wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades 6.24.13: WWE Monday Night Raw
Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. Don’t throw that “just have fun and be a fan” junk up in here. That’s for you to do. Maybe some of you will find out what a review is supposed to be, and actually read what is presented instead of blindly trashing because we have different opinions. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEUS!
Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton: Daniel Bryan kicked off the show with a good baby face promo, mocking himself a bit, but endearing himself to the audience as he put over his toughness by naming the guys he had been in the ring with. Orton didn’t care and made his way to the ring, and they match started. Not much of a match at all as it was a brawl, which ended with both men fighting on the floor and several referees separating them. This led to Vickie Guerrero, at the urging of Bryan, to make a rematch for later in the evening. Good heat in the segment, and a good way to try and get people to stick around for later in the show. One thing that has been hurting the program is that third hour has been dropping. Instead of the usual promo, confrontation and set up; they teased things and while essentially doing the same thing, going to “a match” almost right away was a nice change instead of the usual opening talky bit that most wrestling shows rely on all too much.
Rating (1-10): 7.0
Christian and Sheamus vs. Rhodes Scholars: While it was nice that Lawler took a few minutes to comment on Jackie Fargo’s passing, I really wish that WWE would have taken time at the top of the show to honor him. They pretend that they are the end all be all in wrestling, and with a figure as important as Fargo, I feel a 60-second video package wouldn’t have hurt anything and would have been a nice thing to do. Christian and Sheamus vs. Rhodes Scholars was a perfectly good match, although with the recent stuff between Sheamus and Sandow, it really felt as if I had seen it all before. I did like the involvement of Christian; it gives him something to do and also keeps him winning upon his return. This was here to set up Sheamus vs. Sandow in a “Dublin street fight” on Smackdown. It was fine.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
Aksana vs. Kaitlyn: Aksana and Kaitlyn have had issues a of late, due to Aksana constantly mocking Kaitlyn about losing the Divas Title. Layla is in Kaitlyn’s corner, looking to help her enhance her calm, but ultimately she will get her ass beat. During the match, Kaitlyn’s music hit and AJ Lee came out dressed as Kaitlyn, including wearing a muscle suit. The distraction failed and Kaitlyn won. Aksana is REALLY bad, and takes shit bumps that will end up hurting her. AJ, playing “Kaitlyn,” mocks the former champion and then Big E comes out to reenact the secret admirer angle. It keeps the heat going between AJ and Kaitlyn, but I wouldn’t exactly say the angle is must see. But it is also the first time in seemingly forever that they are doing something interesting at all with the title, and the fact that they are getting some TV time is another good thing.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
Non-Title Match: Alberto Del Rio vs. Chris Jericho: As I mentioned last week, the ADR face run was a disaster; so I was perfectly fine with them abandoning it and pulling the heel turn. Much like last week with Punk, pairing ADR with Jericho this week is a good way to get the heel turn off to the right spot and maker sure that ADR gets some solid heel heat. I enjoyed the match overall, as it was very competitive and Jericho seemingly had things wrapped up until Ricardo got involved. This led to Ziggler running in for revenge on ADR. They already announced Ziggler vs. Del Rio, but the way things look, I would expect Jericho vs. Ziggler vs. Del Rio for the title, especially with Jericho and Ziggler trading shots on SD and now Raw. It allows Del Rio to pick up a win, Jericho does the honors before taking his latest hiatus, and keeps Ziggler strong heading into the planned world title rematch (the one on one version) that we’ll eventually get. This was an overall strong segment.
Rating (1-10): 8.0
WWE 2k14 Stuff: Lawler announced he cover contest for the alternate cover, which broke down into Vickie yelling and discussing the Orton vs. Bryan rematch. The stipulations are lumberjack match, falls count anywhere or extreme rules. She then announced she made her own cover for the game, celebrating leadership. Triple H, Stephanie and Vince were on the cover. Maddox then announced he created a cover, which featured himself along with Cena and Punk. Lawler then announced the real cover, featuring The Rock. Lots of yelling and ass kissing, moving on. Completely tedious to watch, and killed any and all momentum the show had.
Rating (1-10): 2.0
Ryback vs. Great Khali w/Natalya and Hornswoggle: I am the only one who thinks it is painful to watch Khali? Not because he is bad, but because he looks half crippled trying to walk in there. Nothing special, this was a rehab victory for Ryback to allow him to look powerful following the defeat at Payback to John Cena. But if they were really looking to refocus on him, he should have simply destroyed Khali. I am not exactly sure where Ryback goes from here, but this was half way the right idea.
Rating (1-10): 5.0
The Champ is Here: Following last week’s angle, Mark Henry gets a WWE Title match against John Cena at the MITB PPV. The one thing that I constantly hate about the Cena character is the joking manner of his promos when is a serious feud. I have repeatedly commented on my dislike of that. Not this week. This week, he came out and put over the WWE Title, the history of that title and the prestige that carrying the title carries. He noted that men had tried to buy and steal the title, but ultimately failed. He then bashed Henry’s speech from last week, due to the fact that he disrespected anyone that had to legitimately retire in front of the fans. He said that Henry was right when he said that you had to earn the title, put Henry over as the world’s strongest man and a threat, but also added that it was whoop ass season and that he would defend his title. Cena was serious, focused, put over the title, the history f the title and his opponent en route to building the match. That is all I ask. It wasn’t an all time great money promo, but it was damn good and I liked it.
Rating (1-10): 8.5
#1 Contender’s Match: Tons of Funk vs. 3MB (Mahal and McIntyre) vs. The Usos: Very short match, all action and the right team won. I have always liked the Usos, but unfortunately for them they were brought up way too soon and paid the price of bouncing all around the card. They are a good team with a gimmick the crowd can get behind, including the Haka they do before the match. Post match, the Shield came out and stared down their new challengers. Hopefully they can build up the Usos a bit to make the title match mean something. This will be a fresh match that could surprise a lot of people quality wise. I know that some feel that the feud will “pull down the Shield,” and that could very well be the case, but at the same time, it could also help the Usos and give the illusion that the tag division actually has something to offer. Unfortunately the Shield cannot continually wrestle team Hell No and Friends, even thought it was awesome while it lasted. I am willing to wait and see.
Rating (1-10): 7.0
Paul Heyman Meets CM Punk: I really liked this. Heyman called out Punk and stated that they had to have the airing of the grievances in public. Punk took the mic and explained the history of their relationship, and that WWE didn’t want Punk, but that Heyman was always there for him. Punk warned Heyman that he was coming from Lesnar, but then wanted to know if Heyman sent Brock after him. Heyman denied, and said that he knew of the professional jealousy between Lesnar and Punk, which is why they could never make money as a tag team. He continued and said he would never throw away their relationship because he loved him and knew one day they would walk to the ring together again, and added that he would never represent anyone against Punk. It was really good work from both guys, and had a real and emotional pull to it, due to their real life relationship. In the end, Punk said he was sorry he doubted Heyman and they hugged. But Punk had a cold stare into the camera as they embraced. While I did like the Lesnar attack last week, in a way I felt it came a little too soon. If feels that WWE realized that and put the brakes on in an appropriate fashion to allow the Heyman/Punk dynamic to play out better in order to build to that but match.
Rating (1-10): 8.5
CM Punk vs. Darren Young: The most interesting thing about this match was that Lambert and Cook were fake tweeting to WWE to try and get on the Twitter crawl and were successful…
I’ve never been so proud of myself pic.twitter.com/inFcMOkXL9
— Jeremy Lambert (@jeremylambert88) June 25, 2013
This match was too much back and forth for me, considering how the Players have been booked. Punk won, but I feel should have won in a more decisive fashion. The Players beat down Punk post match, which allowed for Curtis Axel to make the save. Following the promo segment, I liked the idea of things to play off of what Heyman had said to Punk. Punk sold the frustration, while Heyman said that “there was no other way, it was 2 on 1.” It was solid, mostly because of the post match interaction. As they say, “the plot thickens.”
Rating (1-10): 6.0
Mark Henry Talks – Pay Your Bills: Henry was s happy that he not only made the fans sheer for him last week and believe in him, but also that he made them cry because they were a bunch of puppets. He then refused to apologize for using people last week, because he will not be told how to live. Henry was cutting a solid promo, not to the level of last week, but a good promo justifying his actions, which is the trait of a good heel. But the crowd decided that the “what chant” was more important. He promised to return home as WWE champion. This was a good follow up to last week.
Rating (1-10): 7.0
Street Fight: Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton: With the street fight stipulation allowing s much room for fun and improvisation, and the fact that Orton and Bryan were in there I was rather excited for the main event. I know that it is popular to shit on Orton, because he isn’t one of the “favorites,” but I feel that it has gone so far that he gets next to no credit. He busted his ass in this match and deserves partial credit for making it as good as it was. Bryan appears to be on another level the last few weeks, working as good if not better than ever and the crowds love him. Simply put this was damn fine work from both; they used the toys, they played to the crowd and simply delivered a great match. The finish where Bryan used the kendo stick was fantastic, he won and won clean in a hard hitting and hard fought match much to the delight of the crowd. Orton sold the arm, offered his hand and the show goes off the air as the crowd chants “YES! YES! YES!” for Bryan, who has proven that he is not the weak link. The most important thing here is that they wanted to put Bryan over, and the did so in the best way possible with the clean finish and Orton accepting it. Tastes will vary, but I wouldn’t be upset if someone said this was their free TV match of the year.
Rating (1-10): 9.5
Overall another good show, and a strong follow up to last week’s show. They seem to be clicking with a good Payback PPV, and two good Raw shows in a row. While I may not feel the show last week was great, which is merely an opinion, it was a good first step towards MITB. The WWE feels on a roll with quality shows, and while the three hours can fee long and I can do without some segments, this week followed up on last week’s show well and the smaller in between segments did a good job of linking things together instead of appearing to be mindless filler like a lot of weeks. We had an all star lineup announced for the MITB match, more between Del Rio and Ziggler, a very good Cena promo and a great next step in the Heyman/Punk situation. There wasn’t as much McMahon bullshit this week, and the focus really seemed to be on the angles and building the MITB PPV. It felt focused, it didn’t drag and was overall a good show. The only down segment was the WWE Video Game cover deal, which was screaming and schilling that came off as completely annoying. Add into the good build that we had a good match between Del Rio & Jericho as well as a good main event between Bryan and Orton, and things to continue to look up in WWE land. While I know so many people loved last week’s show, and again that is perfectly cool, it’s easy to shoot one show with a few hot angles and get praised. But all too many times we see these shows, and the company fails in the execution for the follow up. I for one have always felt that the next week is so much more important, and was very pleased in how WWE handled the show and overall booking. WWE is on the right path as they build to Money on the Bank. Show Rating: 7.5 As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale… 0 – 0.9: Torture The final rating is not simply an average of the rated segments above. The rating takes them into account as well as the segments that are small but not scored, the flow of the show, the overall booking, build to PPV, crowd reactions, and so on and so forth. |
Larry Csonka is a Pisces and enjoys rolling at jiu jitsu class with Hotty McBrownbelt, cooking, long walks on the beach, Slingo and the occasional trip to Jack in the Box. He is married to a soulless ginger and has two beautiful daughters who are thankfully not soulless gingers; and is legally allowed to marry people in 35 states. He has been a wrestling fan since 1982 and has been writing for 411 since May 24th, 2004; contributing over 3,000 columns, TV reports and video reviews to the site.
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