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411’s Instant Analysis 09.17.12: WWE Monday Night Raw

September 18, 2012 | Posted by Sat

Welcome to this week’s Instant Analysis of Monday Night Raw. I’m your humble reviewer, Chad Nevett and this week’s show is no doubt going to be a pleasant experience than last week’s show was. It’s almost hard to believe that, a week later, Jerry Lawler is well into his recovery and has already headed home to Memphis. That continues to be great news. And, tonight, we’ll no doubt get the fallout from Night of Champions. Also, for the next two weeks, I won’t be doing the Raw Instant Analysis since I am working the 4pm-midnight shift at work. I will return on October 8. But, that’s the future. Right now, it’s time for Raw, so let’s get to it…

SEGMENT ONE: “I am the voice of the voice of the voiceless.”

A lackluster, dull way to start the show. The end of the CM Punk/John Cena match isn’t in dispute beyond the fact that ties suck. And who can argue with that? Ties do suck! And so does banning moves only to lift the ban ten seconds before a world title match! So, let’s just throw everyone into a tag match… Yeah, there wasn’t anything to really sink into in this promo segment. It was your basic ‘acknowledge controversy in PPV finish and deflect it’ beginning. They would have been equally served by simply announcing the tag match along with one-sentence statements by all involved.

Rating: 4.0 out of 10

SEGMENT TWO: Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. Primo & Epico
Match Result: Sin Cara pinned Epico
Match Length: Around seven and a half minutes

Pure showcase match for Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara, and the choice of opponents was a smart one. Primo and Epico both have styles that complement the lucha style quite well — able to move quick and be in the right places at the right time. I could have done without the commercial break in the middle of this match, because breaking up the flow hurt it. The post-match attack by the Prime Time Players was fine. I’m not sold on these guys yet, but there does seem to almost be a renewed focus on tag teams with them getting some decent screentime, the new champions, and the partnering of Rey Rey and Sin Cara, and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

SEGMENT THREE: Eve vs. Beth Phoenix
Match Result: Eve pinned Beth Phoenix
Match Length: Around one minute, 45 seconds

I enjoyed the short bit of back and forth between Layla and JBL during this match. It wasn’t the typical bit of dialogue when an announcer disagrees with a wrestler. Layla admitting that she made a mistake during her match against Eve was a nice touch. The match was Beth Phoenix beating up Eve until we got the Clichéd Diva Finishing Move and it was all over. You’d think that all of the matches won by fluke roll-up pins would result in Divas training extra hard to learn to counter them.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

SEGMENT FOUR: Brodus Clay vs. Heath Slater
Match Result: Brodus Clay pinned Heath Slater
Match Length: Two minutes

“And I don’t take anything away from Brodus Clay in the ring — I just don’t like him as a human being.” I do love Antonio Cesaro and getting to hear him do some commentary was a treat. His time on the mic is usually short and he took advantage of the time we was given here. A feud with Brodus Clay could be a great way to establish Cesaro as the US Champion. Slater and Clay worked a basic match, and Clay’s near loss because of Cesaro’s distraction fueled the feud while maintain Clay’s threat level. Solid segment.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

SEGMENT FIVE: The Debut of Miz TV

Not quite the best debut of Miz TV. The Miz did make it his own in the sense that it was mostly him talking. And talking. And talking. It was entertaining if you like listening to the Miz talk that much. He didn’t say anything that different from what he said before — though his “Five time” repetition added a bit of comedy. It was weird to have this segment follow teasing a Cesaro/Clay feud for the US Title since it’s another big monster who squashes folks going after the heel secondary champion. The story so nice they used it twice!

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

SEGMENT SIX: Dolph Ziggler vs. Santino Marella
Match Result: Dolph Ziggler pinned Santino Marella
Match Length: Around four minutes

A surprisingly entertaining match. Ziggler heeled it up, Santino did some nice comedy bits that almost came across as effective psychological wrestling. Somewhere in there, you can see hints that, if they wanted, they could have Santino become a legitimate threat based around strategy (mainly doing crazy things like the speed walk to confuse his opponents; wait, that was Eric Young’s gimmick at one point). Ziggler gets an ‘easy’ win and also gets to be a bit more of a heel than he has been recently thanks to a match where he can take his time, do some showboating, and ’embarrass’ a fan favorite like Santino.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

SEGMENT SEVEN: Wade Barrett vs. Justin Gabriel
Match Result: Wade Barrett pinned Justin Gabriel
Match Length: Around four minutes

This wasn’t the most impressive outing by Wade Barrett, but it was a decent hint at where he could be heading over the next few months. His working of Gabriel’s ribs was a smart strategy and I love his finisher — a combination of JBL’s Clothesline From Hell and the Big Show’s WMD that plays into his current character. What was missing was a clear direction during the match and how to make the ‘bare-knuckle brawler’ image work as an entire moveset, not just a finisher and the odd punch here and there. An emphasis on his taking a beating and getting right back up? I wouldn’t mind him taking a few cues from Finlay in developing that side of the character.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

SEGMENT EIGHT: WWE Tag Team Championship Match – Daniel Bryan (C) & Kane (C) vs. Kofi Kingston & R-Truth
Match Result: Daniel Bryan made R-Truth tap out
Match Length: Around 13 minutes, 45 seconds

It’s hard not to wonder how much mileage they can get out of these two guys alternating between brief moments of friendship/peace and extended moments of shouting and violence against one another. Right now, it’s still entertaining and has been used to produce some unique moments. I was fearing another match that ended with a pin resulting from one partner hurting the other and it ‘lucking’ into a win. Bryan almost getting Kane pinned and making the save mixed it up a bit. This match didn’t quite live up to last night’s title match, but hopefully it will lead to more of an effort for Bryan and Kane to work as a cohesive unit (and fail). Maybe inverse the ratio of working-together-to-working-against-one-another?

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

SEGMENT NINE: Randy Orton vs. Tensai
Match Result: Randy Orton pinned Tensai
Match Length: A little over six minutes

This is a type of match we haven’t seen Randy Orton in for a while now — maybe not since his feud with Mark Henry in the fall of 2011. Just Orton getting dominated physically and managed to make small strides until hitting the RKO. Not the most engaging match, just something a little different. He looked more able against Tensai on Smackdown. It’s kind of funny that, as Orton seems to be trying to move away from the typical face role, he was put in one of the most basic babyface matches.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

SEGMENT TEN: Damien Sandow vs. Zack Ryder
Match Result: Damien Sandow pinned Zack Ryder
Match Length: Around five and a half minutes (joined in progress)

Okay, I like Damien Sandow and all, but his use of those vocabulary words in sentences was awful. Ideally, you want to demonstrate the use of words in contexts that illuminate their meanings. His sentences were much too generic to gather anything other than vague senses of what the words mean. They were clearly designed to get some cheap heat, but the two goals aren’t mutually exclusive. You can have him insult people AND do it intelligently. Get the gimmick right. I enjoy watching him wrestle. He’s got a good ‘barely repressed rage’ thing going on that fits hand in hand with his intellectual gimmick. He struts around talking himself up, all the while longing to just attack the idiot jocks around him. Revenge of the nerd and all that. Definitely some potential for growth.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

SEGMENT ELEVEN: Sheamus & John Cena vs. CM Punk & Alberto Del Rio
Match Result: John Cena pinned CM Punk
Match Length: Around ten and a half minutes

A decent match with a pisspoor ending, if only because they’ve been going to the ‘heel gets screwed over’ well a bit too much lately. Last month, Alberto Del Rio lost in the exact same way, while, last night, he faced the Brogue Kick ban being lifted right before his match. To have Cena pin Punk in such an obvious ‘foot on the rope’ situation (obvious to the point where the ref’s position made his not seeing it had to believe) seems a bit repetitive and less than effective. Also, it’s another strange decision in having the faces benefit from suspect means, whether intentional or not. Punk winning via tie last night was how it should be: heel champ retains belt in a manner that frustrates everyone. This, though… what’s the upside besides giving Punk a legitimate reason to be upset?

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

FINAL THOUGHTS

Segment of the Night: Tha tag title match

Trash Segment of the Night: The opening promo

Final Analysis: Raw just ended and I think I’ve already forgotten most of it. There wasn’t anything that stood out as great — besides the commentary. I do love JBL on the mic and the way that he gets in Cole’s face. It did help keep the show interesting despite some middling content where even the good things (which I tried to highlight for no reason other than seeing if it would help) couldn’t elevate the show beyond mediocrity. The opening segment set the tone and we got an oddly paced show that, once again, was too goddamn long. I would love to stop complaining about that, but I can’t. We hit the two-hour mark and I’m done, I’m ready to turn the TV off and go to bed. If they’re going to insist on three-hour Raws, they need to step it up in that third hour. Instead, it was some moments that didn’t suck mixed in with a lot of things that didn’t help my body’s desire for unconsciousness.

Verdict: 5.5

411 RATINGS SCALE:
0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9: Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

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