A British Point of View: Hot and Cold
by Martyn Nolan
In my opinion the RAW shows recently have been a case of hot and cold. I seemed to enjoy last week’s show whilst everyone else seemed to hate it. This week didn’t provide a great deal of interest until the end segment which then MADE me take interest. More on that later…
The show started with Bret Hart interrupting Alberto Del Rio and in usual ‘Hitman’ fashion he seemed to struggle on the microphone. John Cena got involved and suggested that Del Rio put his title on the line against Bret. Bret seemed up for this and the crowd bought it. Our wonderful ‘Vice President of Talentless Relationships’ came out to inform us that the main event would be a tag team match between the four in the ring. Strangely Bret Hart’s reaction to this was greater than the possibility of being the WWE Champion again. I know it’s nothing major but the reaction just appeared odd and out of place.
We had Swagger & Ziggler against Riley and Morrison. The match seemed to be over before it even began which I felt was a shame as I was interested in seeing these 4 upcoming stars with some more in-ring action (my prayers seemed to be answered when later in the show a Fatal Four Way was made for the Night of Champions.)
Miz and R-Truth again showed some solidarity and took my interest but I’m not exactly sure what their pose was about before the match started. Miz looked like he was in a horror movie and was appearing out of a hole ready to attack, whereas R-Truth looked like he was doing his ‘nutter’ look to scare him off! Nothing new there then!
The match between Kofi and Miz was a solid affair with the usual build up to a tag match with having the teams compete in singles competition. I hope this is the start of a real push for the tag titles now.
Kelly Kelly and Vickie Guerrero had a pointless spot and match which never took my interest to be honest.
The tag match between Del Rio & Rodriguez against Cena and Hart had the expected finish where Del Rio still looks like a solid villain and Bret was allowed to get the victory by use of the sharpshooter.
The 9/11 package which was used showing the footage from the 9/13 SmackDown show was touching and was a nice tribute to the tenth anniversary of this horrific day in history.
The match between Orton and Rhodes was safe but my drive to see it was extinguished by them already having the match on the previous SmackDown. A small thing I noticed was the way that Orton kept looking back at the stage for Mark Henry whilst he was making movements round the ring and even when pinning Rhodes. Only a small thing but detail is important and I thought this made Henry look more of a threat to Orton. Mark Henry continued to get his monster push by beating down Orton again. I think this could possibly be Mark’s final push and if he doesn’t win this Sunday then I don’t think he ever will.
Then we come to the part of the show which will have likely made half of the buy rates for this Sunday’s PPV. CM Punk and Triple H had their face to face meeting. Another small attention to detail which I loved was how Punk referred to the people as the world, not the “WWE Universe.”
This segment was another example of how to let two people just go with their gut and cover points which need to be made. The one thing that I didn’t think would make me interested in this Sundays match was Triple H himself. I have to admit that on this segment Triple H sold the PPV for me. His point where he said they were just going round in circles and referred to himself as just a man, his intensity jumped through the screen like it was 3D. He laid it all on the table for Punk and to be fair, Punk responded well when I think most would have stumbled but the sheer fact that Triple H outshone CM Punk in the promo department speaks volumes. Most will argue that I am putting Punk on a pedestal which he might not deserve but in recent weeks his confidence on the mic has been immense. If it’s not been what he’s saying it’s been the way he’s said it. However, this week Triple H was the one who I seemed to sympathize with more just from the emotion he put into that promo.
There is no arguing that this entire scenario has been rushed and we can go back easily 6 weeks. If the match between Punk and Cena had taken place at Summerslam for the first time and Punk left SummerSlam and the WWE with the title on that night then they wouldn’t have had to rush Punk back to further the storyline. Now we have a match between two men who aren’t even champions on a card which is supposed to be the ‘Night of Champions.’ We said that the match between Triple H and CM Punk could have been left until Survivor Series. All these stories are being rushed and for what? The Rock? I can’t help but feel that they feel they need to get these storylines done and dusted before we head into Survivor Series territory but it does seem a shame that what could have been a great 6 months of television has been condensed into 6 weeks.
With all that being said I am greatly interested in the ‘Night of Champions’ PPV and with the seeds being set I think the mid-card matches could really make this into a solid PPV.
What do you think? Has all this storyline rushing made you lose interest? Do you think they have paced this right? Does Night of Champions even take your interest? Let me know on beansontoastuk@msn.com or get in touch with me through Twitter at @BeansOnToastUK
Martyn
