GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 7/16 RAW
By Revin Samuel on 7/18/2012 10:36 PM
RAW - 16/07/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
Sorry this is up late; I’ve been a tad busy over the last few days.
What this show needs to accomplish?
•The ramifications of Money in the Bank should be reinforced and that means both Money in the Bank winners not just John Cena
•Raw 1000 hype. The hype for this show might have been WWE’s best promoting job in years and this is the final chance to hit it hard!
•Summerslam hype. The so called biggest party of the summer is around the corner and the road to Summerslam begins tonight even if WWE doesn’t see it with Raw 1000 around the corner. Multi promotion is crucial!
Show Breakdown
- I hope we’ve seen the last of this Nickelback song starting with Raw 1000.
- I don’t know if I just don’t pay attention, but I don’t recall he last time I saw Raw open with a big fireworks display like tonight!
- Punk is over like rover in Las Vegas!
- Solid promo exchange between Punk and Show, these two are shooting on each other!
- I am really enjoying this exchange between Punk and Show except for the fact that they are standing face to face berating each other. You’d think Show would just knock Punk out or that babyface Punk would attack Show for calling him just another cog in the machine.
- Right into Raw 1000 hype and the return of The Rock. Smart idea.
- Kofi and Truth walking backstage and man I wish WWE would drop the Little Jimmy gimmick.
- I used to be a fan of the Primetime Players, but AW has totally ruined them for me. Why is the dude talking during their matches? That’s go away and is WWE once again getting lost in their obsession with entertainment.
- The Primetime Players lose at the pay per view then they lose their #1 contender tag title shot, I guess that means they’ll probably get the belts on Smackdown by WWE Creative logic.
- Good to see WWE is following up on Bryan bailing out on Eve last week. Bryan pecks AJ on the cheek. Curious indeed.
- Alberto squashes Zack and WWE’s payback to Zack for getting over on his own continues.
- Rey returns! I like this as having him return on Raw 1000 is asking for a lost in the shuffle moment. This was good and while we’ve seen Rey and Alberto before, the matches should still be good. I thought Rey was on fire with his work before he went down so hopefully he picks right up where he left off
- Amusing video with Heath turning his humiliation at the hands of Raw legends into a good thing.
- Great to see Rikishi back on Raw! This was not the legend I was expecting. For some reason I thought I had read or heard an interview with him where he said he was against nostalgic returns.
- Rikishi’s ass is bigger, but he still looks presentable to me. Awesome tribute to Umaga and Yokozuna by Rikishi, but even better and this will rack up there as a favorite Raw moment for me and that’s Rikishi getting to dance front and center in the ring with his boys!
- Eve gets a “hoski” chant, but she doesn’t sell it, because hey, we can’t go against the script here in WWE. On another note Eve is just on a different level of hot all together.
- Miz returns to Raw as Eve’s tag team partner and I like the new look and if I were Miz, I’d fully grow out the goatee.
- I wonder how Maryse feels about Miz having his arm around Eve. Hopefully she doesn’t react like Melina to this kind of stuff and realizes that it’s scripted television.
- Bryan and AJ are getting married and this crowd doesn’t seem to by it. That was quite the long kiss there! Talk about hot shot angle!
- The dueling Yes chant at the end of the proposal segment was rather amusing.
- They keep showing the graphic of Cena holding the briefcase atop the ladder and I can’t stop thinking to myself how lame this guy’s facial reactions are and they are so over the top that once again I question how much of a grasp he really has on this business.
- Raw flashback to Rock throwing Austin’s belt in the water off the bridge. Classic stuff.
- Bryan and AJ are getting married next week on Raw! Big Hot Shot, WWE is perhaps over stacking Raw’s 1000th episode.
- Jack Swagger and Cole immediately let us know that Swagger is on a losing streak.
- Ryback destroys Swagger, but it’s not a match so I guess Swagger will likely have to feel the wrath of Ryback officially next week.
- Fantastic promo work by Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho, well what else can you say, but that is a man who does understand this business!
- These Tout videos have been quick and painless so far, but I also think that has alot to do with the content being favorite moments in a show that’s had a 1000 episodes. If we start hearing touts from people following Raw 1000 telling us how great they think John Cena is, it’s going to get old and fast!
- WWE really pounding it into our head that DX is reuniting to start Raw next week! Interesting that Lawler said “all” in reference to DX, I don’t think he meant Chyna.
- I think I probably would have left the Funkasaurous off the show after having one big fat man dancing earlier on in the night.
- Christian wins the poll and the fans are smart. I wonder if The Bubble puts that on the fans wanting to see Christian or the IC Title just having the most respect of the three options.
- Nice hook for Smackdown with The Peep Show with special guests Daniel Bryan and AJ. I hope we get to see a Christian-Bryan feud at some point that be money.
- JTG makes a rare appearance on Raw.
- WWE needs to end the kids dancing in the ring thing and putting it on television. That’s house show material.
- We get another Raw moment courtesy of Donald Trump. I’m surprised they spotlighted Lashley so much.
- Slow start to Punk-Show, but it definitely picked up at the end. It’s amazing to me how good Show is at his age.
- Cena out and WWE wants us to actually believe that Cena would cheaply cash in his money in the bank, but of course not as Cena will cash in next week on the 1000th Raw and I wouldn’t be shocked if he took the title.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Hype for Raw 1000. Who would have thought, but they’ve over hyped it and I feel like we might hit a Wrestlemania like hangover following this show. Hopefully they are aware of this and have something in mind other than the return of Randy Orton to keep us hooked for Raw episode 1001
•Miz’s new haircut. Perhaps his best career move to date
•Punk-Show. Good in ring work from these two especially after two grueling matches the night before
•Ziggler-Jericho segment. This was a great segment. Ziggler’s mic work was great. Vickie was a nice sidekick and Jericho looks to be a real babyface for the first time since 2007!
•Rey Mysterio’s return. I said his return would be lost in the shuffle if he came back on the 1000th Raw, but even thought it was a little lost in the shuffle. Still great to see him back and his in ring work is awesome.
•Seed planting for the Summerslam card. We got no hype for Summerslam on this show, but they did lay the ground work for three potential matches in Triple H-Brock, Jericho-Dolph, Rey-Alberto and all three of those contests have potential to be fantastic!
•Rikishi’s return. What a great moment that must have been for Rikishi and his boys
The Bad
•AW. This dude is totally ruining the Primetime Players. We’ve been harping for some time that WWE needs to bring back managers for certain guys, but these two are not guys who need a manager especially a guy as overbearing as AW
•Bryan-AJ wedding. It’s too much, I don’t mind the engagement so much, but let it marinate. WWE booking a wedding for next week’s show is just way too rushed and hot shot programming. The outcome will be interesting. Is Bryan swerving AJ? Is AJ swerving Bryan? Will a wedding for once go off without a hitch? One thing is clear after this week’s Raw and that is the audience isn’t buying it!
•Lack of Brock Lesnar hype. They pounded it into our head that DX is starting the show and that Rock will be back, but they really seemed to gloss over the return of Brock Lesnar
•MITB emphasis. There was a pay per view the night before Raw and I didn’t really think the commentators enforced to us enough how grueling those matches were. Cena and Ziggler were both spotlighted for their victory, but I didn’t think what they had to go through to get there was emphasized enough. Perhaps I’m nitpicking on this one
•Jack Swagger losing streak. Way too talented of a dude to be on a losing streak. Here creative, stick McIntyre and Swagger together and have them feud with Kofi and Truth. The matches will be good and maybe give McIntyre and Swagger a manager, they could probably use it more than Young and Titus
•Zack Ryder disrespect. Nothing new here.
Overall Thoughts
•Pretty solid Raw leading into the 1000th episode and I am very interested to see what they have in store for us next week!
What needs to be accomplished on next week’s show?
•To me the only thing that’s important on this show is that the Legends don’t get treated like jokes like they do on an Old School Raw or Smackdown. Luckily we have guys coming back that are more than your standard Jim Duggan or Ted Dibiase so hopefully they have important roles
•Summerslam hype. This will likely be the most watched Raw of the year and I think it’s important that pay per view promotion gets spotlighted with all these eyeballs tuning in!
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
