WWE Raw Report
Date: 08/23/10 from Los Angeles, CA.
The Big News: Sheamus will have to defend his title against five challengers at the next pay-per-view
Show Analysis:
Sheamus came out to start the show. He said that American children are spoiled brats. That gave him the opportunity to go outside the ring berating individual kids and calling them “fella.” Sheamus asserted that Randy Orton is a spoiled child too. He couldn’t win the title at SummerSlam and then attacked Sheamus afterwards and the next night. He told the anonymous GM to punish Orton for this and never give him another shot at the title.
That was the cue for an e-mail from the GM. This gimmick, by the way, has to go. It was totally cheesy from the start and becomes more grating and silly by the week. Anyway, the GM had a throne brought out on the stage. Sheamus would get to watch all the evening’s matches on that throne. At the end of the evening, Sheamus would get to decide his next title challenger.
Edge beat R. Truth. Truth hit a spinning head scissors and clothesline over the top early but missed a pescado. Edge took over with punches, kicks, a bow and arrow and the Edgecution. He missed a spear, but Truth then missed an ax kick and Edge hit the spear for the pin. After the match, Edge told Sheamus that he hasn’t beaten anyone until he has beaten Edge.
Chris Jericho beat Great Khali. Jericho worked over the leg. He went for the Walls and the code breaker but Khali escaped each. Khali hit a body slam but missed a kick and Jericho applied the Walls. Khali tapped out. It was surprising to see them have Khali tap out, but I certainly have no problem with it. Khali looked pretty darn bad here despite having Jericho to work with. After the match Jericho put himself over as a better contender than Edge. Khali came over and gave Jericho a chop.
Backstage, John Cena criticized Miz for jerking around the team leading into SummerSlam and for attacking Daniel Bryan. Cena said that Miz has a big mouth and an attitude problem but that Cena will give him an attitude adjustment.
Melina beat Jillian Hall. This was a pretty terrible match. The problem is Melina wants to get in all these spots devoted to showing off her flexibility when most of them don’t help build the match or actually take you out of it. Jillian missed a leg drop off the second rope and Melina hit the last call for the pin. After the match, Lay Cool said that they will be on Raw next week to make Melina an offer she can’t refuse. I’m all for merging the titles. There was never a need for two women’s titles.
Miz backstage said that John Cena shouldn’t talk about egos. Miz said that Sheamus was taken out at SummerSlam but that he didn’t cash in MITB because he was focused on helping Team WWE. Then Cena went and embarrassed him. Well, when you put it like that, John Cena really is a big old jerk. It was nice of them to go back and explain that. Miz promised consequences for Cena.
Nexus came out. The anonymous GM said that the ban on Nexus competing for titles has been lifted. Wade Barrett told Sheamus that their truce is over. And Nexus left. I thought there would be a much more dramatic conclusion to the storyline about no Nexus title shots. Clearly, they didn’t know where they were going with that or changed their minds.
Miz beat John Cena via DQ in a good match. Miz went after Cena with punches, kicks and an Irish whip. Cena retaliated with a side slam and vertical suplex. He set up for the top rope rocker dropper but Miz crotched him. Miz snapped Cena’s neck into the ropes and clotheslined him into the corner. Cena came back with shoulder blocks, the Cena slam and the five knuckle. However, Miz escaped the FU attempt and hit a back breaker/neck breaker combination for two.
Miz went for the skull crushing finale but Cena got out and caught Miz in the STF. Miz struggled to get to the ropes. One nice thing about the fact that wrestlers now submit relatively quickly to submission holds when caught in the center of the ring is that it becomes all the more dramatic and impressive when someone fights to the ropes.
Cena went for the FU again but Miz escaped to outside of the ring. At that point Daniel Bryan attacked Miz on the floor and threw him back into the ring. Cena hit the FU but the referee called for the DQ. Cena seemed fine with this and Bryan came in and applied the omoplata/crossface on Miz. Miz tapped.
Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov beat the Usos in a surprisingly good little match. The Usos worked over Santino. Kozlov tagged in and went crazy with a head butt, power slam and choke slam for the pin. It wasn’t an ambitious match by any means but worked very well considering the wrestlers involved. After the match Tamina protected Santino and shot a kiss (like a blow dart) at Santino.
Randy Orton beat Ted DiBiase and John Morrison in a three way match. They did the WWE thing where one guy is almost always on the outside while the other two fight in the ring. Orton eventually took over on both opponents with power slams. He went for the draping DDT on DiBiase. Morrison tried to break it up with a springboard kick but missed. He looked like a total fool there.
Orton hit that DDT and went for the RKO but DiBiase escaped. DiBiase went for dream street on Orton but Orton countered and threw him out of the ring. Morrison came back in with a springboard but was caught with an RKO for the pin. Either they are planning to turn Morrison heel, they are planning to move him to Smackdown, or they have pretty much given up on him for the time being.
Sheamus beat Zack Ryder. Sheamus announced that he wouldn’t wait until Night of Champions to defend his title. He said he would defend on Raw and give someone new an opportunity, Zack Ryder. Ryder said that he appreciated the opportunity but that Sheamus just made a big mistake. Woo Woo Woo. You know it. Michael Cole said he deserves a title shot more than Ryder. And Sheamus just hit a bicycle kick and pinned Ryder immediately.
After the match, Sheamus said he now no longer had to defend his title for another 30 days and that he would take Night of Champions off. That brought out Wade Barrett, who said his NXT title opportunity has been reinstated and he will take it at Night of Champions. Over the next couple seconds the GM thought about this and wrote out a lengthy e-mail response. He said that Night of Champions will have a six pack title match with Sheamus vs. Barrett vs. Edge vs. Jericho vs. Cena vs. Orton.
All the other challengers came to the ring and everyone targeted Wade Barrett. They beat up Barrett and Sheamus threw him from the ring. Then Jericho hit the code breaker on Sheamus. Edge hit the spear on Jericho. Cena hit the FU on Edge. And Orton hit the RKO on Cena. The finish looked ridiculous and contrived with each guy standing around waiting for the next guy to do to him what he had just done to the last guy.
Final Thoughts:
This was a straight-forward, rather uneventful taped Raw. It was fine.
The Big News: Sheamus will have to defend his title against five challengers at the next pay-per-view
Show Analysis:
Sheamus came out to start the show. He said that American children are spoiled brats. That gave him the opportunity to go outside the ring berating individual kids and calling them “fella.” Sheamus asserted that Randy Orton is a spoiled child too. He couldn’t win the title at SummerSlam and then attacked Sheamus afterwards and the next night. He told the anonymous GM to punish Orton for this and never give him another shot at the title.
That was the cue for an e-mail from the GM. This gimmick, by the way, has to go. It was totally cheesy from the start and becomes more grating and silly by the week. Anyway, the GM had a throne brought out on the stage. Sheamus would get to watch all the evening’s matches on that throne. At the end of the evening, Sheamus would get to decide his next title challenger.
Edge beat R. Truth. Truth hit a spinning head scissors and clothesline over the top early but missed a pescado. Edge took over with punches, kicks, a bow and arrow and the Edgecution. He missed a spear, but Truth then missed an ax kick and Edge hit the spear for the pin. After the match, Edge told Sheamus that he hasn’t beaten anyone until he has beaten Edge.
Chris Jericho beat Great Khali. Jericho worked over the leg. He went for the Walls and the code breaker but Khali escaped each. Khali hit a body slam but missed a kick and Jericho applied the Walls. Khali tapped out. It was surprising to see them have Khali tap out, but I certainly have no problem with it. Khali looked pretty darn bad here despite having Jericho to work with. After the match Jericho put himself over as a better contender than Edge. Khali came over and gave Jericho a chop.
Backstage, John Cena criticized Miz for jerking around the team leading into SummerSlam and for attacking Daniel Bryan. Cena said that Miz has a big mouth and an attitude problem but that Cena will give him an attitude adjustment.
Melina beat Jillian Hall. This was a pretty terrible match. The problem is Melina wants to get in all these spots devoted to showing off her flexibility when most of them don’t help build the match or actually take you out of it. Jillian missed a leg drop off the second rope and Melina hit the last call for the pin. After the match, Lay Cool said that they will be on Raw next week to make Melina an offer she can’t refuse. I’m all for merging the titles. There was never a need for two women’s titles.
Miz backstage said that John Cena shouldn’t talk about egos. Miz said that Sheamus was taken out at SummerSlam but that he didn’t cash in MITB because he was focused on helping Team WWE. Then Cena went and embarrassed him. Well, when you put it like that, John Cena really is a big old jerk. It was nice of them to go back and explain that. Miz promised consequences for Cena.
Nexus came out. The anonymous GM said that the ban on Nexus competing for titles has been lifted. Wade Barrett told Sheamus that their truce is over. And Nexus left. I thought there would be a much more dramatic conclusion to the storyline about no Nexus title shots. Clearly, they didn’t know where they were going with that or changed their minds.
Miz beat John Cena via DQ in a good match. Miz went after Cena with punches, kicks and an Irish whip. Cena retaliated with a side slam and vertical suplex. He set up for the top rope rocker dropper but Miz crotched him. Miz snapped Cena’s neck into the ropes and clotheslined him into the corner. Cena came back with shoulder blocks, the Cena slam and the five knuckle. However, Miz escaped the FU attempt and hit a back breaker/neck breaker combination for two.
Miz went for the skull crushing finale but Cena got out and caught Miz in the STF. Miz struggled to get to the ropes. One nice thing about the fact that wrestlers now submit relatively quickly to submission holds when caught in the center of the ring is that it becomes all the more dramatic and impressive when someone fights to the ropes.
Cena went for the FU again but Miz escaped to outside of the ring. At that point Daniel Bryan attacked Miz on the floor and threw him back into the ring. Cena hit the FU but the referee called for the DQ. Cena seemed fine with this and Bryan came in and applied the omoplata/crossface on Miz. Miz tapped.
Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov beat the Usos in a surprisingly good little match. The Usos worked over Santino. Kozlov tagged in and went crazy with a head butt, power slam and choke slam for the pin. It wasn’t an ambitious match by any means but worked very well considering the wrestlers involved. After the match Tamina protected Santino and shot a kiss (like a blow dart) at Santino.
Randy Orton beat Ted DiBiase and John Morrison in a three way match. They did the WWE thing where one guy is almost always on the outside while the other two fight in the ring. Orton eventually took over on both opponents with power slams. He went for the draping DDT on DiBiase. Morrison tried to break it up with a springboard kick but missed. He looked like a total fool there.
Orton hit that DDT and went for the RKO but DiBiase escaped. DiBiase went for dream street on Orton but Orton countered and threw him out of the ring. Morrison came back in with a springboard but was caught with an RKO for the pin. Either they are planning to turn Morrison heel, they are planning to move him to Smackdown, or they have pretty much given up on him for the time being.
Sheamus beat Zack Ryder. Sheamus announced that he wouldn’t wait until Night of Champions to defend his title. He said he would defend on Raw and give someone new an opportunity, Zack Ryder. Ryder said that he appreciated the opportunity but that Sheamus just made a big mistake. Woo Woo Woo. You know it. Michael Cole said he deserves a title shot more than Ryder. And Sheamus just hit a bicycle kick and pinned Ryder immediately.
After the match, Sheamus said he now no longer had to defend his title for another 30 days and that he would take Night of Champions off. That brought out Wade Barrett, who said his NXT title opportunity has been reinstated and he will take it at Night of Champions. Over the next couple seconds the GM thought about this and wrote out a lengthy e-mail response. He said that Night of Champions will have a six pack title match with Sheamus vs. Barrett vs. Edge vs. Jericho vs. Cena vs. Orton.
All the other challengers came to the ring and everyone targeted Wade Barrett. They beat up Barrett and Sheamus threw him from the ring. Then Jericho hit the code breaker on Sheamus. Edge hit the spear on Jericho. Cena hit the FU on Edge. And Orton hit the RKO on Cena. The finish looked ridiculous and contrived with each guy standing around waiting for the next guy to do to him what he had just done to the last guy.
Final Thoughts:
This was a straight-forward, rather uneventful taped Raw. It was fine.
posted by Todd Martin at 12:13 AM
6 Comments:
A truly amazing raw. Wade Barrett is going to get buried at Night of Champions, the tag champs weren't even there and more matches were meaningless. Glad I didn't watch the whole thing.
I agree the ending was dumb. Cena especially looked bad. Everyone did their finisher and Randy was standing there watching the entire thing. Did Cena not think Orton was going to give him the RKO?
It might have been unintentionally clever, but the line of the night was Miz saying, "Let me tell you about MY ego."
licLooks like the WWE is having their own "recovery summer"......Nexus is about as on fire as those housing sales
Patrick: I disagree on Barrett. I believe that they do have enough faith in him such that they may transfer the title from Sheamus to him, without Shea getting pinned, at Night of Champions. The unfortunate part about this six-pack is that it's not an elimination match, and should be. As usual, uncreative is not thinking things completely through. Par for the course.
I get that they needed to build up the issue between Miz & Daniel Bryan, but the right thing to do would be for Mizizzle to actually, well, do the job! He's overexposed and cannot be protected.
We know what Team LayMeOut's offer is. A title unification match at Night of Champions. Let's face it. They're stale. Melina is hot right now, and it's way past time to unify the titles.
As soon as RAW gets rid of the anonymous GM, the show gets an immediate lift. I agree wholeheartedly, the GM schtick has got to go!
Interesting to see Wade Barrett get a pop as he came out to face Sheamus.
Nice burial for Zack Ryder. Damn, even the Brooklyn Brawler got more ring time than Ryder. That had to be a record for shortest match.
Main event sucked and not in a good way!
I sure hope that a six-pack match is where all the contestants have to down a six-pack of some premium malt liquor (preferably warm). First one to finish and then make it out of the ring is crowned the champion.
Looks as if the WWE has once again worked themselves into a corner through their lousy story lines and now has to figure out wtf to do.
In the past, this has meant a visit from Mr. McMahon. Let's see how long it takes and if he tries to blow himself up again.
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