WWE Monday Night Raw 9/12/11

1) John Morrison & Alex Riley vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger – 2
2) The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston – 3
3) David Otunga & Michael McGillicuty vs. Jerry Lawler & Sheamus – 2
4) John Cena & Bret Hart vs. Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez – 1
5) Kelly Kelly vs. Vickie Guerrero – 0
6) Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes – 4

Opening tag went about four minutes. I noticed that Riley has zero … ZERO … crowd reaction. Morrison and Zigs had the best exchanges of the very brief match. Heavy on the story of Swagger and Riley acting as dysfunctional partners. Morrison only got maybe about 2 minutes of ring time. I still cringe when I see Swagger and Riley in the ring after that disastrous suplex botch about a month ago. Kofi and Miz didn’t really do much for me here. Cole’s commentary was really annoying during the middle part of the match, asking J.R. if “Elmer Fudd” meant anything to him. What a great way to completely destroy J.R.’s credibility, dicks. Never was a big Miz fan and I liked Kofi until I realized that all his matches contain the same choreographed jumps and dives. Lawler’s right, Otunga and McGillicuty had zero charisma. Probably the most bland team I’ve seen in a long time. Sheamus worked them stiff, just killing McGillicuty with a knee on the apron and a shoulder block. Rough finish with Otunga screwing up the timing and being out of position.

Next tag bout was set up by John Laurinitas during the usual talky segment that has starts every Raw. A nice kick to Cena’s head from Del Rio and Bret applying the sharpshooter to Ricardo were the only saving graces in what amounted to a complete comedy bout. Someone care to enlighten me as to why Bret applies a better sharpshooter than Sting does? Kelly and Vickie was a complete waste of time and I can’t believe they screwed up a simple bulldog. Main event was the best thing on the show and I gave it a bonus point because. Nice to see Cody getting a push here with a win over Orton and holding the Intercontinental title. I really dig Cody’s whole character, with the bags and such. Probably the best act going now in the ‘E. Orton kept getting distracted by Mark Henry during the match and it seemed like the commentators just randomly starting talking about “Orton can’t do this” and “Orton can’t do that” to Henry.

Overall, a good episode that helped get some people momentum going into the PPV Sunday night. Closing segment with Triple H and CM Punk was pretty good as well, especially with Punk dropping the real names and the mics cutting off.