wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades 7.08.13: 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.
~Monday Night McMahon~
Vickie, Maddox and a Ladder: Vickie Guerrero kicked off the show in the ring with a ladder, noting that the ladder represented her career, as she has climbed to the top. She actually climbed the ladder, and talked about succeeding in a male dominated sport and noted that she has done it all on her own. Lawler interrupted to say that the McMahon family would be taking the opinion from the WWE Universe, and it was announced that they can vote non the app whether she passes or fails. She then kissed the crowd’s ass, and then hyped the Cena vs. Henry confrontation, Christian vs. Kane, Orton vs. Punk and Bryan vs. Sheamus. By the way, the whole time she was on the ladder, the crowd chanted for her to fall. Your completely average opening talking segment that we see just about every week on every wrestling TV show.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus: Hard to go wrong with Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus, as Bryan has been on a roll and Sheamus works really well with him. While it was a bit questionable booking wise, as Sheamus is floundering as a face and Bryan is on the rise, they overcame that with some damn fine wrestling. They got a lot of time (14-minutes or so with the commercial) and just delivered without any bullshit. Mr. Small Package came to life once again, countering the Texas Cloverleaf and scoring he win. The sign of respect at the end was nice, and the crowd is still into Bryan big time. If he does win Sunday, that arena will go ape shit. I really like the strong match on TV (I’d go about ***½) and the fact that they didn’t do any shenanigans, just good wrestling. Also, we’ve seen Bryan use the small package successfully recently, and if they keep that up, it will be a sweet false finish on PPV in a title match.
Rating (1-10): 8.0
Non-Title Match: The Shield (Rollins and Reigns) © vs. Tons of Funk: I was not a big fan of this match. I get that the company felt that they needed Christian and the Usos to beat the Shield on Smackdown to hype a match set up a future match. But tonight, they made the group that looked damn near unstoppable way too vulnerable. I say this because Tons of Funk have been booked as a job/comedy team forever, and then they go toe to toe with the Shield. It just didn’t make sense. The Shield should have come out, got the heat, given Funk some comeback and then finished it off in a dominant fashion to look like the former world beaters they were heading into the title match at the PPV. The match was too long (nearly 7-minutes) and worse than that, it FELT long to me, which is something I have not said about Shield matches. Add in the fact that they have also been demoted as far as segments go (quarter four, before 9PM ET, is considered a cool down spot prior to the top of the hour, where “non-important” segments can be placed) and the lame tone of the announcers (acting as if they didn’t really care) and I was not a fan. Of course, I doubt many people care about the tag match due to it being on the PRE-PPV show. The recent fall of the Shield was something I feared, and it is sad to see considering the string of great matches and segments they had; but hey, no need to keep them strong forever. Space Ghost, your thoughts please?
“I… I… fucking hell…”
Rating (1-10): 4.0
John Cena and Mark Henry Talk: I really like this feud. I like Mark Henry being a complete bad ass, I like John Cena (outside of the Snickers line) being serious and talking about kicking Henry’s ass. I love the fact that Mark Henry, although he got there in a nefarious way, is 100% justified from a personal point of view, because he wants to validate his career; he wants to be remembered, and he wants to be a hall of famer. It wasn’t the best promo from either guy, but the focus was in the right place. Henry laid out what was at stake for him, and while he will likely overcome the odds at the PPV, they set the stage for the question, “can Cena use his finishing move” on Henry. Again, not the very best from both, but Cena staying serious is appreciated and Henry is simply on these days.
Rating (1-10): 7.5
Non-Title Match: Curtis Axel © vs. Chris Jericho: Heyman cut a promo, putting over the fact that he was here for Axel and not for Punk. Axel then quickly made fun of Jericho’s jacket and noted he will not let Miz or Jericho stand in the way of perfection. We got a pretty good match from these two, not Bryan vs. Sheamus good, but I liked it for the most part and Axel working with Jericho is good for him on several levels. If he can hang with him on TV, the crowd buys into him. Working with a guy like Jericho will also only help Axel as a worker, on the job training. I hated the booking here. This is a problem WWE continually has, we’re days away from the PPV, and I do not care if Axel got distracted by the Miz (one of the worst faces going today), the fact is that the IC Champion lost days before his big match. I would not be so upset f this was a rare thing, but considering that the WWE’s IC Champions have been booked like shit for the better part of a decade, I continue to find issue with this. This is a case of booking a match that WWE did not have to book. In no way does this help Axel, in no way did it make me want to see the IC Title match on the PPV, and in no way does it make sense.
Rating (1-10): 5.0
Non-Title Match: Alberto Del Rio © vs. Sin Cara: I am not trying to be that guy, but shit, Sin Cara still has a job. I am amazed anytime I see him randomly appear on WWE TV. They were having a fine little back and forth match, lots of chances for Cara, which considering his lack of TV time was amazing. But later, it was going long because they had to kill time for Ziggler to come out. He did some bad comedy, REALLY BAD COMEDY, and then cut a promo about Del Rio trying to end his career, and said that he would walk out of MITB and be champion again. As he did a bad announcer impersonation, Del Rio attacked him on the floor and they brawled. It really fell apart because the brawl wasn’t good; Cara flew to the floor onto Del Rio to essentially save Ziggler, who then seemingly celebrated for no good reason. Unfortunately this did nothing to make me want to see their rematch on Sunday, because it felt tedious, not interesting.
Rating (1-10): 5.0
Vickie’s Job Evaluation – McMahon Triple Threat: Man, they took all the people I dislike and put them in the ring and gave them a microphone. I am not a fan of the authority figure angles, and I am not a fan of the McMahon power struggle angle; but lets see where this goes. This wasn’t about Vickie at all, and I think that we all knew that; it was about the ongoing drama between Vince and Triple H. On top of that drama, it was also about the story of essentially which side Stephanie would take. Will she go with daddy Vince, or husband Triple H. They both played their cards, and it escalated quickly. Stephanie did not want to break the family up so she said the WWE App would decide Vickie’s fate. She failed with 75% of the vote. Vickie then shrieked like a banshee about losing her job, and Stephanie fired her, much to the displeasure of Vince. Vickie then added in a temper tantrum for good measure. This led to Vince asking if the crowd was happy about breaking Vickie’s heart, and then said he fans failed. I bet he has been waiting to say this for a while. And now Brad Maddox is the GM of Raw, which will make some people happy. At no point in this segment did they make me care about any of the drama they tried to build, and it felt as if it lasted forever. Also, wasting nearly 15-minutes on this segment on the go home show for the PPV seemed like large waste of time to me.
Rating (1-10): 3.0
Kane vs. Christian: Nice Botchamania moment as they were paying part of Michael McGuilicutty’s tron video during Christian’s entrance. Come on WWE, you’re usually better than that. Anyway, they wrestled for a few minutes, went to commercial, came back and almost immediately went to the finish, which saw Kane take the victory. It was fine for the time given, but it then led to something more. We had another video, announcing that the Wyatt Family was here. They made their way out, and Harper and Rowan destroyed Kane, including nearly decapitating him with the steps. Wyatt then posed over Kane, and proclaimed, “down with the machine.” In a way it was hard to live up to the hype for the debut, because there was so much expectation; but taking out Kane is a nice start, due to his longevity in WWE and the fan that fans always react to him. I felt the presentation was good, taking out Kane was also good and all in all I liked it. Again, the presentation is a key to this, because it makes them feel important. I liked it, and it was a segment that the show desperately needed. Also, we need to ponder the question; will Kane be ok to go at MITB?
Rating (1-10): 8.5
AJ Lee and Alicia Fox vs. Kaitlyn and Layla: Alicia is rocking a La Parka look this week. Not much of a match at all, they did some stuff, and it ended with Kaitlyn spearing AJ on the floor and beating her down to hype their PPV match Sunday. Again, not much of a match, but an acceptable build to the PPV match.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
Randy Orton vs. CM Punk: Randy Orton vs. CM Punk was a good choice for the main event, due to the star power of the guys involved. They had a good match, not as good as Bryan and Sheamus, but it was a good match that got some time. This was another high profile loss for Orton, which in some ways may lead people think he will win MITB, because WWE likes to book that way. Daniel Bryan hit the ring and attacked both men, using a ladder, and climbed to the top to take the briefcase and celebrate as the show ended. Bryan celebrating with the case was a cool visual to end the show, and plays into his recent run of success. Of course now people are afraid that he will lose on Sunday, because of the “guy that stands tall on the final Raw loses on the PPV” theory. This was a solid way to end the show.
Rating (1-10): 7.5
That was the go home show for the MITB PPV, and overall I found it to be an average show. There was a run of poor segments, but we had two good matches (Sheamus vs. Bryan and Orton vs. Punk) as well as the debut of the Wyatt Family. The debut was good, and may have ramifications on the PPV; will Kane be able to compete? Will they interject themselves in one of the matches? Will Husky Harris remember that Randy Orton punted him out of the WWE and return for vengeance? These are all legitimate questions, which make me interested in the group. The one thing I hate about when they build to the MITB matches is that they always run several matches involving the guys in the match. While on the surface you are building the match by having the competitors face off, generally you either have some of them look like complete losers or they do the even Steven booking so that no one gets over. I never understand why they do not have the MITB guys just destroy all of the low card guys on the roster going nowhere or low level tag team guys so that they look as strong as possible heading into a match that can give them a title shot. But then you have the issues of a guy losing and then winning and WWE acting like we will forget all about that. Moving along… I am still not a fan of the McMahon family drama or anything involving authority figures, but I have discussed that before. Also, I worry a bit about the Shield, because they seem to have completely cooled off. I am not going to go wild and say that they are ruined by any means, but they seemed to have put the brakes on them. Again, I didn’t feel that this was a particularly bad show by any means, but I also feel it was plagued with the same issues that seem to always find their way into the WWE product. And as for a go home show, it felt a bit week. Show Rating: 6.0 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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