On my SmackDown! sum-up last Saturday, I had praised WWE for having a pair of really solid shows that week. I've just now started to get into the swing of the WWE today, and after two great shows, I was fully excited about this week's RAW.
Unfortunately, following a pretty limp couple of hours, the "hot streak" is over. Don't get me wrong, last night's RAW wasn't horrendous, it just didn't have too many high spots that made it worth catching. Let's take a look at the run-down.
- R-Truth's Heel Turn: Just a week removed from his big win that granted him a number one contender's spot at Extreme Rules, R-Truth opens the show and warms up the audience. John Morrison comes out and the two have a fairly entertaining exchange, one in which Morrison points out some of R-Truth's faults. I thought this was heading in the direction of making R-Truth the flawed hero in WWE, but instead, Morrison challenges R-Truth for his spot and, to my surprise, beats him fairly quickly. R-Truth then goes on a tear and destroys Morrison in a heel turn that ends with him smoking a cigarette *GASP*. The actual wrestling wasn't terribly exciting, but a decent amount of story-telling and a pretty weird way to open the show. Unfortunately, that's about as good as it gets tonight.
- Ziggler is Seriuz Biznezz: Squash match featuring Evan Bourne taking on a new-look Dolph Ziggler. I honestly have to say that, despite a decent push to make him a "serious" heel, Zigg just never had a look that I could take seriously. Now, he's gotten rid of the silly blonde mop for a more steam-lined 'do, and is playing his character a lot more straight. I personally find this to be a welcome move, and Zigg showed off some decent intensity and technique as he squashed Bourne. Bourne kinda deserves better, but somebody's gotta make Dolph look good.
- An Unlikely Duo: Next up, the Miz stages a sit-in in the middle of the ring to coax a move by the RAW general manager. However, Miz's heterosexual life-mate, Alex Riley, and Sin Cara have a match scheduled, but rather than be left to wolves that are Miz and Riley, Sin Cara gets some back-up in the form of John Cena. The match becomes a tag team match, and a fairly solid one at that. My biggest problem with it is that, while I want Sin Cara to be successful, and he's way over with the crowd, he keeps botching spots at least a few times each match. Maybe it's because he's a little rough around the edges, or his fellow wrestlers aren't used to working with a performer his speed, but he botched some more moves here, including the finish. Decent match, I just wish Sin Cara could have hit some of those spots better. Then it may have been a GREAT match.
- Eve Torres beats that other Bella twin: Another Divas match happened. To be honest, it was a really solid match, and I'm beginning to think Eve Torres is a pretty decent performer. The problem, again, exists in the lack of drama or story-telling here. No audience reaction to speak of. I would love for the Divas division to become a genuinely competitive division, I just don't know how they can get their audience to care about it.
- Annnnnd Cole Completely Derails the Show: Seeing as the show was in London, someone on the WWE writing staff decided it'd be a good idea to have Michael Cole be knighted by the "Queen". What resulted was a segment that was far too long, far too ridiculous, and just far too... long to be enjoyable in the least. I'm not even going to get into details of what happened, just that it's this kind of stupidity that makes me second guess my enjoyment of professional wrestling. If the bit leads to something, then fine. This did not, so it is not fine.
- Squash Match #2: The palette cleanser for Mr. Cole's terrible segment... isn't really a palette cleanser. No, instead, it's a throwaway squash match between Sheamus and Santino. Sheamus destroys Santino. That's about it.
- Orton vs. Punk THE RETURN: Now fully deflated, RAW heads into the main event featuring C.M. Punk and Randy Orton. This should, by all accounts, be a great match, and it is pretty solid. It's a bit slow-paced, but there is some genuine intensity in these two's rivalry. The problem existed only in the fact that by this time, RAW's telecast is limping to the finish, and although Orton and Punk have a good match, it's not great. And certainly is not good enough to salvage the meh RAW. Orton manages to outsmart Nexus, and the curtain falls on another RAW.
The problem I feel with this edition of RAW is just that, aside from the opening number, no story-lines arose or were furthered. Without any sort of emotional investment or compelling story, RAW needs to instead fall back on the quality of the wrestling. Sadly... there just wasn't much of that going on this week. It certainly wasn't OFFENSIVELY bad, except for maybe the Michael Cole segment, but it wasn't super entertaining either.
However, I've got high hopes for this Friday's SmackDown! and hopefully, with the WWE Draft looming, some new story-lines emerge out of the ether.
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