The WWE was truly on the verge of greatness just a few months ago, and that fact is really what makes it painful to see the direction (or lack thereof) that they’ve been moving towards for the past couple pay-per-view cycles. This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw was not particularly terrible, but there were a few undesirable factors that I felt held this show back from kicking off the path to Survivor Series in the most effective way possible.
I’m going to start with what I enjoyed this week, because I feel like I come off as all “doom and gloom” in regards to my reactions to each show. I like the continued emphasis on Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger. I’ve always enjoyed Ziggler, but I’ve noticed that he’s really been making strides over the past few months. He can go in the ring, and his promos continue to improve. Squash matches worked to great effect in the gool ol’ days, providing a little extra boost to whomever they’re trying to heat up. Ziggler going over Santino with Swagger locking in the ankle lock in the post-match was probably about as basic and effective as you get when continuing the emphasis on guys. Mason Ryan came out to save Santino, which works for what they’re doing with him. The solidarity between the Ziggler/Swagger/Guerrero faction is one of my favorite aspects of Raw every week.
John Laurinaitis’s decision to tag up John Cena with Zack Ryder to face The Miz and R-Truth was a great way of not only giving Ryder the rub, but building more crowd support for Ryder, as we were robbed of his appearance in the main event due to Miz and Truth taking him out before the match.
Establishing Miz and Truth as the “rebels” may work a bit better if they’re not involved in embarassingly bad segments such as the one they had last night. If you missed it, don’t bother looking it up. Now, if we recall, Miz and Truth were the entire reason for the walkout a few weeks ago, which seems to be almost a distant memory at this juncture. Rest assured, they did indeed further contribute to that “unsafe working environment” that seemed to cause such an uproar weeks ago by taking out Zack Ryder before their match against him and Cena, as well as getting disqualified during that match (which became a handicap match, by the way) and “upsetting” the interim GM. However, there are no consequences, just a match made for Survivor Series against Cena and the partner of his choosing...The Rock. Wonder if he’ll accept?
CM Punk’s rematch for the WWE title seems to finally have been acknowledged, and it looks like Johnny Ace will make Alberto Del Rio defend his title against Punk at Survivor Series. Well, he actually said he’ll “think about it,” meaning Punk will have to jump through some more hoops throughout the next couple of weeks to get what he wants. This promo segment between these three was not terrible, but I’d say that Punk was the only real redeeming element, as he so often is.
Now, I’ll finally address the one thing on this show that I wish could have been avoided altogether. I’m of course talking about the Triple H/Kevin Nash angle that was deemed important enough to take up two and a half segments worth of television time this week. Nash attacked Hunter on the stage with his own weapon of choice. Then he attacked him again as he was being loaded into the ambulance. Two sledgehammer shots, two torn quads, and two segments later, the entire opening angle of Raw this week was centered around a friendship gone bad, and a match that nobody asked for or, quite frankly, wants. They’re playing up the possibility of Hunter suffering a neck injury, which should lead to so wonderfully melodramatic storytelling in the coming weeks. Assuming this feud is payed off at Survivor Series (which fits the current trend of hot-shotting absolutely EVERYTHING), it wouldn’t be a moment too soon.
Remember in June, when Punk almost saved this company? Ah well. I suppose we’ll see what the Muppets have in store for us next week...
I’m going to start with what I enjoyed this week, because I feel like I come off as all “doom and gloom” in regards to my reactions to each show. I like the continued emphasis on Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger. I’ve always enjoyed Ziggler, but I’ve noticed that he’s really been making strides over the past few months. He can go in the ring, and his promos continue to improve. Squash matches worked to great effect in the gool ol’ days, providing a little extra boost to whomever they’re trying to heat up. Ziggler going over Santino with Swagger locking in the ankle lock in the post-match was probably about as basic and effective as you get when continuing the emphasis on guys. Mason Ryan came out to save Santino, which works for what they’re doing with him. The solidarity between the Ziggler/Swagger/Guerrero faction is one of my favorite aspects of Raw every week.
John Laurinaitis’s decision to tag up John Cena with Zack Ryder to face The Miz and R-Truth was a great way of not only giving Ryder the rub, but building more crowd support for Ryder, as we were robbed of his appearance in the main event due to Miz and Truth taking him out before the match.
Establishing Miz and Truth as the “rebels” may work a bit better if they’re not involved in embarassingly bad segments such as the one they had last night. If you missed it, don’t bother looking it up. Now, if we recall, Miz and Truth were the entire reason for the walkout a few weeks ago, which seems to be almost a distant memory at this juncture. Rest assured, they did indeed further contribute to that “unsafe working environment” that seemed to cause such an uproar weeks ago by taking out Zack Ryder before their match against him and Cena, as well as getting disqualified during that match (which became a handicap match, by the way) and “upsetting” the interim GM. However, there are no consequences, just a match made for Survivor Series against Cena and the partner of his choosing...The Rock. Wonder if he’ll accept?
CM Punk’s rematch for the WWE title seems to finally have been acknowledged, and it looks like Johnny Ace will make Alberto Del Rio defend his title against Punk at Survivor Series. Well, he actually said he’ll “think about it,” meaning Punk will have to jump through some more hoops throughout the next couple of weeks to get what he wants. This promo segment between these three was not terrible, but I’d say that Punk was the only real redeeming element, as he so often is.
Now, I’ll finally address the one thing on this show that I wish could have been avoided altogether. I’m of course talking about the Triple H/Kevin Nash angle that was deemed important enough to take up two and a half segments worth of television time this week. Nash attacked Hunter on the stage with his own weapon of choice. Then he attacked him again as he was being loaded into the ambulance. Two sledgehammer shots, two torn quads, and two segments later, the entire opening angle of Raw this week was centered around a friendship gone bad, and a match that nobody asked for or, quite frankly, wants. They’re playing up the possibility of Hunter suffering a neck injury, which should lead to so wonderfully melodramatic storytelling in the coming weeks. Assuming this feud is payed off at Survivor Series (which fits the current trend of hot-shotting absolutely EVERYTHING), it wouldn’t be a moment too soon.
Remember in June, when Punk almost saved this company? Ah well. I suppose we’ll see what the Muppets have in store for us next week...
Chris Maffei
Catch Chris Maffei and Nick Malone on Over The Ropes every Thursday night from 7-9PM, right here on WCWPSports.org
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