Official Raw/Smackdown Aftermath, Ratings and Review Thread

[TJ Matics]

Gold Stars for 11-29-10 RAW

3. History - All the facts about the past KOTR winners were a nice touch, and kept things pretty much centered (Brock Lesner!)

2. KOTR Finals Match - Sheamus vs. Morrison was really good and kept me entertained, though I wanted Morrison to win, Sheamus is still one of my young favorites and seeing him win wasn't entirely upsetting. Hopping this feud between him and Morrison keeps going

1. John Cena - The highlight of the show for me was all the segments with him. The backstage seg with him and Henning was fun, and the camera man lying ever so right in place was fun. The FU to Wendy through the announce table was also a nice touch. I'm a fan of Gabriel, but I just loved how John handed him his ass in the parking lot, and the RAW roster backstage rooting him on was good.

QOUTES FOR MONDAY NIGHT RAW 11-29-10

"Looks like he's dressed for court." - CM Punk

"He's a king south of the border." - CM Punk

"The show to be on is the one I'm on." - CM Punk

"THIS IS NOT THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE." - CM Punk

"He sits on the camera side so he can get his face on television." - CM Punk

"We have the worst security." - CM Punk

"I know Spanish well enough to know that he did not say CM Punk in that sentence." - Michael Cole
"He said it in Spanish." - CM Punk

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The ratings for last Monday's 3 hour Raw featuring the return of the King of the Ring tournament are in. The show, overall, pulled a 3.1 rating with 4.76 million viewers. Predictably, the first hour of the 3 hours drug down the overall rating and drew a 2.65. In it's regular 9-11pm timeslot the show drew roughly a 3.4 rating with 5,127,000 viewers. The overall ratings compared to the Old School 3 hour Raw are the same with last Monday's generating roughly 250,000 more viewers.

In it's regular slot, it's the first time Raw's drawn 5 million or more viewers in a while. Monday Night Football was lackluster that night and there was certainly interest generated by The Miz's surprise title win last week.

 

[klunderbunker]

Smackdown
Date: December 3, 2010
Location: The Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia
Commentators: Michael Cole, Todd Grisham, Matt Striker

Another week and another Smackdown is here. Tonight the main event is Edge vs. Kane for the pick of the stipulation at the PPV. Since there are only three options, what’s the point here? I guess the only interesting way is if Kane wins. That’s not going to happen though as it’s pretty clear this is going to wind up being a TLC match, as it likely should be. This should be solid though. Let’s get to it.

That theme song is growing on me rapidly. Hey there’s MVP. He’s fired.

The ring is surrounded by tables ladders and chairs. Nice to see those there and what a lucky break for them that they’re here a few weeks before a PPV called tables ladders and chairs. WWE has all the luck sometimes.

Here’s Rey to talk a bit. These things are weapons of mass destruction according to Striker. No they’re really not. I don’t really think a chair you would find at Wal-Mart is the same as a ballistic missile but give how competitive shopping is this time of year maybe Wal-Mart just wants to go that extra mile.

There’s a ladder in the ring and Rey talks about how Sheamus was crowned King of the Ring on Monday. Rey would have liked to have been King but couldn’t due to Alberto Del Rio. We see a clip from last week where Alberto cost him his spot in the tournament. That is complimented nicely by Rey costing Del Rio a spot in the finals of said tournament. Being a king is about being a leader and fearless apparently. So it’s about being the villain from Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Rey talks about climbing higher and higher and that rather than driving around in fancy cars, he prefers to fly. You know, other than when Eddie has recently passed away and you rode around in lowriders. Here’s Alberto to say that Rey climbs ladders to be on Alberto’s level. Rey says he’s been injured by people twice the man that Alberto is. That’s kind of a weak insult isn’t it? Yes you hurt me and put me out but you’re not as tough as other people that put me out? It’s rather self-insulting if nothing else.

Both guys are up near the top of the ladder and have a little chat. It’s kind of a cool visual actually. Rey says Alberto doesn’t make the rules here. Rey has been talking to Teddy and the match is set for the PPV. We get the required brawl and Alberto is sent to the floor through a table. I’d assume a ladder match for the PPV but it wasn’t said.

Back from a break we see a graphic of WWE.com where there’s a History of Money in the Bank with a picture of The Miz. Miz’s chest is sagging pretty bad there. It looks like he has implants almost.

Ziggler and Vickie are in the back earlier today and Vickie is talking about Kaitlyn. Naturally they run into her as she’s the newest Smackdown Diva. Dolph hits on her just a bit but it’s time for a match.

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre vs. MVP/Kaval

The fired dude and the bald dude get an entrance unlike their opponents. Cole says they’re wearing the same outfits. Apparently both of them being blue means they’re wearing identical clothes. Todd asks about Monday with Lawler and Cole says he’ll talk about it on Monday. MVP and Drew start us off. Some nice double team works gets a two count for Kaval.

I wasn’t big on Kaval in NXT but he’s growing on me a bit. I like his look if nothing else. MVP looks a bit off here, almost like he’s not sure what to do. It’s kind of hard to describe. More nice double teaming by the faces though as Kaval goes flying over the top to take out Dolph. After a break Dolph hammers away on MVP for a bit. Facebuster from MVP sets up Ballin for no cover.

Drew interferes long enough to allow Ziggler to get in a quick chop block to take control again. The heels work on the knee and we get a fairly loud MVP chant. He can’t make the tag though but then does a few seconds later. Nice little extra tease there. Kaval comes in and cleans house. He gets sent over the top but somehow catches his balance and hits a springboard enziguri to take down Ziggler. Nice sequence there and it looked awesome.

MVP and Drew fight to the floor as Dolph gets the sleeper. Scratch that as he only got part of it and Kaval slipped out. Kaval gets a sleeper of his own with a little Dragon twist on it. Vickie interferes so Drew can break it up though and the Zig Zag ends this at approximately 10:30 shown of 14:00. That’s how MVP goes out? Well he had nothing to do with it and it meant nothing so it fits perfectly for him.

Rating: B-. I liked this quite a bit actually. It was pretty well put together and while basic, it came off pretty well. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a reason to have a match other than to have a match. This was one of those occasions as there are kind of connections there but nothing really specific, but the match worked anyway. Can’t ask for more than that.

Kane comes out as the victors leave. He tombstones Kaval and chokeslams MVP. Kane says that the show will not continue until he gets his father back. Edge pops up on the screen and says it’s time to end it and they’re at the loading dock. Kane runs to get him for the third week in a row as we take a break.

After a Raw recap, Kane can’t find Paul or Edge. He looks under a truck and sees a wheelchair going across the floor. He runs alongside the side of the truck and then sees boxes or something falling on the wheelchair and crushing another dummy which naturally he can’t tell the difference between. Is he going to the same optometrist that WCW announcers went to when they saw Fake Sting? Edge and Bearer run away as Kane chases again.

Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger

Winner is the #1 contender to the IC Title. This should be good. Swagger takes us to the mat almost immediately which makes perfect sense. Long feeling out process to start, as in like two minutes straight of it or so. Both guys go for their finishers but both manage to avoid it as this is a nice little chess match so far. And now we’re talking about Miz. Ok then.

Grisham more or less ignores Cole and gets things back to the match. No one can really get an extended period on offense in here as they’re going back and forth which is nice stuff. Swagger gets the run up the corner suplex for two as we take a break. Back with Swagger maintaining control.

Swagger hooks a crossface chickenwing as Kofi gets back up. Bob Backlund he is not. He shifts over to the knee though as Striker talks about their match last week. That’s what a good analyst does: point out how things have changed since their last encounter and why they’re doing things differently now. Well done again.

Off to an abdominal stretch as Swagger needs to pick a body part already. Grisham: Swagger is thinking tap out here. These are the best lines he can think of to add? Swagger goes to the floor but Kofi, with his head facing the apron, backflips out to kick Swagger and hits a jumping Superman punch to take over. They tease a countout but we had one of those earlier this week so there was no way that was happening.

Kofi starts going off with strikes before hitting the SOS rather sloppily for two. Swagger wants the gutwrench powerbomb but settles for a big old boot to the face for two. Vader Bomb is blocked into a drop toe hold (with Kofi’s hands rather than legs but whatever) to send Swagger into the buckle.

Off to the other corner where Swagger avoids the Pendulum Kick so Kofi guillotines him across the top rope instead. A big cross body gets two as this is some very good stuff. Trouble in Paradise misses as does a big boot. Another attempt at it misses and Swagger goes for the ankle again. Kofi rolls to the floor and while Swagger goes to get him, Kofi jumps up and kicks him as he’s coming out to knock him cold with Trouble in Paradise for the pin at 13:24 shown of 16:54.

Rating: B+. SWEET match with this being a chess match the whole way through. They brought stuff in from their previous match and incorporated it here very well. This was a long match that didn’t feel long at all. What more can you ask for than that? Very good match indeed.

Kane runs out into the concourse and sees Edge with Paul in the wheelchair and the chase is on again. Edge shoves the wheelchair down a flight of stairs. Say it with me: it’s another dummy. Paul shouts to Kane and the chase is on again.

Chris Masters vs. Cody Rhodes

Cody sends him into the corner but Masters reverses and goes for the face as Cody freaks. Masterlock goes on but Cody is on the apron so it’s broken. Both guys are in black and gold here for no apparent reason. Cody gets a messed up submission hold as he spins Masters’ arm around his leg and gets a chinlock on as well. I’ve never seen that one before.

Masters fights back with basic power stuff as I think I smell a jobber to the stars. It smells like Paul Roma if nothing else. Wait I’m in Kentucky so it’s more Hillbilly Jim. Beautiful Disaster takes down Masters and the Cross Rhodes end this in 3:00.

Rating: N/A. Just a glorified squash but this was fine.

We recap the Bearer is kidnapped thing to waste some time.

Rosa Mendes vs. Layla

Oddly enough Rosa is looking pretty good here. Layla mocks the whole jumping rope thing and Rosa hits her in the head. Michelle gets on the apron and Layla is sent into her. Neckbreaker ends it in maybe a minute though with Layla winning.

Laycool beat up Rosa post match and Horny makes the save. Damn it. They get on their knees to fight him but Beth runs out for the save. And here comes the Soaring Eagle. Oh dear. They’re following up on a comedy angle from the Thanksgiving show. The last time I remember this happening was…..damn back in 2002 with that Cena kid rapping.

Horny does the Warrior rope shake and down he goes. And then the bird takes a Glam Slam and Tadpole Splash. Oh dear. Grisham kills the corpse of this already dead segment with the worst pun of the year: I guess the eagle wasn’t talon-ted enough to survive this. Go to….ANYTHING else….I beg of you.

We get ANOTHER Raw Rebound. Ok then. It’s 5 more minutes I can skip. Cole still won’t talk about it.

Edge vs. Kane

Winner gets to pick the stipulation for the PPV title match. Edge hits the floor immediately to try to tick Kane off but gets caught and the beating is on. Edge takes out the knee and stomps away. Kind of an awkward start. Low dropkick takes Edge down as this has been back and forth. Kane runs into a boot though and hits the floor.

Spear sends Kane into the railing and we take a break. Naturally Kane takes over during the break. Edge gets going a bit and is sent over the top. This match can’t catch any kind of momentum at all. With a running start Edge jumps up to the steps and hits a clothesline on the floor to take Kane down again.

Kane wants a chokeslam over the top rope but can’t get it. He walks into a top rope cross body/shoulder block for two instead though. Nice consolation prize I suppose. Tombstone is countered into an Edge-O-Matic. See what I mean about this changing momentum so fast? There isn’t much transition in between these at all. Sidewalk slam gets two for the champion.

Top rope clothesline puts Edge down and calls for the Chokeslam. Edge counters into the Edgecution and the crowd doesn’t seem to care at all really. Well the DDT helped a bit I guess. A pesticide helps wake a crowd up. That’s rather odd.

Kane gets more or less a spear but they call it a clothesline to prevent gimmick infringement. He calls for another chokeslam but Paul pops up on screen and says come get him. Kane thinks about it but sprints back to beat the count and walks into the spear to end it at approximately 10:10 shown of 13:40.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t huge on this at all. It’s the main event of back to back PPVs and yet here it was treated like just another match. This wasn’t much at all and felt completely flat, which definitely isn’t a good thing. It was watchable but the world champion has now had two matches where he can’t beat Edge. That’s not good.

Naturally Edge picks a TLC match. He says Kane can have Paul back and wheels him out with his back facing Kane. Even the fans shout THAT’S NOT PAUL. Kane beats up the imposter. Bearer pops up on screen begging for Kane to come save him but Edge drives away with him again. This is getting a little repetitive but it ends the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Mostly good stuff here despite a weak main event. I could definitely see people liking the main event but it didn’t work well for me. The other stuff was solid though and the show overall works. It went very fast which is always a good thing.

I’ll be glad when this whole Bearer is kidnapped thing is over though as it’s REALLY getting old at this point. Kane didn’t destroy Edge any better than he would have otherwise when he got the chance so it’s not really accomplishing anything. This was a good show otherwise though and it worked for the majority.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

Smackdown-12/03/2010

Rey Mysterio/Alberto Del Rio

Besides both men standing on top of the ladder, this did nothing for me. Rey isn't very good on the mic and Del Rio isn't either. I know, I know, Del Rio's a great talker, blah, blah, blah...no, he's not. Sets up a match they have at TLC, I guess?

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre vs. Kaval/MVP

Other than there being absolutely no reason for this match, it went well. Ziggler and Kaval are damn good in the ring, and McIntyre is solid. MVP looked not-so-great as usual, but I guess we don't have to worry about seeing that again . Solid match here even though it really means nothing.

Kane/Paul Bearer/Edge Segment #1

Kane stops the show..even though he really doesn't. Kane looks around for Paul..again..and doesn't find him...again. This is getting really, really old.

Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger, #1 Contenders Match for the IC Title

I'm not a big Kofi fan, but this worked. These guys actually have decent chemistry, something you don't see very often from Kofi with the other guys. Longer match, and it's somewhat refreshing to see actual wrestling on a wrestling program (take notes here TNA). Good match.

Kane Looks for Paul Bearer Segment #2

This is still going on?? This has become rather terrible.

Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Masters

I would say this was a good squash-win for Cody, but no one loses to Mastes. Short, and not very sweet.

Rosa vs. Layla, Hornswaggle/Beth Phoenix vs. The Eagle?

Layla has one of the nicest tails in the business, but other than that, I didn't care. Horny must move a lot of merchandise to still have a job. Phoenix looked about as manly as possible, and Chav..I mean the bird, got his ass whipped again. Very, very PG right here.

Edge vs. Kane

Aren't we going to see this match at TLC? Why the WWE likes to give it's PPV main events away on free television leading up to the event is beyond me. Crap match here with both guys looking terrible. Edge looks flabby and totally out of shape, and Kane is moving even slower than Edge. These two just do not work well together. Oh yeah...and it's going to be a TLC match at..TLC. Whatever. If they don't stink it up at TLC I will be totally shocked.

And after this horrific match, we are treated to more of this idiotic Paul Bearer/kidnapping story. This is beyond stale at this point, and I have moved from not caring to being annoyed.


OVERALL: C

Decent matches, but some of this show really didn't mean anything moving forward. The Horswaggle thing was aimed at anyone under the age of 10, so it was kind of annoying. The Kane/Bearer/Edge story is getting out of hand, and isn't at all entertaining. Solid, average show here. I have might have liked it more if weren't for all that Edge/Kane garbage we had to deal with.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Friday Night SmackDown! - December 3, 2010

Rey Mysterio & Alberto Del Rio - I thought the opening of the show was solid, though there wasn't anything overly special about it. I admit that I groaned a little when I realized it was going to be Mysterio cutting a promo but he actually did an ok job. He certainly didn't set new standards for a promo or anything, but he's better than he used to be. Del Rio coming out worked and I just like this guy. He's got tons of charisma and I don't know if there's anyone that's seems more naturally comfortable in his role than Del Rio. I like that they got into it a bit with Rey coming up on the winning end as he puts Del Rio through a table on the outside. I'm hoping that there match at TLC is a blow off for this feud because, while I've enjoyed it, I'd rather it end before it starts getting stale and I start to tire of it. Maybe they could pick it up again a little later down the road. Thumbs Up

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs. MVP & Kaval - I thought this was a really fun tag team match. All four of these guys have some degree of a connection to one another. While the connections aren't exactly rock solid, there's enough there for me to see the reason for having the match. Pretty fun stuff overall with MVP & Kaval hitting it off with the crowd. I thought these two actually had good chemistry together and might've made a fun tag team but, MVP's gone so meh. The end comes about the 11.5 minute mark with Ziggler hitting the ZigZag on Kaval for the win. Vickie Guerrero interfered a little on Ziggler's behalf though nothing major. Thumbs Up

Kane & Edge - Throughout most of the night, we saw segments of Kane chasing after Edge & Paul Bearer. It started tonight with Kane coming down to the ring after the tag match and laying out MVP & Kaval before screaming on the mic for Edge to give Paul Bearer back. Through the night, Kane is shown at various locations in the arena chasing Edge. First, they're back at the loading dock and Kane sees a huge piece of cargo fall out of the back of a truck and land on a dummy in a wheelchair. A while later, Edge pushes another dummy down a flight of stairs that I admit gave me a little chuckle. I can understand if people aren't into this but, for the past few weeks, I think it's been fairly tolerable. It's not great, but it's loads better than when they were doing it the first week with Edge acting all sinister and Kane whining like some punk bitch. Still, I'm ready for this to be over and I thought it was ok tonight. Thumbs Up

Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger - This was an awesome match, just an extremely damn good effort from Kingston & Swagger. Swagger & Kofi have great chemistry together and this was their best match yet in my view. It was back and forth, some fun near falls and just really competitive. They did a lot of what they put into their match last week and just added a few dashes of this and a dab of that to make it even better. Kofi gets the win around the 17 minute mark after hitting Trouble in Paradise and becomes #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. This match is an example of how to pull off a great tv match. Thumbs Up

Dashing Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Masters - This match was alright for what it was. It lasted about 3 minutes but it was solid while it lasted. The crowd was surprisingly more into this match than I figured they'd be and it was a good showcase match for Cody Rhodes. I love that Beautiful Disaster kick he hits off the rope, the loud pop just works and makes the move look great. He gets the win after hitting Cross Rhodes after that. This match was just filler and it was alright for what it was. Thumbs Up

Layla vs. Rosa Mendes - I have to admit that my mouth watered a little bit watching Rosa wiggle and gyrate around before the match. As you figured, the match was the usual 90 second bullshit we get from the Divas most of the time. Layla gets the win after hitting the Layout neckbreaker, which really does look good. The stuff with Hornswoggle & the Swagger Soaring Eagle was pretty damn lame. It was nice to see Beth Phoenix and I hope her knee is up to snuff soon. Thumbs Down

Kane vs. Edge - I thought this was a pretty decent match, though it didn't blow me away by any means. It did seem to drag at times but I thought that it told a good story and that it did pick up some in the second half. One thing I did notice about Edge during this match is that he's definitely not as quick as he was prior to blowing out his Achilles Tendon. He does still try though and I have enjoyed him more since he came to SmackDown! than I have in a long while. As Kane seems to have Edge where he wants him, Paul Bearer appears on the screen again crying out for help. Kane almost goes to his aid, nearly getting counted out in the process only to be caught by The Spear as he climbs back in. Edge gets the win somewhere around the 14 minute mark. Afterward, Edge names the stipulation for his match with Kane at the ppv and picks a TLC match. Not a barnburner of a main event, but I thought it was a pretty good effort overall Thumbs Up

Overall Show - SmackDown! was a fun show tonight and I enjoyed the vast majority of it. The kidnapping thing with Edge, Kane & Paul Bearer is getting old but I thought it was passable due to in large part to Kane & Edge shifting their characters a bit. The stuff with the Divas was horrible. The opening segment with Mysterion & Del Rio was well done, the following tag team match was a fun opening match, Rhodes & Masters was decent for what it was, Kingston & Swagger had a fantastic match and I think that Kofi is ready to move upward, and the main event was pretty good in my view. From top to bottom, I thought SmackDown! delivered a strong, solid 2 hours that went by very quickly.

Grade: B

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Rey Mysterio & Alberto Del Rio

The ring area is filled with ladders. Rey Mysterio comes out. He’s upset about not winning King Of The Ring. He blames Alberto Del Rio. Rey climbs a ladder, and then he does this angel like pose. Del Rio finally comes out. Rey challenges Del Rio to a fight. He climbs the ladder to meet Rey face to face. Del Rio calls Rey a Chihuahua. This always manages to crack me up. Rey says a match has been made for TLC. Rey and Del Rio get into a scuffle, but Rey gets the best of Del Rio by putting him through a table. I thought this was good opening segment. Rey posing like an angel was kind of weird to me, but I’ve actually enjoyed the feud betweeen these two so far. The mic work here was pretty solid, and I’m looking forward to the match these two will have at TLC.

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre VS MVP & Kaval

Ziggler hits the Zig Zag on Kaval for the win. Very solid match between these two teams. There was some good action here, and I wonder if WWE will go the distance with Ziggler and McIntyre. Kaval and MVP worked well together in this match, but as we all know by now, MVP is gone from WWE, so we’ll never know if this team could’ve been something. After the match, Kane comes out to attack MVP and Kaval. Edge tells Kane to come get Paul Bearer in the parking lot. Edge lures Kane into the loading dock.

Kofi Kingston VS Jack Swagger- #1 Contender’s Match For The Intercontinental Championship

Kofi Kingston hits Trouble In Paradise from outside of the ring. He rolls in the ring to get the cover on Swagger for the win. This was an outstanding match. The action here was great, and you could really see how bad both men wanted a shot at the IC Championship. The constant back and forth action in this match kept me on the edge of my seat. This was an outstanding match, but Kofi winning here was kind of a bummer for me. I think Swagger needed the boost a lot more than Kofi, because Swagger hasn’t been able to gain any real momentum for quite some time.

Cody Rhodes VS Chris Masters

Cody hits Cross Roads for the win. There really wasn’t anything special about this match. You just knew Chris Masters was going to lose this one, because Cody is going places in WWE, and he needs every bit of momentum he can get.

Rosa Mendes VS Layla

Layla hits the Lay Out for the win. Nothing really happened here. The match was very short, and we saw Michelle try to distract the referee. Rosa Mendes hasn’t done anything worth while in WWE in for a long time now. She saw some spotlight as Zack Ryder’s girlfriend a while back, but she’s just been a comedy act during her time on Smackdown. After the match, Lay-Cool tries to beat down Rosa, but Hornswoggle interrupts. They mock Hornswoggle. Beth Phoenix comes out. She takes out Lay-Cool. Swagger’s Soaring Eagle Mascot comes out to get revenge on Hornswoggle. The Eagle kicks Hornswoggle in the face. Beth hits the Glam Slam on the Eagle, and Hornswoggle follows this up with a frogsplash. Umm, yeah, this was pretty painful to watch. I facepalmed as I watched Hornswoggle shake the ropes. His Ultimate Warrior impersonation wasn’t funny, and I seriously don’t know what Vince sees in the little guy. Although, it was cool to see Beth Glam Slam Swagger’s Eagle.

Kane VS Edge-Winner Decides The Stipulation at TLC

Towards the end of the match, a video of Paul Bearer is shown. Kane contemplates on going to find him. He rushes back to the ring, and Edge hits the spear for the win. Edge chooses a TLC match for the pay per view. Edge brings out a man in a wheelchair. It’s not Paul Bearer of course. Kane is pissed, as he takes out his frustrations on the fake Paul Bearer. Edge drives away with Paul Bearer on a truck to close the show. As far as the match goes, I thought it was pretty okay. Kane and Edge went at a steady pace here, but things did pick up towards the end. This wasn’t a good main event, but the match was decent enough.

Overall Show Rating 7/10: Very good episode of Smackdown tonight. Swagger VS Kingston was easily the highlight of the night, and I enjoyed the tag team match. I could’ve done without the Hornswoggle stuff, because I just can’t stand the guy. It’s nice to see Beth Phoenix back on Smackdown, and I hope she can regain the momentum she had before the injury. Also, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see a handicap match between Lay-Cool and Beth Phoenix on a pay per view in the near future. The Kane/Edge stuff did make laugh sometimes tonight. Watching Kane chase mannequin versions of Paul Bearer was kind of funny. On a side note, Kaitlyn, the winner of NXT season 3 has been officially signed to Smackdown. Kaitlyn is smoking hot, but she really doesn’t bring anything else to the table. She’s atrocious in the ring, and her mic skills aren’t that good either. Kaitlyn looks like she will be a thron in Vickie’s side again. There seemed to be some sparks between kaitlyn and Dolph tonight, so I think WWE is going to pick up the love triangle storyline again. It’ll be interesting to see how far WWE will go with this potential storyline and Kaitlyn.

 

[martymcfly]

I think it was a good, solid show. However, two things that kind of bugged me (minor I know, but might as well):

1. Why did the king of the ring trophies look so cheap? Seriously, that crown and especially that scepter looked terrible. The crown looked like a cheap party favor and the scepter looked like someone painted a styrofoam ball gold and stuck it on top of a plastic stick. Maybe this is a minor complaint, but if they want us to take the winner of king of the ring seriously, at least have the prizes look like they weren't purchased from a 99 cent store.

2. For the most part I enjoyed Punk's commentary, but there were definitely some awkward spots when he was obviously being fed what was being yelled to him by Vince mcmahon. I really wish vince would just let punk do his own thing, because when he is, he's entertaining. For example, when Punk was yelling at Miz and calling him stupid for not climbing the ladder, that seemed to be Punk himself. Then a moment later he apologizes and says that "ok, miz is not stupid but he shouldn't be wasting time" probably came from vince. Another example was at the end of the program where punk was alone on commentary at the end of the show after miz won the match. Punk's comments were all over the board, both bashing and praising miz, and we had to end the show by hearing Punk call Miz awwwwwesome. Clearly he was being yelled at by vince during that segment and especially with that ending. Lame.

Also just to throw in there, I had a feeling that the scowling girl was a plant in the audience and since they actually reused footage of her during the show I think it was probably the case. That's not a complaint, just an observation.

Anyways, other than the 2 comments above, good enjoyable program.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: December 6, 2010
Location: KFC YUM Center, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, CM Punk

We're back to the regular two hours of shows here as it's the week between the King of the Ring and the Slammys. The main thing tonight is the explanation from Cole as to why he cost King the WWE Title last week which should be most interesting. Let's get to it.

We open with a highlight package of the TLC match from last week where Cole flat out cost Lawler the title. Punk and Lawler are on commentary without Cole. Punk praises Lawler for trying last week and here’s Cole.

Cole says that he’s been Miz’s biggest supporter for years and that when Miz won the title it was like his own son won it. He apologizes profusely for what happened and Lawler says he’s going to come in there and finish what he started last week.

Cole then blames Jerry, saying that Lawler had to have the spotlight one more time and that he was trying to be the King again. According to Cole, Lawler should apologize to him.

We get an E-Mail and since Cole is in the ring, Punk answers it. He says he’s nervous because he’s always wanted to do this. The GM has issued a cease and desist order and if it’s violated them someone will be terminated. Lawler must shake Cole’s hand.

Very slowly Jerry gets in and does shake his hand but says there’s someone that has something for Cole. Cue Orton’s music to a solid pop. Orton says he has a message for Miz. He doesn’t blame him for cashing in and would have done the same thing.

Orton says he and the Miz are a lot alike but Orton has proven that he can back up what he says in the ring. He’s going to take back the championship tonight. I knew I should have gone to this show!

Here are Miz and Riley. Miz says Orton used to be original but now he’s just stale. They were in the same MITB match in the summer and now he’s world champion while Orton is nothing. Since he defended last week he doesn’t have to do so again until the TLC PPV against Orton.

Orton wants to know where the seven guys are to beat up Orton. Riley isn’t even one guy apparently. Alex challenges Orton to a match later which is accepted. Miz gets to pick the match type for the PPV which he hasn’t decided on yet. Orton says that even on one knee there’s something he can do, and with that he RKO’s Cole to send us to commercial.

Back from a break and Josh Matthews is now on commentary.

Ted DiBiase/Maryse vs. Daniel Bryan/Brie Bella

Before the match we see Daniel Bryan coming out of a locker room with Brie Bella. Nikki comes up and seems rather jealous. I’m liking where this is going. The guys start us off and here comes Nikki. The Bellas are looking very good tonight in red. Punk says he’s seeing double. There’s a Foreigner song in there somewhere.

Bryan beats on Ted for a few seconds before the girls come in. Maryse gets beaten on for a bit. Ted comes in for the save and it’s a big brawl a minute and a half in. There’s the Twin Magic and Nikki rolls up Maryse for the pin at 2:12.

Rating: N/A. Way too short to mean anything at all as this was just a backdrop to set up the post match angle. Nothing special but the girls looked good so there’s always that.

Post match Ted yells at Maryse again and is told to talk to the hand.

Fatal fourway elimination match for the tag titles later and an interview with Wade Barrett.

Back from a break we recap the Cena and Nexus angle from last week along with Truth’s involvement with it. I’m not sure where that aspect of it is going but I don’t see it going well. I’d also still like to know why Cena needed five tickets for one seat. Cena said he would be here tonight.

We go live via satellite to a hotel room to talk to Barrett. He’s gotten one hell of a tan, one hell of a bad haircut and has gotten rid of his accent. Ah never mind it’s Otunga, saying that Barrett is on his way to the arena for the tag title shot.

Otunga throws the camera out because his food is here. He complains that it’s cold and throws out the deliveryman. There’s a second knock on the door it’s SUPER CENA TO THE RESCUE! I’m not sure what he’s rescuing but it sounds good. He pounds on Otunga a bit but Harris makes the save. Otunga bails and Cena beats up Harris a bit before going after Otunga as we take a break.

David Hart Smith vs. Tyson Kidd

Wasn’t this the main event of Superstars a few weeks back? This is quite the upgrade. Kidd brings out a big man with him that I don’t recognize. He’s huge though, towering over Smith who is a big guy in his own right. This guy is at least 7’0.

They start fast with Kidd stomping away and beating down Smith in the corner. Smith shrugs those shots off and gets an overhead belly to belly but runs into an elbow. Apparently being hit in the face by a grown man’s elbow doesn’t hurt Smith as he gets a delayed vertical suplex off the middle rope for two.

Kidd gets caught in the powerslam position but reverses into a rollup/victory roll for the pin at approximately 2:15. Smith goes after him again post match as there might have been tights pulled. The big man destroys Smith

Rating: N/A. This was better than I would have expected as this flew by and was very fast paced the entire time. A key thing here is that Kidd won clean for the most part and looked good the whole time. Good stuff.

Gabriel and Slater are worried about Cena but Barrett tells them to chill. McGillicutty is out of action apparently. Otunga comes in and says Harris is hurt. Is the hotel across the street or something? Either that or Otunga is capable of flying. I doubt it though as one superhero on Raw is enough. Barrett is going to call out Cena later. Otunga says there may be a mutiny coming soon.

Apparently Kidd’s big man was Jackson Andrews, a guy from FCW.

Tag Titles: Usos vs. Nexus vs. Santino Marella/Vladimir Kozlov vs. Mark Henry/Yoshi Tatsu

This is under elimination rules. Gabriel and Tatsu start. At the last show I was at Tatsu and Jericho tore the house down so it would be nice to see him win a title here. Spin kick gets two for Tatsu so Gabriel kicks Tatsu in some African on Asian violence. Off to Slater now with Josh picking Kozlov and Santino.

Henry comes in and is supposed to fight an Uso but they run from him. Henry is like get the hell in here and pulls Jey in by the hair. Freaking ow man! We’re getting some very fast paced tagging here. Punk is talking about the Bellas vs. the Usos for some reason but since it’s coming from Punk it’s awesome.

Lawler brings us back to reality as Punk threatens to send Josh back to Superstars. The Usos surprisingly clean house and beat up Henry and Tatsu. Slater tags himself in and gets one of the most unrecognizable finishers of all time to get rid of Tatsu and thereby Henry at approximately 3:00.

The Usos come in and get a slingshot Samoan Drop (think 3D kind of but with a Samoan Drop ending and the guy playing D-Von lets go) for two as Gabriel saves. Kozlov comes in and runs through the Usos. The spike slam ends the Usos at approximately 4:45. Tamina stays behind with Santino.

It’s Nexus vs. Kozlov/Santino for the titles. Punk keeps calling Santino Jar Jar which is amusing. Santino comes in to by far the biggest reaction in this match. Who would have guessed that he would be the most popular guy of eight men in a title match late in 2010?

They’re trying to make Tamina look good and from a distance she kind of does. Then they show closeups of her and she looks a bit goo much like a diseased goat. We take a break with Nexus in control.

Back with Gabriel holding Kozlov in a front facelock. There’s the hot tag to Santino who raises the roof and surprisingly cleans house to a nice pop. He hits a Stunner complete with splits as Kozlov takes out Slater. Cena pops up from under the ring and gets Gabriel’s attention. The Cobra hits Gabriel and we have new champions at 12:00!

Rating: C. Match was kind of boring but the ending more than makes up for that. It completely amazes me that Santino is as over as he is but given the pops he’s been getting there is no reason to not put a title on him to give him some credibility. Not the best match in the world but entertaining and rather exciting so that wasn’t bad at all.

Sheamus’ coronation ceremony is tonight. Didn’t we have that last week?

It’s coronation time. Sheamus comes out in a freaky looking black cape/robe thing. He looks like a gender confused inbred offspring of Batman and Satan. Sheamus says he’s better than anyone here and is better than the King of Kings, HHH. He talks about the last great High King of Ireland but that his reign will live forever.

Sheamus says he’ll be remembered as the High King, not some Ronald McDonald guy or Conan O’Brien. Isn’t USA owned by NBC? That has to be a lawsuit and more millions to Conan. Here’s Morrison to make fun of him a bit, saying Sheamus looks like something from Lord of the Rings. He’s right actually.

Sheamus says that Morrison is jealous because Sheamus has done more in two years than Morrison has done in his whole career. That’s very true. Morrison says it’s 1-1 in their series and he’s the better man. Sheamus demands respect and says bow to your king. Could they foreshadow HHH’s return any harder?

Morrison guarantees he’ll never bow. Sheamus shouts GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES and gets slugged. I guess we had to prevent this from getting to TV-14 with suggestive language. Morrison cleans the ring and holds up the scepter. I like this feud.

Back with Laycool on commentary.

Natalya vs. Melina

Melina looks GREAT tonight. Natalya gets the pumpps on the vertical suplex almost immediately. Melina goes for a sunset flip but puts her knees up to drive them into the back of Natalya. Nice one. This is a back and forth match as Laycool will not shut up. Punk tries to play it straight and can’t get it to work at all. Sharpshooter ends clean at 2:20.

Rating: N/A. This was FAR better than your typical Divas match as Melina got to show off a bit too. They need to find someone that can hang with Natalya and this was as close as they’ve gotten yet.

Laycool beats down Natalya post match.

We recap the opening segment and go to Miz and Riley in the back. Miz says Riley HAS to beat Orton tonight. He’s going to show Orton the type of match they’ll be having.

Randy Orton vs. Alex Riley

Orton makes his entrance and we take a break. Back and we’re on. Orton has a bad knee still which may be legit from what I’ve heard. Miz trips him up and Riley hammers on hit but Orton uses the powers of staring to take over again. Orton is in trouble but gets an Angle Slam to break Alex’s momentum.

This is rapidly turning into what you would expect it to be. Powerslam sets up the elevated DDT as it’s all Orton here. Orton has his usual seizure but manages to keep his shoulder in one piece long enough for Miz to run in and hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the DQ at 2:54.

Rating: N/A. The matches have almost all been short tonight and with matches this short it’s hard to give them a grade. As a rule of thumb I don’t grade matches under three minutes. This was just a step ahead of a squash though, which is what it was supposed to be.

Miz grabs a mic and says he’s going to show Randy what kind of a match they’ll be having. He pulls out a table and sets for the Finale again but Orton fights out of it. He tries to powerslam Miz through it but the champion escapes. Orton powerbombs Riley through the table instead. Nice to see that knee is able to hold up a full grown man for a powerbomb after getting beaten on in a match.

Barrett is on his way to the ring and says something to Otunga as we take our last break.

Barrett comes out and says that he was wrong. It was supposed to be free or fired, not free or run around all over the place whenever you like. Only Barrett can get Cena rehired so the attacks on Nexus are pointless. Barrett calls out Cena who comes through the crowd as Punk calls for security.

Nexus comes out as Cena gets in the ring. Barrett says this is not going to work and Cena will never be rehired. Cena says Barrett is stupid which is funny for some reason. He lists off all he’s done so far and says he has no issue with staying fired and hanging out with the WWE Universe and making Nexus’ lives a living hell.

Barrett says Cena can’t intimidate him and says what will Cena do if Barrett rehires him? Cena says he could do a lot of things like compete for the WWE Championship, which doesn’t apply to Barrett since he doesn’t have the title. Cena says if he’s rehired the attacks on Nexus may stop but they won’t stop on Barrett.

Cena says that Barrett knows nothing about honor or anything like that or he’d rehire him. He says he’s going to make Barrett’s life a nightmare. Barrett says that sounds like a threat and calls down Nexus. They stand still though before turning to leave. There goes Cena’s shirt and this is awesome all over again.

Cena goes off on Barrett and destroys him. He sets up the steps next to the table and in a hilarious moment, Cena stops to hand Punk his diet soda which Punk casually throws down. He sets for the FU and bolts for the back but Cena stays in the ring to not quite end the show. We head to the back where Barrett GOES OFF on Nexus but Otunga says this is an ultimatum: either hire Cena back next week or Barrett is out. This just got awesome.

Overall Rating: A. This was a very good show with everything being fun and having a point. Storylines were advanced with everyone having a story and something to do. This was a very fun show overall and the whole thing worked incredibly well. Raw has been on a roll lately and this was once again no exception. Great show and everything worked incredibly well.

 

[The Doctor]

So, one of the biggest complaints I've heard about the PG Era is that it seemed like back in the Attitude Era, everyone had a storyline or feud, and that nowadays only the main event has one. Well, I think we've finally come to realize that things are about to change, for the better.

Everyone, and I mean everyone on this show had a story. Tyson Kidd and DH Smith had their tag team breakup, with the new bodyguard Kidd debuted as the X Factor in this. Who is he? What is his relation to Kidd? How will this feud progress? All questions raised tonight.

Daniel Bryan has to choose between the two twins, and they have to fight over Bryan! Who will Bryan go for? Will he take a third option? And who will be his opponent for the United States Championship at TLC now that Bryan has defeated Ted DiBiase multiple times?

Sheamus and Morrison are continuing their feud - could they be the Chairs Match at TLC? Who will come out on top? Will we really be seeing a Triple H return, as was heavily foreshadowed tonight?

The Cena/Nexus storyline is just excellent. The ultimatum spiced up the pot, and it makes me want to tune in next week to see what will happen, whether Cena will be hired or whether the Nexus will turn against their leader. The segments with Cena attacking Nexus have been extremely compelling TV, in my opinion. We don't know when Cena will strike next.

Speaking of Cena striking, I was very happy to see KozTino win the tag team title match. You can read my reaction in the official thread for that discussion. I love Santino and I love how they're making him competent again while retaining his humor and fun.

Even the divas have stories going, with a great champ in Natalya and the jealous LayCool wanting their belts back. Though I highly dislike Melina, her match with Nattie tonight was just fine.

Also, comments on Miz as champion: I really think he'll be having a long, long title reign. He'll play the Ric Flair or the JBL, the cowardly vulnerable heel that everyone wants to see lose, but never does. People will pay to see him get beaten and when he finally does, a star will be born.

I can't explain just how happy this RAW made me. I felt like a little kid, loving everything I saw on my TV. I had this giant goofy grin on my face the whole time. There are times where I'm just so happy to be a wrestling fan, and this was one of those times. Hopefully RAW has turned over a new leaf and this streak of excellent shows won't be broken.

A+

 

[Y-2-Jay]

So, one of the biggest complaints I've heard about the PG Era is that it seemed like back in the Attitude Era, everyone had a storyline or feud, and that nowadays only the main event has one. Well, I think we've finally come to realize that things are about to change, for the better.

Everyone, and I mean everyone on this show had a story. Tyson Kidd and DH Smith had their tag team breakup, with the new bodyguard Kidd debuted as the X Factor in this. Who is he? What is his relation to Kidd? How will this feud progress? All questions raised tonight.

Daniel Bryan has to choose between the two twins, and they have to fight over Bryan! Who will Bryan go for? Will he take a third option? And who will be his opponent for the United States Championship at TLC now that Bryan has defeated Ted DiBiase multiple times?

Sheamus and Morrison are continuing their feud - could they be the Chairs Match at TLC? Who will come out on top? Will we really be seeing a Triple H return, as was heavily foreshadowed tonight?

The Cena/Nexus storyline is just excellent. The ultimatum spiced up the pot, and it makes me want to tune in next week to see what will happen, whether Cena will be hired or whether the Nexus will turn against their leader. The segments with Cena attacking Nexus have been extremely compelling TV, in my opinion. We don't know when Cena will strike next.

Speaking of Cena striking, I was very happy to see KozTino win the tag team title match. You can read my reaction in the official thread for that discussion. I love Santino and I love how they're making him competent again while retaining his humor and fun.

Even the divas have stories going, with a great champ in Natalya and the jealous LayCool wanting their belts back. Though I highly dislike Melina, her match with Nattie tonight was just fine.

Also, comments on Miz as champion: I really think he'll be having a long, long title reign. He'll play the Ric Flair or the JBL, the cowardly vulnerable heel that everyone wants to see lose, but never does. People will pay to see him get beaten and when he finally does, a star will be born.

I can't explain just how happy this RAW made me. I felt like a little kid, loving everything I saw on my TV. I had this giant goofy grin on my face the whole time. There are times where I'm just so happy to be a wrestling fan, and this was one of those times. Hopefully RAW has turned over a new leaf and this streak of excellent shows won't be broken.

A+

Good review. And i am going to point out a part you brought up it was the first thing you mentioned. First off Wrestling wise it wasn't too great but its entertaining as hell at the moment. But now to that part you mentioned. You said everyone has a storyline and that is so true there is that many you even missed out the Santino/Tamina one (Comedy or not still storyline)

And i will admit i was one of those who did agree with people who said about the lack of storylines (They had a good point) But now they are back they are back better than ever. That's what is so great about it EVERYONE HAS A STORY!!! Even annoucers!!!! Then there is also the other things to think about like who is the GM? And when is HHH coming back? Man RAW is so awesome right now. Although not a A+ it gets a A from me.

Keep up the awesome writing and just add a little more wrestling then BOOM A+ from me. Doc i would rep you if i could.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

WWE Monday Night Raw-12/06/2010

Cole/Lawler/Orton/Miz (with Riley)

Cole comes out and tells us why he did what he did to Lawler..he's obsessed with Miz, basically. Big shocker there. Lawler can't touch Cole, so Orton comes out. For the love of Christ, do something with Orton already. They give him the same tired shit to say week in and week out. Orton says he doesn't blame Miz, because he would have done the same thing...doesn't it seem like we hear this from the ex-champion every SINGLE time a guy cashes in? Pretty boring stuff here from everyone.

Miz comes out to yap about last week, how he's better than Orton, and so on. Once again, same shit, different episode. Miz says Riley is going to face Orton tonight, which I'm actually kind of excited for. I think A-Riley is about twice as talented as the Miz, and I think he and Orton can put on a solid match. Oh yeah, and Cole gets an RKO..I am never against Cole taking a bump. Oh, and I really enjoyed Punk mocking Cole while doing the whole GM thing, entertaining stuff.

Ted DiBiase and Maryse vs. Daniel Bryan and..one of the Bella's

Short and sweet. Maybe this continues the feud between DB and Ted, or maybe it's over. Either way, I want more Daniel Bryan. Looks like Ted and Maryse are about done with as well, and that's too bad. She's hot (in a total skank way), and he needs a valet. Solid, nothing worth noting though.

Otunga/Fatty Harris/Cena in the Hotel

Interesting change of scenary here, and that's about all that interested me in this segment.

DH Smith vs. Tyson Kidd w/Jackson Andrews

Short match, and I really don't care. This team shouldn't have split up, they are nowhere near ready to be on their own. The big guy looks scary as hell though, curious to see what he's all about. Tyson Kidd needs a Cruiserweight setting..and he needs to cut that idiotic patch of hair off of his head. I will never take him seriously if he doesn't.

Uso's vs. Santino/Kozlov vs. Miz-Ark/Yoshi vs. Nexus

Decent match here, minus Miz-Ark and Yoshi. Yoshi can move, but no one cares. Miz-Ark is useless, and a waste of a paycheck. I was glad Santino and Kozlov took the belts. They have moved on from being a random tag team, and are now legit. They work well together, and I'm glad to see them carrying gold. Good match here, a lot of fun stuff.

Sheamus/Morrison

Sheamus brags about winning the King of the Ring, which is expected. Morrison comes out and cuts a crap promo. Morrison just can't make me care. He doesn't have the emotion, or the talent, to cut a really good promo. Basically, they talk about who's beaten the other more often...compelling stuff. There is nothing more boring (to me) than listening to guys talk about who has beaten each other more often. IT'S SCRIPTED! Enough of these competition-based feuds. Give us some personal stuff. This Sheamus/Morrison feud started out well, and has now becoming rather boring.

The Anvil Jr. vs. Melina

After Melina did her splits, I fastforwarded. I couldn't care less about this match, and I couldn't bear to hear LayCool again.

Randy Orton vs. Alex Riley

Great start to this match. Both guys were moving well, even with Orton favoring the leg. Alex Riley is going to be a HUGE star, I know it. It was cut short however, when the Miz brought his bum ass into the ring, and hit that terrible finisher. I was looking forward a long match, but I see why it ended quickly. Orton powerbombs the SHIT outta Riley, right through the table. Nice spot to end the match.

Cena/Barrett/NEXUS

As much as I totally marked out for this feud in the beginning, it's getting old. I know, I know it's the greastest thing since sliced bread. I'm tiring of it. It's going to end in another mediocre Cena/Barrett match, with Cena coming back to work. It's all formula from here on out. And Otunga is going to take over Nexus? He should be in the unemployment line, not leading a major stable. Where's Skip or Tarver when you need them?

OVERALL: C+

It was an ok show, but it didn't live up to the last month. I think just about every angle (Bryan/DiBiase, Cena/Nexus, Morrison/Sheamus) has run it's course. The only new angle is between Miz and Orton, and so far it's boring. Some good in-ring-action saved this show, IMO. Solid, average episode of Raw, but nothing special.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Monday Night Raw - December 6, 2010

Opening Segment - I liked the opening of Raw last night. It was a unique segment in which all of the factors from the WWE Championship situation last week were featured prominently. Michael Cole coming down the ramp instead of starting out behind the announce table was different and the heat he got was insane. Cole's reasoning for what he did and eventually just turning things around by trying to make it Lawler's fault was just great because shit like that really gets under people's skin. Lawler conducted himself well and the stuff with Punk sort of mocking Cole while giving the Raw GM's announcement was fun stuff. I was afraid that the GM was going to make some sort of match between Cole & Lawler and I was really glad they didn't go that route. Miz & Orton both did well out there and I like Miz's confidence. He seems, at least now, comfortable and Orton was a bit more laid back overall than we usually see him. They didn't try to have him dominate the segment with his presence and I liked that. Hitting the RKO on Michael Cole was a great way to close it off. I also like that the overall situation with the Raw announce team hasn't been resolved and that there are only more questions now instead of answers. Thumbs Up

Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. Ted DiBiase & Maryse - This just didn't really do it for me to be honest. It was way too short and way too much emphasis was put on the Bellas & Maryse. To some degree, I do kind of like the idea of an "average" guy like Daniel Bryan having two mouthwateringly hot identical twins sort of competing for his attention but I just hope it's something that they don't go overboard with. I just think that it might be time to move Bryan on as he's beaten DiBiase in one match setting after another. Brie & Bryan do get the win after the Bella's did their "Twin Magic" bit with Nikki rolling Maryse up in a small package. The brief time DiBiase & Bryan were in the ring was fun but, overall, there just wasn't enough here to sink my teeth into. Thumbs Down

John Cena & David Otunga - I thought this segment was overall kind of predictable, but solid. The whole thing with a guy being in a hotel and getting attacked by an enemy is a classic, old school theme and it worked pretty well here. Cena is in full Super Cena mode, which means he's pretty annoying. I thought the bit with Otunga bitching at the guy that brought him his food was a fun little touch. Otunga running out of the room while Cena beats down Husky Harris was a nice heel moment. I laughed a little as I picture Otunga running down the streets in the middle of Louisville wearing a pair of boots, a t-shirt and spandex tights. Nothing overly special here, but it was pretty solid overall. Thumbs Up

Tyson Kidd vs. David Hart Smith - This was another short match but it was high energy and fast paced from the beginning. Tyson Kidd's new bodyguard or whatever he is, Jackson Andrews, is huge. Vince probably got major wood when he first saw this guy. The match was pretty good while it lasted and I'm glad that they've moved this up to Raw a little bit. DH Smith's standing superlex on Kidd looked awesome though I did gasp a little as I thought he was about to botch it. Something he definitely needs to work on and Kidd should thank his lucky stars he's only around 200 pounds. Kidd getting the clean rollup victory was a nice touch and, like their match on Superstars, the winner got the victory in a way that didn't really suggest dominance. Thumbs Up

Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel vs. Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu vs. The Usos vs. Santino Marella & Vladimir Koslov - This was actually much better than I expected it to be and the ending to the match was what I expected as well. Overall, it was a fun match with solid action even though there were a few botched spots here and there. I still think the WWE dropped the ball with The Usos and I wasn't surprised to see them and Henry & Yoshi eliminated within the first 5 minutes of the match. The two remaining teams had a pretty good back and forth tag team match overall. Santino & Koslov get the win around the 12 minute mark after Cena distracts Justin Gabriel. Santino & Koslov are the new WWE Tag Team Champions. I'm not all that wild about that to be quite honest and I think this match did highlight just how far above TNA's tag team division is above WWE's overall. Still, the match was fun and I'm pretty amazed at how over Santino is. Thumbs Up

Sheamus & John Morrison - Sheamus comes out wearing an unusual costume. On one hand, I like that he didn't come out in the "traditional" get up that kings wear in wrestling. It did stand out but it's not something I'm all that wild about. Personally, I would've loved for Sheamus to sort of come out dressed more like an Iron Age Celtic Chieftan with a "fur cloak", some sort of headpiece and some ceremonial paint on his face or body. The scepter was pretty fun as it was basically just a really big shillelagh. Every now and again in promos, Sheamus has given little history lessons regarding great men in Irish History, so him talking about Irelan's last great High King last night was a fun little bit to this. Sheamus is legitimately proud of his heritage and it only helps with his character. Morrison coming out was expected and while he wasn't dynamic on the mic, he was pretty solid overall. Hey, at least he's not embarassing himself all over the place anymore. Morrison got the upper hand and used Sheamus' scepter to beat on him a little so they'll probably have a match at TLC. Fun overall segment. Thumbs Up

Natalya vs. Melina - Like most other matches on Raw tonight, this one was on the short side, only about 2.5 minutes. However, it's far better than average on Raw for Divas as it featured two women that can wrestle well. It was a good match while it lasted, with Melina getting a chance to show off some of her technical knowledge. LayCool doing commentary doing the match was actually pretty good as they weren't out there acting like a couple of ditzy & conceited 14 year old girls. They still came off as conceited but in a good heelish way rather than the annoying get the fuck off my tv way that they usually are. Natalya gets the win via the Sharpshooter only to be beaten down by LayCool. I thought it was interesting that the camera showed Melina heading away from the ring holding her back knowing that Natalya was getting attacked. We looking at a possible heel turn for her? Thumbs Up

The Miz, Randy Orton & Alex Riley - Riley & Orton have a brief match before Miz interferes and hits Orton with the Skull Crushing Finale. Miz then pulls out a table and sets it up inside the ring all while Orton is recovering from the SCF. The Miz is being booked as a scheming, opportunistic heel champion that picks his spots. I thought Orton giving Alex Riley the powerbomb through the table was a nice touch, I don't think I've ever seen Orton use a powerbomb before. So the match between Miz & Orton will be a Tables Match at the ppv. I would've preferred a ladder match and had the WWE play up the injured knee angle, but this could still be fun. Miz held his own overall with Orton in the segments they had with each other and so far soo good. Thumbs Up

John Cena & Nexus - I'm a little mixed in some ways about the ending of Raw involving Cena & The Nexus. On one hand, I like the tension that's been created between the various members of Nexus. Otunga & the other members leaving Barrett on his own to get beaten down by Cena was a fun moment and the crowd was really into that. Threatening Barrett with expulsion from the group he's lead for the past 6 months if he didn't rehire Cena next week on Raw gives next week's 3 hour Slammy Awards edition an interesting hook. I still think that R-Truth still has some sort of role to play in all of this. During a recap of last week's events, they again showed footage of Truth standing in the ring and challenging a member of Nexus. I'm wondering if the whole dissention among Nexus members is something of a swerve. As for what I didn't like about the segment, there was too much Super Cena going on. When he gets out there and tries to act all cutesy, it's just kind of annoying. Overall, however, it's an interesting situation and I'm curious to see how it's going to play out. Thumbs Up

Overall Show - I thought last night's Raw was pretty solid overall, though I don't believe it was as strong as Raw has been over the course of the past month. But, you can't hit one outta the park everytime you come up to bat. Overall, I thought the wrestling content on the show was on the weak side. However, everything that happened on Raw last night did have a purpose. The situation with Cena & Nexus is still interesting and I still can't shake the feeling that R-Truth is going to be Judas to Cena here before too long. If Cena does get rehired next week, I don't have a problem with it because we all know it's coming so maybe it's just better to get it outta the way. I would've preferred Cena actually be off Raw for a few weeks. The feud with Orton & The Miz is moving along smoothly and I like that they just didn't try to rush into everything last night. Even though Orton wasn't on the show last week, they didn't spend this week trying rush things and cram a bunch of stuff in. The situation with the Raw announce team is still a fun and intriguing little question. It makes me wonder if Cole might have a role to play in Miz's WWE Championship match against Orton at TLC. It's nice that Tyson Kidd & DH Smith at least got some time on Raw and I hope the WWE actually does something with this feud. I think it might be time to move Daniel Bryan onto something else because he's just made DiBiase his bitch too many times and things are progressing smoothly with Morrison & Sheamus. I'm not all that high on Santino & Koslov being the new WWE Tag Team Champions but I knew that it was only a matter of time before it happened because they're just too over right now not to be champs.

Grade: B-

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Cole Apologizes

We start off tonight’s Raw with Michael Cole’s explanation. He says he’s hurt by all of the hate mail. Cole says Miz winning the title was like his own son winning the title. Wow. We’re five minutes into the show, and Cole is already going overboard with the ass kissing. Cole says he was caught up in the moment. Lawler wants to fight. Cole backtracks. He tries to blame the entire situation on Lawaler. The GM interrupts. Punk reads the e-mail. The GM says there will be no fighting between Cole and Lawler. He wants Cole and Lawler to shake hands. Lawler is hesitant to shake hands at first, but he gives in eventually. Lawler says someone else has something to say. Randy Orton comes out. Lawler makes sure Cole doesn’t go anywhere. Orton says his injured knee won’t be a factor. He says he will take back the WWE Championship. Miz interrupts. Miz continues to gloat. He says he doesn’t have to defend his title until TLC. Riley challenges Orton to a match. He accepts. The GM says Miz gets to pick the match stipulation. Miz says he will think long and hard about the stipulation of the match. Orton delivers an RKO to Cole after Lawler pushes him. What a great way to kick off the show. You could feel the tension between Cole and Lawler. Punk’s Michael Cole impersonation was hilarious, but Riley’s Ai-Ri insult/comeback was terrible. It was just so fucking lame.

Ted DiBiase & Maryse VS Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella

Niki Bella comes down as the match starts…I smell a switch coming. And yeah, I was right. Niki pulls Brie to the outside while the ref’s back is turned. Niki rolls up Maryse for the three count. After the match, Maryse and Ted argue. Maryse puts her hand in Ted’s face. Nothing special happened here. This was just another way to advance a couple of storylines. I really don’t know where WWE is going with Bella Twins and Daniel Bryan stuff. I guess WWE is just trying to give the Bellas something to do, and they’re using this story to keep them on TV. As far as Maryse and Ted go, I think this duo is on the verge of a break up. I wouldn’t be too upset about this, because Ted is painfully boring, and these two haven’t accomplished anything as a team.

Wade Barrett Interview

Barrett isn’t around for the satellite interview. Otunga fills in instead. Otunga orders room service. He’s not pleased with the food. Cena appears. He begins to beat down Otunga. Husky Harris tries to come to Otunga’s aid, but Cena is able to handle him. Otunga escapes. Cena continues the beat down on Harris. It was obvious Cena was going to show up here. Even the live crowd at the arena knew what was coming. Barrett not being there just gave it away. This was okay, but I’m still waiting for Cena to get to Barrett.

Tyson Kidd VS David Hart Smith

Kidd brings out a giant. He tries to intimidate Smith. Kidd gets the win with a roll up. Smith is pissed. He goes after Kidd, but the giant steps in. He beats the hell out of Smith. This match was pretty short, and nothing special happened. I’m not too crazy about Kidd as a heel so far. I think Smith would’ve been better suited for the role, but it’s still pretty early, so we’ll have to wait and see how this goes.

Fatal Four Way Elimination Tag Team Championship Match- The Usos VS Santino & Kozlov VS Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu VS Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel

Cena distracts Gabriel. Santino hits the Cobra for the win, and we have new tag team champions. Santino did get a massive pop after the pinfall. I’m not too sure about these being champs just yet, but this team is way over with the fans right now. Tamina joins in on the celebration. So it looks like WWE has decided to go all the way with this Tamina/ Santino stuff after all., and I can’t believe Santino has ANOTHER girlfriend. This guy is a true Casanova.

Sheamus

Sheamus gloats about winning King Of The Ring. He talks about putting Triple H on the shelf. John Morrison interrupts. Morrison says he’s the better man. Sheamus wants Morrison to bow to him. Morrison refuses. Sheamus slaps Morrison. Morrison attacks. So it looks like the feud with Morrison and Sheamus will continue. I don’t have a problem with this, because the matches between these two have been pretty damn good. Still, I’m waiting for Triple H’s return. Sheamus being “King” will start to bother him at some point.

Natalya VS Melina

Michael Cole has invited Lay-Cool for commentary. Natalya locks in the sharpshooter for the win. This match wasn’t bad at all. Natalya’s spinning clothesline looked devastating, and Melina sold it so well. This was a nice little Divas match, but Lay-Cool on commentary was kind of distracting. After the match, Lay-Cool attacks Natalya.

Randy Orton Vs Alex Riley

Orton sets up for the RKO, but Miz sneaks in and he hits the Skull Crushing Finale to end this one in a DQ. Miz says he’s going to show Orton the stipulation at TLC. Miz pulls out a table. Miz goes for another Skull Crushing Finale. Orton fights back. He almost sends Miz through the table, but Miz escapes. Orton settles for power bombing Riley though the table. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Orton perform a powerbomb before. This was just another way to advance The Miz/Orton feud. Miz wanted to get the upper hand before TLC, but Orton struck back. Also, it seems as if the DUI situation isn’t affecting Riley’s status in WWE. Being in a main event match on Raw with Randy Orton is a big deal.

Wade Barrett Calls Out John Cena

Barrett says Cena has no integrity. Wade wants to get something off of his chest. Cena comes through the crowd. Wade says chance he will not re-hire Cena. Cena says he just wants to make Nexus’ life miserable. Cena tries to goad Barrett into re-hiring him. Barrett gets tired of Cena’s threats. He orders Nexus to attack Cena, but Nexus walks away. Cena viscously attacks Barrett. Cena tries to give Barrett an AA through the announce table, but Barrett runs away. Barrett walks to the back. He’s pissed. Otunga says Barrett must re-hire Cena or he will be kicked out of Nexus. This took me by surprise. It seems as if the cracks in Nexus are beginning to show. It’s obvious Barrett will have to re-hire Cena next week, and there should be some type of match between these two at TLC. I’m just wondering where Nexus will go from here. Wrestlemania is rapidly approaching. Nexus has been a big time stable in WWE, but I can’t see them making it to the big show as a stable. I’m really looking forward to how all this will unfold on next week’s show.

Overall Show Rating 8/10: I really, really enjoyed tonight’s show. Tonight’s show started off with a bang. Cole and Lawler were so entertaining. The tension, Cole being a dick, and Punk reading the e-mail were all great. Lawler shoving Cole into the RKO raises a lot of questions. This problem doesn’t seem it like it’s going to go away soon. It’ll be interesting to see how this story will further develop. The were some solid matches on Raw tonight. I’m not so sure about Santino and Kozlov as champs yet. But they are really over with the crowd, and you just knew Cena was going to show up sooner or later. Also, Tamina turning her back on The Usos kind of shocked me. She’s been constantly flirting with Santino for a while, but The Usos were like family to her. The Cena Nexus stuff continues to heat up. I think Cena will be re-hired next week, but the fall of Nexus is upon us. There have been some tensions in this stable, and the break up should be right around the corner.

 

[rge2010]

A good solid B- for last nights Raw.

The new Nexus t-shirts are much better than the old tacky looking ones. Maybe Nexus wont disband anytime soon despite it looking likely.

Tyson Kidd needs building up and I want to see him fight Daniel Bryan at WM27 for the IC Title. Potential 4-5 star match there. Good move putting the big dude with him.

 

[TJ Matics]

Gold Stars For 12-6-10 RAW

2. JOMO and Sheamus - Both gave solid promos to my extreme liking and a nice brawl at the end

1. Melina vs. Natalya - This was a great divas match showcasing what the divas can really do, my only problem being that I saw half match half Lay-Cool. I'm also sensing a heel turn for Melina:
a. It's not too often you have to strong faces going head to head for no apparent reason
b. They put a spot light on Melina leaving the ring while Natalya was getting Lay-Cool'd up

QOUTES FOR 12-6-10 RAW

"Keep on and I'm going to send you right back to Superstars." - CM Punk
"EVERYBODY SHUT-UP!!!." - CM Punk
"Security we have a jumper." - CM Punk

 

[klunderbunker]

Smackdown
Date: December 10, 2010
Location: Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Matt Striker

Another week comes for Smackdown and hopefully we can get another match scheduled for TLC. If my memory is right we have the world title match, Rey vs. Alberto and Kofi vs. Ziggler, which I assume is at the PPV. Actually maybe that’s enough but maybe not. Sorry for rambling so much on this but I need to fill in space. With all that being said, let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Edge vs. Kane and Rey vs. Alberto, which is your tag team main event tonight. That makes as much sense as anything.

Kane comes out and does his usual stuff: please give me my father back, I’m begging you, this needs to end and all that jazz. Edge pops up on the screen and says this doesn’t end tonight but rather at the PPV. Bearer is next to him and Edge pulls out a chair. He says that he hasn’t swung a chair in awhile so he needs some practice. Edge keeps teasing the chair shot until he finally drills Bearer with it, freaking Kane out.

The champion runs to the back where Edge says don’t take another step or he’ll give him a one man Conchairto (not those words but that’s the idea). Kane for some reason comes forward and there’s the Conchairto to, say it with me, a mannequin. Edge has Bearer in the wheelchair again and they run off. How does he get all these wheelchairs and mannequins to the arena every week?

Jack Swagger vs. Kaval

Kaval isn’t someone I was huge on but he’s growing on me a bit. Striker rambles on about some urban poet and staying true to your roots or something. Apparently Kofi vs. Dolph is tonight. Swagger gets a shot in to the ankle/leg which apparently was a legit injury that he had to get looked at. Swagger works on the knee as Cole makes fun of Kaval. We get into an argument over who discovered Swagger like he was fire or electricity.

Kaval fights out of the powerbomb but hurts his leg even more on the landing. We unleash the kicks which luckily for Kaval it’s his left leg that’s injured. Cole: why is everyone from Brooklyn bald? Modified rolling Liger Kick puts Swagger down. He hits almost a Shining Wizard off the middle rope for two. Kaval goes up but can’t get up for Warrior’s Way. Swagger pulls him down and throws on the ankle lock for the submission at 5:26.

Rating: C+. Just a quick TV match but it was pretty decent actually. Swagger getting simple wins like these is a good thing as it builds his credibility and Kaval isn’t ready to beat a former world champion or anything like that. This was absolutely fine for what it was and we had some psychology to go with it too. Nothing wrong with this.

Swagger says he should be the #1 contender to the Intercontinental Title because Kofi hit Trouble in Paradise when he was in the ropes which is illegal. He’s the future fifth face on Mt. Rushmore. That’s kind of a cool line. He’s going to protest the IC Title match later tonight.

And next up it’s an eagle vs. a leprechaun. Aye aye aye.

Hornswoggle vs. Soaring Eagle

Rosa comes out with Horny. The Eagle is billed at 6’0 tall and with a wingspan of 5’0. This is so stupid. Please make this be quick. Striker lists off facts about eagles before Horny pulls out a bag of, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, ACME (spelled wrong) birdseed. The eagle (allegedly Chavo) goes for it and gets kicked in the head. Rosa hands Horny a napkin which he tucks into his shirt and bites the Eagle’s leg.

Would anyone be opposed to some fast forwarding here? The Eagle misses Ballin (shoot me now….please) and the Tadpole Splash ends this at 2:28. Cole gets in two good lines at the end though. As Horny goes up for the splash, “GET OUT OF THE WAY! YOU’RE ENDANGERED!” and the second being singing Fly Like An Eagle by the Steve Miller Band, even though the Eagle wasn’t the one flying. Was there ANY point to this?

Back from a break with Santino and Kozlov in Teddy’s office. Santino busts into a chorus of We Are the Champions and Kozlov pulls out a lighter and waves it back and forth which legitimately cracked me up. Chavo comes in because he wants a title shot. If he gets a partner, “we will rock you”, followed by two stomps and a clap. Santino: “Cause we are the champions…..of the tag team world!” Kozlov: “Holla Holla.” I don’t know if it was because of how bad the previous segment was but I had to stop the video from laughing so much at Kozlov’s last line.

Cole asks if you know what happens when the Cobra hits. “Another One Bites the Dust”.

We get a quick video on Kofi because of his IC Title match tonight.

Dolph says that he’s a champion and Kofi is a lifelong contender but not a champion.

Intercontinental Title: Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Vickie does the intro which makes Striker say she looks like Greg Valentine from Rhythm and Blues. Actually that’s accurate. What’s with the music theme tonight? Kofi gets a pair of rollups for a pair of twos very early. Dolph gets a Hennig necksnap for two. Could they push him as the new Mr. Perfect any harder? Monkey flip by Kofi gets him some momentum.

Trouble in Paradise misses as we take a break. Back with Dolph holding a chinlock. Off to a Cobra Clutch which can put people out in seconds but Kofi can hang on for multiple minutes with it on. We finally get out of that with Kofi blocking a dropkick and getting a slingshot into the post, which is another Hennig trademark. SOS is blocked and we crank things up again.

Ziggler gets out of the way of the Boom Drop but gets a Pendulum Kick. Missile dropkick gets a delayed two due to Vickie interfering. Top rope cross body gets a long two. Kofi goes for something but Ziggler counters into the sleeper. Kofi gets the rope and hits Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere. He gets two as Swagger runs out to break it up and throw on the ankle lock for the DQ at 9:30 shown of 13:00.

Rating: C+. Good stuff while it lasted but the ending hurts it a bit. It fits the storyline but I would have liked Ziggler to get a pin with the cheating. I get why they went this way though and if nothing else it gives us more Swagger vs. Kofi which is almost always good stuff. Pretty good match but it could have been better.

The hold stays on for a good while and Kofi’s ankle is hurt badly.

To the back where Edge is standing on top of something with a guy in a wheelchair. Kane comes up and Edge swears it’s the real thing this time. Kane has finally grown a brain and comes at him and of course it’s a dummy that Edge shoves off whatever he’s standing on and it crashes through a table.

Back and it’s time with a Masterlock Challenge with the Dashing One challenging. Kind of random. Before we start Cody wipes down the chair. He then insists on Masters using a nail file which is thrown into the crowd. Masters slaps Cody in the face which he says was given to him by Ric Flair. Ok so he called him God but you get the idea. Cody yells so Masters grabs his face and Cody yells some more. He tries to leave so the Masterlock goes on anyway and it’s over in maybe 20 seconds with Cody passing out/giving up.

Santino Marella/Vladimir Kozlov vs. Chavo Guerrero/Drew McIntyre

This is non-title I think but Striker says the non-champions are going to try to wrestle the titles away. It wasn’t announced as a title match. Yeah Matthews confirms that if the non-champions win they’ll be in line for a title shot. Josh gets on Cole for a bit which is some funny stuff. Double teaming slows down the Russian and Drew pounds on him for a bit. Off to Chavo now which isn’t going anywhere.

The announcers argue about language for some reason until Matthews yells at them to be quiet. Isn’t the point that they’re supposed to talk? Drew sets Santino up for the Futureshock but Chavo tags himself in so he can hit the Frog Splash. At least that was the idea in theory as Santino rolls away. Santino manages to get the Cobra out of nowhere to pin Chavo at 3:10. Nice little first win as a team.

Rating: C-. Nothing special at all here as they flew through this but to be fair it’s not like they were going for Rock N Roll Express vs. the Midnights here. Quick little matches like these are fine for the most part as a comedy team has the titles so they won due to heel miscommunication between heels that hadn’t teamed before. This was fine for what it was.

Futureshock to Chavo post match.

We recap the Kane/Edge stuff so far tonight which hasn’t been exactly interesting stuff.

Quick Raw recap of Miz and Orton setting up the tables match.

We run down the main matches at the PPV to fill some more time. Rey vs. Alberto will be a Chairs Match.

Laycool is up next.

Layla vs. Natalya

I like Laycool’s song for some reason. Beth comes out with Natalya. Striker does his British accent to crickets. Cole says Beth and Natalya are like the Jumping Blonde Angels which Striker corrects him on. The Squatting Suplex gets two. Michelle: “Lay are you ok?” Layla: “NO!” Natalya’s left boob may be hurt. Where’s Jerry to make the jokes?

You can tell Josh is getting annoyed with Striker and Cole which is kind of funny. Sharpshooter ends Layla despite Michelle trying to make the save at 2:00. No rating due to this being really short and a lot of it being Natalya on the floor rubbing her ample chest.

Rey Mysterio/Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio/Kane

The entrances kill off about five minutes or so. Big pop for Edge. And we have no Kane. Here’s Teddy Long instead. Is this going to turn into a tuxedo match between him and Rodriguez? Teddy makes it a handicap match. Is there a reason why there’s no Kane? Apparently it’s due to him being on a fat man scavenger hunt. Rey starts for the former tag champions.

Kind of an odd choice to have two faces be a handicap team but it fits the storyline. Edge is called the Master of Puppets as we continue that musical theme tonight. Baseball slide has Del Rio in trouble. Kane comes out about two minutes into the match and Edge meets him in the aisle. Edge lures him to the back and it’s more or less a one on one match now.

Rey tries to speed things up but gets caught in a body scissors. That gets him nowhere for the most part an the running enziguri sends him to the floor. Rey cranks it up one more time and gets his sitout bulldog for two. Sunset flip doesn’t work for Alberto and the 619 plus top rope splash ends it clean for Rey at 6:44. I don’t think Edge was ever legally in the match so this was a singles match for all intents and purposes.

Rating: C. Hard to grade this as officially it’s a tag match but it really can’t be called that. The match was ok but felt like something that was there as a backdrop for the other stuff that was going on which isn’t something I’m a fan of at all. This was ok but really just the epitome of average, hence the grade.

Edge has a pair of ladders with a table set up on top of them like a platform with a wheelchair on top but we can’t see who’s in it. Kane comes up and Edge says you don’t want to do that. Kane says there’s another dummy up there and shoves them over. He then looks over the edge that he shoves it over and sees Paul laid out on the concrete a good 25 feet below with people screaming they need help. Edge says I told you so and we go off the air.

Overall Rating: C+. This was ok but it was kind of off a step if that makes sense. It’s decent stuff and finally the Edge vs. Bearer thing went somewhere which took a month and a half but it’s better than nothing. No match really stood out here but everything was pretty much solid. Decent enough show and stories were developed so I can’t say I’m complaining much here. Good stuff for the most part.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Friday Night SmackDown! - December 10, 2010

Kane & Edge - They did several of these throughout the night again and, generally, I thought this was ok. I admit that I'm kinda tired of the whole mannequin bit as well but I thought the way it ended tonight was fun. Kane came out at the top of the show and wanted Paul Bearer back and all this and that which ultimately ended up with the usual hijinks tonight. At the end of the night, Kane pushed the two ladders over with a platform on top with a dummy in the wheelchair. The camera cuts, eventually, to a shot of Paul Bearer lying on the floor after crashing down through some stuff. It's over and done with, finally, but I think it's been passable overall. Far from great, but I've definitely seen worse. Thumbs Up

Jack Swagger vs. Kaval - This was a good match while it lasted. It told a good story and Kaval showed a lot of heart throughout as he did suffer a legit ankle injury during the match. He sucked it up and put out a pretty good little 5.5 minute match. For obvious reasons it wasn't as good as a match I saw between them on Superstars about a month ago, but it was still a solid match. Swagger gets the win via the ankle lock submission. Thumbs Up

Hornswoggle vs. The Swagger Soaring Eagle - I didn't watch a bit of this. I knew it'd be awful so I took a bathroom break. You just have to know that this was going to be bad and I'm sure that it was. Thumbs Down

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston - Very good outing from Kofi & Ziggler. It was a fun back and forth match and it felt really fresh to me. Since becoming champ, Ziggler has improved a lot in my view and they delivered a competitive bout. The crowd was hot for this match and Kofi's high spots looked great, especially the missle drop kick that he hit. Jack Swagger comes down after Kofi lands Trouble in Paradise on Ziggler and slaps on the ankle lock. Ziggler gets DQ'd at the 12.5 minute mark and I'm expecting a triple threat match at TLC for the IC title. I would've preferred to see Dolph retain here by cheating, but it was still a really good match and I love the idea of a three way feud for the IC title. Thumbs Up

Masterlock Challenge - Yeah I just couldn't really get into this. It just felt as if it was nothing more than tv filler. I mean, I know that's actually what it was but they didn't even try to disguise it as anything else. I like Cody Rhodes' character but now I think they're going overboard a little with the whole flipping out thing whenever someone even touches the guy's face. I think Rhodes' is better than this and he deserves better than this. Thumbs Down

Santino Marella & Vladimir Koslov vs. Chavo Guerrero & Drew McIntyre - This was a match that I just wasn't feeling. It's hard for me to give a shit about anything involving Chavo as he's just been so low on the totem pole for so long in the WWE. The match overall was solid but I knew that Chavo & Drew were going to lose. Chavo gets pinned then gets laid out by the Future Shock DDT. Thumbs Down

Natalya vs. Layla - This was a short Divas match but I actually liked it. It was fun while it lasted and these are two women that can wrestle pretty well. Layla really has improved a lot in the ring and I'd like to see these two get about a 10 minute match sometime. Having Beth Phoenix watch Natalya's back was a nice touch and I dig the overall more "serious" tone that LayCool has been showing the past few weeks. Natalya gets the win via the Sharpshooter. Thumbs Up

Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. Kane & Alberto Del Rio - This started off as a tag match, then became a handicap match then a singles match. I thought they did a good job with combining the two elements of this feud here while making the focal point of the match between Mysterio & Del Rio. Kane & Edge have had tons of time so I liked the way they went. It was a good outing from Mysterio & Del Rio after Kane & Edge headed to the back with both hitting some fun offense. Mysterio did get the win eventually after hitting 619 and a big splash off the top. Nothing spectacular here but an overall solid main event. Thumbs Up

Overall Show - SmackDown! was a pretty solid show tonight, thought it wasn't as good or as strong as it usually is. The stuff with Hornswoggle & the Swagger Soaring Eagle is a complete waste of time, the stuff that's gone on with Edge & Kane is dragging and the tag match just didn't interest me. There was a good effort from Kaval & Swagger, another great match from Kofi & Dolph Ziggler and the main event match was a solid affair with Del Rio & Mysterio becoming the focal point. Tonight's show wasn't up to the usual standards of SmackDown! but you can't have a great show every week.

Grade: C+

 

[The HEEL JuiceLee]

GOD SMACKDOWN IS BORING i am ready for the draft, As i believe Undertaker will be on the raw brand his final year. i think Sheamus will go 2 smack down and run things over there, Del Rio will be on RAW for sure, but i guess Otunga, Gabriel, Tyson Kidd w/jackson andrews, Ted jr. and Even trips will be going over 2 the blue brand to bring it some life.Besides kofi and dolf and hornswoggle tricking the eagle with the bird seeds everything else had me struggling to stay awake...and am i seriously supposed to believe that Kane killed paul bearer...come on smackdown raw is stepping up,now its your turn

 

[Lying Retarded Crybaby Troll Bitch]

Is it wrong that I spent half of Dolph's match & half of Drew's trying to remember what the name was of (& whatever happened to) the Latino guy Vickie was with before?

Kofi with Dolph was great, as was Kofi-Swagger in recent weeks. On the other side, I almost turned-off the show during the Horn-Eagle match. I also didn't care at all about the ending of the show.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

Smackdown overall was solid tonight,I guess the Edge/Kane/Paul Bearer saga is finally over but what now for Paul Bearer? At least it did go somewhere so I can't complain about it too much. IC Title Match with Dolph & Kofi was a Great Match,I guess Swagger is back in the Title picture after his interference. I hope Kaval won't miss much time after he injured his ankle against Swagger.

 

[Lying Retarded Crybaby Troll Bitch]

I was actually agreeing with Cole (never before) when he said the Edge-with-Paul thing had gone too far. All night, they were mentioning "TLC" was in 9-10 days, & I couldn't believe it; I'd mistakenly thought it was this weekend. Now, I have to ask myself what they will do to push this feud any further next Friday.

 

[klunderbunker]

Monday Night Raw
Date: December 13, 2010
Location: New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Commentators: CM Punk, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s Slammy night which is almost always fun. Tonight we find out who the fans deemed the best of 2010 which should be interesting. In storyline terms tonight we have the ultimatum for Barrett: either rehire Cena and end the attacks or he’s out of Nexus. Most interesting indeed. Let’s get to it.

There’s either a new theme song or it’s for the Slammys. There are tables, ladders and chairs in front of the announce table.

We open the show, I kid you not, with David Arquette. He more or less cuts a promo at the presentation table with a deep voice and talks about beating Eric Bischoff for the world title. He’s booed out of the building to be nice about it. He’s presenting Shocker of the Year.

Nominees:

Miz Cashing in Money in the Bank
Nexus’ Initial Attack on Raw
Paul Bearer Turns on Undertaker at Hell in a Cell
Orton Punts Jericho

Winner: Nexus’ Initial Attack on Raw. That’s without a doubt the right choice. The last two aren’t surprises at all as Bearer constantly turns on Taker and Orton’s punt meant nothing really. Miz was a shock but we all knew it was coming eventually. NO ONE saw Nexus coming.

Barrett comes out to accept on his own and says he’s responsible for Nexus being here. He hasn’t made his mind up about the Cena situation but he will by the end of the night. Barrett turns to leave and we get an E-Mail. In short, we’re getting a match right now.

Wade Barrett vs. Big Show

Show grabs the Slammy out of Barrett’s hand as he comes to the ring. Barrett hides from Show and hits the floor before any contact is made. Ah here we go as Show pounds away. Punk says Barrett is a hero for getting rid of Cena. Barrett gets a Greco-Roman thumb to the eye and goes after Show’s leg. Everyone tries that strategy and it rarely works.

Show wakes up and we head outside again for a BIG chop. Barrett’s back looks awful with all the welts on it. He grabs his Slammy and takes the walk for the count out at 2:45. No rating due to the shortness and the fact that a lot of that was Show setting for chops and Barrett hiding.

Voting is still open for Superstar of the Year.

There’s a battle royal for Diva of the Year later tonight.

Kelly Kelly is here for the Despicable Me Award, along with Tyson Kidd and his bodyguard who towers over both of them. Kelly can barely read her teleprompter. This is more or less the biggest heel move of the year. Tyson introduces his bodyguard, Jackson Andrews. Kidd makes fun of Kelly’s intelligence and she says he doesn’t talk much. I see why she hardly ever talks.

Nominees:
Drew McIntyre Making Teddy Long Lay Down
Kane Buries Undertaker Alive
Mr. McMahon Kicks Bret in the Gut
CM Punk Sings Happy Birthday to Rey Mysterio’s Daughter

Winner: CM Punk. That’s the best one probably as he was more or less pure evil there. This is his third Slammy and he celebrates like crazy in a funny bit. He says if you work hard you can achieve your dreams but tonight there is someone in the back that has wronged him. Punk will get him and what he did to Rey is nothing. He doesn’t say who it is.

Kofi Kingston/Daniel Bryan vs. Ted DiBiase/Dolph Ziggler

Bryan has the Bellas with him again. I would have expected Swagger instead of DiBiase but this works I guess. Ziggler is in traditional tights now instead of the shorts. We take a break before the bell. Back with the match already going. The heels beat on Bryan as we’re told that some awards were already handed out and those can be found on WWE.com.

Lots of chinlocks follow before Bryan gets away long enough to bring in Kofi. The Jamafrican gets Trouble in Paradise to Ziggler to win at 3:00 shown. Again there’s not enough here to rate as this was barely a match from what we were able to see. The Bellas looked great though.

Morrison vs. Sheamus again tonight.

Santino and Vladimir are here for the Guest Star Shining Moment of the Year Award. We get a MacGruber reference and Vlad isn’t happy with is so Santino kisses him. These two are rapidly growing on me.

Nominees:
Mike Tyson Knocks Out Chris Jericho
Pee Wee Herman vs. Miz
Wayne Brady Takes an RKO
William Shattner Sings Theme Songs

Winner: Pee Wee Herman. None of them are here tonight but Pee Wee accepts the award via satellite. I liked Shattner better which was awesome beyond words. Punk wants a recount.

Nexus confronts Wade about his decision with Otunga saying Barrett’s singles career isn’t looking good after his loss to Show. Barrett says he has his decision now and leaves.

Best Performance By a Winged Specimen: Raw Chicken
Best Use of Exercise Equipment: Rosa Mendes Uses a Shake-Weight
Most Menacing Haircut: Tyler Reks
Best Family Values: Kane Beats Up Jack Swagger Senior
Superstar/Diva Most in Need of Make-up: Sheamus
Cole in Your Stocking: Daniel Bryan Beats Up Cole on NXT
Outstanding Achievement of Baby Oil Application: Dashing Cody Rhodes
Frequent Tweeter Award: Goldust
Best WWE.com Exclusive TV Show: WWE NXT
Most Annoying Catchphrase: Zach Ryder for “Woo Woo Woo You Know It.”

Mark Henry vs. Cody Rhodes

Random matches for the win I guess. Cody tries basic stuff and gets LAUNCHED away. Mark grabs his face and messes it up. Why not go with basic attacks I guess? Cody trips him up and stomps away which is probably the best he’s going to be able to do. Henry keeps shoving him away with eas.

This is the basic formula for most super strong wrestlers: non-strong guy does what he can, strong guy does basic stuff, small guy moves out of the way of something to get the win. In this case it’s a charge from Henry that misses to set up the Beautiful Disaster and a top rope kneedrop to end it at 2:49. What’s with the short matches tonight? Match was ok but like I said there was more or less nothing going on there so again no rating. Sorry about the lack of them tonight.

Holy *#&$ Award next.

Lawler is presenting this one and is in his full attire. His co-presenter: Vickie. Oh joy indeed. This is the Holy @*$& Award. King says he was at the vet all night with his lizard who had reptile dysfunction. I hate my life. Vickie has slimmed down a bit so Lawler makes fat jokes.

Nominees:
John Morrison Dives off the Set at Hell in a Cell
Kofi Kingston’s Boom Drop at Money in the Bank
John Cena’s FU to Batista at Over the Limit
Randy Orton RKOs Evan Bourne Out of AirBourne

Winner: John Cena. That is RIDICULOUS. It was an FU off a car and that’s it. I was at the Raw where Orton hit the RKO and the place erupted. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. This wasn’t even the best FU he’s ever hit and it wins an award? Give me a break.

Barrett comes out to accept the award and give his decision. He says that he’s not going to make his decision unless Cena is here so come on out. Cena comes through the crowd as you would expect him to. As Punk said last week: “We have the worst security in the world.” At least try to make it seem like he’s fired. Have a guard escort him or something.

Wade says that this is a huge decision and here comes Nexus. They surround the ring and Cena is officially rehired on two conditions. Number one is he has to face Barrett at TLC in a chair match. Wasn’t there already one of those scheduled? Number two is he faces Otunga tonight. Odd choice but ok.

Barrett says this is why he rehired him and Nexus attacks. Barrett grabs a chair and cracks Cena over the back with it. Nice shot so he does it again. Nexus leaves Cena laying. I’m really not big on them rehiring him that fast. That could have gone on for months but they pull the trigger that fast? I’m not digging that at all.

Next week there is a special two hour live Smackdown on USA and the Tribute to the Troops has an encore. The SD would be to avoid the show being on Christmas Eve which makes sense.

Arquette is back again, dressed like a low rent Elvis impersonator. He’s opening a theater in Hollywood or something like that. He’s presenting the Crowd Reaction of the Year.

Nominees:
Kid Reacting to Cena Joining Nexus
Woman Crying When Shawn Lost at Wrestlemania
Some Dumbstruck Moron (no event specified)
DEMON CHILD! (huge pop for that actually)

Winner: Do I even need to say this one? She’s here! She’s really quiet and here comes Miz. Oh this should be great. He offers to take the award for safekeeping and wants to see the face again. The girl gets all sad and leaves. Miz, Riley and Arquette come to the ring as the girl just leaves all sad.

Miz lists off his accomplishments this year which really are impressive. He says on Sunday he’s going to dominate Orton but we get an E-Mail. They actually have text on the monitor now. Both Miz and Orton are facing former champions tonight and Miz’s match is now.

The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio

I think there’s something wrong with the audio there as the theme music is somewhat quiet. Rey sends him to the floor as we take a break. Back and they go for Rey’s sit out bulldog and botch the HELL out of it. Rey may have tweeked his knee but he sets for the 619. Here’s Del Rip and Rey charges at him.

Miz catches him and sets for a powerbomb but drops backwards to send Rey face first into the apron which looked brutal. It gets two as it took awhile to get back into the ring. Rey’s knee looks fine so maybe he just landed oddly. Ah it was his ribs that he hurt. Superplex is blocked and Rey lands a big springboard crossbody for two.

Rey sets for the 619 but again Del Rio gets in his way. Miz is sent into him though and down goes Alberto. Rollup by Rey gets two. He sets for the 619 again but Del Rio interferes again and a small package gets the win for the champion at 3:30 shown of 7:00.

Rating: C+. This was pretty fast paced and it worked rather well. Miz cheated to win but that’s his job as a heel. He keeps getting victories over these big guys which is the best thing he can do to gain credibility. Decent little match with more added to the Rey vs. Alberto feud and Miz gets a nice win. What more can you ask for other than more time?

E-Mail says Orton vs. Arquette/Riley tonight. Oh dear.

Back from break and Edge is here for the Oh Snap Meltdown Award. Kane was supposed to co-present with him but he’s having a meltdown of his own. He needs a co-presenter so he brings out Christian. Nice indeed. So are they brothers or just friends at this point? He wants Alberto to win for various reasons.

Nominees:
Big Show Breaks Swagger’s Trophies
Alberto Del Rio Breaks Rey’s Arm/Wrist
Edge Destroys the Laptop
Batista Quits

Winner: Edge. I know people that that was awful but it really wasn’t so bad. I liked it a lot actually and it made sense. Edge says this is odd as he’s always been calm and cool and loses his mind about the laptop again. He apparently has a match with Swagger later and

Christian gets an E-Mail on his phone. Edge: YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! Christian: Yes I am. Funny stuff. Edge cuts a short promo and says that things always stay the same. Christian does the e-mail sound into the microphone so Edge can say “And I quote: Michael Cole is still a huge tool.” I love these two.

Sheamus vs. John Morrison

It’s the inbred spawn of Batman and Satan! Morrison spears Sheamus down and it’s on early. Sheamus spears Morrison down just as hard and it’s a big brawl. It’s thrown out in 30 seconds for a double DQ. And before people freak out, that ending is perfect. It sets up the PPV and doesn’t give the match away again so soon. It’s perfect.

An E-Mail says Morrison vs. Sheamus at TLC in a ladder match for the #1 contendership. I’ve been calling Miz vs. Morrison at the Rumble for months so that would make perfect sense. Sheamus jumps Morrison post E-Mail and spears him with one of the ladders that were at ringside. He sets the ladder up at an angle against the apron and launches Morrison over the top to land back first on the ladder. FREAKING OW MAN!

Back from a break with JTG and William Regal presenting Knucklehead Moment of the Year. Regal tries to get through this quickly because he doesn’t understand JTG.

CM Punk Tries to Hide from Show and Gets Unmasked
Mae Young Wins at Old School Raw
Beth Phoenix is in the Rumble and Eliminates Great Khali
Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov Have a Dance-Off

Winner: Mae Young and Laycool. I’m not sure what the point of this was as those weren’t really knuckleheaded moments. Either way Laycool comes out and look great to accept it.

Diva Battle Royal next.

Battle Royal

Laycool, Kelly, Maryse, Eve, Bella Twins, Rose, Melina, Alicia, Kaitlyn, Beth, Tamina, Natalya

I think that’s everyone but I’m not sure. Everyone surrounds Laycool and to their credit they’re like BRING IT ON. Tamina chills in the corner for a bit but puts out Kaitlyn. You can go through the ropes here. Rosa is out second. She has never won a match on the main roster. Tamina is out.

A Bella is out as they’re flying out of here insanely fast. The other Bella goes out with ease as Laycool is dominating. Maryse is gone. There’s no particular rhyme or reason here as you would expect in a battle royal. Michelle, looking GREAT in those red shorts, puts out Kelly who looks GREAT in those white shorts. Beth Glam Slams Melina out.

Down to Laycool, Beth, Natalya, Gail and Alicia. Beth kicks Layla out and she FREAKS. She distracts the Glamazon long enough to let Michelle put out Beth. Natalya puts out Alicia and Gail and walks into a big kick from Michelle who wins this at approximately 3:30.

Rating: C. This is hard to grade as battle royals aren’t something that there are standards for. This was fine for what it was and one of the girls that should have won it got the award so I can’t complain. Also you have hot women so how much can you really complain? Good stuff.

Another E-Mail says Beth/Natalya vs. Laycool in a tag team tables match. The look on Michelle’s face is AWESOME.

Quick recap of Kane accidently killing Paul Bearer on Smackdown.

Edge vs. Jack Swagger

Triple threat ladder match at the PPV for the IC Title: Ziggler vs. Kofi vs. Swagger. Wow this is going to be all gimmick matches isn’t it? Swagger overpowers Edge to start as it’s pretty clear that Kane will be involved here somewhere. After a brief beating, Edge gets an Edge-O-Matic to take over again. DDT gets two.

Swagger gets a shot in and sets for the Vader Bomb with Edge having his knees up before Swagger gets to the corner. Thankfully he winds up landing on his feet and grabs the ankle lock. Much better. Edge reverses the ankle lock into a rollup for two. There’s the Impaler and the spear ends this completely clean at 4:50. No Kane? Really?

Rating: C+. Quick match but it worked pretty well for the most part. Edge winning clean works but Swagger can’t buy a break for the most part as he’s constantly losing clean. If he’s going into a title match Sunday, couldn’t they get someone else to fight Edge? Like Chavo or someone? Decent little match though.

Riley, Miz and Arquette have a stupid moment. Arquette has energy. You have to give him that.

We see clips of the Slammy winner for video game moment of the year. It’s nothing special at all.

Big Show is here to present moment of the year. He talks about some great moments and mentions Hogan, Superfly and Austin. Tonight something joins them. I doubt that.

Nominees:
Cena is Free or Fired
Sheamus Jumps HHH as he Says Goodbye to Shawn
Edge’s Huge Spear at Wrestlemania
Streak vs. Career

Winner: Streak vs. Career. Thank goodness. Shawn…isn’t here, but he appears on satellite and is in an undisclosed location which he won’t say because WWE would try to make him come back. Funny line. He has a big cut on his nose. Shawn says he doesn’t miss it but does miss the fans who he might see soon.

Randy Orton vs. Alex Riley/David Arquette

I never thought I’d have to type that. Riley starts and actually gets Orton down. Then Arquette comes in and runs away after Orton sets for the RKO. Backbreaker to Riley and the knee drop hits. Then it misses. Arquette is wearing what Punk calls Clubber Lang’s Gi. That fits rather well actually. Orton hits an Angle Slam on Riley and there’s the RKO for the easy pin at 2:45. No rating for an extended workout for Orton.

Miz blasts Orton with the briefcase post match and they try to put him through a table. He fights them off and Arquette goes through it instead as every WCW fans ejaculates at once. Somewhere Russo is saying we just didn’t get it. Stretcher ride for Arquette.

We run down the TLC card. I kind of like them just saying screw it: let’s go all the way with the gimmicks. It makes it more appealing than last year’s.

The presenter for the Quote of the Year: Michael Cole.

There are too many nominees to list off. It’s more or less every funny line of the year with some very funny ones in here, my favorite being “I would RKO my own Grandmother to get back the WWE Title.”

Winner: Michael Cole. Apparently he wins in general. He of course has a speech ready. He gets played off and the Superstar of the Year is next. Isn’t there supposed to be a Match of the Year award?

Teddy Long comes out to do Superstar of the Year.

Nominees:
Edge
The Miz
Kane
John Cena
Rey Mysterio
Randy Orton

Winner: John Cena. Is anyone really surprised by that? He says that his fans never gave up on him and runs down a list of things he’s done this year. Cena talks about getting all of Nexus and having only Barrett and Otunga to go.

John Cena vs. David Otunga

Otunga hasn’t come to the ring yet and it’s 11:05. How long do you think this is going to go on for? Cena looks pretty good for a guy that took two chair shots earlier. We see a clip of that attack as we apparently need to waste more time. Otunga high flives every Nexus member other than Barrett but they smile at each other.

Barrett sends Nexus to the back and leaves as well. Cena attacks as Otunga turns around and methinks this isn’t going to last long. Cena is all kinds of pissed off. He misses a charge in the corner and here comes Otunga. He’s clearly winning here. You know he will right? I mean he’s DAVID OTUNGA! A kind of Pounce/elbow smash hits and there’s the STF to end it in 1:58. Well they made it quick. Just a squash.

Post match Cena destroys Otunga with a chair as Barrett just stands there watching.

Overall Rating: B. I liked the show. A lot of things were set up for the PPV and overall the show was fun. It's no classic and last week's was better, but overall this worked rather well I thought. It's not an incredibly serious show but then again it's not supposed to be. It was a fun go home show for a gimmick PPV and it worked fine for what it was supposed to be. Pretty solid show and rather fun. Good stuff.

 

[multiverseman.com]

I'll just run down the poor writing in bullet points:

1. If you go through the trouble of firing Cena, make people want to see him come back. Have their be real stakes involved. Make it dramatic. Nobody ever doubted Barrett was going to hire him back. Then again, Cena never actually left so that's technically an old writing problem that isn't independent of tonight.

2. Otunga vs. Barrett is the most unintentionally hot storyline going. So Otunga gets his ass handed to him by Cena. Fine. But why not make it a bigger challenge? Otunga could've potentially broken out tonight and they ruined it by having him get squashed so quickly.

3. Why does Nexus (who apparently can't beat Cena either independently or as a group) mutiny against their leader to hire back a guy they all hate (because he's so scary-powerful) but then beat him down immediately after the decision? As a trap, it made sense. Tease rehiring and then cripple him. Or rehire him and then try and end his career. Then it doesn't matter if he's rehired (It would make Cena an even bigger hero because he came back from a near-massacre to face Barrett at the PPV, and a built-in excuse if he loses).

4. Continued burial of WCW. We get it, WCW was pathetic. They made David Arquette their champ. Stupid WCW. It's been 10 years, let it go. You now have DVD's to market to an audience that's never even heard of WCW and a back catalog second only to your own to sell to suckers who never knew WCW was so "pathetic". Why bury something that nobody except you is still in a position to profit from?

5. The announcing is bad. It's not the announcers' fault though. One heel announcer, one face. That works for a reason. Or one face, one tweener. Not one face (King), and two that can't decide what they wanna be from one minute to the next. CM Punk is an vengeful asshole right? But he hates Michael Cole which means Cole more of a jerk? So what does it mean when Cole hates a heel wrestler, but Punk and King like him?

 

[Tired0FthePeople]

When the Miz Girl actually came out, I thought that entire segment would have been better than what it was. When she started talking I was like “ohhh she’s in trouble” but Miz and Riley came out and I was really looking forward to the segment with the Miz and the most popular wrestling meme probably…ever lol. Demon Miz Girl lol. Its awesome that they actually brought her on. But when the segment was over I felt that they missed an opportunity.

Jack Swagger can absolutely go. They are wasting some talent right now and I hope they find a way to use him better.

John Cena winning superstar of the year is garbage but hey I guess its like when fans vote Derek Jeter into the ALLSTAR game when he doesn’t deserve to be there.


Overall, you know its not the best RAW in the world when a match featuring Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler doesn’t deliver….hardly at all. I understand it was because of time constraints but I would have thought they would have been able to turn in a better outing than that. On a side not, the new Daniel Bryan shirt could be a lot better. Look at everyone’s shirt design (those who have them) DB’s look really wack in comparison.


I’ll leave the official reviews to the pros here, but it wasn’t a spectacular RAW in my opinion. The rest of Nexus turning their backs on Otunga didn’t jive well. I understand Barrett’s point of view since he’s the leader, but Nexus rallied behind Otunga when Cena was terrorizing them and all of a sudden they take on Barrett’s view and leave Otunga out to dry? Just doesn’t jive.

One last thing. The MIZ is doing something right. Im not even a Miz fan.,..never have been but when his music hit, I actually stopped everything I was doing, stood up and focused on him. But I swear in him match with Rey it seemed like Rey did 96% of the work lol.

And I don’t watch NXT. Do those rookies REALLY suck that bad when they speak?? LOLOL. Really? They don’t practice or anything down in FCW or something before getting on the mic on live WWE TV? WOW.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

Well I thought RAW/Slammy Awards was a good tonight and had some good Buildup for TLC on Sunday. The Cena/Nexus stuff was good I thought and what is their not to understand about what went on with Barrett & Otunga,Barrett re-hired Cena and then he left Otunga high & dry because of Otunga doing it to him last week so why is that hard to understand?

How were they burying WCW? All they did was bring up David Arquette's Title win in WCW,they didn't mention anything else. Miz/Rey and Edge/Swagger were good Matches. I liked the Handicap Match and Cena destroying Otunga before gets to Barrett on Sunday. Also can't wait for the John Morrison/Sheamus Ladder Match at TLC as well.