Tuesday, August 7, 2012

8/6/12 RAW

Ratings:
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio: **1/4

Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian: *1/4

Big Show vs. Randy Orton: *3/4

Ryback vs. Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks: 1/2*

Primo & Epico vs. Titus O'Neil & Darren Young: ?

Damien Sandow vs. Brodus Clay: N/A

Kelly Kelly vs. Eve Torres: 1/2*

Alex Riley vs. Dolph Ziggler: *1/4

Kane vs. Miz: *

Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena: **3/4
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
Love the new WWE RAW openings. Still prefer the Smackdown theme song. It's Shawn Michaels Appreciation Night in San Antonio!

AJ skips to the ring in a white business suit. More matches! Big Show vs. Orton. Daniel Bryan vs. Cena. Punk comes out to apologize to AJ for last week, which AJ accepts. Now, back to heel Punk and his attempt to cancel the Triple Threat SummerSlam match. Lots of "NO" chants. AJ refuses to cancel the match. Cena comes out with all the split chants. Cena says gotta earn respect, not demand it. Punk with the Gray's Sports Almanac reference! Yes! AJ puts Punk in a match, opponent to be determined by fans (Miz, Kane, or Mysterio). Fans wanted HBK, but that's not happening. Match is next!

I love heel Punk right now. It's basically reverting to the character he was last year when delivering the pipebomb promos, but done in a more heelish fashion.

We get the poll results that apparently lasted all of five minutes. It's Mysterio with 47% of the vote, closer than what I woulda thought. But hell yes for this one. Cole still mentioning Punk with the 14th longest WWE Title reign in history, so I'm still thinking Punk weasels his way out of SummerSlam with the gold. Great match here, as Punk wins with the GTS.

Vignette promoting return of Wade Barrett soon. He's been out for months after dislocating his elbow in a match. Storyline here is that Barrett returned to his roots as a bare-knuckle fighter to get tougher. I guess that means he'll be getting a nice push on his return. He has excellent mic skills and was pegged to win MITB at WrestleMania when he got injured (so no MITB match happened at Mania). Will be great to see him back.

Alberto Del Rio wasn't scheduled for a match, then mentioned the word "crazy" around AJ, so ADR ends up in a match anyway -- against Christian. How nice that ADR had his wrestling gear under his suit. Boots were probably undone just to pretend he wasn't ready. Nice superkick from ADR; HBK would be proud. Ricardo with interference, ADR smacks Christian with his boot, and cross armbreaker ends it.

Sheamus then takes ADR's car on a joyride. I want that job!

Hour #2 starts with Orton and Show. Orton now back to a crew cut this week. Fairly average match to start. Orton kicks out of the chokeslam. Orton to outside. Show gets him back in. Chokeslam attempt blocked again, so Show tosses Orton outside again. RKO countered, and Big Show spear on the outside. Double countout because WWE doesn't want either to lose clean. Back in the ring, Orton hits the RKO anyway.

Reks and Hawkins are facing Ryback in another 2-on-1 handicap match. This time, Hawkins and Reks have to tag in, not face Ryback at the same time. Ryback nukes Hawkins this week. Ho-hum here. More of Ryback looking strong.

AW still gets to flap his gums even after last week's Kobe Bryant sexual assault reference. Primetime Players against Primo and Epico this week. AW's Mother Teresa reference to D-Young was a lot better, that's for sure. PTPs want out, but Kofi and Truth block all that. Epico hits the backstabber on D-Young and gets the win.

Didn't look like Rosa Mendes was at the show. From what I read, she's been involved in a domestic assault deal (she's the victim) with boyfriend Jackson Andrews.

Sandow vows to defeat Brodus. Sandow jumps Brodus on Clay's ring entrance, taking out Funkasaurus' left knee. No match.

DB with a new "NO! NO! NO!" shirt. DB faces Kane at SummerSlam. Dueling NO and YES.

Kelly Kelly is back after her time off, facing Eve. Not bad here, typical divas match. KK wins with a hurricanrana into a victory pin for three.

It's time for HBK and Appreciation Night to begin. Even Cole and Lawler with the silent claps to pay respects. Enter Lesnar for yet another one of his limited appearances -- this time, Heyman is with him. HBK will be in HHH's corner at SummerSlam. Lesnar is seriously sweating under the lights. HHH comes out to get some of Lesnar. Lesnar retreats. He'll see HHH at SummerSlam, but see HBK before then. Looks like a moment for Brock to take out Shawn somewhere.

Ziggler faces A-Ry with Jericho on commentary. Jericho as a face back to calling Cole "Mitchell." Ziggler's got one of the best dropkicks in pro wrestling today. Nice way to promote Tout and further the storyline between Jericho and Ziggler. And A-Ry wins! Yes!

AJ makes a match with Kane and Miz because they weren't picked to face DB and they should be on the show anyway. Crowd really not into this one a lot. Kane knocks Miz off in about 4 minutes.

Genius move to have DB get on the WWE Universe for chanting "YES." It'll get them to chant it more. And hey, those "NO!" shirts will sell well too!

Sheamus brings ADR's car back all smelly and smoky. Looks like Sheamus lost his lunch somewhere.

DB is now a NO man. The goat face is in full force!

Main event time with DB and Cena. Pretty good stuff again, as we've come to expect from a DB match. Nice guillotine choke from DB, countering AA. Benoit headbutt from DB hits, but only two. Yeah, I said Benoit headbutt (although I guess I coulda also said Dynamite Kid). Great end sequence, from STF, to NO lock, to guillotine to AA for a Cena win. Best match of the night, in my book.

Here comes Punk out. Cena pushes Punk aside to take Big Show on. Cena gets Show up for AA but Punk comes in so Show lands on Cena. More fuel to the fire. Punk with a message on the headset, but Show is standing tall this time. WMD to Punk, then one for Cena. Just a way to say don't count Show out for SummerSlam, but it's really not Show's time here. Focus should be on Punk keeping his title by any means, especially when Cole's been constantly bringing up how long Punk's title reign has lasted.

No comments: