WWE Raw Supershow - October 3, 2011
1. Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre - Decent 5.5 minute tv match. Nothing fantastic here but it wasn't the 30-60 second squash match I had it pegged for. McIntyre got in a surprising amount of offense and hit a couple of nice looking high impact moves on Orton. The outcome was never in any doubt of course, but the hot crowd was definitely digging Orton and it was nice to see McIntyre get a little relevant television time. Orton comes up with the win after hitting the RKO. *3/4
Randy Orton & Mark Henry Brawl - Solid brawling segment that the live crowd was really hot for. Both guys looked good during the brawl and Henry continues to look like a monster overall. Orton does ultimately get the upper hand after he manages to get some shots in on Henry when the refs are restaining him before dumping him over the security railing. It looks as though one more match is going to happen between these two. If so, I hope WWE continues to see the positives of keeping the title on Henry. Thumbs Up
2. Mark Henry vs. John Morrison - This match only lasted a few minutes but it was surprisingly entertaining. Again, Henry just didn't completely obliterate JoMo in a few seconds as I thought he would. Morrison got in a good flurry of offense that the crowd popped for including hitting the running knee and Starship Pain. Henry kicking out of JoMo hitting his two finishing moves back to back showed good resiliency and just reinforces the monster character. Henry does wind up getting the victory, however, after hitting the World's Strongest Slam. It was shorter than the first match but it was better in my view. It just had tons more energy about it and JoMo's offense helped out. **1/4
Mark Henry Promo - As I've said before, Mark Henry continues to be one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of 2011. Henry delivers yet again on the mic with a strong promo that fully demonstrates his legit, intimidating physical presence and character. I also dig the fact that Henry isn't intimidated by the return of Big Show. After all, why should he be? He dominated him physically and put him on the shelf. WWE's had a lot of great classic heels but Henry is the first great monster heel they've had in a very long time. Thumbs Up
Vickie Guerrero & Company Address Triple H - This wasn't an earthshattering segment but I like the dynamic that it set up. All the heels got a little time on the mic, though I thought Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler actually did the best with the brief amount of time. Vickie drew insane heat when she got on the mic. You could barely even hear her screeching over the live crowd. Triple H just brushing off their problems as being sort of irrelevant, to some degree, made me side with the heels. I don't know that's what WWE has in mind but Triple H's "old school" view of things made me think about some of the problems in larger society today. The trouble with bullies in particular. The "old school" response back in the day would be people telling others to just suck it up and deal with it, which is basically what Trips told the heels inside the ring. We've moved beyond that, however, and I just thought it was an interesting dynamic. Trips brushing off the "suggestions" & "problems" brought to him by the talent might be setting up the angle in which the fans are able to identify with the wrestlers and that Trips' means of handling things might not be for the best. I'm kinda mixed on this right now because it's something that's ultimately going to have to play out before I think it can be judged as being good or bad. Thumbs In The Middle
Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Beth Phoenix & Natalya - This was an interesting segment that broke down really before the match even got started. Kelly is tossed to the outside but gets the upper hand on Beth Phoenix and goes apeshit on her. Some might get pissy because Kelly got the upper hand here but I also think that people need to stop thinking so one dimensionally. Sure Kelly is gorgeous but that doesn't mean she can't be passionate. Hasn't anyone ever seen a bully get the short end of the stick from a smaller, weaker kid that's in the heat of the moment and just flat pissed off? I disliked how she came out all smiles after losing the Divas Championship but her frustrations over losing said title and the situation with Beth Phoenix in general boiled over in an interesting way last night. Kelly showed some real fire and despite being up against a more physically powerful opponent, she kicked it up a notch and got the better of her. Thumbs Up
Triple H & John Laurinaitis - JL comes into Triple H's office and informs him that he's a little dissatisfied with things himself, mostly due to Triple H knocking him down at HIAC. JL tells Triple H that he needs to address the talent and see what they feel about his performance. Triple H's response of physical intimidation seems to go along with the "old school" mentality of him just using physical force and threats to kind of get his way rather than how things should be handled by a "real executive". Of course, that's part of the storyline anyhow as Trips is someone that's a wrestler that's been turned into an executive at the request of the WWE Board of Directors. Thumbs Up
3. Santino Marella vs. Jinder Mahal - I don't have a clue what happened here. I know I went to grab a Pepsi and Santino's music was playing as he appearently beat Mahal. N/A
HIAC Footage and Miz & R-Truth Statement - The footage shown was a good way of keeping people up to date who didn't order HIAC or haven't generally had time during the day yesterday to find out what happened at the end of the show. Jim Ross showed some of his old fire on commentary when Miz & Truth were assaulting Cena, Del Rio & CM Punk. Truth & Miz being led away by the cops was a nice touch and their comments via Twitter was different. They sounded like a couple of guys out in the world and not their larger than life personas, which is what they were going for. I'm sure some wrestling journalists and all this hate it but I'm digging it personally. Injecting a little bit of reality into wrestling isn't a bad thing, just as long as they don't try to take it over the top and they haven't done that in my view. Well, they did a little with Triple H & CM Punk but they've pulled back on it. Thumbs Up
4. 12 Man Tag Team Match - Very entertaining and long tv match that the crowd was hot for throughout the 27 minute length. I was hoping they'd have this match last a while as they needed to give most of the wrestlers some tv time and some opportunity to shine so I'm glad they went that route. The heels controlled most of the match with Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler impressing me more than any of the others, though all of the heels showed good continuity & chemistry as a team. I was hoping that the match would wind up being elimination style but it's not how it turned out. I dug the fact that Punk & Cena were barely in this match. They definitely get enough television time so it's nice to see the focus put on some of the other guys. Mason Ryan is still green but the crowd popped for his offense. Ziggler continues to be the best seller in wrestling in my view. Whenever he takes a big offensive finisher, he sells it like he just got hit by a car. Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne also looked good and spent a lot of time in the match, with Bourne getting in some high energy offense that the crowd really popped for. He winds up hitting Air Bourne on Jack Swagger but Vickie breaks the count by placing Swagger's foot on the ropes. While the ref didn't see it happen, he suspected it and sent Vickie to the back. She screeched and the crowd just flat out popped. The ending comes with a formula we see a lot of in these style of matches where the wrestlers wind up hitting each other with their finishers or other high impact moves. After Ziggler hits the Zig Zag on Cena, he winds up eating a Brogue Kick from Sheamus and he folds up like a letter when hit. Sheamus gets the win at the 27 minute mark. Highly entertaining match that put most of the focus on heels like Ziggler, Rhodes, & Swagger and on faces like Kingston, Bourne & Sheamus. ***3/4
Vote of Confidence Segment - The show closes with the ring being surrounded by almost the entire WWE roster. I didn't see Sheamus, CM Punk, John Cena or Kelly Kelly out there however. Triple H addressed the crowd and the wrestlers themselves. Wade Barrett spoke up first and told his side and the sides of others. His argument didn't hold that much water as Triple H reminded him of all the chaos he caused when he was the leader of Nexus. Beth Phoenix spoke on behalf of the Divas and actually called them "girls", which they are obviously, but again her argument didn't hold water as nothing has happened to the Divas yet. The refs, however, I thought, from a kayfabe pov, had something to complain about. Mike Chioda spoke up and said that the refs were worried about coming into work and addressed Triple H's inability to keep Miz & R-Truth out of the picture and the general status of security at WWE events. Again, from a kayfabe pov, I can see Chioda's side of things. After all, they're not "superstars". Jerry Lawler comes inside the ring and addresses Triple H. Lawler said that he doesn't really blame Triple H for what's happened, but does say that it is happening because of him. He says that he agrees with CM Punk in that there's someone trying to undermine Triple H. However, for all intents and purposes, Lawler says that he just doesn't really have confidence in Triple H's ability to control things. At first, I kept waiting for someone to go off on Triple H and say how Vince never had these sorts of problems. If someone had a beef with him, they could come to him and he'd at least hear them out rather than brushing it off or something along those lines. However, I also remembered how Vince went apeshit on Del Rio & Triple H for his name merely being mentioned a few weeks ago on Raw. Everyone around the ring gave Trips a vote of no confidence and, eventually, all the wrestlers walked away from ringside. Some fans were booing, some were cheering and some just didn't really know how to react. Even the camera crew from around ringside put their cameras down and walked off, as did Booker T & Michael Cole. The end with Jim Ross sitting there and looking up at Triple H before standing up and walking away with his head down also generated mixed feelings from fans. Jim Ross is possibly the single most beloved non wrestler in wrestling history in the minds of the fans. Some booed him, some cheered and, again, some didn't really know what to do. In the end, Triple H stands in the ring with his arms spread, looking kinda lost. A small "Triple H" chant broke out but, again, most fans weren't sure of how to react. Generally, I enjoyed the segment because it's an intriguing set up in my view. While I'm sure that we're going to have something of a faction war take place, I like the fact that it hasn't happened yet. They're definitely taking time to lay the foundation for this story before ultimately pulling the trigger on it. You might not know how to take the ending of the show. You might like it, might not like it or might not be sure but, in order to ultimately find out, I think you'll have to wait a while longer to see what they do next. Thumbs Up
Overall Show - I was really entertained by the show last night and the show had a different feel about it than we normally see. Starting out with a match was a nice change of pace and Orton vs. McIntyre was much better than I was expecting. The feud between Randy Orton & Mark Henry looks like it might be continuing. Henry himself also had a short but fun match with John Morrison and delivered an intense promo afterward. Triple H's response to the "complaints" of some of the wrestlers doesn't make him seem all that sympathetic, but maybe that's the point. Trips isn't an "executive" after all, he's a wrestler that took the reigns cuz he was asked to. Kelly Kelly showed some real fire last night and the 12 man tag match was extremely entertaining. The vote of no confidence is something different. A lot of people might not know how to feel about the ending of the show. A knee jerk reaction might be to dislike it but, then again, that can be a typical reaction to storylines that take a lot of time to be built up and have cliffhanger endings. I enjoyed it because it keeps me wondering ultimately what's going to happen for a climax and exactly when is it going to happen.
Grade: B+
I wish we knew.