Tuesday, September 6, 2011

WWE Monday Night Raw - 09/05/11

Okay wrestling fans, time to put on your labcoats, fill up your beakers and turn on your bunsen burners, we're experimentin! From now till the end of the year, we here at NHO are bringing to you, TV reviews weekly! That's right I said weekly. Weekly TV is a mixed bag, you never know what's going to pop up, for Sept we're covering Raw and NXT and I'll start

1) Air Boom v. Jinder Mahal/ Great Khali- 2
2) Eve v. Beth Phoenix- 2
3) R Truth v. CM Punk- 4
4) David Otunga/ Michael McGillicutty v. Jerry Lawler/ Zach Ryder- 2
5) Randy Orton v. Heath Slater- 3
6) John Cena/ Alex Riley/ Sheamus/ John Morrison v. Christian/ Wade Barrett/ Dolph Ziggler/ Jack Swagger (Elimination Match)- 5

The new tag champs, Bourne and Kingston, let the WWE Universe pick their own name, which got a lot of flack from people during the broadcast but I like when a team gets an identity. This was the 1st of like 17 partner turning on partner things for the night. I dug Bourne taking a pounding, and Mahal looked crisp. Kofi, personally, just looked like a video game character; half his stuff didn't connect, people waiting for him to set up his telegraphed moves and the kick that knocked Khali down couldn't have pushed over a glass of lemonade, half full.

I wanted to like the women's match, despite Eve's mindfart early on, she seemed confident in what she was doing. Beth is just a brute and seems eager to live off her rep here. The commentary going on was atrocious, I hope to god no one was in Natalya's ear because the rhetoric she was spitting out would be lame on a playground disagreement. Funny that gave Beth that No. 1 Contender graphic after a 2 min. match like it meant something. After match stuff was great though.

Character wise, Truth is the man. He knows who he's playing and his mic skills are a bright spot of Raw since early summer. In the ring, he's become bland. Liked Punk starting his offense with snap mare, something you don't see everyday. Punk made a point to sell his leg all during the match, but he didn't change his offense at all, even including a springboard in last night's menu. I mean, if you take a superplex and Miz on the outside is selling it more, you've got a problem. BTW, that plaid suit was absolutely ridiculous; wonder if i can borrow it for my friend's "Alice in Wonderland" themed wedding this weekend?

This throwaway tag could have been something on a house show; McGillicutty, stupid name and do rag aside, was fired up, wailing on Ryder's back with the fervor of pulling his best mate out of a bear trap. Lawler looked as breezy as ever, throwing a dropkick with considerable less effort than Cena. Ryder's opening video was great too. Time will tell if they can really do something with him though.

This Orton match didn't do much better than anything else on the show, I give it a 3 from just watching the champ. His selling is so accurate it's always a show watching him perform. Slater didn't prove he can hang, but that at least he's competent in the ring.

Our big main event saved a completely lackluster show which saw more HHH than Vince used to do when he was on screen prez, looking and sounding like a buffoon every time out. The flow of this was real strange too; as the focus was Vickie Guerrero's group (good idea) and Cena overcoming the odds (yep, he's kind of good at that; even to where once it came down to 2 on 1, he didn't even seemed scared) Swagger got put over huge, of course,at Morrison's expense who had 60 seconds of him looking like a main eventer followed by a laughable exit. Christian and Sheamus start a program, which could be good. Liked Ziggler measuring an elbow drop and landing it hard. I dig a good Survivor Series bout, honestly, but with 2 commercial breaks and some puzzling finishes, just never fully got into this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kingston's miss on that flying chop in full view of the camera was particularly pathetic. I've given up on them ever doing anything with Morrison.

Brian said...

i think the thing i walked away from on this show was that the booking was so damn safe.. - sometimes on TV they'll take an occasional risk and you'll get some surprising wins but all of this was safer than those plastic ensconced scissors we used in first grade.. - liked seeing my boy Jinder get on TV, he looked fine the short time he was out there.. - women's match was a mess.. - i'd have given Truth/Punk a "3" and agree on your point Truth's become "bland".. his PPV main event w/ Cena a few months ago was the flattest main in a year or two.. - main was decent.. may have went "4" as they do these sort of things fairly often and this wanted didn't stand out much from the pack.. although props to C-bus for adding some heat.. - funny Swagger got some push as he's been booked to look like shit for awhile now.. - Barrett's push seems to have dissolved but him v. Shaemus (I'm assuming) at the PPV should be a blast.. - i don't buy Riley at this level at all.. one of the more untalented guys to get a rub in a long time.. - pretty bad show.. - i'll be reviewing the post-PPV Raw in 2 wks. hopefully that's tastier

Jessie said...

i thought for sure after that crazy ass ladder match last year he'd be made....had a feeling whatever Raw show i got would blow....and yep, it did....yeah almost gave that main a 4....was enjoying the ending even though it was a foregone conclusion Cena wasn't losing to either of those guys

Geo said...

Agree wholeheartedly with your scores. THE RUDOS OF RAW~