The John Report: The WWE Raw Deal for 08/29/11 (Orton/Ziggler)
By John Canton
Follow me on Twitter at @johnreport
I wrote this live tonight. On that note, mext Monday I have plans and after that NFL season is back. I’m a big NFL fan so this is the last live Raw recap until the new. Back to the Tuesday morning routine of posting this recap. Live from Tulsa, Oklahoma (go Sam Bradford – leader of my beloved St. Louis Rams) this is the Raw Deal…
No music or pyro to start the show. Instead it’s the COO Triple H coming out to a big pop. I think Raw has started out in this fashion a few times of late huh? He says it’s his job to make sure that they give the fans the best at all times. Then why is Michael Cole employed? He said that going forward there would be Smackdown stars on Raw on a regular basis to create Raw into a supershow. In other words, the brand extension doesn’t matter. Hunter says one of the drawbacks of the jobs is that there’s some lying going and that one of his best friends Kevin Nash is a cause for some of it. Hunter invites Nash to the ring to tell him why he lied to him. Instead, CM Punk’s music starts up to a big pop.
They replayed last week’s speech from Nash as Punk walked to the ring. The crowd chanted “CM Punk” as the Punker said great performance by HHH acting there. He wants HHH to stop lying and that they’re in this together from the beginning. Kevin Nash comes out to NWO music! The original NWO music from WCW in 1996. Very cool. Sounds like porn music. Not that I would know. I am such a classy individual…oh none of you believe that. Moving on!
Nash went face to face with Hunter to admit that he lied because Hunter didn’t let him finish what he wanted to do. He says the problem is Punk. Kevin tells Punk that it’s over with Punk trying to humiliate Nash. He tells Hunter that Punk’s insulting him and his wife. Nash asks Hunter: “What kind of man are you?” Hunter says he doesn’t expect to be lied to by his best friend. He says he can’t Nash when it comes to business. Hunter: “You lied to my face. Now I’m going to ask you like I did before…leave…and this time don’t come back.”
Nash said he lied about last week, but not about the text. Nash tells Hunter that Laurinaitis signed Nash to a very lucrative WWE contract. He tells Hunter that if he’s going to fire him he’d have to do it in front of anybody, but that the money is guaranteed. Hunter tells Nash that he’s not going to fire him. He wants the lying to stop now.
Punk cuts them off by mockingly throwing up for about 30 seconds straight. He’s gonna puke! He’s acting like he’s sick just like they are acting. He doesn’t believe them. “Hey everybody the Kliq is back” and Punk says that’s ironic because that’s what the audience does when they see Nash. He is not a ratings draw. That is true. He says click is also the sound of Nash’s knees. Nash asks Hunter for a favor, the match everybody wants to see: Kevin Nash vs. CM Punk. Punk suggests they do at Night of Champions since Nash is a champion ass kisser. Punk tells him to check with the Board of Directors and by that he means his wife. Oh my! “You don’t wear the pants in the family, but you do wear her panties don’t you.” Oh that was great. Then Punk goes: “Pipe bomb!” Classic.
Hunter tells him the match is official, Nash vs. Punk at Night of Champions. There’s a CM Skunk sign in the crowd. Hunter says he has two words for both of them. He holds up the microphone and the crowd chants “suck it.” The idea is that Hunter is fed up with both guys and having to make decisions like this.
Hunter leaves. With Punk & Nash still in the ring, Randy Orton’s music hits and he’s got the World Title in his hand. They keep calling this a Raw Supershow.
They hype Orton vs. Ziggler coming up tonight. Jim Ross goes over the talents of Ziggler as they show a video highlighting some of his moves. We got to break at the 17 minute mark.
The opening promo was pretty solid. It drove home a lot of the points that needed to be mentioned. We still don’t know who officially sent the text to Nash, but at least we made some progress by announcing Nash had signed a contract and the match was official for Night of Champions.
Tomorrow’s the live Smackdown. I’ll be writing live about that show too. It’s Orton vs. Christian in a cage for the World Title.
(Commercial)
Funny note from the commercial. TJR writer Mike Aires (who writes on Fridays) is at the show and says that Zack Ryder is out there filming a segment with Orton for his Z! True Long Island Story. Orton gave him a RKO at the end of it, in case you’re wondering.
Back from break, Orton was waiting in the ring. Ziggler’s music hit and he came out with Vickie Guerrero as the announcers recapped last week’s shenanigans involving Dolph Ziggler. Two straight weeks of bad segments for Ziggler. This should be a good match, though.
Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler
Does anybody think Ziggler has a shot here? No, but it should be a very solid if they get a good amount of time. Orton goes for the DDT off the ropes two minutes into the match, but Vickie distracts him and Dolph is able to backdrop Orton out of the ring. Ziggler hit his Zig Zag finisher on Orton on the floor. Orton slides back into the ring and they go to break three minutes into the match. Wait a sec? A commercial with somebody in the ring instead of outside? What a swerve!
(Commercial)
We’re back in the ring now with Ziggler in control of Orton. Hey look, the live event tour is powered by K-Mart. I think we know. They’ve plugged the Super Smackdown Live special about a dozen times already. It’s a good idea to do it on Tuesday and I’m sure WWE would love for Smackdown to get off Fridays in order to help the viewership of that show. Orton comes back by going all the way to the top rope to get a superplex for two. Orton gets a belly to belly suplex for two. Ziggler hits a Rocker Dropper that looks about ten times more impressive than Kelly Kelly’s finisher that doesn’t involve a run up. Orton comes back and he hits his powerbomb into a neckbreaker move that is great. It should have got a bigger pop. The crowd’s chanting “RKO” while Orton charges in for a punt. Ziggler superkicks him for two. Great counter and nearfall. We’re at the 12 minute mark now.
The counter wrestling continues as Orton hits his DDT off the middle ropes. By the way, Lawler’s not making any notes about Vickie now. Ziggler goes for the sleeper. Orton fights that off and hits the RKO for the pinfall. Backstage, they show Jack Swagger watching happily on a monitor. Match went 13 minutes.
Winner: Randy Orton
Analysis: *** Very good TV match. They had a strong mix of holds and counters along with nearfalls that worked very well.
They keep mentioning the Raw Supershow idea that HHH mentioned. I assume it means top Smackdown guys will be on Raw weekly. That’s bad for the Raw midcard guys.
They showed a clip of Del Rio attacking Cena last week. That led to Josh Mathews interview Fruity Pebbles boy John Cena. He asked him his thoughts. He pushed the microphone and left. Mathews then told us that Cena would go to the ring to address the situation. Then why would be there interviewing him?
They plugged the Top 50 OMG Moments DVD. Looks like a fun trip down memory lane. I won’t post the list, but I’ll say I agree with number one.
(Commercial)
Did you read my Canton’s Corner column from Saturday? Link is HERE if you want to check that out.
The “Did You Know?” segment was about the Military Outreach that WWE does for the troops.
It’s John Cena time as the little girls, women and Jerry Lawler scream in excitement. Cena asks the crowd how they’re doing. He says mixed emotions as usual, but it sounds like most of the crowd is supporting him. He basically calls Del Rio a coward and says that every action has a repercussion. He wants to kick his teeth so far down his throat that it reaches his anus. “You want some? Come get some.” Here’s Mark Henry, whose heart no longer runs on Kool-Aid. They show him giving the World’s Strongest Slam on Sheamus on the steel steps.
Henry basically runs down all of the damage he’s recently done on Smackdown and claims that he’s going to be the next World Champion. Cue Christian’s music. Good.
Christian tells Henry that he’ll be facing Christian at Night of Champion. Not a chance. He tells Cena that he makes him sick to his stomach. He can’t stand people that whine and bitch until they get what they want. It’s funny because that’s what Christian does. Cena goes into comedy mode by making fun of Christian’s spray tan and Mark Henry’s breath. It’s about to be a two on one beatdown as Sheamus runs out to save Cena. This is how you help Sheamus continue to get over as a babyface by saving Sheamus. Did I mention all four guys are conveniently in their ring gear? I wonder what will happen. Christian leaves. Then Henry slowly leaves as well.
Backstage, John Laurinaitis is watching what’s going on in the ring. He tells ref Charles Robinson that they’re going to do Henry & Christian vs. Cena & Sheamus. Then Hunter walks in to say he already made the match and he reminds Laurinaitis that JL works for him. I thought the match was coming up next. Nope.
Coming up next, at the top of the hour, is Punk vs. Miz.
That was decent for a talking segment. Cena’s humor was okay, but not great. I’m always a fan of Christian, so it was good to see him interacting with him. They made a big deal of Sheamus teaming with Cena for the first time ever. I assume that match is the main event.
(Commercial)
They came back from break talking about how fans can help those dealing with Hurricane Irene. You can text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a donation of $10.
CM Punk was already in the ring. I guess we already saw his entrance. The Miz cut a promo on the way to the ring. Nothing new from him. It was his usual promo.
CM Punk vs. The Miz
This is a potential future PPV main event. The announcers are talking about Triple H and Nash. At least Cole is toned down in a major way again. He’s not even going nuts about the Miz as much as usual. Was Miz forgotten about it or did he lose to a jobber like Alex Riley? I think he lost to Raw. They are saying Smackdown guys on Raw is a new concept. That hurt my head a little bit, but let’s believe that they said that with credibility in mind. Miz hit a nice DDT for two. The crowd is pretty quiet for the match. It’s not an overly hot crowd. Miz gets a neckbreaker for two. Miz slows it down with a choke, Punk fights off, but Miz gets another nearfall. The story of the first six minutes has been Miz in control the entire time. Miz gets another nearfall with a neckbreaker. Punk gets sent to the floor. There’s your commercial break seven minutes into the match.
(Commercial)
Back from break, Punk finally gets some offense with the knee into the corner followed by the bulldog. The crowd isn’t very hot. Miz fights out of the GTS. Punk gets a backbreaker for two. They fight up on the top rope, Punk knocks him down and hits a Macho Man elbow. R-Truth runs into the ring. Punk goes to give him the GTS, but Miz breaks it up. Ref Scott Armstrong calls for the DQ at 13 minutes.
Winner: CM Punk via DQ
Analysis: **1/4 Match was okay, but never seemed to turn into a higher gear. You can tell the finish was going to be screwy because they weren’t doing too many two counts.
Punk gets attacked on the floor, but he fights off Miz. He gets Truth into the ring where he delivers a GTS. The camera missed it because they showed Kevin Nash walking to the ring. Miz jumped Punk from behind as Nash slowly got into the ring for a 3 on 1 beatdown. Nash hits the Jackknife Powerbomb on Punk. Then he did the “pipe bomb” motion over a fallen Punk. Cue the NWO theme song. I have missed that track.
The post match did a good job of making Nash look like an opportunist. Punk still hasn’t got his hands on him, but Nash has now attacked him twice. It’s a good way to add heat to the ongoing storyline between them.
They plugged Super Smackdown Live and how Triple H, John Cena & CM Punk would be there along with the Orton/Christian cage match for the World Title.
(Commercial)
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Back from break, they plugged the trailer for the Triple H movie “Inside Out” that’s going to be released soon. That’s the one that Batista was going to have until he chose to not renew his deal and they gave it to Hunter.
Sin Cara comes out. It’s Hunico aka the second Sin Cara. His opponent is Jack Swagger, who came out alone.
Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger
Sin Cara hit some high impact offense. Swagger slowed it down and as he did so, Vickie Guerrero came out to scout him. The announcers said that Sin Cara was a huge draw in Mexico, which is true if it’s Mistico under the mask. It’s Hunico under the mask, who was simply a FCW development talent. I guess lying is okay if the majority of fans have no idea that you’re doing it. Ziggler comes out to interview with Swagger. Sin Cara comes back with a DDT. He hits his senton into a Lionsault for the finisher. It’s definitely Hunico because he’s the one that does it. He’s also the “chubbier one” as people are tweeting me. Match only went about four minutes.
Winner: Sin Cara
Analysis: *1/4 Short match. Didn’t notice any botches in case you were wondering.
They plugged Cena & Sheamus vs. Henry & Christian in the main event.
(Commercial)
They aired a clip of last week when Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne won the tag team titles. Bourne got introduced first. Kingston second. Separate entrances. Cole mentioned the name of the tag team and that the champs selected “Air Boom” as the name. McGillicutty and Otunga come out to no heat.
Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston d. David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty
Lawler continues to rip on Otunga and MM saying that Otunga would be nothing if it wasn’t for his wife Jennifer Hudson. He’s right, but not sure why they bury them. Bourne was worked on for about a minute or two before he got the hot tag to Kingston. He got a two from a crossbody. Bourne attacked Otunga with a plancha on the floor. Kingston hit the Trouble in Paradise on Michael McGillicutty for the win. Match went about three minutes.
Winners: Air Boom aka Kingston & Bourne
Analysis: 1/2* A very short and formulaic tag match. Time to get Air Boom a quality heel tag team to face off against.
Post match, McGillicutty & Otunga were yelling at Lawler. Otunga took off Lawler’s headset. They had a staredown. That was it. No idea where this angle is going.
They plugged Cena & Sheamus vs. Christian & Mark Henry.
Up next is Kelly Kelly, who was backstage talking to Eve.
(Commercial)
The WWE Slam of the Week was the divas match last week when Nikki beat Eve. It sucked on the replay too.
“Holler Holler” time as Kelly Kelly comes out. Eve is with her and she’s not in her ring gear. Oh crap, it’s Brie Bella.
Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella
Why not Beth or Natalya? How many matches this year have there been between the Kelly/Eve vs. Bellas combo? Singles and tags. Never ends. They showed Beth & Natalya watching backstage wondering why it’s not them in the ring? Because they don’t know how to book women in this company. Basically they complained about the fans cheering for Kelly. Brie dropkicked Eve on the floor, but Kelly took care of her. The Bellas switched. Nikki Bella is in the ring and she hits the facebuster for the pin. Non-title match, by the way. It was three minutes or so.
Winner: Brie Bella
Analysis: DUD Feels like we’ve seen this dozens of times before. Tired of it. Still don’t know who Kelly will face at Night of Champions. Perhaps a Fatal Fourway against Brie, Beth & Natalya? That would be better than Kelly against one of the Bellas again.
They plugged the Randy Orton DVD on sale next week. I’ve heard it’s awesome, especially the documentary.
(Commercial)
They came back with a SAY IT TO MY FACE video package on Alex Riley. Yawn. Any momentum he had is now gone. The midcard is going to suffer now that Smackdown guys are on Raw.
They plugged Night of Champions: Punk vs. Nash. That’s all they plugged. Why? Because it led to a movie promo. They aired the world premiere of the trailer for the new Triple H movie called Inside Out. It looks okay, but it’s a typical WWE Films movie. The idea is that sometimes your best friend is your worst enemy.
Mark Henry comes out. It’s 10:55pm and they go to the last commercial of the show. I’d expect a very short main event match now.
(Commercial)
There’s another plug for Super Smackdown live tomorrow on Syfy in the US. I’ll be covering it live at thejohnreport.net starting at 8pmET.
Back from break, Christian’s in the ring with Mark Henry. Sheamus comes out to a pretty good babyface pop. Here’s John Cena to a mostly positive reaction. This hasn’t been an amazing crowd, but they did make a lot of noise for the top stars.
Sheamus & John Cena vs. Christian & Mark Henry
The main event is starting at 11:02pmET, which means it’s likely only getting five minutes or so unless they plan on running long. Christian gets overpowered by Sheamus, so he tags in Henry. The heels take turns dominating on Sheamus as he takes a beaten. He busts out the Irish Curse backbreaker on Christian as the crowd gets excited for the hot tag. He makes the tag to Cena. A whole three minutes of build to the hot tag in the main event. This is what you’d call a rushed match. Cena hits all of his usual moves on Christian and puts him down with a powerslam. He knocks Henry off the apron. Christian springboards into Cena’s arms, but Christian fights out of the Attitude Adjustment. Cena’s able to ground him with the STF. Henry saves him. Henry misses an attack on Sheamus on the floor. Sheamus ends up taking him out with a dive on the floor. Christian gets a Spear on Cena for two. He goes for the Killswitch, but Cena shoves him off into a Brogue Kick and hits the Attitude Adjustment for three count after 6 minutes.
Winners: John Cena & Sheamus
Analysis: *1/2 A very formulaic, basic tag match with Christian doing a good job of carrying it.
Post match, they cut to Triple H watching on a monitor backstage. CM Punk walked in. Hunter
Hunter tells him that his match with Nash has been cancelled. “At Night of Champions you’re going to go one on one with me.” Whoa! It’s Punk vs. Triple H at Night of Champions. I’m shocked that they are doing it so soon, but it’s better than a Nash match.
They replayed the ending to the main event. No Alberto Del Rio on the show at all. They ended the program plugging the live Smackdown tomorrow night.
Three Stars of the Show
1. Randy Orton – Clearly the best match.
2. Dolph Ziggler – Same as above.
3. CM Punk – Very good promo work again while doing a good job as a babyface taking a beating.
5 out of 10
Last week: 7.5
2011 High Score: 9.1 (March 28)
2011 Low Score: 4 (Jan. 10/May 9)
2011 Average: 5.83
Last 5 Weeks: 5, 7.5, 4, 6.5, 5
How would you rate 08/29 Raw on the 1-10 scale?
It was an okay show, which is why it gets just a 5. It sure feels like they were saving a lot of big things for tomorrow’s live Smackdown, which makes sense because it could lead to Smackdown moving off of Friday nights.
The big news of the night was that Smackdown’s top stars will be on Raw on a more regular basis. The good thing is that it means more star power on Raw. The bad thing is midcard talent is going to get neglected because there’s only so much time on the show. It doesn’t mean the brand extension is over. It just means it matters less than has ever mattered in the nine years since they split the company into two.
The highlight of the show was the very good Orton/Ziggler match. Clearly the match of the night. The Punk/Miz match was okay while everything else was too short to have much of a lasting effect.
The Punk/Nash/HHH story was furthered tonight, so that’s a good thing because it needed it. There wasn’t much focus on Cena/Del Rio though. I’d expect to see more about that on Smackdown tomorrow as well as in the remaining weeks building up to the September 18 Night of Champions PPV.
I’ll be back tomorrow for live coverage of Super Smackdown starting at 8pmET unless I get called in to be the new Sin Cara. You never know! I’m fairly certain that tomorrow night’s show will be better than this one.
Thanks for reading.
John Canton – [email protected]
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