A British Point of View: RAW’s Back on Track!
by Martyn Nolan
After last week’s steady RAW I was wondering whether we would get more of the same or whether we would see a more dynamic show which generated more interest towards Night of Champions. Thankfully this week, RAW got back on track with some fantastic segments.
The show started well with a great opening video regarding the CM Punk, Triple H and Kevin Nash angle. As we came live to the arena Triple H gave up his position of being the first man out and CM Punk made his entrance to the ring. I was slightly concerned again as the reaction for Punk as he first came out was slightly lacking.
CM Punk called out Nash and eventually he made his way on to the stage. CM Punk successfully upped his name calling when he got another classic comment in calling Kevin Nash “Super Shredder” As we all know this was Kevin Nash’s small role in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, classic!
As things progressed we got Triple H come down to the ring, punch Kevin Nash and ultimately fire him! The best part of the whole segment was when Punk went over to Nash who was still sitting on his backside and proceeded to point and laugh at his misfortunes. He then said off mic. I wish you well in your future endeavours. I love it when superstars say things off mic as if we weren’t supposed to hear it. A great segment and gave the show a solid opening.
Then we got Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne come to the ring together; this showed a bond and made them seem genuine as partners. Most respect went out of the window when Justin Roberts announced them as Air Boom though!
Unfortunately their opponents were Jinder Mahal and The Great Khali. The best part of the match was watching Great Khali fall off the apron like he was doing a skydive at 15,000 feet! The worrying aspect is watching Jinder Mahal get buried yet again. I have no interest in this man and don’t know anybody who is??
I immediately felt like turning off the TV when I realised that Kelly Kelly was going to do commentary after the last attempt she made. I perked up when Natayla came to the desk to join in but this didn’t really last for too long. They did a good job of showing hatred to one another but I don’t think I heard one move called whilst there were 5 people sitting at the announcing table! Eve and Beth got nothing from them, not that there was a great deal to say anyway.
Michael Cole made a stupid comment saying that he is not opinionated like JR and King and thinks they root for people when they should call everything down the middle. Seconds later when Miz walked onto the screen Cole sounded like he needed an oxygen tank to continue breathing! I know this is a classic heel commentary move but when Cole delivers it, it feels wrong and unnecessary. When King ridiculed Cole for making a comment he replied by saying that it’s better than anything JR had said all night, to be honest it would be nice to even hear JR speak on the show as I can hardly remember him being involved! Please can we split this announcing team up already? (Without the loss of JR again please!)
Drew McIntyre, Kurt Hawkins and Tyler Rex also got spots on TV this week which was a fantastic surprise! Granted they literally achieved nothing but hopefully small parts continue to improve until we can get some fresh faces on the weekly shows!
WWE felt the need to provide us with a trailer for Inside Out. I love how SKY TV in the UK can manage to block out most of the American advertising during the show but they still feel the need to display a trailer for a film which isn’t even coming out in this country. Thankfully it’s a trailer for a film which I think I will never be able to bring myself to watch as every time WWE release a new B movie it consistently looks worse than the last!
Miz and R-Truth took another segment and turned it into pure gold with Truth coming across as the stupid one of the two. Another note has to go to a lady in the crowd who held up a sign which said “Lil’ Jimmette!” Didn’t R Truth already call the female fans Little Jennies!? Muppet!
I also love how Miz and Truth took the piss out of the name Air Boom; following on from everyone’s opinions thinking that it sounds like a ‘sneaky’ fart!
Punk and Truth had a solid match and Punk did a fantastic job of selling his leg injury throughout the match and during his celebration at the end he still made it look like he was in pain throughout the segment with Triple H which followed. This is something I have been critical of Cena in the past but I will get to him in due time. Triple H and Punk agreed to face each other with the stipulation that if Punk wins Triple has to resign as Chief Operating Officer/Chief Executive of Operations/Managing Director/Chairman of the Board/WWE President/General Manager/Treasurer/Supervisor/Wrestler/Superintendent or whatever else they can think of as a job title for him. Overall it has placed another piece in the puzzle but it hasn’t rushed down the road to give us what we want, WWE are managing this story very well and hopefully we should get a fantastic No Holds Barred match between the two at Night of Champions! Another small note to mention is that I laughed my ass of when Punk called Triple H the Cerebral ASSassin!
Zack Ryder even got a match and mention on the show! They put together a great video for him which brought everyone up to speed of his YouTube show so they understood what he was doing off camera and I would like to see the views on this week’s show to compare whether his ratings have now gone up from the TV exposure!
One thing that never made sense to me was having Randy Orton face Heath Slater!? Orton has faced Christian, Dolph Ziggler and Ted Dibiase over the past couple of weeks and they have all been fantastic matches, this didn’t seem to achieve anything at all. Pointless.
Then we had the big skirmish at the end of the show which resulted in the God awful Teddy Long walking out to make his usual tag team match. That man must have nightmares over the amount of times he has walked out to announce a tag match! The only good part was watching his eyes count how many people were out there before he said 8 man tag! As you could clearly see he had no idea what to say!
John Morrison looked impressive before his unfortunate exit from the match but the usual affair came back to haunt us. John Cena jumped into his telephone box, split his purple shirt open and took off his cap only to come out in his red attire and turn into SUPER CENA! The man eliminated both men and won the match as expected. He did a slightly better job of selling his injury even after the bell had rung to end the match but he isn’t consistent. One second he is grinning at Alberto the next wincing in pain, then back to the smile, then wincing, then jumping up on the ropes to celebrate with the crowd and magically the injury has gone, he’s got Wolverines ability to heal! Honest!
Overall, it was another great show and we all seemed to be interested in what direction they take every week. Let’s see how Nash and Laurinaitis get involved next week!
If you want to contact me you can reach me on Twitter at @BeansOnToastUK or email me at beansontoastuk@msn.com
Martyn
