2 Raw, 2 Furious 11.16.09

Howdy, folks. You are reading 2 Raw, 2 Furious, the semi-regular real time Monday Night Raw recap hosted by yours truly and the sometimes-serious Chris Lansdell. This is my first time putting the column together after a hiatus of almost one full month, so I’m feeling just a little bit out of practice. Hopefully that won’t cause too much turbulence as we head into the go-home show for the Survivor Series, a pay per view which has primarily been built around a short man infringing on the intellectual property of two forty year olds who act like teenagers.

That’ll put asses in seats, won’t it?

Pre-Show Scuttlebutt

Chris: Piper tonight!
Ryan: Like I said last week, I dig the guy, but I really wonder if they are going to come up with material that highlights his biggest strengths or whether they’re just going to have him do the same stuff as any celebrity guest host.
Chris: I expect at least one “fire up a young guy” promo, some joking with Santino and Chavo, and laying into either Orton or Jericho.
Ryan: I just see him having so much potential to take a good build for a match and turn it into a GREAT build for a match with a killer promo, but they don’t have anything he can take from good to great. They’ve got some things that he can take from “meh” to good . . . but not good to great.
Chris: But any improvement is good, no? I mean sure, he can’t put a feud over the top, but he can set them up for Ventura to do so next week. And he’s more than capable.
Ryan: Actually, now that I think about it, I’d probably most like to see him interacting with Miz.
Chris: I can see that working.
Ryan: It would have been better if he came around when Miz and Morrison were still together so that he could’ve shown them how to do a proper segment like Piper’s Pit instead of that godawful Dirt Sheet.
Chris: Dirt Sheet was very popular. I found it amusing. I just think we can’t be too picky here. Piper as guest host would have to work hard to be bad, and the fact that it could be better doesn’t mean it’s not going to be awesome.
Ryan: In the twenty-first century, the problem with Piper hosting is the problem with anybody hosting. He’s only as good as what they write for him. They’re not letting the guy cut his own promos.
Chris: I think he’s the kind of guy that could make a scripted promo sound good, OR he might say “Screw you, I’m going freestyle.”
Ryan: He’ll do better with a scripted promo than most people will, I grant you that. Cena does that on a weekly basis, but there’s some bad material from the writers that even he can’t overcome.
Chris: Cena is no Piper. I’m no Cena hater, but Piper is all sorts of better.
Ryan: Piper is leagues better than Cena, absolutely. However, no matter how good you are, there’s only so much you can do with shit material unless you completely ignore it. Piper’s more likely to do that than most, but it’s also far from a given. I’m not saying that there is no chance that Piper will be good. In fact, I have a feeling that he’ll be the best host in a while. However, I don’t see enough potential there right now for me to get excited in advance . . . I just don’t want to set myself up for disappointment.
Chris: Absolutely understandable. WWE has a great ability to completely wreck our hopes by doing bizarre things with our favourites. As fans we do tend to over-react to the perceived mistreatment of our favourites, and as such we take it harder
Ryan: It’s the same reason why I have set absolutely no expectations regarding Bryan Danielson. History tells me that he’s got just as much chance of being the new Jamie Noble as he does of being the new CM Punk.
Chris: Who, by the way, just came to the ring for his final RoH TV match.
Ryan: Well, a couple of months ago he did . . . I heard it was a hell of a little bout.
Chris: It’s certainly shaping up that way.

Chris: So have you seen the shitstorm I caused by busting out the Full Five?
Ryan: Full five what? Stars? For what?
Chris: AJ/Joe/Daniels.
Ryan: No, I hadn’t heard anything about it. What’s the controversy?
Chris: It’s not HBK/Taker, which I didn’t give five.
Ryan: I see.
Chris: How dare I be different.
Ryan: Did you give the original Joe/Daniels/AJ three-way five stars, or were you not rating matches at that pont?
Chris: I was not on the site then.
Ryan: I ask because most people who I’ve heard commenting on last night’s match claim that it wasn’t as good as the original.
Chris: I disagree. The original was like a teenager.
Ryan: It suddenly had hair in places it didn’t expect to?
Chris: Spots everywhere.
Ryan: Ah ha.
Chris: I mean it was pulse-pounding, but for me it wasn’t as good a MATCH as last night’s. It was a better spectacle though.
Ryan: Gotcha.

Cold Open with the New Fabulous Freebirds: Roddy Piper, Luis Guzman, & The Iron Sheik

Chris: Raw?
Ryan: Raw.

Ryan: It’s weird that Piper is hosting this week and they’ve still got a random celebrity on plugging his stuff.

Ryan: SHEIKY SIGHTING~!
Chris: That’s never a bad thing.
Ryan: How long before he shows up in the Impact Zone and taps Jay Lethal?
Chris: Jeez, I hope Russo only reads the Impact reviews on the site.

New Opening Video Package, New Theme Song, New Set

Ryan: Okay, the new opening is pretty swank.
Chris: Nickelback should do more songs like that.
Ryan: Edited down to thirty seconds by WWE?
Chris: That works for me, but I like the fact that it isn’t “This is How You Remind Me” with different lyrics.

Chris: I’m not sold on that set, though.
Ryan: I doubt the set is a permanent change. They probably just can’t fit the regular HD set in to MSG with the crowd they have tonight.

Mike the Miz (c) vs. Montel Vontavious Porter for the WWE United States Title

Ryan: I’m just glad that we’re getting a match to open the show as opposed to the standard guest host segment.
Chris: I guess they figure Piper needs less effort to get a reaction.
Ryan: Or they realized that, when it gets to the point that HHH is openly making fun of how repetitive the show is, it’s time for a change.
Chris: You know, given HHH’s reported respect for the legends of the business and the amount of pull he has, you’d think he’d let Piper have a live mic and five minutes.
Ryan: You’d also think that he’d defend Ric Flair when the creative team decided that Flair couldn’t cut promos and limited his mic time as much as possible . . . but he didn’t.

Chris: You know, MVP hasn’t really changed ANYTHING about his game since . . . ever.
Ryan: Well, he’s not been a face for all that long in the grand scheme of his career, but, you’re right, he’s starting to get a bit stale. It doesn’t help that he was worlds better as a bad guy.
Chris: Even when he was heel he wasn’t much different than he is now. Look at how different Miz is even without a turn.
Ryan: I don’t know that he’s done anything aside from change his gear.
Chris: He has a subtle change in character, his moveset is expanded, and he has two new catchphrases, one of which is over.
Ryan: The change in character is apparently so subtle that I completely missed it. I mean he’s doing less comedy now, but that’s about it.
Chris: He went from pretentious reality star douchebag to egotistical douchebag.
Ryan: That’s really just two different ways of saying the same thing, isn’t it?
Chris: No, he’s dropped the reality show bit . . . and, as you said, he’s doing less comedy.
Ryan: I don’t recall him every bringing up the reality show that much. The announcers did from time to time, but that was about it.

Winner: Mike the Miz via the Stroke
Ryan: Notice how Chris and I went through this entire match without once commenting on what was going on in the ring? That’s because absolutely nothing of note took place. The two wrestlers didn’t have a bad match, but they didn’t have a particularly good match either. It was very vanilla, and, as a result, it came off as just as stale as the rest of the Raw midcard when, in reality, I don’t think that these guys have had too many straight one-on-one matches against each other. *3/4

Santino Marella vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr.

Chris: You know what’s funny about this match? Someone has to win.
Ryan: I’d imagine Santino gets the duke.

(Marella begins taking off various sports jerseys, always revealing that he’s got another one on underneath.)

Chris: Oh, Santino, you wacky foreigner you.
Ryan: We’ve got “Santino” chants . . .oddly, that may be the first time that I’ve heard those since he turned face.

Chris: So you’re gonna no-sell the heckler making it on-air?
Ryan: Heckler?
Chris: You didn’t hear the guy yell, “Hey, Chavo, Eddie was better than you!”?
Ryan: I did not. I think it’s hard to call him a heckler, though, because I doubt that Chavo would disagree. No rational person would.
Chris: Does “self-aggrandizing dumbass” describe him better for you?
Ryan: Are we talking about the guy making fun of Chavo, or are we back to describing Miz’s gimmick?
Chris: Both.

Winner: Santino Marealla via schoolboy
Ryan: I apologize if I left anybody with the impression that the opener of this show was a nothing-happening match. THIS was a nothing-happening match. Santino has never been particularly good in the ring and has had no incentive to improve with his mic work keeping him so popular, while Chavo is always a competent hand but can only do so much with a limited opponent and three minutes worth of TV time. Really, this was no better for different than the vast majority of the Chavo versus Hornswoggle matches that we’ve had to endure for the better part of the last six months. DUD.

Enter Shawn & Hunter, Who Discuss the Survivor Series

Chris: I really hope they don’t make this match about a midget infringing copyright.
Ryan: I think that they already have. I don’t know how they work it into the match itself, but I think that they already have.
Chris: Yes, because WWE has NEVER changed an entire match on a dime in the week of the PPV.
Ryan: Well, now that they’ve paid lip service to the Survivor Series . . . it’s back to Horny.

(Hornswoggle enters the ring and lines up to hit the catchphrases with DX.)

Chris: Does Hornswoggle get the superkick first or does he get a mic shot?
Ryan: Neither.

(Horny is Pedigreed.)

Chris: And HHH is now the most-loved person on the internet.
Ryan: So is that an actual heel turn, or was it just done for the hell of it?
Chris: Heel turn? Dude, the smarks will be loving that, and the Cena fans will hate it. It just drives a bigger wedge.
Ryan: I have a feeling that smarks won’t love it, because smarks are so over anything related to DX (aside from an HBK singles match) that they flat out won’t care.

Ryan: I’m just tired of this company doing stuff just to do stuff or doing stuff just to kill time . . . it used to be that every segment on one of these shows would actually be part of a story that lead somewhere meaningful at the end of the day . . . and I have no clue how this segment accomplished that unless it was actually meant to make DX into bad guys.
Chris: I think the most important thing is that the kids and women who love Cena also love Horny, and they will cheer louder now.

Ryan: Well, it’s certainly not being played up like it was a heel turn.
Chris: No, because there was no sign of Cena . . . but there was also no great heel reaction, either.

Highlights of WWE in MSG Over the Years are Shown

Ryan: Okay, as weird as it is to see 70’s and 80’s WWWF clips set to hip hop, I’m a fan of this music video so far.
Chris: I’m surprised to see Jeff Hardy, though . . . and Warrior.
Ryan: I was more surprised to see Backlund and Savage. I couldn’t tell because of the angle, but there also might have been a quick shot of Bruno Sammartino.
Chris: AND Angle.
Ryan: Though the clip of Angle featured him getting outsmarted.
Chris: There’s Foley too . . . it’s like a TNA promo inside the highlight reel!
Ryan: Which just goes to show you . . . WWE is not concerned about them as competition at all.

Chris Jericho Meets Roddy Piper Backstage

Chris: Here’s the Jericho segment. Any mention of Mania? I doubt it.

(Enter Chris Masters and his dancing pectorals.)

Ryan: Masters’ pec dance is now his gimmick. Awesome.
Chris: That was so weird.
Ryan: They should put him in a tag team and make their finish a Masters pec dance causing a destraction and setting up a rollup.
Chris: The Dancing Moob-Up?
Ryan: There’s another potential role for Danielson: The guy who schoolboys wrestlers while Chris Masters’ boobies dance. Between that and Sheamus-cito last week, I am on a roll.
Chris: Danielson DID use a small package as a finisher in RoH.

Ryan: You know, that’s a gimmick that mainstream promotions could do a lot more of . . . give guys very basic moves but put over the fact that this one guy has perfected it so that it can be a believable finish in addition to whatever his standard finisher is.
Chris: More matches need to finish outside of finishers anyway. It makes near falls more believable.

Alicia Fox vs. Melina (c) for the WWE Raw Women’s Title

(Some guy from 30 Rock enters to do the guest ring announcing.)

Chris: Who’s this guy?
Ryan: No clue. I’ve never watched 30 Rock.
Chris: I’ve never watched 1 Rock.
Ryan: But we’ve both watched THE Rock.
Chris: Good movie, although we’re supposed to call it “The Dwayne Johnson” now.

(The “action” begins.)

Ryan: So I’m smelling a title change tonight.
Chris: That would put both titles on the heel team for Survivor Series.
Ryan: Indeed. Though if they cared about the positioning of the titles on the teams, wouldn’t they have made Melina a team captain?

(30 Rock guy makes this a lumberjack match, somehow.)

Chris: I am so fed up with trotting the women out for a lumberjack match just to get them on air.
Ryan: I am so fed up with the purpose of a lumberjack match slowly being lost to the ages.
Chris: It’s just like a cage match.

Ryan: Well, so much for my title change theory.

Winner: Melina via Code Green
Ryan: The matches on this show didn’t start off too great, and they’ve only gotten worse with each successive bout. I will say that Melina and Alicia didn’t botch nearly as many spots as they have in their matches over the last month or so, but that’s like complimenting your solid D student when he brings home a D+. DUD.

Chris: And now all the women are rushing into the ring for a brawl. Gee, didn’t see that coming.
Ryan: I hate to sound like a chauvinist, but, with all of them out of their gear, I can barely tell any of these women apart.
Chris: They do have different hair colours, you know.
Ryan: They do, but when you’ve got all of them crammed in the ring together wearing outfits I’m not used to, all of the blondes run together with all of the blondes and all of the brunettes run together with all of the brunettes.
Chris: I’m not so sure that’s unusual. I walked right past Austin Aries at a show – twice – before realizing it was him.
Ryan: I can see that happening. Though they’re awesome athletes, the ROH guys don’t really stand out in a crowd like pro wrestlers have traditionally done.
Chris: I did the same with El generico, but that’s more understandable.
Ryan: I was actually at a show a few years ago, and Delirious was roaming around the area watching the rest of the matches after he was done for the night. The weird thing about it was that he was wearing his mask when he probably could have just taken it off and been completely unrecognized. (This was before his current killer beard.)
Chris: He was working that gimmick for a while a few years back . . . he’d sit in the crowd and watch.

Chris: Have you noticed the large amounts of filler in the first hour?
Ryan: It was mostly filler. I bet it has something to do with the fact that, for an unusually high number of times in the last couple of months, the rating of the second hour of Raw has dropped from the first. They probably don’t want that happening anymore . . . it sends the wrong message about the show.

Piper Hits the Ring, Mic in Hand

Chris: Yeah, he is not on a script, and it seems like not many fans care.
Ryan: I was just going to say that the crowd is surprisingly quiet. I wonder if it’s an audience that’s mostly too young to remember him that well or if the dull first hour cooled them off.
Chris: Lou Albino???
Ryan: Piper’s mispronounced Albano’s name for years.

Ryan: He says that if you mess with Hot Rod you’re going to be bald or dead . . . poor Adrian Adonis got both.
Chris: Okay, this is getting kinda sad . . . I don’t think he actually knows what he’s saying.

Ryan: He wants a match with Vince?
Chris: Oh wow. I PRAY that was planned.
Ryan: He just made a Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel reference . . . there’s something less than 3% of the crowd got.
Chris: Indeed, and even fewer saw it.

(Vince McMahon enters to respond to Piper.)

Ryan: “Four generations of McMahons have brought WWE to MSG!” says Cole . . . minus that one little black sheep who met with UFC this week.
Chris: Was that confirmed? I read the rumour but I didn’t see a reliable source on it.
Ryan: Meltzer’s confirmed it. It was just sort of a “feeling out” meeting according to him . . . there are no real plans for Shane and Dana to work together yet.

Chris: Where on earth is this Piper versus Vince crap headed?
Ryan: I was just fantasy booking that. It would be great if Vince refused to give Piper his match but sic’ed Sheamus on him.
Chris: Setting up another “No respect for Legends” storyline?
Ryan: Or just a one-off angle with Piper to further establish Sheamus as a beast. Vince does love everything Irish, after all.

Chris: I just don’t get why they’re doing this segment and what it’s supposed to accomplish.
Ryan: It’s pretty clearly setting up an angle for later in the show . . . and we’ll just have to wait and see what that angle is.
Chris: It was pretty cheesy though.
Ryan: It was far from Piper’s best mic work.

Random Interlude

Chris: I was thinking about the DX-Hornswaggle segment.
Ryan: And?
Chris: Smarks are only over DX’s antics when they try to be cool and funny. If they’re Pedigreeing midgets that the smarks hate, it might be different. MSG sure popped.
Ryan: But is that enough to overcome the smart fan’s hatred of HUN-TOR?
Chris: They hate Cena more.
Ryan: That’s a fair point.

Sheamus Makes an Open Challenge . . . Nobody Answers

Chris: So with Sheamus being out now, does that lessen the likelihood of being involved with Piper?
Ryan: The way WWE usually books, yes. If you wanted to book it to actually make it into a surprise, no.

(Sheamus attacks timekeeper Mark Yeaton, and Jerry Lawler steps up to his defense.)

Ryan: Hey, it’s time for Jerry Lawler’s bi-annual angle!
Chris: Nothing says “I’m a tough guy!” like beating up a ring announcer and backing away from an old retired broadcaster
Ryan: He backed away from the broadcaster? It
looked like he backed his foot right into his face to me.
Chris: My bad. That’s mildly better.
Ryan: I just hope that the follow-up match is an utter destruction and they don’t feel the need to give Lawler any token offense. I like Lawler, but he doesn’t need to be doing anything against Sheamus at this point in Sheamus’ push.
Chris: Or at this point in Lawler’s career. They need to hotshot Sheamus to the top. Raw needs a top heel not named Orton.
Ryan: Amen, amen . . . which is one of the reasons that I thought that they might be turning DX.
Chris: Easier said than done there.

Matt Striker Replaces King on Commentary

Ryan: You know, there’s still something weird about seeing Matt Striker on WWE television after years of watching him as an east coast indy guy that wasn’t even good enough to get booked regularly in ROH.
Chris: .I thought that was StrYker.
Ryan: Stryker – the guy who was trained in HWA and had a unibrow – was the one who had an ROH run in 2003. The WWE Striker kicked around places like 3PW and got booked in ZERO-ONE through Corino, but I don’t think he had more than a couple of ROH matches if that.

Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne

Chris: Hey, look, Swagger vs. Bourne! Is this the first time for that match?
Ryan: It’s not even the first time that they’ve done the angle where Bourne upsets Swagger one week and Swagger comes back to beat him the next week.
Chris: It’s not like they have a lack of young talent either. A victory by either man does little in terms of profile.
Ryan: Actually, I would say that they do have a lack of young talent. Their roster depth is down all over.
Chris: But the lack of depth here is less glaring than in the main event scene.
Ryan: I’ve made this comparison before, but I miss the days of WCW Nitro where you literally had close to 100 guys on the roster and it would give you fresh matches virtually every week.

Ryan: OKLAHOMA STAMPEDE BY SWAGGER~! I always mark out for that move.
Chris: It’s one of those simple moves that just looks good, despite being basic-ish.
Ryan: Nobody will ever do it quite like Doc, but I’ll accept Swagger taking over the move.

Chris: Swagger has a lot going for him, but his speech issue will end up halting his sex symbol card . . . I mean technical wrestler card.
Ryan: You know what would be great? Since she’s apparently done with Eric Escobar, they should hand Swagger over to Vickie Guerrero.
Chris: I can see that working, but how would you write it in?
Ryan: Eh, it doesn’t have to be anything spectacular. Move one or the other of them over in the next draft and do the old “Vickie decided she needed somebody new to manage” angle.

Winner: Jack Swagger via Doctor Bomb
Ryan: As much as I complain about these two wrestling each other all of the time, I will admit that they have great chemistry and always manage to come up with something new to work into their matches. As a result, I have a hard time caring about the bout because it’s so overdone, but the two guys are occasionally able to drag me back into it with a fresh spot or two that makes me forget that they’ve been going up against one another for eons. This was no exception, as it was perfectly acceptable for the amount of time that it was given and its position on the card. *3/4

Piper Returns to Face Vince . . . But Gets Randy Orton

Ryan: Hmmm . . . Orton confronts Piper. I’d prefer that they built somebody new with this angle, but I’ll take it.
Chris: Was Piper one of the legends that Orton has previously killed? I seem to recall it.
Ryan: I’d be amazed if he wasn’t.

(Orton sets up to punt Orton, and Kofi Kingston runs out to make the save but emerges a few seconds too late.)

Ryan: Whoops. Looks like somebody missed his cue.
Chris: Boy, did they ever make a mess of that.
Ryan: I do like that they had Kofi go after Orton instead of just running him off, though. . . that makes him look like more of a contender.
Chris: Oh sure, and letting Orton get the better of him afterwards has helped too.
Ryan: Yeah, Kofi’s getting some of it back now, but that prolonged beatdown didn’t do him any good.
Chris: They’re still going at it. Where’s security when you need them?

(Kofi blast Orton with the lid to a steel case and gives him a legdrop off of a guardrail and through a table.)

Ryan: Looks like Orton’s busted open!
Chris: And Kofi’s elevator just reached the penthouse.
Ryan: That was such a weird segment.
Chris: But judging by the crowd, it served its purpose.
Ryan: It started off horrible with the miscue, then it started to redeem itself with Kofi getting the upper hand on Orton, then took a turn for the worse with Kofi getting decimated, then regained some ground when he came back, then fell off again when it started dragging on for too long, and then it finally got to the big finish, which was AWESOME.
Chris: But in six months, the only thing anyone will remember is that table bump.
Ryan: Well, that assumes that any part of it will remembered in six months . . . and that all depends on what they do with Kofi from here.
Chris: Even if Sheamus is at the upper level by then, you can’t let him feud with Kofi. That leaves . . . not many.
Ryan: Nope. I think we discussed this a couple of weeks ago, and my suggestion is now what it was then: After he finishes up with Orton, the best thing for Kofi would be getting a partner and going after the Tag Titles.
Chris: That’s not much easier though. Who can he pick?
Ryan: Given that Jericho and Show are already an inter-brand team, I’d pick Rey.
Chris: I’d prefer Morrison.
Ryan: I would except for the fact that it would give Kofi more of a rub to team with somebody who the fans have viewed as a main event guy for several years as opposed to somebody who hasn’t yet broken out of the midcard pack.

The Big Show & Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. John Cena & The Undertaker

Ryan: So it’s 9:57 and team number one is entering for the three-way main event.
Chris: Unlike Impact, Raw often overruns . . . although tonight clearly ends in a brawl.
Ryan: Though the overrun is usually capped at about five minutes aside from the couple of times a year they get special authorization to go even longer.
Chris: With two more teams yet to enter, I don’t think we’ll even get that.

Chris: Druids for Taker’s entrance, eh?
Ryan: Well, this explains why there was no security to beak up Orton and Kofi. The guys who would normally play that role were busy getting robed up and lighting their torches.
Chris: Justin Roberts is a pirate? The UndarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrTakarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Ryan: He spends too much time on the road with Paul Burchill.

Ryan: Okay, I can’t believe I haven’t noticed this before, but I have to give a thumbs up to the guy in the crowd with the “Mike Chioda Fan Club” sign.
Chris: They can’t name the refs! It’s not allowed!
Ryan: When this match is on a DVD ten years from now, the sign will be blurred.

(The match begins.)

Chris: We’ve got a ten minute overrun already.

Ryan: You know, there’s a reason that the people who are booking the show are booking the show while I’m here writing an internet review of it, but I wouldn’t have wasted the first encounter of HBK and Taker post-WMXXV in this match.

Chris: For all the talk of starting it too late and so on, this is a pretty good match.
Ryan: I agree. It’s a WWE main event spotfest. It’s weird because you normally associate the term “spotfest” with flippy indy guys doing crazy stuff . . . but this is really the exact same style of match, just with WWE offense substituted for indy offense.
Chris: Oh, for sure. Everyone is going for “their” spots and not really caring about the why.
Ryan: And I’m perfectly fine with that . . . it’s a welcome change to have this sort of match every once in a while.

Chris: Good grief, HHH ate a clean pin to John Cena.

Winner: John Cena & the Undertaker
Ryan: As alluded to earlier, this was a real whirling dirvish of a match, with all six main eventers working very hard for a free TV bout and landing big move after big move after big move. Though watching the same wrestlers putting on the same spotfest week in and and week out can get a little bit old (which is part of the reason why I soured on Ring of Honor), watching a handful of guys who very rarely have this type of match going against each other with all of their signature spots hitting in rapid succession can be quite entertaining. The fact that it was action-packed yet didn’t do too much to “give away” pairings or spots that should be reserved for pay per view made it the perfect television main event. To be perfectly honest, with the exception of the Triple H vs. John Cena singles match a few weeks ago, I can’t remember the last time that I enjoyed a Raw match this much. ***1/2

(And the Undertaker tombstones Cena.)

Ryan: Errrr. . . that was weird.
Chris: And THERE is your WM26 main event, ladies and gentlemen.
Ryan: That’s the only way what just happened makes sense.
Chris: That will give the fanboys heart attacks before the match starts . . . OMG TEH STREAK~!
Ryan: The question now is whether Cena plays into the finish of Taker’s Survivor Series match to further the angle or whether they just let this tombstone hang out there for a while with no follow-up for a month or two.
Chris: They’ll let it hang until the Rumble, judging by past performance.
Ryan: Plus Cena costing UT a title match comes too close to turning Cena, which you don’t want to do.
Chris: But for both to be in the Rumble, which I think makes it easiest, they both have to drop their titles.
Ryan: The only problem being that it doesn’t really make sense for HHH, HBK, Jericho, or Show to win the either singles title at this point . . . so you’d have to pull off the two title changes sometime in December.
Chris: Or we could be totally wrong.
Ryan: Or we could be right based on what they’re planning as of today but wrong when they change their plans tomorrow.
Chris: As if!

To Sum It All Up

Ryan: This show was, in many ways, a mixed bag. On one hand, I don’t think that the promotion did too great of a job of building up to the Survivor Series pay per view. The Raw Title match has always been a bit of a joke, with the focus being on Hornswoggle as opposed to the three biggest stars in WWE today going up against each other for the championship. That trend only continued here, as DX killed a segment assaulting the midget in a manner that did not relate to the main event at all, while, in the main event, Cena pinned Triple H out of nowhere, which begs the question of why we are supposed to now believe that either he or Shawn Micahels could walk out of the Survivor Series with the championship belt. Though the Kofi Kingston/Randy Orton segment did a good job of making Kofi look like a legitimate threat against his more experienced opponent, one has to wonder if fans will be less likely to purchase the pay per view to watch the two of them do battle after we watched them brawl back and forth for over ten minutes on this show.

However, even though I question the ability of this show to make fans want to purchase the Survivor Series, I will say that it was a more entertaining stand-alone show than most Monday Night Raws in the last two or three months. The three-way tag team match was an easy thumbs up in terms of pure action, and, though it had its peaks and its valleys, overall the Orton-Kingston brawl was a nice physical angle that culminated in a moment that will most likely be replayed in WWE video packages for years to come.

I suppose that, at the end fo the day, I will come out on the side of praising this episode of Raw as opposed to condemning it. For the last several weeks, Raw has not entertained me personally and, in my opinion, did not do a good job of promoting the upcoming pay per view. This week I still do not believe that the company did a good job of promoting the pay per view, but at least they managed to put on a show with two primary segments that entertained me more than they did not. That’s progress, even if it’s not necessarily progress to the more important of the two ends to which the company should be moving.

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