WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Hell in a Cell 2013 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Hell in a Cell 2013. Was this a PPV good, a bust, or somewhere in the middle? Let's find out and begin. 

Opening up strong

We open the show with a fantastic match for the WWE Tag Titles. This might be a ballsy statement, but this was the match of the night in my book. I know most people will take the main event as the best, but this tag match turned a match I had slight interest in and managed to keep me glued to my seat the entire time. Big ups to Usos, Shield, and Golden Rhodes…

Hey, screw you!!! I thought that was a creative name. I can't win anything around here. Anyway, definitely a must watch if you ask me. Cody and Goldie manage to keep their championships this evening by defeating the competition. 

Return of the Fruit Roll-up

After Miz called out the Wyatt family and got attacked by them (Great idea, genius), Kane makes his return and wants to pick a fight with the Wyatts, but he also Chokeslams Miz in the process. It's hard to base a whole lot on Kane's motives at the moment since… well, it's Kane. You know, the guy who beat the s*** out of Pete Rose and got a round of applause. The man can beat up anybody and still gets cheers. It did seem the commentators were trying to play up the fact that Kane committed a crime by attacking Miz, so I guess we have to take that into account… whatever that means. Besides, it isn't like Kane and Miz go way back. Yeah, because when I think of drinking buddies, I think Kane and Miz. Okay, I'll see you after the show…

Midcard awkwardness 

It's more like Fanforgetful…

Due to Curtis Axel being scrapped due to injury, Big E went up against Dean Ambrose for the US Championship. Based on the fact this match was put together at the last moment, you can tell it looked like it. Both guys couldn't really get any chemistry in this match and it just felt very awkward to watch. While I should blame the creative department for putting this match together, I can't really complain because this was the staff trying to make the best out of a bad situation. It blew up in their face, but nobody will remember this match come tomorrow so there's no reason to harp on it. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the plan was for Big E to become the new Belt-Shiner champion since Curtis is getting tired of shining the belt. If my theory is correct, Big E should eventually defeat Curtis between now and Survivor Series to become a professional belt-shiner. Ah, the next step up the ladder. Oh yeah, Big E won via countout in case you wanted to know. 

CM Punk's redemption

You know, part of me wonders what the hell is going through Paul Heyman's head when he decided to put himself on top of the cell structure. I know the man's scared of CM Punk, but wouldn't it be a worse idea to stand above the ring? What if WWE got the cheap crap and the cell would crumble if you threw a stapler at it? Was it on his bucket list to do a crappy reenactment of King Kong climbing the Empire State Building? Yeah, my mind went lost years ago. In fact, it was exactly like King Kong minus the woman… and the ape… and the building… and the climbing. Okay, it was NOTHING like King Kong! Why was he up there!!! I want an answer, dammit!!! After CM Punk hands Ryback the remains of his career (which wasn't a great match, but much better than the Battleground contest), Punk climbs the cell and proceeds to whip Paul's ass. You know, Paul, nothings' really stopping you from running away. What a bitch of a time to come down with a fear of heights. You know, that Zeb Colter whip would probably come in handy at the moment. Punk finally gets his months of scars and embarrassments by hitting Heyman with a GTS. I know that WWE was trying to go for that iconic moment on top of the cell structure, but you have to do something that leads to a reason to have people on top of that structure. Outside of the lazy writing for this spot, the moment itself wasn't too shabby and it should finally close the book on the Punk/Heyman storyline. This storyline needed to end tonight since its gone on long enough and both people can use a new program. 

Zeb gets violated

It's that time of the night where you get the impromptu match you've seen on Raw and/or Smackdown. Los Matadores take on the Almost Real Americans because…Umm, Zeb stole El Torito's slice of cheesecake? That's a storyline we can get down with! Let's start this party!!! I do like how they brought mention to Torito attacking Zeb. Thank you, El Torito, for goring a big pile of republicanism and hot dogs. Only the WWE can give you things like this. Of course, what's an Almost Real Americans match without the Cesaro swing…

Cena's back and it's like he never left…

John Cena made is return and defeated Alberto Del Rio for the WHC. Geeze, WWE is really going with the fact the internet has labeled Cena, 'Super Cena' based on the fact they keep throwing that around these days. I'm just waiting for the next Cena shirt to literally have the Superman logo mixed in with Cena's mumbo jumbo. I know this is off-topic, but does anybody think Cena looks like a Teletubby on steroids? Yeah, this was something I was thinking the other day… Yeah, I'm a very strange person. I know this is supposed to be a feel-good moment for Cena, but I can't help but think it's the same formula we've seen for almost the last decade. Even the commentators were trying to make this victory and comeback a big deal. Hell, JBL even had to admit he said something wrong and clap for Cena's comeback. I'm sorry if I'm coming off as negative, but it's hard for me to buy into the 'Cena's comeback' deal when he was only gone for two months AND this booking style has been done before. This isn't the first time Cena has come back from an injury and sooner rather than later, he always gets back in the spotlight and becomes champ. Yeah, he's the face of the company and is gonna be booked to look like a beast (Trust me, I get it), but part of me also feels a bit underwhelmed by this. Hell, I think it would've told a better story if Cena had lost (and I'm aware that it wasn't gonna happen) and struggled with the arm injury. It would've made him question himself and if anything, maybe bring something new out of Cena. It also would've added some credibility for Del Rio since his championship reign has been very lackluster, but that isn't what they wanted. They wanted to slap that championship on Cena as if the man never left and that's it. Part of the reason Cena gets so much hate is because of how predictable his booking is. This was a chance to do something a little different and for the time being, it's sticking with the same Cena formula we've seen for many years and I can't help but be disappointed by this. 

Bros over goats

Oh hey, it's everybody's favorite… diva match… yeah…meh… don't care…MOVING ON!!! Hey look, the Prime Time Players and Bob Backlund created an Oreo. There's money in this idea. PTP Oreos, now available at supermarkets! Okay, let's get into the final match of the night. The Orton/Bryan match was good, but it felt very similar to their previous encounters. Perhaps I'm growing tired of the Bryan/Orton matches since they aren't bad, but perhaps it's because I'm at the stage where I just want to fast-forward to the screwy finish. Come on, you know it's coming since the corporation is still new to the point where they're gonna pull out all the cards in order to get what they want, so I just want to see them get to the screwjob half the time. Triple H did come out in the middle of the match and kept pestering HBK to 'do the right thing'. After a ref bump, an unlocked cage and a knee to Trips' skull, the finish finally comes when HBK decides to avenge his fallen friend and kick his former student in the face. By the way, that Sweet Chin Music looked really bad. It didn't even look like he hit Bryan. Somebody messed up that delivery! Anyway, Randy picks the bones and Randy is your new WWE Champion… again. Based on Shawn's emotions, it didn't really seem like a heel turn and more like 'I'll be my best friend's bitch and do what he wants' sort of move. Keep in mind that at the time of this review, I haven't watched or read up on Raw so for the time being, I don't consider this a heel turn. It definitely has the elements for HBK to turn heel, but we have to wait until Shawn explains himself to really determine why he did this. As far as Randy winning the title, it was expected. Bryan probably won't win the title until WrestleMania time. In fact, Daniel Bryan is the early favorite to win the Royal Rumble, but I imagine many people are starting to think this as this time. I know people are raging over tonight's finish but as always in the pro wrestling world, you have to be patient and give these things time to flesh out. The payoff hasn't happened yet and in good time, it will eventually come. You can't jump to conclusions since storylines aren't gonna get their payoffs immediately. 

Overall Impression:

This PPV was very hit and miss in my book. It had elements where it was entertaining and enjoyable, but there were also moments where it just seem to run on auto-pilot. Even though this PPV had more story behind it than the last two PPVs, I don't think you're missing a whole lot if you missed out on this show. While the HBK turn can be a big enough of a surprise for some of you, something about it was always at the back of my mind and in a way, I saw it coming. While the PPV was a step in the right direction, part of me felt it was a bit disappointing. In fact, that's the best way to describe this PPV. While it did entertain me and this was much more enjoyable than Night of Champions and Battleground, I was still a bit disappointed with this showing. I felt like more could've been done with this PPV to really make it stand out. It's possible WWE held back a bit since they might have something game-changing at Survivor Series and want to save the bigger stuff for one of the big four, but I also wouldn't be surprised if this was their 'game-changing swerve'. If I had to give WWE Hell in a Cell 2013 a score between 1-10 and 5 considered average, I have to give it a 6 out of 10…

I think that's a fair score since I would say this was an above average PPV and nothing more than that. If you skipped out on this PPV, you didn't really miss out on much but there is enough here to keep you entertained. The PPV is at least worth viewing once, but maybe only once. I did enjoy this PPV for what it was worth, but I was still wanting more at the end of the day. Yeah, I'm a selfish WrestlingNerd. Anyway, that's gonna do it for this review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of tonight's show and my stupid thoughts. I'll see you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd's Official score for WWE Hell in a Cell 2013: 6 out of 10

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw 10/21/13 Review (Who signs contracts at contract signings?)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 10/21/13. How was Raw this week? Let's find out and begin.

Big Hacker

We open up the show with Triple H and Stephanie. They talk about Chinese food or something until Big Show interrupts the party via satellite. Nice to see the Rock's handiwork is being utilized by the other talents. How in the world did Show hack into the program? Does he have a top secret crew of people willing to work for a pocket full of quarters? Even MacGyver would be scratching his head right now. After telling the 'best for business' couple to f*** off until he gets cut off. We also get some more disrespect from Daniel Bryan by parading around the ring. I know the corporation wants to blame Bryan and Show, but the real people to blame is the production crew. Makes you wonder what their punishment will be…

In a decent opening match, Goat Man defeated Dean Ambrose. Remember when the US Championship had a storyline? Then again, I probably shouldn't be so harsh since all they had to worry about back then was Y2K and Donald Trump's hair! Anyway, Shawn Michaels had a segment with the power couple and mentions how they've changed for all the wrong reasons and have forgotten to have fun. Maybe building a water slide would solve all of this? Hey, I bet you weren't expecting that one this evening! 

Who pushed that fast forward button? 

Hey, it's Memphis everybody! Let's go out there and do some Elvis/music thing that makes no sense to entertain you. More like a jailhouse pen if you ask me…

We're gonna skip ahead a bit since there's no reason to bring up stuff like the CM Punk promo or the Orton/Dolph match since there's not much to say. We can also skip the diva match since it's dancing chesticales in a ring. Besides, why talk about that stuff when we can talk about the Paul Heyman promo. Jesus Christ, what the hell is Paul Heyman on? I think this is the result of getting a giant bag of cocaine and throwing it over a person. Still, that was the funniest thing I've seen all night. You can live you life on those words…Liquid magma, bitch!!! In fact, it looks like somebody in the back had a second bag to throw on R-Truth for that WWEShop promotion. He probably passed out after he was done with that ramble. Well, at least he found a way to get work. After all, that guy with the internet show isn't really having much luck. 

Big Face Langston

On last week's edition of Smackdown. Big E Langston made a face turn by helping out CM Punk and fight off Rybully and Curtis Something. It was a bit of a surprise to say the least, but also a surprise I welcome. There's something about Big E that really stands out. I don't look at Big E as just another musclebound light-pole because Big E actually shows some personality/charisma that makes him enjoyable. I hope to see good things from this face turn. After Vickie Guerrero pulls off a Teddy Long and creates a tag team match…

Punk and Big E defeat Paul Heyman Guys. The match does more build for Punk/Heyman and it also gave Big E an IC title match against Curtis at the HIAC pre-show. I won't say much about the Almost Real Americans/Tons of Saturated Fat contest, but I do have to mention the aftermath. Did Zeb Colter just pull out a whip? Talking about the immigration deal is one thing, but a whip seems to be pushing the boundaries a bit. Notice how the commentators were trying to say how it's a 'bull whip', but a whip is a whip at the end of the day. It seems a Real Americans/Los Matadores feud came about within the last week. It's a bit odd since both tag teams seem to be gaining some positive feedback, but they also could be the extra spark the tag division needs to make it what it was a year ago. 

JBL's stand-up

 'Eh, it's only Josh Matthews.'

Yeah, he's absolutely right. We can get another one those in the unemployment line; no harm done! That was my favorite JBL line of the night. If you're curious, the runner up was, 'I just got a 'oh snap' by Goldust?'. Due to all the craziness that is my life, I was unable to review Raw last week. One of the big things that happened on last week's show was Cody Rhodes and Goldust defeating the Shield to become the new WWE Tag Champs. I don't mind the title change before the PPV since it would've been redundant to have the same tag team match for two straight PPVs. I like Cody and Goldie getting the tag titles, but if this is anything like what happens with these type of championships, they won't do much with the titles after their feud with the Shield ends. Then again, with Real Americans and Los Matadores getting some attention, this tag title could be as meaningful as Team Hell No's title reign. To be fair, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns tag title reign was okay at the end of the day and I wouldn't say it was TOO under the radar. Due to Cody and Goldie getting involved with all the Shield antics, the #1 Contender match between Shield and Usos ended in a no contest. Due to this, it will be a Triple Threat match for the tag titles. I have no issues with that match since I think it could be a lot of fun. Nice touch!

Contract Arguing (Did they even sign anything?)

The final segment of the night was a contract signing between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. The thing I like about this is seeing DB, Randy and Trips talk to one another and HBK just standing there smiling. He's just there for the food. Can we give Shawn a hammock or something? Never mind, it appears Shawn has something to say after Trips claims DB isn't even good enough to fight him because he only fights 'stars'. This segment started to get really interesting when Shawn and Trips started to exchange some words. Randy and DB are ready to fight until… A semi truck shows up out of nowhere? I think the TNA wrestlers made a wrong turn at Albuquerque…

Actually, it turns out to be Big Show's semi. How did he afford that? I'm just gonna assume he stole it. Okay, who let that door open? I'm telling you, Show must have a secret organization that's pulling all these strings for him. How is he doing this? The show ends with Show and DB doing a 'Yes' chant. This was definitely one of the better segments for this evening. Gotta give them credit for that.

Overall Impression:

Tonight's show wasn't too bad. It wasn't perfect since there was a few moments that really didn't do much for me, but when the show did something worthwhile, it was pretty good. The last half of the show was definitely the most interesting to witness since it built up the bigger matches for HIAC. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the build for HIAC has been better than the build for Battleground and tonight's show has me invested in Sunday's PPV. This PPV has all the ingredients to do better than the last two WWE PPVs, but we won't know that until the show's over. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my ramblings and tonight's show. See you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Battleground 2013 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Somebody told me WWE Battleground was taking place, so let's review it…I guess. Here's a PPV and a bag of tricks along with the--f*** it, let's just get started. 

Here's your PPV… enjoy… I think

As I mentioned during the week, I was not looking forward to this. While some of the hype to the major matches were at least appealing to register a watch, nothing else about the event was really selling it for me; but the final presentation is all that matters at the end of the day, right? Would that occur or would mowing a lawn be more entertaining? Let's find out. The first match of the night was the Hardcore match between Alberto Del Rio and RVD for the WHC. The match wasn't bad and a decent start to the show. It was good, but if you've seen a lot of hardcore matches involving RVD, this was nothing different. Del Rio wins the match after RVD misses a Van Terminator, thus Del Rio attacks RVD's arm to weaken it for the Cross Armbreaker. Looks like a wheel fell off that maneuver for Van Dam…

With the victory, Del Rio pretends the WHC means something while RVD will go home to count his money. Who's the next opponent for Del Rio's WHC? Eh, maybe they'll bring out the 'Insert some random guy here' roulette board to determine who should be next. TAKING ALL BETS!!!

The highlight of the night

I find it amazing how Zeb Colter is the only person in the WWE that can create the art of food…smack talk? Is that a thing? In fact, he probably went out to dip some buffalo wings into some maple syrup after the show. Hmmm… I wonder how that would taste? Anyway, Santino and Great Khali have a match against Almost Real Americans. Yeah, this makes it on Battleground and we aren't even an hour into the show? Maybe the creative staff shut down this week, what do you want from me!? The match is pretty forgettable until you get to the part where Antonio Cesaro swings Khali around. I could seriously watch that for hours. At least Battleground has at least one thing going for itself at the moment. After the 'Punjab-A-Whirl', Antonio pins Khali to defeat Comedy Disaster. After the Cesaro swing, the next best thing about this PPV is Zeb's promo. I'm actually being serious right now… yikes…

Fire Man is a dick

You know what can be a bit challenging? In the first Megaman game, you have to defeat Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Guts Man all on one life and no energy refills in between. And even if you manage to defeat all four of them, you still have to defeat Dr. Wily without any energy refills. Why is it so hard? There's challenging and just being completely unfair and THIS is pretty dickish. If only Fire Man's pattern was easy to recognize a--THE F*** AM I DOING!? Sorry, I got distracted with Megaman and I missed out on the IC and Divas title matches. At the same time can you blame me? Nothing about these matches stand out or even serve and importance. I even went back to force myself to watch these and I didn't miss a damn thing. I guess you can argue the AJ/Brie match at least got some build-up, but even then it was lazily done at the last moment. I'm not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me but I think the divas match was longer than the IC title match. To be fair, the matches weren't bad as nothing about them screamed terrible, but by speeding through exposition faster than a bean burrito, it doesn't make me care about the match… It just makes me want to play a video game. Hey look, I somehow connected all of that! Neither of these titles changed hands. Axel won cleanly while AJ had some help from Tamina to steal the match. The AJ match at least had some of my interest as I did not care at all for the IC title match. In fact, what's an Intercontinental Title? Curtis Axel might as well being holding onto a roll of toilet paper since that's pretty much what the IC represents these days…

Hey look, the PPV is trying to do something

The next match was Cody Rhodes and Goldust taking on the Shield in a tag team match. This was one of the few matches I was looking forward to this evening. The pieces were there to make this match truly stick out and I would say this was the best match of the night in terms of quality AND storytelling. The crowd was really into this match and I'll admit that it was definitely worth checking out, but something about it just screams rushed. The Rhodes family coming back in the WWE was a great moment, but you can tell the WWE was playing it up a lot more than they should. This would've been a bigger moment if the Rhodes family had been gone for months to get their redemption, not 3-5 weeks. This storyline needed more time to really go over, but it was enjoyable for what it was worth. 

Outsmart the walrus

Come in, beat somebody up, follow the buzzards, and leave. That seems to be the growing tale for the Wyatt family. Like I said in last week's Raw review, I like the Wyatt family and they show a ton of potential but you gotta do more than just have them repeat themselves every week. In fact, I think people are starting to grow tired of them since nothing's changed. The Punk/Ryback match was… okay. Yeah, it was just okay. Thanks to a slight distraction by Heyman, Punk utilizes his cunning to sneak a low blow on Ryback to steal this match. This was probably the best way to end the match if you wanted to continue the feud. Ryback doesn't look bad since he get screwed over while Punk looks good since he was able to outsmart Heyman. While I understand the reasoning for this type of approach, this outcome just adds to the list of things that aren't making this PPV stick out. That's another negative for the night… That list is really starting to grow, don't you think? 

Here's your knuckle sandwich

After another round of Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton matches, Big Show comes out to knock out DB. It seems as if Randy is about to steal the championship until Show has grown tired of all the pressure and knocks out the backup referee and Randy in the process, thus ending the PPV. I guess we have to wait a few more weeks until we have a WWE Champion as this match ends in a no contest. I know a lot of people are complaining about the ending since it puts things on hold a while longer but I understood why this happened and I don't mind the ending since its been building up to this. Big Show has been pushed to the edge by the corporation and the guy just finally had enough of it all and decided he needed to do something about it, thus screwing over Randy in the process. It was time for him to do something and he'll definitely be dealt with tomorrow when Trips and Steph have to talk to him. With all of that and despite the fact I understand AND agree with this move, the ending does nothing for the overall presentation of tonight's show. That's just another negative to add to the list. Well, let's get just to the conclusion already since that list is about to explode. 

Overall Impression:

I went into tonight's show with low expectations and outside of a few things that stood out from the show, I was still disappointed with this presentation. Nothing about it seems memorable and I have to argue that this PPV does nothing. Why was this even here? Why did this take place? Why does it exist? Is it because the company quota said you had to put a PPV on tonight, is that why? That's sadly the answer to the question but I would even say if this is what you were gonna showcase this evening, you would be better off canceling this PPV and waiting until Raw or Smackdown to air this. In fact, tonight's PPV felt like two episodes of Smackdown combined. Instead of Battleground, it should've been called Battledown or Smackground… That just sounds wrong. I wouldn't call this a bad PPV at the end of the day since the match quality was present. In fact, I would mostly refer to this as a boring PPV. I just had a hard time trying to sit down and enjoy this show. When I just trailed off in the middle of the review, that actually happened. I just got so bored and uninterested with Battleground that I literally had to switch to something else. I would've actually preferred to witness a bad PPV since at least I'd have something funny to look at. I know it seems odd that I would get more enjoyment out of a bad wrestling show compared to a boring one, but that's just how I see it. I watch wrestling to have a good time and be entertained, but when a showing's boring, I honestly just have to look elsewhere for entertainment. If I had to give Battleground a score between 1-10 and 5 considered average, I have to give this a 3 out of 10. I can see some people saying this was slightly below average, but I honestly had to bring it down a notch because of how boring it was. Antonio Cesaro's swing and the Rhodes family dilemma might be positives, but there's just not enough fun stuff to really make this event worthwhile. This is definitely one PPV I never want to look at again. I just hope something changes with Hell in a Cell, but I wouldn't be surprised if HIAC is similar to NoC and BG due to the fact WWE wants to use most of their cards at Survivor Series since it's one of the big four. With that said, I just hope it means things will get a little more interesting in the next few weeks. After all, I gotta hold onto something. Despite how disappointed I was with this PPV, I still think something good can come out of this and it should get better. After all, there's still traces of good stuff here and there and they had something good a few weeks ago. I'm optimistic to the point where I think the interest level will rise once more, but that's just me. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed any of my nonsense, check out some of my other reviews and partake in my stupidity. See you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd's Official Score for WWE Battleground 2013: 3 out of 10

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw 9/2/13 Review (Emo Show)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 9/2/13. What happens on this Labor Day edition of Raw? Let's find out and begin. 

Intro time

We open up the show with Triple H and Randy Orton. Randy basically tells you that you have to respect him. If you don't, you can screw your family, friends, career, well-being, pet goldfish, 3rd grade teacher, and die. Yeah, that's a good representation of Randy's words. As Triple H continues to piss off the IWC with all this Cruiserweight talk, Daniel Bryan interrupts. After a little more pushing and shoving, Trips books DB vs Big Show for later this evening…

To add to his douchebaggery, Trips and his bitch run into Cody Rhodes. Cody starts to speak his mind about the corporation's ego trip, so this leads to Cody's career being on the line against Randy later this evening. Wow, so a lot going on in this episode and we're barely 20 minutes into the show. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting this due to the fact it's a holiday, but I like this approach. If the train is still going, why slow it down? 

Dolph's spot

After a quick match between Miz and Fandango, Booker T tells Bryan to get with the program since he's fighting a war he can't win. Since Bryan is the lone wolf, he turns down his offer. Hey, it's Booker T's new job, the un-motivational speaker. He does his job well. Dolph Ziggler is getting ready for a match against Ryback, but Dean Ambrose attacks Dolph before the match. You think the referee would call off the match, but he's probably forced to not question it if he still wants a weekly check. Thanks to the attack, Ryback has an easy time defeating Dolph. One of the things I wanted to bring up is Dolph's placement since it seems a lot of people feel that Dolph has regressed a bit since losing the WHC. First of all, he's being used in the main storyline of the show. To me, that's higher on the pecking order than the WHC. In fact, the WHC has dipped quite a bit during that time since it feels more like a mid-card title than a world title. I just feel Dolph has more to gain by being apart of the heroes vs corporation storyline, so I don't think it's a big deal if Dolph's completely done with the WHC. It's just something I wanted to bring up since since it seems people think you're getting mistreated if you don't have something shiny on your shoulder and/or lose a few matches. Besides, the matches he's losing are being used to build the storyline and not as a use of punishment… Well, kayfabe punishment, not real-life punishment… massive punishment?…NEXT SCENE!

CM Punk follow-up

I like how Paul Heyman complains about the match at Night of Champions and Trips basically says 'F*** you, you're doing the match'. How will Paul get out of this one? Will he be punked? Tune in next week to find out. CM Punk does go out there to cut another good promo on this storyline. Once again, I really enjoy seeing how Punk and Pauly can work off of each other and see how the other can 1-up the other. Good segment that's worth checking out if you're curious. 

Common family vs corporate family

While there's not a whole lot to discuss with the Prime Time Players/3MB match, it was a nice distraction and it's at least worth a viewing. The next match was Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes. This is what I would consider to be the best match of the night. It was given a decent amount of time and the match meant more when the audience showed so much support for Cody. While Cody did everything he could to win, it still wasn't enough and Randy wins with the RKO. After the match, Trips fires Cody Rhodes… For probably a few weeks since I highly doubt the man is truly fired. If anything, this is to add another individual to this gigantic storyline and we'll see Cody in the near future. Not sure how he'll get brought back and how it'll connect to the main storyline, but I await his return. I've enjoyed what he's done since the funeral of Rhodes Scholars, so I'll await his return with patience. Later on in the evening, Cody explains the Rhodes/McMahon family dilemma and how the McMahons have always made the Rhodes nothing but sideshow attractions. Considering Dusty Rhodes was the originator of every dancing character in professional wrestling and Goldust is the originator of every gender, confused, character in pro wrestling, I can see how there has to be something there from a real-life perspective. It was a good shoot by Rhodes and can't wait to see him return after the honeymoon. 

A diva segment with a switch-a-roo? 

There was a #1 Contender match to determine who gets a Divas title match. As the Total Divas beat the crap out of each other to determine who's deserves the opportunity, Harley Quinn's adopted sister joins us for commentary. It seems Naomi is about to win the match, but AJ interrupts the match since she feels none of them deserve this opportunity. All of the sudden, the Total Divas take out AJ…Huh? I don't know why since this is how the body language in the ring sold it, but why does it seem the roles for this match just flipped sides? The Total Divas taking her out as a team seems more like a heel move while you're given this scene where you're supposed to feel sorry for AJ. Yeah, I wouldn't blame you if your feelings are all over the place on this one. I need to see more with this storyline to see where it's headed, but it still has my interest because of the events of last week and tonight. I should also note that at NoC, it will be a Fatal 4-Way for the Divas title. Like I said before, this makes things rather complex to say the least. 

WHC or US Championship? 

You know what? I'm convinced they put Ricardo Rodriguez with RVD because they wanted Ricardo to still roll his 'r's'. So far, that has been the only proof available for pairing these two up. I know Ricardo has some beef with Alberto Del Rio, but teaming up with RVD? Oh well, let's just move on. RVD defeats Damien Sandow, Del Rio looks on, and this sets things up for their upcoming Intercon--er, I mean World Heavyweight Championship match. Yeah, that's totally what I meant to say… Totally…

Big Show tears

Okay, so it's now time I finally talk about the Big Show conundrum. I saved this segment for last due to obvious reasons you will read about in a few moments. Before I do that, let's address a few things that made me laugh. I like how Show throws a temper tantrum backstage after Steph forces him to do her bidding. No, Big Show!!! You can't break those things! You can't afford it!!! I also love how minutes after an emotional segment, the commentators jump from tears of sadness to the WWE App. Wow, Show's really having a moment here…Hey, the WWE App! Stephanie explained to us that Show is in no position to fight the corporation since he's broke. They explain that Show made some terrible decisions that made him broke but they probably could've dived deeper into the problem. I thought it would've been funny if they explained Show had a gambling problem or spent his wealth on robotic hookers, but I guess they were trying to do something a little more realistic. The reason this was brought up is Show doesn't want to fight Bryan because he considers him a friend…Even though there's been NO indication of this on the show. It isn't like you see Show and Bryan talking with one another all the time and hang out all the time. You're just supposed to accept that they're friends and nothing more. Yeah, I'll admit that was a bit of lazy writing on their part considering Kane would've been a better option in all of this since Kane and Bryan HAD that interaction on the show, but it would feel a bit strange to see Kane having to shed tears of sadness. You can see why that idea would be scraped, but let's get back to the Show/Bryan deal. Like I said, I understand the reasoning for picking Show to be in this storyline since the man plays his part very well, but it would've been nice if they showed more interaction that they're friends other than just saying 'They're friends' and nothing more. Due to Stephanie naming off Show's secrets, Show is basically forced in a corner to do the corporation's evil deeds while being very emotional about it. To be honest, there was really no point to bring up the fact that Show's broke. It would've been fine if you showed Show and Bryan being friends and then blackmail the giant to do your evil deeds. By doing that, you would've achieved the same result as what you saw tonight. I know you can argue that Show's financial issues can add more to it, but I still find it unnecessary. So, let's break it down. You're either gonna enjoy the idea that Show's broke or you're gonna hate this idea. For me, it's too early to say if I'll like it or not since I'm pretty neutral about this new information. With that said, I really liked the interaction between Bryan and Show on tonight's episode. From the beginning of the night all the way to their match where Show was forced to hit the KO punch on Bryan, it was persuading due to the fact that Show sold his emotions rather well. In fact, Show has sold his emotions very well during this entire storyline. I know people are complaining due to the fact that the program has ended the same way for three straight weeks, but you have to give these things time and learn to be patient with some of these things. It's another thing I wanted to bring up since people tend to want the payoff way sooner than it should happen and I think you just have to give it more time before you start waiving the flag. Yeah, I may have some hangups with Show having money issues or the sudden grasp of Show/Bryan's…Ummm, Twitter friendship, but the acting/storytelling can usually be the saving grace for things like this and I think it has. 

Overall Impression:

I went into tonight's show not expecting a whole lot due to the fact it was a holiday and most people would be away from their television sets this week, but I would suggest checking this one out if you did miss the telecast. I personally think WWE has done a great job in the last few weeks in the storytelling department. Of course, there's gonna be a few head-scratching moments or things you aren't gonna like about it, but no storyline/segment is perfect and I think the positives cancel out most of the negatives. This has been one of the more intriguing storylines for quite some time and the storyline itself is too interesting for me to really spend a large amount of time harping over some of the little things… Even though some of those little things could at least use a polish here and there. Again, this is personal preference at the end of the day and I totally understand why some people aren't really enjoying the major storyline. It's only my opinion at the end of the day and if you don't enjoy this storyline or totally disagree with me, that's totally fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and there's nothing wrong with that at the end of the day. I liked tonight's episode and I think it's worth checking out, but take of that whatever you will. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of tonight's episode or the review. I will see you guys and girls in the next one.