Jack-Hammer
YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!!!!
Considering that Raw had to be redone and rewritten in a span of less than 24 hours, it was a pretty decent show. As to who wins this week, I'd have to give the edge to TNA iMPACT!.
The opening segment with Triple H and the SES was really entertaining. The crowd was really hot for Triple H and Punk drew great heat. Both were really on with the mic, particularly with Triple H's brief crowd interaction. The SES attacks Triple H, as expected, with Rey Mysterio making the save as Trips is about to get his head shaved. Mysterio and Triple H gaining the upper hand and shearing off a decent size chunk of Punk's hair made for an entertaining moment. Just an entertaining way to kick off Raw.
The match between Drew McIntyre and Matt Hardy was ok, nothing special. Given what happened with Hardy's interference in the match Kane had with McIntyre last Friday on Smackdown, it would've been much better to have had all of them in a triple threat match for the IC title. They need to move McIntyre onto someone else because there's only so many times I can watch him beat Matt Hardy before changing the channel.
The interview segments they had with Cena, Orton and Sheamus were ok, nothing special for the most part. As with a lot of what went on with Raw, the interviews just seemed kind of thrown together at the last minute, which is probably what happened really.
The Macgruber segments were just plain murder. I thought they were going to have the cast from the movie appear, but they had them show up in character. The first segment started off with some promise with Koslov having Jerry Lawler read his statement to the crowd. Got some damn good heel heat during that part. Macgruber poking fun at Koslov did have one or two decent chuckle moments. When R-Truth came down, I figured we'd at least see some sort of decent match but it turned out to be a lame skit, incredibly lame. All the Macgruber skits just went down hill from there. The worst was the match Macgruber had with Koslov in which the Great Khali steps in as Macruber's twin brother. Just really, really awful stuff. This has been the shit that Raw has done a damn good job of avoiding in 2010 and they don't need to start back now.
The match between Jack Swagger and The Undertaker was really good. While I'm an Undertaker fan, part of me was hoping that he'd lose the match even though I didn't expect him to. Swagger did look quite strong, game and ready and both wrestlers put on a really good match that made it to the 16 minute mark or so. I like the way that they're keeping Swagger a little off balance with one good week and one bad week. While I certainly hope it doesn't happen, there's a chance that Swagger could lose to Orton this Sunday. It's not likely but, then again, it's hard to tell at this point.
The six man tag match was also pretty good. An enjoyable 11-12 minute match that showed off and extended a couple of the big feuds at Extreme Rules. I think it would've been better had Punk gotten the win over Mysterio in the match to get some momentum his way going into the ppv, but still a good match.
Overall, Raw was decent last night. There was some crap, don't get me wrong on that, but the WWE did put on a pretty entertaining show overall last night. The show was redone, rewritten and all within less than 24 hours, so things obviously weren't as smooth as they could have been. However, for the first time in a while, I have to say that I thought iMPACT! was an overall better show last night. All it took for was for the entire Raw roster to be stranded in a foreign country and unable to compete.
The opening segment with Triple H and the SES was really entertaining. The crowd was really hot for Triple H and Punk drew great heat. Both were really on with the mic, particularly with Triple H's brief crowd interaction. The SES attacks Triple H, as expected, with Rey Mysterio making the save as Trips is about to get his head shaved. Mysterio and Triple H gaining the upper hand and shearing off a decent size chunk of Punk's hair made for an entertaining moment. Just an entertaining way to kick off Raw.
The match between Drew McIntyre and Matt Hardy was ok, nothing special. Given what happened with Hardy's interference in the match Kane had with McIntyre last Friday on Smackdown, it would've been much better to have had all of them in a triple threat match for the IC title. They need to move McIntyre onto someone else because there's only so many times I can watch him beat Matt Hardy before changing the channel.
The interview segments they had with Cena, Orton and Sheamus were ok, nothing special for the most part. As with a lot of what went on with Raw, the interviews just seemed kind of thrown together at the last minute, which is probably what happened really.
The Macgruber segments were just plain murder. I thought they were going to have the cast from the movie appear, but they had them show up in character. The first segment started off with some promise with Koslov having Jerry Lawler read his statement to the crowd. Got some damn good heel heat during that part. Macgruber poking fun at Koslov did have one or two decent chuckle moments. When R-Truth came down, I figured we'd at least see some sort of decent match but it turned out to be a lame skit, incredibly lame. All the Macgruber skits just went down hill from there. The worst was the match Macgruber had with Koslov in which the Great Khali steps in as Macruber's twin brother. Just really, really awful stuff. This has been the shit that Raw has done a damn good job of avoiding in 2010 and they don't need to start back now.
The match between Jack Swagger and The Undertaker was really good. While I'm an Undertaker fan, part of me was hoping that he'd lose the match even though I didn't expect him to. Swagger did look quite strong, game and ready and both wrestlers put on a really good match that made it to the 16 minute mark or so. I like the way that they're keeping Swagger a little off balance with one good week and one bad week. While I certainly hope it doesn't happen, there's a chance that Swagger could lose to Orton this Sunday. It's not likely but, then again, it's hard to tell at this point.
The six man tag match was also pretty good. An enjoyable 11-12 minute match that showed off and extended a couple of the big feuds at Extreme Rules. I think it would've been better had Punk gotten the win over Mysterio in the match to get some momentum his way going into the ppv, but still a good match.
Overall, Raw was decent last night. There was some crap, don't get me wrong on that, but the WWE did put on a pretty entertaining show overall last night. The show was redone, rewritten and all within less than 24 hours, so things obviously weren't as smooth as they could have been. However, for the first time in a while, I have to say that I thought iMPACT! was an overall better show last night. All it took for was for the entire Raw roster to be stranded in a foreign country and unable to compete.