Cena and the other main eventers."

    Sheamus looked like he deserved to be on the unemployment line, a place he'll be before the end of the year if there's any justice in this world. I mean seriously, he proves week after week he has nothing whatsoever to offer and yet people defend him. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.


    Posted By: Guest#3713 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 08:34 PM

     
     
    This show should automatically get a 0.0 for Sheamus not losing the WWE title in 30 seconds, which should have happened weeks ago to allow some time to repair some of that belt's credibility. At this point the WWE title match at the Royal Rumble might as well be a biggest dump match in which who ever squeezes out the biggest turd directly onto the title wins. It's no worse than the alternative and would probably be a lot less shitty.

    Posted By: Guest#4183 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 08:41 PM

     
     
    We've seen Sheamus vs. Cena too often? This is only the third match they've had.

    Posted By: abwiz74 (Guest)  on January 29, 2010 at 10:27 PM

     
     
    Didn't Gail Kim used to be able to work a match, or am I confused?

    Posted By: jivesoulbro (Guest)  on January 30, 2010 at 02:43 AM

     
     
    We need a new raw reviewer ASAP, Thomas clearly doesn't even watch anymore, and intends to just shit on any non-major celebrity for no apparent reason. Hill was entertaining.

    Posted By: Westen (Guest)  on January 30, 2010 at 09:17 PM

     
     
    Oh jeremy (and others columists) stop jumping on Eve's throat lol! She knows she's not Rey M. And jay alexander, and Red Eve doesn't have a psychology prob, I think they're holding her back tremendously, I've seen her wrestle at a house show and she was a lot better on screen, and of course it looked like she was gonna kill Maryse. She looks like a twig out there ready to break in half!! By the way like some douche logo on here said, Eve is not a fat cow

    Posted By: Anon1 (Guest)  on January 31, 2010 at 03:02 PM

     
     
    Oh, come on Jeremy, Dule was a good guest host. Sure it was disappointing that James wasn't there, but Dule made up for it by being good on the mic and actually seeming to enjoy hosting.

    Also, well put RedIsAmazing. I think that's exactly the problem with a lot of the new divas, they try to hard. You see them going for all these flashy hurricanranas, head scissors, roll-ups, and summersaults, when they don't even known how to manuever around the ring nicely yet. The result is that they end up botching and looking awkward in their matches.


    Posted By: Shaun J. (Guest)  on February 03, 2010 at 12:46 PM

     


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