What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Raw 10/22/12. With Hell in a Cell scheduled for this Sunday, how does the "go home" show fair? Let's find out and start the review.
Match #1: Rhodes Scholars vs Mysterious Masks; Tag Team Tournament
We open up the show with the tag finals. The finish comes when Damien Sandow saves the match for this team, which allows Cody to hit the Cross Rhodes for the victory. The match was a good way to open up the action for tonight's show, but I'm also not expecting much with the action since they want to save up for this Sunday. After the match, Team Hell No has some choice words for Rhodes Scholars, which makes Rhodes Scholars fall to the ground and are worried….Even though they knew this was the prize for winning the tag tournament. You gotta love that wrestling logic. Rhodes Scholars was the appropriate choice since they are heels, while Hell No is….Well, what are they? I guess you can label them as tweeners, but it doesn't really matter. Hell No is great in their own, unique way.
Winner via pinfall: Rhodes Scholars
Match #2: Kofi Kingston vs Michael McGillicutty
Michael graduated from NXT….No, no he didn't. Kofi wins this match with relative ease. Oh, and Miz is there…..yay?
Winner via pinfall: Kofi Kingston
John Cena comes out to SELL MORE T-SHIRTS!!! He hypes up the CM Punk/Ryback match. He claims that the face of the WWE will change at Hell in a Cell. Is Cena retiring?
Hey, I had to. Punk interrupts and is sick of Cena's cliches. Punk even mentions how he's forced to resort to trashing the local sports team because wrestling loves cliches. That's innovation for you. Punk thinks that Cena's coming to the realization that he can't beat Punk. Try telling that to a five-year old one of these days and see how it goes. Cena claims that his injuries have healed and wants to fight Punk right now. Punk is about to fight, but Punk needs to fill his cliche quota for the night and leaves. This is a decent way to get some build up for Punk/Ryback. Ryback may be built like a beast, but he works better by saying as little words as possible. I'm fine with Cena doing the talking for Ryback, but only for now.
Match #3: Antonio Cesaro vs Justin Gabriel
Antonio talks about…Hans Solo? In an upset, Gabriel picks up the victory with the 450 Splash. Did Gabriel wash Vince McMahon's car? Joking aside, I'm okay with this move. This guarantees a title match at the PPV, plus they haven't made Gabriel look too bad in the last couple of weeks. At the same time, why didn't they do this last week? It would've saved a lot more time if they planned this one early.
Winner via pinfall: Justin Gabriel
Because AJ wanted to get punked….
She resigns as the GM of Raw. WWE is pulling this out of their ass. You know, it would've made a lot more sense if they had built this up. I guess you can argue they have been building this up with all of AJ's antics , but it just feels lazy in my book. AJ claims to be innocent, but…..whatever. Paul Heyman wants to be the new GM, but that proposal doesn't go well. Instead of getting a new GM, we get a managing supervisor. I'm sorry, but that's the dumbest name I've ever heard. Why can't you just say interim GM? It just seems stupid to make up another job title. Anyway, it turns out to be Vickie Guerrero. So, is this Vickie's 3000th role as GM? I guess she's contractually obligated to get the GM role every 2-3 years. Vickie makes a match, pisses off Heyman, and gets in a fight with AJ. Where in the world did this storyline come from? It just feels rushed and no thought process was put into it. As far as my opinion of Vickie getting the job….eh. It's been done already, so I could care less. In fact, part of me just wants to get rid of the whole GM deal.
Match #4: Ryback vs Miz
I think Ryback will get more in-ring time in his one championship match than he's gotten for the past 4-5 months combined. Shell Shock for the victory.
Winner via pinfall: Ryback
Eve thinks about all the guys AJ slept with. Irony, isn't it? Kaitlyn confronts Eve and finally uses the evidence Teddy found on Smackdown last week. Kaitlyn has evidence, so instead of telling an authority figure, you call out Eve? Here's a second helping of wrestling logic. The two end up fighting. Yeah, toss those snacks all over the place. Geeze, I think the tortilla chips put up more of a fight than Eve. Sheamus comes on the air and PURCHASE YOURS TODAY!!! What the hell was that? Anyway, Sheamus cracks more jokes, while Big Show tells him to get serious. As long as Sheamus is able to go, Super Irishman will always be present.
Match #5: Daniel Bryan vs Dolph Ziggler
This was a pretty good match. It was given a fair amount of time and it was nice to see something to get me back into the show. The finish comes when Kane tries to encourage Bryan, but Daniel takes it the wrong way. This leads to Dolph hitting the Zig Zag for the victory. I really hope Dolph doesn't cash in the MITB this Sunday. Mostly because it seems too obvious. Sorry, but I like it when MITB is more of a surprise and not being obvious about it. As the two argue, Matt Striker informs them they will be competing on a game show against Rhodes Scholars next. Well, this might be worth a few laughs, but Striker announcement doesn't get me excited about it. In fact, he makes me want to read a book.
Winner via pinfall: Dolph Ziggler
Oh God, Striker's the host for this event? Kane apparently loves rainbows and puppies. Okay, I'll admit that was pretty funny. In fact, that line was probably the best part of the evening. Rhodes Scholars arrives and think this game show deal is stupid, so they walk out. Bryan acts like he just won the Super Bowl. Striker's still a smug bastard, so Big Show comes out and decides to go bowling. While I thought a few moments of this bit were amusing, it just felt unnecessary. It also didn't look like any thought was put into it. Writing? What's that?
Match #6: Big Show vs Kane
The finish comes when Rhodes Scholars arrive. Bryan and Kane get distracted, which allows Show to hit the KO Punch. After the match, Rhodes Scholars take out Daniel in the process. This really makes the game show deal even more pointless.
Winner via pinfall: Big Show
We find out that AJ was trying to get in Cena's pants…..
It's funny if you think about it. The BOD don't seem to care about AJ hooking up with Kane, Bryan, or Punk, but immediately go into action when Cena gets in the picture. Yeah, I know she didn't reveal a name, but I'm just trying to have a little fun here. Cena claims he will do something about it, but he has to wait until his Superman cape is back from the cleaners. Cena comes across Vince to explain the matter, but they literally talk in circles. I'm sorry, but was this scene written in two minutes? Did somebody on the creative staff lose a bet, thus being forced to green light this? Who wrote this? I'm sorry, but this looks really bad. It looks like no thought was put into this whatsoever. What's going on over there? By the way, I'm aware that WWE got a new head writer for Raw. I think I may have saved myself a couple of comments with that one. Cena and Vickie had an altercation….ehh. Yeah, I just don't care anymore. I can't believe they turned a stupid joke that Cena said into a storyline. I guess you really can make a storyline out of anything.
Match #7: Alberto Del Rio vs Zack Ryder
Del Rio wins and I got nothing. Let's move forward.
Winner via submission: Alberto Del Rio
Match #8: CM Punk vs Sheamus; Lumberjack match
Sigh, I really didn't like the idea of making this a lumberjack match. Reckon, it's the easiest way of creating shenanigans, but we just saw one on Smackdown. Then again, it isn't like people still watch SD these days. This was a pretty good match, so at least I had that to look-REGAL!!! REGAL!!! WILLIAM F***ING REGAL!!! Ehem….Sorry about that. The finish comes when shenanigans come out, which allow Show to hit a Chokeslam on Sheamus. Punk proceeds to pick the bones to win the match. As soon as the match ends, Ryback comes out and attacks Punk. Punk tried to escape, but the lumberjacks kept tossing him back in the ring. The show ends with Punk being thrown into the heel lumberjacks.
Winner via pinfall: CM Punk
Overall Impression:
You know, I find it funny that AJ is forced to resign because of relations, while Vickie has done that in the past….three times. Yeah, I had to toss in the last bit of wrestling logic. Just like last week, I felt this episode of Raw had no flow to it at all. You almost forget that the PPV is this week. While WWE touched base on every match for the PPV, I felt the build-up was lackluster. I guess I can be fair and say the action wasn't too bad, especially considering that it's common to have weak matches for the "go home" episode. Still, it was the promos/storyline development that really didn't do it for me. You have your beast against the WWE Champion, but THIS is the way you hype up the match? Now, people will argue that it turned out this way because Ryback isn't a talking character. While that may be true, that doesn't excuse the other things. What in the world was going on with that Cena/AJ storyline? That literally looked like it was written up on the spot since it was phoned in. I'm sorry, but I really wasn't a big fan of tonight's show. But I'll give this show some credit….Last week was worse. Well, I better wrap this up before I continue to piss people off. That's gonna do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of tonight's article or show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one. See you next time.
I was hoping to see Cena vs Ziggler at HIAC. :/
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think if the card btw? Worth purchasing?
if you dont mind me asking,
Deletehow do you feel about the worth of PPVs?
i was going to make a thread about this at some wrestlingsite, because it really interests me.
how do you measure PPVs, especially if you compare to movies and such (50+ bucks for 3 hours vs 15 bucks for 2 hours)?
do you think they are worth the money, and why so much?
There are nearly no PPVs where i live, so i wouldnt know.
I might as well tackle both questions at once. The card is worth checking out and I think it's at least worth checking out, but I don't think a good majority of the PPVs are worth the $50-60 price tag these days. Yes, even some of the decent PPVs are still asking for a little much. It really gets pricy after a while (If you buy more than one PPV out of the year) and there's just a good amount of people that simply can't afford them. I think the reasons they are worth so much is because the wrestling industry was asking for around $30-40 around a decade or two ago. Just like anything overtime, prices go up. This is the same wherever you go (Grocery shopping, movies, GAS PRICES, etc).
DeleteAround a year ago, I wrote something in an article stating that I think the wrestling companies should cut down the amount of PPVs out of the year to 6-8 as opposed to one per month because some of these showings either got no hype or proper build up. PPV should be that special occasion where you get something special and something you wouldn't see on free television, but that sometimes isn't the case. It's also apparent when you give away some of the PPV matches on free television. I just look at that and I wonder, "Why?". I think by having PPVs every two months, I think it gives the writers more than enough time to build up the matches properly and increase their sales. I can at least be optimistic about it, but I know that even with the extra time, the writers can still drop the ball.
So AJ is forced to resign for aledgedly having an affair and gets replaced by Vicki Guerrero who was once caught cheating on her husband Edge with the Big Show, I love wrestling logic.
ReplyDeleteWrestling logic aside I am fine with AJ no longer being the GM, to me that storyline had run its course and I'd like to see her go back to a wrestling role since she is one of the better wrestlers in the divas division, plus if the WWE use some logic with the booking then Kaitlyn will beat Eve for the title and they could then do a program with the former friends.
Guys not being good on the mic (Ryback) seems more and more a problem. As a child of the classic era they would just give these guys a "manager" to do all the talking, remember Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Slick? Hated those guys as much as their stables and always offered a "shenanigans" way out of a match. The concept of "Managers" and stables seems to have disappeared in the modern wrestling world (which I'm catching up on mainly through this great blog - keep up the reviews!)
ReplyDelete