WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw Review 8/13/12 (What the Tout is this?)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take look at WWE Raw 8/13/12. With SummerSlam set for this week, how can Raw hype up the PPV? Let's find out and start the review. 

Match #1: CM Punk vs Big Show

We open up the show with a match. Daniel Bryan shows up and steals the spotlight. Seriously, look at how the audience reacted to him. I think Daniel isn't getting enough credit for what he's doing. He wants to have a WWE title match, so he attacks Punk to end the match. Oh, there's your daily dose of John Cena. Yeah, we can't go too long without a Cena appearance, or else a certain demographic will miss it before they get their juice box. Wait, what am I talking about? I want a juice box. Anyway, Cena takes out Show and Bryan, but Punk is pissed off. AJ comes out and makes Punk and Cena vs Show and Bryan for later tonight. It seems appropriate, but something tells me that Maybe Man is gonna end up taking the dive on this match. Call it my boyish intuition. 

Winner via DQ: CM Punk

Match #2: Ryback vs JTG

JTG went on a Twitter rage last week, so he gets to face Ryback this week. I guess WWE does NOT encourage freedom of speech. Ryback came out to a remix of his current theme. Who was saying, "Feed me more"? It honestly sounded like some fat guy who just finished stuffing a chicken down his throat. You know, we have teeth for a reason. Yeah, so I liked  certain parts of the song, but cringed at others. Shell Shock for the victory. Why does Ryback looked stoned? Maybe he really does want to complete the RVD look. 

Winner via rage: Ryback

Match #3: Heath Slater vs R-Truth

We can vote on who will be on Piper's Pit. Once again, WWE is basically telling you to vote for this individual. Plus, it seems a little redundant to have Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler as choices. Didn't we have the Highlight Reel on Smackdown last week? Oh yeah, nobody watches SD anymore. HBK is freaking out that Triple H has not arrived. With Brock Lesnar in the building, HBK is probably gonna have a bad time. Truth wins this match very quickly. After the match, the Prime Time Players arrive and take out Truth. It was announced that Kofi Kingston wasn't here tonight, but there was no mention of AW. Since he's released, WWE wants to continue this and pretend that he was never there. While I enjoyed AW as a mouthpiece for the group, the PTP should be okay. The guys were already showing some charisma before being paired with AW, so I think they will be just fine. All World Promotions went bankrupt. There's your explanation. 

Winner via pinfall: R-Truth

Okay, what exactly is a social media ambassador? Can I walk into a fancy restaurant and say, "I'm the social media ambassador. Bring me free food"? Can I write that down on a job application? In fact, I want to see somebody do this and I would love to see what reaction you get. And who the hell is Pauly D? Actually, a better question is do I care? I think you know the answer to that question. Booker T calls off the WHC match at SS via video, so Alberto Del Rio will wait until SD to deal with him. Well, I guess you have to save something for friday night. 

Match #4: Sin Cara vs Tensai

Sin Cara is able to win with a DDT. Yeah, Tensai isn't going anywhere. Is there any point in hyping him up to something he isn't? Who are they trying to convince by doing that? After the match, Tensai kills Sakamoto again. Sakamoto, NOOOOOOO……wait, why am I doing this? 

Winner via pinfall: Sin Cara

It's time for Piper's Pit. Look and behold, Jericho wins the poll. Yeah, if you put a face against two heels, the face generally wins. Very rarely has the heel won these polls, but I digress. Before we can really dig in the segment, Dolph interrupts. Wow, so you get to vote for one person to be in the segment, but the other option shows up? Well, at least WWE hasn't……Miz is gonna show up, isn't he? Yep….Miz is right there. So, what was the point of voting for this segment if all three choices got involved? That really just seems unnecessary. Speaking of being unnecessary, it really seemed like this whole scene was just there. Why bring out "Rowdy" Roddy Piper to do this segment and don't have him do anything? Did….Did Piper need a loan to pay for his pool? I'm fine if you want to bring in Piper's Pit, but try to make it mean something. Remember the Piper's Pit with Cena? Now, THAT'S how you do it. Jericho takes out Miz and Dolph to end this segment….For about five minutes since we would get a triple threat match next. Piper isn't gonna remember any of this tomorrow morning, but can you really blame him? 

Match #5: Chris Jericho vs Dolph Ziggler vs Miz

It was about time we get a match that was actually given time. This was pretty fun to watch. The finish comes when Jericho has Miz in the Walls of Jericho. Miz is tapping out, but Vickie Guerrero was distracting the ref. Dolph comes from behind and hits the Zig Zag for the victory. I like the fact that Jericho is going into SS without getting that victory against Dolph. I think it makes the matchup more exciting. 

Winner via pinfall: Dolph Ziggler

Backstage with Eve and Punk. She likes Punk's evil side….

I don't know about you, but when Punk talked about twirling his mustache, I picture him with one of those curly mustaches, a monocle, and doing an evil laugh. It was a funny little image I pictured. Punk ends up running into Cena and tells him that he's not turning into a bad guy. Regardless, Punk is still not happy with the triple threat match, but vows he will still be champion after the night. After all, he's becoming evil….

Muhahahahaha

Match #6: Layla and Kaitlyn vs Eve and Beth Phoenix

Kaitlyn gets a rollup on Beth for the victory. I know people are gonna analyze this and try to figure out what WWE is doing with the diva division, but I still think you're wasting your time. I've said for months that I gave up trying to figure out this division, so I suggest you do the same. Since Kaitlyn got the victory, I would like to see her being used. I think she can be useful. 

Winner via something: Kaitlyn and Layla

Match #7: CM Punk and John Cena vs Big Show and Daniel Bryan

During this match, Bryan would undermine Show, while Punk and Cena were having some issues of their own. Once Show decides that his legs are too tired to continue, Punk and Cena start to copy their moves on Bryan. Cena's high knee was hilariously bad. After that, Punk leaves Cena on his own. Bryan almost steals the match with a rollup, but Lord knows we can't have Cena get pinned in cheap fashion. Cena hits the AA in anti-climatic fashion. I swear that one of these days, WWE is gonna have Cena wear a cape and have him fly into the arena. You know that's the next thing. I know you can make the argument that Cena can't look weak going into the title match, but a rollup loss will not effect him at all. To be fair, the idea is to have Bryan's character be as angry as possible. After the match, Punk takes out Show with the WWE title. He actually extends his hand out towards Cena, almost as if he wants a handshake. Since Mr. Breakfast Cereal can't trust this current Punk, he declines. Punk is not happy with Cena's attitude. I think Punk is more steamed that he didn't get the main event for this week.

Winner via pinfall: John Cena and CM Punk

Match #8: Damien Sandow vs Christian

As I mentioned in the previous match, this was surprisingly the last match of the night. Reckon, I would've ended the show with Brock and Triple H, but it still feels a little weird that this is the final match for tonight. This match didn't last long. The finish comes when Brodus Clay shows up to distract Sandow, but Damien still hits the Straight Jacket Neckbreaker for the victory. While I'm a big fan of Sandow, he really shouldn't be picking up clean victories over Christian at this point in time. Why was Christian put in this position? Did be bring Cena the wrong cup of coffee? I personally would've put somebody like Zack Ryder or Santino in this position. And before the IWC gets their panties up in a bunch, I was aware that Ryder wasn't available tonight. Well, it does show that WWE is confident in Sandow to get victories like this, but it would make them look foolish if Brodus ends up winning this rivalry. 

Winner via pinfall: Damien Sandow

We get the contract signing between Brock and Trips, but not before Brock showed Shawn Michaels his rape face in a backstage scene. Trips is late to the contract signing, so let's have Brock and Shawn compete in an eye staring contest for five minutes. Oh, there's Trips. I guess the contest was a tie. They sign the contract and…….that's it. Yeah, there really was nothing to this event. Paul Heyman does a good job in getting you excited for this match, but I felt that they could've done more with this. I realize that Brock would make good of his promise from last week, but it just felt weird that WWE wrote the scene like this. Then again, we got to make room for Toutsssssssssss….

Ugh…..Okay, I've been pretty quite on this matter, but I should say something now. I don't like this whole Tout thing. To me, it feels that WWE is getting lazy with building up their storylines. Instead of showing friction in the ring via a promo or match, you have to go online and watch some stupid video to find out what's going on. I'm also not big on various people getting onto the show via Touts. Instead of using that time to progress a storyline, we got to see the most uninteresting person react to Booker's decision. In fact, I really feel WWE is going overboard with social media. I don't have a problem with it, but it feels that the whole show is being wrapped around social media. Social media isn't a bad thing, but I think WWE can tone it down. I mean, you're making up job titles because of this. You know it's getting out of hand when you start doing that. Yeah, so Shawn runs into Paul in the back. Brock takes him out of his car and…..the screen goes dark. Oh no, the bank account ran out. Ohhhhhh…….REALLY? Are you that lazy to show the fight, or are you so absorbed with that rating system that you resort to using sound effects like a Bugs Bunny cartoon? In fact, here's what I think they did. As soon as Brock got Shawn out of the car, Shawn probably sat on a lawn chair, reading a magazine, while making sound effects. In the meantime, Brock was smashing some pots and pans on the ground, while Pauly was checking to see what he was gonna eat. Well, that was an easy paycheck, wouldn't you say? Anyway, we are back on the air and Brock brings Shawn to the ring. All they did was rip up HBK's shirt. I think Brock took it literally when Trips said he wanted to f***. Brock hits the F5 and applies the Kimora Lock. Trips runs out to save Shawn, but Paul tells him if he gets involved, Brock will break his arm. Trip takes the bait, but Brock decides to break Shawn's arm anyway. Brock and Paul retreat, while Trips checks up on his friend. Well, I give WWE this. It adds more intrigue with the Brock/Trips match, but they could've done so much more with this scene. 

Overall Impression:

I have mixed views on tonight's show. I enjoyed certain parts of tonight's show, but there was a few moments where it didn't stand out. I would definitely say that Trips/Brock was the best part of the show, but even that scene left me wanting more. The only matches that stood out tonight were the triple threat and the Punk/Cena match. Everything else was just there or felt awkward. To be fair, this is a 'go home' show, so it's common to get matches that are just there. Yeah, I really don't know how I feel about this show from top to bottom. I guess I could call it a decent show? Maybe an average show? Yeah, let's stop there. I will add that they did do a good enough job hyping up the PPV. I'm actually looking forward to SummerSlam. So, I guess it wasn't the worst job by WWE. In fact, it wasn't that bad, but I still feel there was some missed potential. Well, that's gonna do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show. See you next time.