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Here are my thoughts on the show
The focus of the first part of the show was the situation surrounding the Intercontinental Title and they showed a good video package to summarize things. I liked that they had Teddy Long in the ring before the match because it made the match seem important. I liked the Intercontinental Title match between Kofi and Christian. This was an even match throughout and you could see either man winning the match. I liked that Kofi used the pendulum kick in the corner, a move that Christian typically uses in his matches. In the last few matches, Kofi has been going for the Boom drop early in the match and his opponent has been able to trip him when trying the move which I think is a good touch because if the opponent is not incapacitated, he should be able to avoid it. Since Christian has a propensity to go to the turnbuckles multiple times in a match, Kofi was able to outdo him with the high impact moves.
I thought the handshake after the match was a good thing because during the end of Christian’s run as ECW champion while he was feuding with Shelton Benjamin there was a lot of respect shown. With this being a face versus face match, it made sense.
The imagery of Drew McIntyre coming to the ring in a white suit was good. You have a man who was fired from the brand for his heinous attack on Matt Hardy but he is wearing something that you would expect the hero to wear.
I liked how the part where Drew got his title back was done without a lot of verbal communication. You had Drew coming into the ring overconfident because of the letter that he was carrying. Then to see the reaction on Teddy and Kofi’s faces conveyed their anger over the situation. Teddy did not want to take the title from Kofi but he had to do it because of the letter from Vince. Kofi continued to show his frustration while Drew left the ring and it made the title win feel more important for him.
I would assume that this is going to lead to a series of matches between Kofi and Drew and that will be a good thing for wrestling fans.
Since Matt is a former teacher, I would have loved to see him grade the letter from Vince McMahon. I would doubt that he would have given it anything but an A because of his admiration for the letter.
Shad had a decent squash over a non-WWE roster talent. They are booking Shad to be a monster now that he has left JTG, but I don’t think it helps that he was wrestling a local wrestler instead of someone you see on a semi-regular basis.
You would have thought that when Cryme Tyme was broken up that it would lead to singles runs for both JTG and Shad, it looks like JTG has formed a new tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter. Porter was another person who you would have expected to see get a singles run after being drafted to Smackdown.
While I was a bit surprised to see Porter and JTG put into a tag team, they worked well in the match. The match was okay, but the match did not seem to show that Croft and Barreta are going to have a long future unless they are going to be fodder for other tag teams.
I liked the Straight Edge Society segment in the locker room. I thought Punk might have overreacted to the potential dissention by Luke and Serena, but banning them from ringside seemed like the right punishment since he is not going to banish them from the Society. It also made it seem like Luke and Serena are followers but they have not fully embraced the Straight Edge lifestyle because they could be manipulated by someone like Rey Mysterio. It also makes Punk more devious trying to get back at Rey for trying to manipulate the people he manipulates.
The Jack Swagger Trophy and Award Retrospective was okay, but it went way too long. I like that they have gone to commercial on consecutive weeks and Swagger is still talking when we return to the show. Jack had a lot of trophies. During the middle of the segment, it hit me that Jack Swagger has fully embraced JBL’s character when JBL was champion and doing his celebration segments. While Swagger is improving on the mic, if you listened to some of the things he said, they were a bit contradictory. He mentioned that he went to prom with a brain surgeon and that he was a Viennese Ballroom Dancing Champion. Jack had the trophy in the ring and then mentioned that he won it in 2004, after he graduated from college.
I wonder if Jack’s mom felt that his birth was also the greatest day in her life since she was delivering a fifteen pound-two ounce child.
I thought the Big Show and Swagger confrontation was good and while it was a bit predictable that Show would destroy all of Swagger’s trophies. I thought it was funny when Swagger was begging Show not to hurt Bob before Show destroyed the photo of Swagger with Bob Stoops.
I liked that Swagger brought the push ups out of mothballs. Maybe it was in one of the boxes.
I wonder if Jack Swagger had met Ellie Bartowski, would she have left Devin for Swagger?
I thought Rosa Mendes had a good reaction when she was told that she would not be wrestling Beth Phoenix.
When you consider the limitations for Beth due to her injury, the Women’s Title match was good. Beth was able to get in some power moves and that was her downfall because once she hit the double Samoan drop she hurt her knee further. I liked that Layla won the match because she has improved a lot in the ring and deserves a shot with the title.
I thought it was funny during the post match celebration when Vickie and Michelle held the title up, Layla was too short to hold on to it. I wonder if the win will cause some tension between Michelle and Layla.
It was good to hear that Vickie is still the General Manager of Raw despite her resignation on Monday night.
I don’t know what age Matt Striker considers to be a ‘little girl’ but if it is pre-teen, it would be hard for Beth Phoenix to have gone to shows in the HSBC Arena when she was a little girl because it was not opened until she was sixteen years old.
I wonder if Chavo Guerrero was hoping that he would continue his feud with Hornswoggle after his match with Kane.
I liked the Teddy Long segment with Drew McIntyre in the office. Since Teddy cannot get rid of Drew, why not make his life as miserable as possible. I think the match next week with Big Show could be good. I was expecting that Teddy would have announced a match between Drew and Kofi for Over the Limit.
I thought the Rey Mysterio/CM Punk match was okay but we have seen better matches from the two on television. This match was there to set up the pay per view match and featured interference from Serena and the normal hooded follower. There was some good action in the match and it served its purpose of adding more to their match at Over the Limit.
I liked the post match attack on Rey especially the way that he had Luke and the hooded man lift Rey and put him on Punk’s shoulders for the Go to Sleep. Another good thing was when he put Rey’s hand over his heart and raised the other hand, he put Rey’s right hand over his heart while holding up Rey’s left hand. This was the opposite of the Straight Edge Society members so it could show that Rey is not a follower yet.
What to watch on the DVR: Watch the Intercontinental Title Match and subsequent situation with Drew McIntyre and the Layla victory celebration.
