‘WWE RAW’ Results & Review (30.09.13)
Welcome to this week’s review and results of WWE Raw.
The show opens with CM Punk, who makes his way to the ring to a nice cheer from the crowd, He has a new t-shirt on. They replay last week’s brawl with Ryback and Axel. Punk talks about being “jumped” by Ryback and Axel and how predicable it was. He talks about getting his hands on Axel, Ryback and Heyman and says he isn’t leaving the ring until he gets a fight. The RAW General Manager, Brad Maddox comes out, telling Punk to “take it easy”. Big E Langston makes his return, making his way to the ring and attacking CM Punk. This is more interesting to me than Ryback/Punk, and I think Langston is a good power guy. We have our opening match.
Punk and Langston are already brawling when we return from break. Langston hits some impressive power moves and a big splash. He’s like a talented, though green at this point, Mark Henry. This guy will get a main event push soon enough. Punk hits a big roundhouse kick to Langston’s face for a near fall. Big E has had control for much of the match which is good for his career at this point. Punk sells for him nicely. Punk nails Langston with a flying heel kick and swinging neck breaker, followed by his patented high-knee and Randy Savage style flying elbow. He signals for the “Go to Sleep” and hits it, winning the match. A good match too which showed off the abilities of Big E while still allowing Punk to gain momentum going into the Battleground pay-per view.
Fandango is out next, accompanied by Summer Rae. His opponent for the night is Kofi Kingston. The two wrestlers are wearing pink shirts for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Awareness. Apparently most WWE Superstars will wear these shirts through October as a way to raise awareness and raise money for the charity. The match is the usual Kofi match, with each man hitting their usual spots. Fandango eats the “trouble in paradise” kick and Kofi gets the victory. Short match. The Wyatt Family then come out and Bray cuts the signature promo of weirdness. He doesn’t attack Kofi, merely warns him.
The Bella’s are backstage and Randy Orton approaches them. He asks Brie when the “big wedding day” is and she ignores him. Randy says that after Battleground, Bryan won’t make it down the aisle because he “won’t be able to walk”.
Renee Young is backstage with Paul Heyman, she asks Heyman for his reaction to CM Punk’s comments earlier in the show. Heyman talks about how obsessed Punk is with getting his hands on him. He calls Punk a “nobody” and tells Punk to try to make a move tonight.
Now, it’s the biggest debut in the history of…erm…tonights RAW? 3MB are in the ring and Diego and Fernando are announced, the new team on the block, Los Matadores (aka, Primo & Epico in masks). They have a midget wrestler dressed like a bull. He’s called “El Torito”. The fans cheer. Kinda. Heath Slater screams mid-match, which is part humorous and part terrifying. Diego and Fernando show their skills off, which we all knew they had from the days when they were just Epico and Primo. They nail Heath with their double-team finisher for the win. The fans seem to like the bull mascot, but maybe this will work as a gimmick in the short-term. It was a fun debut.
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon make their way to the ring as we return from a commercial break. Triple H asks the Rhodes Family to come to the ring. Cody, Goldust and Dusty walk the aisle together and head to the ring. The Rhodes clan get a big pop. Stephanie and Triple H heel it up and say that the Rhodes Family look hostile. Triple H says that Cody failed to keep his job, Goldust failed “like he always does” and Dusty failed because he couldn’t work with the McMahon’s. They talk about Dusty working in Florida at the development territory. Stephanie says that they would like to give both Cody and Goldust an opportunity to get their jobs back, but only if they can beat Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at Battleground. If they lose to The Shield, Cody and Dustin will never work for WWE again and Dusty will join them on the unemployment line. Dusty asks to be in his son’s corner at Battleground, and his wish is granted. Not surprisingly, The Shield attack Goldust, Cody and Dusty. Should be an interesting match next Sunday.
R Truth takes on the WWE Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel next. Truth gets a bigger reaction than I expected but its still such a crappy gimmick that most fans don’t seem to care about. Axel gets beaten up a bit, Truth gets beaten up a bit. CM Punk’s music hits and distracts Axel. Truth pins Axel for the upset victory. Nothing really of interest happened here. Just further promotion of the Punk and Heyman storyline.
They show clips of Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella’s real life relationship with clips of them together on the E Network show Total Divas mixed in with photographs. The two of them got engaged last week.
Brie is out for a match with Alicia Fox. Brie is now the number one contender for AJ Lee’s Divas Title and will wrestle for it at Battleground. Not sure what happened to Natalya being in the feud with AJ, but I’m guessing it’s done to add something more to the Bryan and Brie relationship. Brie and Alicia have a decent back and forth match. Brie has improved a lot in recent months and Fox is already very capable of having good matches in there. I hate that the announcers are so neglectful to these matches, it’s ridiculous to bury what is a heavily promoted area of the roster right now. The match features some cool spots, with Brie getting the victory after hitting Fox with the facebuster.
Heyman, Axel and Ryback are backstage. Heyman calls Ryback beautiful again. He says that Ryback saved his life. Heyman says he is going to go to the ring and “propose” to Ryback. Weird.
Renee Young is backstage with Big Show. Show talks about “doing the right thing” and how it isn’t that easy when his job is on the line. He says some stuff about wanting to knock out Triple H while throwing out some incredibly weird facial expressions.
Big Show storms into Brad Maddox’s office and lifts him by his neck, demanding that he finds Triple H.
Zack Ryder is in the ring for a match with Alberto Del Rio. The last few months of television have featured the World Heavyweight Champion, Del Rio, taking on mid carders like Ryder, R Truth, Kingston and others and the matches are all pretty much identical, usually with Del Rio winning and then heelishly locking on the cross arm-breaker after the final bell. This is no exception, an easy and predictable victory for Del Rio via submission.
Ryback’s music hits and the big man makes his way down the aisle with his friend and agent, Paul Heyman, beside him. Heyman speaks about the arranged attack on CM Punk last week and we see yet more replays. Ryback says that he hates bullies and calls Heyman a “genius”. He says he would do anything for Paul Heyman, and the two hug. Paul “E” says he wants a meaningful relationship with Ryback, the fans reveal their obvious homophobia during this segment which is a real shame and a sign that, really, things haven’t changed that much. I know that this segment was designed to get this sort of reaction, but after the media covered Darren Young’s “coming out” recently, it’s shocking to see WWE poke this sort of thing in this sort of way. Heyman says he wants to take Ryback to the top of WWE and “make an honest man” out of him. Heyman takes Ryback’s hand, to many boos, drops to his knee and asks Ryback to “become a Paul Heyman guy”. The fans chant “no”. It’s a weird, daft and pointless segment that uses a dated concept to get a negative reaction. CM Punk runs to the ring but falls and hurts his knee. Or does he? Punk rolls around in pain on the outside and sells a knee injury which the fans in attendance seem to buy for a while. Heyman and Ryback eventually eat a shot from a kendo stick as Punk reveals the ruse. Axel then runs to the ring but eats a stick to the gut. Punk then nails Axel with the GTS as he stares at Ryback and Paul on the stage.
We return from break to see The Shield in the ring. Dolph Ziggler and The Uso’s make their way out for what is a six-man tag team match, a match we’ve seen a few times recently but hey, they always have a good chemistry and end up having good matches. The match is a lot like their other matches, which isn’t a bad thing really because it’s got some great spots. They do the nice Uso dive sequence again which always looks fantastic and gets the fans on their feet. The fans chant for the Uso’s, which is a nice thing to hear and proof that these talented guys just needed some television time to get over, their talent and energy would do the rest. This, once again, great match ends when Reigns hits the spear on Ziggler for the three count. Its becoming a regular thing that these six men steal the show. Nice.
Big Show is shown backstage rolling his sleeves up and looking moody again but it approached by the police, or security or something. Stephanie then comes and says that Big Show is under a lot of pressure and that he is only trying to feed his family. Stephanie tells Big Show that she spoke to his wife lately and was told that Big Show isn’t measuring up at home either. Big Show sits on a couch and cries a bit, then looks angry again. He then destroys a Triple H poster. You tell that cardboard, Big Show!
Renee Young conducts an interview with RVD backstage. They talk about the PPV match being a hardcore rules match. They show some clips of Rob Van Dam’s extreme moves from the past. Rob is a bit sloppy with the interview, seems to forget his “lines” a couple of times. It’s merely to promote their title match at Battleground.
The Real Americans are in the ring for a match between Cesaro and Santino. The Great Khali and Hornswoggle accompany Santino to the ring. I found it hard to see such a talented guy as Antonio Cesaro involved in this awful comedy match. I hate that Santino is back on television, his character is stale and so unfunny that its beyond embarrassing, and the WWE obviously don’t have any intention on changing that because they’ve teamed him with the worst wrestler in the company in Khali. Cesaro does the “giant swing” spot which is fun to see but they might be overusing it at this point. The fans pop for it though. Santino wins the match, which is a joke in itself. Terrible stuff.
Jerry Lawler is in the squared circle to conduct an interview with Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. Orton talks about being relentless and that he is going to beat Bryan at Battleground. He says he is “genetically superior to a goat faced troll” like Daniel Bryan. Daniel calls Orton monotone and says that he has never needed anyone else’s motivation to reach his full potential. The fans chant “yes”. Bryan says he will beat Orton at Battleground and regain the WWE Championship. The fans chant “yes” again. Orton yells at the fans to “shut up”. Orton talks about Bryan marrying a Bella, and that there must be something wrong with Brie for her to settle for someone like Daniel. Bryan attacks Orton and the two brawl around ringside. Orton throws Bryan into the ring post and drops him across the barrier. Brie runs down to ringside and pleads with Orton to stop, but Orton DDT’s Bryan from the ring apron onto the mats, leaving Brie kneeling beside her fiancé. Randy comes back and continues the attack and RKO’s Bryan through the announce table as Brie looks on concerned and screaming for Randy to “stop”. The show goes off the air with Randy Orton standing tall and Bryan lying in the destroyed remains of the announce desk.
A fairly decent RAW with some good stuff, specifically the closing moments with Orton and Bryan and the six man tag match with The Uso’s and Ziggler taking on The Shield. There were some bad points in here too, with Santino, R Truth, the Paul Heyman/Ryback segment and RVD’s backstage interview.
RAW: Best of the Night (In-ring): The Uso’s
RAW: Best of the Night (On-mic): Stephanie McMahon
RAW: Dud of the Night: Santino
RAW: Weirdest Moment: The Ryback/Heyman “Proposal”
RAW: Best Crowd Sign: “Mute > Cole”
RAW: Honourable Mentions: The Shield, Bryan, Brie Bella, Randy Orton
