Tuesday, October 30, 2012

10/29/12 RAW

Ratings:
Ryback vs. JTG: N/A (squash)

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett: *3/4

Kane & Daniel Bryan vs. Titus O'Neil & Darren Young: *1/2

Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston: *

Heath Slater & Jinder Mahal vs. Santino Marella & Zack Ryder: *1/2

AJ vs. Beth Phoenix: 1/2*

Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow vs. Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara: **3/4

Alberto Del Rio vs. Justin Gabriel: *3/4
________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
We're in Charlotte, NC. Cole and Ross on commentary.

Punk starts the show, ribs all bandaged. Did Punk just call Vickie the GM? Thought it was managing supervisor. Like it matters at this point. Punk said he merely took advantage of the situation and had nothing to do with the ref's actions. Mick Foley interrupts everything and says Punk blew it in HIAC. Stuff about tradition. Nice segway into a traditional Survivor Series match...Team Foley vs. Team Punk. Ryback enters and Punk/Heyman escape through the crowd.

Oh, JTG's still employed. Ryback squashed him. Well, at least JTG gets paid for this. Ryback isn't hurt, he's hungry. Feed him Punk!

Next up is Barrett and Orton. Ross notes Barrett had a "day off" (not on PPV), while Orton had to deal with Alberto Del Rio. Wade targets Orton's injured left arm. Pretty formulaic match here, with a few more counters. Orton ducks the Souvenir and hits the RKO for three.

AJ wants to compete under Vickie's administration. Vintage job interview segment. Vickie wants one good reason why she should give AJ a WWE contract.

Team Hell No faces the Primetime Players. PTPs with the all-pink trunks and black boots. Kane with the chokeslam to D-Young. DB tags himself in and gets the NO lock submission win. Kane pyros and bickering on who the tag champs are.

Conveniently, no one can locate Brad Maddox, the ref who screwed Ryback at HIAC. Brad's now the "rogue referee."

Vickie comes forth with the "hard evidence" that Cena and AJ had this so-called "affair." She calls out Cena. First video with Cena asking AJ to In-n-Out Burger. Cena says it was a joke. Second video with Cena consoling AJ. Third piece of evidence is a photo of Cena and AJ at dinner. Nice to see Cena rocks the Cena shirt at a fancy restaurant. Fourth video -- probably with a cell phone camera -- of Cena beckoning AJ to get into the elevator. WTF, is this AJ Styles and Claire Lynch all over again?!?! "You are busted!" chants. Gotta love all this circumstantial evidence crap. Just shaking my head as to why WWE would seriously even "borrow" this type of storyline. Ziggler interrupts to rub salt in the wound. So Ziggler and Cena should feud after all. Might be the last piece Dolph needs to get to full-blown main-event status.

Cesaro promo bashing Halloween, then faces Kofi in a clash of the champions. Miz on commentary to tout his accomplishments. Kofi tosses Cesaro into Miz. Miz goes after Kofi and the ref rings the bell for the DQ. Double team on Kofi. R-Truth comes in for the save. Perhaps Truth now gets in line for a U.S. Title shot. Why not? He's not doing anything else for the time being -- unless he's watching after Little Jimmy.

AJ won't sacrifice dignity for anything and is about to walk out, but Vickie hires her, given AJ doesn't lay a hand on her again. AJ's first match is against Beth Phoenix.

Interview with Slater, Jinder, and McIntyre. What is 3MB? Jinder says he's the fun one. Honestly, that's a good look for McIntyre. Would likely keep him in midcard forever, though, unless it's tweaked. They even have a team hand sign. Yay. Yes, JR, that was one of the worst interviews ever.

It's time for Team CoBro! Usual tag match. Hot tag to Santino. Cobra about to strike. Drew-ference ends all that. Looks like Slater has a new finisher -- basically a Rocker Dropper + twisting the opponent to his back on the way down.

AJ and Beth are next. Beth with a lot of trash talk at the start. AJ takes some punishment, but then rolls Beth up for three. Vickie says AJ could do better and restarts the match. Beth attacks AJ from behind and hits the Glam Slam for three.

Sheamus promo, vowing to get the World Title back. Show comes out and says Sheamus came up short and will never get the title back. Gonna be Custer's Last Stand all over again. White Noise to Sheamus. Statement made.

Cena's happy AJ get to compete again. Vickie with the snooping. Sounds about right.

Beth wants to thank Vickie for restarting that match. Vickie pretty much blames it on Beth and fires the Glamazon. And that folks, should confirm that Beth's leaving the company. Glad she got one final "win" on her way out. Hope Beth and Edge (er...Adam Copeland) have a great time together. Can this NHL lockout end so they can go to more Devils games?

But on a serious note, hope all's well over on the East Coast after Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. I got a bunch of friends there myself.

Mysterio and Cara face Team Rhodes Scholars. Gotta love the lethal kicking and the flying from the masked guys. Rhodes Scholars work over Cara, then Rey with the hot tag. Rhodes Scholars attack Mysterio, then Cara's time to fly. Pretty good ending. Sin Cara set for the senton, but Cody pulls Sandow out of the way. Terminus on Cara ends it.

Cena in the ring as the spokesman for WWE's partnership with Susan G. Komen and breast cancer. it's the last RAW of the month, which was all about Breast Cancer Awareness. The talent also line up on the stage to witness this. $1 million from WWE for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Classy stuff right there.

Nice hairdo, Justin Gabriel. Valiant effort against Del Rio, but you figure ADR was winning that one.

Punk's on the cover of WWE '13! YES!

Show ends with the picks for Team Foley and Team Punk. Punk's teammates are Miz, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, and Alberto Del Rio. Add Heyman and Ricardo at ringside as guys to watch out for.

Foley comes out and announces Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan, Kane, and Randy Orton. Then Foley says he's not competing (thank God). And the predictable fifth man for the team: Ryback. Brawl commences. Punk retreats as Ryback stares Punk down all the way. Ryback decimates Cody to send a message.

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