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Here are my thoughts on the show.
I liked that they started with Bret Hart since the show was in Canada and you knew that it would get a good pop from the crowd. I wonder if his comments about hanging around too long were aimed at someone specific? I liked how Bret was willing to give up his match against the Miz to ‘protect his legacy’. However, I wonder if the decision to have Bret in one last match was a result of his previous final match and its effect on his legacy. I was a little surprised that Bret would have said WWF during his promo.
I liked having Jericho come out to confront Hart instead of his new BFF, the Miz because Jericho would get a better reaction from the Canadian crowd than Miz. I liked Jericho’s promo saying that Hart hung on too long and how it tarnished Bret’s legacy. Jericho said enough to pull Hart back in and wrestle the match for the fans and his legacy.
I liked the back and forth between Bret and Jericho about which one of them was the bigger phony. While Jericho brought up Montreal, Bret countered with the way Jericho spent his time at the Hart Dungeon. Then Jericho ups the ante by saying that Bret made the announcement this way because he wanted the spotlight one more time. Then he went for the jugular by saying that his father would be ashamed of him. That was enough to force Hart back into the ring. Then Jericho decided to change the stipulation for a match he was not even a part of but Hart accepted it.
I wonder why we did not hear Miz complaining to Jericho about putting him in a stipulation that evens things in the match because under standard rules, Miz would have had the advantage.
This segment did a great job of setting up the Miz/Hart match for later in the show. While there was a brief mention of the Unified Tag Title Match during this segment, it really did not do a lot for the pay per view on Sunday.
The commercial parodies in the ‘commercial free’ show were pretty good throughout the night. It did a good job of hyping WWE Shopzone while not taking away from the flow of the show. I liked these better than the video package commercials for the pay per view.
I thought Edge’s promo started off well and I liked that it was cut off by Christian coming to the ring. This was a match that many had hoped for since Christian returned to WWE and after Christian was drafted to Smackdown, it was something that I was hoping to see.
I liked the match between Edge and Christian. I liked that they got a lot of time for the match and without any fear of commercials to interrupt the action. This was an even match between two men who knew each other’s in ring tendencies and it showed because they were able to counter each other throughout the match. I liked that Edge hit a number of moves that Christian uses in his matches to try to get the advantage in the match since the smallest thing can help when facing someone who is so familiar with your match styles. One thing that I have noticed in a lot of Christian’s matches since his return to WWE is that he repeats moves a lot when he fails to connect the first time.
I liked that Orton came on the TitanTron after a long match between Edge and Christian to tell Edge that wasn’t his ‘Pick Your Poison’ opponent. While it is something that a heel would be doing instead of a face, it was a good way for Orton to get into Edge’s head.
I liked that when Edge realized that he was going to be wrestling the Undertaker that it was not worth it for him to wrestle again after having a long (12 minute) match. That refusal to wrestle also sets up anticipation for the eventual rematch between Taker and Edge (assuming they are allowed to go between brands again).
With Christian sending Edge back into the ring after the count out, he got a bit of revenge after the loss.
I thought the first set of Pick Your Poison matches built well for the pay per view. It allowed for Orton to soften up Edge for their match on Sunday.
With all of the crossovers on this week’s Raw, it would have been nice if they were explained by the announcers. Of course that would mean that Cole and Lawler would be aware of this.
I thought the Maryse segment in the back was good. While I am not a big fan of politics invading entertainment, I thought it made sense for Maryse to point out that she is from Quebec because of the issues between Quebec and the rest of Canada. They also had Maryse comment on Trish so that would lead to some people thinking that Trish might show up on the show. When she started talking about Eve, you had a feeling that since she wasn’t paying attention, Eve was going to do something to Maryse.
This segment would build to the pay per view because it was announced during the show that Eve and Maryse will meet for the Divas Title.
I thought Buzz Aldrin was out of place as guest host. He did not have the timing that people with an entertainment background possess and it showed on his work throughout the night.
The good news that Vickie Guerrero was still the Raw General Manager which was mentioned on Smackdown was definitely short lived.
I liked the Batista/Mark Henry beat down but while it helps Batista for his match on Sunday with John Cena, it has hurt Mark Henry. I also liked the ‘Kool Aid’ comment that Batista made as he walked past Henry.
I liked that they did the R Truth ‘Master Card Priceless’ parody right before the Ted DiBiase match and before they announced that Ted would be facing Truth at Over the Limit.
I guess we won’t see Michael Tarver become the ‘new Virgil’ when we have the original formula available.
I thought the DiBiase/Yoshi Tatsu match was okay but I was hoping that we would have gotten a longer match from the two men. Yoshi was able to get in some offense but in the end, DiBiase was able to take advantage of the situation and hit Dream Street for the win.
I thought Ted’s promo after the match did a good job to set up their match on Sunday and Ted pointed out that Virgil will be there on Sunday. I wonder if this means that Virgil will turn on Ted.
I liked Miz’ promo while walking through the back as he went to the ring for his match with Bret Hart. I have seen a few features of the Rock work their way into the Miz’ promos and this reminded me of the Rock at Wrestlemania 20. I also liked how Miz blamed Bret for losing the tag titles (even though he did blame Big Show when he was at the announce table telling Big Show stories with Chris Jericho.
I thought the Hart/Miz match was what should have happened at Wrestlemania between Bret and Vince McMahon. You had the interference that was expected on behalf of both men with Kidd and Smith trying to avoid Kozlov and Regal on the ramp by going through the crowd. Kidd and Smith were able to take care of Kozlov and Regal and could focus on Miz and Jericho to build for Sunday’s tag title match. With all of the interference in the match, I did not mind that Bret won the title. If it had been a standard match where Bret beat Miz, it would have been different.
With the announcement that there would be a new general manager next week, why not make it Bret and then have his first piece of business be dealing with the United States Title. I have provided a scenario that I would not mind seeing take place and you can see it in my NXT Thoughts column from last week.
I thought the heel Cole character that we see on NXT showed his face when talking about Bret Hart’s victory over the Miz.
I did not like the six woman tag match. If it had been a battle of the true women’s champions, it would have been a lot better. The one thing that this match did was give us a bit of a build for the match between Eve and Maryse at the pay per view. I did not mind seeing Maryse getting the win since it was on one of the Bellas and not Eve to make her look weak.
The Cena promo was a good promo for Cena but it still came off a bit forced when he tries to be a hybrid of Clark Kent and Superman. Does everyone need to give a nickname for their fans? The message I got from the Cena promo is that he will not quit. We will see on Sunday night if he is a man of his word.
I guess since the Pick Your Poison matches for Edge were against Smackdown wrestlers, they might as well use one for Orton. Orton and Swagger had some good matches and I thought this one was okay and had the right finish with neither man getting the win because it would have made the loser weaker going into the pay per view.
I thought the first Buzz Aldrin segment was the better of the two but neither were that strong. Buzz definitely fell into the bottom bracket of Raw guest hosts. He looked confused out there and they used him in a lower midcard feud involving Zack Ryder.
The Bourne/Kim versus Fox/Ryder match was a bit disappointing. Bourne looked good in the match and at least Ryder did not have to worry about a shooting star press. Fox and Gail were limited in what they did during the match, but Gail got the win in her home town.
Since none of these people are on the pay per view, this segment did not do anything to build for the pay per view on Sunday.
I wonder how Rosa is taking her breakup with Zack over on Smackdown.
I thought the Sheamus/Cena match was okay. Sheamus and Cena work well together in the ring and it is good to see Sheamus get the upper hand on Cena during most of the match until Cena is able to harness the power of the single yellow sun. I would assume that if Cena retains on Sunday he can move into a feud with Sheamus over the title unless they decide to put the winner of Orton and Edge into that position. I did not mind the disqualification finish because Sheamus wasn’t going to get a pinfall on Cena and Batista got to try to get Cena to say ‘I Quit’ at the end but Cena fought it off. Now we wonder if Cena will go against his word and utter those five letters in the two words ‘I Quit’ on Sunday. This was a good build for the pay per view.
One thing that happens too often in wrestling is that when someone goes for a series of moves, they can always hit the first two, but when they get to the third, the other person figures out a way to counter the hold. This happens for Chavo with the Three Amigos, happens when someone sends their opponent into the ropes for a forearm to the kidneys, and it happened with both Jack Swagger and Sheamus tonight.
What to DVR: Watch the Bret Hart/Chris Jericho promo; Edge versus Christian; Miz’ promo through the back; and Orton versus Swagger. There were some other good parts of the show like the situation surrounding the Hart/Miz match. The only thing that you don’t have to watch are the Buzz Aldrin segments.
