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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 6/11 RAW

RAW - 11/06/2012 Email: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What needs to be accomplished on this week’s show?
•Vince’s return. I am not that interested in yet another review of Laurinaitis job and I was hoping this would transition into a Heyman-Vince showdown, but after hearing that Triple H would appear at No Way Out, I don’t see that happening. For tonight I hope the Vince-Laurinaitis segment is as painless as possible. I don’t trust Vince that much on camera anymore. I remember in 2011 the week before The Rock returned, Vince came out to announce the biggest attraction ever was coming to Raw next week and he totally stumbled through his words to build anticipation for Rock’s return and the rating didn’t jump the following week so he failed to create the anticipation for that surprise. Another key is that I hope that the segment tonight is leading to something else as oppose to a one off segment just for ratings purposes. I’d also like to see Vince interact with different characters such as Daniel Bryan and David Otunga
•No Way Out hype. This pay per view needs a big go home blitz this week especially on a three hour Raw. We’ve got four matches announced and a Triple H appearance so hopefully they announce one more match and heavily put some gas behind the matches they have already listed
•Treading Water. Too many characters in WWE are treading water right now and my fear with a three hour show is that they deliver tons of characters in treading water situations. I feel a little guilty harping on this treading water stuff, because the other options are A) They give away too many money matches or B) WWE Creative gets too cute for their own good. I guess for tonight I’d like them to be somewhere in the middle and find a proper balance of creative, quality matches and squash matches. Sixteen writers, I’m sure they can do that without tons of rewrites (note the sarcasm).
Show Breakdown
 

1. Vince getting quite the reaction from a hot crowd.

2. Fire Johnny chant, Vince should make an audible and listen to them!

3. Big Show hasn’t performed effectively since 1999? Why did Vince keep him for ten years? Vince coming off like an idiot and should have modified his verbiage on that one.

4. My how things have changed in WWE. Imagine even just a few years ago your babyface champion telling Vince McMahon “Great to see you back here, you look great. Doesn’t he look great?” Kissing your bosses ass is not something people relate to WWE Creative!

5. Does anyone believe Vince actually knows what trending means?

6. Fine opening segment. I thought Vince had a nice energy and presence to him that has been missing the last few times we’ve seen him on television.

7. Tensai gets fed to John Cena last week, although I thought they somewhat protected him in defeat. It will be interesting to see if they have Sheamus squash him this week.

8. Like last week I feel Tensai is definitely moving at a faster pace, but I think they need to give him new attire to cover up that midsection.
9. Why wasn’t Vince impressed with that match? Did he want Sheamus to lose?

10. I liked that backstage segment with Vickie, Teddy, Vince and Johnny. There was comedy, but it wasn’t overdone.

11. Tensai destroys Sakamoto and one wonders if this is the end of this duo.

12. The crowd which appears to be hot one does not care at all about Tensai destroying Sakamoto, because it’s way too soon and nobody is invested in the characters. More brilliant writing!

13. I’d rather WWE use their own talent to flashback to Raw moments and if they do use celebrities at least use ones that matter like Shaq, Ashton Kutcher or Hugh Jackman.

14. Why does Michael Cole say “over the last couple weeks WWE Superstars and Celebrities sat down to discuss their favorite Raw moments”...meanwhile Seth is wearing the exact outfit he wrestled in. WWE on fire tonight with the details!

15. It will be interesting during these flashback moments to see if anyone’s favorite moment is from the 90’s. It would be amusing if every flashback happens to be from the Brian Gewirtz/Stephanie era. I do expect them to highlight the first ever Raw at one point so that doesn’t count as the 90’s era in my view.

16. I hope that knockout punch wasn’t the way to write off R-Truth for several weeks since the knockout has never taken anyone else out for a significant period of time.

17. Why is this Santino and Ricardo feud going on? If they are going to keep doing this nonsense they need to take the United States title off Santino.

18. Haven’t seen the divas champ for a few weeks and she’s still using that awful music. I’m sure when the fans hear “You're not enough for me” before she comes out they think to themselves I want to cheer for this girl.

19. BTW the fact that Santino and Layla got separate entrances tells me they are really stretching for time on this show.

20. Michael Cole bringing up Santino and Beth’s past. Bonus points from me for bringing up past storylines.

21. That was actually a good comedy spot by Ricardo running into the post however Santino oversold it and kind of took away from it. There’s subtle comedy and overdone comedy and this was overdone comedy. Santino with the pointing and laughing is overproduced garbage.

22. Also WWE should be emphasizing that Beth just pinned the divas champ, but Santino’s comedy is more important. It’s more fulfilling to the creative team and that’s what the most important thing is.

23. I love the Otunga character and his constant power grabbing.

24. Good backstage segment and I like the fire from Kofi. They should really do more with him; he’s like the babyface version of Slotted Rhodes.

25. A pretty effective promo exchange between Punk, Bryan and Kane, but I’m not sure what it did to promote the pay per view.

26. Crowd is loving this verbal exchange and have had some amusing chants with “Goat face” and “Crazy Chicks”.

27. Ziggler vs Swagger vs Christian vs Khali – One of these is not like the others...

28. Well they smartly got rid of Khali so now let’s see if Ziggler, Christian and Swagger can make this watchable!

29. I hope Ziggler pinning Swagger doesn’t lead to Swagger costing Ziggler the title and then doing a Ziggler-Swagger program.

30. Fans loving Ziggler here. That’s probably not a good sign for Dolph. You know in WWE’s world in 2012 if they didn’t ask for it, it’s going to work against the talent.

31. All that being said I loved the finish to this match with Ziggler-Christian. Christian is phenomenal; Dolph was working hard and was really fired up. He and Sheamus should be a classic on Sunday!

32. I’m surprised they let Nattie call “Mr. McMahon”, Vince.

33. The Vince dancing is always amusing, but they shouldn’t let Cameron and Naomi talk again or script them better.

34. Ryder appears at the end of Vince’s dance. Ryder should deck Vince for destroying his character.

35. It’s just stupid that the Ryback facing two jobbers gimmick is continuing. Time to move this dude into a feud or at least have him go back to beating lower tier characters. Goldberg chants are loud! If Bill is willing I’d have him show up at Raw 1000 and endorse Ryback.

36. Vince mocking JR showcasing how childish he is. This was another segment where I said to myself that Vince needs his head in a toilet and flush. BTW isn’t Hornswoggle Vince’s son? Oh yeah...dropped.

37. Cena then says something even stupider basically saying that wins and losses at Wrestlemania shouldn’t matter. The fact that Vince brought up Cena losing to The Rock tells me they definitely want to do a rematch so they can get Cena is win back.  The only bright spot in this segment was Regal sitting on the couch when Vince brought up the KMAC.

38. WWE foreshadowing that Show is going to kill Kofi by saying Cena has spoken to Kofi and he won’t be there to save him.

39. Big Show-Kofi was far too long, but was effective in once again showing Show’s dominance.

40. Crowd as flat as ever during this Cara-Hawkins match.

41. The crowd is so quiet I hear someone yelling “We want Mysterio back, this is a joke” ouch!

42. Countdown clock to Vince and Laurinaitis. I’d be shocked if Laurinaitis was fired, but I guess the clock is a clever gimmick.

43. WOW we got somewhat of a card rundown! Maybe three hour Raw’s will be a good thing!

44. Do we need to continually have Bryan and Punk talking about how Vince doesn’t feel guys like them are Superstars?

45. I’m not even sure who the babyface and who the heel was in that Vince-Bryan segment. It’s like everything Vince is involved in is to entertain him and not to build the characters on the show. Are you surprised?

46. Well I said earlier that I knew they’d flashback to the first ever Raw and right on cue they do it with Ziggler talking over the clips. As I mentioned going forward I’ll be interested to see how much focus the stuff from the non Stephanie/Gewirtz years gets.

47. Did Heath forget he’s the “One Man Rock Band” or did they purposely change it to “One Man Band”

48. VADER TIME! One of my all time favorite characters. Back in my teenage years I could do an awesome Vader impression to the point some of my friends started calling me Vader as a nickname and that’s when I stopped doing it...

49. Where’s JR to yell out “That big old, stinky, grizzly bear”

50. Vader is over huge with this crowd. I’m baffled that they are giving him a “You still got it” chant, but I’m sure that makes him feel good.

51. I’m shocked Vader was able to nail a suplex and a Vader Bomb. Remember a few years back when they used Vader against Batista and he fell down? He looks alot better tonight.

52. Vader basically squashes Slater and Slater can probably hit the future endeavored line.

53. I assume this reaction Vader got probably just solidified his HOF induction.

54. Why do they use David Otunga in these Bullying campaigns? They can’t use a babyface like Kofi or Christian? Steph always comes off so condescending. Should she really be on top of this project when her Dad just made fun of a guy who suffers from Bell’s palsy?

55. Watching this backstage segment with Punk and AJ you see that they are really playing up the AJ crazy chick character and I feel like it’s a tad forced. Like most WWE storytelling they kind of jumped through a few hoops. She went from heartbroken to stalker to psycho all rather quickly. Still it works and she plays the part very well.

56. That is quite the extended kiss AJ is giving Kane.

57. Kane is like Bubba Ray Dudley back in 2000 when he would be put in a trance when Trish would suddenly make out with him.

58. I’m not sure how this builds to the pay per view and I’m sure WWE has no idea where it’s going, but its intriguing television.

59. AJ sitting in the ring cross legged like CM Punk was a nice touch.

60. Vince trying to get voters for his wife here by kissing up to Connecticut.

61. Big Show keeps saying this stuff about being a Giant. Can they go all the way with this and just change his name to The Giant?

62. Is Cena really trying to play it off like he’s the underdog? No respect for the audience at all.

63. WOW that punch from Show to Vince looked lame.

64. Is the crowd really chanting Holy S? WWE should do all their shows in Hartford.

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Full Card Rundown! It took three hours, but I think they did a card rundown where they promoted three matches and a Triple H appearance. I’ll let them have a mulligan in not mentioning Cody-Christian.
•AJ-Bryan-Kane-Punk. This is fun television. I’m not sure where you take it and I wouldn’t be surprised if Vince is flip flopping on the direction as well. I think they need to have AJ end up with Bryan, because Punk shouldn’t have a lady with him. The big concern here is Kane, because as soon as this turns into Kane stalking AJ, I suspect the story will get crappy. The promo exchange was solid and AJ’s extended kiss to Kane was bewildering, but interesting.
•Ziggler-Christian. Fine wrestling once Khali was out of the ring. Also I like Ziggler getting the World Title shot. Foresight once again bit WWE in the ass as they’ve had Ziggler job out three times in a row before this, but I like his intensity after the match “About time!”, I believe were his words and boy is he shooting there! The fans were loving Ziggler so I expect that might not help him going forward
•Vince’s return. When he was in the ring and interacting with John Laurinaitis I thought he was effective
•The crowd. The crowd made this show that much better for WWE
•VADER! What a return! The crowd loved him, I loved him and you could see he was really enjoying being back! I like the idea that each week leading up to the 1000th episode they will be bringing back a star from the past. I hope we get Sid!
•Flashback segments. There are going to be so effective in building up the 1000th episode of Raw. Seth Green wouldn’t have been my first choice to use, but it still worked since he came across genuine
The Bad
•Not paying attention to the little things. Michael Cole says Superstars and Celebrities over the last couple weeks have shared their favorite memories of Raw and then we get a clip of Seth Green talking about wrestling on Raw from 2009, while wearing the exact same outfit! Vince saying Big Show hasn’t been effective since 1999....when he BROUGHT him into the company! Also can Layla stop using that music now?
•Vince doing a JR impression. What a jackass Vince is!
•Vince’s interaction with other characters. This seemed design to entertain the people in the back rather than enhance the talent. Vince burying Bryan, Ryder, Nattie looking like a geek, etc.
•Show knocks out Vince. Too bad it was so lame since it was the show closing angle.
•R-Truth’s write out. R-Truth is written out by a knockout punch yet Vince will be fine to show up Sunday? Maybe that wasn’t Truth’s write off, who knows.
•Ryback. Get this guy doing something else!
•Sin Cara. You could hear crickets. Tell stories WWE, having these guys tread water isn’t doing anything for them when they do it twice a week!
•Too much comedy. Alot of unnecessary comedy and some of it was way overproduced like Santino with the pointing and laughing at Ricardo. It was funny, but then Santino’s overacting ruins it. Beth pins the divas champ, but we’d rather focus on the comedy of Santino and Ricardo
•They gave us a full card run down, but the actually storyline advancement to promote the matches on the pay per view was pretty weak. The Cena-Show stuff with the Vince cliff hanger doesn’t do that much for the pay per view in my eyes. While I enjoyed the verbal exchange between Punk-Bryan-Kane and AJ, I’m not sure what it did to build their match.
Overall Thoughts
•This was a long show, but I thought it was well paced. If they keep this kind of pacing up for three hours it could be watchable, but they need to promote the pay per views effectively, which this show didn’t do that well
What needs to happen on next week’s show?
•More of these awesome flashback segments, but give us better flashbacks then Seth Green’s Raw moment
•An emphasis on what happened at the pay per view as important. WWE usually does this pretty well
•Money in the Bank hype. This is quickly becoming my third favorite show of the year and it will be interesting to see how they can multitask promote it in addition to promoting the 1000th episode of Raw
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com