Positively Raw 11.09.10: Live Edition

Captain Positive James Cooke here, and I am tired. But that’s not going to stop me from giving you your weekly dose of Raw positivity. Yesterday two good friends and myself hired a car and went on a 500 mile round trip up and down England to see the Raw tapings in Wade Barrett’s hometown of Manchester. I haven’t had a chance to see the telecast yet, as all I’ve done since getting home at nearing 4am our time is sleep. Therefore this week’s column will be based upon what I saw as a member of the live audience. I can’t promise to remain impartial this week either.

1. Honourable Mention
The pre-taping dark match was between Alex Riley and home country hero William Regal. We were surprised to see Regal curtain-jerking so to speak, and not being a part of the Raw show, or even Superstars, but the reason for this was most likely to get the crowd’s lungs warmed up. Regal chants were aplenty, and the match itself was pretty good (would you expect anything less from Regal though?). Regal went over to a good ovation and got the Manchester crowd ready for some wrestling.

2. A spot of tea and shenanigans
This was announced earlier in the show via the titantron and caused an immediate explosion of Santino chants. Audience anticipation began to rise as the tea party (which we’re hoping could become a Raw mainstay) was set up by the ring crew. The segment, which Santino intended to be to bury the hatchet with Sheamus soon went horribly wrong for the Italian superstar. Everyone in the audience seemed to be loving the segment, and the Cena merchandise-covered kid sitting next to me went a bit mental and hit me with a cobra during it (I sold it like a champ too). Even The Locker Boy, who is the world’s biggest Sheamus fan enjoyed every bit of it, and could barely resist joining in with the Santino chants. After finding it difficult to not offend the pale and ginger Celtic Warrior, Santino became extremely nervous as Koslov reminded us all of how Santino had beaten Sheamus. Visibly shaking, Santino decided he’d best pour Sheamus some more tea, while the audience began making more and more noise, sensing the hilarious outcome of Santino spilling the hot tea all over Sheamus.

This lead to a match between Santino and Sheamus, with Santino playing the cowardly, yet loveable character. The low-blow finish received a huge pop, and then Sheamus hit the brogue kick to the joy of Locker Boy. John Morrison got a bit of a mixed reaction when he intervened, with some members of the audience questioning what his role is in this storyline. Overall, for many this was the segment of the night, Santino is insanely over, and comedy was brilliant.

3. Divas World Cup
We got to see Maryse live. I don’t think I need to say anymore than that…

I just wish I had a better camera. Oh, and it was quite funny that the babyface divas got booed because of the Manchester United attire. Nobody really likes United, especially those from Manchester itself.

4. Goldust vs. DiBiase
We got to see Maryse again! Twice in a night! The match was a pretty good, of short affair too, that helped to advance the storyline over the million-dollar title, which has now been stolen by Aksana. What a troublesome woman.

5. Hart Dynasty tensions
The Locker Boy hates the Hart Dynasty. I know it’s controversial, but he just does, it’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it. Needless to say, he was happy to see them lose. I thought this was a great match because the Usos finally get a much needed victory over the Dynasty, and it also builds more and more on the potential break-up storyline between the Harts. D H Smith is looking to be the heel of the two at the moment, but we could see a swerve yet, only time will tell.

6. Barrett’s Homecoming
As the taping of Raw was set to begin, the trailer for Big Show’s new movie was played on the tron. About halfway through it, people began to boo loudly. I looked down and soon realised that the trailer was to distract us from the fact that John Cena had made his way down to the ring and was standing at a podium. The booing was soon drowned out by cheers though. Raw opened with Cena welcoming Barrett home with a speech written by the Evil Englishman himself. The Nexus made their way to ring to another mixed reaction and Barrett took care of some business by giving Cena a good telling off for his actions last week, and also running down David Otunga for his recent short-fallings, with Otunga receiving many ‘Who are yah?’ chants.

Orton arrived on the scene to a thunderous pop, the biggest of the night by far, and reminded everybody that he is in fact, still the WWE Champion. This set us up for a our main event of a ten man tag match – Team Barrett vs. Team Orton with Cena as the guest referee once again.

Before the main event though, Cena and Otunga had a match under the order of Barrett. Otunga tried to rally the Nexus behind him, but Barrett ordered them to leave Otunga to it, and had ordered Cena to go full throttle on A-List.

The main event came, and the only member of Orton’s team announced had been a rather over Miz. Many around me were wondering whether a Triple H return would happen, but alas we had R-Truth and Mark Henry. Daniel Bryan made the team too, and was also very popular with the crowd. The finish came when Orton was set to put Barrett away, as The Miz hit Orton with a Skull-Crushing Finale, at which point I must admit I went a little crazy in cheering for Mr. Money in the Bank, as I thought we could well see a cash-in. Barrett got the pin, counted by Cena, and got to be raised in celebration by his Nexus members to end the broadcast in his hometown.

This all came off really well, as Cena has now acted for and against Barrett as referee, meaning we still have no clue as to what he will do come Survivor Series. I have no idea what the commentators were saying, but The Miz hitting Orton with his finisher I’m guessing was done to make a statement, that he still has that briefcase, and can strike at any time. Barrett was heavily booed throughout the evening, and received only a trickle of cheers, the fact that the crowd responded to him that way in his hometown really goes to show how much of a good job he is doing as a heel.

Overall it was another great live WWE show for me, and my friends would agree. I need to thank The Locker Boy, who did all the driving yesterday, you were our superstar of the day! Andy was a little upset that he travelled all that way and didn’t get to see an RKO (even in the dark main event between Orton, Sheamus, and Barrett, Orton won via a shot with the belt, not with an RKO), but I’m sure we’ll see one tonight. That’s right, tonight we’re going to the London Raw house show, which I’m also really excited about. My girlfriend is tagging along this time too, so I best act casual when I see Maryse tonight.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this week’s column as always, next week will be back to normal though. Until then, stay positive!