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411’s Instant Analysis 01.24.11: Monday Night Raw

January 24, 2011 | Posted by Ryan Byers

WILLKOMMEN!

Welcome kids to a little fun we’re going to have here at 411. The Instant Analysis column is the companion piece to 411 Live Pay-Per-View Coverage and features immediate reaction to wrestling pay-per-views. The focus in Instant Analysis is on first thoughts and initial reactions instead of play-by-play, with the goal of providing you with instant access to writers’ thoughts on the show. We have decided to give these a try for some of the TV shows, so lets see how things work out . . .

SEGMENT ONE
RUN-IN THEATERE
Match Result: Edge wins.
Match Length: One minute.
Match Analysis: Edge is out to start the show, and he demands that Miz face him right now, only for the GM to veto that request and book an impromptu battle royale in which the non-Edge winner (should one exist) will be #40 in the Royal Rumble. The JTTS Squad of Swagger, McIntyre, and Kidd runs out, and the Rated R Superstar dispatches them all in less than sixty seconds. The Raw version of Nexus comes out after that, and Edge basically vanishes. Punk introduces Mason Ryan, who gets to keep that name now that he’s on television. He then makes a bunch of generic comments about his group being dominant, at which point the Smackdown version of Nexus interrupts. God forbid that a storyline actually be built up in wrestling. These days, if the bookers can do it, it has to be done immediately with no time to let people contemplate the possibilities or anticipate what’s to come. Zeke Jackson talks for the first time that I can recall, and he has one of those voices that doesn’t really match his body. The GM dings in and books Barrett vs. Punk for this evening, with the loser and his entire stable being pulled out of the Royal Rumble . . . with John Cena as referee. Remember what I mentioned earlier about not getting any time to build up storylines?

This segment didn’t really do much for me. First I was going to praise the impromptu Edge battle royale, because it made him look strong and was a good way to build him back up a bit after the upset loss that he took against Justin Gabriel on this past Friday’s Smackdown. However, he then proceeded to look like a complete geek when he ran away as soon as Nexus arrived. The second half of the segment, which seemed to have virtually no logical connection to the second half, was pretty infuriating. The Smackdown Nexus group just formed and barely has any heat on them whatsoever, and they’re already feuding with the Raw Nexus before really being established as a threat. It used to be that, when there was a natural feud between two wrestlers or teams, they’d intentionally be kept apart for several months if not years so that fans could actually ANTICIPATE it, making it seem like a huge deal when it actually happened. Now everything is rush, rush, rush, and wrestling is less exciting for it.
Rating: 5.0

SEGMENT TWO
JOHN MORRISON & MARK HENRY vs. SHEAMUS & ALBERTO DEL RIO
Match Result: Del Rio over Henry.
Match Length: Ten-ish minutes.
Match Analysis: This is a battle of guys who were involved in the Royal Rumble preview segment from last week. There’s some fairly inconsequential wrestling involving all four competitors for about a minute, at which point we go to a commercial break. The bad guys are getting the heat on Morrison when we return, and, in an odd bit, they cut to the back where Michael Tarver of all people is watching the match on a monitor. Good to see him back. I didn’t care for him in the ring, but he had a good presence and intensity. Lots of rest holds on Johnny until Sheamus misses his pump kick and Morrison catches him with an enzuguiri. Henry flattens Del Rio off of the hot tag and goes after Sheamus, but he’s caught from behind with the big kick. Morrison catches Sheamus with a flash kick and lands BADLY hitting Sheamus with a tope. Jerry Lawler immediately says “uh oh” so we may have an injury. Meanwhile, on the inside, Del Rio hits an impressive looking version of his rolling armbar on Henry to get a submission win. The first half or so of this was fairly bland, but the finish was exciting enough and I’m amazed that Mark Henry got over as well as he did in the roll for the armbar. My only real complaint is the placing of the commercial break, as there were a lot of fairly bland restholds during this match, and it would have been better if the wrestlers did those while the cameras were off. On top of that, I hope Morrison is OK. With the upward momentum he’s had in the last month, it’d be a bad time for him to be off TV with an injury.
Rating: 6.75

SEGMENT THREE
NATTIE NEIDHART © vs. MELINA PEREZ for the WWE WOMEN’S TITLE
Match Result: Neidhart retains.
Match Length: Four minutes.
Match Analysis: Scary spot early as Melina spears Nattie through the ropes and she damn near lands on her head going out to the floor. It doesn’t look quite as bad on the replay. Back on the inside, Melina applies a Full Nelson Mandela and holds it for quite some time. In an impressive spot, Nattie STANDS UP FOR WWE~! while Melina is hanging on her back. Melina tries to drop a leg against Nattie’s crotch but it’s block and turned into a Sharpshooter. In one of the most visually impressive spots I’ve seen in a women’s match in a long time, Nattie leans back so far with the hold that her head is touching the mat. SICK. Obviously, Perez taps out. Michelle McCool and Layla El show up after the bell, informing us that they’ll be getting their championship rematch at the Royal Rumble. As far as women’s matches are concerned, this was pretty darn fun. It was just a bunch of spots with nothing really holding them together, but at least the spots were ones that you don’t see every day and made good use of the wrestlers’ unique strengths, i.e. Melina’s flexibility and Nattie’s power.
Rating: 7.0

SEGMENT FOUR
EDGE vs. MIKE the MIZ w/ ALEX the RILEY
Match Result: Edge via DQ (Presumably, it was never officially announced.)
Match Length: ~17 minutes.
Match Analysis: This is an interesting match just because of the parallels in the two guys’ careers. Edge was given the title for the first time off of an MITB win and got a longer run as a main eventer than planned when he spiked TV ratings. Miz was given the title for the first time off of an MITB win and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a longer run as a main eventer than originally planned because everybody backstage is in love with all the PR work he’s doing. Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero are out for guest commentary. Neither says anything noteworthy. Edge has the advantage in the opening minutes, and we get a commercial when Miz is tossed to the floor. The offense is fairly back and forth when we return, which is surprising because I figured that Miz would be booked as a coward but he’s going pretty much toe-to-toe with Edge. There’s a second commercial break at around the ten minute mark, which virtually guarantees that this is going to be one of the longer Raw matches in some time. Coming back from ad break number two, Edge is in a chinlock, but he powers out of it with a suplex and hits a flapjack. It appears that the focus of the match from this point on is going to be Edge’s ribs, which they’ve been selling were injured during his battle with the Smackdown Nexus this past Friday. Cole and Lawler start namedropping Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz, which is really quite weird. Riley interferes a couple of times but it never works and actually leads into Miz eating the Impaler DDT. The World Champ sets up for a spear, but Dolph Ziggler pops up from the announce desk and trips him for the cheap DQ. Miz, Riley, and Dolph all go after Edge after the bell, but Randy Orton runs in for the save. A-Ry and Ziggler both eat RKOs, but Miz hits Orton in the knee with his briefcase and runs away. The crowd was amazingly hot for the post-match.

From an in-ring perspective, this was fairly good. It wasn’t anything that I will remember in a month, but it was good, solid professional wrestling between two guys who were given plenty of time to build up a match. For the past month or so, there seems to have been a concerted effort to put more lengthy matches on Raw involving the main eventers, and there have been a lot more hits than misses with that strategy, leading to many stronger shows. This match fit into that same mold. The post-match here also worked very well, as Orton was mega-over and got a measure of revenge coming off of last week’s beatdown, though his issue with Miz was still technically unresolved at the end of the segment because a ) Miz got in the last shot and b) Orton didn’t get to hit the RKO. Very solid booking headed into their Rumble title match.
Rating: 8.5

SEGMENT FIVE
DANIEL BRYAN DANIELSON & THE BELLA TWINS vs. TED DIBIASE, JR., MARYSE OUELLET, & ALICIA FOX
Match Result: Maryse pins a Bella.
Match Length: One minute.
Match Analysis: DiBiase and Danielson, the former NOAH tag team partners, start and do some counters off of the ropes before Maryse tags herself in and a Bella joins her. The other Bella starts flirting with Bryan on the apron, which causes a distraction that enables Maryse to get a rollup for the pin. This was far too short to be good or bad, so I think I have to call it average.
Rating: 6.0

SEGMENT SIX
MICHAEL MCGILLICUDDY & HUSKY HARRIS vs. SANTINO MARELLA & VLADIMIR KOZLOV
Match Result: Husky pins Santino.
Match Length: Three minutes.
Match Analysis: Does anybody else find it funny that, of the wrestlers in this match, we’ve got two sons of WWE Legends and neither of them use the names of their fathers, while Santino DOES have a name that’s a tribute to a past star? Fairly standard pro wrestling action here, and it looks surprisingly polished given the fact that Team Nexus is green and the tag team champions probably can’t be called “green” anymore but certainly aren’t good wrestlers. Harris gets the duke when McGillicuddy distracts a mid-Cobra Santino, giving Husky an opening to hit a lariat and a Flatliner. It was short, but it exceeded my low expectations.
Rating: 6.5

SEGMENT SEVEN
WADE BARRETT vs. CM PUNK w/ JOHN CENA as referee
Match Result: No contest.
Match Length: Never really got going.
Match Analysis: In a fun spot, Cena shoves Punk down and slaps Barrett as soon as the bell rings, relying on his status as referee and the DQ loss they would suffer on retaliation to get away with it. Then, in a spot that I don’t like quite as much, Cena calls the match a double disqualification for “Excessive use of profanity on a PG show.” The general manager dings in afterwards and says that, despite the pre-match stipulation, the members of both Nexuses are in the Rumble and Cena has to officially apologize to both Barrett and Punk under threat of losing his slot on the pay per view. Cena says he’s sorry and begins beating both men before he’s run off by members of the Smackdown Nexus, who are followed by members of the Raw Nexus. Then . . . the entire roster runs out and starts fighting with one another to display the sort of action that we’ll be seeing at the Rumble. This was a really weak way to end the show. The comedy with Cena screwing around with both Barrett and Punk was cute at first, but it didn’t feel like it belonged in the main event slot. Also, I presume that fans are supposed to be mad at the general manager because he “screwed” John Cena by putting both heel stables in the Rumble, but I don’t get why there would be any sympathy for Cena when he was the one acting like a heel and screwing people over initially. I also don’t understand the spot where everybody in the locker room runs out for no apparent reason and starts fighting. I don’t understand it now, and I haven’t understood it for the past several years during which it has seemingly happened.
Rating: 5.0

FINAL THOUGHTS

Segment of the Night: Edge vs. Miz

Trash Segment of the Night: The Main Event

Final Analysis: This was pretty much a one-match show. There was a lot of stuff which was neither good nor bad and one bout between Edge and Miz which was very good. Fortunately for the average segments (and the couple that were below average), Edge/Miz was strong enough that I think it was single-handedly able to carry the show up to an above average rating. A skippable show overall, with one segment worth tracking down if you missed it . . . which probably isn’t something that you should be able to say about the go home show for one of the biggest pay per views of the year.

Verdict: 7.0

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