Big Show opens Raw by putting everyone down and then talks about destroying Cena at No Way Out.
^Despite this being similar to his last two promos, this was actually a more well thought out speech from Show. It seemed to have more of an explanation as to exactly why he turned on Cena and has become “unstoppable” once again. I love how as a face he gets beat by heels left and right, but as a heel he’s considered such a huge monster that can’t be taken down. Somehow WWE manages to pull it off, though. Not a terrible opening segment considering it’s the same guy doing nothing but talking.
Alberto Del Rio defeats Santino in a very short match. Del Rio stuffs the cobra sock in Santino’s mouth after the match while Ricardo yells ADR in Santino’s face.
^Crapping on the US Title has become a bit of a regular theme in WWE. This match was like a minute long and was pretty pointless. Both men are good enough wrestlers that this could’ve been given five minutes and actually entertained the viewers.
Big Show is told backstage by Eve that he gets to pick his opponent tonight. Alex Riley sucks up to him. Show tells him to relax and that he won’t pick him as his opponent tonight, but that he has a message for the WWE locker room. Show smashes Riley against the arena wall.
^The heel push of Show continues. The big question on my mind is whether or not he goes after the WWE Title once his feud with Super-Cena ends.
Kofi Kingston and R-Truth retain the tag team titles when they defeat Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler. Truth gets the win using the flapjack slam on Swagger. Ziggler gets angry and walks away from Swagger and Guerrero after the match.
^Some decent tag team wrestling for a short match(gotta love commercials). Kofi and Truth appear to have a line of teams starting to form for opponents, so I’m thinking it’s okay for Swagger and Ziggler to finally split up. I’d like to see Ziggler and Swagger wrestle a few matches before Zigs starts to move up the ladder where he belongs.
Big Show attacks Santino backstage until Brodus Clay comes into the scene. Brodus challenges Big Show to a match tonight, and Show accepts.
^I’d be pissed if some jerk grabbed my face the way Show did to Santino. Imagine how painful that would be if the guy were actually squeezing? DAMN! Show and Brodus? I’d say it’s too soon for Brodus to lose, but I’m excited to see him wrestle a match where it’s possible for him to be defeated.
John Laurinaitis and co. come to the ring. JL announces that Show and Brodus is official for tonight, and he also announces that Cena/Show will be in a steel cage at No Way Out. JL shows a WWE 13 video game cover with himself on it. CM Punk interrupts and shows the real WWE 13 cover with himself on it. Punk tells them to get out of the ring so he can face Daniel Bryan. JL says goodluck and they walk away.
^For what it’s worth, I liked the JL video game cover(see definition sarcasm). JL is actually improving on the mic too; he really sped through some of his talking and I was impressed. JL has been growing on me as a character, and even I’m surprised that I keep saying it. The pacman joke was funny from Punk; he’s good at putting JL in his place in the PG sort of way. By the way, how ridiculous does JL look riding around on the scooter?
Daniel Bryan defeats CM Punk by dropping his head on an exposed turnbuckle to earn a WWE Title match at No Way Out. Kane attacks Bryan after the match. AJ helps Punk and gives him a chair to attack Kane. Punk is the last man standing in the ring.
^First of all, let’s get to the obvious. Punk and Daniel Bryan need to be scheduled one hour in the ring together every week once Raw goes to three hours. I could NEVER get tired of watching these two in the ring together! So it’s looking more and more like Kane will be added to make it a triple threat match at No Way Out between himself, Bryan, and Punk. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. Kane is a damn hard worker and two guys like Punk and Bryan can make him look even better in the ring. I still see the obvious turn from AJ coming eventually and her helping Bryan win the WWE Title.
Cody Rhodes does commentary while Christian defeats the Miz in a six minute match.
^Miz gets buried again, but at least the match was longer than a minute. Miz will be gone in a couple weeks, but he’s actually continued to be a hard worker in the ring despite his booked losing streak. I hope to see him involved in something a little more important when he gets back. Christian and Rhodes is going to be a great rematch whenever it takes place. I’m really pleased with WWE for putting the IC Title on a top guy like Christian and making the belt feel relevant between decent wrestlers. It seems as though the belt was being put on guys too soon in the past before they were really established(Zeke, McIntyre, ect.).
JL confronts Eve and Otunga for their recent failures. Otunga says he will face and beat Sheamus tonight. Eve takes a drink of coffee brought to her by Teddy and then spits it all over him. She screams that it’s cold. Teddy says it’s iced coffee and that it’s supposed to be cold.
^This was lame. Otunga is still serving as the whipping boy and can’t wrestle to save his life. You can see where everybody is eventually going to want to turn on JL as he continues to piss them off left and right.
Miz starts complaining in the ring about not getting anything for helping team Laurinaitis win at Mania. Orton comes out and nails the RKO on Miz. Dolph Ziggler and Vicki are shown backstage. Ziggler says he wants to be that guy as he watches Orton on the screen. Vicki says she will see what she can do.
^Orton and Ziggler? Hell yes! Thank you Jericho for getting out of the way and allowing the right guy to be showcased. I still think Ziggler will have to face Swagger once or twice, but Ziggler and Orton have worked a couple good matches in the past and another one at a pay per view could easily be a show stealer. This also sets up for Miz and Orton to have a match in the near future before he takes off to film the Marine 3; that could potentially be another good match to watch again. Anybody forget that Miz took the WWE Title from Orton in November 2010 to begin with?
Otunga goes one on one with Sheamus. Sheamus uses the ten bashes to the chest, white noise, and then nails the brogue kick for the victory.
^You knew this would be a squash before it happened, and now I’m wondering what Otunga’s position will be in the company if he continues to wrestle this poorly. Will Vince always just keep him around as a mic guy because of his celebrity affiliation and physique? Nice to see the World Champ in action; I’m hoping his match with Del Rio surprises all of us and turns out to be enjoyable.
Big Show attacks Brodus Clay before their match can start. Kofi and Truth come down to try to help, but Show takes them out. Raw goes off the air with Big Show standing at the top of the stage with JL.
^I was hoping for a match. Instead we were given a very dragged out beatdown as Big Show is continued to be pushed as a monster heel. I think we get the message. At least Brodus didn’t just dance and squash someone this week. Now we have something to look forward to when these two giants finally go one on one in the ring. I wonder what the point of the tag champs coming down was? Maybe Show will face them in a handicap match next week. Who knows?
So there was no sign of John Cena tonight which I found interesting. They seemed to have decreased the number of backstage segments, which I like. I’m a little annoyed with the Big Show becoming the centerpiece of the night, and I just hope it means he’ll get more of a push AFTER his match with Cena and continue to stay relevant. If you want your booking to not seem so “on the fly,” then you need to have the guy you push be important for longer than the month that he is featured against Cena. I’d say this week was better than last, but it definitely left a lot to be desired in terms of getting a little more wrestling booked. I’ll be back with the Smackdown and weekly rundown pieces later in the week. Until next time you’ve been ThunderStruck!
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