Raw Report
Date: 11/12/07 from Topeka, KS.
The Big News: Survivor Series is Sunday, and Chris Jericho returns on Monday.
Show Analysis:
Batista came out to start the show. He said that William Regal invited him to compete on Raw. He plugged his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker. It was a weak promo, with the lowlight being, “Weapons are not only welcome, they’re allowed.” Undertaker came out to the ring, but Regal interrupted. He said that they would team up to face Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch.
Undertaker and Batista beat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. This was a total squash. The only drama was Undertaker and Batista teasing dissension. Undertaker gave Cade a choke slam. Murdoch broke up the pin, so Batista took him out. Undertaker then gave Cade the tombstone for the pin. Batista then gave Murdoch the Batista bomb so Undertaker wouldn’t show him up. It’s good to put over your headliners strong going into a pay-per-view. But if you’re going to book the tag titles like this, please just dissolve them. They do more harm in devaluing titles than good in getting over the champions.
Beth Phoenix beat Maria. Maria sold fear over the match. Beth kicked her and threw him around before finishing her with the fisherwoman buster. Santino came out, and casually said, “Don’t worry, Maria will be okay.” He then quickly moved on to Steve Austin’s attack last week, which was funny.
Santino said Austin owes him an apology. Austin wasn’t there, so he went to Jim Ross. Jerry Lawler stood up for Ross, so Santino challenged him to fight. He said he would give Lawler the first punch, so Lawler socked him and Santino sold it big and left. Santino called him stupid and vowed revenge. He challenged Lawler to a match. This was a great segment.
Rey Mysterio and the Hardyz defeated Mr. Kennedy, Fit Finlay and MVP. The heels worked over Rey’s back. Rey made the hot tag to Jeff, who hit the whisper in the wind on MVP. Kennedy broke up the pin attempt. Jeff used a drop toe hold and Rey a drop kick to set up a double 619. Jeff then hit a swanton on MVP for the pin. This was a fun match. I wish they would try to get in one longer good match like this every week.
They aired another Chris Jericho teaser. This time it said 6 days and 23 hours, and “break the walls.” As if that weren’t explicit enough, Jerry Lawler said that he’s broken the code and it’s going to happen next week. So Chris Jericho looks to be coming back next week. The build for this has been strong. Hopefully they have a strong idea of where they are going to go with Jericho upon his return.
There was a face to face summit between Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton. They reiterated the rules of their match. Michaels said Orton had sweet chin music banned because Orton knew he would lose to it. Orton said Michaels is a hothead and he would use the move and get disqualified. Michaels said he would win with another hold, and he doesn’t need the move. The segment ended with Orton attacking Michaels. Orton was setting up for the kick to the head, but Vince McMahon stopped him so Orton gave Michaels the RKO instead. I like that they are using the kick to the head as the out of bounds move, sort of like the pile driver in Mexico or territories where it was banned.
Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly and Mickie James defeated Layla, Melina and Jillian Hall. Mickie kissed Layla and then knocked her out with a kick. That is a fine finisher. The match was short and sloppy. Sort of like a good…never mind.
Jerry Lawler beat Santino. Lawler went after Santino’s leg, and Santino came back with forearms. Santino was setting Lawler up for something and told Ross to watch. That gave Lawler the chance to roll up Santino for the pin.
Santino is fun to watch when he is frustrated, but this is ultimately a wrestling show. Portray him as a buffoon outside of the ring, but he needs to be a threat to some degree in the ring. Yes, he’s not a very good wrestler. But neither are Great Khali, Snitsky, or Big Daddy V. Surely if you can push bad wrestlers solely because they are big you can also push a bad wrestler because he happens to be the most entertaining character on the show.
They aired a pre-taped segment of Hornswoggle training in front of an empty arena. I guess they didn’t have the confidence to run this in front of a live crowd. His opponent was announced as Great Khali, but it was Coach pretending to be Khali. Coach was unhappy but William Regal led him on. Hornswoggle ended up pulling down Coach’s pants and hitting the frog splash for the pin. This segment sucked.
HHH beat Umaga via disqualification in the lumberjack match main event. The lumberjacks were the Survivor Series teams. Umaga worked over HHH, and the heels took some opportunities to get in shots as well. HHH started to come back. He rammed Umaga into the ring posts, and hit a DDT. As HHH was heating up, Finlay came in for the DQ. Rey Mysterio then took out Finlay, and the two teams brawled for a solid end to the show.
Final Thoughts:
This was an entertaining show that built Survivor Series well.
The Big News: Survivor Series is Sunday, and Chris Jericho returns on Monday.
Show Analysis:
Batista came out to start the show. He said that William Regal invited him to compete on Raw. He plugged his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker. It was a weak promo, with the lowlight being, “Weapons are not only welcome, they’re allowed.” Undertaker came out to the ring, but Regal interrupted. He said that they would team up to face Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch.
Undertaker and Batista beat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. This was a total squash. The only drama was Undertaker and Batista teasing dissension. Undertaker gave Cade a choke slam. Murdoch broke up the pin, so Batista took him out. Undertaker then gave Cade the tombstone for the pin. Batista then gave Murdoch the Batista bomb so Undertaker wouldn’t show him up. It’s good to put over your headliners strong going into a pay-per-view. But if you’re going to book the tag titles like this, please just dissolve them. They do more harm in devaluing titles than good in getting over the champions.
Beth Phoenix beat Maria. Maria sold fear over the match. Beth kicked her and threw him around before finishing her with the fisherwoman buster. Santino came out, and casually said, “Don’t worry, Maria will be okay.” He then quickly moved on to Steve Austin’s attack last week, which was funny.
Santino said Austin owes him an apology. Austin wasn’t there, so he went to Jim Ross. Jerry Lawler stood up for Ross, so Santino challenged him to fight. He said he would give Lawler the first punch, so Lawler socked him and Santino sold it big and left. Santino called him stupid and vowed revenge. He challenged Lawler to a match. This was a great segment.
Rey Mysterio and the Hardyz defeated Mr. Kennedy, Fit Finlay and MVP. The heels worked over Rey’s back. Rey made the hot tag to Jeff, who hit the whisper in the wind on MVP. Kennedy broke up the pin attempt. Jeff used a drop toe hold and Rey a drop kick to set up a double 619. Jeff then hit a swanton on MVP for the pin. This was a fun match. I wish they would try to get in one longer good match like this every week.
They aired another Chris Jericho teaser. This time it said 6 days and 23 hours, and “break the walls.” As if that weren’t explicit enough, Jerry Lawler said that he’s broken the code and it’s going to happen next week. So Chris Jericho looks to be coming back next week. The build for this has been strong. Hopefully they have a strong idea of where they are going to go with Jericho upon his return.
There was a face to face summit between Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton. They reiterated the rules of their match. Michaels said Orton had sweet chin music banned because Orton knew he would lose to it. Orton said Michaels is a hothead and he would use the move and get disqualified. Michaels said he would win with another hold, and he doesn’t need the move. The segment ended with Orton attacking Michaels. Orton was setting up for the kick to the head, but Vince McMahon stopped him so Orton gave Michaels the RKO instead. I like that they are using the kick to the head as the out of bounds move, sort of like the pile driver in Mexico or territories where it was banned.
Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly and Mickie James defeated Layla, Melina and Jillian Hall. Mickie kissed Layla and then knocked her out with a kick. That is a fine finisher. The match was short and sloppy. Sort of like a good…never mind.
Jerry Lawler beat Santino. Lawler went after Santino’s leg, and Santino came back with forearms. Santino was setting Lawler up for something and told Ross to watch. That gave Lawler the chance to roll up Santino for the pin.
Santino is fun to watch when he is frustrated, but this is ultimately a wrestling show. Portray him as a buffoon outside of the ring, but he needs to be a threat to some degree in the ring. Yes, he’s not a very good wrestler. But neither are Great Khali, Snitsky, or Big Daddy V. Surely if you can push bad wrestlers solely because they are big you can also push a bad wrestler because he happens to be the most entertaining character on the show.
They aired a pre-taped segment of Hornswoggle training in front of an empty arena. I guess they didn’t have the confidence to run this in front of a live crowd. His opponent was announced as Great Khali, but it was Coach pretending to be Khali. Coach was unhappy but William Regal led him on. Hornswoggle ended up pulling down Coach’s pants and hitting the frog splash for the pin. This segment sucked.
HHH beat Umaga via disqualification in the lumberjack match main event. The lumberjacks were the Survivor Series teams. Umaga worked over HHH, and the heels took some opportunities to get in shots as well. HHH started to come back. He rammed Umaga into the ring posts, and hit a DDT. As HHH was heating up, Finlay came in for the DQ. Rey Mysterio then took out Finlay, and the two teams brawled for a solid end to the show.
Final Thoughts:
This was an entertaining show that built Survivor Series well.
posted by Todd Martin at 11:49 PM
4 Comments:
I'm amazed that the Jericho build will have been for about two months, since the initial videos started before No Mercy, and hinted that he would appear there.
It's incredible the kind of anticipation they can build when they actually, y'know...TRY.
Whenever Batista made his amazing, "Weapons are not only welcome, they're allowed," comment, I actually had to turn the tv over to a different channel because I was so embarrassed for him. You could see the look in his eyes that he got lost in mid-thought. I genuinly felt bad for him.
It's amazing how he just hit a wall and stopped getting better.
Also, is it just me, or did it seem like they were running live tv in a half full house?
WWE needs to stop going to these towns with shitty crowds for their live TV shows. The crowd was dead for so much stuff on this show. The show itself was pretty awesome IMO. If this exact Raw was done in a hotter city, it would have come off as a really good Raw, I think.
Santino is the shit, hands down. I have no idea where they're going to go with him, wrestling-wise, because he can't just fight with guys like Ron Simmons and Jerry Lawler forever.
I was so angry at the crowd for their deadness during the Orton/HBK face-off. But then eventually the crowd broke out into an HBK chant, and you could sort of see a smirk on Michaels' face like "I made this shitty crowd come alive, I still got it". Orton finally got the heat on HBK so I'm wondering what will happen on Sunday. I don't see Orton losing the title, although, I would be school-girl-giddy at another HBK title run.
I gotta admit, during the lumberjack match, right before they went to commercial, when it showed all the lumberjacks from each team facing off in an epic pose, I thought it looked really, really cool. It reminded me of a Marvel comic or something. Big Daddy V especially looked cool, with his MMA fighting stance (lol).
"I'm gonna beatta you up...Jerry Stupid Lawler"
Easily the best segment every Monday. Watching Raw has felt like a chore as of late, aside from the saving grace of Santino Marella.
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