Positively Raw 05.24.11: Ohhh Yeeeaaahhh!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Positively Raw with your host James Cooke.

Remembering The ‘Macho Man’

I’ll assume by now that everyone reading this will have heard the tragic news that on Friday one of the all time greats ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage passed away in a car accident. My condolences go out to his loved ones.

There’s not a whole lot that I can say that hasn’t already been covered on this site, or any other – so instead of retreading old ground, let’s remember and celebrate one of the greatest of all time…

Ohhhh YEEEAAAAHHHH!

This past Sunday saw WWE go Over The Limit for the second consecutive year. It may not have been one of the most spectacular events of all time, but this column is about the positives, and as always, I have some show highlights!

CM Punk’s ‘Macho’ tribute
It was just as I spotted and began to point out the other guys I was watching the show with that CM Punk had ‘Macho Man’ written across his arm tape that the Straight-Edge Superstar climbed up the turnbuckle in an attempt to hit Savage’s Diving Elbow Drop. Punk may have missed the move, but it was still a nice small tribute that the live crowd seemed to appreciate.

Michael Cole’s BBQ flavoured Just Deserts
Finally – as The Rock would say – Michael Cole got what was coming to him. This is what should really have happened at Wrestlemania, but nevertheless, at least this pay off came. Not only did Lawler get to defeat Cole, destroying the Cole Mine in the process, but Eve got some measure of revenge, as did JR and his BBQ sauce. It would then be a surprise appearance of Bret Hart that would ensure that Cole would kiss ‘The King’s’ foot. Very fitting.

Kelly Kelly’s stinkface
I remember this mainly for the fact that it took me completely off guard… Is a stinkface allowed on PG TV?

Christian’s teased heel turn
Captain Charisma remained a good guy in the end, but he showed a brief hint of returning to his once heelish ways. Will Christian have to fully revert back to the dark side to recapture the title he held ever so briefly? Will the crowd simply choose to turn on Orton even more instead? I can’t wait to find out the answers to both questions. And let’s not forget that this was most certainly, without a shadow of a doubt the match of the night. Props to The Viper and The Captain!

The Miz says…
The ending may have been rather screwy, and I’m starting to think that we may have a Miz/Mike Chioda feud on the way, but The Miz was most certainly the MVP of the ‘I Quit’ match (and I don’t just mean via the use of inflatable objects during his entrance). The way The Miz would constantly pause before inflicting more punishment to Cena, describing to the Champ what was coming added enormously to The Awesome One’s cold, calculating, and ruthless character traits. Anyone else notice how the first ending to the match with the recording of Cena’s voice came after an unprotected chair shot to the head, making it only 13 chair shots difference between that false finish, and the end to The Rock and Mankind’s match? I can’t help but wonder whether The Miz and Cena will get fined for that move.

The Champ is STILL here!

1. Big Show: The World’s Largest Athlete Worst Medical Patient

Although the biggest, baddest team in the WWE had defeated CM Punk and Mason Ryan at Over the Limit, they had in fact lost to thee two other members of Nexus last week. So to keep things fair, David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty had earned themselves a shot at the shiny bronze belts. Punk returned for another brief stint at the commentary table to help call the action, while Mason Ryan stood at ringside. The match was a pretty competitive bout, with Otunga and McGillicutty holding their own over Kane and Big Show, however, as soon as the team of the Big Red Machine and the World’s Largest Athlete looked set to finish things, shenanigans ensued, the ref was knocked down, Punk kicked Show in the head from behind, and Otung and McGillicutty hit a double-team DDT to put Big Show down for the 1-2-3.

Backstage, fellow Broski Scott Stanford asked the former champs whether they felt frustrated. This very question seemed to add to Big Show’s mounting frustration and he seemed to snap. Things would get a whole lot worse for Show though, as Alberto Del Rio – who had been angrily yelling at Show in Spanish earlier in the night for Show having been sat on one of Del Rio’s mucho expensive cars – spoke some more angry Spanish and slapped the Giant. Show gave chase, and the camera was knocked and we go a few seconds of fake static (my first thought here was of a possible new Jericho viral campaign, but I doubt that now) and we then found that Show had been run over by Ricardo Rodriguez, who was driving Alberto’s car from earlier. Big Show tried to get back up several times, claiming to be alright, but medical attention was needed. Later in the evening, Albert Del Rio would state that it was all Ricardo’s fault.

The Positive – First of all, it’s great to see Otunga and McGillicutty take home the gold, as it brings them back to prominence and goes some distance in putting Nexus back on the map. It also makes more sense for those members of the faction to win the tag titles than it would have done for Punk to, which I will cover a littler more later on. As for Big Show and Kane, I’m half expecting them to not worry so much for now about trying to recapture the titles that were robbed from them, as they seem to be going into a feud with Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez. The interaction between these four at the start of the evening was interested, and I’m trying to find a translation of what Del Rio was actually saying to Show. The tag-title match was good, and the interference was choreographed well, and the post-match reaction with Big Show losing it was great. As for the running over of Big Show, I thought that it added a boost of excitement to the broadcast early on, and look forward to seeing whether Alberto and Ricardo fall out, or whether this is part of a bigger plan. Either way, if the rumour is true that Alberto Del Rio is to face Cena for the WWE Championship and Summerslam, then what better way for Del Rio to spend his time until then than by being made to look strong and sinister against two of the biggest, most dominant superstars in WWE history.

2. WWE’s Macho Tribute

One of the many complaints that I’ve read about Over the Limit is that there was no proper video package to commemorate Randy Savage. WWE righted that wrong on Raw this week with one of their always brilliant montage reels dedicated to the Macho Man.

The Positive – WWE did the right thing by Randy Savage here, and nobody can complain or should be bringing up any kind of vicious rumour. Fact is that this was a great tribute, and showed plenty of class, and I particularly like the fact that Jerry Lawler stated that ‘he will always be a Hall of Famer no matter what’, pretty much guaranteeing that we will be seeing the Macho Man in the Hall of Fame some day.

3. Righting Wrongs, Starting Over

Raw this week felt like a brand new show, and as such, many of the younger superstars and those that have been lost in the shuffle got a chance to shine. The show began with R-Truth interrupting Bret Hart and cutting another terrific promo, even mocking the Hitman by imitating his famous giving of the sunglasses act with ‘Little Jimmy’. Truth one again demanded a title shot, and out came the Champ John Cena. Cena said that although he was hurt, he would fight, and then asked Truth as a friend what happened to him – When did he go crazy? Truth claimed to have never liked Cena and argued that both Cena and Bret Hart were no more than propaganda tools designed to make the people feel good… which I guess is kind of true. The Raw GM then chimed up, and the email stated that Truth needed to prove himself a little more, and thus the main event was announced of R-Truth and CM Punk vs. John Cena and Rey Mysterio with Special Guest Referee Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart.

This was a standard tag-team match in which the heel team dominated. Punk made use of the move set made famous by the Hitman, and would laugh and joke every time he hit one of Bret’s moves on Cena. This goaded Bret into not playing the role of referee-calling-it-down-the-middle, and Hart got involved by knocking Punk down with a punch after Rey hit the 619, and applying the sharpshooter as Rey hit the leg drop for the 3-count and the happy ending.

Meanwhile Michael Cole apologised to all whom he had offended, and promised no more Cole Mines or any of that stuff and resumed his position behind the announce desk and half returned to the Michael Cole of old, leaving his super-heel character behind him. The Miz asked the Raw GM for another Alex Riley-free title match, which the GM refused. The Miz blamed Riley for all of his shortcomings, firing his Vice-President of Corporate Communications and slapping him around the face. Riley then snapped, unloading on his former boss and mentor to a huge ‘Riley’ chant from the crowd. Riley beat The Miz down, showing no mercy before leaving to huge cheers from the ground while The Awesome One lay down and out in the middle of the ring. Also during the broadcast, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Drew McIntyre, and US Champion Kofi Kingston all got a chance to showcase their abilities in matches against each other, as Swagger took on Bourne and Kingston defeated McIntyre.

The Positive – After Over the Limit – which let’s face it, wasn’t good – wrestling fans everywhere were crying out for WWE to step it up! Even Good ol’ JR voiced his concerns via his Twitter account saying the following:

What JR is essentially saying is that the reason things seemed down is because we are currently caught in the midst of a transitional period for the WWE. We’ve seen them before and we’ll see them again. I’m confident after this week’s Raw that WWE knows what it’s doing, and where it’s going. Allow me to explain:

Although fairly short, the Swagger/Bourne and Kingston/McIntyre matches were nice little showcases that helped in reminding us all of what these men are capable of Drew McIntyre’s original ‘Chosen One’ branding was mentioned, and the commentary team questioned whether Drew had lived up to that name as of yet. The Scottish Star would then dominate the US Champion for much of the match and once again looked a force to be reckoned with. Kingston may have won the contest, keeping himself over, but Drew looked strong once again too. Meanwhile the rebuilding of Jack Swagger continued as the All American American beat Evan Bourne in decisive fashion. Bourne didn’t take the loss lying down though, sneaking in a cheeky kick to Swagger during his victory lap, possibly starting a feud between the two.

The Miz and Alex Riley may also have just started a feud between themselves. In many of the wrestling articles I’ve read recently, it is mentioned that of all the young superstars in the WWE right now, The Miz is the only one that has been truly established, which means that rather than this being a step down for The Awesome One, it is more a step up for his former apprentice. Alex Riley went over huge with the live crowd too, meaning that big things could be waiting A-Ry down the road.

The Michael Cole saga being over speaks for itself.

As for the main event of the evening, it certainly ticked a lot of boxes for many. It has been reported aplenty recently that Bret Hart, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, and Paul Heyman among others have all been saying on Twitter that CM Punk is one of the most talented and underutilised members of the WWE roster at present. Well, WWE must have heard, as here we had CM Punk in the main event of the show, and out of the tag title picture as his Nexus cohorts instead managed to capture those titles, making Punk’s group a little more relevant in the process. I also thought the way that Punk was winding up Bret throughout the whole match by stealing his moves to be rather witty and led subtly to the finish in which Bret had had enough and clocked the Straight-Edge Superstar. This match was also great in that it also showcased one of the hottest heel acts of the moment in R-Truth, and gave a nice feel-good ending that made the heel team of Punk and Truth look stronger if anything, as they only lost due to Bret’s biased. The biggest positive of the main event for me though would have to be CM Punk’s attire – for those who missed it…

Raw seemed to be regaining form this week with what felt like a fresh new start. The show featured plenty of excitement in the form of title changes, car drama, and the building and rebuilding of the future mega-stars of the industry. It’s an exciting time to be a wrestling fan!

Until next week #StayPositive