Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 9.03.10: Raw and NXT Reviewed!

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 09.03.2010

The Straight Edge Society punked the WWE Universe, the Nexus defeated Team WWE in a five-on-five match, Kaval won NXT Season Two but paid the price and more! Wrestling's 4R's breaks down the Right, wRong and Ridiculous of WWE Raw and NXT!

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By: Jeremy Thomas

Raw 08.30.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
The Miz & Alex Riley def. Kofi Kingston & Michael McGillicutty and Daniel Bryan & Kaval [* ¾]
Melina & Eve def. Team Lay-Cool [¼ *]
John Morrison & R-Truth fought Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre to a No Contest [DUD]
Jack Swagger def. Evan Bourne [*]
The Nexus def. Sheamus, Chris Jericho, Edge, Randy Orton & John Cena [** ½]

THE RIGHT:

THE OPENING MONTAGE: So, I had to take a moment to comment on this. Obviously this isn't a typical kind of "Right" because it's not about the live work put into it, but I had to give them credit for an opening sequence that instantly brought back nostalgic moments. Listen people, I know it's cool to hate on 'H on the internet, but I'm not going to lie and say I didn't mark out hard when he came back to Raw in 2002. Seeing all the Raw logos in quick succession was nice. Of course, as has been pointed out the 'E should have called 900 episodes "a feat never duplicated IN PRIME TIME," as soap operas have topped that easily but Bret mentioned that later so let's not split hairs. They did a good job of getting nostalgic fans pumped and yet still showing the new faces. So here's one thing they definitely did Right.

KANE INTERRUPTS THE EX-GM: After the opening montage, Raw kicked off with Bret Hart making his way down to the ring. Again, this was a solid way to start off because they had a fair amount of old fans tuning in for nostalgia and they wanted to give them someone they recognized. Bret did a solid job here with his promo and selling the history of Raw in only a short time. He then called out the Undertaker so that they could share in the moment, being the only two around when the show began. But instead we got the Blue Brand World Heavyweight Champion, Kane. The Big Red Monster also did pretty well in his promo as he sold how he had broken the Dead Man at the same time that he was insulting Bret. It turned back around to Bret and Shawn, to which Bret countered that Taker was going to beat Kane. Kane then decided he needed to take out an icon and went after Bret; that brought out the Hart Dynasty who briefly got the better of Kane before he took back over, only to be stopped by Taker's sudden appearance. And then… "YOU'VE GOT MAIL!" Michael Cole told us that Bret would be facing the Undertaker in the main event. Yeah, we knew that wasn't happening, but okay. Good stuff here that played to both nostalgia and current storylines; that was just what they needed.

CM PUNK IS AWESOME: Okay, so this segment is the most talked-about around these here parts, and there are varying opinions all around. Aaron Hubbard called it "single males talking about their Sword of Dragon Slaying +4 with their internet friends in between Mountain Dew and browsing pictures of Jessica Alba," and outside of the single part, that's about me. (Oh, and it's Shakira, not Jessica Alba. Get it right, Hubbard!) Punk's promo was designed to both honor Raw's 900th episode by pointing out a lot of the great moments, and make the crowd hate him. Yes, there was the bit about trashing on Brock Lesnar, and that was kind of silly but it was a single moment in an otherwise awesome promo. The Katie Vick line was pure gold and teasing Austin coming out was pretty damn cool too. This was absolutely catered a bit to obsessive fans, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We complain when they talk about being PG, so when they talk about spraying people with beer, suck it and joke about the necrophilia angle, I think it's time to give them some props. Then Show came down to the ring and joked about his weight loss, the Eddie diarrhea segment and his sumo wrestling. This was about clowning on the silly moments of Raw and celebrating the good ones, and pushing Show and Punk's feud. I get why people disliked it, but I loved it.

THE NEXUS vs. TEAM WWE: This was basically a rematch of SummerSlam with Morrison, Truth, Skip and Young removed. This match had about eleven minutes once intros were done, and the first elimination came when Jericho immediately eliminated himself by leaving. Edge then disqualified himself, bringing it down to five on three. Well, it puts Edge and Jericho over as smart at least. Sheamus started out by controlling Slater and then Otunga before he fell prey to the Nexus and got systematically picked apart. Slater then pinned Sheamus, giving him a big boost before he got pinned by Cena. Basically, this continued with Cena eventually getting pinned by Gabriel and then finally Orton getting pinned by Barrett. The Nexus may have had an unfair advantage but they still beat main eventers and that's important. This wasn't a great match because of the short amount of time but it accomplished what it needed to and once again the Nexus is the focus of Raw, which is a good thing. That makes this more or less a Right.

PURGATORY:

KOFI KINGSTON & MICHAEL McGILLICUTTY vs. DANIEL BRYAN & KAVAL vs. THE MIZ & ALEX RILEY: What's a good way to get the IWC worked up? That's right, put Low Ki and Bryan Danielson in a tag team, even if only for a night. Predictably, Michael Cole ragged on them for being internet favorites which worked fine. This was one of those weird Triple Threat tag team matches where one partner for each team was in the ring. That made for a particular brand of chaos that allowed them to keep the pace running hard and fast without forcing a lot of rest periods. It made the match seem longer than it was and I'm okay with that. We had a wee bit of sloppiness, but it worked just fine and the finish was perfectly acceptable. One of the pros had to get a pin, and what people will remember is that Kaval nearly had it won before Miz snuck in. Finally, Miz attacked Bryan post-match to continue their feud. I wish I could put this in the Right, but really it was a house of cards hidden underneath the chaos and quick succession of the match and a little more time definitely would have pushed this up there. And for the record, for those who will assume that I didn't give this a right because the IWC darlings didn't win…naah, didn't bother me at all.

JERICHO's ULTIMATUM: Backstage, Chris Jericho was talking about how he seemed to be the only one who believed that he was the best there is at what he did. He then said that to prove it, he said that if he didn't win the WWE Heavyweight Title then he'd be gone. Josh Matthews pointed out that Jericho had been kicked off Raw many times, to which Jericho said he would show just how good he was tonight. So, the obvious speculation is that Jericho will not win and will be gone because of the contract news that came out on Tuesday, and maybe that's the case. Somehow, I'm not so sure. It's far from a sure thing at this point, but I could absolutely see him pulling this one off if he comes to terms on a new contract. We'll have to see how it goes, but at least their planning for the eventuality rather than just coming up with something super-hasty to write him off.

SHEAMUS'S PROMO: Before the main event, Josh Matthews had Sheamus out on stage to interview him. Sheamus came out and promptly dismissed Josh so he could speak unfettered. He talked about how Triple H wasn't there because of him and how it was unfair that he had to defend his title against five other men. Sheamus's indignation is nicely-played and while it's basically another version of Jericho's conspiracy theories, it's playing pretty nicely. Edge then came out and pointed out all the crap he's been through but the key is that he's given back. Edge then listed his accolades and said he would win the Six Pack Challenge. Decent stuff by Edge, although the Beaker thing I just don't chuckle at, and Sheamus did well enough also.

THE WRONG:

TEAM LAY-COOL vs. MELINA & EVE: So, this was an interpromotional Diva battle, and during the Raw ladies' entrance Michael Cole's laughed at one of Lay-Cool's corny nicknames. Yeah, the heel turn continues. Anyway, I was actually looking forward to seeing what these two would do, and when they got into the ring…well, we had about a minute of wrestling including Michelle McCool hitting a bad-looking belly-to-belly and Layla being super annoying before Melina got a roll-up win. Yeah, why don't we care about the Divas again? After the match, Team Lay-Cool called Melina forgettable and challenged Melina to a Unification match at Night of Champions. Melina said she accepted as a Lumberjack Match. Well, whatever works. I think that unifying the Womens' division will be good for the show, as they only have to waste one segment a week on the title and maybe they can just focus on regular storylines for the other show. I can think of worse ideas. But yeah, the "match" was nada and the promo was average at best, putting this firmly in the wRong.

BRET HART vs. THE NEXUS KILLS THE UNDERTAKER: Early in the show, the Nexus was backstage talking about how they needed to do something unforgettable, to which Barrett said that they were going to. SUSPENSE! So a wee bit after that our first hour main event was Bret vs. the Dead Man, and I really didn't think we were going to see this match. I mean, really. Bret's not as terrible these days as he's getting a reputation for, but they weren't going to put him in against Taker. So instead we had Wade Barrett come out and talk about how the 900th Raw would be about the future, not the past. He came in after Taker and proceeded to get his ass tossed out of the ring and then the lights went down and Taker's gong hit. When they came back up, Kane was in the ring and they brawled until the lights went down and Kane vanished. So when Kane beat Taker into a coma, he stole the guy's magic tricks? What is he, Rogue? Taker was confused, but soon the Nexus came out and beat the big guy down. Honestly, this didn't come off nearly as well as it should have. All the lights going down and coming back up killed the momentum and came off as cheesy. It's nice to see Taker take the 450 from Gabriel and the Nexus certainly continued to get over, but ultimately this segment was just lackluster as a whole.

JACK SWAGGER vs. EVAN BOURNE: Talk about a match I saw done pointlessly enough times that I have no desire to see it again. Swagger came down calling himself the conquering hero returned, and then they started up their match which…well, it started off with some potential until Alberto Del Rio showed up and interrupted, taking any and all focus off of the match. In fact, the match pretty much lost all attention and we just got the end. Yeah, that's a great way to make us care. Swagger won and then walked off before Del Rio talked about how Rey wasn't around and so he was going to recreate what he did to Rey with Bourne. That brought Mark Henry out, who chased Alberto off. And I didn't give a rat's ass because this was too much packed into too little time and it all just became an ugly jumble.

THE RIDICULOUS:

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

JOHN MORRISON & R-TRUTH vs. CODY RHODES & DREW McINTYRE: We got more reminding how many seasons other big shows would need to hit 900 episodes as the four competitors made their way down to the ring for this match, which was to determine the #1 Contenders to the Unified Tag Team Titles. This match started off well, but it took all of about five seconds to degenerate into chaos, at which point the ref quickly rung the bell and threw the match out. What? Why the hell have a match? I know where they're going with this of course, they're trying to make the Unified Tag Title Match a triple threat at Night of Champions. Fair enough, but not in a worthless situation like this. There's better ways to go about it and this just flat-out sucked, bar none.

The 411

I really wanted to like this show, because it had definite strong moments, but in the end the 900th Raw was a dud. I did like that they gave us some solid Raw moments from the past even if they were very heavy to very recent events; we got the First Raw, Austin and the Beer truck, the Nexus's destruction of the ring, the Price is Raw segment, Bret buries the hatchet with Shawn, Rock's "This Is Your Life," all the ones during Punk's promo and Triple H's return to Raw. But the amount of wRong, coupled with that utterly pointless tag team crap, meant that this was one of the most uninspiring Monday nights we've had in a long time. They lost their focus and that hurt them. Here's to the hope that they can pick it up next week.

SHOW RATING: 4.5

---

By: Michael Bauer

NXT 08.31.10:

QUICK RESULTS:
Alex Riley defeated Kaval and Michael McGillicutty (**)

THE RIGHT:

ALEX RILEY WINS THE TRIPLE THREAT: So, we opened the show with all the rookies coming out, leading to a triple threat match, much like we had last year, just with one fall to a finish. Before the match, we had the standoff between Miz and Riley with everyone else, seeing Kaval shove down Mix and both of them getting sent to the floor by Kofi and Michael. But once order was restored, we had a fine match. It was well balances, with all three getting the right amount of offense in, even if the beginning seemed really meshed together into a ball of mess. Overall though, the spots in this match really did make up for some of the shortcomings and yes, many of them did involve Kaval. Knocking down Riley off the top with a cartwheel into a leaping enziguri was nuts. I still am a huge fan of the rolling Liger kick. and Kaval even took a few decent bumps to floor from in the ring and the top rope from both Michael and Riley. I do kinda like Riley getting the win here, but stealing the win from Kaval, but it had a chance of being much better, as I will speak about next.

PURGATORY:

ALEX RILEY GETS ELIMINATED: Now, had Riley not been eliminated first, he win from right before would have been much better. That's the main reason that the elimination is here and not a right. Also, how about Cole getting pissed, but not being shocked? Eating your words much? Still, Alex Riley's farewell was done pretty nicely. Miz was livid, of course, with Kofi and LayCool giving him a ton of shit on the entrance ramp. Riley continued to be his cocky self, but at least this time, he did it in a way that wasn't over arrogant. Riley still called himself the future of the WWE and still maintained that it should have been to win it all. I was fine with all of it.

But before we mention the ending, think about this for a minute. The five eliminated rookies were asked who should win. Titus and Eli said Alex Riley. Lucky didn't care. Husky and Percy both said Michael. A little foreshadowing there??

MICHAEL AND KAVAL SOUND OFF: So after the Riley elimination, we get Michael and Kaval telling each other why they deserve to win and why the other should be eliminated. Michael, of course, has to start with taking shots at Kaval's size and whether or not his pros should be breast feeding him. He then calls Kaval a fluke for needing 13 years to get to here he is right now and just gets buzzed for rambling. Kaval ends put putting over Michael's pedigree and his training by Harley Race. But then he goes through his history and how he got here through hard work in New York high schools, in Japan, and everywhere else. He mentioned his matches with Eddie Guerrero and says he earned the right to be the next breakout star. Apparently, Kaval said everything right, because Michael Cole was actually backing him now. Yeah, I was as shocked as anything. Still, the messages were there, but the execution just lacked a bit, especially with Michael.

THE WRONG:

KAVAL WINS NXT (PART 1 - THE REVEAL AND MICHAEL'S THOUGHTS): So, we find out that Kaval won and he celebrated as he should with his pros. Kaval sold this moment and being huge for him and that is something that we don't see enough of anymore in pro wrestling. I was perfectly fine with that. But as soon as Michael got the mic, it turned ugly. It wasn't just what Michael said, it was how he said it. I know that Kaval and Daniel Bryan had a ton of critics saying they aren't charismatic, but at least those two don't sound like a stumbling, bumbling idiot on the stick. Michael's promo was boring, almost mono-tone, and he couldn't even get his main point across without repeating himself three times. I certainly have no problems with him being angry about losing and not getting his guaranteed title shot. I definitely have no problems with him still saying he will be a future world champion. I should have no problems with him setting up the "Genesis" with the other rookies, if that is what ends up happening, but he nearly sucked the life out of the concept by talking. Eventually, he left and was done, but it didn't get much better...

THE RIDICULOUS:

OH NO, NOT JUST RIDICULOUS, BUT...

THE RI-GOD-DAMN-DICULOUS:

KAVAL WINS NXT (PART 2 - THE BEATDOWN): Ok, so let's pick this up with Kaval having the microphone and thanking everyone for their support. He doesn't get more than two sentences in before the rest of the rookies jump the guardrail and start beating down Kaval. Now, that by itself would just been fine, but then we got the biggest clusterfuck of a beatdown that I can remember. (And yes, I did watch the EV2.0 beatdown when every TNA guy showed up and got made to look bad.) First off, I don't know where Eli went after he got dumped out of the ring, but he was gone. Second, we had the face pros come down to defend Kaval... after about thirty seconds of the attack and they didn't do a whole lot to help. Granted, it hurt when Titus totally no sold the Drive By from MVP, which is totally unexplainable. But even with the pros helping, Kaval was still getting killed as the referees held them back. Yeah, Husky get a free suplex on Kaval with the refs holding the pros back. Then Alex Riley and Michael came back out and they joined the fight against the pros. Well, at least Riley was supposed to. I have no idea why, but he started going after Percy Watson. Meanwhile, the pros ended up just backing off and letting Kaval get killed, now with Percy and Riley on the same page. This whole thing looked totally botched and was impossible to follow, plus it may have buried Kaval.

The 411

Kaval won, which should have happened. The one match we had was pretty good and as a closing show, it was pretty decent. The ending sucked the life out of the whole show and I can't overlook it.

SHOW RATING: 4.0

Until Monday, keep on kickin' it…


…and remember to stay grounded!