As you would have guessed, we open up the show with Triple H. He talks about being in charge for only a few days and how its a lifestyle change. He quickly wants to bring up the world titles. First, he talks about the WWE Championship. He said that during Raw this past week, he managed to get CM Punk to sign a new contract and thus ran into a bit of a wall because there are two WWE Champions and both guys deserve the world title (at least those are his words). He says he will think about it during the weekend and he will address this on Raw. He is about to talk about the WHC until Christian interrupts. Christian is basically kissing Hunter's ass to get him on his good side, but Trips reminds him he hates being interrupted and he isn't interested in a working relationship with Christian. He also says he can't stand lawyers and meetings and tells Christian he will face off against Randy Orton at SummerSlam in a No Holds Barred Match. Christian instantly flips out until Mr. Woody Woodpecker in R-Truth arrives. Surprisingly, he received a decent amount of cheers from the Philadelphia audience. He is still talking to himself and brings up the conspiracy that is against him and wants to "Axe" him a question. Trips makes fun of Truth saying axe instead of ask while Truth says Trips better get this conspiracy against him dealt with or else there will be action. Hunter says there will be action when Truth goes up against Orton later tonight. Christian is about to offer tips to take down Orton, but Triple H says Christian has a match against John Morrison immediately. I can't really say too much about the WWE Championship since they will further that storyline for Raw, but I do want to add something. Some people thought I was angry about Punk showing up on tv too fast, but it wasn't like that at all. If you recall, I said I was plenty interested in the Punk angle and realize Punk is the hottest wrestler out there and they want to showcase him because there was a high demand for him to come back. Some people thought I was angry, but that was not the case. In fact, I would go further to say I was slightly disappointed since I would have done things differently, but I still want to see where this goes and was still interested. I also mentioned there is the possibility of the WWE having another trick up their sleeve for this angle and more can be on the way. It's amazing how one negative angle gets the IWC in an uproar in saying how the WWE sucks and such even though the storyline isn't even over yet. It's like when the IWC bitched and moaned about Christian losing the title to Orton in two days. I even said that while I felt Christian should have kept the title because he deserved it then, this is a developing storyline and we should see where it goes. Last I checked, Christian got back the WHC and has already had a much longer reign than the first time. IWC can really over react and are ready to throw the book when something isn't even over yet. As far as the WHC, it was apparent another Christian/Orton match would have to happen and I was right about it being some sort of gimmick match. A No Holds Barred Match is an interesting concept, but hopefully they don't make Christian look too weak going up against Orton for the match. Two shows in a row in which Truth and Triple H have exchanged words. It could be leading to something, but only time will tell. There was also a quick backstage scene between Triple H and Teddy Long. They are talking until Zack Ryder arrives to pitch an idea towards the Game. Trips says he is tired of Ryder pitching him ideas and decides to make him Long's assistant. Not sure if this is a long term deal or was just for tonight, but I guess we will find out on next week's Raw or SD. I know the Ryder fanboys want to see Ryder compete in matches, but at least the WWE is meeting you half way and featuring him on tv more. Anyway, this would be an ongoing bit for the rest of the night.
Match #1: Christian vs John Morrison
Morrison's first match on tv since the injury. It looks like Morrison is ready to go since he is doing a lot of the moves you would typically see from Morrison. During the match, Morrison would sell the neck injury since that is the part he had surgery on. This was a fun little competitive match and it ended when Morrison fought hard, but the neck problems were too much and a Killswitch ends this contest. The booking made sense consider Christian is the champ while Morrison is going to have an uphill battle to get himself back in the main event considering guys like Punk and Truth have made their claim to take the top spots.
Winner via pinfall: Christian
Wade Barrett is in the ring to cut a promo. He says he came to the States for one reason.....to make money. He says within the last year, he has lost sight of that and it really hit him when Daniel Bryan won MITB. He says its time to return to the basics because greed is terribly underrated...
Yeah, I can buy that. Anyway, Bryan shows up to a big pop (well, ROH is very faithful to Philly, so it doesn't surprise me) and says Wade is just bitter like Heath Slater. Barrett considers it an insult to compare him to Slater (he actually has a point) and reminds him about how he made all of them during the old Nexus days. Bryan says Wade never made him and he broke away from Nexus to make it on his own. Barrett punches him in the face and in typical heelish fashion, he gloats over his opponent even though he threw one spazz punch. Of course, this gives Danielson lots of time to recover and he sneaks the LeBell Lock on Barrett and he is tapping out like crazy. I was trying to enjoy this segment, but Michael Cole really needs to shut up. I understand he is a heel and has to poke fun of Bryan, but does he have to make a comeback after every sentence Bryan says? This is pro wrestling, not Cole's Riff Special. I found it really distracting because I wanted to know what Bryan was saying a little more clearly. Bryan continues to rise up the rankings while Wade continues to see his stock fall faster and faster. Damn, who did Wade piss off backstage to go from Nexus leader and feuding with Cena to losing to a musclebound moron with the personality of a popsicle stick? Naw....I take that back. Even popsicle sticks show more promise than Ezekiel Jackson. Backstage where Ryder and Long are working on their Odd Couple routine that will be available on DVD this coming Tuesday when Mark Henry interrupts. He wants to know if Long found him an opponent for tonight, but Long says nobody wants to face Henry because he keeps killing people. Ryder says he can find an opponent for Henry and it appears everything will be good. I sense a jobber match in the horizons, but that's just me.
Match #2: Natalya, AJ, and Kaitlyn vs Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, and Tamina
Can somebody get Fox out of the ring or teach her to use that finisher properly? She did the Scissors Kick during this match on AJ and she completely botched up the kick and basically sat down on her spine. Seriously, this kick comes out awful by Fox and it almost seems she screws it up all the time and it only seems like a matter of time where she messes it up so bad that she completely kicks a woman in the face and we see a pool of blood in the middle of the ring. WWE....WHAT THE HELL DO YOU SEE IN HER? In fact, they did a slight stare-down between Fox and Kelly Kelly a few weeks back and she might be the favorite for the #1 Contendership. I pray to God this doesn't happen. Yeah, I am not much of a Kelly fan, but I don't wish for her to end up in a Mortal Kombat fatality...
It just seems like Fox just jumps up in the air and instantly looses control of this kick, which is why it goes all over the place. When Booker T did this move, it made it seem fierce, but at least it didn't look like the competitor was going to have neck problems afterwords. If I am working for the WWE, I would seriously file a complaint against Fox and say you would never get in the ring against her unless she changes the finisher. Booker, you might want to have a conservation with Fox to fix this kick before something bad happens. As you would have guessed, Fox wins the match for her time and I hope she doesn't win the Battle Royal on Raw to determine the new #1 Contender for the Divas Title.
Winner via pinfall: Alicia Fox's team with her Death Kick
Match #3: Mark Henry vs Bobby Howard
Yeah, so Ryder picked some local guy to do the jobber honors this week. This guy was really small. In fact, he makes AJ look like Big Zeke. Henry hits WSS on this kid three times and he basically murderers him in the ring. Damn, what the hell WWE? AJ nearly gets paralyzed and now a local jobber dies. What is going on here? Joking aside, Henry wants to add insult to injury after the match. He is about to use a chair on the kid because using his bare hands would be too gruesome for television (Seriously, he could have torn this kid in half with his bare hands). He is about to use the chair until Long arrives. He is trying to clam down Henry because he is out of control and nobody wants to fight him. This calls for the job of..........Super Pale Irishman. Sheamus arrives and says he will fight Henry. He talks about an old Irish story in which a giant became a pile of crap, or something like that. Yeah, I was a little lost in the story deal. He slaps Henry and Henry tries to take him down, but he misses the clothesline. Sheamus grabs the chair and uses it to defend himself as Henry retreats. Amazing how the crowd is already doing a Sheamus chant. In case you missed my SD review last week, I did mention how it seemed WWE had a heel vs heel match where they were testing which one the crowd liked the most. While I felt it was almost a tie, I think Sheamus did get a little more love from the audience. Well, I would guess because of last week, Sheamus is in the very early stages of a face turn and will go up against Henry. Sheamus definitely has the body mass to go up against Henry. Yeah, Henry is a giant, but Sheamus is also pretty jacked up to roll with the big guy. As far as how I feel about a Sheamus face turn, I will say it is interesting. His heel character was just slightly better than average and I think in order to keep Sheamus on the top of their list, they needed to turn him face since Orton eats WWE heels for breakfast. It would be interesting to see if his face turn leads to a world title run later in the year, but we will wait and see.
Winner via pinfall: Mark Henry
Match #4: David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty vs Usos for the WWE Tag Team Titles
Usos continue to do the war dance before starting a match. I really like this little ritual before a match, and it appears the crowd seems to like it as well. It might be pointless to call them Nexus since it seems Punk has moved on to bigger and better things and the group consist of only two guys since Mason Ryan is off with an injury. They even came out to some new entrance music. It was awful to say the least and they should go back to "We Are One". Even though the crowd liked the war dance, they were dead for this entire match. The finish comes when Otunga causes a distraction, which allows for Nexus to regain the upper hand and Michael hits a Swinging Neckbreaker for the win. It doesn't appear this rivalry isn't quite over yet and I hope not because people are finally starting to care about the Usos and they should roll with this for a while.
Winner via pinfall and still Tag Champs: David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty
Backstage where Ryder has another idea and makes a Handicap match between Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs Zeke for tonight. Long is getting irritated by Ryder calling the shots, but can't seem to tell him to lay off. Another backstage scene where Truth talks about ripping the skin off a snake because he is facing Orton tonight. Truth scares the crap out of me sometimes. Especially when he says he is a good R-Truth.
Match #5: Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs Ezekiel Jackson in a Handicap Match
Audience doesn't really care for Zeke considering he did all of those body slams and he barely got a reaction. If Zeke wanted to get over, he should have worn a Eagle's jersey or something. The finish comes when Zeke misses an attack and Rhodes hits the CrossRhodes. I hope Rhodes is on his way towards having the IC Championship because Zeke's run with the title has already become a flop.
Winner via pinfall: Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase
Match #6: Randy Orton vs R-Truth
The matchup wasn't anything too special. Christian was watching this match at the entrance ramp. The finish comes when Truth unleashes the ultimate weapon in pro wrestling....a water bottle. Unfortunately, we have Super Orton now so it was not very effective. Instead, it made him loose complete control and he uses a chair on Truth and the ref calls for the bell. After the match, Orton isn't done and must administer more punishment. He uses a monitor on Truth and clears out the announcer's table. He RKOs Truth and is about to leave, but starts to spazz out by twisting his head like the Exorist and decides to hit another RKO. The show ends with Orton celebrating with the crowd. It is very strange how Orton acts likes a psycho killer one second, but now he is embracing the crowd and giving them high fives. How can parents let their kids look up to this guy? He can't control his emotions and has voices in his head. Yeah, I get its just a gimmick, but talk about irony. Still, is this like the 50th time we have seen SD end with an RKO this year? I guess that is the system to writing SD. When in doubt, rely on the RKO.
Winner via DQ: R-Truth
Overall Impression:
This was an mixed bag episode of SD. I like the additions of the Raw wrestlers for this week's show, but I am sure its a one time thing....except for Ryder's case since that one is up in the air. The wrestling action was there, but also absent at times. What I found more interesting is the possibility of new storylines or works on the way for SD. We saw an encounter between Bryan and Wade, which would be an interesting feud. I also find myself invested in Sheamus' new positive attitude and him working a program with Henry. If Ryder stays on SD, it could be interesting to see what else he does on SD and if he will continue being Long's assistant. The divas were the divas, but that scissors kick by Fox needs to go before we see an injury occure. Truth continues to be completely out of his mind, but still finds a way to make me laugh. Anyone noticing how Truth is getting more love and cheers for his heel character than his face character? I thought that was strange. With new storylines in the work for SD, it does make my curiosity level to watch the show that much more. Ok, time to rank the shows. In terms of wrestling quality, I rank it Raw, Impact, and SD. Impact and SD delivered around the same in ring quality for this week, but I enjoyed RVD/Gunner a little more. Plus, SD loses points because of Fox's Death Kick. In terms of promos/segments, I will rank it Raw, SD, and Impact. Raw had a pretty good week in this department and SD was pretty fair as well. TNA....let's move on. MVP for this week? Well, I could have given it to Triple H for pulling double duty and making stuff still interesting in WWE land. I was also seriously thinking of giving it to the bird that scared the crap out of Eric Bischoff on this week's Impact because of how silly it looked. I am going to get a lot of disagreement with this one, but I am going to give it to Rey Mysterio. Rey did a hell of a job putting forth two awesome matches and continues to show that even though he is one of the smallest guys out there, he knows how to put over talent and adds a lot into a scene. Plus, he did become WWE Champion this week and I think that deserves to be recognized even if it did make him look bad. Ok, that's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's show. Also, I am on blogger/blogspot in case you want to check it out. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.
I can't understand Orton as a face. He acts like a cross between Mark Henry and R-Truth. Nuts, hearing voices, adding insult to injury after the match is over, intentionally crippling people...here's your hero.
ReplyDeleteThe bird of doom from TNA was so ridiculous it was kind of funny. At least this week they didn't lift a scene directly from a movie.
I don't care what people think but bringing back Punk a week after he "left for good" was weak. Obviously they were hurting for a headline moneymaker for Summerslam and the only thing they could think of was to squander the CM Punk angle which could have been dragged out for months effectively all while keeping up the heat with weekly clips of Punk taunting Cena and HHH. It still could end up alright but if they kept him off Raw for a month or two could you imagine the reaction when Punk finally returned? It would have made this (their best storyline in probably years) even more memorable.
Finally...Cena as champ...again. That belt is like his security blanket. Again why would Mysterio agree to that match? Why would boyscout supercena agree to it? Wouldn't he want to give Rey a week to rest up? I kind of feel sorry for Rey. At least Christian actually got to leave the ppv as the champ.
Hey, it's me again from your RAW review. Just though I give an insight to Smackdown and possible feuds that may develop or never due to creative writing.
ReplyDeleteI can see Orton and Christian continuing their feud past SummerSlam and probably into Survivor Series but I won't be surprised if Orton wins again since the WWE can't just keep him and Cena off the shows' top belts.
Morrison vs. Truth could showcase both men are in positions to be main event guys.
I can see Wade and Bryan possibly doing a feud over the MITB contract like RVD and Shelton Benjamin did in 06 but expect people to get angry about this possible angle.
I know Diva storylines are not interesting any more since Trish, Lita, and even McCool are gone, Layla (who has improved quite a bit) is injured, Kharma is becoming a mother, and any Diva who could wrestle has been watered down (see Melina), but please end this feud among these six ladies. At least crown Tamina the champ so she feud with the likes of Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, and even Natalya. I always agree with getting Alicia Fox back in development or fire her because she will, literally, kill the Diva division.
I think Sheamus can pull off this face or tweener turn as long as they don't dumb him down like Finley was when he teamed with Hornswoggle. Perhaps Mark will remember the times he jobbed to Sheamus on RAW and make him even angrier.
I hope the tag title feud goes on to the PPV where the Usos are crown champs so they can rebuild the division. Also, disband the Nexus once and for all because I doubt Punk will still be their leader now that he has returned.
Fun Fact: the Nexus came out to Justin Gabriel's new theme on WWE Superstars and Smackdown when a week or two ago, they came out to an instrumental piece on Superstars. It suited them more than this week's theme but it won't be as epic as We Are One.
Cody with the IC title could lead into a feud with Ted while Zeke might fade into obscurity and probably release. Expect him on Impact in three months.
Finally, I guess all eyes will be on RAW this Monday to see how the Punk angle plays out. Especially with rumors circulating about some ROH guys coming to WWE.