WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw 10/28/13 Review (Security? Dafaq is that?)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 10/28/13. Hey, you're late with this review. I swear I didn't do that… I swear… I… Okay, I don't have anything, just start the damn review already!

You IWC rage moment of the night

We open up the show with the return of that s***-eating grin. Only John Cena can pull off that look. So, they make doctors so Cena can compete? I thought doctors helped everybody, but we learn something new each day. The doctor at your local clinic is, 'F*** you, you aren't John Cena! Back of the line, bitch!!!' After some more pandering from Mr. Breakfast Cereal, Damien Sandow comes out and cashes in the MITB after beating the crap out of Cena's elbow. He used the briefcase, the barricade, the ring, a chair. A freakin' chair and despite all of that, Cena shrugs it off because… He's John Cena. You know, the same guy who gets the crapped kicked out of him and somehow miraculously recovers and becomes more overpowered than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in an action movie COMBINED! Yeah, that's exactly what happens. Cena defeats Sandow and the 'smartest' person in the WWE now comes off as the biggest idiot of all time. Intellectual savior, my ass!!! I get it, WWE,  you want us to view Cena as a freakin' God to the masses! I'm just waiting for the day he puts on a cape and starts flying around the ring. It's coming eventually! Okay, let's get back to reality for a bit and talk about this. I know the outcome for this match has been getting a lot of negative attention from the Cena haters/Sandow supporters but I do want to say something… Sandow DID look great in this match and it does feel like THIS could be the defining point of Damien's career. His character has always been entertaining in my eyes, but he had more energy and drive in him on Monday. This could definitely be used to build up Damien and may I remind people that it was less than two years ago when people thought WWE was 'burying' (Seriously, LEARN this word, folks) Daniel Bryan by having him lose in 18-seconds. Yeah, remember that? I still think there's hope for Damien and it could be THIS moment that makes the man's career and becomes something special, but he has to prove it at the end of the day. If he can keep doing what he did on Monday, the future does look bright for Damien. Only time will tell where Damien's career ends up. I mentioned it in the HIAC review and I'll bring it up again, you gotta give these things time and have patience. I know this is coming off as me defending Cena and I've said it many times that while I respect Cena, I'm not a big fan of him because of the predictability of his booking and how he's literally played the same character since winning his first WWE Championship. I'm not trying to defend Cena because that man gets more than enough silver spoons in this industry. I'm just trying to look at the positives and try to look at the bigger picture. Then again, that's just how I like to view things. Okay, WrestlingNerd, get off the soapbox already and move forward with this s***!!!

The devil made me do it

Shield things… something… meh? Anyway, Shawn Michaels comes out and explains himself. He pretty much tells Daniel Bryan sorry for last night because while he wasn't proud of himself, he did it because Triple H wanted it and he will go to the end of the Earth to help out his best friend. He tells him that in this business, you cannot trust anybody and while he's still a DB supporter and continues to defend him, he wants him to shake his hand and accept this 'last lesson'. It's actually a great approach since it keeps Shawn neutral, yet intriguing. Yes, he looks like a douche for helping the bad guys, but gives Bryan helpful advice and still thinks he's has the potential to be an 'A+', but he must rely on only himself to get his goals. Bryan does shake his hand, but wants some revenge for the Sweet Chin Miss and slaps the Yes Lock on HBK. After the refs separate them, Bryan is about to have an interview until the Wyatt family comes out of nowhere and attacks DB. It seems for the time being, they've taken Bryan out. Well, this certainly got interesting. After weeks/months of the Wyatt family doing nothing, they went after some big fish and it really caught my attention. At the moment, it doesn't seem like the Wyatt family is working for the corporation and I honestly hope they're not. The Wyatt family works better by doing their own thing as opposed to taking orders from somebody. Why did they attack him? Because they're freakin' evil and deranged and that's honestly all you need. 

Oh where-o-where has my monster gone? 

It's everybody's favorite tag team match to watch…Los Matadores vs 3MB… Oh… oh… OH… OHHHHHHHH… Yeah, I don't care. The diva match was just there. Who competed in this match? Was it a Bella and Bigger Breasted Bella? That sounds about right. After Kane destroys his 'BFF' (According to the commentary from last night. You silly commentators and you ridiculous claims. You're so silly!), Kane calls out Stephanie and tells her she's on a power trip and it IS best for business. She's free to do whatever she wishes out from the monster, so he gives her his mask and walks away. It's definitely an interesting move on Kane's behalf. In many ways, he pretty much said Steph is allowed to use him in any way she feels like it. It will be interesting to find out what they decide to do moving forward. I kinda hope Kane keeps the mask. I won't be heart-broken if Kane goes mask-less again, but I like the mask. Wow, it does seem coincidental that Kane may have given up his mask close to Halloween. No Trick or Treat for you! Hey, I just thought of something. Stephanie's future quote, 'KANE… Choke him out!!!'

The devil made me do it… Again… He's very demanding

After the CM Punk/Ryback match (Which honestly didn't need to happen), the Wyatt family set their sights on Punk. Cult of Personality tries to fight them off, but it was too much to overcome. The segment ends when Bray finishes off Punk with Sister Abigail. Bray does say the same thing (The devil made me do it) when taking out DB earlier in the night, so that was certainly something. Geeze, we go from weeks of the Wyatt family doing nothing to them doing a lot of things this evening. Needless to say, it was about time they did something. Not sure where this is all headed but it certainly has my interest. If anything, I think it gets DB and Punk away from the WWE title picture for a bit. After all, if Bryan is the favorite to win the Royal Rumble and finally get his moment at WrestleMania, he should take a break from the world title matches. Regardless of such, it will be interesting to find out where this is all headed. 

Es mi destine para perder (It's my destiny to lose)

In a fun match, Almost Real Americans defeated Golden Rhodes (Copyrighting that s***) via submission. I don't mind the champs losing here since it sets up a future title match between the two teams. One of the things you do to make the tag division more interesting is by building story and developing the personas of the tag teams, which they have done with both of these teams. I look forward to what they can do with this future rivalry. Meanwhile, Alberto Del Rio talks about his rematch. This is hilarious since Del Rio won't mean anything in a few weeks after Cena has raped him some more. By the way, I know that graphics aren't everything in a video game (Hell, I enjoy playing 8 and 16-bit games just as much as current games), but the WWE2K14 graphics look really bad. In fact, the last few WWE games have looked lazily done in this department. Then again, sports games in general don't really do it for me. I'm more of a platformer/adventurer type of gamer. It's literally the same thing from last year but with THREE NEW CHARACTERS!!!

After all, it was either pay game developers more or give Cena another car and cuts have to be made at the end of the day… Life's a bitch! 

Big Lawsuit

The final segment of the night is Randy Orton's WWE title celebration. Oh great, it isn't like they did this two months ago or whatever. After Randy strokes his own cock, Big Show arrives to crash the party. WWE has the worse security ever. How does he keep showing up and appearing on the titantron? Show knocks out Randy and the program ends with WWE teasing Trips/Show. I guess I should mention Show has filed a 'lawsuit' against the WWE and will take whatever he can get since he has nothing to lose. He may have lost everything, but he still found a way to make a new T-shirt design. Maybe somebody was just generous? Anyway, it did seem Show/Trips was on the way after everything that's happened. The ending to the show wasn't too shabby. It wasn't great, but not bad. 

Overall Impression:

I really enjoyed tonight's episode of Raw. In fact, I think I enjoyed this more than Hell in a Cell, which was a slightly above average show at best. While most people won't say that after witnessing the first match, I try to find the bright side in things like this and don't want to assume things until the storyline stretches out. Some new things happened like the Wyatt family targeting DB and Punk and while we don't know why the attack was done, the curiosity alone makes it worth witnessing. Also, Kane's a giant question mark at the moment and I kinda like it. I think this episode is worth checking out. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. See you guys and girls in the next one and Happy Halloween.

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 9/16/13 Review (Rebellion)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 9/16/13. After the events of Night of Champions, what happens next? Let's find out and begin. 

Here lies Daniel Bryan's hopes and dreams

We open up the show with Daniel Bryan. As you would guess, Bryan is talking about his WWE Championship victory. Wow, what a moment for the man! So, where's the part of the show where the man with the big nose crushes his dreams? Oh, there he is! Right on time! After a replay system that makes you question the NFL replay system, Scott Armstrong admits that he made a fast count and claims he and DB were working together in order to ensure Bryan's championship victory. Bryan denies these claims, but Trips has heard more than enough to strip DB of the WWE Championship. Bryan refuses, but he eventually has no choice but to fork it over…

Randy Orton arrives and the two are about to fight, but it's revealed that Orton ISN'T the WWE Champion and things will get figured out at a later time. I should note that by the end of the night, we still don't know the fate of the WWE Championship, so we currently have no world champion at the moment…

Very intriguing backstage scene where Orton was acting like a crybaby for not getting his championship back, but Stephanie puts him in his place and claims Orton deserved to lose since he's not the same, vicious, Randy Orton who made their lives a living hell. That was definitely something. Looks like Randy is gonna have to look himself in the mirror and find that sadistic snake. This is definitely an interesting turn of events, so definitely a positive start to the show. Although, it's kinda sad that this opening might've been more engaging than the entire NoC PPV. I should note that much later in the evening, Armstrong would get fired for his actions at the PPV. Armstrong didn't seem thrilled about the news, but Trips insures that Armstrong will be taken care of. So, how much did Armstrong sell his soul to the Game? I would like to know. 

Yay, filler time!

The rematch between Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose might've been better than their match from last night. I liked their match from last night, but this felt like it was given more time and thus, felt more fleshed out. Dolph defeats Ambrose with the Zig Zag in this non-title match. Well, that evens the score so far in the rivalry. I look forward to the rematch. Did King just say 'Paul-rus'? Ugggggggggggh… who's keeps writing King and Cole's jokes, Chuggaaconroy? Later on in the show, the diva match didn't feature AJ or Natalya in the ring, but they were on commentary. Yeah, it's one of those matches were listening to the banter is more entertaining than the actual match. Seriously, name one thing that happened in the match from the top of your head? I bet you can't do it since nobody remembers it. I don't even know who was in the match. I think that should sum it up right there. Although, I will admit that the interaction between AJ and Natalya was fun, but it felt like Natalya came off as a spoiled child. I can't really explain it, but that's just how I felt. 

Unleash bitch-mode

After fast-forwarding through the Fandango/R-Truth match, the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes arrives with something to say. Dusty pretty much wants the opportunity for Cody Rhodes to get his job back. Stephanie says Cody does have the opportunity to get his job back, but he can also give the job to Goldust. It's up to Dusty to decide who gets their job, Cody or Dustin. Wow, what a bitch! Dusty decides he will not do such a thing and tells Steph to go to hell. After the Shield and Big Show arrive to the party, Steph orders Show to knock out Dusty. Once Show starts to shed the tears, he apologizes to Dusty and knocks him out, but not before catching him. As you would understand, Show only did the attack since he knew the Shield would've done something much, MUCH worse to the Hall of Famer, so he took the bullet once again. I know people don't like the sniveling, Big Show, but I personally don't mind it since he plays his part very well. Still, this does ask the question at what point does Show start to rebel against the corporation? By the way, has anyone noticed that anything involving the people wanting to rebel, Booker T is somewhere in the scene? Just something I wanted to point out since its become a regular thing. So the Rhodes/McMahon family dilemma continues to grow. Just like the DB/corporation deal, this is another feud that could turn into a potential Survivor Series match, but not sure about that. The merits are there, but I'm sure something along the lines of a war can get the green light. 

Yay, more filler!

RVD hits the Frog Splash on Damien Sandow and the winner is Damien Sandow…what? Sorry, the entrance music said otherwise. Somebody hit the wrong button in the back. That dude better be care. Trips has already fired two people in his ego trip and can definitely get ride of somebody else in the process. In other filler performances, the Usos defeated Tons of Saturated Fat and Almost Real Americans to become the #1 Contender to the tag titles. Where were the Prime Time Players? Well, my guess is they forgot to set their alarm clock. While it seems the WWE wants to do something with the tag division, but it isn't clear as to what exactly. They were going with the Usos for a while, but then they went with the PTP, but now they're back to the Usos. It's usually the championships that get the hot potato treatment, not the #1 Contendership. It just feels a little odd to say the least. 

Randy's anger

Randy got an opportunity to unleash that evvvvvvvil persona once more and he does it by attacking Miz before the match. In fact, he would pretty much kill the Miz right in front of the Miz's parents. I know this is pro wrestling and everything for the most part is staged, but it would've been a nice touch to see his parents jump the guardrail and get held back by security as they try to help their son. I mean, if your child was getting the crapped kicked out of him, wouldn't you go in there and do something about it or just stand there and watch? This is a minor complaint and the scene still gets its point across, but I would've appreciated the extra effort. Like I said, the scene did its job to set up the fact that Randy Orton has mega evolved in Mega Orton, king of jackasses. Hmmm, perhaps Trips told Armstrong to do the fast count in order to not only kick DB in the balls once more, but to unleash the evil side of Orton? It's not a bad theory if you think about it. 

Kiss of death

Paul Heyman comes out to gloat about the fact he defeated CM Punk in a match, while Ryback claims he attacked Punk because he doesn't like bullies. Yeah, the bully doesn't like bullies. Try to figure that one out. To add to the creepy atmosphere, Pauly kisses Ryback on the forehead and Ryback really seemed to get off on it. I haven't seen him this happy since he forced somebody to take a shower. Yeah, we're learning a lot today. As for Curtis Axel, I almost forgot he was there. Maybe he can go make Ryback and Pauly a couple of sandwiches. He's gotta do something, right? Anyway, I still like the progress of this storyline and I think the edition of Ryback will be a great plus since Axel is still young and Brock Lesnar isn't always available. 

And now, chaos!

The final match of the night was Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but I was surprised. The match was pretty damn good. Check it out if you're curious. The finish comes when Randy interferes, thus resulting in a no contest. After the match, Shield and Randy take down Bryan and it seems Bryan is about to get the Miz treatment, but some talents in the WWE have grown tired of the corporation's treatment. The rebellion consisted of RVD, Dolph, PTP (they finally woke up), Usos, Zack Ryder, Justin Gabriel, Kofi Kingston, and R-Truth. The show ends with the rebels taking out the Shield and celebrating with DB. Oh boy, the evvvvvvil, big, bad, corporation is gonna be furious. Well, Trips technically didn't put any repercussions if you helped Bryan so he can't fire them, but you can bet some 'punishment' will be on the way. You had to figure at some point, people would be willing to risk their careers to do the right thing. If anything, I expect to see some type of punishment on this upcoming Smackdown. If that's the case, it could be something to check out later in the week. 

Overall Impression:

This was a major improvement over Night of Champions. If you checked my review on the PPV, you would know that I was overall disappointed with the event and just something I don't want to go back and watch. Thankfully, WWE realized the error of their ways and put together a pretty entertaining episode of Raw. Not an episode I would put in my top five of 2013, but still an episode that the majority of wrestling fans will get an enjoyment out of. Check it out and judge for yourself. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Night of Champions 2013 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Night of Champions 2013. Would this evening be able to offer something to the table? Let's find out and begin. 

Is there still an Intercontinental title? 

We open up the show with Triple H's ego. Once the guy pretty much mentions everything that's happened to Daniel Bryan, Paul Heyman tries to bargain with Trips since he announced his match against CM Punk would be a No DQ match. You have to love how heels freak out over the fact the match is now No DQ. They're actually giving you the option to cheat. You can probably use a hand grenade as a weapon. Hey, it's no DQ, right? Since Curtis Axel didn't have the IC title on the line and Punk would use the championship as toilet paper, it's decided to give the title match to the first person Trips runs into. I think Kofi Kingston lucked out in that department since it was originally gonna be cameraman #9087234, but my guess is Trips gave Kofi the match since he washed his car over the weekend. Just because the corporation's evil doesn't mean they can have dirty cars. The match was given a decent amount of time and it ended when Curtis hits the most unconvincing finisher ever. I'm sorry if you like this finisher, but it looks like the person who receives this move is intentionally taking a dive. The rest of his in-ring skills are fine, but get rid of the… Un-neckbreaker. Congratulations to Axel for keeping the IC…

My guess is he kept the belt since nobody else wanted to hold onto it for the remainder of this month. I mentioned a few months ago that Axel would most likely hold onto the IC title and do nothing with it until it comes time to give it to the next guy, and that's exactly what's happened thus far. I know it's prestigious and historic, but if you aren't gonna do anything with it, you might as well retire the title. I want to see more done with the mid-card championships and I know the WWE is capable of writing storylines for these belts, but it seems like they really don't want to. I know it seems harsh saying something like that, but it might be better to get rid of one of these titles. I want to see things change with this division, but it's more of an afterthought in the current era of the WWE. 

Crazy divas

Layla and AJ were a 'team' a few weeks ago, but now it's like it never happened? My guess is Layla got amnesia last week and is still in the recovery process. In all fairness, it makes sense for AJ to fly solo in this storyline, so I don't mind the abrupt change. The Fatal 4-Way diva match wasn't too shabby. Not something I would watch again, but it was decent under the circumstances. AJ made Natalya tap out to the Black Widow. You think that the Total Divas would work together to make sure AJ lost the match, but not even their egos and attention spans would allow such a thi--hey, a housefly! It made sense for AJ to keep the championship since she's still the best thing going in the divas division and that's all I got on this scene. Okay, next match. Let's go! Let's go! Next one! GO!!!

There's some matches here and stuff

RVD defeated Alberto Del Rio and became the new WHC. Ricardo then turned on him after the match to his new client, Damien Saaaaaaaaaaaandooooooooooow. The two celebrated with a mojito… De nada!!!

No, that's not what happened. It would've been more exciting if this was the story, but all that occurred was RVD winning the match via DQ since Alberto refused to listen to the referee's orders, thus Del Rio is still the WHC. RVD did hit the Van Terminator…

The match was okay to sit through, but it was the lack of a storyline that really kept me for getting into this contest. I almost forgot the match even happened. That's how little of an impact it made in my book. In fact, the Miz/Fandango match also falls in the same category. I almost forgot this happened. Miz won the match with the Figure Four in case you were curious. Were you? Probably not…

Hey look, the PPV wants to do something…

It's now time for the handicap match between Punk, Axel, and Heyman. So, why is this called a handicap match? Based on what I saw and the rules to the match, it sounded like Punk would get a match with Heyman if he beat Axel. Isn't this more of a Gauntlet match rather than a handicap contest? I get what they're trying to do here, but what crack did you smoke to end up with these rules? It's like they took a bunch of rules, threw them against a wall and *BAM*, instant match. While the IC champ is good enough to defeat Kofi, he stood no chance against Punk, proving that this storyline has nothing to do with Axel and is more of a pawn in this entire thing. It really shouldn't be that surprising since all Axel's done for 4-5 months is shine Heyman's shoes. Punk finally gets Heyman! He's gonna get you, Paul! Run, chubby run!!! Look at him go!!! The chase scene was almost like watching a nature special, but instead of a cheetah eating a gazelle, it was a wrestler beating up a balding man. Still, it was very entertaining. After a few rounds of smacking the Heyman Pinata, the match ends when Ryback arrives and sends Punk through a table. Thanks to the attack, Heyman was able to pick the bones and Pauly defeated Punk. Waaaaaaaaa? Yeah, so Ryback attacking Punk was a bit of a surprise. In fact, it was at this moment where the PPV started to wake up for a bit. It was about time something different occurred, but better later than never. Ryback being the latest edition of 'Paul Heyman guys' is a welcome edition. Since Ryback has pretty much regressed to the role of Biff Tannen on a weekly basis, teaming up with Heyman will offer him a lot more. I actually like Ryback getting in the middle of this rivalry and I don't mind the Punk/Heyman feud continuing since I felt it would've been somewhat disappointing to see this rivalry end at NoC. Don't get me wrong, I can understand as to why the feud would end, but it just feels like Punk and Heyman can do a lot more. The match was investing enough to be intriguing and the ending continues to get me coming back to check out this rivalry, so I think this was a positive for NoC…That's one thus far…

Shield antics

I was a bit surprised to see Dean Ambrose defeat Dolph Ziggler in clean fashion. A win like this is gonna put Ambrose's stock on the rise. When it eventually comes time to break up the Shield, Ambrose will most definitely have a place on the active roster. Unfortunately, this win does come at a cost to the Ziggler fans. I know this is gonna make the 'Dolph's jobbing' comments more loud, but I'm still optimistic that Dolph still has a decent place in the future of this company and this minor setback is only for the time being. I know it's kinda odd that I personally see challenging the US title more rewarding than the WHC since the WHC has dropped so much value and the US title is being held by one of the corporation members, but that's just how I see it at the moment. I will say the US title match between Ambrose and Dolph was about what I expected, but part of me felt a bit of a letdown when it wasn't given as much time as I would've liked. It was still a good match, but I felt it could've been better if given a few more minutes. Speaking of the Shield, the tag team match between Rollins/REIGNS and the Prime Time Players was next on the schedule. I should note that the PTP won the Tag Team Turmoil match in the pre-show. The fact this was regulated to the pre-show was puzzling. It was a good match and it was a shame it was subjected to pre-show status. In fact, why wasn't Miz/Fandango given the pre-show treatment? Mr. Pre-Show must've slipped a $20 and got himself on the PPV. Anyway, the tag team match was okay and it ended with the Shield retaining the title. If you're keeping score at home, we have one match to go and there's been no championship changes thus far. To be honest, I expected that to be the case since none of the titles were being built to change hands, but surely we gotta get one, right…right…right?

Corporation not too sure of themselves? 

The final match of the night was Randy Orton vs Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship. Just like the Punk match, this was one of the few moments where it felt like the PPV was actually trying to do something. The match between Randy and Bryan was good and I would say it was the best match of the night, but it didn't have a ton of competition so I would consider this a small reward. Bryan hits the running knee and has finally defeated Randy…

Yeah, we have a new WWE Champion… Surprised? I would have to say so… but we obviously aren't addressing the giant elephant in the room in all of this. The referee made a fast count for Bryan, thus this is gonna be the basis for Raw. In fact, it's almost a guarantee for Bryan to get stripped of his championship on Raw and possibly end up in the hands of Orton. I should note that at the time I'm writing this, I have NOT watched Raw and this is all speculation at the moment. We'll talk about Raw in the Raw review for this week, but I'm just sticking to what occurred at NoC and only NoC for this review. Just wanted to get that out there in case somebody wanted to be the 'know-it-all' smark. I actually do like the ending to this show since that fast count is gonna keep you guessing as to what's gonna happen on Raw. It's nice to stir the pot a bit, but it does make you question why the corporation didn't realize sooner if Randy's deserving of special treatment or not. I'm guessing if you have two McMahons yelling in your ears, you will start going insane and make rash decisions. Hey, it would explain a lot of things. 

Overall Impression:

I don't hate this PPV because it didn't feature title changes. In fact, I don't hate this PPV at all. Let me explain myself. None of the titles were really being built up to change hands, so I don't see that as the problem of NoC. The real problem we have on our hands is how this PPV just feels like it's there. Seriously, why did this need to be here? Outside of the fast count and the Ryback interference, what else did you really get out of this? The answer, not a whole lot. This is a PPV that I wouldn't classify it as 'bad', but mostly what I would consider disappointing. In the last few months, we've seen WWE put some really good PPVs out there and I felt they really went out there for their SummerSlam PPV and put one of the best shows in a really long time. To see THIS being the follow-up to that PPV is very unfulfilling. This PPV doesn't do anything for me and I cannot express how disappointed I am with this PPV. In fact, 'disappointing' is the best way to describe this PPV. It isn't terrible or horrible, but the routine route really doesn't make the replay value for this event stick out. In fact, I almost forgot this was a PPV since this felt nothing like a PPV, thus showing how this event really didn't need to exist at the end of the day. This PPV almost has nothing going for it. In conclusion, I'm still interested in the corporation storyline and I still like what WWE is doing at the moment. I may not like everything they're doing, but I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing on a weekly basis. I still have interest to see what will happen tomorrow night, but this event didn't do the best job to engage you and it just leaves you with an empty feeling. If I had to give this PPV a score between 1-10 and 5 considered average, the best score I can give this event is a 5 out of 10. This is a very average showing at the end of the day and while the matches are good, there's not enough going on to really make this event stick out. I apologize to all of those that got a kick out of Night of Champions. If you like it, there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I'm just expressing my thoughts on the matter. Well, I think it's time to wrap this up. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one. 

WrestlingNerd's Official score for WWE Night of Champions 2013: 5 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. 

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw 8/26/13 Review (Shaking things up!)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today we take a look at WWE Raw 8/26/13. What happens this week? Let's find out and begin. 

Before we begin…

Okay, so the first thing I need to address is my upload schedule from this point forward since I'm back to a consistent work schedule. I apologize for no Impact or Smackdown reviews last week. I tried to watch Impact, but was so bored with it that I just couldn't continue watching. It wasn't the worst I've seen from TNA, but there's only so much you can do when you're bored by something. I watch wrestling to be entertained and have a little fun, but for some reason, that episode felt like more of a chore than fun, which is why there was Impact review. As for Smackdown, I was simply out of town and unable to do it in time before leaving. I've mentioned many times in the past that other things are going to come before this page. I have stuff like family, friends, social life and work that are higher on the priority list than this little hobby of mine. Yes, I referred to this as a hobby since I take time out of my schedule to do this. I don't write reviews for money since I don't get paid for ANY of this. I write reviews because I have loads of fun and I enjoy making people laugh. It was something I wanted to re-address just in case people were wondering what's going on around here. To the people that were patient with me in the first place, I thank you for your courtesy and hope we can still have a good laugh with future articles. Now we shall continue. 

Corporation's new rules

We open up the show with Triple H. He's disgusted with Daniel Bryan for being disrespectful towards his wife, so he made an example out of him by having the Shield and Randy Orton attack him last week. It's funny how he gets upset with DB for making fun of Stephanie, but it's a-okay when Trips calls his wife a whore. It sounds like a happy marriage, don't you think? Where do you spend your anniversaries, a shooting range? Trips brags about the ratings and it's all because of Randy Orton. If you haven't picked up on it yet, Trips has pretty much gone into full-time, dick-mode from here on out. I know it was apparent after SummerSlam, but this and his actions to end Raw last week officially sealed it. Trips gives Randy a gift…

This prompts Mr. Beard to interrupt the jerk-fest. After some insults and a terrible musical number by Trips (Seriously, he should not be allowed to sing to any child), the COO of the company puts Daniel in a gauntlet match against the Shield later this evening. By the end of the night, that car dies. It just has to based on wrestling logic. We'll miss you, car #309749. You were the most forgettable and I salute you. 

You broke my heart, Punk. You broke my heart!!!

The Cody Rhodes/Fandango match gets interrupted due to the showcase that is Mizdango. It was bizarre, but what was more bizarre was seeing Rosa Mendes as his partner. She's been gone so long that I literally said, 'What, she still works here?'. Apparently she does after tonight, but for how long? It's now that time of the night where Brad Maddox does the only thing he was hired for, impersonating Teddy Long. Holla holla holla!!! A forgetful tag team match leads to Miz and Cody as the victors over Damien Sandow and Fandango. CM Punk has a match with Curtis Axel, but there was a stipulation brought to you by the greatest device summoned from the Gods of the almighty, the WWE App…

Is there anything the WWE App can't do? Anyway, the fans picked the stipulation where if Punk defeats Axel, he gets to fight Heyman. Punk defeated Axel with the GTS, so that means it's time for Heyman to think of another plan. Oh yeah, Curtis is still there and has finally recovered from the knee to the face… Probably should've done something about that, Punk, but that's what wrestling logic will do to you. Axel protects Pauly and handcuffs Punk's hands. Due to Punk being handcuffed, Heyman unloads on Punk with a kendo stick. I love how Heyman is shouting how Punk broke his heart while whipping him with a stick. This kinda reminds me of a relationship with the crazy ex who starts to act like a mental patient. You know, trying to show how much they love somebody, but just come off as disturbingly creepy. I think that's where Heyman's at, but I attribute that to good acting. Like I've been saying for a few weeks, Punk and Heyman continue to work off each other and really have made the rivalry pop out. I love it! It was announced that Punk vs Heyman will happen at Night of Champions and if Paul doesn't go through with the fight, he's fired… for about two weeks until they think of another way to bring him back. 

AJ Lee taps into her inner, CM Punk

Because you requested it, you get to see the Natalya/Brie Bella match from SummerSlam yet again…Woo? After the match, AJ pretty much insults the entire cast of Total Divas and actually gets a positive reaction. I really liked AJ's promo, but I have to agree with what most are saying that the Bellas really came off as annoying during this bit. We get it, you're upset with her words, but you don't have to scream like a banshee every five-seconds. I think toning it down a bit would've made your message clear, but that's not what's important right now. In many ways, AJ spoke a lot of truth with her promo. She did work her butt off to get to where she's at and it's insulting how the Divas Champ gets less attention than somebody who's being paid to smile and look pretty. And to be fair, AJ has been one of the more meaningful Diva Champions in quite a while. This was a very good diva segment that sets up the stars of Total Divas trying to prove AJ wrong or AJ plowing through the reality show because she spoke the truth and is really better than all of them. I'm not expecting anything gigantic from the diva division after tonight, but they definitely got my interest after this segment and I look forward in seeing where this goes. 

WHC: a glorified mid-card title? 

Okay, I cannot take Ricardo seriously in that RVD shirt. I know the man looked like the little guy on 'Fantasy Island' while wearing that monkey suit, but seeing him in that shirt was odd to say the least. Then again, this whole pairing is just odd to begin with, so maybe that's the point. Thanks to Ricardo's distraction, RVD defeats Alberto Del Rio in a non-title match. You know the role of the WHC has gone downhill when they start giving away the matches for free. It kinda feels like a mid-card championship to be honest. Does anyone else feel like this? I know the WWE Championship is the bigger prize at the end of the day, but the WHC has fallen since the days of Cena, Undertaker, and Trips holding onto the title. In the continuing adventures of Biff 'Ryback' Tannen, he bullies Josh Matthews by shoving his fist down his face. If Ryback gets 20 more bully points, he will be able to join Cobra Kai. Oh boy!!!

Another edition of Michael Cole's pun-o-meter

So, Paul feels like a man by beating up his 'best friend'? More like a douchebag, if you ask me. Ohhhhh, I'm a douchebag and I'm okay! I beat you with a stick and eat all day!!! The next match of the night was Randy Orton vs Christian. This was a good match, but that fall Christian took looked pretty scary. What did you think? Randy utilizes a thumb to the eye to steal a match from Christian. After the match, Daniel shows up on the titantron and gives Randy's car a new paint job. Bob Barker would be pissed if he saw this. A Yes-calade? Awwwwwwwwwwww! Cole, that was terrible! Awww, I think my heart skipped a beat with that last pun! Awwwwwww! You think the corporation would be smart enough to put security around the car, but I guess nobody thought about that when goat-face was running loose. Due to his actions, Triple H wants the entire WWE roster to watch their hero fall and if anybody interferes, they will be fired. Wait, didn't something like this happen last week? I guess Triple H loved it so much that he wants to do it again. Encore, baby!!!

Tag Team feud minus the tag team 

Do you ever wonder if Zeb Colter just got back from a hunting trip with Dick Cheney? Maybe it's the vest that makes me think that, but who knows. Titus O'Neil defeats Jack Swagger thanks to Darren Young causing enough of a distraction for Titus to take advantage. Not sure how the Prime Time Players' face turn is gonna turn out, but I don't have a problem with it… kind of.  While I'm fine with Darren Young being honest with himself, it just seems odd that the PTP have all of the sudden started to get victories after this. I know this is a PR move and I honestly don't mind PTP getting a mini-push or doing it from a PR perspective, but it's still… It's like…Yeah, it's hard to describe. 

Triple H's wet dream

Big Show and Dolph Ziggler choose to not comment on the situation, while the Miz claimed what happened to them is….is? IS? IIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS!!! The first opponent in the gauntlet match is Seth Rollins. In a solid match, Bryan defeats Rollins, but gets no time to rest as Dean Ambrose attacks. Only seconds into the match, Roman 'ROAR' Reigns attacks, thus the match results in a DQ. After the Shield had their fun with DB, Trips informs them to hit the triple powerbomb. Doesn't Big Show have an ironclad contr--Oh, I just to forget about that storyline. Randy arrives to finish off Daniel with the RKO. Remember what I said earlier about Triple H really loving the ending to last week? Well, this ending had to cement that comment. The storyline continues to show the stars dissatisfied with the eeeeevvvvvvil corporation's mindset, but realize they can't say or do anything since the same thing could happen to them. If WWE does this right, this could be the main event come Survivor Series. Team Corporation vs Team Yes? Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? 

Overall Impression:

Once again, this was another good episode. I've really enjoyed what WWE has done the last couple of months since I think they've put together consistent entertainment during this time and it's great. I would say only a few matches stood out this evening, but it's the segments and storylines that's making the shows fun and interesting right now. I would definitely say this show is worth a watch and I look forward to seeing how the corporation is gonna get taken down. I know that's months away, but that's how intrigued I am. I just hope things are just as interesting then as they are now when it comes time to end the storyline. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's review. I will see you guys and girls in the next one.