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LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THIS WEEK'S RAW

RAW - 20/08/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
Note: Summerslam thoughts at the end of the column
What this show needs to accomplish?
•Summerslam ramifications. Colour me shocked that Triple H tapped out front and center to BROCK Lesnar. My only hope is that this isn’t building to a rematch for Triple H to get his win back circa Hulk Hogan 1998 with The Warrior. I think its key for tonight’s show that while we play up that Triple H lost and what’s next for him, but we also emphasize the Lesnar win and what a beast he is
•Chris Jericho exits. How will this be done? It’s important that Dolph Ziggler get the last laugh tonight and re-establish that the money in the bank winner can swim with the sharks.
•CM Punk’s story. I’ve mostly liked the way they’ve handled the Punk character in that it’s a very gradual turn ala Bret Hart 1997, although I don’t think its working. Since they are going through with it, what’s important for me is that WWE not try and manipulate us with obvious lies and I don’t want this to yet again turn into another attempt to get the WWE Universe to fall in line in full support of John Cena
•AJ. I think the move to put her at GM was a bust. I’d like them to find a way to salvage this, but I am not sure this can be done
•Night of Champions. I’d like to see them begin the promotional blitz for this show tonight.
Show Breakdown

1. Heyman just phenomenal on the microphone. I love that he cited Triple H’s 2001 quad tear and Brock’s facials are just awesome.

2. I don’t like the aspect of them trying to turn this into Triple H as the representative of WWE. Its fine to play this as Brock the Outsider, but I’m not sure the fan base wants Triple H as their representative that role should go to The Undertaker.

3. Why would Scott Armstrong come to the ring just because Brock wants him in the ring? I’d be hightailing it out of the arena.

4. Gorgeous promo from Paul. Paul shows exactly why we need managers in this business. Brock was great as well.

5. I don’t think we need to hear that Kevin Rudolph song ever again especially after his terrible performance at Summerslam.

6. I continue to like the way they are incorporating Tout into the storyline with stuff like CM Punk noting he wants to pick his own opponent for NOC.

7. I see an adult male in the crowd with a John Cena shirt on caught the wrestling buddy that Truth and Kofi threw out to the crowd.

8. Why do the PTP come out like nothing has happened? They lost their tag title shot. Someone needs to educate them that you don’t just make your standard entrance when you lose a title match. I’m not sure why none of the producers, writers or anyone else in upper management are not implementing a policy that when you lose a title match at a pay per view and you come out the next night that you don’t act like everything is fine. DETAILS!

9. Cody Rhodes is above being in this match.

10. Michael Cole lets us know that Khloe Kardashian is tweeting about Raw. I actually like this usage of celebrity as oppose to having them appear on Raw.

11. Cody loses again and I guess when you do interviews saying you are ready to be in the title picture, you are going to be given the losing streak. The Bubble strikes again!

12. Zack Ryder gets on Raw tonight and I’m sure the bastard child of WWE Creative will be on the losing end of something.

13. Striker interviews AJ as my favorite character, Mr David Otunga makes his return, clean shaven. David also name drops the most gorgeous woman on the planet in one Halle Barry.

14. The AJ getting upset at being called crazy is getting old. Typical WWE Creative keep playing off the same device for months on end.

15. Michael Cole agrees with Khloe that Paul Heyman is the worst...does that make Heyman a face?

16. The new Ryback theme song still does nothing for me.

17. Jinder Mahal interrupts the Ryback match as the never ending Ryback-Mahal program continues.

18. Ziggler wants a rematch with Jericho, AJ interrupts and says since they both want a rematch they will have it with the stipulation that MITB vs Jericho’s contract is on the line. I never heard Jericho say he wanted a rematch? To put these stipulations on the line randomly is just poor writing, but this works for WWE Creative, because AJ is crazy, thus having inconsistent writing never has to catch up with them!

19. Alberto Del Rio comes out and I have something to say about that Del Rio-Sheamus match in my Summerslam thoughts following the Raw breakdown.

20. AJ comes out to interrupt Del Rio and I’ve officially seen AJ too much. AJ tells Alberto to “Say Hello to your little friend” and that should be Rey Mysterio, but instead it’s Randy Orton...WWE Creative...

21. Sheamus joins commentary and that little rant I was going to save for my Summerslam thoughts I’ll mention right now. My issue with the finish of the Sheamus-Del Rio match and Sheamus cheating to win and being happy about it is that 1. I don’t think Del Rio is over that much as a heel that people want to see him get cheated out of the title and 2. I don’t think Sheamus is over like a Steve Austin, CM Punk or Eddie Guerrero where they would cheer him for cheating to win. Perhaps I’m wrong, but that’s why I didn’t like the finish of that match.

22. This Orton-Del Rio match really needs to get out of first gear.

23. Finish of Orton-Del Rio plays into the finish from Summerslam and Del Rio continuing to be screwed by the babyface.

24. Good of WWE to show us Antonio Cesaro’s US title win from the pre show of Summerslam. It’s important to recognize title changes and you never know with WWE if they will do that.

25. WWE shows us the footage from Summerslam week and I’ve got no issue with this even if I do fast forward through it. The NBA does this type of stuff and it makes the company come off as somewhat sophisticated, which we know is The Bubble’s biggest obsession.

26. Sandow beats Clay clean and continues to have the rocket strapped to him.

27. Clay takes out Sandow following his clean loss. So we have our babyface World Champion cheating to win and our dancing babyface being a poor sport after losing.

28. We see the twitter thoughts from different WWE personalities on their thoughts on HHH-Brock. I hope they don’t try and push this match as a classic, because it wasn’t, not even close.

29. Shawn Michaels via satellite and Shawn is just so good at what he does. Very genuine.

30. Shawn’s words making Triple H’s storyline of his career potentially being over really mean something.  

31. Why is Otunga facing heel Big Show?

32. David Otunga totally squashed by the Big Show and I don’t approve of this at all. This isn’t how you use a guy like Otunga who you might want to push down the road. This is where you put someone like Heath Slater or JTG. What a mistake!

33. WWE shows us a fired up Big Show promo following his Summerslam loss and I really liked this promo. Show’s definitely an all around talent!

34. Michael Cole says Josh Mathews will be back to work next week and let’s hope WWE doesn’t forget Cole said that and Josh isn’t announcing Smackdown this week.

35. WWE noted during Summerslam that AJ will deal with Kane attacking Josh Mathews during Raw and I don’t think that’s been mentioned on Raw tonight or if it is has, this is really quite the light punishment for Kane.

36. Crowd is chanting “We want Ryder” and you know The Bubble is backstage gritting their teeth.

37. Bryan and Miz bail and so Kane destroys Zack Ryder and The Bubble gets to orgasm.

38. I like them showing these wwe.com exclusives on Raw, because it pushes people to the website and tells the viewers that important stuff happens on the website.

39. CM Punk backstage interview with Striker and he says his opponent is someone the “WWE Universe loves”, “WWE Universe looks up too”, “Someone alot of people think I can’t beat” and WWE needn’t disrespect their audience with this type of verbiage when it comes to John Cena. We also don’t need history rewritten on Punk and Cena’s history together in the ring.

40. Divas battle royal to determine the new #1 contender for Layla. Weren’t these divas all dancing together last night? Now they all want to fight. Too slick for your own good WWE. BTW why are Kelly and Beth in the graphic, but not in the match? Weird...

41. What a useless battle royal. All we hear is audience cat calls, because the women are interchangeable. I noticed that Alicia Fox’s punches and kicks look alot crisper than they used to.

42. Natalya far and away the best worker in the ring.

43. Michael McCole ripping the divas as Vince McMahon’s insecurities are showcased again.

44. Kaitlyn wins the battle royal and what a letdown. Kaitlyn has had no character development whatsoever and I assume she won, because of her body building background that Triple H and Vince probably love.

45. Brock Lesnar Touting...I don’t approve of this. Brock says he’s quitting and I guess Brock is written out again.

46. Ziggler and Vickie backstage stressed about the match with Jericho. I go back and forth whether I like Vickie with Dolph or not and right now I don’t mind her presence alongside Dolph.

47. Ziggler with the clean as a whistle win and as per usual Chris Jericho does the right thing.

48. Jericho the babyface like Brodus Clay is the bad sport. So WWE Creative seems to be on a kick where the babyface loses clean or cheats to win and then attacks the heel, because that makes sense...

49. BTW if AJ is supposed to be a babyface, I’m not sure how much it endears her to the universe that she puts Jericho’s contract on the line. Of course I doubt The Bubble thinks about this stuff in advance.

50. I think it would be refreshing if in this situation Jericho shook Ziggler’s hand and left, but it appears after judging the actions of Jericho, Clay and Sheamus that The Bubble has no grasp on what their audience approves and disapproves of.

51. We get a preview for The Day and the biggest thing holding this film back is the “WWE Studios” branding at the beginning of the trailer.

52. CM Punk out for the final segment of Raw and he’s still beefing with Jerry Lawler. John Cena interrupts to his usual mixed reaction.

53. The crowd begins chanting Cena sucks as Punk points out the obvious that Cena main events while Punk is the champion.

54. Punk making valid points in his verbiage, which I’m not sure, is how you want him to come across if he’s supposed to be a heel.

55. Cena retorts and notes that he held the title longer than Punk at one point.

56. Cena at least recognizes that not everybody is cheering for him.

57. Cena of course brings out the home sports team analogy to garner cheers.

58. One of the better Cena promos in recent memory.

59. I’m not sure I agree with Punk not retorting, but I guess if he’s supposed to be a heel he shouldn’t counter the points.

60. Punk instead focuses on Lawler and cheap shots him. We go off the air with Punk hovering over a down Lawler and I like that final shot.

What this show accomplished

The Good

•Heyman and Brock promo. Very good opening segment and I can only hope that Paul Heyman’s promos over the last few weeks have opened Vince McMahon’s eyes to the value of managers.

•Final segment. Strong final segment and it takes a guy like CM Punk to bring out the best in John Cena. John Cena with a serious and strong promo that helped to enhance why Punk is turning and also put some hype behind a potential Night of Champions match between the two.

•Shawn Michaels promo. The third great promo on this show came from Shawn Michaels who was out of this world in his reaction to Triple H losing and this possibly being the end of Triple H’s career.

•Summerslam felt important. WWE as they usually do made the pay per view that just happened feel like a big deal

•Big Show wwe.com exclusive promo. A fired up promo from Show and a good one

•Dolph gets to beat Jericho cleanly. Dolph needed this and I hope when Jericho comes back next that he more protected, because I feel like he’s starting to borderline on Mick Foley in terms of credibility as a top guy

•Antonio Cesaro winning the US Title is recognized on Raw. You never know if WWE will pay attention to this type of stuff, but this was the only title change at Summerslam and I am glad it was recognized

The Bad

•Babyfaces acting like heels. WWE creative being very weird here as we had Jericho and Brodus both losing clean and both being poor sports about it afterwards. I don’t think The Bubble wanted them to get booed afterwards either, which shows just how out to lunch they are

•Cody Rhodes loses again. I’m not sure why WWE is so lost on Cody, but the man deserves better. If you get a chance, watch some of those Arda Ocal YouTube interviews he conducted over Summerslam weekend and you can tell people like Cody and Kelly Kelly are a tad irritated by their treatment in the company and they should be for the amount of time they’ve been around compared to others who are getting respect.

•Zack Ryder treated like trash again. Is Kane a babyface? I don’t even think that’s the point with the treatment of Ryder, this is just another chance for The Bubble to ejaculate all over Ryder. Sorry to be so crude, but that’s the way I see it.

•AJ. It still isn’t clicking for me and the whole let me get annoyed when you say the word crazy is already getting boring. The only upside there is to having AJ as the Raw GM is that when WWE Creative makes no sense they can fall back on the excuse that AJ is crazy

•Brock Lesnar Touts he is quitting. Nothing more needs to be said

•Divas Battle Royal. Terrible all around. First the divas were all dancing together at Summerslam, but tonight they are at each other’s throats. Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix are in the graphic, but don’t appear and finally the winner is a girl who clearly isn’t ready for television and has no relationship built up with the audience. In Kaitlyn

•PTP do their usual entrance. Why weren’t these guys upset that they lost the tag titles? Is it because they aren’t educated to the fact that they should be? Or because the brass tells them not too. Either way, I hate when you lose a title match at a ppv and the next night you come out like nothings changed

•David Otunga squashed by Big Show. What was the purpose of this? I’m a little bias because I really like Otunga, but they tend to use him alot so I’m not sure why treating him like he’s Iron Mike Sharpe is a good idea

Overall Thoughts

•Three hours is far too long, but I’m not telling you something you don’t already know

What needs to be accomplished on next week’s show?

•Night of Champions blitzes continues. Let’s establish more matches

•Punk vs Lawler. You know we are going to see it and I’d like them to get it out of the way next week

•Daniel Bryan goes to anger management. Why is Kane not going to anger management? Either way Bryan should make this work so I’ve got no issues with it

•Kaitlyn is the #1 contender for the divas title. I hate this, but if they are going to make her the flavor of the month, I want some character development, which means talking time

•Dolph. Dolph got a win over Jericho, but then Jericho was a poor sport about it. Dolph needs to be more protected going forward. I don’t hold my breath

Summerslam Thoughts

Overall I thought this was a good show, but the main event did nothing for me in terms of the work. Match thoughts

Brock Hunter – The work did nothing for me, but the end result really worked. I really don’t want them to go down the road of a rematch so Hunter can get his win back

Cena-Punk-Show – With the story they were telling this was the finish they needed to do and sometimes predictability is the right move

Sheamus-Del Rio – As noted in my Raw thoughts this didn’t work for me, because I don’t think Sheamus is over enough as a face and Del Rio isn’t over enough as a heel to pull it off

PTP-Kofi/Truth – I thought we needed a title change here

Rey-Miz – Clean win for The Miz and I’d say that perhaps this is a sign that WWE respects Miz and wants to re-establish the IC belt, but I think it’s more of a case of downplaying Rey and not having an issue with him losing clean

Jericho-Dolph – Best thing on the show with the right finish. Every now and then Chris should win.

Bryan-Kane – I wish this was a bit longer and I was surprised by the outcome, but Bryan also needed a win. I wish they’d end this program, but I guess they need something for Kane to do.

•Kevin Rudolph performs. This was terrible and it happened at the wrong time. Also whoever suggests that whenever someone performs that the divas come out and dance needs to be fired.

Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com