Tuesday, August 14, 2012

8/13/12 RAW

Ratings:
CM Punk vs. Big Show: *1/4

Ryback vs. JTG: N/A (squash)

Sin Cara vs. Tensai: 1/4*

Dolph Ziggler vs. Miz vs. Chris Jericho: ***1/4

Layla & Kaitlyn vs. Eve Torres & Beth Phoenix: *

CM Punk & John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan & Big Show: **1/4

Damien Sandow vs. Christian: 1/4*
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
RAW in Dallas tonight!

Punk and Show start things off. Superstars just came back from Asia, so Cole and King mention the jet lag. Methodical beatdown from Show, as expected. Double KO spot. DB comes out so the crowd goes all nuts chanting "YES." DB causes the DQ. Cena comes out to take Show out. What does this mean? Tag match at the end of the night. Strange bedfellows type of match. How original!

JTG says "crazy" around AJ. Oh, is that all it took to get a match? Have him do that every week! Oh wait, Ryback's gonna get destroy him. Never mind. Still wondered if JTG was still employed. At least Kaitlyn won't have to worry about someone like Kharma to destroy her. Oh, and Ryback has new music that has lyrics. Fans still love to chant "Goldberg."

Mark Henry on Tout! He looks good and seems like he'll be returning as a face.

Pauly D is the social media ambassador tonight. Who? Something about Jersey Shore? Oh, then I don't care.

Booker hands down punishment to Alberto Del Rio for beating down Sheamus on Smackdown. No more title match. They'll be having a "discussion" on Smackdown. Money's on it getting physical.

Sin Cara faces Tensai tonight. Sin Cara still has those lights. Not caring anymore on that front. Very short match. Sin Cara with a tornado DDT for three. Tensai beats Sakamoto up afterward. Sounds normal here.

Piper's Pit time. Twitter poll on who should be the guest tonight. Jericho convincingly wins with 55% of the vote (Miz for 21% and Dolph got 24%). Jericho's out in his ring gear, so I guess he's having a match soon. Piper's Pit segment was not great, so Vickie comes out and generates heel heat. Vintage Y2J material. Jericho wants Ziggler at SummerSlam. Miz somehow wants in all this. Jericho takes Miz and Ziggler out.

AJ then says triple threat now: Jericho vs. Miz vs. Ziggler. Also, Miz vs. Mysterio at SummerSlam for the IC Title.

Match was typical on how it looks like a handicap match but then the heels get into that whole disagreement on who should win. Jericho can still launch himself over the top rope. Nice Tower of Doom spot. Great finishing sequence as Ziggler goes over Jericho. Crowd enjoyed that one.

HBK has his own WWE Hall of Fame shirt. Woohoo! Meanwhile, we get another Barrett return video.

Divas tag action, and Beth is finally back on TV. Actually, I'm just thinking Eve wins against Kaitlyn on Smackdown to become Booker's assistant, but she'll really get the role Teddy Long had under Laurinaitis. Tag match was not great. Just felt too much like random spots thrown together, not much flow to it. And poor Beth does jobbing duty again...to KAITLYN. Wow. Did Beth do anything wrong to be jobbing (or otherwise be off TV) like this? As a note, WWE had Eve's music and Titantron instead of Beth's on their intro.

Punk/Cena vs. Bryan/Show next. Cena and Punk tag themselves in early on. Same with DB and Show. Too slow when Show is in the match. Eventually Show takes a seat at ringside and DB gets beaten up. Funny to watch Punk and Cena do the other's signature moves. Cena wins with the AA because he's Cena.

Damien Sandow and Christian next. Video shown of Sandow taking out Brodus Clay last week. Sandow real physical on Christian. Brodus Clay comes down. Christian doesn't get Sandow on the rollup, and a Sandow neckbreaker ends it. Vintage staredown between Brodus and Sandow. At least these two now have a feud.

Contract signing between HHH and Lesnar next. Nice job by Heyman to tout Lesnar as one with ultimate (fighting) credentials. Heyman with another hold harmless agreement. Heyman badmouths Texas and HBK comes out. HHH then enters and signs the contract. Lesnar signs the contract and leaves. Yay...it's official.

So Heyman cuts HBK off as Shawn tries to drive away. Lesnar then apparently beats up and kidnaps HBK while the camera goes black (but audio still fine). Windshield of HBK's car all shattered. Well, it's pretty much what people expected, although the whole "kidnapping" thing is probably not gonna help Linda McMahon for her political campaign. I don't care if Vince wants WWE and the campaign separate...Linda McMahon will always be tied to WWE, mainly because of Vince.

Lesnar then takes HBK to the ring. Lesnar still has the awesome standing vertical leap from the floor to the ring apron. F-5 to HBK in the ring. Kimura on HBK. HHH comes out, but Heyman warns HHH to stay away or HBK's arm gets broken. Yeah, it got "broken" anyway. Good buildup for SummerSlam. Liked the ending. Otherwise, it was pretty mediocre aside from the triple threat Ziggler won.

No comments: