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Wrestling’s 4R’s Friday Edition 8.13.10: Raw and NXT Reviewed!
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By: Jeremy Thomas
Raw 08.09.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
The Miz def. Evan Bourne [* ¾]
Melina def. Alicia Fox [*]
Husky Harris, Michael McGillicutty and Alex Riley def. Percy Watson, Lucky Cannon and Kaval [* ½]
John Morrison & R-Truth def. William Regal and Zack Ryder [**]
Bret Hart & John Cena fought Edge & Chris Jericho to a no contest [* ½]
BRET TRIES TO LAY DOWN THE LAW: Raw kicked off with the return of Bret Hart, who made his way down to the ring to the cheers of the crowd. He talked about how he’s been training like a lunatic, getting ready for SummerSlam just to see everything fall apart. He talked about how Jericho and Edge quit the WWE and Bret had vouched for them. Nevertheless, he was giving them a chance to reconsider and called them both down to the ring to try and mend some fences. That brought out Jericho first, all snazzy-suited and looking serious. Jericho told Bret to dazzle and impress him, and Bret told him to shut up. The Hitman said that it was “put up time,” time to step to the plate and such. He asked Chris to join Team WWE or he’d be hurting himself. Bret did some good promo work here as he talked about how Jericho would be a man without a country, and Jericho looked like he was considering it which had the crowd cheering for him. I love Jericho wavering in between heel and face here and it was fun. Jericho said the answer was still no though, and he called Bret a phony and a hypocrite who didn’t want to get his ass beat tonight. Jericho said he made it clear that he had no interest in teaming with Cena, his only goal was destroying Bret. And that brought down Edge who got in the ring and took Jericho to task for talking trash to Bret, who he talked about idolizing. Edge said that Bret could count him in, and then tried to attack Bret, which didn’t go so well. Making Bret the wily veteran here was nicely done and Jericho coming to Edge’s defense was interesting. Nattie then went down to the ring upset and we went backstage where the Nexus had wiped out the Hart Dynasty so they wouldn’t be threats. Bret was pissed, so Cena talked some sense into him.
I loved this as an opening segment because it did a lot of things all at once. First, it brought Bret out and gave him some face time, during which he looked good without having to get physical yet. It also had Jericho and Edge both teasing face turns before they turned right back around into heeldom, and more importantly it furthered the idea that the Nexus was on top of things while Team WWE was at serious risk of falling apart. And it did all this with some good promo work and angle development. What more can we really ask for?
THE MIZ vs. EVAN BOURNE: Our first match had Mr. Raw Money in the Bank coming down to ringside with his briefcase to take on Evan Bourne. Bourne was of course over with the crowd and the two went right into it. These guys went out there and had a decent match, although it was really more of a glorified squash of Bourne. I do take some issue with that since they spent so much time building Bourne up, but then this could be exactly why they did that, so he can help get people over. This was a short match and Bourne’s offense was pretty limited, but the match was perfectly fine and I had no problem with it since it accomplished the purpose of helping get Miz over.
TED DiBIASE vs. THE NEXUS KILLS MARK HENRY: Before this scheduled match, Mizark showed up in front of Morrison and Truth and said he was joining Team WWE and his match against DiBiase would be his audition. Ted then came out with Maryse looking freaking fabulous. Melina who? Good Christ. Before the match could get started though, the Nexus came out and beat the crap out of Mark Henry, ramming him into the steps and basically murdelating him. That left Mark out of the match and again showed how dangerous the Nexus was. This got the point across and we got to see Maryse being gorgeous, and frankly that was enough for me. Hey, I like what I like.
THE GREAT KHALI vs. WADE BARRETT: Early in the show John Cena talked some sense into Khali, and in a Runjin-less interview conducted by Josh Matthews he said that he was loyal to the WWE and wanted Wade Barrett tonight. Of course, this turned into the Nexus beating Khali down on the way to the ring, thus eliminating him from Team WWE. You know what, I’m okay with that. I like Khali fine, but I didn’t need to see him in this match and Nexus killing Khali after they killed Henry is doing this group wonders.
Where the match was supposed to take place, we instead got the Nexus coming out to the ring and Wade Barrett getting a mic. He announced the match was cancelled—no duh—and proceeded to talk about this Sunday and how a new chapter in the WWE was beginning and the balance of power was shifting dramatically and permanently. Once again, everyone in the Nexus who spoke did some good work here; we know the Nexus guys who get mic time are good promo guys so that’s smart. Just more good stuff to get these guys over.
EDGE & CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRET HART & JOHN CENA: Earlier in the show after their opening segment promo, Edge and Jericho were backstage prepping for their match tonight. They were also bitching about Bret—at least, Edge was. Jericho seemed less clear-minded, and he said they might have bitten off more than they can chew. Edge pointed out all the big names that they’ve survived including Austin, the Rock, Taker, DX, Mr. McMahon and the Alliance. That seemed to galvanize Jericho and he said that they would take out Cena and Bret, leading to no match at SummerSlam and leaving them in the clear. I don’t see how that deals with the Nexus problem—or any problem, really—but okay. Before the match, Bret and Cena were confronted by Miz, who said he wanted to hear them ask for help. They did ask, and Miz said he’d let them know on Sunday. Well, that’s a nice tease.
We finally had our main event, and Edge and Jericho came down first and looked a bit nervous at the N-wearing lumberjacks around the ring. The faces came out next and the crowd popped big for them, leading us to our match. Cena of course carried the whole match for his team, and the Nexus worked nicely as lumberjacks, beating Cena whenever Jericho and Edge tossed him over the ropes. And of course, they didn’t go after Jericho. Like most lumberjack matches this was more about the lumberjacks than the match but this one was all about the story and that carried off well; it also kept the focus off the fact that Bret didn’t wrestle. Eventually things got to be too much and Truth and Morrison came down for a 7-on-4 face off with the Nexus, and then Edge and Jericho finally came back and rejoined the team. This was not much of a match but it was an awesome way to end Raw and I loved it. Strong sell toward SummerSlam.
SHEAMUS CALLS OUT THE LEGEND-KILLER: Toward the end of the first hour, Sheamus came out to, as Cole put it, call out Randy Orton. Sheamus talked about how the WWE Universe thought he was scared of Orton, but in fact he was scared of what he would do to Orton. O…kay. We then saw a hype video for the WWE Champion that showed Sheamus being dominating beyond all belief. Another nice job by the production team. Sheamus got the crowd going against him and then called out Orton so he could tell him face-to-face. That brought out the Legend Killer, who came down to the ring. Sheamus said he was surprised, but Orton cut him off and said that he knew Sheamus was capable of hurting people but he was full of it with his “I was afraid of what I would do to you” thing. Orton said he was going to blow it at SummerSlam and the crowd started chanting for the RKO. Orton pointed out that Sheamus had never beaten him and never would, and Sheamus said he was wrong. Orton pointed out that he wasn’t ‘H and he wasn’t Cena; Sheamus countered he wasn’t WWE Champion either. SNAP! Sheamus said that after he beat Orton he’d be at the back of the line, and Orton told Sheamus to do something about wanting to hurt him. And then…. “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!” Michael Cole said that by order of the GM, anyone who interfered in the title match would be suspended indefinitely and that if Orton lost he’d be going back to the end of the line and that Sheamus should do something about it if he truly wasn’t scared. And Sheamus…decided to play mind games, which resulted in things getting physical. Orton got the best of this and teased the Punt before the segment was over. I liked the way they played Orton here, but I really don’t like them having Sheamus be scared of Orton. It doesn’t do Sheamus any favors, though I would say booking logic puts Sheamus over here. I guess we’ll see.
NXT SIX-MAN TAG: This was a similar thing to what they did in Season One, to get the NXT rookies some exposure. There was a “We Want Husky” chant during the early part of the match, which was a competent match, if far from flashy. Everyone looked fine in the ring, though no one really excelled. I would say that Kaval looked the most impressive in terms of in-ring work, with Husky getting the win over Kaval. This wasn’t much of a match and served more to have Sheamus wipe out some rookies, but it did get the Season Two rookies some A-show recognition and that’s fine.
WILLIAM REGAL & ZACK RYDER vs. TRUTH & MORRISON: The point of this match was to show that at least someone in Team WWE was capable of getting along and getting a win, and this did that fine. When Zack Ryder and William Regal are in the ring, you know that they’re going to be doing the job these days and that’s fine. This was just a short chance for them to clean the scrubs’ clock and look impressive, and this did that. The match was fine for what it was, but nothing great by any stretch. Far too short to mean much.
MELINA vs. ALICIA FOX: This was Melina’s first official WWE match since coming back last week, and she was looking gorgeous on her way to the ring. I’ll be honest, I really wish that they hadn’t pulled the trigger on this feud so quickly, since it would have made more sense to get Melina a little feud to build her up before putting her in the title picture, but whatever. Now, everyone knows that I’m a fan of Melina, and I think she’s better in the ring than a vast majority of the Divas, but she had some definite ring rust here and no chemistry with Alicia to boot. They were disjointed and sloppy and that did this match no favors. Alicia nearly had to stop midway through her tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and that was kind of scary. This did help get Alicia over a bit and I will give them credit for that, but the match was not a good one and Melina looked like she practically stomped Alicia’s head with the Last Call. Sorry, not giving this a pass.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
THE BELLAS vs. EVE & GAIL KIM vs. MARYSE & JILLIAN: Okay, this was retarded from the get go. You know when the entrance ramp has become a water slide and beach equipment is around the ring that there’s going to be little to enjoy here, and even the bathing suits were lackluster. This would have been fine as pointless eye candy but somehow, this went about as long as the actual tag matches or the Diva match from early. Why? Tell me, why? And after the match Tamina showed up to give Santino a hard time; this resulted in some teasing between the two. Yeah, I see that going some bad places. When did Tamina become Beth Phoenix? Screw this whole thing, it didn’t even succeed as eye candy.
Like many of the Raws of recent, when the show was focused on moving forward with storylines the show excelled. When it descended to distraction, it either failed or miserably failed. Luckily it was far more focused than not and a very strong finale led to an enjoyable Raw. They needed to do the hard sell to SummerSlam and they did exactly that, resulting in a good show. SHOW RATING: 7.5 |
By: Michael Bauer
NXT 08.10.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
Kaval, Percy Watson, and Lucky Cannon def. Husky Harris, Alex Riley, and Michael McGillicutty [*3/4]
The Miz defeated John Morrison [***]
THE SETUP FOR AND THE MATCH OF MORRISON AND MIZ: So we start with a replay from the commercial break with Miz and Morrison doing the SummerSlam team thing that started on Raw. Not sure why they couldn’t just do it after the commercial or before it, but that’s immaterial. The point was, they hyped up SummerSlam’s main event and setup what I would call a bonus match for everyone on NXT, seeing the former partners going head to head. This match was easily the best thing we have ever seen on NXT (not like that says much) and it was nice to have a real pro vs. pro match on NXT for a change of place. For the most part, this was a fast-paced match that played off both guys strengths, even if it was a bit off. Morrison especially looked off his game as he nearly botched the corkscrew dive to the floor and the standing shooting star press. The crazy thing is though, Morrison is talented enough where he actually made it look good despite being that far off. He missed the moonsault, so he just stuck the arm out to make it look like he was going for an elbow drop. Not to mention, the ending was just brilliant, with Morrison and Miz countering each other back and forth. But seriously, how does Morrison ever land on his feet with the Starship Pain? The Miz ended up going over, which was the right call if he is going to be involved in this Nexus Match at SummerSlam.
LUCKY CANNON IS ELIMINATED: So before we got to the elimination, all the rookies had their say on who be sent home. Most said Lucky Cannon, which was my pick, but we had some entertaining moments here. Alex Riley saying Matt Striker should go home for asking dumb questions was pure gold. I admit, I don’t like Riley, but man can he have his moments. The pool came out and I like how much the poll keeps shifting every time out, unlike last year when Barrett was always on top, followed by Otunga and Gabriel seemingly every poll. This time, Kaval went back to #1, with Michael going to #2, after being #3 and #1 in the first two polls. Husky jumping up to #4 was a surprise, but a very good one as he has gotten better and better. Alex Riley survived at #5 and Lucky eventually got eliminated and pretty much went shooting on everyone, talking about having fun and calling Kaval a 9 year old who sounds like Barry White. Good stuff from him going out and then we got the bombshell of not one, but two eliminations next week. This is also very intriguing, as I can’t honestly pick out one person, let alone two people could be sent home now, with just three weeks to go. I’ll guess Alex Riley and, believe it or not, Percy Watson will go home next week.
6 MAN TAG TEAM REMATCH FROM RAW: So we opened with a rematch from Raw the night before as Kaval, Percy, and Lucky took on Husky, Michael, and Riley. This match is pretty much what you would expect from the rookies, with some decent time being given them, especially compared to the night before. Both teams worked solid as a unit, but the interactions in the ring left me wanting more for the most part. Lucky and Percy almost seemed to mirror themselves with their first segment in the ring against Riley and Lucky definitely did not look good with his plancha spot on Riley as well. The setup for it was perfect, the execution wasn’t. And as I would expect, it all picked up when Kaval got the tag. He actually worked pretty nicely with Michael for the ending sequence, especially with the Dragon Clutch literally out of nowhere. If anything, this match showed just how much more talented Kaval is than the rest of the rookies. Kaval would end up finishing with the Warrior’s Way and a big win for him. Now, he just needs to get a win in single’s action.
THE ROOKIES “POWER OF THE PUNCH” CONTEST: Let’s try to forget the Michael Cole vs. Josh Matthews opening, because that was beyond embarrassing to watch. I know some people liked it and said it wouldn’t get better from that, but for you people, I’ll let Peter Griffin give his advice to you..
Anyway, the contest would get the winner his own segment on Monday Night RAW next week. That’s a fine prize, but the contest was pretty weak overall. Simply put, it’s about having the hardest punch. Like, what skill or point does this prove? Furthermore, it is pretty embarrassing when about half of the rookies didn’t even beat Michael Cole’s score. It’s even more embarrassing when Husky Harris wound back so much that he almost fell on his face and whiffed at the bag. At least Kaval decided to just show off a kick, knowing he couldn’t beat all the bigger guys in the contest. Alex Riley was the winner and now we have to deal with the Miz wanna be on RAW next week… joy.
MICHAEL COLE: Seriously, he just proved how much of a fucking tool he is by trying his luck in the contest before the show.
Well, this was much different from last week, when there were four quick matches and not much in between. This time, you two good timed matches, definitely some fluff, but all the fluff was related to RAW and SummerSlam. Miz and Morrison was a very welcome surprise, but one that was needed for the SummerSlam build. Overall, very decent show. SHOW RATING: 7.0 |
…and remember to stay grounded!
