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Here are my thoughts on the show:
With the opening tease of the show recapping the Miz/Daniel Bryan situation, the opening segment with Miz on the mic was a good start to the show. I liked how Miz mentioned that Bryan is obsessed with Miz even though he might be the United States Champion. It seems like WWE (and other companies) run certain feuds into the ground even when it is not necessary. There is definitely a lot left to do with Bryan and Miz and this tag match was a good way to add a few layers to things. I liked how Miz was interrupted twice when he tried to do his catchphrase. Since he is a heel, it keeps him from doing it and also from having the fans ‘sing along’ with him.
The Bryan and Morrison versus Miz and Riley match was a good opener. Miz has good chemistry with both opponents and it showed in the match. I thought Bryan looked good during the match against Miz and Riley. Bryan had a few good combinations including the German suplex followed by a running drop kick into the corner. The finish of the match did not hurt Bryan because he collided with Morrison and Miz took advantage of the situation.
I was wondering why Bryan hit the suicide dive on both Miz and Morrison after the match while they were brawling on the floor, but it made sense if Bryan thought that Morrison cost him the match. I liked that Morrison did not back down and the brawling between the three of them was good until . . .
And I quote “The General Messenger gimmick is annoying and is getting X-Pac.com heat.â€
While I don’t mind the announcement of the Triple Threat Match, the gimmick for the match sounds a bit convoluted. So submissions can happen anywhere, but you can’t have pinfalls anywhere in the building? I wonder if they are trying to set something up so they can transition the belt off Bryan. With the amount of submission holds that Miz and Morrison use, it is a stipulation that caters to Bryan.
Why were the ‘face’ Divas so buddy buddy walking in the back? I realize they are portrayed as people who get along, but if you were going to battle for a title match, wouldn’t you try to sabotage someone?
The Divas Battle Royal was okay for what it was and I liked that Natalya earned a title match since she has not been given the chance to show what she can do in the ring. I don’t know how the eventual title match will end up, but at least she earned it.
I was a bit surprised at Melina’s early elimination and it did not look like she was supposed to be eliminated at that point. With the change in the manner of elimination from a men’s battle royal, why would any of the women try for a move that could backfire and eliminate them, like a baseball slide.
I have not been a big fan of the way that they are tearing apart the Ted DiBiase character. In the Jannetty/Michaels dichotomy when Rhodes and DiBiase broke away from Randy Orton, it looked like Ted DiBiase was being built for the bigger career, but ever since he starred in The Marine 2, except for a few weeks at the start of the Million Dollar Trust Baby angle, DiBiase has been acting like his career is in quicksand. Not that Maryse has been setting the world on fire with her recent push, but when they are split up, it might help both of them. Why is Maryse angry at the letters since there is a possibility that they are for her and not Ted. Since there is an ambiguity, maybe WWE is bringing back Orlando Jordan.
I liked the underlying message of Sheamus’ promo. A lot of his promos deal with how he was proud to be champion and how it is turning into an obsession of his like any champion in the past. Since he is willing to do anything to get the title back, he would probably be willing to cut off a limb to win the match (of course it couldn’t happen in a TV-PG world, but it still made a good visual image). By constantly bringing up how he ended Triple H’s career, it makes Sheamus a top contender and still sets up the feud if Triple H returns to the ring. The image of the ‘fiery red hand’ also brought a link to his time in FCW because he used to call his finisher the fiery red hand.
The Sheamus/Great Khali match was not one of the highlights of the show, but it did show to what level Sheamus would go in a match and that it will probably translate that way on Sunday when he is in the Hell in a Cell Match.
Did you Know that ever since Linda McMahon started her Senate campaign that most of the ‘Did You Know’ segments talked about the community service and charity work that WWE does as well as the awards that they earned from the military?
Edge did as good a job as he could do acting opposite a computer. It wasn’t as good as Steve Guttenberg in Short Circuit, but better than Fisher Stevens in Short Circuit 2. A lot of the back and forth came off as juvenile and beneath what Edge should be doing. I thought that once Edge realized what he was doing, the comments about how WWE had gone from Austin giving McMahon a stunner to what he was doing tonight.
The Edge/John Cena match was okay. The match was different than a lot of Cena matches because he did not get to turn into Superman to get the victory. Edge was able to counter Cena’s Moves of Doom and he avoided the Attitude Adjustment for the first part of the match and got in the Impaler DDT on Cena, but could not finish him. When Cena missed the charge into the corner and Edge hit the spear, I figured that Cena was going to be in the ropes. I felt bad that the referee had to make such a blatant mistake in order to be corrected by Joshua and have the match restarted so Cena could get the win and send Edge over the edge.
I thought Edge destroying the computer worked well. The only thing missing was hearing the computer yelling ouch during the attack and then come back out taped together.
Edge destroying the general manager was very Luddite of him (which was very unnecessary big word of me)
I thought the tag match involving Nexus was better than I expected it to be. While I feel that Heath Slater is currently the second best wrestler in Nexus, I did not know how Gabriel would fare in the ring with Evan Bourne. I see Gabriel as Evan Bourne, but at half speed because of the way that Gabriel looks too choreographed during the match and the way that he overthinks the 450 splash. Gabriel was okay in the match, except for the 450 splash during the match because he had a lower trajectory than usual and he caught Bourne as he was rolling towards the turnbuckles. I thought the finish was okay and Slater pushing Bourne over to allow Gabriel to get the pin was unique.
The beat down on Henry and Bourne after the match was okay. However, they shouldn’t have let anyone other than Barrett talk.
After a great match two weeks ago on Smackdown between the teams of Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre and David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd, they have not been able to recapture that magic in the ring. There was a lot of potential with this match, but just as it was getting going, we had the finish.
When Drew was sent to the ground and when Tyson went to the apron, I had a feeling that he was going to screw up the Hart Attack. I did not think that it would mark the end of the team. After a few losses over the last nine days, is that really enough to break up a team that has been put over as a unit because of their link to the Hart family and Dungeon.
If this is the end of the team, I really wish they would have had a better match to set up the split.
When they announced the Chris Jericho DVD, the one segment that I was hoping for was the ‘Man of 1004 Holds’ promo that he cut on Nitro. I knew that I was going to buy the DVD when I found out it was on. The ‘Man of 1004 Victims’ promo from Chris was probably my favorite part of this week’s show. Chris showed why he is one of the, if not the, best in the business when you consider all facets of a wrestler. He is strong in the ring, great on the mic, gets the crowd to care about his segments regardless of the situation he is in, he can lose every match and is still going to be considered a top guy, and when he does lose against a wrestler who is ‘beneath him in the hierarchy’, Jericho makes that wrestler a star.
I thought the main event was the best match of the night. Jericho got a lot of offense in the match and there were a number of counters in the match. Both men were able to avoid some of the trademark moves by their opponent because they have been involved in so many combinations of matches together.
If the status of Chris Jericho was going to be any different, I would have probably been disappointed with the finish of the match. I would have liked to see Jericho get the win, but by having Sheamus interfere, it frustrates Jericho because he got Chris disqualified because of the interference. I liked how Jericho blocked the field goal kick attempt on Sheamus with a Codebreaker, but Jericho could not finish off Orton. The kick to Jericho looked good as it happened and then the replay was equally devastating.
I do wish that they would have focused a little more on Chris Jericho being down in the ring instead of the stare down between Sheamus and Randy Orton because since everyone else on the Raw roster said they were going to be on Smackdown this week, why not do it there while we can absorb what was happening to Jericho. While Chris might be a heel, as I mentioned above, he is able to get the crowd to react to anything that he does and he would have been able to get some sympathy as he is stretchered to the back.
What to Watch on DVR: Everything from Chris Jericho’s promo to the end of the show; the brawl between Miz, John Morrison, and Daniel Bryan; Edge destroying the General Messenger.
