LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF LAST NIGHT'S RAW
By Revin Samuel on 5/29/2012 1:14 PM
RAW - 29/05/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this show needs to accomplish?
•It’s hard for me to be objective about the product right now with WWE recycling a John Cena-Big Show feud that has been happening since before Brock Lesnar left WWE the first time as has been pointed out by many! All that being said WWE is dedicated to going through with it so all I ask is that they try and make it different and compelling
•No Way Out hype. We have a pay per view to promote so let’s get on that and get a card laid out
•CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. Another storyline being brought down by the involvement of an elderly big man in Kane. I’m interested to see how much focus this storyline is given and also what the next step is in the AJ chapter
•Inject the show with some fresh talent involved in meaningful storyline. What happened to AW? Can Christian get some promo time to solidify his face turn? Will Dolph Ziggler ever get out from under Jack and Vickie?
Show Breakdown
- Very nice opening tribute package by WWE. One of their best qualities is putting together these packages.
- If Big Show has a huge bonus and he’s set for life then why is he still doing John Laurinaitis bidding? I know I’m supposed to suspend disbelief on that one...
- Big Show is stealing Brock Lesnar’s line now about not being an entertainer? That’s pretty fresh in the universe’s mind WWE, I’d think with such a larger writing staff they’d be able to come up with new material for Show.
- Okay I do like WWE recognizing the foolishness of Brodus dancing right after Show was fired and Cena acting like a complete idiot with Laurinaitis in what was undoubtedly the worst ending segment of Raw in 2012.
- Pretty solid promo from Show to place a heavy importance on his match with Cena at No Way Out.
- Punk vs Bryan unadvertised on Raw? Wasn’t this just the WWE title match at OTL? Oh yes that’s right WWE has no respect for their audience.
- That best of the microphone list on wwe.com is brought down because a guy like Santino is on it and not Jerry Lawler! They should do a Top 50 promo artists DVD. I think that would be a better selling one than Top 50 finishing moves.
- Del Rio kills Santino. It makes sense since Del Rio is challenging for the World Title at the next pay per view. My issue is that WWE has trying to push Santino as a more credible performer lately having beat the likes of Cody Rhodes clean and him losing in five seconds while making sense makes everyone else who has lost to Santino look even worse. WWE doesn’t think about that kind of stuff of course.
- Didn’t we see Truth and Kofi vs Ziggler and Swagger at OTL as well? This company...
- Ziggler and Swagger are going to have to go to the back of the line says Jerry Lawler. I figured that would have happened after the first time they lost...
- Thank GOD...finally tension between Ziggler and Swagger.
- Good backstage segment with Clay and Show. That’s how you use new talent with older established talent. Clay stands up to Show and doesn’t back down. The only question is will they kill him off in one fell swoop later tonight.
- I’m pretty sure Big Johnny juts switched the arm he was holding the crutch in...
- Show-Cena in a cage? I guess that fits with the theme of the pay per view, but I think it will hinder the quality of the match.
- Great ovation for Punk!
- Ah the old testicles joke from Punk. Whoever wrote that whether it was Creative or Punk himself needs to realize that fits with the lame jokes John Cena says. No need to
- Funny stuff from Otunga taking the gum off Johnny’s chair with the bottom of the coffee mug
- AJ looking pretty damn sexy in the Punk shirt!
- Quality match from Punk and Bryan with a surprise outcome. I am not sure why WWE gives us this match for free and tries to sell it as a match we should buy as well.
- I do like that Bryan continues to ignore AJ while Punk continues to soften on her.
- Ah and then the albatross of Kane arrives.
- I like WWE noting how many straight victories Brodus has.
- Cody Rhodes should change his name to Slotted Rhodes.
- Miz has alot of momentum going into filming his movie...note the sarcasm. Although speaking of the movie why was Miz casted for the Marine? After finding out the news that Vince wanted Kane to have a three foot penis in See No Evil, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was another brilliant call by him.
- I always chuckle when I see Otunga and the mug and more greatness as Teddy goes to get coffee for Eve and Otunga says he’s fine without even looking at Teddy.
- Funny line from Laurinaitis saying he might want to retire in 10 to 20 years.
- Miz still in the ring and if you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Miz, Randy Orton just showed you otherwise! Poor, poor Miz.
- Dolph vs Randy could be a great match however if Dolph is just being fed to Randy it does nothing for nobody.
- Pretty sweet package dedicated to the Military narrated by Cena. I know how much WWE respect the material, but you have to wonder how much of that is also done to help garner support for Cena. It might actually help if Cena could resist being obnoxious when he’s on camera.
- Kane-Punk on Smackdown makes sense given what we just saw during the Punk-Bryan match.
- I don’t like to see my favorite character Otunga treated like such a jobber! Why didn’t the coffee mug make the save! Of course the outcome makes sense.
- Nice commercial for the ECW DVD with Paul Heyman narrating. WWE definitely has to take advantage of Heyman for this type of stuff while he’s around.
- I don’t understand why WWE is trying to sell this Show heel turn as the darkest 24 hours in WWE history. It’s once again insulting the intelligence of the audience.
- That was a pretty random by Show comparing Clay to Doink.
- Always good to see the tag champs decimated. I guess WWE couldn’t use The Usos or two other guys in this role. Once again no foresight.
- I guess that ending segment was to solidify to us that Show is a Giant and not an entertainer.
- Has WWE been successful in getting Cena cheers because the adult males just say nothing now while we just hear the kids screaming for Cena?
- I don’t think Brodus was completely buried here, since he wasn’t actually pined. Although the intention might have been to bury him.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Cena not on Raw. I like when they give characters a week off television. Overexposure is a bad deal so it’s always smart to do these things once in a while
•A focused Raw. It isn’t my type of programming and we’ve been there done that, but the show was had an objective therefore making for a very focused effort from WWE
•No Way Out main event hype. WWE did a good job with the book ending segments of the show to deliver strong pay per view hype for the main event. Show delivered in his role
•AJ-Bryan-Punk. This story continues to be intriguing even with the albatross of Kane. It will be interesting to see how they do it, because I don’t think they can go down the road of Punk falling for AJ and then having AJ go back to Bryan so will see how it plays out
•Military tribute
•Ziggler standing on his own? Is this finally Dolph getting a decent push or just the guy getting to replace Chris Jericho in a program with Randy Orton? Either way at least the matches should be decent if that’s the road they go down
•Punk-Bryan match. Great stuff, although WWE should start promoting stuff like this in advance. Broken record
•Punk-Laurinaitis segment. I enjoyed this, I am not sure why, but I thought everyone involved played their role well and the crowd loved Punk!
The Bad
•It’s not compelling. They are trying, but this Big Show-Cena storyline is not compelling television. It’s been there done that. My new line of thinking that I mentioned on Smackdown is that Show and Kane are now getting in the way of other talents getting an opportunity
•Kane’s involvement with Punk and Bryan. I am fine with this if Kane is not going to be in a match with them at the pay per view, but I am pretty sure that’s where they are headed. I hope we don’t have to see Kane kidnap AJ or anything, but with AJ handing Punk a chair I could see us headed down that path
•Christian-Cody. Cody is slotted and now Christian is being called old and still not getting any promo time to get himself over as a babyface. Just like Orton and Ziggler the match should deliver, but give Christian some mic time to help his own cause!
•The Miz. I am not sure what they are doing with this guy especially if he’s going to film a movie
•Show destroys Kofi and Truth. I wonder who Vince has been picking on longer, the tag champs or JR?
Overall Thoughts
•A good Raw for what they are trying to accomplish, but it still isn’t my cup of tea personally
What needs to happen on next week’s Raw?
•No Way out hype for matches other than Show-Cena
•Good follow up to Dolph wanting to stand on his own
•Cena’s response to Show. Can Cena avoid comedy and anger? Cena is not effective when he tries to play on these two qualities so he needs to do what he does best, intensity. John should go look at all his Wrestlemania promos with The Rock and remember what he’s good at
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
