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LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF LAST NIGHT'S RAW

RAW - 03/09/2012                E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
Note: I am taking on a new position at work tomorrow that will be taking up alot of my time. I am going to continue to try and do these columns, but they might not be sent in as quick as I’d like.
What this show needs to accomplish?
•NOC promotion. Three matches announced for the pay per view, but the hype for these matches and the pay per view itself continues to be lacking. WWE hasn’t forgotten how to hype a show, because they did it with Raw 1000 and they need to implement the game plan they had for that show on to every pay per view going forward and yes, I realize that’s unlikely to happen
•CM Punk returns to Chicago. I can only hope that Vince McMahon isn’t arrogant enough to attempt to have Punk try to turn Chicago. I hope Punk doesn’t take it as a challenge either
•AJ-Vickie. I said in my Smackdown report that this would be a great spot for Vickie to bring Sara Del Rey in as a hired assassin, but the minute after I sent that column in, it dawned on me that WWE is perhaps using this AJ-Vickie program to bring back John Laurinaitis as a senior advisor to AJ of some sort. I like the idea if they do go down that road as it will probably be good for the AJ character to have someone to play off
•Bryan-Kane. The anger management stuff was fine last week, but WWE must A) keep the balance where it doesn’t go over the line into Vince McMahon toilet humor comedy and B) where is it going? I know we generally hate the idea of the odd couple tag team in wrestling since it’s been done to death, but I think in this case it could actually work
•Tag Divisions and Divas division. WWE is making somewhat of an effort to get this going on Smackdown, but Raw is where it needs to be showcased to get these characters and their storylines over
•US and IC Title. Where do Miz and Cesaro fit in at NOC?
Show Breakdown

1. WWE is getting into that consistent pattern again where they open up every show with a promo. I guess it makes sense since they have sixteen writers and therefore the show really is all about the writing hence why the program is garbage half the time.

2. Crowd chanting for CM Punk as we start the show.

3. We cut immediately backstage, which I guess is fresher than a promo and Lawler is getting the better of the WWE Champion until the officials get a hold of Punk. This company…

4. I have to ask the question why CM Punk is still feuding with Jerry Lawler.

5. Punk comes out and he appears to be acting babyface and Michael Cole is recognizing it so good to see Vince McMahon wasn’t so arrogant as to try and pretend like Punk was a heel in Chicago.

6. Punk over like rover in Chicago and you have to wonder if they will try and turn him in Chicago. It would be a mistake, but The Bubble usually likes to control the audience even though it just waters them down.

7. Punk cutting a promo about Jerry Lawler and I really don’t like that the Punk-Cena program is so heavily spotlighting Jerry Lawler. Punk beat up Lawler, now you transition into Punk-Cena. Lawler doesn’t need to get his heat back. This is ridiculous.

8. Also why is Sheamus just standing in the ring throughout all of this?

9. Sheamus finally cuts Punk off and WWE Creative actually with some sound writing for once as Sheamus points out the hypocritical nature of Punk saying Rock disrespected him when he interrupted him and Punk was doing the same to Sheamus.

10. If this exchange is leading to a Champion vs Champion match, it’s going to be very frustrating, but not surprising.

11. WWE really needs to transition AJ away from CM Punk’s storyline.

12. And so WWE is giving us Sheamus-Punk, Champion vs Champion for free with no advanced notice. This f’n company…

13. The Smackdown main event from last week is the opening match on Raw this week. Wow, logic wise this is a terrible start to Raw.

14. How many hands in the air that Orton beats Ziggler?

15. Cole doing commentary by himself like he did on Smackdown and I’m not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

16. Quality match between Orton and Ziggler. Are you surprised that the best part of Raw is the workers and not the writing?

17. Ziggler actually gets a win for once! I wonder if Orton gets that win back on Smackdown.

18. Miz joins commentary and he could be good, but he could also be Matt Striker level annoying, will see.

19. We get an anger management segment and WWE Creative ran out of luck on this one as it was terrible.

20. Michael Cole lets us know that Rey and Sin Cara are teaming up for the first time ever on Raw, false statement. Of course when they did team up as a duo for the first time, he also said “Rey and Sin Cara teaming up for the first time”, when they had been in a six man together the previous week. Looks like Mike’s picking up Booker T’s habits with Booker off commentary.

21. I’m not sure Miz is doing that well on commentary, but it seems like the type of guy Vince would want on commentary.

22. Two back to back quality wrestling matches here with Orton and Ziggler and now Rey and Cara against Rhodes and Tensai.

23. Of course Cody loses and you have to wonder what he’s being punished for? Although I could speculate that it’s because he’s hungry for more and he’s been somewhat public with that yet continues to be treated like Slotted Rhodes.

24. Rhodes needs to leave the company; it’s the only way he’ll get any respect. Easier said than done of course.

25. Another way too hokey anger management second, but better than the first one tonight.

26. When they announced Sheamus vs Punk and Cena vs Del Rio, I didn’t bother questioning which one would go on last, because I figured the titles together would be a no brainer to go on last, but nope, The Bubble does it again.

27. Punk out in jeans and Michael Cole not bothering to acknowledge that Punk isn’t in his ring gear.

28. Punk’s promo on the money with everything he’s saying especially noting that a Champion vs Champion match shouldn’t just be trotted out at the 9:00 hour.

29. I love what they did with Punk here. He refuses the match and walks away. He also gets one up on AJ. Great heel tactics by Punk.

30. Alberto Del Rio joins commentary and who did AJ get as CM Punk’s replacement…Jack Swagger. I like it however as it’s logical that on short notice there wasn’t much AJ could do in terms of finding someone take Punk’s spot.

31. Sheamus uses the Texas Cloverleaf to get the win and Michael Cole really playing up that Sheamus is using a submission move. One wonders if perhaps the World Title match will be made a submission match, because that will really help this storyline…

32. Del Rio ducks the brogue kick post match and Rodriguez gets it and is totally out as the medics hit the ring.

33. Weird that they show heel Alberto staying with his ring announcer as he gets checked on, that’s not very villain like.

34. We are getting an Eve-Kaitlyn match and Katelyn’s music is awful. Why does Kevin Dunn give all the divas these whacky dance songs as their themes? The Bubble just isn’t on the pulse when it comes to these types of things. They don’t seem to realize that giving everyone the same type of theme song makes them all interchangeable. The same applies to the guys as I immediately think of Ryback and his b version Batista theme.

35. Layla is out for commentary and hopefully she is better on commentary than Kaitlyn was on Smackdown a couple weeks ago.

36. Layla validates her hotness by telling us she was in Maxim’s top 100 list.

37. I’m surprised they are letting Layla talk so much on commentary.

38. I was just stopped mid sentence by Layla’s dress…

39. Eve beats the number one contender. Layla asks why Eve is shaking Kaitlyn’s hand after beating her. Layla clearly isn’t bright as that’s something she would do.

40. Random backstage segment where AJ notes everyone is bailing on her to Jack Swagger of all people. Jack notes he’s taking some time away and I wonder if will ever see him back.

41. Another Anger Management skit where Bryan and Kane do their best to make the material work, but in the end it’s just another skit that we’ve seen on sitcoms for years on end.

42. The twitter poll for tonight is a weird one as the fans get to choose if they want Kane and Bryan to fight each other, tag team or hug it out.

43. Striker in the back checking on Ricardo and wants a comment from Alberto, but Otunga interrupts and notes that his client doesn’t have anything to say at this time. You know I’m a huge fan of Otunga so any story that has him involved with, I’m all for it and that’s better than putting him in the ring to be squashed by Big Show.

44. Ryback and Jinder Mahal who had that stellar match on Smackdown now bring it to Raw. Cole notes that they are “renewing” their rivalry…a rivalry that ended two weeks ago.

45. Ryback squashes Mahal and we move on. The only thing noteworthy about this match was Cole turning on Miz on commentary.

46. Ryback has merchandise now as well. The machine has gotten behind him with the “Feed me more” theme song and now the t-shirt and I like to call that being corporatized.  

47. Does WWE now pay Kevin Rudolf to make specific songs for them? The NOC theme song is called Champions by Kevin Rudolph featuring Birdman, the only relevant guy, Lil Way and the WWE’s favorite band…Limp Bizkit.

48. Striker and AJ backstage as Striker asks AJ what she plans to do with the show falling apart. I love when WWE runs these “the show is falling apart” angles when it really isn’t. Anyways AJ makes Cena-Del Rio falls count anywhere.

49. Bryan out to a huge reaction and I like the verbiage Michael Cole uses as he says “Daniel Bryan thought the crowd was respecting him, now he feels they are humiliating him” as oppose to saying “Daniel Bryan thought the crowd was respecting him, but they were really mocking him”, which he was saying before. The manipulation is gone and now it’s about the character, however I could be overanalyzing and it was just the words Cole choose to use in the moment.

50. The poll results have “hug it out” winning and Bryan immediately looks down as it looks like he might be trying to resist laughing.

51. Very different segment here and the crowd totally with it as they are chanting “hug it out” and Bryan finally hugs Kane and then gets upset that Kane didn’t hug him and now Bryan wants a hug from Kane.

52. Daniel Bryan and Kane hug it out and now they are brawling all over. Very long segment here.

53. The one time I think the odd couple thing would have worked is if they went that route with Bryan and Kane, but not to be.

54. Next up is a US Title defense; I wish they’d promote title defenses in advance, but not to be. Cesaro wins and I can only hope this is the end for Santino and Cesaro.

55. WWE follows up Cesaro and Santino with Ryder and Slater and one wonders what the quarter hours are going to be with these two matches back to back.

56. Miz talks about how his twitter followers support him…Miz was probably yelled at because he then immediately started talking about how his followers always send him hate messages on twitter.

57. Ryder beats Slater and that’s two straight wins on Raw for Ryder, which Ryder points out by putting up two fingers and of course Miz hasn’t been following the show and is shocked that Ryder won a match on Raw…

58. Vickie comes out and she isn’t leaving the ring. AJ doesn’t come out so Vickie pulls a Clint Eastwood and begins talking to an imaginary chair. WWE being topical.

59. Chicago crowd into the AJ-Vickie stuff as they are chanting “Smack her” to her.

60. WWE running the old heel can hit the GM, but the GM can’t hit back angle, which is illogical. They ran this once before with Steve Austin, but it made sense then, because if a talent touched him, he could strike back. I guess this works in terms of having to pay to see AJ get her hands on Vickie or whatever the payoff is, but at the same time they did a Stephanie-Chris Jericho deal right here and I’m not sure that’s the best direction to go with Vickie and AJ.

61. AJ throws a temper tantrum afterwards and another segment that lasted far too long. I don’t recall the board saying AJ would be fired if she hit Vickie? The logic here didn’t work for me even if the performances were good.

62. I’m wondering why they are so heavily playing up that Cena will be home when he faces Punk for the title. When has Cena ever got a tremendous home field advantage when he’s returned to Boston? Perhaps they are thinking if they play it up the crowd will know to play the role when the date arrives.

63. Cena and Del Rio is up and before the match can begin Cole throws to a Tout from Otunga who notes he will be proceeding with legal action against Sheamus. WWE Creative has clearly run dry. The heels want respect, the show is falling apart and lawsuits, that’s all they got!

64. Another quality match here with Del Rio and Cena and this is the third time in a Cena match in recent memory where the person has escaped the STF. I believe Bryan, Del Rio and Miz are the three guys.

65. Cena just got suplexed on the ramp and a minute later he’s raising his eyebrow to the camera and this is why John Cena doesn’t get cheered. The business just isn’t believable with him as the top guy.

66. Del Rio beats Cena with Punk’s help. Punk drops Cena on a car after the match and then says “respect”. Punk gets in his car to leave and the driver is Paul Heyman.  Strong close out angle.