wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades 11.25.13: 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. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
WWE MONDAY NIGHT SURVIVOR SERIES REPLAY
Talky Time With Randy: Randy noted that he was owed an apology because he proved everyone wrong. He brought out Triple H and Stephanie, and when Stephanie noted that they were proud of Orton for overcoming, Orton thought it was bullshit because they were making it all about the Authority. Orton claimed he was about to score an untainted victory, but they disagreed. Orton said he beat the giant because he is the face of the WWE, and the best performer in the 50 years of the WWE. This of course brought out John Cena. Cena said that they should listen to the fans, the fans that chant for Daniel Bryan and chant yes because they are sick of this administrative bullshit. Cena then said that there should only be one champion, and challenged Orton to the match with the titles on the line. Triple H then played baby face by telling Orton to grow up, and then announced at TLC Cena vs. Orton in a TLC match will happen for the titles. They did NOT say unification by the way.
This did not get the reaction that you would have expected from the announcement that they would be doing this, in theory, “huge” match. Here is the thing, the people didn’t really care because for the last few years, WWE has constantly put on “Champion vs. Champion” matches on free TV with bullshit finishes and no titles on the line, so the people have been conditioned to not care about them because the WWE didn’t care about them. I wrote about it all the time, and people never saw the problem, but now the problem is live and in living color. This match depends on the people caring, but due to the way the WWE lazily booked their TV, the law of diminishing returns has comeback to bite them in the ass at the worst time. Sure you could say that Orton vs. Cena doesn’t interest them, but the titles have been devalued as well, which doesn’t help. Add on top of the fact that they are doing the match in TWENTY DAYS is also a bad idea. This is something they should have teased for months, with the idea of the champions wanting to be the guy, wanting to be the main event; instead it was, “Oh hey, I don’t like that you also have a big belt, lets RASSLE!” Who else thinks that they both pull down a title for the finish?
Rating (1-10): 1.0
Cody Rhodes, Goldust and Rey Mysterio vs. The Shield (Reigns, Rollins and Ambrose): The Shield defeated Cody Rhodes, Goldust and Rey Mysterio in a partial rematch from last night’s PPV. They got two segments, and the Shield won, which I am fine with. They had lost a lot of momentum, but over the last two nights gained a lot back. Reigns got to kill people with the spear, but Ambrose got the victory for his team. As you would expect, this was a fun match and everyone worked hard. Rey looks good so far in his limited action, and also seems to be in better shape than his last run.
Rating (1-10): 7.5
Miz TV: Miz announced Michael Strahan for the show, but Titus O’Neil came out instead, impersonating Strahan. Miz made fun of Strahan’s teeth, and then mocked the Giants and their play off hopes. The real Strahan then hit the ring, they had some painful back and forth, and then announced the main event. Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena and the Big Show. This then led to Miz and Strahan bickering about a possible match while Titus tried to keep the peace. Miz and Titus both failed in trying to hip toss Strahan, and then Strahan hip tossed them both. Then they all danced and acted like friends. Hometown bullshit that was not good in any way, and it did nothing but announce the main event, which could have been done other ways and less painfully. This was a painfully bad segment featuring approximately 7 face-heel turns between Miz and Titus. Maybe not, but it felt that way.
Rating (1-10): 0.0
Curtis Axel and Ryback vs. Big E. Langston and Mark Henry: Big E. Langston and Mark Henry are tagging, I cannot wait to hear about “the new Nation” and that Langston needs to use the Dominator. File that under shit I hear too much. Instead of straight rematches from last night, they did the tag route here. That’s ok in some ways, but also still feels like a repeat of last night, considering the six-man we had earlier. It was fine, Langston and Henry won decisively in just over two-minutes. Please get Langston away from Axel.
Rating (1-10): 5.5
Survivor Series Re-Match: AJ Lee, Tamina, Alicia Fox, Summer Rae, Aksana, Kaitlyn & Rosa Mendes vs. Nikki Bella, Brie Bells, Cameron, Naomi, Natalya, Eva Marie & JoJo: You read that correctly, this is a straight rematch from last night’s PPV. This was a variation on last night’s match, quick eliminations while playing off of sendoff the eliminations from last night. Brie got to pin AJ Lee tonight, adding another possible challenger to the title. Eva, Brie and Nikki vs. Summer Rae is what it boiled down to. Summer dance, Nikki did the worm, Summer then tried to escape, failed, and Nikki pinned her after a torture rack drop. It basically was fine, but the lazy booking tonight of presenting Survivor Series Part II is making this show feel not important at all.
Rating (1-10): 5.0
Hamptons Hardcore Match: Damien Sandow vs. Dolph Ziggler: We had an oar, golf clubs and tennis rackets and balls as some of the featured weapons. This will likely be an unpopular opinion, but this feels like that TNA style of booking that people would always complain about. Two guys, doing nothing, so we make a feud with randomly booked gimmick matches to try and make people care. I hated it when TNA did it, I am not a fan of it here. The crowd was chanting for Randy Savage because a guy in the crowd was dressed like Savage. He was with a guy dressed like Hogan, and security came over to them. Sandow scored the victory this week, and I would hope that this leads to a PPV match for a payoff. The match was good, they worked the gimmick well and they are certainly working hard, but I don’t feel as if they have given me a reason to care about the random gimmick matches.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper) vs. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan: Like the opening tag, this match is a partial rematch from last night’s PPV. I get why they are doing it, but again it feels extremely lazy and also makes one question why the hell they would by the PPV when WWE loads the post PPV Raw shows with so many rematches. This was a fun match though, with a great crowd that was reacting to anything and everything Bryan and Punk were doing. We got a non-finish as the Wyatts were out of control, leading to them kidnapping Bryan. Dear God, Libertarian Bryan! Anyway, Punk looked as if he would go and make the save, but was decimated by a Roman Reigns spear out of nowhere. One Shield bomb later, and Punk was laid out. They are putting a lot back onto the Wyatts and the Shield, with the goal being to get them heat because the crowd loves Bryan and Punk so much. I am willing to see where it goes.
Rating (1-10): 7.0
The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston: Hey kids, good news, if you missed the Survivor Series pre-show last night, you get to watch it here on Monday Night Survivor Series. The crowd rally didn’t care, the commentary was discussing birthdays and thanksgiving because they didn’t care. This goes back to last week’s “heel turn” by the Miz. Miz and Kofi had no bond, no alliance for us to be emotionally involved in. They simply turned Miz because he failed as a face, they have not given me a reason to care. The Miz won. Moving on.
Rating (1-10): 5.5
Xavier Woods (w/R-Truth and Cameron and Naomi) vs. Heath Slater (w/Mahal and McIntyre): Truth cut a promo about talking with Brodus Clay, and then introduced Xavier Woods, with Cameron and Naomi dancing him to the ring. I actually thought that this was bad idea, the guy has no identity as of yet, being Truth’s friend was fine, but essentially having him do someone else’s gimmick will not help him in the long run. Woods is fine in the ring, but the crowd wasn’t into him as a character outside of reacting to Cameron, Naomi and Clay’s music. I am all for helping a guy to get over (like by teaming him with Truth) but making him look like the little buddy of the jobber dancing team isn’t the way to do that.
Rating (1-10): 5.5
Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena and the Big Show: The story of the match was that Show was still feeling the effects of the concussion kick from the night before. Del Rio superkicked Show in the head two times, and that brought the doctor in. Show fought through, tagged Cena and Cena won the match. Del Rio attacked Cena after the match, only to get laid out. Then Orton laid out Cena with a belt shot. Orton then stood tall with both title belts. It was fine, but didn’t do anything to get me excited about next week.
Rating (1-10): 6.0
This show was simply variations on Survivor Series, of Beware of Survivor Series II. Almost everything on the show was a repeat from the night before or a variation of something from the night before. There is a point to where you are continuing things but this was repetition, and it felt lazy. Also, the announcement of the Champion vs. Champion match wasn’t met with the excitement you’d expect, and the WWE booking of the last two years is catching up to them due to the fact they did so many of those matches and they never meant a thing. Why will people pay for it now? If you missed the PPV, then you saved money and got a lot from that show for free tonight. If you saw the PPV, you didn’t need to see this show at all. Moving on, nothing to see here other than a pretty poor show. Show Rating: 4.5 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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