Official Raw/Smackdown Aftermath, Ratings and Review Thread

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 13, 2010
Location: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler
Guest Host: Florence Henderson

This is a different kind of review as I was in the arena last night. The show was great and loud with Nexus being loathed all night. This was a great show though, with the main event being Cena vs. Nexus. Let’s get to it.

We recap Cena vs. Nexus last week and his dismantling of Young which was awesome. The crowd was way into this and Cena got a great reaction when he came out.

It’s weird watching this as you can hear the commentary while you only get silence in the arena. Young is out of the main event so it’s 6-1 instead of 7.

And here’s Cena to a great reaction. You can kind of see me in the intro. Well you can see a blue shirt which I was wearing. Cena thanks the Raw guys for helping him last week but says Sheamus wasn’t there. It’s everyone vs. Nexus according to Johnny Boy. He talks about the cage match vs. Sheamus on Sunday which should at least be good. Cena says he weighs 250 and is introduced later at 240. He lost ten pounds in an hour and 40 minutes? Not bad.

Here’s Nexus with Barrett saying they could beat him up now but they’ll wait til later when the whole world is watching. Isn’t the whole world watching….…THERE I AM BABY! You can see my head sticking over Cena’s shoulder while he’s talking at Barrett just before the e-mail. The e-mail says that there can be no interference tonight from Raw guys or it’s a 90 day suspension. Same goes for any Nexus guy that doesn’t tag in and out.

Eve is here for commentary. It was funny in person as she came out during the break and was talking to Cole and Lawler then had to back up and stand there for like a minute before the show came on again.

Alicia Fox vs. Gail Kim

Kim’s video has zero wrestling in it. It’s nothing but her working out. We see a recap of Fox faking an ankle injury and jumping Eve to win the match last week. Eve is stunning in person by the way. I still say Fox’s hips have a mind of their own. No one cared about this match at all but I knew it would be short. Gail hits a nice running shoulder block where in a single motion she hits it and is on the apron. Fox hits the axe kick which was more or less her ass landing on Gail’s back for the pin. E-mail #2 says Alicia vs. Eve at the PPV.

Rating: N/A. This was short and bad. Fox just isn’t any good in the ring and that’s all there is to it. Gail is the jobber of the division at the moment and as much as I want to bash that, I can’t help but agree with it. There’s just nothing special about her at all.

Edge vs. Orton later which gets a nice pop.

Hart Dynasty vs. Usos/Tamina

I was getting a Coke during this so this is the first time I’ve seen this at all. I heard the music as I was in line and heard the bell when I was coming back into the arena. I did see Natalya next to Smith though and DAMN is all I can think of to say. The titles are on the line on Sunday. I like this family feud thing they’re doing. They mention Florence Henderson being the host which wasn’t mentioned at all prior to this.

I can’t believe the Elimination Chamber is actually called Satan’s Prison. This is short with nothing of note happening. Jay hits a top rope splash on David to get the pin. I saw that on the replay and it looked fairly good. Yeah here we are. I was coming down the stairs while this was going on. Also Lawler calls Natalya Nattie (her real name).

Rating: C-. Standard TV match here with nothing really of note about it. I wonder how many times they can do this matchup though. They need to add on some new teams to flesh out the “division” a lot. Look at Archer and Hawkins on Smackdown. They’re a pair of guys just thrown together and they come off like a team. Do more of things like that. Anyway, this wasn’t anything special but it’s fine for setting up a PPV match.

Jericho is talking to Barrett who thanks him for his teaching. Jericho says no comment to Matthews. We pan over to Yoshi Tatsu (who had a good match with Jericho earlier in the night) who Barrett is making fun of. Tatsu says Cena is his friend and then he gets beaten down by the Nexus. Well Otunga and Tarver but whatever.

After a break it’s Ted DiBiase and Maryse. Ted is in a gray suit and flat out rocks it. He introduces the most powerful couple in the WWE: himself and the briefcase. Maryse of course doesn’t like this and is calmed down by being told she’ll get showered with gifts. Morrison comes out for an interruption. He likely got the third loudest pop of the night. Oddly enough it really does look like it’s slow motion in person. Him giving the sunglasses to a kid is a good thing for him to start doing as it connects him to the crowd and now he looks less like an idiot.

Morrison bashes Maryse who yells at him in French. He translates it, leaving Maryse stunned. She’s a platypus apparently. The guys go at it and Morrison almost gets Starship Pain but Maryse makes the save. Nothing wrong with quick builds to the MITB match like this.

We come back for a Brady Bunch parody with Santino’s Team vs. Regal’s Team. I didn’t see much of this due to my face being in my hands. Florence Henderson is the guest host and is in the back with Santino. There’s a laugh track for Santino’s joke which he wonders where it’s coming from. And here’s Regal. He gets no laughs but Henderson smacks him for mentioning the Partridge Family. Santino has a thing for Henderson. This BOMBED for the live crowd.

R-Truth’s replacement will be named later. We recap Edge winning MITB and cashing in almost a year later.

Edge vs. Orton is next.

Edge vs. Randy Orton

Edge got a decent reaction. Orton didn’t get a pop. He got an eruption. This was a good match live. I wonder if that came across here. Orton’s stomp got a slight pop for no apparent reason. They start off kind of slow but everyone knew that nothing of note was coming without an RKO attempt. Edge keeps going for Orton’s head which is never a good thing. Orton hits the snap powerslam which is a good little move for him.

Orton gets thrown to the floor and was down for awhile. Oh ok there was a commercial here. That makes a lot more sense. We come back with Orton and Edge going for a suplex with Orton on the apron. Just before this Edge had pulled on Orton’s tights so they rode up and you could see a good bit of his ass. The cute girl next to me cheered for that quite a bit.

Edge uses a drop toehold which was odd looking. Orton makes a small comeback and goes for the elevated DDT. Edge uses an ancient Japanese move and moves his legs to get out of it and hits the inverted DDT which is my finisher on most video games. Orton punts the spear and sets for the RKO. This more or lets lights the crowd completely on fire and got one of the loudest pops all night. When Orton gets fired up it looks like he’s having a seizure.

Jericho comes out and throws his coat in the ring which I thought was a fan for a second. Edge hits the Edge-O-Matic (reverse X-Factor more or less) for the pin. Jericho runs in for a Codebreaker and walks into an RKO. Then in the weirdest part of the show, Bourne comes down and gets booed out of the building. I had to look twice to make sure it was him because I didn’t think he’d get that kind of a reaction.

He kicks Randy in the head and goes up for the Shooting Star. In one of the coolest spots I’ve ever seen, Orton pops up at the last minute and perfectly catches Bourne in an RKO out of the Shooting Star. It was so fast that no one could see it so the replay got a louder pop than the original which was kind of weird. It looked amazing though and was even better in slow motion. Bourne stayed down forever and sold it like he had gotten killed which was great.

Rating: B. This was a good TV match that drew the crowd in very well. Orton is a freaking master right now at drawing in the crowd in like I haven’t seen since Rock or Austin. Anyway this was a very good back and forth match that came off really well. It felt like a big match and it delivered so I was very happy. The crowd stayed hot the whole time too.

Skip Sheffield is walking and Josh asks him if tomorrow night the Nexus will go after the pros or the rookies. Sheffield keeps walking and literally runs into Morrison. He gets surrounded and it’s on. The elbow he hit Slater with sounded loud as hell and looked great. All of the shots sounded great for some reason and this came off as really painful. It looks to me like they’re going for the MITB guys so that they can take the spots, which is smart.

Here’s Miz. He talks about getting rid of R-Truth with his own bare hands, which he shows us. After a few minutes of this we get an e-mail. We’re going to have Miz vs. Truth’s replacement: Mark Henry. Oh and the GM uses a Piper quote at the end.

The Miz vs. Mark Henry

The people just didn’t care for Henry at all to put it mildly. Henry hits a press slam and we go to the floor. Henry charges at Miz and hits the GM podium. Miz hits him with garbage cans and pours garbage on him. The match is more or less thrown out. Was the empty trash can really supposed to hurt?

Santino Bunch vs. Regal Bunch

Her video is literally nothing but clips from the Brady Bunch. No one under the age of 15 gets this at all as she’s just some old woman. It’s weird seeing a Boyle County (big old corn fed Kentucky high school football team) shirt on WWE TV. Florence is the announcer here and says she’s feeling groovy. It’s Regal, Ryder (with regular tights now), Primo and Doink (I’d bet on Nick Dinsmore, aka Eugene) vs. Santino, Khali, Kozlov and Goldust. That’s actually a fairly accomplished face team.

Henderson gets a MUCH better reaction here than she did in the video earlier. Wow apparently it was Steve Lombardi as Doink, more commonly known as the Brooklyn Brawler. The captains start us off as Santino has been less annoying lately. Florence puts on Regal’s robe and Santino goes Cobra on us. I wonder if he’s Cobra Commander.

It’s a big mess already and here’s Doink. The crowd only cared about him for the sake of comedy. Khali comes in and falls victim to a squirt gun. A big chop ends this in like a minute. Khali’s music really is good. Henderson is a sport here and at least seems like she wants to be there which is a very good thing if nothing else. She kisses Khali afterwards which is disturbing.

Rating: N/A. Although anything with these 8 guys can’t be incredibly good. Thankfully it seems that the guest host concept is ending. Shame it’s only 7 months too late but whatever.

After a quick recap of Punk over Hardy for the title, (seriously they’ll show Hardy but not Flair?) Edge talks about not caring in the match on Sunday. This got NO reaction in one of the oddest moments of the night. The fans just were not interested and seemed far more interested about something that happened on the other side of the arena that I couldn’t see. You can hear the fans shouting about it during his promo. It’s nothing classic but it’s certainly not bad or anything. Just a weird moment.

Bourne is getting his neck looked at and here’s Sheamus. The Nexus shows up and Sheamus says Bourne was badmouthing them. He gets beaten down and Sheamus comes back. Then the Nexus does too so the champion sprints off in a funny moment.

Nexus vs. John Cena

In a weird moment before this there was an ad for Rise and Fall of WCW and Russo got incredible heat. Weird. Cena got more boos than earlier but it was maybe 25% at the very most. The heels have to tag here and the no Raw guys can help. Cena gives Cole his dog tags which is a bit strange. Tarver starts off and Cena shows some psychology by taking the guys to the opposite corner. That makes perfect sense which is always a good thing.

He just mows people down one at a time which makes sense too. The thing about Nexus is it’s the gang mentality rather than the individual nature. In the original NWO any of the three were legit threats. Here there’s just arguably one guy, Barrett, who is a big threat. Together though they’re deadly, which is a nice twist on the idea. They hit the floor and huddle before Slater gets a cheap shot in to take over.

The finishers start up and Slater hits three straight belly to back suplexes on him which is stupid looking. Cena fights back a bit but the numbers get to him. He gets Barrett in an FU but Sheffield takes him down. The 450 ends it clean which is exactly how it should have been. There is absolutely no way you can have Cena win here and they realized that. The Nexus surrounds him afterwards but he gets a shot in and hits the floor, getting a chair.

They surround him but make one fatal mistake: they forget to hold the mayo. Here’s Sheamus with chair in hand, and the heels run for cover, ending the show. Post show, Edge and Orton came out for a tag match. Cena stayed down for like 5 minutes off a punch (turned out he was getting cleaned up from a cut) so it was 2-1. He came in at the end and cleaned house, hitting an FU on Sheamus for the pin while Orton got an RKO on Edge. Orton posed and we were done.

Rating: B. This is how you have a match like this. Cena looks human and the Nexus looks strong. There was no way you could make Cena win here and have it be believable so they didn’t try to force it which is a good thing. This worked very well and I liked it quite well. It sets up an aura of mystery for the PPV which is the best thing you can do. Well done and a good ending to the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was a very solid show I thought. Everything came off well and the build for MITB is solid. I really don’t know who is going to win the match and Nexus is slowly filtering down into the uppermidcard which is nice. Everything seemed to have a point here other than the guest host stuff which at least was short. This was a good show both live and on TV. I’m excited for the Raw half of the PPV which is the whole point. Solid show.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Smackdown - July 16, 2010

Thumbs Up

Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes - This match went a little over 10 minutes and was very good. Both of them worked hard and look good in the ring together. Rhodes doesn't have much heat at this point, but I'm not surprised as he's only really started being even remotely relevant within the past few weeks. They could be a good, solid feud if neither of them win the MITB match. I like the fact that the match ended with a no contest as Kane came down to interfere. It keeps both of them looking strong going into the MITB ppv and losing definitely wouldn't have done Rhodes any good.

Rey Mysterio Promo - I gave this a minor thumbs up because I thought for a moment that Mysterio was actually going to forfeit the title. I know, I know that I should have known better, so sue me. Mysterio has honestly gotten better on the mic since his feud with Punk. Granted, he never really talked much before but when he did it was always pretty lackluster. Decent promo, nothing memorable, but a good promo for Mysterio.

Drew McIntyre vs. Christian - Great match between these two, probably match of the night overall. McIntyre scored a clean pinfall over Christian, he looks strong but so did Christian in defeat. Christian has this Jericho-like ability to lose, put people over and still come out looking strong everytime. This could also be another very interesting feud if the WWE decides to go this route. As with Rhodes/Kofi, this match also makes me want to see the Smackdown MITB match a lot.

CM Punk & Big Show - I enjoyed the promo between these two and think it came off really well. There were a few chuckle worthy moments, but nothing over the top or corny. When you put The Big Show into a match or promo with someone that knows what they're doing, it's almost always enjoyable seeing Show. Pulling the mask off Punk was a great surprise that I didn't know was going to happen. Overall, a really fun segment.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Matt Hardy - This was the fourth match of the night and, like the first two, was a really good tv match. I don't think it was quite as good as Kofi/Rhodes or McIntyre/Christian, but it was still a good one. I would have had this match open the show but I've got no real complaints here. Ziggler scores a win, not exactly a clean win but not exactly a dirty one either.

Jack Swagger & Kane - Pretty good segment here. It ran a little long, but it was still enjoyable. There were also a few chuckle worthy moments here I thought. Having Swagger's alabi for The Undertaker be his "daddy" was fun as was Kane just obliterating the poor guy. The segment didn't really do much to hype the MITB match or ppv, but it didn't take anything away from the show either.

Thumbs Down

Layla & Caylen Croft vs. Kelly Kelly & Chris Masters - This was really the only bad part about Smackdown. A lame mixed tag match that lasted about 100 seconds or so. Just a weak example of filler, but it was filler that didn't last long. It didn't really serve any purpose to to give four people some air time.

Overall Show - Thumbs Up - Last night's Smackdown was a great go home show to the MITB ppv. Both Smackdown & Raw have done a good job hyping their MITB matches at the show, but I'm more excited about Smackdown. A couple of really good promo segments and three really good 10+ minute matches made up the high points of last night's show. Overall a great go home show. I give last night's episode of Smackdown a 9 out of 10.

 

[mrbrownstone]

I thought that tonights SD was really good easily the best in a while

Kingston/Rhodes This was a really good 10ish minute match very back and forth and it is a shame kane had to come out for the DQ ending i understand why thay did it but it is still a shame

Rey Rey Promo Good to see the WHC gets 2 minutes of TV time, the same as Chris Masters that makes sense right anyway this was a good promo and for a split second i actually thought he was forefiting the title should have knows better

Mixed Tag Worst Part of the night pointless match

Drew/Christian Match of the night and a contedner for TV match of the week along with Orton/Edge and MCMG/Beer Money anyway drew wins which is a shame, I really hope he dosent Win at MITB

Punk/Show This was quite a funny segment looks like they are going to fued after this, they have this advertised as one of the main events for the upcoming Aussie house shows BTW that ladder is gonna make for some Sick spots.

Hardy/Ziggle Another very good match, I was surprised to see that Matt could still do a moonsault (or as someone else called it a Vadersault lol) anyway ziggles gets the win after a vickie distraction

Swagger/Kane Good segment here good to see Kane use the tombstone on jacks "father"

Overall Show: Like I said earlier this was a very good go home show it helped hype MITB and delivered 3 very good matches, the only thing to avoid the the Mixed Tag other than that this show is well worth watching, I give it and 8.5/10

 

[klunderbunker]

Smackdown
Date: July 16, 2010
Location: Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Michael Cole

We open up with a recap of the end of last week with Show vs. Swagger and then Swagger being interrogated. Why was Swagger not this awesome when he was world champion?

Still love that song.

The main thing tonight is does Swagger have an alibi? They even have a graphic asking it so you know it’s important.

Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes

Kofi is banged up from the Nexus beatdown that was earlier in the night. Uh….I mean three days ago….yeah that’s what I mean. This should be decent. It always amazes me that the spot calling on Raw is hidden better than on Smackdown which is an edited show. They feel each other out with Cody getting the advantage early on. Striker calls Big Show the Giant Big Show every time. Just change the name already. Kofi gets kicked to the floor and we take a break.

Kofi is in an abdominal stretch to start us off and Cody throws on a claw to go with it, which apparently is insulting somehow. The crowd seems bored as hell. Cody hits a nice middle rope bulldog and the crowd picks up a bit. And here’s Kane for no apparent reason. Yep there’s the DQ. Chokeslam for Kofi and Cody of course which sounds like a bad pop duo. Kane promises a bludgeoning tonight (his word not mine). Swagger is a liar apparently.

Rating: B-. This wasn’t bad for what it was. Cody has a really slowed down and old school style but he makes it work which is a rare talent. I’m not wild on the ending at all but I can understand why they would do that for the PPV on Sunday. They want everyone staying fresh and looking like possible winners which they did here. Solid little opener.

Matt vs. Drew later.

We recap Swagger beating Rey up for the last two weeks and hurting his ankle. Rey says he might have to forfeit. He’s just kidding. When Rey wins on Sunday, it’s going to suck.

Swagger is in another locker room and is on the phone. He says that since this is Kentucky there’s no traffic since no one has anywhere to go. Yeah there’s no major wrestling show to go to tonight.

We recap the MITB stuff and sets up this.

Christian vs. Drew McIntyre

I wonder if Christian continues his semi-heel turn here. They trade control to start us off which you would expect. Much like the previous match, Drew takes over just like Cody. We go to break with Christian in trouble. Good to see them going with something new.

Back from break and we get closer to even. Drew can put on solid matches when he has the time to do it. I’m glad they took away the whole chosen one thing as it was slowing him down a lot. This is a pretty solid match. Futureshock is blocked but a thumb to the eye lets him hit it. Match was a lot better than it sounds.

Rating: B. Drew needs wins like these to get himself credibility and this worked very well. These two worked well together and both guys worked in enough of their own spots and some different stuff to make this work quite well. It’s no masterpiece but for a TV match, this was quite good.

More Alberto Del Rio stuff. Will you just debut already?

The SES is in the ring after more MITB stuff. He says his usual stuff and here’s Big Show. He makes fun of Punk and says he’s boring. Punk says entertain us with the ladder. This is different, especially since Punk isn’t in the match. He tries to climb it and the ladder breaks. He gets a smaller ladder but doesn’t go with it as he talks about how he breaks everything, including ex-girlfriends.

He brings out a HUGE ladder that is like two and a half feet thick. It weighs over 350lbs and has a 2000lb weight limit. The SES jumps him and NAILS him with the small ladder. Show fights back and chases Punk up the huge ladder and rips the mask off. Punk is BALD. Cool segment.

Swagger is still on his phone and the driver is lost. He runs down KY a bit with some fair criticisms. Yeah pretty clear it’s going to be his dad.

Trent Baretta/Layla vs. Kelly Kelly/Chris Masters

So how long before these two guys get fired? No Michelle at ringside here which makes me sad. The girls star us off and Layla takes over early. Rosa jump ropes down the aisle and the Dudebusters help her jump rope. Kelly hits her finisher to end this in like 2 minutes. The guys weren’t even in the match.

We run down MITB after a LONG commercial.

Matt Hardy vs. Dolph Ziggler

Matt has a mic with him to start. Matt says he’ll cash in Sunday when he wins. Short promo but it did the job I guess. We take a break because this is the last scheduled match and it’s not even 930 yet. More Alberto Del Rio stuff before we get back to the ring. Hardy beats him up for a bit and we take a break. Vickie has too much cleavage.

We come back and it’s a chinlock. Yeah I’m stunned too. They go back and forth even more as this is a solid match. Ziggler gets a NICE rolling three quarter nelson to get a cover. Matt busts out a moonsault that misses. The sleeper doesn’t work but Vickie gives a distraction so that the Zig Zag can end it. Solid match.

Rating: B-. Another solid match here as the wrestling is back this week on this show. Ziggler looks better this week as he does most weeks. Matt is starting to get better in the ring…about 12 years after he debuted but whatever. He’s very popular so it’s not like him getting the case would be too much of a stretch. They’ve done a great job of making everyone a possible winner, which is a great thing to have going into a PPV.

A limo pulls up and it’s Swagger’s dad of course.

The Swaggers are here and we hear about how they were together on Memorial Day, which was the day of the attack. Swagger has a slideshow of stuff they did that day. The first one is of them working out. They also won a fishing contest and an eating contest…and here’s Kane. He has more evidence, in this case them coming first and second in a 5K run.

Kane chokes him and Swagger drills him. It’s ankle time and Swagger’s dad is a funny cheerleader. There’s no commentary here again which makes things better. Rey hobbles out and what do you know, Swagger is in perfect position for the 619. Kane gets back up and chokeslams Papa since Swagger won’t get back in for no apparent reason, even when Kane’s stronger arm isn’t free. Kane tombstones him as Swagger just walks away.

Overall Rating: B. This was more about the wrestling than it has been in recent weeks which is a definite good thing for it. There have been too many shows lately based around drama and if I want that then I’ll watch Raw. This was a bounce back show and has me very interested in the PPV on Sunday so I can’t complain at all here. Solid show.

 

[Kenny Powers]

I have to say last night's Raw was pretty enjoyable. There wasn't one bad thing I could really comment about. The triple threat match that started the show between Jericho, Edge, and Orton was one of the hottest matches I have seen on Raw in a while. The divas match and the Santino/Koslov match was pretty weak but it was short so I can't complain much there. The Miz teasing Sheamus with his Money in the Bank briefcase singing old Police lines was classic. I thought for sure we would see a new WWE champion, but R Truth had to be a buzz kill as usual.

Evan Bourne actually put a fight with Sheamus instead of having the usual squash match for once. Barrett looked strong defeating Mark Henry and attacking pretty much the whole Raw roster. I knew we wouldn't see Cena join Nexus but it was a nice tease for the moment. As far as the 7 on 7 match at Summerslam, I have no problem with it. Maybe Bourne should of had a spot instead of Khali, but it really doesn't matter. I'm surprised Bret Hart is back again as a member of the group. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the members of Nexus to tap out to the sharpshooter though.

Overall a pretty enjoyable show. Its such a relief to not sit through cheesy segments or guest hosts for one night.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Raw - July 19, 2010

Thumbs Up

Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho - Damn good triple threat match to start off last night's show. It was a quality match all around and meaningful due to the winner being named #1 contender for the WWE Championship and getting a match at SummerSlam. Orton got the win around the 15-16 minute mark after hitting both Edge and Jericho with the RKO. I was pretty sure Orton was going to win and go on to face Sheamus and it's the right decision. Even though Orton is a tweener, he definitely gets a face reaction and is probably the second most over face in the WWE right now. Great way to kick off the show.

The Nexus Beats Down Edge & Chris Jericho - The segment started off well with Edge and Jericho basically going on about how much they hate each other. They work well together and Edge in particular has been damn good on the mic lately. The Nexus comes down and surrounds Edge with Barrett giving some good mic work. Jericho playing cheerleader while Edge got beaten down was nice and I could just sense what was coming. Jericho also gets laid out by The Nexus. So, I guess it looks like that Chris Jericho isn't the mastermind behind Nexus either. I like that Nexus just hasn't gone after Cena and that they haven't really been trying to make any allies. Everyone is a target and that's how it should be.

Sheamus & Barrett Backstage - I liked this little mini promo segment in which Sheamus says he wants to offer a proposition for Nexus. I liked it because it shows Sheamus as this schemer, someone that looks for an opportunity to make things easier for himself. It's great heel mentality and I like that they haven't made Sheamus a lame, one dimensional Irish musclehead/brawler that tries to push through everything with brute force. Barrett is so poised and confident on the mic and continues to impress me each week. He's easily the glue holding The Nexus together and I don't think the angle could have worked nearly as well as it has without him.

Eve Torres vs. Maryse - The match in and of itself was pointless. Both Eve and Maryse looked hot, as usual, but the reason I gave this a thumbs up was because of the post match beatdown of Ted DiBiase at the hands of John Morrison. This could be an entertaining little mid-card feud that can produce some quality matches. The first 40 minutes or so of Raw last night were so good that energy was just up all over. I can see if people didn't care anything about the Divas match, which was pretty lame at less than 90 seconds, but it does set up the DiBiase/Morrison program.

Sheamus & The Miz - This was another fantastic segment. Sheamus comes out and is solid on the mic, giving a good interview and is interrupted by The Miz. The Miz was gold on the mic last night, referring to himself as Sheamus' "celebrity stalker" and that he'd be watching Sheamus' every move. The Miz hyped the importance of having the MITB briefcase nicely and just at how much of a disadvantage it is to Sheamus. As Sheamus is about to leave, the Raw GM sends an email and announces that Sheamus has a match and it turns out it's against Evan Bourne. The Miz plops down to ringside. Great segment.

Sheamus vs. Evan Bourne - Great 10-11 minute match between these two. A few months ago, Evan Bourne would have been a 2 minute jobber and now he's hanging in a high quality match with the WWE Champion. It was a strong match and both of them looked great in the ring together. Sheamus comes out with a clean victory, but Bourne looked like a real contender in there. In my mind, Bourne just established himself as the top name to be the next United States Champion. After the match, The Miz comes in and waffles Sheamus with the briefcase and manages to hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Sheamus and decides to cash in the briefcase. The crowd was going apeshit for this. I was torn between excitement and disappointment here. As Sheamus was knocked "unconscious" by The Miz, the ref couldn't start the match until Sheamus came around. The Miz was over in the corner jumping and twitching like a crackhead in need of a fix and was screaming at the ref to ring the bell. Before it could happen, R-Truth comes out and beats on The Miz. However, The Miz grabs the briefcase before that happens, which means he didn't cash it in as there was no match since the bell didn't ring. I was so friggin' happy it didn't happen last night. I want The Miz to hold onto the case for a while, drag it out and really build things up. A great match followed up by a great tease.

Santino Marella & Vladimir Koslove vs. William Regal & Zack Ryder - Yep, you read right and no I didn't put it in the Thumbs Up part by mistake. For some odd reason, I enjoyed this match last night. I don't know if it's mainly because Raw had been so good throughout the night that I was almost euphoric or what. I understand if anyone thought the match was a waste, I won't argue one bit, but I just liked it. I was a little amazed that Koslov is over as much as he is. Fans were happy, Santino was happy, Koslov was happy, I was happy. Just a buncha happy fools I guess.

Wade Barret vs. Mark Henry - The match really wasn't that great, but the point was to have Wade Barrett go over someone the fans care about to establish himself a bit, from a kayfabe point of view. After all, Mark Henry is "The World's Strongest Man" and a former ECW Champion. Barrett wins the match by hitting an awkward version of his finisher on Henry. I'm not sure if whether Barrett just had trouble handling Henry's weight or if Henry hanging onto the rope pulled Barrett off balance. Still, the fact that Barrett was able to complete the move, more or less, showed some real strength on his part. I'd have preferred Wade Barrett to have gone up against a stronger competitor, but Henry is over with the fans so the match did serve the intended purpose.

Closing Segment - The ending of the show was as hot as the rest of it. The Nexus gathered and called Cena out to the ring. Cena had been saying he wanted a truce with Nexus and maybe even join them. Nobody that's ever watched Cena would buy into it, but the crowd booed the hell out of Cena for it so the crowd played the part the WWE wanted 'em to. After a while, Cena tucks tail and gets out of the ring before saying that his offer of a truce was a ploy and that he's put together his own team and they're coming for The Nexus at SummerSlam. Cena's team consists of himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, The Great Khali, R-Truth and Bret Hart. Hart's return was a huge surprise and the WWE can make good use of both him and Khali in the match at SS. Bret Hart won't have to do much and Khali will be surrounded by talent that will make him look tolerable. Cena's team hits the ring as Nexus makes a run for it to close the show.

Thumbs Down

Nothing

Overall Show - Thumbs Up - Last night's Raw was the best two hours of wrestling in 2010 in my view thus far. The show was firing on all cylinders last night and everything just clicked. I understand if anyone complained about the Diva match or the tag match as both were primarily buffers. But, everything had been done so right last night that it all just seemed to work and helped make those two matches tolerable. The build up for SummerSlam got a huge start last night with two big matches advertised. I'm wondering if it'll turn out to be Bret Hart as the mastermind behind Nexus. Having him turn on his team at the ppv and cost them the match would make sense. Anyhow, from top to bottom, last night's Raw was a very entertaining show. I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

 

[Prax]

I agree with Jack-Hammer wholeheartedly. I felt like this was the best RAW I've seen all year, and the opening match is a Match of the Year Candidate. They gotta open with big matches like this more often, because it clearly works and it clearly sets a positive tone for the rest of the show. RAW didn't really have another main event, unless you count Sheamus vs. Bourne (which I don't count as a main event really), and it still came off as a great show. This raw had flow, direction, excellent pacing and storytelling and it really set things up nicely for SS.

The only complaint was Bret Hart, a senior citizen, being part of a group that scared the nexus away... missed opportunity right there to bring back Triple H and really give us a mark out moment.

Otherwise, excellent show coming off an average PPV.

 

[gd]

Best Raw of the year, for sure. Enjoyed it throughout. Opening match was exciting, despite the fact that everyone knew Orton was going to win. Very nicely done.

Nexus comes out and looks strong as hell for pretty much the whole night, able to beat the hell out of Edge and Jericho despite the unfortunate situation surrounding Darren Young's hair.

They were able to keep the Diva's match short, thankfully. I do really like Dibiase/Maryse as a couple. Works well for them. John Morrison did come out in the oddest looking get up I've ever seen to get revenge on Dibiase for I'm not sure what. Solid stuff though.

Sheamus/Miz stuff was kickass, fella. Hopefully he holds the case for awhile though. Can't blow your load too quickly. The Sheamus/Bourne match was decent enough, even if we've seen it a million times already. Good to see mah boi Truth come back. I was pumped.

Santino and Koslov put on their regular tag team clinic, what else its new?

Barrett's slam on Henry looked freakin' sick. It may have been because he botched it, but still, looked awesome. Made up for an otherwise shit match. Henry really is awful in there.

I was really excited for the Cena confrontation. Thought there was actually a chance of him joining them until the announcers hyped it up so much, obviously meaning it wasn't going to happen. Would've been awesome though.

Bout time he got a team together. It's been what, 2 months already? Should've thought of this sooner. Hart at the end was a big letdown though. "Bah Gawd that got a old somewhat crippled man on their team. Nexus must be shaking in their boots!" Not really. I was sure it was gonna be Triple H. Would've actually got pretty excited about that.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: July 19, 2010
Location: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

Last night was MITB and tonight we start the road to Summerslam. Miz is Mr. Money in the Bank so we have a new era in the company. I’m excited for this so let’s get to it.

Barrett vs. Henry tonight which is his non-NXT debut I believe.

Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho

Winner gets the title shot at Summerslam so I can’t imagine this isn’t Orton winning. Orton wants his 7th world title, Jericho wants his 7th and Edge wants his 10th. That sound like overkill to anyone else? Edge and Jericho double team Orton to start as you would expect. This isn’t much of a triple threat as it’s really basic without much flare to it at all.

The Canadian violence breaks out as we go to a break. Back and Jericho gets the elevated DDT for two. This just isn’t that good but I’m surprised that it’s opening the show and that we’re not going to get this as the main event. Orton builds momentum and hits that snap powerslam. Walls on Orton and of course that doesn’t work as Edge saves with Edgecution. Two guys in this use DDTs on occasion, making them both awesome.

Spear is countered into the Walls. Edge reaches for ropes on both sides and looks like he’s trying to fly. He gets the ropes and a rollup for two. We get two cool spots in a row: Orton rolls up Jericho but Edge rolls up Orton off the initial rollup. We also get a triple clothesline. RKO misses into a missed Lionsault and Jericho’s taped arm is hurt. RKO to both guys lets him pin Edge to go to Summerslam. I’m sure he wouldn’t have gone at all otherwise.

Rating: B-. It started slow but they cranked it up pretty well at the end and did some creative spots to make this better. The back to back RKOs were nice as I thought they were showing a replay rather than him just hitting another guy with it. This was a solid match and a good opener to the show. Interested in seeing the main event now, which is likely Barrett vs. Henry, which will likely suck for the most part.

Back from break and Edge is still in the ring, wanting more of Jericho. Edge says this has been going on far too long and Jericho implies he has Nexus behind him as he is responsible for their success. Edge says he could have Nexus behind him if he wanted them. AND HERE THEY COME. It doesn’t have the same impact when they have music to come down to. Tarver is holding his head after that step show last night. Young appears to either have a bowl cut or is wearing a hat.

Barrett says that they’d be lucky to have either Canadian as an ally and they circle Edge. The beatdown is on and of course soon afterwards they beat down Jericho too. Otunga hits his finisher on him and both Canadians are out. Barrett yells at Jericho that he didn’t teach Barrett a thing.

Josh stops Barrett as they’re heading into their locker room. Josh says Nexus is the strongest group in WWE history. Barrett says he’s going to beat Henry tonight. Sheamus comes up to him and says he’ll be waiting outside the locker room. That was odd.

Cole interviews Cena who is in the back. Cena says no one can stop Sheamus, which I’m thinking leads to a heel turn for him. Tonight, he wants to meet Barrett and Nexus in the middle of the ring to say something to them. He heavily implies he’s going to join them.

Maryse vs. Eve Torres

Eve looks good in those gold shorts. This is like a minute long and DiBiase is on commentary. Eve gets a nice kick for the pin but Maryse’s feet are on the ropes. John Morrison comes down after being bashed on commentary and beats him up, hitting a Starship Pain headbutt. WOW that was awful looking.

Here’s Sheamus to talk I’d guess. He says he’s awesome and claims that he demanded a truce with Barrett and Nexus. He declares his dominance and here’s the Miz. Mr. Money in the Bank says Sheamus now has a Miz problem because he controls the fate of the title due to the case. He talks about how it could happen at anytime and that it could be tonight, next week or even at Mania. He is just oozing confidence here and it’s coming off great.

Sheamus cuts off the catchphrase and we get an e-mail. If Miz wants to cash in tonight he should sit down at ringside because it’s Sheamus vs. Bourne right now.

Sheamus vs. Evan Bourne

Bourne seems to miss his cue but it makes sense as he’s finishing getting his tights ready. That if nothing else makes it seem like this was rushed which is a very nice touch. Back from a break and it’s pretty back and forth. Wow Bourne has credibility already. Sheamus wraps him around the post and just pulls which looks awesome. He dominates for awhile but here’s Bourne’s comeback.

He hits a bunch of kicks which is the main thing he can do. Irish Curse is countered into a sunset flip as Miz is getting antsy in a nice touch. Bourne sets for the Shooting Star but Bourne hits a sweet dive to take him down. Sheamus gets a kick to the ropes to low blow Bourne and the Pump Kick ends it. It’s the Brogue Kick now I guess.

Rating: C+. Not bad here but it wasn’t great. This is what Sheamus needs though: wins over guys that aren’t jobbers but aren’t ready for the main event yet. It gives him credibility because he beats guys that he’s supposed to beat. At the same time Bourne gets to give Sheamus a run for his money but isn’t supposed to win here so he doesn’t look bad. These are what SNME was built on and they worked like charms.

Miz with a briefcase shot to the back! And another! SKULL CRUSHING FINALE TO THE CASE! HE CASHES IN! Sheamus allegedly has to be conscious to start the match but he’s out cold. This is a new development apparently. And here comes R-Truth! Miz grabs the case back and swings for Truth and the fight is on. Cole points out something very important: the bell never rang so that match never started. Kind of bullshit but it does the job they need and it gives the feeling of it could happen anytime.

Miz is PISSED about not winning because he got robbed. He says he has a year left though.

We do a Summerslam recall back to 1998, which was the closest thing to Summerslam being as big as Wrestlemania ever. The clip is Austin vs. Taker which is nowhere near the best match on the card. Rock vs. HHH in a ladder match is one of my all time favorites.

Sheamus has a bag of ice on his head and yells at the Divas for laughing at something unrelated. Orton comes up and says he’ll hit the RKO at Summerslam.

William Regal/Zach Ryder vs. Santino Marella/Vladimir Kozlov

Look up “match so that the crowd can breathe” in the dictionary….and you likely won’t find anything. This is one of those though. This is a comedy match if there has ever been one. We hear about the 900th episode of Raw coming up which has to be a big old party right? Imagine the 1000th episode. There better be a big gimmick match. In case you can’t tell, this match isn’t much and I don’t want to talk about it. Kozlov beats up Ryder and Santino wants the win. He does the salute headbutt and gets the pin.

Rating: N/A. Just a quick little comedy match to give the crowd a chance to breathe before we get to more of the heavy lifting to close the show. Nothing wrong with that and it was harmless.

Wade Barrett vs. Mark Henry

Nexus is barred from ringside. Barrett hides for a bit in classic heel fashion. Barrett looks like a legit main event guy which is awesome. Henry dominates for a bit and sets for a second rope splash but Nexus is on the stage. He pauses long enough for Barrett to hit the front slam finisher which needs a name. Apparently it’s called The Wasteland. That ends it despite him almost falling over from the weight. He still made it look workable though.

Rating: N/A. Just a way to get Barrett his first win and set up the Cena showdown and that’s fine. Barrett is either good at selling or legit hurt his back on that. If Henry manages to injure the Nexus star, he’ll somehow be even more hated than he already is.

During a break we’re told that there’s one more NXT before eliminations begin. We were told this earlier but I forgot how many weeks they said so I didn’t write it. There’s your answer.

Tarver blames everything on Cena and here’s the non-champ. If he turns, the IWC will explode. He says he’s going to do something he should have a long time ago and wants a truce. Barrett says no, which is great for Cena in something I’ll cover at the end. Actually screw the waiting. It makes Cena look mortal as he wants mercy but doesn’t get it. He looks weak because he went there but doesn’t have the out he thought he had.

Barrett doesn’t want a truce. He wants Cena to join. Well that would be better than what I just described. Barrett says he’ll get ten times what he’s had before with Nexus, which is what, NINETY WORLD TITLES? Cena shake his head and says he can’t do it. Barrett says he can get his ass kicked or leave with his tail between his legs. He walks away a la Mick Foley with Orton in I think 05.

Cena promises to take them down whether alone or with help. He says he has help and it’s going to take down Nexus at Summerslam. The team is here tonight and it’s Edge, Morrison, R-Truth (who has WHAT connection here?), Khali (damn it), Jericho and BRET HART??? They storm the ring and Nexus sprints away.

Overall Rating: B+. Another solid show here. They went with a very nice hybrid of wrestling and drama here and the show flat out worked. The Miz storyline is very promising as the people, including myself, were losing it when he hit the Finale on Sheamus. I really can’t get over his rise in the past few years as it’s just been great. The big tag match has me skeptical but it’s going to draw in average fans which is who it’s appealing to. This show got the road to Summerslam going very nicely and I’m excited for next week. Great show overall and really well done.

 

[Da Prophet]

I loved this Raw, the ending was my favourite part of the show.You had the first member of Team CenaNation which was Edge out of everyone Edge.You could here the announcers say since when does Edge like Cena.Then you put in Jericho,Morrison,Truth and Khali.Then you have the big one in Bret Hart, coming back to get revenge on Nexus.So it will be 7-7 at Summerslam.....Bret is old, why would you have him on the team so to speak.Why not have him in your corner or something in that role.But it still cool how they stormed the ring and showed that the numbers were even at that point in time and Cena is ready to fight.

 

[mrbrownstone]

I thoght that this weeks Smackdown was solid as it usually is

Kane Promo: Its funny how its called the world HEAVYWEIGHT championship again, it looks right for Kane to have the title also. This is an awesome promo with kanes music playing softly in the background. Definitely check this out

Drew/Cody vs Hardy/Christian: This was a pretty good match which saw Cody/Drew get the win after Matt "accidentally'' punched christian in the face after the match matt and christian shook hands and seemingly made up, I'm still hoping this leads to a SSlam match

Teddy announces that next week Layla will defend against Tiffany

Kofi/Drew This was a very good and quite long match, it got a bit boring in parts but overall it was good Ziggles got the win after the match he tried to steal the IC title.

Big Show/SES Masked Man This match lasts about 2 mins as show unmasks him and to the surprise of no one it is Joey Mercury atleast they have FINALLY unmasked him anyway Show wins with the KO punch and Chokeslam

Alberto Del Rio promo they show shots of the arena during this and no one seems to care, just debut the guy already

Jack Swagger/Rey 2/3 falls NumberOne Contenders match This is a very good match possibly better than their MITB outing im not sure anyway Rey gets the first fall after Swagger wont break the ankle lock then Swagger the 2nd fall via the ankle lock and Rey wins the 3rd fall to become the No 1 contender post match Swagger beats down on rey until Kane comes out to break it up and Chokeslam Swagger, he then raises Reys hand but then turns on him attempts the chokeslam but rey turns it into a 619 and then runs away in an ending I am not crazy about.

Overall This was a good show with 2 good matches and a very good promo, the only bad part was the ending, I rate this show an 8/10

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Smackdown - July 23, 2010

Thumbs Up

Kane - The show started off last night with Kane coming to the ring as World Heavyweight Champion. Kane gave a really good promo and he's really given the best mic work of his career over the past few months and he's more interesting than he's been in years. I've got no problem with Kane being World Heavyweight Champion really. Kane is a hard worker and has more than paid his dues. He's also helped make a lot of guys look good over the years and I think he deserves it.

Christian & Matt Hardy vs. Drew McIntyre & Dashing Cody Rhodes - Really good tag team match from these four. All of them worked hard and it was just a fun match to watch. If you put Matt Hardy in the ring with some guys that can actually work, he can be pretty decent to watch. The match ends with McIntyre and Rhodes getting the win and a tease that a Matt Hardy & Christian feud is on the way. I'm not sure how I feel about that as feuding with one another really won't help each other, but we'll probably get some good matches out of it. Anyhow, really good 13-14 minute tag match.

Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler - Great match between these two. These two work well together and the matches that they have are always entertaining to watch. Ziggler gets the win, via some slight assistance from Vickie, at the 15 minute mark, so don't be surprised to see an Intercontinental Championship match between the two at SummerSlam. This could be a pretty good mid-card feud overall if they handle it right. I know a lot of people wanna see Ziggler win the title, as do I, but I think SS would be too soon. Anyhow, really fun match that told a good story.

Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Swagger - When you look at it from all sides, this was the best match of the night. Swagger & Mysterio work really well together and this was a great two out of three falls match. Ultimately, Mysterio gets the win around the 20 minute mark after hitting something of an ugly crucifix to Swagger and will face Kane at SummerSlam for the title. The closing of the show saw Swagger beating down on Rey only for Kane to come out and make the save. As it looked that Rey and Kane were gonna part on friendly terms, Kane tries to take out Rey but gets hit with the 619. It was a great way to end the show and already has the World Heavyweight Championship match built up for SummerSlam.

Thumbs Down

Alberto Del Rio Vignettes - Personally, I think that these things are extremely boring. They haven't really done much of anything to make me interested in this guy. Maybe when he makes his debut and shows what he's got, I might be able to get into him. But, otherwise, he just comes off as another lame latin lover type deal.

Big Show vs. Joey Mercury - This was basically just your typical Big Show squash. The masked SES member is finally revealed as Joey Mercury, but there wasn't anything remotely memorable about this. A 90 second squash. Good time for a piss break.

Overall Show - Thumbs Up - Smackdown was another great show this week. Kane gave a good promo as World Heavyweight Champion, I'm kinda happy to see him with the title, the show had three long and very good matches with wrestlers that all work well together and Smackdown's half of SummerSlam is taking shape nicely. It doesn't have the epic feel to it quite yet that Raw generated this week, but it was a great show overall with some great action. I'm giving last night's Smackdown a 9 out of 10. Very entertaining 2 hours of wrestling.

 

[klunderbunker]

Smackdown
Date: July 23, 2010
Location: Verizon Arena, Little Rock, Arkansas
Commentators: Matt Striker, Todd Grisham

Kane is world champion. Let that sink in for a minute. We also get the beginning of the road to Summerslam here. Let’s get to it. I know the intros to TV are shorter but there’s far less context needed for these especially since the previous week is all the context you need for the most part. Now, let’s get to it.

No pre-theme song video this week. I think I like that.

We immediately see a still of Kane holding up the belt and THE CHAMP IS HERE! DAMN that belt looks good on him. I’m a huge Kane fan so this is incredibly sweet for me. He talks about how he won MITB and won the title. You can tell he’s loving this and with the theme music just barely playing in the background it’s perfect. He’s talking very slowly here and it’s a very good promo. Kane repeatedly shouts I DID IT which likely is going to be a line later on for Taker. He says he did it for his brother and a quick Taker video plays, highlighting them being the awesome brothers. He goes on this insane rant about how he’ll vindicate his brother and that he’ll have his vengeance. This was a very good promo overall and it showed a lot of emotions at once, which is something Kane is finally getting to show. The belt makes it even better. Loved this.

Swagger vs. Rey in a 2/3 falls match for the shot at Kane at Summerslam.

We recap Christian and Matt having issues lately, leading to this.

Christian/Matt Hardy vs. Drew McIntyre/Cody Rhodes

I like the heels here more than the faces, yet one of the faces is an IWC darling. I’m a very strange case here I guess. Christian and Drew start us off and we talk about Kane. I love how messed up their backstory has become, as now they were friends growing up. Yeah it’s going to be one of those matches where they talk about nothing but the main angle for at least the first half of this match.

I like Rhodes more and more every time I see him. Matt’s lower body is hurt according to Striker. Rhodes without knee or elbow pads is weird looking. Future Shock doesn’t hit on Matt and the faces stand tall for a bit. Rhodes uses an Alabama Jam and Striker makes a Hardcore Holly reference. Cool reference but a shame that it was Bobby Eaton that used that move.

Striker keeps mentioning all of these old school moves which is kind of cool. I love the old school style so it’s nice to see it back a bit. Hardy takes off his shirt and his ribs are taped up. Striker uses improper grammar and gets corrected by Grisham in an almost funny moment. Matt gets the lukewarm tag and takes over for a bit. We hit insanity time and Matt hits Christian by mistake. Big boot from McIntyre ends Hardy. Christian and Matt shake hands afterwards.

Rating: B-. Solid TV match here as we continue the Matt/Christian story which is a good idea I think. The whole “was that on purpose or not” thing is tried and true so it’ll work now. Drew and Cody aren’t going to be a regular team which is a good thing as they were kind of placeholders here but not quite, which is nice. This got time and was good.

Swagger thinks this isn’t fair because of what Rey did. And we get a lie, cheat and steal reference. Well what would this be without an Eddie reference?

Alberto Del Rio stuff.

Laycool have a party about Layla winning on Sunday. Michelle in white pants is just awesome. They give each other half of a necklace that says best friends. Teddy comes in and makes Layla vs. Tiffany next week. Oh joy. This is supposed to be scary? They make fun of Teddy after he leaves which is kind of funny.

Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler

We go to the mat first as both guys are again hurt. Kofi has a bad neck and Drew has a bad arm. There’s a lot of dead time on commentary here and there has been all night. It’s a bit weird. Striker brings up a very interesting point as he says if the referee is supposed to count to five and the crowd gets to seven, shouldn’t that be a DQ?

McGillicutty and Vickie get in an argument on the floor and Michael gets thrown out. After a break we come back to Kofi in a chinlock to the amazement of no one that pays attention. Ziggler uses a ton of chinlocks and none of them are overly interesting. Kofi has been dominated for most of this match. Here’s his comeback but nothing really comes from it.

Kofi just starts whaling on him and does his jumping offense. A jumping punch is called a Superman Punch, but I don’t ever remember him doing that in a comic book. Nor do I remember him being a black man from Africa. Trouble in Paradise misses and here’s Vickie to be annoying. Zig Zag sets up the sleeper which ends it. Can we get rid of Vickie and give Dolph the IC Title? He tries to leave with the belt but the referee takes it from him.

Rating: C. Not bad here but this was too much about Vickie. Ziggler winning mostly clean is a good thing though as he needs the credibility that Vickie is sucking away from him moment after moment. We get that he has a deadly finisher. Why does he need Vickie on top of that? I just don’t get it. This wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t anything great. Perfectly acceptable match.

We recap Punk getting unmasked last week which was a cool segment.

Big Show vs. Luke Gallows

And we’re getting Show vs. the mystery man instead.

Big Show vs. Masked Man

Show has gone from 7’0 to 7’5 apparently. Show rips the mask off about a minute in. And it’s Joey Mercury who no one recognizes. Show puts the mask on and the punch basically kills Mercury. 2 minute squash and we get a Machines reference!!! Well at least they killed this off and it’ll set up Show vs. Punk when he’s healthy.

Cody shows us how to trim our nose hairs. I like the old school character-themed vignettes like these.

Raw recap to waste some time.

Rey misses being world champion and that he needs to beat Swagger twice. Why hurt a guy’s credibility twice in a week when you can do it three times I guess?

Damn it just debut this fucker already so he can be the next Escobar.

Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Swagger

2/3 falls and winner gets Kane at Summerslam. Bets on Rey winning anyone? This is getting 25 minutes? Well ok then. Rey puts him on the floor a minute or so in and I would think that’s a commercial break. Ah that’s because it is. Swagger gets a NICE rolling headlock style move that looks like something an amateur champion would do. Rey’s ankle is hurt. I wonder if he’ll overcome the odds.

Basically Swagger keeps Rey down with basic stuff and just hurts him. It’s a cool kind of beatdown as he’s picking him apart instead of going at him full speed ahead. Rey gets a springboard crossbody to get a fast two and takes over. There’s the ankle lock though but Rey makes the ropes. Jack won’t break it and that’s 1-0 Rey on a DQ.

Ok so remember: Rey came in with a bad ankle and has had it worked on for over ten minutes and he was in an ankle lock that made Big Show tap. SURE he can go off the top with a rana and go for 619. Rey taps after being caught in the 619 to the ankle lock to tie us up though.

Vader Bomb gets two and Swagger is pissed. Rey grabs his ankle and then runs the ropes. He gets out of the gutwrench and hooks a crucifix to end it. Well of course he does. Yep, Rey vs. Kane is the main event at Summerslam. Oh and pay no attention to it being a leverage move and Swagger having to roll completely backwards to get into the proper position because Rey rolled the wrong way.

Swagger goes for the ankle again and Kane makes the save to end the show. And then he comes back to go after Rey who hits the 619 because Rey is perfectly capable of beating up a fresh Kane after a 25 minute match on a bad ankle. Great way to make the champion look strong on his first night guys.

Rating: C+. Not bad but this is a fine example of where a long match doesn’t automatically mean a great match. It’s definitely ok but Rey’s selling was on and off as hell and Swagger kept doing nothing but going for the ankle, which at least makes sense. This was ok but there was nothing particularly great about it all match.

Overall Rating: B-. This was a great show as far as setting up the road to Summerslam. There are at least four angles being pushed at once here which is a great thing as it never felt like it was going overboard. This was also much heavier on the wrestling side of things which is how Smackdown can be and is different from Raw and Impact. You got a lot of in ring action tonight, although it wasn’t of particularly great quality. Still though, another very solid show as Smackdown gets back on track after a few so-so weeks.

 

[Prax]

Honestly this show was great, one of the better SDs in a while, for sure. Dolph vs. Kofi was a great match and the reason people should be watching smackdown every week. SD can have these kinds of matches but RAW always drops the ball when it comes to their mid card. I really hope they finally put the title on Dolph, and he basically beat Kofi clean, so it looks like that might happen.

The tag match was also great, not as good as Dolph vs. Kofi or the 2-3 falls match but on any other show it may have been the highlight match of the night.

Main event was also excellent, Swagger is the star of this one yet Rey sneaks by with another victory and gets another PPV title match, but whatever...

Overall great show, big improvement over last week.

 

[WWE.IS.AWESOME]

For those of you who didn't tune into Raw this week, the main event was Joohn Cena and Chris Jericho vs The Miz and Sheamus. This thread is very simple... How many stars would you rate this match? Why? Did you like the outcome?

I personally liked this match. It was pretty good and would rate it a total 4/5 stars. When Y2J hit the codebreaker on Cena and Miz went for the pin, I was happy. I like controversal endings like that. Overall great match.

But I want oyur opinions. How would you have made the match end? Tell me your complete thoughts on this match.

 

[TheMizardofOzsome]

I would give it a 3 out of five, for the fact that they decided to make that a main event instead of the elimination tag match which will likely be the main event match at summer slam, you didn't get to see a Miz face turn (Possible if cashed in on Sheamus etc.), and because you have Chris backstabbing Cena, big shocker, the booking was a lackluster performance, but the actual match was superb, the mixture of those two factors is why i said 3 out of 5

 

[Morpheus101]

I gave it 4 out of 5....great match actually. All four guys looked great, especially with the added tension and distrust. I thought Jericho was the most impressive though. He played the face, then he screwed Cena and played the heel, all perfectly. The Miz also looked right at home with the big boys too, which was good.

 

[WWE.IS.AWESOME]

The Miz also looked right at home with the big boys too, which was good.

I was happy about this as well Im looking to The Miz's main event future. This is a good sign. I hope Miz continues to main event Raw because it is great practice for him when he becomes WWE Champion after cashing in his contract on Sheamus. I will prob even rep you for that.

 

[Morpheus101]

I was happy about this as well Im looking to The Miz's main event future. This is a good sign. I hope Miz continues to main event Raw because it is great practice for him when he becomes WWE Champion after cashing in his contract on Sheamus. I will prob even rep you for that.

You might want to un-rep me because I think that Miz is going to be the first one to f**k up his Money In The Bank opportunity

...but Miz WILL become WWE Champion, just not via cashing in the briefcase. If anything, being the first one to f**k up MITB will actually help his career (as weird as that may sound).

Miz did look good though and is proving himself again and again and again. It's only a matter of time before he wins the gold, but watch for him dropping the US title first.

 

[Heartachetonight926]

I thought it was a very good Match, It was refreshing to hear the Crowd really behind Jericho most of the match, of course until the very end. It just show's that Jericho's is one of the very few Wrestler's that work's just as well as a Face as he does a heel, At least I think he does.

But anyways, it was a good match to end raw and I liked how it ended with all of the member's of the Cena team Arguing

 

[albertg123]

Im loving Miz in the mainevent picture. he needs to lose the US belt to finally set is foot in the main event scene. im glad r truth didnt get involved with miz, he brings him down to midcard again when he does. also i like sheamus alot, he really plays his chrcter perfectly. WWE deserves props on their recent choices of maineventers and character pushings. Raw was pretty good. Favorite part had to be the NEXUS MATCH AND SEGMENT. Thats how you make a team look STRONG!

 

[BB79]

Did anyone else find the Nexus vs. Raw match just plain stupid? The tag champs and Mark Henry are put down with ONE move??? No Nexus members eliminated? And the match was pretty much fair. As unwatchable as I've seen recently. I've liked the Nexus angle but come on.....

 

[CJ The Pirate]

Did anyone else find the Nexus vs. Raw match just plain stupid? The tag champs and Mark Henry are put down with ONE move??? No Nexus members eliminated? And the match was pretty much fair. As unwatchable as I've seen recently. I've liked the Nexus angle but come on.....

I'm with you on this. It made the mid card look dreadful and even Evan Bourne, WWE's latest golden child, just looked weak. I was hoping they'd let Bourne just go wild for a couple of minutes downing Nexus members until the numbers game caught up with him but he just did a silly assault on the guys on the apron, one punch later and he was completely unable to defend himself from a Barrett Slam. I saw this coming though when it was announced. Mark henry, The Harts and Bourne have just has all their recent achievements wiped out.

Adding all that to using the Uso's as Viper fodder just left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Nexus looks great but Raw now has only 2 matches worth watching at Summerslam. I don't care for the Diva's title nor do I want to see The Tag Belts any more.

 

[Blizz]

I had really high hopes for the main event but it turned out to be pretty bad. The 7-on-7 match was decent, above average. I quite enjoyed it. Storyline wise, I really don't think the clean sweep Nexus win was necessary.

I also really think the Elimination stipulation to the Summerslam match was needed. A plain tag match main-eventing the second biggest PPV of the year would have been boring. I'm now kind of looking forward to it.

 

[BB79]

I had really high hopes for the main event but it turned out to be pretty bad. The 7-on-7 match was decent, above average. I quite enjoyed it. Storyline wise, I really don't think the clean sweep Nexus win was necessary.

I also really think the Elimination stipulation to the Summerslam match was needed. A plain tag match main-eventing the second biggest PPV of the year would have been boring. I'm now kind of looking forward to it.

What was there to like about the 7 on 7? The only Raw stars that even looked competent were the King and Mark Henry for about 30 sec. Heath Slater's finisher took down Raw stars with no wearing down? It was just to unrealistic. Too many Raw stars fell the same way, one move and there were done. Wasn't Evan Bourne within a hair of a title recently? DH Smith hits several moves and gets taken down with one? I thought the last match was actually pretty good. Khali taken down by one little Edge spear? How powerful does the Nexus have to look and how hopeless and helpless does the Raw team have to look? I think they're overdoing the drama.