Positively Raw 04.19.11: Live From London

Welcome one and all to another edition of Positively Raw. This week the WWE have been back across to my side of the great pond known as the Atlantic Ocean, with their television shows this week being broadcast from London, England. With the televised event that is Monday Night Raw taking place a mere hour away from where I live, there was no chance that we weren’t going along. We spent the day at the O2 arena, going to the cinema there to see Your Highness, which is very funny and features many memorable quotes, and also gave us a new nickname for our friend Andy with the character of Courtney. Wandering around the dome and outside, we also spotted an American style yellow school-bus, which was there to promote the ‘funniest fieldtrip of the year’, complete with Triple H cardboard cut-out to have your picture taken with.

We took our seats in the arena, and in our block were in the fifth row right near the stage. Unfortunately due to our position in the arena, we were directly to the side of the titantron, and thus couldn’t see anything on it. This wasn’t the end of the world, especially as there didn’t seem to be any backstage segments (as far as I could tell – I haven’t yet watched the show back), but it meant that when Morrison showed Truth a clip from last week, that we had no idea what they were talking about, and every time the production team were setting up the next segment, that we couldn’t see the various video packages being shown to the crowd. As I say, not the end of the world, but if there had been many backstage segments, I would have been a little disheartened.

Being where we were though meant that whenever someone lost a match or was hurt – legitimately or kayfabe – they would walk right past us.

I was there…

1. The Truth Does Hurt

After the shock from last week that was R Truth being named co-number one contender, Truth made his way out to start the show. The crowd was pretty split on Truth, with many booing rather than chanting ‘What’s Up?’. Truth wanted to ‘preach the gospel’ and told of his trials and tribulations, and of how he was now happy to be in line for the WWE Championship. He was interrupted by John Morrison who would goad Truth into putting his number one contender status on the line. Morrison would win the match, and Truth would then turn heel by attacking Morrison after the match.

The Positive – R Truth was a solid upper mid-carder last year, having feuds with the likes of The Miz for US title, and even getting involved in the Nexus/Cena angle. Since then he’s kind of drifted along with not a lot of note. Many questioned his being put into the main event of Extreme Rules, as it seemed somewhat wrong, and internet speculation claimed that it was actually meant to be John Morrison’s spot. Well, if that was the case, the WWE righted a wrong this week then, by having Morrison replace Truth in the match. And Truth wasn’t left to fall straight back down the card into obscurity either, as he has been given a new lease of life as a heel, which should freshen up his act and bring him back to prominence. I’d like to see a Truth/Morrison feud play out throughout the Summer, and as of now am more than interested in Truth’s future.

I’ve got the broadcast running along on the TV in the background while writing this at the moment, and I’ve seen that they cut quite a bit from Truth’s turn, as after the beating he laid upon Morrison, R Truth lit up and smoked a cigarette. Smoking is illegal inside public building here in the UK, and it incited what was probably the chant of the night with ‘That’s illegal’. When Truth finally made his way to the back, some guy in our section showered Raw’s newest heel with applause, to which Truth gave back a cheeky wink, giving us all a good laugh that saw it.

2. While in England…

Taking advantage of being back in England, WWE gave us two segments of note. The first was the Knighting Ceremony of Michael Cole, who will now be referred to as Sir Michael Cole. A lady dressed up as the Queen herself came down to the ring and knighted Cole, receiving a Cole Kiss as reward for her efforts. After receiving his Knighthood, Cole would then call the ‘peasants’ Jerry Lawler and JR into the ring to kiss his rather grotesque athletes foot. Swagger would ambush King, taking him out of the picture, and then would apply the ankle lock to JR, allowing Cole to rub JR’s face in his foot. For the record, JR is not only a member of Mr McMahon’s KMA club, but is now also a member of Michael Cole’s Kiss My Foot Club.

Later on we’d be joined by Santino, who was to face off against the Champion of America, Sheamus. Sheamus reminded us all of the last time Raw emanated from England, and of how Santino embarrassed the Celtic Warrior with his tea-party. Due to the draft next week, this could be Sheamus’s last chance to gain revenge for that, and the US Champion would look dominant as he defeated Santino with a Brogue Kick.

The Positive – First of all, I know the Michael Cole segment was probably unbearable to many, but I see a few positives with it. First of all, with Raw coming live from London, and with there being the Royal Wedding in less than two weeks, WWE would have been foolish to have not capitalised with a segment making reference to what is going to be a historic event. I for one was fully expecting to see some sort of wedding segment, but this certainly worked. And who doesn’t like a Queen Elizabeth lookalike. She even did the royal wave! A knighting segment would only work with the most obnoxious of characters, and fortunately there is one on hand right now in Michael Cole, and we all know that over the next couple of weeks, he will be playing up the Sir Michael Cole moniker. Cole played it perfectly by completely over-playing it, even laying a smacker right on the lips of ‘Queen Elizabeth’. The post-knighting attack and humiliation of King and JR furthered the feud leading into Extreme Rules, and has reinforced the fact that after Cole saved Swagger from a 619 on Smackdown last week, that Swagger is back on Team Cole, while also making us all want to see Cole get his ass kicked just a little bit more… Bring on Extreme Rules!

As for the Santino/Sheamus encounter, I love a bit of continuity, and when I went to see Raw in Manchester back in November, the tea-party was most certainly the segment of the night. To see that revisited almost six months later was good, and to see Sheamus look dominant once again pleased my buddy The Locker Boy to no end. One thing of note though, which isn’t at all a positive is that Santino seemed to be legitimately injured from the match. I notice this wasn’t seen on TV, but after the match, the referee made the cross sign with his hands, and started dashing back and forth. The medical team were standing around near our section, and the referee wound up running right up to them and yelled at them to get to the ring immediately to help. They then helped carry Santino off. I haven’t yet seen any report of Santino being hurt, but if that is the case, I wish him a speedy recovery. He seemed to be limping badly as they walked by us.

3. Duelling chants

One thing I love about the WWE these days is that the crowds are so mixed. On Raw this week we had two great matches that were an absolute pleasure to witness live and in person. The first was the tag-team match between The Miz and Alex Riley, and John Cena and Sin Cara. I had no idea that this was meant to originally be a one-on-one match between Sin Cara and Riley, due to not being able to see the tron, and of course not hearing the commentary, so I just assumed that Sin Cara was interrupting The Miz. The contest was a great back and forth affair with both sides gaining a good measure of offense. Cena then hit Riley with his signature moves, and an Attitude Adjustment, before tagging in Sin Cara who scored the pin.

As for the other stellar match on the card, our main event was a Wrestlemania rematch. Now, regular readers may remember that two weeks ago I wrote of how I felt that CM Punk and Randy Orton had the best match at Wrestlemania 27, so you can imagine my delight in discovering that our main event was to be the rematch. The two fought back and forth, and Punk looked to be getting the win in dominant fashion, with a sadistic smile upon his face. It would then be Orton that turned the tables quickly with a roll-up for the 1-2-3. Post-match Nexus would emerge having been banned from ringside during the match and lay another beatdown upon the Viper. Mason Ryan would set up for the punt on Orton in retribution for all the pre-Wrestlemania punts that Orton handed out, but CM Punk would intervene, telling Ryan to stand down, as Punk wanted the honours for himself. Unfortunately for Punk, they’d spent too long arguing over who was going to punt Orton, and when Punk sprinted across the ring, Orton uncoiled with and RKO, getting the last laugh as Raw went off the air.

The Positive – When you attend a WWE – or any other wrestling – show, the most you can ask for is a couple of great matches. On that note, this show certainly delivered, and the crowd was tremendous during them. The tag-team match was great in that it gave The Miz and John Cena more time in the ring together, allowing them to further develop their chemistry in the ring, and it also gave Sin Cara a huge rub, as not only was he involved with two of the biggest stars in WWE, but he even picked up the victory. Just like Del Rio, it seems that Sin Cara is meant to be a big deal pretty quickly. The chants throughout this match obviously centred around Cena, with the usual duel of ‘Let’s go Cena’ – ‘Cena Sucks’ going on. A man sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder, as he was there with his son, and they didn’t understand why people were chanting that Cena sucked. I kindly explained the situation of the women and children adoring the noble Cena, while the men found it fun to chant against the goody-two-shoes Cena. It’s all a bit of fun. One way or another, Cena is truly mega over, as the duelling chants were not only present during the match, but also before the show began, and after the show had finished when exiting the venue. As for the other competitors, Sin Cara received a huge pop, and seeing his entrance and moves performed live was breathtaking. The large ‘Sin Cara’ chants that were present so near to this man’s debut go to show that the Mexican Sensation will most likely enjoy a prosperous tenure in WWE. Meanwhile, The Miz was hugely over too, with there being another duelling chant at one point of ‘Miz is Awesome’ – ‘Miz is Awful’.

The main event of Randy Orton vs. CM Punk was for me the highlight of the show though, and in my maybe slightly biased as I was there opinion, was better than their Wrestlemania match. Again, we had huge duelling chants of ‘Randy Orton’ – ‘CM Punk’, and later into the match, when the usual ‘RKO’ chants began to get loud, a chant of ‘GTS’ also broke out in response. The atmosphere was electric, and CM Punk was on top form, both in terms of wrestling, and character – his facial expressions, and during-the-match comments are terrific and always lead to a giggle. The nice clean ending was actually a surprise (we had no idea that Nexus were banned from ringside), and Orton winning by roll-up was something different and unexpected. The ending to the match, coupled with the failed attempt to take Orton out by Nexus afterwards mean that this feud will continue for a little longer, which of course is no bad thing at all. I was so glad to see this match live, and the closing visual of Punk going a bit mental out of frustration, kicking the and hitting the ropes was pretty awesome.

Just a few other notes to mention from the show: earlier in the day, I’d been talking about Dolph Ziggler and had compared him to ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin. I said that I expected Ziggler to shave his head some day and become a huge star, so you can imagine my shock when I saw Dolph emerge onto the stage for his match with a new do.

The dark main event was a tag-team match as Punk and Miz teamed up to take on Cena and Orton. Punk argued that he had just had a match, and hid in the Cole mine until The Miz dragged him out due to not wanting to fight Orton and Cena in a handicap match. Highlights of this match included Punk mocking Orton’s stomping by jumping around Orton, making the ‘You can’t see me’ gesture to Cena, and then hitting a leg drop – I really hope this becomes a real move in the way of the People’s Elbow! The Miz also went for a People’s Elbow on Orton, which Orton rolled out of the way of. The finish came when Orton and Cena both hit their finishers and Cena pinned Punk.

Also, despite a great show, I was a little disappointed by the absence of one superstar in particular. I’m not talking about Edge, The Rock, or Stone Cold, but rather the future Hall of Famer that is Zack Ryder! He wasn’t even on Superstars!

Anywho, I’m off for another week now. Next week will be another special edition of Positively Raw, as it will be a Draft special… maybe I’ll produce a special banner for that too. With that exciting prospect, I bid you farewell. Stay Positive!